Teacher Notes on Description-Writing Exercises

Extended Case 6: Taking Notes Effectively

Goal:

To help students apply directly to their own studies the general principles of technical writing (specifically, the basic guidelines for writing good descriptions of what they have read, heard, or done). Taking notes from this perspective can:

• improve their performance in (science) classes,
• help them learn more and retain more of what they learn from class activities as well as textbooks, and
• develop life-long writing habits typical of good working scientists.

Strategy:

BENEFITS.
Students too often regard effective note taking as just a pointless and annoying teacher mandate. Actually, however, taking effective notes on what they do and read
(1) enables students to perform better in all technical subjects, where attention to detail and cumulative knowledge are crucial for success.
(2) predicts test scores with remarkable reliability. One study found that note-taking patterns predicted subsequent student performance on exams with 75% accuracy (C.Y. Wang and G.D. Chen, "Extending E-books with Annotation," ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 36 (3, Sept. 2004), 132-136).
(3) supports English language learners. ESL students are often disadvantaged in science classes because their language limitations prevent writing well for themselves as well as for others. Explicit note-taking practice can directly build their missing language skills in parallel with their science work.

PRINCIPLES.
Taking effective notes is neither an isolated nor a petty task. It is an authentic part of real science and engineering: biologist Robert Barrass in Scientists Must Write (London: Routledge, 2002) notes repeatedly that writing well for one's own use is important for any successful technical career.

Also, the principles of effective note taking are just the same as those for drafting any useful technical description. That is why the three subsections of the general good-description guidelines (organization, content, signals) reappear in the framework (left-hand) column of the two "Taking Notes Effectively" charts (in the Case section below and in the unannotated student version). In fact, the chief point of those charts is to overtly show students how easy it is to apply the general descriptive guidelines to their own specific needs as they take notes on something that they have read, heard, or seen. The first chart emphasizes which techniques to try (middle column), while the second chart illustrates each technique (right column).

Introducing these note-taking techniques early in the school year lets students practice them throughout their science lessons and projects. It also opens the possibility of across-curriculum reinforcement if English or history teachers also promote the same approach to taking notes (to writing good descriptions for self-study later).

APPLICATIONS.
To illustrate (or practice) these note-taking techniques in a unified, consistent way I suggest trying them in class (or having students try them) on a typical science-themed op-ed essay from any major newspaper. Such essays generally contain 500 to 1000 words of easy-reading prose, yet they say enough about some topic (where science meets public affairs) to call for applying the note-taking techniques. Students will need to detect the author's text structure and chunks of evidence, and make them explicit for review by deploying lists, headings, and comparisons in their personal notes.

The particular case that illustrates the second chart (below) comes from one such op-ed science essay, Rachel Powell Norton's "As numbers increase, autism treatment falls short," San Francisco Chronicle, February 22, 2005, p. B7 (easily available for free on that newspaper's web site at http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/02/22/EDG27BDUTH1.DTL). The right-hand column examples shown (in the "illustrated" chart) anchor each annotation technique in claims from Norton's 800-word essay on the medical, educational, and policy issues posed by autism. Your class can read this specific op-ed piece to fully cultivate this case, or you can simply replace it with another case (perhaps from your own local paper) that you feel is more suited to local needs.

Case:

Taking Notes Effectively
Framework	Techniques	Examples
Preparation	Come prepared to take notes. Bring... paper or cards (5-by-8-inch), pencil (with eraser) or pen. Leave space for second thoughts. Attend to... why you are taking notes, vocabulary, new or hard words.
Organization (order)	Capture the teacher's or author's order if you can. Note how subpoints relate to main points: parts? reasons? examples? uses? Scout the text for clues (heads, charts, summaries) before you read for details.
Content (specifics)	Get to the heart of the matter...keep important details but trim away trivia: Date your notes. Capture key claims: Use full sentences if you can. Use verb phrases at least. Record and credit quotes carefully (no plagiarism). Insert your own questions. Try for a one-sentence summary. Reread the hard parts after your first pass and try these techniques again.
Signals (format)	Make the format of your notes helpful (for later review and reuse). Use topic heads and subheads. Cluster related items into (numbered) lists. Sketch simple diagrams to show: relationships, physical features. Add cross references: to other notes (by date), to books, articles, or web sites. Try the two-column "Cornell system" (notes in a big right column, heads and comments in a small left column).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taking Notes Effectively (Illustrated)
Framework	Techniques	Examples
Preparation	Come prepared to take notes. Bring... paper or cards (5-by-8-inch), pencil (with eraser) or pen. Leave space for second thoughts. Attend to... why you are taking notes, vocabulary, new or hard words.	autism, applied behavioral analysis (ABA), Asperger's syndrome
Organization (order)	Capture the teacher's or author's order if you can. Note how subpoints relate to main points: parts? reasons? examples? uses? Scout the text for clues (heads, charts, summaries) before you read for details.	Barrass, Table 2.1, lots of structure clues Norton, autism article, few visible clues (so build your own outline to reveal her structure) Therapy examples, Norton col 1.
Content (specifics)	Get to the heart of the matter...keep important details but trim away trivia: Date your notes. Capture key claims: Use full sentences if you can. Use verb phrases at least. Record and credit quotes carefully (no plagiarism). Insert your own questions. Try for a one-sentence summary. Reread the hard parts after your first pass and try these techniques again.	Norton claims, col. 1: A. helpful therapies exist 1. applied behavioral analysis improves life skills 2. speech, occupational therapy improve communication 3. play therapy improves social connections B. autism remains challenging... "...insurers, educators, and policy-makers [should] do the right thing" (col. 3) Why is autism growing? Autism occurs 5 times more often in children today than 10 years ago, but many HMOs are unwilling and many school districts are unable to pay for treatments known to help. (31/830 = 4%)
Signals (format)	Make the format of your notes helpful (for later review and reuse). Use topic heads and subheads. Cluster related items into (numbered) lists. Sketch simple diagrams to show: relationships, physical features. Add cross references: to other notes (by date), to books, articles, or web sites. Try the two-column "Cornell system" (notes in a big right column, heads and comments in a small left column).	See numbered outline above. Norton: therapies, challenges, costs treatment | -------------------------- | | | insurers schools policy-makers www.autism-society.org This very chart; Levenger paper.