Looking to improve the organisation of note making?
In English lessons I often find myself getting students to make notes on literary texts they are studying: noting the key information, such as contextual factors etc. Such an activity is one of those core aspects of learning across the curriculum. The end-goal for many of our students is to embed their notes deep into their long-term memory – for exams and for life. If university is their endgame then undertaking such note making strategies successfully is paramount and we should therefore teach it explicitly. With that in mind, I have have been trying to develop the most effective strategy for high quality note making for my students.
Most recently, with my year 8 SEN group we were making notes on our second, and most recent novel, ‘Shadow of the Minotaur‘. At the end of each chapter students made bullet point notes of the key information. At the end of a novel I typically encourage students to synthesise chapter notes by ‘story mapping’ the novel – think of the style of a treasure map, with chronological steps for key information, complete with memorable images. At the same time I had my A level English Literature students studying ‘Dr Faustus‘. Students were free to devise their notes as they preferred, but at the end of the play we did create a timeline for the play – with added extras, like critical opinions etc. All variants of the same activity: successfully recording and synthesising key information. I didn’t consider which model was most effective.
Reflecting upon the learning of both classes has drawn me towards new conclusions. I want to combine the concise written notes with images and other memorisation strategies, but the ‘story map’ or timeline method just didn’t quite fit ongoing note making. I have therefore devised my own ‘Triplicate Note Making‘ method. More than ever, I want to foreground the crucial metacognitive strategies students need to develop. By metacognition I mean the act of thinking about thinking – taking information and being able to evaluate what is important etc. By getting students to ask questions about the knowledge as they are noting, as well as devising memorisation strategies for the self-same knowledge, students can deepen their degree of understanding.
It is quite a simple method so I will keep it brief:
Column 1: Core information. The key facts, information and quotes relevant to the topic or text at hand.
Column 2: Key questions sparked by the information. Conceptual ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions can help deepen their understanding, helping them connect their knowledge and understanding.
Column 3: Memorable images and mnemonics to help students consciously embed the core information and the conceptual ideas arising from such knowledge into their memory.
Good notes should be revisited and revised. Students need to practise the basic note taking skills of abbreviation, syntactical shortening and paraphrasing on a regular basis to make them able to take notes with automatic efficiency. Repetition is key. Many of our students, which I have seen in both my year 8 group and my A level group, have difficulty recalling key knowledge from their working memory (see the crucial implications of an effective working memory for successful learning here). They therefore need training and modelling how to abbreviate; how to simplify complex sentences; how to paraphrase. Once mastered, these skills are invaluable in all contexts and subject areas. Like a journalist applying shorthand, they allow students to apply their mental focus on the content of what is being said or what they are reading.
By adding questions and symbols you can add layers of meaning that can strengthen understanding. A subsequent benefit of including questions arising from the content of the topic/text is that students can then revisit the questions and they can ideally answer them with a greater degree of understanding having gathered more information on the given topic or text. Such information retrieval can ensure students are repeatedly thinking about their thinking. The students can also connect the sequence of memorisation images.
It is a small detail to reorganise note taking slightly and to foreground questions that arise and memory strategies and symbols students could apply, but it just might work. In the term ahead I aim to trail the strategy and monitor if it is more effective than my current mixed approaches.
After releasing this post, multiple people highlighted the Cornell Note taking method. Give a look at Jon Tait’s really useful YouTube video summary:
This article is a fascination cognitive psychology analysis of note making: see here.
Ten useful memory tips to aid note making: see here.