Directed Note Taking

By: Sarah Stauss, Sarah Smith, & Sarah Riley

REOL632

Introduction & Summary

• Directed note taking is a strategy to enhance students’ note taking skills.

• The strategy needs to be explicitly taught to students.• Many students have poor note taking skills. Directed note

taking helps students to acquire efficient note taking.• There is three instructional ideas for directed note taking

activities.• The split-page method for structured note taking.• A self-questioning approach for students to monitor their

levels of involvement before, during, and after note taking.• The direct and explicit teaching of note taking.

Introduction & Summary

• Directed note taking can be applied across the curriculum.• It can be used in elementary, middle, & high school.• An example of directed note taking is shown below.

Teacher Interview QuestionsAre you familiar with directed note taking?

How do (or would) you implement directed note taking in your classroom?

How has directed note taking facilitated your students' learning?

What recommendation do you have for teaching students directed note taking?

What are some activities you have done to foster student's note taking skills?

Have you found success in directed note taking and if so, can you provide an example?

How has directed note taking increased student reading and writing skills?

How long does it usually take your students to grasp the concept of directed note taking?

Do you see a gap between lower level and higher level students during this strategy?

Compared to other forms of note taking, do you find this strategy more beneficial for your

students?

Have you noticed a difference in your student's organizational skills?

Have you noticed a difference in your student's test scores when using directed note taking?

Teacher responses of the Title I instructor and sixth grade religion teacher

• Sixth grade teacher uses her Smartboard to create an outline for the chapter and instructs students to complete it as they go through the main concepts. Title I instructor has had more success using this strategy with middle school students than elementary students. The elementary students struggled with this strategy.

• Both teachers mentioned consistency, modeling, being enthusiastic, reviewing, and providing opportunities for success as important aspects of teaching their students about directed note taking.

• Both teachers have seen success from their students using this strategy. There are always some students who struggle with note taking.

• Sixth grade teacher usually spends about four weeks (chapters) teaching this style of note-taking. Title I teacher - length of time it took to grasp the concept was affected by their cognitive ability and their desire to improve their learning/willingness to work.

• Sixth grade teacher finds this to be the most beneficial form of note taking, without it the students can’t decipher their own work. For many of the Title I students she recommends that they draw small pictures, along with key words, that would help them remember the important ideas.

• The sixth grade teacher saw an improvement in her students’ organizational skills; whereas the Title I teacher only saw minimal improvement.

• Both teachers have seen a positive impact in student’s grades using the directed note taking strategy.

Teacher Responses• One teacher stated she never really thought of what she does as directed note

taking. A fifth grade teacher uses directed note talking a lot. She uses it the most in social studies and reading. The teacher uses directed note taking to facilitate her first grade students in main idea, theme, and supporting sentences. The fifth grade teacher did see organizational skills improve. Both teachers found this strategy effective, but also like to use other graphic organizers too. It was evident of a gap between lower and higher students in directed note taking. The lower students need more guidance on how to take notes. They needed more direct instruction on it and what to add to the note taking template. The first grade teacher does not use the directed note taking strategy like the fifth grade teacher. The fifth grade teacher uses this strategy a couple times a week where needed.

Website Abstracts

How Using Cornell Notes Can Increase Grades Directed note taking or Cornell notes may be used for any subject to help benefit student

learning. Directed note taking is an organized method of taking notes. At first, using Directed

note taking may be confusing or frustrating, but after proper modeling, this method can be very

beneficial for most students. By taking good notes using the direct note taking method, less of

one’s textbook needs to be used. When one uses the directed note taking model, the paper is

divided into sections; each section serving a specific purpose. The top section is for a heading,

the left section is where the main ideas are placed, the right section is where the supporting

details are written, and the bottom part is where one writes the summary. Having organized notes

gives one more time studying than spending time flipping through page after page looking

through jumbled notes. Most learners can have a high success rate in school by using the Cornell

method.

• Direct Instruction in Note-Taking• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cDYc1meazkMofFFEnNfOGO3WTJQ

pmHsggPyjAWRVUis/edit?hl=en&pli=1• Students need very direct instruction and demonstrations on note taking.

Students need to be provided with note taking practice. After students have had a sufficient amount of direct instruction, demonstrations, and practice they can evaluate their own note taking. Encourage students to check the quality of their notes to see if changes are needed. Teachers need to make lessons short and organized when introducing new note taking and listening skills. As the students’ progress, lessons and lectures should increase with difficulty. It is important to have students review their notes before tests. Students determine the effectiveness of note taking on their learning.

• ADHD: Directed Note-taking Activity• http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&sourc

e=web&cd=2&ved=0CCMQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthelittleresource.files.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F03%2Fdirected-note-taking-activity1.pdf&ei=EYTNU_TCJMGTyATIn4LgAw&usg=AFQjCNGNEPvUCB2OMf2mJk9EgLUAlvuDAQ&bvm=bv.71198958,d.aWw

• There are many purposes and benefits to direct note taking. Directed note taking helps students to focus on lessons more. Students are to determine and differentiate main ideas and supporting sentences. Directed note taking is self-questioning for students. Students are given a sheet of paper that is folded or split by a line. Main ideas are written on the right with supporting details on the left. Teachers must model note taking for students. When modeling for students the teacher needs to facilitate students in to asking themselves questions. The teacher needs to guide students in thinking questions of planning, monitoring, and evaluating.

Journal Articles

• “Learning How to Learn: Cornell Notes as an Example” is a journal article about a ninth and tenth grade science teacher, Anna, implementing Cornell Notes in her classroom instruction. She was getting average results from her students, but knew there must be a way for their comprehension to improve. Anna enlisted the help of a colleague who is a literacy specialist. Other teachers including Anna and the literacy instructor met and collaborated on possible ways to improve students’ learning skills. Together they decided to take the advice of the school’s literacy coach and try the Cornell method. Since Anna had never tried this method before it was a learning experience for her and her students. At first there was a lot of confusion and frustration from the students. She completed a great deal of modeling and guided instruction until her students grasped the concept. Anna and her colleagues often collaborated to discuss what was and was not working. Eventually, her students found success, and had better test scores than those students who were not using the Cornell method. Modeling, collaborating, time, and allowing students to think independently helped Anna and her students succeed.

• Thinking Strategically to Record Notes in Content Classes• http://uc2.ucumberlands.edu:4412/ehost/detail?sid=9ea54ff4-8b23-44f6-abde

-b002309ed2a8%40sessionmgr198&vid=12&hid=115&bdata=JmxvZ2luLmFzcCZzaXRlPWVob3N0LWxpdmU%3d#db=eric&AN=EJ951228

• Note taking is an important study skill for students. Most students are not good at taking notes. Students need to be shown how to correctly take notes. Note taking is one of the mostly used methods for learning. Note taking can be a cognitive challenge for middle school students. They often times lack the relevant information from the lecture. Good notes correlate with good test scores and learning benchmarks. Students have a greater chance of achieving learning benchmarks such as in reading if they take decent notes. Teachers must give explicit instruction and activities on how to take notes. Our working memory stores only a certain amount of information. That is why effective notes are crucial. Students going back and reviewing notes facilitates their learning. This study was performed on middle school students.

Lesson Plan Abstracts

Elementary LessonGrade 4

• The lesson involves students reading a piece of informational text from the National Geographic Education website on Weathering and Erosion. Throughout the lesson students are using their writing skills to take notes, transcribe questions, and respond to short answer prompts.

• There are three steps for the “Weathering and Erosion” lesson. First, the teacher introduces the lesson by having students use prior knowledge of weathering and erosion. Then, as the teacher reads the text aloud, students code their copy of the text with a group or partner. There are four categories of coding they are to identify (weathering, erosion, harmful to humans, & helpful to humans). Next, students complete the direct note taking aspect of the lesson. An important part of directed note taking is modeling; it is repetitive through this lesson. Next, students work collaboratively on a first draft response to a complex thinking question. Lastly, there is a final written response graded by the teacher, using a rubric.

• Throughout the lesson work may be completed independently or collaboratively; although there is encouragement to work collaboratively. Strategies of scaffolding and higher-order thinking are prevalent through the lesson. The suggested length of said lesson is one hour, 30 minutes. Each step should last for thirty minutes. Even though this is a fourth grade lesson, it could easily be modified for other grade levels as well.

Directed Note-Taking “Erosion”

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/erosion/kd/?ar_a=5&ar_r=3#page=1

Directions: Record notes containing the most significant text information relevant to the guiding question. . Label the paragraph that the note came from, and check the relevant category that reflects the note.

Guiding Question: Using evidence from the article, do weathering and erosion help people or hurt people?

Paragraph # Notes

Check relevant categories below.

can help people

can hurt people

no impact on people

• Grades 6-8: Activities to Teach Note-taking• http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/grades-6-8-activities-teach

-note-taking

• This lesson is to teach middle school students good note-taking practices by modeling direct note taking. You will need to download copies of “Environ mental Adaptations of the Desert Tortoise”. Start by identifying the title of the article and adding it to the directed note taking chart. Then write the guided question (How has the tortoise adapted?) on the chart. Once you’ve filled in the guided question, explain that more specific ideas will be written below. Read the next sentence of the passage and point out an idea that you will need to remember (look for adaption). Then write down the specific information (for example, tortoise build subterranean burrows). As a class, read the remaining two paragraphs to search for other adaptions to write down. As you write down adaptation, check whether is an adaption for shelter, food, or water. See handouts on two next slides.

Name:_________________________________Title: Environmental Adaptions of the Desert TortoiseGuiding Question: How has the tortoise adapted?