I've been working with my ENG 107 students lately on taking good notes. Besides the basic hints in their textbook, we also watched, and took notes on, a video from Dartmouth College about taking--and follow-up processing--class notes. Here are my own Cornell-style, or split-page style, notes on that video: Hibbison Notes.
A Suggestion for Faculty: Besides recommending the video to your students, perhaps as a Blackboard "External Link," I suggest that you ask one or more of your better students for a copy of his or her class notes to show to other students (preferably without the student's name on those notes).
A Shock: I had my students take notes on the Dartmouth video because it is clearly organized by what to do "before, during, and after" taking class notes. Out of my three ENG 107 sections, many students noted that arrangement in the preview, but only a handful actually used those headings in order to organize their own notes. Most students simply listed ideas subordinate to those headings down the left margin with no indentation and no headings.
The Scary Question: Even if you tell students the basis of organization of your day's ideas, do they use this organization for taking notes or for reviewing? Obviously, mine don't; but I hope they will now--before they get into your classes.
--Eric Hibbison
Head, JSRCC Reading Program
1 comment:
I have book marked this page, i am really glad to check out your ideas, i am sure they will work good for all of us, thanks for posting.
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