Verb-ing Notes

When do students start taking notes? Maybe (just maybe) a better question: why do students take notes? I am not one for lecturing but I've noticed over time, students don't know how to take notes, potentially inhibiting conversations for class discussion.  For what it's worth, I notice sometimes teachers can't take notes either (You know, the book that's so full of underlines and sticky notes that it can't possible be of any help).

totally useless

source: unugtp.is

I can't help but feel taking notes is important. I did some digging, and it didn't take long to see that studies agree with me, "note‐taking influences learning by (a) ensuring that learners attend to information, (b) providing a version of the information that is particularly valuable to the individual learner, and through (c) direct effects of the activities involved in taking notes. Learning is strongly influenced by the particular note‐taking strategy an individual adopts" (Howe).

So that's a breath of fresh air. But I've never taught note taking before. And as I started to revisit the process of taking notes, I wondered, "are we thinking about note taking all wrong?"

From Note Taking to Note Making

Most articles I read about note taking highlight one key factor: retention. Note taking helps with retention, and it's elevated when students take notes by hand. So I'm starting with the basics. I made this handout for my 9th graders:

Graphic adapted (and improved) c/o Canva

But is this inherently helpful? What I realized is that, more often than not (especially when I'm not in a novel), I am not concerned about retention. I'm much more concerned about what students are thinking about. 

In one of my first days of school I'm doing the poem Where I'm From by George Ella Lyon. What I usually ask students after the reading is, "What did you notice?" And it's an impossible question. First, they're freshmen and they are nervous as it is, and second, they have no way of actually recording their thinking. Even if they had time to record their thinking about what they noticed, it still feels too esoteric for them to answer. This is where note taking might help them. 

So I thought about the note taking process and thought, what if I don't just take notes on what I observe, but set myself up before my reading. What are my expectations? I suddenly went from note taking to note making. I want to make my thinking visible. This is what I came up with:

What this undoubtedly will do is slow down my class. It's going to take time to set up our writer's notebook and make sure we're ready to record information. But I also hope that this will encourage more fruitful discussions. 

My eventual hope is that students will be able to set up their notebooks according to their need. How we read a poem is note necessarily how we read a short story or an informational text. I also plan on exploring a wide range of note making strategies. What else is out their besides a mini graphic organizer (as above) or concept maps?

Is it possible to go from note taking to note making to note creating to note (insert verb here). I guess time will tell but I plan on exploring this further so stay tuned.

Daniel Valentin teaches English 9, and RCS: Racism, Classism and Sexism at Horace Greeley High School. He is currently reading Cake Eater by Allyson Dahlin and is listening to Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid. He wants his students to feel empowered through books. Follow him on Twitter @DanielJValentin