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Get your Notebooks Organized with Cornell Notes

By Noble Newman Noble Newman Education Site

+Introduction: the

Problem n  How many times have you seen students shuffle through

countless papers just to pull up notes taken the other day?

n  How many times have you seen a student come in unprepared for an examination because they didn’t find their notebooks helpful?

+Introduction: Solution

n  As educators, we have all been in those situations.

n  In order to get the best out of your students, it is absolutely vital that you establish a particular system how they can utilize their notebooks in the most optimal way possible

n  One particular system many educators utilize within the classroom has been the Cornell Note note-taking system.

+What are Cornell Notes

n  The Cornell Notes system (also Cornell note-taking system or Cornell method) is a note-taking system devised in the 1950s by Walter Pauk, an education professor at Cornell University. Pauk advocated its use in his best-selling book How to Study in College.

n  The Cornell method provides a systematic format for condensing and organizing notes. The student divides the paper into two columns: the note-taking column (usually on the right) is twice the size of the questions/key word column (on the left). The student should leave five to seven lines, or about two inches, at the bottom of the page.

+Overview of Cornell Notes

n  Notes from a lecture or teaching are written in the note-taking column

n  Notes usually consist of the main ideas of the text or lecture, and long ideas are paraphrased. n  Long sentences are avoided; symbols or abbreviations are used

instead.

n  To assist with future reviews, relevant questions (which should be recorded as soon as possible so that the lecture and questions will be fresh in the student's mind) or key words are written in the key word column.

n  These notes can be taken from any source of information, such as fiction and nonfiction books, DVDs, lectures, text books, etc.

n  The bottom section should be utilized for students to revise and review the contents of the class through a brief summary in the bottom five to seven lines of the page. n  This helps to increase understanding of the topic. When studying for

either a test or quiz, the student has a concise but detailed and relevant record of previous classes.

+So What does this look like?

+So What does this look like?

+How can you utilize this within

the classroom? n  With your lecture, make sure there is a systematic way in

which your students can follow your lesson and power point presentations.

n  Some tips is to highlight important concepts in a different color like ‘red’ for your students to take down. n  Make sure they practice this by taking notes on the right side of

the section.

n  In addition encourage various questions (which will be taken on the left side of the paper.

n  Once your lesson is done, be sure to have a wrap up lesson where your students writes a brief summary at the bottom of the page.

+Student Accountability

n  For many students, this type of process maybe foreign to their style of thinking.

n  While every student learns differently, it does not mean they cannot utilize the same tools to absorb and internalize the information.

n  To enhance ‘student accountability,’ make sure you grade student notebooks (both for content and format)

n  That grading factor will force many students to integrate the note taking structure now than later.

+To Learn More

n  If you would like to learn more about other teacher tips or education policy and reform news, please visit the following sites:

n  Noble Newman Education

n  Noble Newman Career

n  Noble Newman Entrepreneurship