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NOTE-TAKING AND

EFFECTIVE INDEPENDENT LEARNING

Adapted fromROBERT BLAKE

Effective Learning Programme for International Students, Student Learning Development Centre

HOW TO MAKE SURE YOU MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR LECTURES…

HOW TO MINIMISE STRESSFUL ALL-NIGHT ASSIGNMENT SESSIONS

Look how far you`ve come…

Innocent little Year 7

Year 9…

Mature young man and a true graduate

of TBGS ready to enter the big wide

world!

Are we teaching the skills to bridge the gaps?

Innocent little Year 7

Year 9…

Mature young man and a true graduate

of TBGS ready to enter the big wide

world!

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Note Taking : outline

This session will help with ways of recording what

you hear / learn in lessons / lectures:

• A strategy for listening & taking notes in lectures

• How to lay out notes

• How to use symbols and abbreviations

• Some tips for research assignments

The Experiences of Old Grammarians

• How did you find the experience of lectures?

Were they vastly different from 6th form lessons?

“They were different in that they were a lot less

interactive. A lot of note taking and being talked at

rather than with!!”

The Experiences of Old Grammarians

“Lectures were somewhat different due to the lack of

ability to ask questions, which had always been encouraged at

school, (which was very good)”

The Experiences of Old Grammarians

“Lectures are massively different to 6th form lessons, largely due to the audience size, and thus the fact that there is almost no

individualisation.”

The Experiences of Old Grammarians

“There is obviously a lot less communication from teacher/lecturer to

pupil/student than at school and the person taking the module moves through

information through PowerPoint and orally very quickly so you have to concentrate

constantly. I have a lot of maths based modules and

these are the most different to A-level Maths as you are only taught the methods, as opposed to being walked through them,

and then having them marked.”

The Experiences of Old Grammarians

“Different to most in that you knew you had to take notes yourself and no individual

contact. Very easy to drift off as there are so many people there.”

The Experiences of Old Grammarians

• How do you tend to take notes in lectures?

“Copy everything the lecturer says.”

The Experiences of Old Grammarians

“I’ve tried a number of ways with mixed success. At first I tried typing or

just taking notes which didn’t work very well as there was no time to write it all. Instead I find the best way is to get prepared, print of the PowerPoint before hand with six slides to a page, and just add what the lecturer says,

this especially helps with revision as it is all ordered ready for you.”

The Experiences of Old Grammarians

“The first few times I tried to take notes I bullet pointed things in my notebook. Then I realised all the lectures were

put on an electronic system, which enabled me to procrastinate –

“oh, I’ll look at that later” soon became

“oh, I can’t be bothered to go to the lecture seeing as it’s online”.

I think technology breeds extreme laziness and I HATE the fact that it is used in education. Obviously the benefits to

the world outweigh the problems caused to one person, but I would actually say that if lectures were conducted in the classic ‘blink/talk/yawn and you’ll miss it’ fashion, I would

do infinitely better.”

The Experiences of Old Grammarians

• How do you tend to take notes in lectures?

“Similar to 6th Form, concise, abbreviated keyword phrases, annotated with arrows for ease of

reading.”

• Do you find your notes effective when consolidating work or using them for essays?

“Very much so – often lecturers phrase things in the

most logical/coherent fashion, which can be emulated in the essay.”

Teaching in 6th Form

How would you describe your lessons / teaching style?

What the students suggested…

• Key points/ questions highlighted

• A structure/ strategy for note taking when discussion is taking place

• Handouts – mixed reviews

Strategies for more effective note-taking.

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Practising Note Taking- SQL2R

•To use lectures creatively, a balance between listening carefully and taking notes is needed.

• One way to take more effective notes in lectures is to use SQL2R:

• Surveying• Questioning• Listening & Note taking • Recall • Review

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SQL2RSurveying: listening for signposting.

Listen out for key phrases that

will help you pick out key

points from the lecture/lesson

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SQL2RSurveying: listening for signposting.

Some examples of signposting language

I’ll begin by... Well,... One of the key questions... So now we’ve come to …. To sum up, what we’ve looked at so far...

Laptop?Dictaphone?Memory?Paper?Folder/Note book?

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SQL2R What should you use to take notes?

The Cornell System

Page Layout

Cue (Recall) Column•You should not write in this area during the lecture, while you are taking notes.

•The cue column is not created until you review your notes (do this AS SOON AS POSSIBLE – ideally the same day)

•As you study the material in your notes, you should devise questions which the notes answer.

•These questions are the "cues" that should be written in the cue column.

•By writing questions, you are forced to think about the lecture material in a way that clarifies meaning, reveals relationships between ideas, establishes continuity and strengthens memory.

The Summaries

•A summary is brief - at most, only a few sentences.

•The page summary provides a concise review of the important material on the page. •More importantly, in writing a summary, you are forced to view the material in a way that allows you to see how it all fits together, in a general sense.

•The summary should be written in your own words... helping you to own the information.

Note-Taking Area•Don’t copy everything word for word!

•Key points

•To avoid missing information during the lecture, you should develop a system of abbreviations you or similar shorthand as used in TXT SPK LOL ROFL.

•As you take notes, realize that your emphasis should be on the key ideas, rather than the actual words used to convey those ideas.

Introduction Main points Sub-points Supporting detail References

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SQL2RUseful lecture notes reflect the structure of a lecture by

marking out the:

Symbols & abbreviations

can save you valuable

time: enabling you to write

less & identify the main

points more efficiently.26

SQL2R Using Symbols

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SQL2R

• e.g. for example• i.e. that is• etc. etcetera: and so on• N.B. note• Q. question• No. number• probs. problems• p./pp page/pages• 1st   first• max. maximum• c. about/approximately• ref. reference• thro‘/thru through

• imp important• sit. situation• eval evaluation• analy analysis• diff/diff.y difficult/difficulty• diff.t different

After the lecture remember to

Recall & Review.

Unless you have a superb memory, you’ll forget

much of what you’ve heard & made notes on,

So it’s necessary to find ways of recalling.28

SQL2R

Review involves assessing

how well you’ve been able

to remember the lecture

information during recall

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SQL2R

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SQL2R

•Key questions•Key terms•Ask questions about areas you missed/ didn’t understand

You can record your notes in a number of ways including:

• Linear notes: with headings & sub-headings; points are numbered

sequentially

• Flow diagrams: suit logical thinkers

• Mind maps: suit visual thinkers. 31

SQL2R

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Practising Note Taking Strategies- linear notes

An example of Linear notes:

Taking notes from lectures• Prepare for the lecture • Use tape/buddy + good note taking • Look for organisation clues from lecturer Taking notes from readings• Know what you want from the reading • Look for organisation clues from headings, sections, paragraphs • Don’t write down examples • SQ3R Approach • Survey – flip through & layout • Question – structure and relevance • Read – twice through quickly • Recall – main points, facts & biblio. Details • Review – repeat steps & relate to task• Example from Exeter University Web site

http://www.ex.ac.uk/dll/studyskills/note_taking_appendix_a.htm

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Practising Note Taking Strategies- mind map notes

An example of notes in the form of a mind map from Tony Buzan. Note the use of colour & space

http://www.mind-map.com/EN/mindmaps/how_to.html

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Practising Note Taking Strategies- flow diagram notes

An example of notes in the form of a flow diagram

Liverpool Hope University http://www.hope.ac.uk/gnu/stuhelp/notes4.htm#Note

Independent Study

Research for Essays & Assignments

The Experiences of Old Grammarians

• How did you find the experience of completing your first essay?

• Was it vastly different? • How did you find the research side of it?

“Yes, it was very different. Having to go through multiple readings and then find

what it is you need to answer the question is a lot different to simply

having the answer somewhere in a text book.”

The Experiences of Old Grammarians

“Tends to be longer and needs to be more thoroughly researched than

A-level.”

The Experiences of Old Grammarians

“Not really. My note taking style is so horrendous due to lack of practice,

that most of the notes I tried to take consisted of spidery, barely readable handwriting and doodles of medieval

weaponry.”

Step One: For future reference, record the bibliographic details of your reading in the boxes below.

Name of reading Author’s name Year and place of publication

Journal details (if any) Page numbers read Other bibliographic notes

Step Two: Surface read the reading and complete the following tasks.

In your own words, briefly describe the main point or argument the author/s of the

reading is trying to make.

List three minor arguments that the author uses to support his or her main point or

argument.1.2.3.

Step Three: Read the reading more comprehensively and find quotes or ideas from the text that supports each argument

and point that you’ve listed in step two.