Chelsea Meyer 1

Chapter 8: Getting It Down: Making and Taking Notes Across the Curriculum
Heading/Subheading

Main Points

Connections

Why teach students how to

take notes?

-Many students dont know

how to take notes
-Notes need to be written to be
used later

-I dont remember ever being

taught how to write notes.
-In a Social Studies class in
High school, I distinctly
remember trying to write down
every word that the teacher
said/ wrote on the board.
-When I was in Ecuador, I
took notes in Spanglish.
This allowed to better grasp
vocabulary from Spanish
while ensuring that I was
understanding the concepts.
-In all of my notes, I star
vocabulary words.
-This allows me to better be
able to go back and review
important words.

The Benefits for English

Language Learners

-allows students to organize

thinking and understanding
-allows students to better
understand content

Setting Up Students for

Successful Notetaking

-lectures should be organized

to allow the creation of notes
-Detailed info (vocabulary,
names, dates, and phrases)
should be emphasized so that
students are sure to include it
in their notes.

Distinguishing Notetaking
form Note Making

-Notes aid comprehension

-Students can go back and add
information to their notes
-Notetaking-students written
notes from a lecture or class
discussion
-Note making-recording notes
from printed materials
-Process function= recording
the ntoes
-Product function= reviewing
the notes later
-Both allow students to
strengthen understanding
-Graphic organizers and other
formats allow students to
better determine what to
include in notes.
-students have to be
comfortable in the class first

Process and Product Functions

Notetaking in English

-I think that it would be

beneficial for students to add
their note making notes to
their notetaking notes. This
would help students to connect
class lecture/discussion to
what is in the printed text.
-We used graphic organizers
for our books that we read in
Social Studies.
-The graphic organizers were
tedious, but they did help me
to understand the text more
thoroughly.

-I think that there is a

difference between reading

Chelsea Meyer 2
-notetaking practice=dictoglos
-allows students to get
experience hearing and
recording English spoken
fluently.

Teaching Students to Listen

-starts with a read aloud

-activities used must engage
students.
-students write what they
remember after each read
aloud
-students review notes, listen
and read to others notes, and
add and revise their own.

Notetaking in Mathematics

-students should take notes in

Mathematics
-Mathematics is an entire new
language and students will
need notes in order to
reference

Teaching students to Use an

Outline Framework

-outline frameworks allow

students to understand the
internal connections within the
content.
-terms should be emphasized
in outlines
-students can do this using a
folded piece of paper
-starts with a pre-reading
activity
-creating a skeletal note
structure of text help students
be effective notetakers
-Process approach to
notetaking entails three
notetaking principles
-1) sturctured format
-2) self-questioning strategy
-3)direct, explicit teaching of
the notetaking process
-can be used with

Note Making in Social Studies

Using technology and

Notetaking

logs and notetaking.

-I hated reading logs in school
b/c they kept me form reading.
-I think that having a writing
prompt the next day is a better
alternative b/c it requires that
students remember what they
read.
-I have never seen this system
used but I really like it b/c it
allows students to collaborate
on notes.
-I think that this system would
allow students to pick up on
notetaking strategies that they
werent aware of before
(starring vocabulary words for
example)
-Although I took notes in
Math, it mostly consisted of
practice problems.
-Laying out steps to a problem
in written form would allow
students to better understand
math.
-During my math practicum,
students used an outline format
to take math notes.
-This allowed for easy future
reference.

-Because Social Studies has so

many dates/names,
notemaking is essential to
understanding the content.
- I like this concept b/c it gives
students direction on their
notes. Instead of saying: take
notes over this, students will
know what they should be
writing down.

Chelsea Meyer 3
PowerPoints, videos, books,
etc.
Engaging Students at Multiple
Levels

Using Notes in Class

Structured Outline Support

Before, During, and After
Activities

Notetaking in Science

Notetaking That Encourages

Personal Response and
Dialogue

-students are required to

preview any visual aids on
each text page
-list all italicized and boldface
terms in voc. section
-students are asked to measure
their level of participation in
the note notetaking activity.
-students pose questions based
on the main ideas of the
outline
-the questioning strategy gets
students involved in the text
-As the questions are
asked/answered, the teacher
can bull out main points and
emphasize them for the class
-repeated practice leads to
more efficiency
-Directed Notetaking
Activities and computerassisted outlining allows
students to gain independent
notetaking skills.
-Some books provide
notetaking guides for students
-students should be interested
in content
-a split-page method will allow
students to retain more content
-note-taking allows students to
be more engaged

-structured notetaking allows

students a chance to categorize
important information
-allows student to react to
things through discussion and
notes
-gives students an avenue to
make relevant connections

- I have never seen the

participation measure, but I
think that this is a really good
idea.
-It allows students to
determine whether they are
participating to the best of
their ability or not.
-I like the idea of using notes
to provide key questions b/c it
allows students to wonder
about the content.
-This will lead to more
involvement and better
understanding of the text.

-Although I think that

published notetaking guides
from textbook companies
would be beneficial, I think
that it would be more
beneficial for students to
create their own formatting.

-I always remember taking

notes in science classes.
However, it wasnt required.
-For all students, it may be
necessary to provide
participation points for notes
to ensure that students are
taking notes.
-I like the idea of using notes
to record connections.
-This would allow students to
gain more from the text and it
would provide real-life
application.

Chelsea Meyer 4
Notetaking in Electives

Notetaking and the Research

Process

Learning How to Document

Information Sources

Using a Matrix Format for

Notetaking

-notes provide scaffolding

-allow students to present
relevant questions
-Allows students to become
better writer-researchers
-what research is needs to be
taught first
-students need to learn the
meaning of the following
words: research, sources of
information, bibliography,
research questions, research
grid, and paraphrase
-Students need to identify a
research topic
-this is done by presenting
valid research questions.
-students need to be taught
how to properly cite sources
-They also need practice citing
before embarking on their own
research project
-This notetaking skill will
allow them to better
understand the research
process
- a matrix format allows
students to take notes in an
organized manner
-the matrix provides students
with specific notetaking goals
(questions, bibliography,
specific facts, etc.)
-Students can then reference
the list of sources to determine
what to further research.

-I like the idea of students

using notes to pose research
questions.
-This would allow students to
delve in to research.
-I think that posing research
questions before deciding on a
topic would be very beneficial.
-This would drive the research
project.

-In high school, I had to do a

research paper. We put all of
our citations on notecards.
-We then used our notecards to
assemble our papers.
-This made the research
process less overwhelming.

-I have never seen this type of

matrix used in the classroom.
-However, I could see how this
would help students not get
overwhelmed by the research
process.

Summary:
This chapter talked about the value of notetaking and notemaking in the classroom. There
are many notetaking strategies; however, students need to be explicitly taught these strategies
before they will be able to apply them. Taking notes allows students to make connections to text
and strengthen understanding of content.