Session III: Reading & Note-Taking Strategies Study Smarter! Not Harder!

Session III: Reading & Note-Taking Strategies

Study Smarter! Not Harder!

It All Starts With Listening

• If you’re not listening you’re NOT engaged, and your notes will reflect that.

• Listening vs. Hearing• Actively listening • Interest and understanding is YOUR

responsibility• Follow along• When in doubt write it out

10 bad listening habits1. Calling The Subject

“Dull”2. Criticizing The

Speaker3. Listening Only For

Facts4. Faking Attention5. Tolerating

Distraction

Ask Questions!

Reasons to Take Notes

• Notes trigger memories of lecture/reading • Your notes are often a source of valuable clues

for what information is important (i.e., what will show up on the next test).

• Notes inscribe information kinesthetically • Taking notes helps you to concentrate in class • Notes create a resource for test preparation • Your notes often contain information that

cannot be found elsewhere (i.e., in your textbook).

Note-Taking Basics• Use Abbreviations• Be Brief• Translate• Organize• Write Legibly• Don’t worry about spelling/grammar• Leave Extra Space• Look Back!

Different Types of Notes

• Cornell• REAP• Outline Format• Webbing/Mapping

Cornell• Different parts of the notebook paper have different functions.

Notes are recorded on one half, key words and concepts are recorded in another area called the recall column, and a summary is recorded at the bottom of the paper.

• Record

• Reduce

• Recite

• Reflect

• Summary

• Advantages: – Organized– Quickly identify key words and concepts– Easily used as a study guide– Easy to locate information

Reap Strategy• Purposes of the strategy:

– organize notes – make course content more personal – Class notes are taken on one side of the paper and the

opposite page is used for recording memory triggers and related information.

REAP STRATEGY• Divide Paper (Triggers, REAP, Class Notes)• Takes notes only on the right-hand pages.• Use short sentences and skip lines between major ideas.• Record Triggers• Trigger column = record words, phrases, or visual images that

will trigger the main idea in the notes section.• Fill in this section immediately or shortly after class.• Record REAP Words• The REAP column should also be filled in immediately or

shortly after class.• In the REAP column, the student writes words or phrases that...

– Relate the material to his/her own life– Extend the material outward into the outside world– Actualize the material= how information might work in the

world• Profit from the ideas - consider how society might profit from

the ideas

OUTLINE FORMAT• Information is arranged from general to

specific• The format may be used while recording

notes, or it may be employed when recopying and reorganizing notes.

• Helps to detect and understand relationships and associations among different pieces of information.

Outline format• Develop a Template• Use the main ideas in the lecture/text as headings.• The details are filled in during lecture/reading.• Arrangement of Information• Each major section of the outline should cover one

major topic.• Fill in the “levels” with details • Symbols• Common symbols: Roman numerals, upper and

lower case letters, numbers, circles and squares• Short phrases, symbols, shorthand, and

abbreviations may be used to record notes in the outline.

• Drawings or figures may be incorporated

Webbing & mapping• less conventional methods of organizing

information. • Notes may be recopied and reorganized

into concept maps, spider maps, flow charts, and other formats.

Try it out!• Take out your notes from a class this

week.• Compare them with the examples

given today.• Examine where your notes:– Are missing info– Need clarification– Are able/unable to answer the Learning

Target– Need reorganization