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How to Teach Note-Taking
Blogger Dave Stuart, Jr. wrote this column on teaching high school students to take notes. He promotes idiosyncratic methods that work for the students, not an established "system." Systems work for some students but not all, just as sketch-noting works for some students, but not all. Check out this blog (a 5-minute read) to see how Stuart teaches his students to take notes.
Specific Note-Taking Systems
Cornell Notes
This 5 and ½-minute video is explicit about how to set up the Cornell notes. There are no examples, but the “teacher” and her graphics are easy for students to understand. Start with this video to show students how to set up the page for Cornell Notes. She also talks about using abbreviations.
This 15-minute video is explicit: The “teacher” demonstrates taking information from the encyclopedia, translating it into Cornell notes, and then using the Cornell notes to review for a test. Students could understand this video because it moves in real time through the process. It is not just a summary of how to do it.
Visual Note-Taking:
This 18-minute TedX talk by Rachel Smith is an explanation of the speaker's process for taking visual notes. At the end of the talk, the speaker teaches the audience how to draw a “star person.” So many videos use “fast forward” visual notes (also called sketch notes or quickdraws) to communicate ideas that it is worth teaching students how to do it—not to mention that visual note-taking validates the visual learners and artistic students. Basic cartooning lessons would be a wonderful spin-off—there are lots of books that show readers how to draw a car, how to draw an airplane, a dog, a bed, and other common objects. Rachel Smith emphasizes the need to build up a mental library of images so that visual note-taking can be quick.
Example: MHS biology teacher Abi Bymaster uses sketch noting extensively to help students follow the logic of chapters in texts related to science topics. In a form of reciprocal teaching, students compare their sketch notes to be sure they have not missed anything.
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