Depending on their experience, your students may not know how to effectively take notes. Reading being a struggle for them, can only benefit from note taking: your students will identify, simplify and organize the main/important ideas. Note taking will help students retain information and will be helpful during study time.

• My students read but do not take notes.

• They read but do not remember the content.

• They are tired of studying.

• They invest too much energy/time getting ready for a test.

Take the time to teach your students how to take notes using the CORNELL note taking strategy.

Choose a model text for your students, preferably from their students’ textbook. If you have an individualized course (each student is at a different model) choose an article referring to the field of study.

“Note-taking requires effort. Rather than passively taking information in, the act of encoding the information into words or pictures forms new pathways in the brain, which stores it more firmly in long-term memory… having the information stored in a new place gives students the opportunity to revisit it later and reinforce the learning that happened the first time around.”

To model note taking, you will read out loud a text and complete the Cornell notes. You will verbalize the steps, so students understand what they are supposed to do. If possible, have the text on the board/screen so students can clearly see what you are doing.

1. Prepare your note-taking material.

2. Present the Cornell Notes System to the students. Here is a video to get prepared https://youtu.be/HEsBd_Rgzfs

3. Prepare your paper (or online document if you are using the smartboard) and split the page to take the Cornell notes (see poster).

4. Star by skimming the text. Read the titles/subtitles/images…

5. Read the text and complete the Cornell notes. Verbalize your thinking.

6. At the end of the reading, ask students why they believe taking notes is important and how can this strategy help them improve their learning and grades. Write their answers on the board.

7. Watch the following video in class https://youtu.be/nX-xshA_0m8

8. Discuss with the students about their predictions and the video. When possible, have them pair-up and summarize the importance of note taking. When working in teams, students use the information in oral interaction, giving them a better chance to process and understand the content. You can also summarize as a class.

9. Be clear on your expectations for the rest of their reading assignments. If you ask them to always take notes of their readings, it will become an automatism.

Have students take notes in class (right column). Ask them to write the cues for homework (left column) or after class.

• This will make students go back to the information and process the new learning.

• For the summary, have students get two by two at the beginning of the following class. Ask them to compare their notes and then write the summary together.

• This will give students the opportunity to reinvest the new learning by sharing it with a teammate.

• They will also compare and complete their notes. Some students may need more examples on how to record information. Seeing their classmates’ notes helps them better understand note taking.  

• Writing the summary from last class will reactivate their knowledge and prepare them to make connections with the new learning.

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