Note Taking and Note Making; a few of my favorite things

Note taking is something that has excited me for as long as I can remember.  Maybe because I love writing things in cursive or the organization that comes with labeling.  In high school and presently in college note taking has been one of the reasons that I have succeeded academically.  Note making is something that I've encountered as well and it's something that I did to prepare for this blog.  Going through chapters and outlining is a wonderful way to prepare one's thoughts and get ready for a lecture.  Note making is usually more shorthand for me and note taking is a more detailed process.  This chapter was very exciting since this is such a fun learning tool for me to use - I'm currently in process of introducing this skill to my tutoring student.  I think that this would really make him an organized and prepared student and give him an opportunity to feel success.

To me note taking is such an important skill that should be taught somewhere along the lines in school.  My mother and I had a conversation about this topic on a drive to Mobile last weekend.  We were discussing when this skill should be taught.  I personally did the best I could until I had an amazing teacher (a baseball coach) who showed me different outline forms and ways to keep up in lectures.  I think that this skill should probably be introduced in middle school or upper elementary so students have lots of time to practice.  The most important part of note taking is that students should be able to choose whatever style that they feel is most relevant to them.  This allows the students to tailor their personal academic needs and connect them to a relevant form for recording information. 

This text that we are using really illustrates different forms of notes very well.  The first figure that I saw in this chapter was an example of a student's notes on pottery. I love that they modeled a student's thinking by the illustrations that were included. I always doodle and draw models in the margins of my papers to help me better understand the notes.  The big ideas and detailed notes separated help with organization and giving a clear pictures of what is broad and what are the smaller details.  I also really loved the summary of the information that the student acquired.  We practice writing a summary sentence in our tutoring sessions to tie up all the loose pieces.  This is a wonderful way to end a class period by writing what the student learned as a whole at the end of the lesson.

A large portion of student success in note taking and note making is having lectures that are effectively planned.  These need to be well thought out, sequenced, and meaningful lessons that students can actively listen to.  These lectures should include names, dates, vocabulary words that relate to the topic, and formulas that the students may need to complete the problems.  Signal words serve as triggers for when students need to write down important information.  The most important part of these effective lectures is to end with a review.  This will help students to confirm their knowledge and bring closure to the lesson.

I had no idea that note making and note taking were any different until I read about them in this chapter.  I found that they differ in a few ways, but both end up with the same result - notes.  Note taking ends when the lecture ends and note making involves rereading the text for more and more information.  Studies show that note takers are academically more successful since they are actively engaged when taking notes.  Note taking requires active listening and engagement in the lesson which increases retention of the content.  As far as I can remember I never really knew general protocols for note taking.  I usually used asterisks or bullets, sometimes even 1,2,3 followed  by the subcategories of A,B,C and a,b,c.  It interesting to see how many things that are generally used when taking and labeling notes.  I hope to one day use this specific information when I have classroom of my own. A few that I use are skipping lines and certainly leaving EXTRA space for clarification or personal notes.  I hate a crowded paper filled with scratch marks.  I usually never abbreviate, for some reason it bothers me.  I also have a hard time being selective - I write everything I hear.

I read about Dictoglos in this chapter and at first I was extremely confused. Maybe because of the name itself?  After reading the passage a few times I finally got the gist of what this strategy was helping the students with.  By creating this environment where the students have to recreate the text as accurately as possible aids the students in working on their listening skills.  It's sometimes hard to drown out distracting sounds and only listen to the lecture. I've been there way too many times.
A question that I have is: When would be an appropriate time to use Dictoglos in the classroom? What age/grade would this be the most helpful?


A question that I have is: How would a math teacher provide an outline in a middle school class on a math lecture? What would that look like?  I've never had experience with an outline in math!

Note taking in science is another subject that I believe needs some form of structure.  The scenario that the books creates was a little awkward to read I couldn't even imagine taking a free form of notes in that class!  This would certainly be an area where categorization would be key.  I could also see a KWL form of note taking being used in this situation.  Activating prior knowledge always helps in science to create a pathway into furthering learning. The book also states that this form of note taking creates a non-threatening environment for students to express themselves.  The material is sometimes controversial and critical and students respond emotionally.

As I read the last section about note taking in electives and researched based presentations I remember a really neat form of organization for younger children to use for collecting notes for their first "research paper".  By using a file folder with library pockets, each pocket is labeled with a question.  The topic could be snakes and a question on the pocket could be "What do snakes eat?". The student would search for information write some facts or bulleted note on an index card and place it in the pocket.  As students write notes and collect note cards they now turn their notes into sentences and sentences into a paragraph.  Another strategy that the book noted was note taking using a matrix.  I thought that this particular graphic was so interesting and creative.  I hope that I can use that matrix when I start writing my blogfolio!

Here's a graphic organizer for making notes on a non-fiction story for lower elementary!