It's really no wonder why students don't like to take notes. If they're just being given to them verbally and they simply write them down, how boring is this?! To savvy them us a little bit, teachers may (like I've done) place them on an overhead projector and have them write them down as well. This is still pretty ho hum. I'm thankful that our resources this week have presented us with information on how to teach summarizing and note taking utilizing current technological advances, while creating meaningful learning opportunties too.
Software programs such as Inspiration and Spinscape offer students the ability to organize notes in a meaningful web map that will help them learn concepts better than ordinary boring note taking. Plus these features offer colorful graphics and links in which students can place pictures and other pertinent information on them as well. PowerPoints offer the ability for creative note taking, combining pictures and their related terms (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007).
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8 comments:
I find that if you simply ask students to take notes or summarize something, they are not sure how to do this. Providing a graphic organizer or a concept map, helps them organize the important information. I really liked the idea of the combination notes which was presented in the course text.
I remember when I was in high school, when I was 16 I entered what we called sixth form (10th grade equivalent over here) and I was expected to follow what teh teacher said, draw diagrams, take notes, and understand everything that the lesson was supposed to teach us. All this without having been told how to take notes that we needed instead of everything or missing something relevant and important to what was expected for exams. I think that this is such a daunting task in itself let alone if students have not been taught how. I definitely think that a visual aid helps with this but I think that perhaps the ideal would be for something like a palm held device which could be used to either record the lesson or be connected to something in the classroom which points out what is needed to help the student be successful.
I have used cloze procedure to add to note takin gin fifth grade. They have sentences with words missing and then they add those words as the teacher says them at the relevant time. In this way I know that they have the relevant information but they have to be paying attention in order to make the notes make sense.
Angie, I think you are right when you say that it is boring for a kid to sit,listen to a teacher lecture and be expected to process all of it on their own. Kids of all ages just do not know how to take notes correctly and they really have never been shown. Yet teachers complain about it instead of taking just a few minutes to create something to help their students take notes better, get better organized, etc. Teachers that complain about it to me are lazy if they haven't atleast tried one of these organizers. I also have to blame the school districts for lack of training teachers to help their students. These strategies really would be appreciated by the students.
We just had an inservice at my school on note taking. We discussed the fact that students don't know how to take notes or summarize. They constantly ask, do we need to write this down or write incessantly not listening to a thing. We received many good strategies, but I found few of them could be used in the math class. I feel there is a place for copying directly from the board in math, I guess.
Angie,
When I was in high school (about 8 years ago), all that we did was take notes from the chalk board. It was even rare to see someone giving notes from an overhead projector. It is crazy to think about how times have changed and now how we can have the students go online and make their own tools. This allows the students to be more creative within how they take notes. I feel like this is something that could be so useful when it comes to studying and being more organized! Good job!
I find that most of my 6th grade students do not know how to take notes and they are not willing to try. I like the idea of using the content maps and the graphical organizers to get the students interested in note taking. If they think they only have to fill in a few boxes instead of writing pages of notes they might be more willing to do it. As the year goes by you can give them less and less information on the content maps and expect them to fill in more information. Sort of scaffold them. The biggest problem I have seen is getting the student to use the notes that they have taken or is given.
Angie,
I agree that technology can cure some of the boredom of taking notes, and make them more meaningful. Yet, I wonder how many of us have a computer per student to be able to do that? I have that many desktops, but my kids aren't at them when we are taking notes from student presentations. It would be great is everyone had a laptop!
I know of many case when students copy notes or attempt to re-organize the thoughts of an instructor and then make the product more confusing than what was actually discussed. Teachers have to remember that the thoughts being written into notes or based on the perception of the student when the information is given. Some students may simply be copying letters to paper with no real understaning of what they are writing. That perception may not necessarily by what the instruction is.
The graphic organizer can make this process so much simpilar and clearer. If instruction is blended with a visual map or guide, understanding is almost certain to be what the teacher intends it to be.
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