Note Taking Skills

I encourage my students to take notes in any subject. I teach 4th grade math, history and science in a charter/public school (it's complicated), all of which include note taking skills. Last year I handed out sticky notes, index cards and each student had their own spiral for note taking. I talked about the importance of taking  notes while the teacher was talking and practiced with the class. After a few days of practice, I didn't mention taking notes again and noticed many students using the methods that best fit them. Here are a few pictures showing the different styles of note taking.

In the picture above, the student used sticky notes to take notes. We then stapled them together like a book and placed the booklet in the pocket of her spiral.

In the picture above, the student chose the more traditional note taking skills. 

My point in doing all this is to prepare the students for lectures in upper level grades. Learning to pick out critical information and writing it down is crucial in education, especially when the teacher has repeated the same information more than once. That is important to know, because usually that means the information repeated will need to be known. 

I love teaching students more than just curriculum. There is so much more to teach than just a subject.