Strategies for Note-taking
and Retaining Information
Linda Hecker
Landmark College for Research and
Training
September 2007
Renton Technical College
lhecker@landmark.edu
©2007 Landmark College
Workshop Goals
 Understand the purpose and rationale for
note taking
 Understand how memory and attention
affect learning
 Learn and practice note taking strategies
that support memory, attention, and
learning
 Review the barriers to note taking and
some strategies to address them
 Learn how instructors can support note
taking in their classes
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Old Chinese Proverb …
Tell me and I forget.
Show me and I
remember.
Involve me and I
understand.
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Activator
Turn to a partner and discuss:
What do you currently do to
encourage students to take
effective notes in your class?
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What is Note Taking?
What do we mean when we
talk about note taking?
What do people do when they
take notes?
Brainstorm individually
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Purpose of Note Taking
 Helps students to understand the material
presented in the class
 Serve as reference material for later study
 What else?
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Purpose of Note Taking (2)
 Keeps students active during lectures
 Helps to clarify confusing information
 Improves long-term memory storage
 Better grades on tests
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What Does Research Say about Note
Taking?
 Note takers are better able to recall main
points than non-note-takers
 Students who review their notes do better
on tests than those who take notes but
don’t review them
 Transferring written information to a visual
format may improve comprehension and
recall
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What Does Research Say about Note
Taking? (2)
 Note-taking behaviors (underlining,
copying, listing) are tangible indicators of
internal cognitive processing
 Note-taking techniques (summarizing and
highlighting) are ineffective unless
students are taught the underlying
cognitive processes that underlie these
techniques
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What Does Research Say about Note
Taking? (3)
 Writing after reading contributes more to
knowledge synthesis than note-taking
 Good essay writing is associated with
generative, active note-taking strategies
 Active note-taking strategies include
summarizing and concept mapping
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Conclusion from Research
The important aspect of
note-taking is not WHAT
students do, but HOW they
do it.
“Learning without thought is labor lost; thought
without learning is perilous.”
Confucius, The Confucian Analects
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Cognitive Processing: Memory and
Attention
Regulates
Attention
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How Does Memory Work?
 Three components of
memory
– Sensory memory
– Short term memory/
Active working memory
– Long term memory
Cerebellum:
Memory
Attention
Learning
Motor Control
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Information Processing
rehearsal
INPUT
Sensory
Memory
attention
Short Term/
Working
Memory
encoding
OUTPUT
retrieval
Long Term
Memory
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What are the Components of
Attention?
 Interest in the subject plus how the
subject is presented
 Motivation
– Affected by past successes and/or failures
 Ability to distinguish more important
information from less important
information
 Vigilance, or the ability to focus and
ignore distractions
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The Role of the Executive Functions
 Management functions of the brain
 Enable the brain to engage in selfregulation
 Six executive functions:
– Activation
– Focus
– Effort
– Emotions
– Memory
– Action
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Brown’s Model of Executive Function
Impairment in ADD Syndrome
http://www.drthomasebrown.com/brown_model/index.html
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Learning requires sustained effort
“Learning is not attained by
chance, it must be sought for
with ardor and attended to with
diligence.”
– Abigail Adams, 1780
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Attention & Executive Functions:
What We Know
 Selective attention requires sustained effort
and energy
 Attention and EF work together to motivate,
evaluate, synthesize, associate, organize and
connect information to be stored into shortterm and long-term memory
 Controlled by specific brain structures and
neurotransmitters (dopamine and
noradrenaline); influenced by hormones,
stress and emotion
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Attention & Executive Functions: Implications for
learning
 Learners need to be actively involved, to
explicitly know what they should skim and
what they should deeply focus on (Reading
& Writing: previewing= “prethinking”, selfchecking, self-correcting)
 Learners need to regulate internal and
external distractions (environment,
emotional state, active working memory
strategies = problem-solving strategies)
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Why are Lectures so Difficult for
Students?
 They are inaccessible to deaf students
 They make high demands on linguistic and
cognitive abilities
– Memory
– Attention
– Background knowledge
 Length and passivity place high demands
on concentration and executive function
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Note Taking Strategies
 Two Column Method (Cornell)
 Outlining
 Visual/Concept Maps
 Topic and Concept Cards
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The Master Notebook
 A Process and a Product
 Integrates reading, writing, and
organization
 Taught to all Landmark College students
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spaced study
rehearsal
STUDY
PRINCIPLES
overlearning
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organization
test
preparation
filing system
MASTER NOTEBOOK
time
management
study process
active learning
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The Master Notebook Product
• Course syllabus
• Daily calendar of assignments &
• appointments
• Highlighters
• Divided sections for class notes,
• tests/quizzes, completed homework, and
• handouts
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The Master Notebook
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The Master Notebook
Course Syllabus
Semester Calendar
Daily Calendar
of
Assignments
& Appointments
yellow
highlighter
©2006 Landmark College
The Master Notebook
Course Syllabus
Semester Calendar
Daily Calendar
of
Assignments
& Appointments
yellow
highlighter
blue
highlighter
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The Master Notebook
Course Syllabus
class notes
Semester Calendar
tests/quizzes
Daily Calendar
of
Assignments
& Appointments
completed
homework
handouts
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The Master Notebook Process
Daily:
 Take a complete set of notes on 2column note paper.
 Within 1-24 hours after class, revise
notes.
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UNREVISED NOTES
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The Master Notebook Process
Note revision:
• Pull out main ideas
• Highlight key points and important vocabulary
• Compare notes with a study partner to fill in gaps
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The Master Notebook Process
Note revision:
• Ask questions on the opposite page –
“sweat page”
• Draw visuals to represent information
• Summarize
• Self-test to check understanding and retention
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NOTE REVISION
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NOTE REVISION
The Pizza Has Cheese And Such Dark Sauce
Take a complete set of notes. Within 6 - 24
hours meet with a study partner.
Pull out the main ideas.
Highlight the main ideas, important subtopics
and vocabulary.
Compare notes; identify missing information
and clarify abbreviations and unclear facts.
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NOTE REVISION
(continued)
The Pizza Has Cheese And Such Dark Sauce
Ask questions (clarification, association, test).
Summarize the main ideas from the page of
notes on the bottom of the sweat page.
Draw a visual/ graphic organizer that
summarizes or represents the information.
Self-test by covering one column and trying to
recall information from the other.
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All text on this “Sweat Page” was
added after the lecture
REVISED NOTES
R
S
Q
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The Master Notebook Process
For studying and remembering, the Master
Notebook is a way to organize and retrieve
important information.
Weekly:
1. Organize all class material in logical order
2. Write a master summary of the main ideas from
that week
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The Master Notebook
Points to Remember for the Instructor
• Micro-unit each step of the system.
• Monitor the application of each step.
• Check the notebook regularly (an
expectation).
• Provide plenty of feedback.
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Electronic 2-column notes
2-column notes easily adapted to
electronic format on laptop or
PDA
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Concept Mapping
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Conceptmap.gif
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Mind Mapping
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mindmap.gif
Inspiration™ Software
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Outlining
I. MAIN IDEA
A. Subsidiary idea or supporting idea to I
B. Subsidiary idea or supporting idea to I
1. Subsidiary idea to B
2. Subsidiary idea to B
a) Subsidiary idea to 2
b) Subsidiary idea to 2
II. MAIN IDEA
A. Subsidiary or supporting idea to II
B. Subsidiary idea to II
C. Subsidiary idea to II
III. MAIN IDEA
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Partial Graphic Organizer
Gestalt
Psychology
Laws:
______
Similarity
______
Pragnanz
Definition:
People tend to
perceive as a
unit those things
that are close
together in
space.
____________
____________
____________
____________
People tend to
fill in missing
pieces to form
a complete
picture.
_____________
_____________
_____________
_____________
Example:
______________
______________
______________
______________
A person sees
the word Texas
in a stadium
because some
fans wear
orange shirts,
while others
wear white
shirts.
____________
____________
____________
____________
____________
Mary falsely
remembers that
a shape she saw
was round when
it actually was
oval.
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Electronic Textbook Note-Taking
sample
Self-test for
understanding
Dr. Lynne Anderson-Inman, Center for Advanced Technology in Education, Univ. of Oregon
©2006 Landmark College
Topic and Concept Cards
An alternative to loose leaf paper for notes
 Index cards used
 Can be manipulated and rearranged
 Can be used for self-testing
 Best used for specific topical information
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Topic and Concept Cards
TOPIC
Front
Main Idea
Supporting Details
Front
AGRICULTURAL
REVOLUTION
Back
Farming has many
Advantages over hunting
and gathering:
1. Stable food source
2. Less undernourishment
3. Efficient use of land
Back
SMART cards
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Guidelines for Recording Lectures
 Recording can be done with a tape
recorder or a voice recorder (mp3 player)
 Record course name and date
 Listen to the tape as soon as possible after
the lecture
 Record missing information in written
notes based on the taped lecture
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Barriers to Note Taking Success
 Illegible handwriting
 Poor spelling
 Difficulty deciding what to include in notes
 Difficulty retaining information presented
in lectures
 Difficulty selecting main ideas to include in
written assignments
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Strategies to Support Note Taking
Barriers
Strategies for Support
Illegible handwriting
Poor Spelling
Course handouts
Recorded lectures
Technology: word processing, voice
recognition software
Difficulty deciding what to include in
notes
Difficulty selecting main ideas to
include in written assignments
Graphic organizers for class
activities
Advance organizers to show topics
In-class note review with
question/answer
Note revision with highlighting
Difficulty retaining information from
lectures
Multiple means of presentation in
classes
Note Taking strategies that
incorporate review and revision (2column notes, e.g.)
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Why Paid Note Takers are a Bad Idea
 Note takers are students themselves with
variable ability to take good notes
 The value of notes lies in the act of taking
them. The note taker deprives the
disabled student of that opportunity.
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A Universal Design Approach to Note
Taking
 Used by David Rose (CAST) at Harvard
Graduate School of Education
 Notes are required but not graded
 Notes are collected weekly and posted on
the course web site for all to see
 Five students are designated to post notes
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Benefits of Note Sharing
 Students express content in many different
ways
 Students are highly engaged with notes on
the course website and in class
 Students enhance notes, knowing that the
notes will be public
 All students learn to take better notes from
exposure to others’ notes
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How Instructors can Support Note
Taking in Classes
 Make note taking an expectation of the
course
 Allow course time for note review and
clarifying questions
 Use multiple means of representation, such
as graphs, visual organizers, images, and
PowerPoint slides
 Use PowerPoint or advance organizers to
provide the structure of the lecture
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In Conclusion …
A reflective, mindful process of
note taking is more important
than the specific strategy
“Learning and teaching should not stand on
opposite banks and just watch the river flow by;
instead, they should embark together on a
journey down the water.“
Loris Malaguzzi
©2006 Landmark College