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Student Skillcraft: Effective Notes
Throughout our presentations and readings, the students will be asked to take notes. Every test in this section is an open note test. The tests are designed that anyone who takes consistently quality notes will do well, while those who rely on memory alone will struggle greatly.
- Quality Notes #1 - Anything that looks like a title, should create a new section of your notes.
- Quality Notes #2 - Anything that is repeated, or said in multiple ways should be written down. If you have already written a note and it gets repeated, decorate the note with stars, lightning bolts, underlines, and double underlines. Add more every time it is repeated.
- Quality Notes #3 - Anything that is emphasized, either vocally or through gestures, should be written down.
- Quality Notes #4 - Anything that is said with the phrase "This will be on your test" should be written down.
- Quality Notes #5 - Anything without words on it that is part of the presentation, such as visual aids and maps, should be noted.
- Quality Notes #6 - Notes should be kept in the order they were taken. Teachers have a habit of writing questions in the same order the information was presented. If the notes are taken over multiple sessions on multiple days, add the time and/or the date to your notes. Keep all notes on one topic in one place.
- Quality Notes #7 - Especially, anything that is personally interesting to you should be written down.
- Quality Notes #8 - As a habit, take a picture of good notes, good handouts with the camera on your mobile computer. If a teacher produced an informationally excellent whiteboard or display in the classroom, take a picture of it before the class begins, or as you exit the class after it concludes.
Cornell Notes
Is It Better?
- Study: Jacobs, Keil. A Comparison of Two Note Taking Methods in a Secondary English Classroom Proceedings: 4th Annual Symposium: Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects [79] Conference proceedings held at the Eugene Hughes Metropolitan Complex, Wichita State University, April 25, 2008. Symposium Chair: David M. Eichhorn
- "My observations indicated that the Cornell method, on the other hand, may be more valuable to students when they need to synthesize and apply information"
- "the Cornell method (once students are able to use it properly), seems to be more effective when the synthesis, application, or evaluation is required "
My Analysis
- Positives: The allocation of space on the page allows for layered interpretation. The design requires you to go over your notes a second or third time after the original session which is very good for many class types.
- Oddities: The Cue column has the standard left margin red line going through it and will frustrate some kinds of minds. Fix: Use blank office paper or graph paper for Cornell Notes and the line locations will not trigger this.
- Negatives: Can create unused whitespace areas that could have been used for notes and makes the overall process less efficient. This uses more paper.
Process
- Record: During the lecture, use the note-taking column to record the lecture using telegraphic sentences.
- Questions: As soon after class as possible, formulate questions based on he notes in the right-hand column. Writing questions helps to clarify meanings, reveal relationships, establish continuity, and strengthen memory. Also, the writing of questions sets up a perfect stage for exam-studying later.
- Recite: Cover the note-taking column with a sheet of paper. Then, looking at the questions or cue-words in the question and cue column only, say aloud, in your own words, the answers to the questions, facts, or ideas indicated by the cue-words.
- Reflect: Reflect on the material by asking yourself questions, for example: “What’s the significance of these facts? What principle are they based on? How can I apply them? How do they fit in with what I already know? What’s beyond them?
- Review: Spend at least ten minutes every week reviewing all your previous notes. If you do, you’ll retain a great deal for current use, as well as, for the exam.
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