Summarizing and note taking both provide opportunities for students to capture, organize, and reflect on important facts, concepts, ideas, and processes they will need to access at a later time (Pitler & Stone, 2012).

In A Handbook for Classroom Instruction that Works (2012), teachers are encouraged to use the following recommendations so students will understand and master the process of summarizing:

1. Teach students the rule-based summarizing strategy. 

• Providing explicit, concrete steps for students to follow helps with the process of summarizing.

• Helps students decide which information to keep and which to omit.

2. Use summary frames.

• Using summary frames is one way to teach students to summarize while understanding the structures of different types of texts.

3. Engage students in reciprocal teaching.

• Used primarily with expository texts.

• The teacher models how to use the four comprehension strategies that constitute reciprocal teaching.

  • Summarizing

  • Questioning

  • Clarifying

  • Predicting

Below are teacher recommendations to help students develop and understand the note-taking process:

1. Give students teacher-prepared notes.

• Teacher-prepared notes can be in template form.  

• They should give guidance as to what is important in the chapter, unit, or video.

2. Teach students a variety of note-taking formats.

• It's important that students know how to use a variety of models, including formal and informal options.

• After students have been exposed to a variety of formats, they can choose which works best for them.

3. Provide students with opportunities to revisit notes and use them for review.

• Allowing time for students to review and revise notes emphasizes the point that they are valuable learning tool. (Pitler & Stone, 2012)