Blog #65 -THE IMPORTANCE OF NOTE TAKING IN THE LEARNING PROCESS
Students need to be made aware of the importance of note taking in the learning process. Where in the classroom or during online tutoring, students need to take notes. In general, teachings should stress what content is important and should be copied. This is more important during elementary school but needs to also be stressed at all other levels of learning. Although students will eventually learn what content should be copied in their notes, it would help if teachers provided some guidance. Students should not try to copy everything a teacher writes.
If possible, teachers should check student notes during the early part of the school year to make sure that they are doing it properly. Teachers might also give hints to students for how to use notes when doing independent study work or studying for tests. During the early stages of studying I encouraged students to highlight important information contained in the notes. In the following states of studying I would encourage students to place one star next to any highlighted information to denote more important information. The evening before an important test, I told students that they might consider placing more than 1 star next to the most important information. I found that students that highlighted important content and that used stars to show the most important notes improved their performance immensely.
I always informed my students that good note taking was similar to a student writing their own mathematics book. Not only would the notes help doing independent study work and tests, but the notes could be very useful in future mathematics courses at various levels of study. Former students attending college told me that the notes they had written while in high school had helped them immensely in their courses. Students that take ownership of their notes will have mastered a skill that will help them immensely in everyday life in general and their careers in particular.