Overview

The purpose of this lesson is to understand why and how we take notes.

Directions

Read Note-Taking, Listening and Note-Taking, Key Information and Formats.
Do the related exercises
Watch the video visual note taking. Discuss as a class.
Watch the TED talk about finding work you love. Use one of the note-taking styles you have learned about and take notes.
Discuss the video and refer to your notes.

Read

Note-Taking, Listening

When we think about listening we think about, well, hearing sounds via the ears. However, when it comes to listening in order to pick up key points for note-taking, it takes more than just hearing. In this case, it takes a “critical ear,” that is, absorbing key points by noticing not only the words spoken, but also by noting tones, volume and even the body language that goes along. Additionally, being an active listener increases a note-taker’s chances of getting the information needed.

Note-Taking, Key Information and Formats

Perhaps the most useful learning tools of all are notes taken from both lectures and course materials. By annotating for key information, then condensing it, students not only create personalized summaries but also aid their memory by using both visual and kinesthetic learning styles. Add auditory, too, if the notes are taken from a lecture or video.

Often, students are unsure about what constitutes “key information.” Here is a list of items to highlight or annotate for in textbooks and a list of items to listen for in lectures.

KEY INFORMATION IN TEXTBOOKS

The following elements of a textbook chapter are especially important in helping you discern key information:

Introductions
Summaries
Study questions
Topic sentences.
Anything that is bolded, or in some other way set off from the default print size and style. Sub-topic titles are good examples of this.
“Side bars,” which are boxes of related information. These might include statistics, brief biographies of authors or persons of note related to the chapter content, price points on brochures for businesses, charts, graphs, photographs, and/or illustrations. They are typically a different color or in some other way set off for attention but not as the focal point of the text. Pay attention to the captions or legends that might accompany graphics. In this e-text, the exercises are set apart in side bars.
Glossary terms that may be incorporated in the margins or otherwise set apart.
Some textbooks include outlines of each chapter’s main points in the introductory section.

KEY INFORMATION IN LECTURES

As the lecturer, live or video, presents the material, there are two types of key information cues to be aware of.

NONVERBAL CUES: A speaker will often have unique facial and body nonverbal cues that alert you to several things, as you learn to “read” your professor:
- Stances or movements that alert you to when he/she will shift to a different topic or subtopic.
- Other cues that alert you to when the information is of special significance (including verbal clues, below).
VERBAL CLUES
- Pay attention to when the speaker uses any of the transition clues used in reading comprehension (context clues).
- Many speakers also announce when they are adding information or changing topics in various other ways.

Do

Complete the related exercises.

Watch

Visual note-taking with Tom Wujec at TEDGlobal 2011

Write

Watch this TED Talk about finding work you love. Take notes using one of the styles you learned about above.

Note-Taking, Listening and Note-Taking, Key Information and Formats by Phylis Nissila is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Emoticons by OpenClipart-Vectors is in the Public Domain, CC0
Tom Wujec on Visual Note-Taking by TED is licensed under CC BY–NC–ND 4.0 International
Scott Dinsmore on How to Find Work You Love by TED is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International