How and WHY I Teach Students to Take Notes [Episode 175]

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:00]:
Okay. This episode might be an unpopular opinion episode. I guess I will find out afterwards in my inboxes. But I think, personally, that teaching students how to take notes is an important part of being a high school teacher, whether we want it to be or not. And so today in this episode, I’m excited to teach you how I go about doing this. I personally use Cornell notes, so I’ll explain why I’m a fan of this method and, you know, exactly how I implement it, but also why I think this is important. And I wanna start off the bat by saying, I love creating a student centered classroom. I love using hands on and, like, engaging instructional resources for my students to learn in place of lecture.

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:51]:
But I also believe there is still a time and a place for effective lecture in the classroom, And I really believe there are ways to make it super engaging, which I’ve already done a podcast episode about. It’s one of my very first episodes. So I’ll link that in the show notes so you can check it out. I have also found a couple of things here. One, students will just say that you never taught them this if you don’t explicitly teach on it at some point. Like, it doesn’t matter how many guided inquiry learning activities you do, stations, reinforcement practice. Like, I feel like students still are like, if we did not take notes on this, you did not teach it to me. And that is something I really try to change when I write my curriculum.

Rebecca Joyner [00:01:37]:
I try to train my students. Like, you’re not just studying your notes. You’re studying your entire packet with all the discovery stations we did and all these other things. Because, again, I want to decrease direct instruction as much as I can, but I do feel like that’s something we have to train them in and they they want that lecture. I also really love direct instruction for the discussion opportunities it creates. I just feel like lab days and things like that can be really chaotic. We’re not having a lot of whole group discussion on those days. Sometimes I just love the simplicity of a day where we’ve got that fifteen minutes of direct instruction.

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:12]:
I’m just getting to gab with them. I really enjoy dialoguing with my students. So I like the opportunity for that. I also feel like note taking is important for them to learn because I feel like it’s a life skill regardless of where our students are going outside of the classroom. They need to learn how to take notes, how to learn, and how to study. I think those are, like, some of the basic things that apply to every job they could possibly have outside of the classroom. And I really think they have no idea how to do it. And, you know, we’ve talked in the last few weeks about AI.

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:47]:
I cannot imagine if Otter.ai had existed when I was sitting in 350 person lecture halls at Clemson University. If I could’ve just press play and had it listen to my professor and I just sat there and then had it type of a summary. I mean, that’s amazing. But at the same time, I still feel like there’s a time and place for this despite all that AI can do. And y’all know me. I’m a paper and pencil girly. I just think there’s something about getting things physically connected to your brain as you’re writing them down. So I still feel like this is a valuable skill even if we’re letting them use the AI on top of this.

Rebecca Joyner [00:03:25]:
And I also know I have to have longest intro ever, so many caveats. But I also know that there are a ton of ways to teach students how to take notes. And so I’m not saying that, like, you have to do Cornell note outlines. I’m just gonna share why I really like them, why I always use them when I was in the classroom, why I actually feel like they give the perfect amount of structure and freedom and can be useful for a variety of students with all different learning styles. I feel like they just give a lot the perfect amount of, like, scaffolding for, like, here’s some structure, but you can make this how you wanna make it. So I’m gonna get into all of that today. What exactly they are, how I use them, and why I love them. So without further ado, let’s get into it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:09]:
This is Secondary Science Simplified, a podcast for secondary science teachers who want to engage their students and simplify their lives. I’m Rebecca Joyner from It’s Not Rocket Science. As a high school science teacher turned curriculum writer, I am passionate about helping other science teachers love their jobs, serve their students, and do it all in only forty hours a week. Are you ready to rock the time you spend in your classroom and actually have a life outside of it? You are in the right place, teacher friend. Let’s get to today’s episode. Like I said at the top, I think there is a time and a place for learning how to take notes. I know AI is here. I know that’s transforming things.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:54]:
But just like SparkNotes always existed for me, that didn’t mean I didn’t need to learn how to read novels. Like, yeah, SparkNotes existed and I could have, like, skipped a bunch of books in high school English. And I did skip some of them, you know, looking at you Grapes of Wrath. But that doesn’t mean like learning how to read wasn’t a valuable skill. And so that’s where I feel like about note taking. Are there gonna be shortcuts nowadays? For sure. But I still feel like it’s something that’s worth learning. Whether they’re going to college or cosmetology school or around here, we have a lot of students that go on to tech school to learn how to be boat mechanics.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:30]:
Like, that is a huge industry here, and it’s a very great job to have. Those are skill based hands on career paths and yet they are still reading text. They’re still listening to instructors. They’re still required to take notes and learn and have assessments. So I think that’s really important. I’ll also say this too, especially for those of you listening, like my seven year old son fully believes he’s gonna play professional football. And, you know, maybe he will. We’ll see.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:58]:
Time will tell. But we are watching the other day, football documentary. My husband and I love sports documentaries. We love them. All or nothing, hard knocks, like, all of those things. That’s how I, like, got into NFL after watching college forever. Anyway, I digress. I love watching sports documentaries because you will see these giant linebackers sitting in these tiny chairs in meeting spaces, watching film, listening to their coaches, and guess what? They’re writing notes down.

Rebecca Joyner [00:06:30]:
They are learning from their instructors. They’re learning from film. And so I just feel like every time I see something like that, I’m like, it reinforces that no matter how advanced AI gets and how the world changes, like, learning how to take notes by hand, digitally, whatever is still a worthwhile skill. So how do we do that though? How do we, you know, force them to take notes, but also, you know, give them freedom to kinda explore the best way for them? Like, I think we all learn. I think we all take notes. I think we all study differently. From my experience, having taught you know, I dabbled in eighth grade, dabbled in twelfth grade, but the majority of my teaching experience is, like, ninth, tenth, eleventh graders. I’m gonna be frank with you.

Rebecca Joyner [00:07:13]:
I feel like those younger eighth and ninth graders, they’re clueless on note taking. So they need the most structure and guidance and, you know, support. I feel like when I taught AP bio and I had those eleventh and twelfth graders, I gave them suggestions and tips, but, like, I let them do what they wanted to do. So I wanna give you the permission, not that you need it from me. Like, you know your audience best. You know who needs more support or not. So you make the best decisions for you and your students. If you have any of my ITSA Archives units, you know that I include CP and honors of everything.

Rebecca Joyner [00:07:50]:
I include printable PDFs and paperless digital versions that can work in Google Drive or Microsoft Office. People always ask me about the notes and the paperless digital. I only let my honors and AP students take digital notes. I made everyone else do it by hand just because I feel like the rest struggled so much with distractibility. I also feel like they’re oversaturated in the digital space in all of their classes, especially, like, their English and their history where they’re typing a lot of papers and just doing a lot of content. So I just want my science class to be, like, the most hands on part of their day. And so that’s where I’m, like, all about paper pencil. But, again, I want you to have the freedom to do what you think is best, you know, whether that’s by hand or typing, graphic or doodle based notes or, you know, more text heavy notes.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:41]:
Is it fill in the blank? Is it filled in? Interactive notebooks versus packets versus nothing. Like, every type of decision you make has, like, a borderline cult following of passionate teachers that can defend it. And I will admit, like, I haven’t tried everything. I’ve tried interactive notebooks. That was not for me. I’ve tried digital, not for me. I have not been able to try graphic or doodle based notes only because I can’t make those. I do not have the skill set to make those.

Rebecca Joyner [00:09:11]:
I have purchased other creators notes and use those on, like, review days, and I thought they are fun. But I kinda just think Cornell notes are more universal, and I’ll share why in a little bit. But I do think the filled in versus fill in the blank versus open outline options, which I include all three for CP and honors in all my units, I think those are really nicely differentiated when you use Cornell notes. So what are they? How am I using them? Why do I love them? Let’s get into it. The Cornell note taking method, I will link in the show notes the actual website. It’s called that because it was made popular by a professor at Cornell University in New York. And so I’ll link that so you can see like they’re directly from the source where this is coming from. But in the simplest terms, I see it as a strategy for taking notes where you divide your paper into three sections.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:02]:
I call them a, b, and c. And I’ll link a blog post in the show notes where I have a picture of this, like a graphic I made so you can see it really clearly. But essentially, a is where you’re actually taking notes. This is where they’re gonna jot down things they hear, terms they need to know, things you put on your slides, that kind of thing. I love that a section because there’s a lot of flexibility there. For my most high achieving students, in that a section, they’re getting, like, headers of slides or headers of topics. That’s it. To scaffold it a little bit more, I have fill in the blank parts of my section a.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:37]:
We’re, like, I love everything typed out except for fill in the blank, and I always leave practice questions or examples kinda open for them to work out themselves in there. And then even more scaffolded, I can have that section a fully typed in and just leaving the practice question parts blank. Because I’m always embedding discussion and or practice questions if it’s a quantitative topic we’re talking about in my lecture. I think that helps make it so much more engaging than just, like, sit and get. Like, they have to actually do something. So there’s a lot of flexibility in terms of how much you put in that a section. The b section is essentially the margin. It’s for cues.

Rebecca Joyner [00:11:17]:
This is for students to jot down questions they have about what they’re hearing Or if they wanna emphasize something, they can put it there. I personally that b section, I love. That’s where my doodlers go to town. See, I love Cornell notes because the hard thing about doodle notes is if, like, you have a kid who’s not into coloring, like, the doodle notes are hard, the graphic notes are hard. That’s not my vibe. I’m not into that. Where I feel like the Cornell notes are a little bit more universal because, like, I would give my doodlers the fill in the blank or the filled in notes, and then they have the whole outside margin of the paper to add their illustrations and things like that. And I just feel like it worked really well.

Rebecca Joyner [00:11:59]:
You know, my son, I’ll never forget when he started going to public school. He’s like, all we do is color. And I they did do a lot of coloring in the beginning, especially until they got better at reading and writing and had, like, the words to actually write. They did a lot of coloring to, like, explain what they know, and my daughter loved it. My son absolutely hated it. So I think this just creates more opportunity for diverse learners. So b is for cues. We’ll talk more about that in a second.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:27]:
And then c is just at the end. At the end of your notes, you just draw a horizontal line across the bottom of the paper, and that’s for a summary. This is where they’re gonna engage with their notes later, which I think is a really important skill. We wanna teach students whether they’re using AI to write their notes and record a summary for them or not, to go back themselves and review it themselves and come up with the main idea, see what questions they have and write that in section b for cues. We want them to engage with their notes. And I feel like Cornell Notes sets them up to do that. Okay. So what does this look like practically? How are they using them? So again, my students are taking notes in section a as prescribed by the method.

Rebecca Joyner [00:13:08]:
They might be writing everything. If I’m just giving them an outline, they might be doing fill in the blank or it might be totally filled in. And in section a, they’re just highlighting and marking things and doing embedded practice questions and examples. For section b, the margin area, I’m having my students do two things, and I’m training them in this at the beginning of the year. I’m having them highlight any key ideas or vocabulary during lecture. I find this especially important for students who are given the fill in the blank and the filled in notes. They’re not having to really write very much when we’re actually doing lecture. So this is an opportunity to be, like, circling things, highlight, draw an arrow to the side, and write something.

Rebecca Joyner [00:13:47]:
I do a lot of whiteboard notes on the side where I’m, like, emphasizing I mean, I’m doing my own really terrible sketches to try to illustrate something on the whiteboard. I always say, like, these whiteboard notes are a great thing to put in that section b, in that margin. And so that’s what they’re doing during lecture with that margin. And then after lecture, I want them reviewing their notes and jotting down questions there. Even if it’s as simple as, like, I’m gonna use a green highlighter and things I highlight in green and put a question mark in the margin, those are things that I need to follow-up with my teacher about. And it’s awesome because you’re teaching them how to review their notes and come back later and ask follow-up questions in class during discussion or in tutoring. And I just think that engaging with notes after taking them is so important. Like, notes are only I mean, they’re useful to write, but they need to be used after the fact.

Rebecca Joyner [00:14:40]:
That’s the whole point. And so I think we train them in that. And you can do this where, like, at the beginning of the year, you’re, like, gonna spot check to make sure they actually do this at home. I don’t assign any homework except for studying for my class. So this is something you could do. And then during your prime time, your bell ringer the next day, spot check and see that they’re doing it. I have done that in the past with certain populations of students, and then I kinda let it go because I I hope that they’re seeing like, oh, this is actually helpful for me and I don’t need to just do it to earn points type of thing. But I also just love the opportunity to really mark down and focus on the things that need to be emphasized.

Rebecca Joyner [00:15:18]:
So for example, when I’m teaching about evolution and the principles of natural selection, a great thing to mark in the margins is populations evolve, not organisms or natural selection acts on traits that are heritable, that are things you can inherit, not acquired traits. So those are the types of things they might want to kinda emphasize over there. Again, the question writing, the cues, I’d see that as something they’re gonna do later. Because if we’re in class, they’re not gonna write down a question. They’re just gonna ask it to me. But I think this is a great way for them to be engaging with it later. And then for section c, I have them summarize what they’ve learned there. For my lower students, if you have any of my packets, you’ll know that the CP students come with prompts.

Rebecca Joyner [00:16:03]:
Like, here’s the question I want you to answer in this little section. It’s typically, like, application based or, like, a synthesis question. And then for honors, I leave it blank, and I just want them to come up with their own summary. So, again, how do you actually get them to do this? I started doing Cornell notes because a coworker introduced me to it. And I would assign the b and c sections for homework, and then during their prime time, I would check them for completion and then we kinda talk about them before moving on. It was super effective. But then I just got sick of checking up with it, and I felt like I really didn’t need to do that with students. I also found that a great way to motivate them is if they came into tutoring, they would show up, and students wouldn’t even know what they needed help with.

Rebecca Joyner [00:16:45]:
They’d just be like, I’m confused. And so Cornell notes kinda gave us a plan of action, like, something to attack. We could go through their notes together. We could mark key points together. I could be like, what questions do you have here? Now I want you to summarize this here. It was just nice to have something to do because sometimes when they come, you’re like, how do I even help you figure out what you don’t get? And I found that really, really helpful. Again, as school years go on, like, I don’t continually teach note taking. I provide cues while we’re taking notes, while lecturing.

Rebecca Joyner [00:17:15]:
I might be like, oh, circle this or like, hey, in your margin in section b, write down form dictates function or whatever it is you’re emphasizing. Or if I come up with a funny, like, mnemonic device or a silly song, like, write it in your section b. But again, I’m not gonna micromanage them here. I wanna teach them skills and I wanna give them the opportunity to exercise some agency and decide if they wanna be autonomous and take advantage of this skill or not, and that’s up to them. Again, I’ll link in the show notes my episode about, like, what to do when you’re working harder than your students are because if you’re struggling with that, that episode will help you. Okay. So let’s kinda round this up. Why do I love them? I think the main reason that I love this method is that it sets them up to actively use their notes later on.

Rebecca Joyner [00:18:02]:
I think so many students just take notes because we tell them to and then they never look at them again. They’re just like scanning through them, cramming right before the test. And so I just think this really equips them. Like, hey, here is how you can review with these notes and, like, learn from your notes. I love how easy it is to differentiate them with the filled in, with the fill in the blank, with the just outline. And when I’m passing up my packets, like, they all look the same except for that one section a. So it doesn’t make it as obvious, you know, kinda who has what. I love that if you’re doing a flipped classroom, this is a great way to get them to really take notes well on their own that then you can go over in class later.

Rebecca Joyner [00:18:44]:
You can have students watch a lecture video or read something outside of class. They fill in their section a while they’re listening, and then you say, hey, set a timer, spend five minutes reviewing your notes, and then fill in section b, that margin with questions you still have, fill in section c with the summary. And then when we come together the next day, we’re gonna spend ten minutes. I’m gonna answer any questions y’all wrote in section b, and then we’ll make sure that you guys have good summaries for section c. I’ll draw names, call on a few people to share their summary. I just feel like it’s so helpful to give them that structure, especially if you’re doing that flipped classroom. And then the last reason I love it, which I’ve mentioned already, is just the flexibility for learning styles. I feel like I’m obsessed with how graphic and doodle notes look.

Rebecca Joyner [00:19:30]:
I think they’re amazing. But as a more concrete, logical thinker, thinking about my son compared to my daughter and how he thinks too, like, if a teacher hands him an interactive notebook where he’s cutting or pasting or if he’s having to color something, like, he is not into that vibe. Whereas any student could be handed a Cornell note outline, and those doodlers can go to town. Like, I wish I’d scanned in some of my doodlers work, those students that are really artistic and how they took their Cornell note outlines and use their margins for fun. And I want them to have that freedom. Like, that’s how their brain summarize. I’m here for it. And so I think the flexibility of it is something I really, really love.

Rebecca Joyner [00:20:09]:
Okay. That’s it. That’s my love letter to Cornell notes and why I just think teaching note taking in general is a great skill to have, and I think it’s a worthwhile one. So your take home challenge today with this episode is just looking at this methodology, see how you like it. Again, check out that blog post where I kinda have pictures of some of the things I reference. I think that’ll be helpful for you. Again, if that one comment I made pulled at your heartstrings a little bit, that concept of, like, you feel like you’re hustling and working harder than your students, you need to check out my episode about that that I did last year. I’ll link it in the show notes for you, which you can find at it’s on rocketscienceclassroom.com/episode170five.

Rebecca Joyner [00:20:49]:
If you haven’t reviewed the podcast yet, I would love it if you would. It means so much. And as other science teachers are searching for podcasts and find this one, they tend to go straight to the reviews and read them. And, you know, I try to keep this podcast sponsor free, ad free. And so a great way you can support the podcast is just leaving a review and word-of-mouth. Sharing it with other science teachers would be awesome. So leave a review today if you haven’t, especially if you’re a Cornell note outline lover too, or if it’s on rocket science resources made you a Cornell note outline lover, I would love to hear from you. Alright, teacher friends, that wraps up today’s episode.

Rebecca Joyner [00:21:26]:
If you’re looking for an easy way to start simplifying your life as a secondary science teacher, head to itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com/challenge to grab your classroom reset challenge. And guess what? It’s totally free. Thanks so much for tuning in, and I’ll see you here next week. Until then, I’ll be rooting for you, teacher friend.