Class Note-Taking

For teachers, hearing the phrase "taking class-notes" takes us back to our college days where we sat in lecture halls, listened to someone give a lecture, and jotted down notes in our notebook (along with a lot of doodles of course, I believe I drew a lot of baseball diamonds with different outfield dimensions). If we were wise, we knew well enough to utilize our notes to study for an upcoming exam or to complete an assignment, but where are these notes today? My guess is that for most of us, they are probably decomposed in some landfill (along with those all-so-important exams and term papers, but that is a topic for another day). So why bring up taking notes for 6th grade students? Because there are benefits to be gained by our students through taking notes. A few of these benefits include: 

  • helping them to organize information
  • helping their brains to process the material
  • making them active in the learning process

However, despite the benefits, getting students to take good notes presents a couple of challenges. First, not all students know how to take notes. There are two ways two help solve this issue. One is that the teacher could spend time teaching the entire class. This can take a lot of extra time to teach and can hinder time away from curriculum. Another option is for teachers to create a template with instructions that allow students to fill in the information as they go.

A second objection that teachers may face is that if only one (or a few) students take the notes, the other students will rely on their peers to do all of the work. However, every student will be able to have numerous opportunities to make class notes throughout the year. A student in a class of 20 over 180-day school year will have at least 9 chances to take notes. The total opportunities will increase two or three students are assigned to do this task each day. Plus, if there are activities that require content specific notes, the teacher has the opportunity to have the class take their own content notes apart from this assignment.

So, how do I utilize classroom notes?


1. Create a template in Google Docs

Creating a template can help students understand what they are supposed to be doing as note takers. I use a Good Doc to help my students organize the activities and lessons from the day. In this Doc, I make sure students write down the learning objective for the day (which is already posted in the classroom); I ask them to define terms (that are both explicitly taught and encountered during the lesson); the description of the activities done in the class that day; what they learned from the activities done in the classroom; and finally I ask them to give me one takeaway from the day's lesson.




2. Share Google Doc with scribe(s) of the day

One of the great benefits of doing this activity via Google Doc is that you can send that day's doc to the student(s) who are responsible for being the day's scribe. This allows me to accommodate/modify the notes for the student without the rest of the class needing to see the modifications. If I have an ELP level 1, I can make fill in the blank sentences. When then student goes to read the questions, he will be able to gain experience with whole sentences without the class seeing what he needed to be able to accomplish this. By using this method, as opposed to pencil paper, I can decide what level of scaffolding, if any, a student might need to complete the task.

3. Bring students together and discuss the day's learning

At the end of the day, it’s always nice to consolidate what has been learned through a quick review at the end. I can share the scribes notes to the entire class, and we can discuss the learning that occurred. This also gives the class a chance to chime in to suggest additional notes or takeaways to be added. During this time, the scribe can add what has been said to his Google Doc.

4. Share with the class 

Once the student has completed the doc, I can then share it with all of the students in the class either by giving them access to the doc, or by posting the notes on a blog. The benefits of sharing in Google Drive is that I can create and share an entire folder for the unit and students will know where to find the class notes for the unit before taking the test. The benefit of posting them to a blog however, is that students work becomes meaningful beyond the class room. A blog allows other students in the school to see them, other schools to see them, and their parents can see them and know what their students are learning in the classroom. But remember, if posting student work online, make sure to give credit to the scribe(s) though, it was because of the scribe's hard work that the posting was able to happen.

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