Note Taking

I like how the article states, "Although it is important to teach students how to take and use notes effectively, educators also have a responsibility to organize their lectures in ways that make it possible to create notes." I couldn't stand when I had a teacher that would mostly lecture the whole class period and talked non-stop, which didn't give you much time to record notes while listening effectively. Then, on top of that, their lecture is unorganized. I like to have my notes organized by topics, and if I'm taking hand written notes, it's hard to go back and insert pieces of information because the teacher is skipping around. I also like how this chapter models for us how we can help our students become better note takers and note makers. When I was in high school, I can't remember learning how to take notes from a lecture. Most of the time, the notes I had were either handed to us to study, or they were guided notes to follow along with a power point or chapter. If we ever did have to write anything, we were told, "Write this down." I feel like we were babied too much and never learned how to become independent note takers. or note makers. When I came to USM, I learned real quick that I was not an effective note taker. I can remember being in CIV 101 and missing have the lecture because I was trying to write down everything the instructor said instead of the things that were most important.  I knew that I wasn't supposed to write down everything, I just had a hard time deciphering what was important and if the things I thought were important were the same things that he thought were important. However, this instructor did something that helped me with taking effective notes. Before each lecture, he would write a list of key terms on the board in the order that they would appear in the lecture. This not only kept him organized, but it also helped me keep my notes organized.  There was another instructor that I had at USM who taught calculus. When he would write examples and definitions on the board, he would write it on the board in an organized way in which we could mimic. He would also tells to write something down if it was something that we really needed to make sure that we knew it. Although I took that class 2 years ago, I feel that I could look back on those notes and be able to know how to do the operations. In conclusion, I feel that it is important that teachers model for students how to take notes so that the students can look back on the notes later and actually understand what they wrote.  Saying that, the teacher also needs to make sure that her lecture is "note taking friendly" to ensure that the students are able to take effective notes.