CG 111 10/23/08
• Note:Change in the syllabus & assignment
• Study strategies for academic disciplines
– Discussion & interactive chapter review p. 202
• Cornell note taking system in detail
(Take notes!)
Cornell Note Taking Lecture
Overview
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Goals for taking notes
Benefits of Cornell Note Taking System
How to prepare Cornell Notes
Skills you’ll need
Benefits of each step in the system
Practice: Give Cornell Notes a Try
Taking Notes From Lecture
Note taking goals
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Accurately record what the speaker says
Pay attention
Interpret ideas to make them meaningful
Condense the info before writing it down
Organize the notes in a way that makes
sense to you
Five Benefits
1. Forces you to decide what’s important
– Active reading or listening process
– Weigh and evaluate what you read or hear
2. Focus your attention and concentrate
3. Helps you understand underlying pattern
of organization, connections
4. Helps you know if you understood what
you read or hear
5th Benefit: Additional Repetition
• Writing down what you hear / read helps
you learn and master the information via:
– Review
– Evaluation
– Interpretation
– Editing
• Moves information into long term memory
• Provides mental cues to retrieve information
Cornell Note Taking & Study
System
Developed by Walter
Pauk, at Cornell
University
Useful for notes from
textbook or lectures
Law/Summary margin
paper has Cornell
margins
Date
Topic
Recall 6”
Clues Notes
2 ½”
2” Summary
Give Cornell Note Taking a Try!
• Take a blank sheet of paper
• Draw a line from the top to bottom of the
page approximately 2 1/2 inches of the
way over from the left margin.
• Draw a horizontal line approximately 1
inch from the bottom.
• Date & number page. Topic: Cornell Note
Taking
• Take notes in right column as you
normally would
What do you record?
• Date, topic, page #
• Most important info
• What’s written on
board - headings
• Meaningful phrases
or sentences
• Details
• Definitions
• Examples, Drawings
• How do you record?
Informal outline
Block
Modified Block
Leave space between
ideas
Indent details
Abbreviate!
What skills do you need?
• Active listening & concentration
• Selectivity – instructors speak 150 – 200
words per minute; we write @ 25 wpm.
• Abbreviation
• Interpreting
• Condensing
• Organizing
• Legibility – Leave Space
Improve Your Listening Skills
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Decide to listen
Focus your attention
Set aside biases
Control emotional responses
Listen for main points & related details
Ask questions
Observe lecturer’s physical cues
5 Steps of the Cornell Note
Taking System
1.Record
2.Reduce
3.Recite
4.Reflect
5.Review
These are important concepts to remember!
Cornell Note Taking System
First:
Set up your paper
Label your pages
For text notes
Course name
Chapter & Title
Page numbers from book
-------------------For lecture notes
Date
Course
Topic/Lecture Title
Date
Topic
Recall 6” Area for
Column
Notes
2 ½”
2” Summary
Date
5 R’s of
Cornell
Record
Reduce
---------------Recite
Reflect
Review
(see CG 111
Course
Materials p.
Topic
Reduce
Recall
Clues
2 ½”
Record Notes
Any format
Print, draw
Skip lines between
ideas
Write on one side
only
2” Summary
Cornell also
can be
adapted to
record math
(see
handout)
Note:
switch this
set-up if
you are lefthanded.
2 ½” - 4”
Date
Math Topic
Math
problems go
here
Math
vocabulary
Goes here
Write Explanations,
Problem solving
Steps,
Clues, Hints
Here
Focus on what
your instructor
says
Lefties:
explanations
Problems
Benefits: Record Step
• You select the most important information
• You are condensing the main ideas and
important details so you
a. recall everything that happened in class
or
b. don’t have to re-read your chapter
Step 2:
Reduce
Write
•recall clues
• SQ4R
questions
•key phrases
summarizing
your notes
on the right
•Exam
questions
you predict
Date
Topic
Reduce Lots of notes that
Recall you’ve taken here
Clues
2 ½”
2” Summary
Benefits: Reduce Step
• Reduce notes to key words or questions
• You create questions for important info
that helps you prepare for future exams
Date
Reduce:
Summarize
Topic
6 – 8 lines at
bottom of
page
Notes
Summarize
your page of
notes
Good practice
for essay
exams
2” Summary
Benefits: Recite step
• Provides you with feedback about how
well you are learning
• Allows self testing
• Allows preparing for essay exams – if you
can recite the information out loud, you
can write it down
• Seeing, hearing and speaking help you
retain information faster
Sample
Cornell
Notes
http://www.muskingum.edu/~cal/database/content/history1.html
Benefits: Reflect Step
• Promotes critical thinking
• You are creating a personal method to
learn information
• You can use creativity for better
understanding
Sample notes of this lecture
Notetaking, Date Pg.1
• Why take notes?
• What is included in
good notes?
• What skills are
needed?
• What are some NT
structures
• When should I review
my notes?
• How can I review my
notes?
• Diagrams
• Cross Reference
• Why? To remember, stay awake, help
me study, enhance concentration
• Main pts., imp. Terms, topic, def.
date, pg #, graphics, diagrams, blank
space
• Skills: Listening, concentration,
legibility, organization.
• Types: Outline, mindmaps, summary,
Matrix, Cornell system
• When: Immediately after class within
24 hrs.
• Out loud, quiz, rewrite, list main ideas,
rework, make test, create questions
Important Terms: Blank Space, Main terms, MindMaps,
Matrix, Cornell, Review
How to Outline
1. Determine how much info you need to
include
2. Identify how ideas relate
3. Group ideas according to their
connections
1. Uses listing order & system of indentation
2. Write main ideas (MIs) close to margin
1. Indent information that support/explains MIs
Outlines – Styles and Goal
• Can be formal: Roman numerals, Capital
letters
• Can be informal=Figure 16.5 p. 335
• Can be highly detailed or a brief list
Ultimate Goal: Be able to show relative
importance of ideas and how they relate to
each other
Benefits of Review Step
• Strengthens long term memory
• Practice retrieving information
• Builds your confidence
• Recite from the recall column
• Recite from the headings
• Discuss the information with others
– Predict questions, quiz each other, etc.
When should you review?
• Immediately after class to 24 hours after
taking lecture notes
• Right before the next class
• Weekly to move info to LTM and to
rehearse thinking about it and retrieving it.
Review, Review, Review
You can “stack” your Cornell notes for review &
self-testing.
Organizing & Synthesizing Course
Content
Tools for Managing
Learning :
• SQ4R – record step
• Concept/Category
Cards (course mat.)
• 4 x 6 note card
• Study sheets (ch.18)
New tools in Ch. 7
• Textbook Highlighting
• Marginal Annotation
– Summary Notes
– Recall Clues
• Outline Notes
• Mapping (aka visual
note taking)
Good students DO write in
textbooks
Three reasons you should mark, highlight &
write in your textbooks
1. To find and select the author’s key ideas
and support for those ideas
– You are forced to think about the text &
follow the author’s organization, discussion
or argument.
– You keep alert & actively engaged,
improving your learning
2. To make studying more efficient
– You can quickly find key ideas for
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class discussion
Review
Test preparation
Writing papers
3. To record your reactions to the reading
Textbook Highlighting
• Analyze your reading task
• Assess how much you know about the
topic already
• Use a consistent system (colors, pencils)
• Determine what’s important w/textbook
headings
• Read, THEN highlight up to 25% per page
Marginal Annotations
• You need to know the various types shown in
McWhorter, p.330 Table 16.1
• Avoid Pitfalls & Timewasters
– overly complex systems (lots of different colored
highlighters = take too long
– Medieval monk = too much--- copying, not enough
synthesizing!
– Nothin’ Here = too little—check: do I understand this
material?
– Rest of the story = have to reread text again to know
what’s going on
Marginal Annotation
• Allows you to identify what to learn
– Ex. New terminology, key concepts
• Records your reactions & comments
• Variation 1:
– Summary Notes = phrases in the margins
• Forces you to pull together ideas
• Makes remembering easier
• Good for long, complex passages
Summary Notes (cont.)
• Variation 2:
– Recall Clues = words and phrases that briefly
summarize the notes
• “memory tags” that trigger your recall of info you’ve
read.
– Words,
– Phrases
– Questions
• Process: Cover up the text, read the clue and test
your recall
Variation 3:Text marking (Optional)
• Put a double or wavy line under main
ideas
• Use a single or straight line under
supporting details
• Circle vocabulary that you need to study
and underline the meaning
Outline Notes- How they Help
• You organize information & pull together
related ideas
• You discover “the bones” of the text
• You must recognize what’s important and
express it in words
• You are forced to be selective
• You start retaining what you learn = notes
are a form of elaborative rehearsal
Visual Mapping
(aka Visual Note Taking)
General: concept maps
Specialized:
time lines –
process diagrams
part and function diagrams
organizational charts
comparison and contrast charts
Visual Mapping
Benefits:
• consolidate information visually
• Emphasizes particular thought pattern:
• effective for visual and spatial learners
• Fun form of elaborative rehearsal
General: concept maps
• Concept maps are outlines that show
ideas spatially
Comparison Contrast Chart
Technique Highlighting
Annotation
Note taking
Use
Textbook Review
Avoid re-reading
80% of text
comments,
reaction to text
Organizing
Difficult text
Helps
You
Concentrate,
Be phys. active,
Evaluate while
reading
ID New terms
Comment, summarize
important ideas in own
words
Pros
•Fast, efficient
•ID patterns of org
Summarize long
passages
Test prep: Organize information
Rehearsal – Learning
Easy to carry around
Cons
Doesn’t sep. MI
from examples
Not good for
anthologies, tech
difficult texts
Time consuming
A concept map
of the five
specialized
types of
concept maps
Process
diagram
Compare/
contrast
timelines
Concept
maps
Org.
charts
Part
&
function