Note taking strategies: REAP Strategy
REAP stands for Relating, Extending, Actualizing, and Profiting (Devine, 1987). The
purposes of the strategy are to organize notes and to make course content more personal
to students. Class notes are taken on one side of the paper and the opposite page is used
for recording memory triggers and related information. The original class notes can be
taken using a variety of methods, such as the Cornell or Outline strategies, but must be
taken on only one side of the page. REAP supplements the notes after they have been
taken, or can be done during the lecture as well by a student experienced with this method.
Getting Started:
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Use a loose leaf or spiral notebook with notes recorded on one side.
REAP will be recorded on the page facing a sheet of notes.
Divide the facing page into two columns with a dotted line
Label the left side with “Triggers”. Record words, phrases or draw pictures that will help you
remember the information taken in more detail in your notes on the facing page.
Label the right side of the dotted line with “REAP”. Relate materials to your own life, Extend the
material outward to the outside world or to prior knowledge, Actualize the material by noting how
the information might work in the world, and finally, how might society Profit or benefit from the
ideas.
http://www.muskingum.edu/~cal/database/general/notetaking3.html
| LeeAnne Whitworth EDU 714