Heloo Notetaking

            Taking GOOD notes is CRUCIAL. When you look at your notes they should be so good that you can replay the teacher saying it in your head.   Ill never forget the day I learned to take good notes.  I was in the 11^th grade…yeah, you read that right..the 11^TH grade. Well, of course I took notes since I was in elementary school but with those notes the teacher basically gave it to us word for word and all I had to do was memorize what was on the paper. Or in other terms, I had been “Note making.”  However, I had the HARDEST teacher I have ever had in the 11^th grade and she transformed all of us!  Her name was Stacey Holloman and she taught me Human A&P.  The first day of class when we sat down her exact words were, “This is a lecture class… I will lecture the whole time so start learning how to take notes.”  And that is exactly what we all did!  Everyday we would go in there she would have a (vague) outline on the board showing us the main topics we would be discussing. Then, she talked. At the beginning she scaffold us to show us how to organize the notes.  She was showing us how to “notetake.”  In the text one section was titled, “setting up student for successful notetaking” and I personally believe that is the most important thing to grasp in this chapter.  There IS responsibility that is on the instructor to communicate a CLEAR and ORGANIZED lecture. If the instructor fails at that then you can kiss good notes goodbye. Something that stood out to me is that in the text they made references to teachers checking notes and providing feedback.  I think this is a great idea especially for younger grades when they are just beginning to learn how to take notes! Yes, it would take a bit of time to look at, but would be so beneficial to the student in the long run. That way they aren’t like me learning to take notes in the 11^TH grade. But, how in the WORLD do you introduce that to young students?! Where do you start? I know how Mrs. Holloman did it… but there is no WAY you can do that with younger students… or can you? And half the time it is hard to get students to take notes in general – so how can we implement how important it is to take note and also take good notes. I worry about motivating my students anyways… this sounds like the hardest thing to motivate them about. Thinking about this and a way I think would be beneficial would be Cornell and Outline. I think they are 2 universal ways to take notes that younger and high school students can understand easily.