How to take notes?
Why is taking notes important?
As students you are asked to take notes all the time, but has anyone ever explained why? Well, taking notes is actually really important in transferring your short-term memory into long-term memory. Taking notes makes you an active listener, since you have to be engaged to turn the lecture into physical notes. It is then important to review your notes, so that you can recall the learning you previously did. When you review your notes you're helping your brain retrieve that learning you did, and recall it easier. The more you review, the easier it will be to retrieve those concepts.
To summarize, Taking notes engages you and helps you recall information. This can only happen if you take effective notes and, most importantly, review your notes.
Note Taking Strategies
The following two videos give brief explanations of different note taking strategies. If one looks interesting to you, there will be a more in depth video further down the page. I personally like the Cornell Method.
Here is a quick overview of different strategies for taking notes.
Here is an alternative source for those of you who like video games.
Student Examples
Follow the link below to see examples of student work. You will need a gmail account to view the examples in the link below.
The Cornell Method
Here are few cool twist on the Cornell Note Taking method
This video highlights my favorite way to take notes, by Sketchnoting!
I think using pen and paper is still the best way to take math notes. If you have a tablet with a stylus, that can be just as effective. It can be difficult and time consuming to put math equations into computers using a keyboard.
This video highlights how to take Cornell Notes on a computer.
I highly recommend you take a look at some of the other videos on her YouTube page. There are great examples of awesome note taking and staying organized.
Outline Method
This video is very similar to the one on the left, but has a person writing out the explanation. The information is essentially the same.
Mind Map Method
This video has some great content on how to effectively mind map your notes. This is a good method for visual learners, since there are a lot of images in the examples.
Sentence Method
The sentence method is an easy, yet complicated form of note taking. To do this effectively, you would need to develop a form of short hand writing. The main idea is to write out, in a series of sentences, all of the main ideas of a lesson. This method is useful to learner that like lists, and perhaps don't want to get to "artsy" with their notes. This site here has a great description of what Sentence Method Notes would look like.
This video, is in my opinion, the best way to use the Sentence Method. The big idea is to summarize the topic you are learning, and then taking that a step further by trying to use your notes to teach the topic to another student. There are a lot of studies about the effectiveness of the Feynman Technique. I would highly recommend you take some time to research this technique. If you share your findings, you can earn extra credit. Just shoot me an email.