Note Taking Strategies: Fill-in-the Blank Outlines Best

July 7th, 2008 By: Diane Trim in Articles, Teachers' Corner

I read Maryellen Weimer’s excellent post about note taking on her Teaching Professor blog. In the post, Weimer discusses the merits of giving students complete lecture notes and giving students a notes outline for them to fill in.

Two researchers from Grand Valley State University gave one set of students the complete set of notes and the other one the outline.

The results are not surprising: students who filled in the notes processed the information and did better on tests and in the course overall than those who took the professor’s notes home to study. Not only did the fill-in-the-blank bunch test better, but they also self-reported showing up to class more often.

The implications for classroom teachers are clear. Give your students a framework for the lecture and have them process the information in their own words.

The trouble arises when you have special needs students in the classroom who might not take notes well.

Before reading this research, my practice was to put the lecture outline on overheads and have a student recorder sit at the projector. The entire class would have the same notes and I could put photocopies of the transparencies in the special education teacher’s mailbox.

With this research in mind, however, I don’t think that’s the best idea. For absent students, I would often give the designated note taker for the day a sheet of carbon paper, paperclips, and some blank paper. Of course, this method would work very well for special needs notetakers as well.

I would encourage special needs students to use symbols or create a quick doodle in the notes framework. Drawing a picture is a powerful memory device and, when supplemented with the carbon-copy notes, would be a great tool for special needs students.

If you have any thoughts on best note taking practices, please comment and share!