Regentrude, how do you teach your kids to take notes?

[birchbark]

I was fascinated by your post here, but I didn't want to derail the thread by asking.

 

If anyone else wants to chime in with wisdom, please do!

[goldberry]

Listening here too...we have been working on note-taking for THREE years.  Admittedly, we are finally seeing some progress this year, so I'm wondering if for some kids it is a maturity issue.

 

DD jokes about how she used to take notes...."and Abraham Lincoln then picked his nose.."  She would write down everything and in a paragraph form, no matter how hard we tried otherwise.

 

This year we have seen a major improvement.

[wingedradical]

Since we switched to Cornell notes, it has gotten better, but not perfect. She still wants to write too much. Cornell note directions are all over the web and Youtube.

[MerryAtHope]

We do T-notes: Make a big T on the paper, with a narrow left column and very wide right column. On the left you put the name of a person, idea, theory, or event being studied, and on the right you answer the question words--who, what, where, when, why, how. Whatever is applicable. This helps them distill down the info to what's most important instead of writing every last detail. I go over the notes with them and we discuss how to decide what's important. For example, did the place of birth affect who this person was and what he did? Sometimes, not really, it's just an interesting little fact. Other times it's very important. I think reading and talking through the notes is very important, just like helping kids with writing takes some dialog and practice.

[birchbark]

Bumping.

[AFwife Claire]

Maybe ask the question on the high school board?  Regentrude posts a lot more frequently over there, so she might have a better chance of seeing it.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

We are trying to learn note taking here as well.

[Chrysalis Academy]

One thing I've started doing with history is to give her a question before she starts a set of topical or sub-topical readings, and she reads and takes notes with that question in mind, in order to be able to coherently answer that question.  She may have to answer it by writing an essay, or we may discuss it, but in any event, having a specific set of questions in mind when she sits down to read is really helping her to take coherent, specific, and succinct notes.  She really likes it, and commented that it has made it much easier to choose what to write down.  It's made our discussions more specific, pointed, and interesting, too, and she has more to offer because she is better prepared.

 

One of the questions is in the process of ballooning into a 800+ word essay comparing and contrasting the rise of Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini.  Whew!  It's been a great process, she's learning her history more deeply, as well as practicing essay writing.

[Donna]

I started with dd by sitting with her while she watched a computer based program or DVD lecture (PLATO science was the 1st). I took notes at first stopping the program and talking to her about important points or letting her pick the important points which I then put into outline form or let her decide how to outline. The eventually dd took the notes and I helped her by stopping the program only if she missed something important. Now she watches Teaching Company DVDs or does Thinkwell Bio and takes her own notes.