You’re sitting in class and the teacher is explaining the lesson. You can’t catch it all at once – and there’s a quiz tomorrow. You don’t have a private tutor. So what’s the next best thing? Notes.
Good note-taking is a great skill to develop and one that will definitely help you as an adult in the workplace. We all are faced with having to learn something new at some point in our lives. Notes are a great way to help us do that.
The first step to good note-taking is good listening. No matter how hard you listen, studies have shown that you will forget 80 percent of what your teacher says in about a week.
Good listening is a skill in itself because you have to be able to effectively pick out the important facts from what the teacher is saying, such as instructions, significant dates, people, places and events. A good listener is attentive and gets involved in what is being said. As you listen, you’ll form questions in your mind that hopefully will be answered as the lesson is further explained.
You don’t have a mini tape recorder, and you can’t take down every word. So you have to learn how to get to the good stuff quickly.
Develop your own system of abbreviation – just make sure you can understand it later. Good note-taking has no set rules. You should do what works best for you, but try to be as neat as you can. It’s a waste of time to take notes that you can’t use later.
Pay extra attention to clues that the teacher might give when something important is about to be said. Write it down and highlight it with a star or underline. And, of course, when in doubt, ask questions.
Taking notes in class is a bit like being a reporter. You get the facts for a story or conduct an interview. You take down the important information and fill it in later to create your story. Notes function in the same way. You take down the important facts. You ask questions and fill out your lesson later after you study what you’ve written.
Just as important as good study habits, good note-taking is a skill that should be mastered for learning success.
Here are a few handy hints to help with note-taking:
* Make a list. As your teacher explains a lesson or as you are reading and taking notes, creating a list of important people, places or dates is a good idea. You can use the list as a study reference later. Be sure to identify the subjects on your list.
* Listen and look for key words and write them down. Include the definitions of your key words. These will come in handy later on.
* Be a good listener. Try to pick out the key points that your teacher is making and write them down.
* Use art to help you remember. Draw pictures of things you want to remember. Visuals, especially those you create yourself, can help you.
Although there are no set rules for note-taking, you should spend more time listening than writing.
Activities
Pick a story from today’s paper. Make a list of the important points.
Select a subject from your daily lessons and take notes from the information your teacher gives you. Compare your notes with those of your classmates and rate your note-taking skills.
With a classmate, take turns reading stories from today’s paper while the other takes notes. Compare your information. Switch papers and see how many questions you can answer about the story from the notes.
Today’s lesson fulfills the following New York standards: English Language Arts: E1c, E1e, E3c, E3d, E4a, E5a, Art Standard 2.
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