Purpose Statement
Many students need direct instruction and practice in how to
take notes in class.
Description of
Activity
Over a number of weeks in the semester, students are given
variously filled-in outlines of the class lectures until they are able to make
their own with no instructor assistance. These steps can be paced any way the
instructor desires: they are not meant to represent week one, week two,
etc.(though they could be), but rather as stages of development that will
depend on each individual class and teacher.
1.) At first, students are given an outline form of the lecture that includes
main headings on which they can take notes. I use an overhead of the same form
filled in while presenting the topic. I speak extra slowly so that everyone has
time for their note-taking.
2.) Then, students are given an outline form of the lecture that includes main
headings on which they can take notes, but there is no overhead: they need to
listen for the information.
3.) Later, students are given a blank outline form of the lecture. I write on
the board the key words of the lecture.
4.) Next, students are given no outline, but I let them know the main and
subheading points as I speak.
5.) Finally, students create their own outlines based on the lecture with no
assistance from the instructor. Whole class or small group discussion can
follow during which time students can share their note-taking with each other.
(Which allows students to learn effective skills from each other.)
Materials
If you already use an outline when giving lectures, it is
not difficult to type a blank form of the lecture outline to give to students.
It takes little extra class time to explain how to create and fill in an
outline form.
This process greatly helped my students last semester. By
the end of the semester, students were quite comfortable taking notes while
listening to lectures. I had not had the same success with students in
semesters past.
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web page was created on 2/24/99 at 9:31:15 PM
and modified on 6/6/99 at 4:42:00 PM