Teach Students To Take Good Notes

Having to take notes forces students to pay attention to the teacher’s explanations.

To have a good academic performance, it is not enough to have a high memory capacity to study the contents and retain the information to be learned. In addition to all this, it is also necessary to have a good posture in the classroom and seek to make the most of the lessons.

One way to achieve this goal is to pay attention to the teacher and at the same time take notes on the explanation. But how can we teach students to take good notes?

Below, we’ll give you some recommendations so that, as a mother, father or teacher, you can  help children or teenagers to be better learners.

The benefits of taking notes in class

In the classroom, students often lose track of the teacher’s explanation, as there are many factors, both internal (worries, fatigue, tiredness, nervousness, etc.) and external (noise, classmates, etc.), that can do it. with which they lose concentration.

A good way to prevent this from happening is to keep your attention when taking notes, as this is an extra effort that children or teenagers need to focus on in order to realize the most important ideas of the explanation at the same time as seek:

• Capture the logic of what the teacher is explaining.
• Compare what the teacher is saying with your prior knowledge.
• Seek the usefulness of the information received.

In fact, even if students have a textbook to orient themselves and better understand the knowledge the teacher is talking about, it is recommended that they  take notes in class, even if they do not use this information later when they are studying.

This is because, in this way, they will be able to better follow the explanation given in class and, if they have any doubts, they will be able to ask them right away and solve it together with the teacher.

For all that has been discussed so far, it is possible to say that taking notes is very beneficial for:

• Understand the main ideas to be learned.
• Don’t get distracted and focus your mind on the lesson.
• Guide the reading.
• Organize information in a structured way.
• Help write the answers to the exercises.
• Record the information received  from the teacher.

Teach students to take good notes

As we’ve already said, in order to get the most out of the teachers’ lessons, it’s necessary to take notes properly. However, how can we teach students to take good notes?

According to psychologist and educator Rosa Serrate in her book  Ayúdate parastudy.  Las claves del éxito scholastic ( Help yourself to study. The keys to academic success , in free translation), in order  to take good notes, you must follow these instructions :

1. Write the fundamental ideas of the teacher’s explanation in the notebook or on a sheet of paper.
2. Make a chart, diagram, mind map or drawing of what is considered important  and interesting in the explanation.
3. At the end, compare your own notes with those of other colleagues, verifying that important information has been collected to complete them, if necessary.
4. Leave some blank spaces to complement the information when the teacher repeats an idea that is not entirely clear.
5. Use abbreviations in notes and use almost telegraphic phrases  to save time and write faster.
6. Do not write what the teacher says literally, but try to express the information in your own words.
7. Try to understand the information and reflect on the subject  while taking the relevant notes.

We hope that these tips to help children or teenagers are helpful so that you, as a parent, can guide your children and that, when the teacher explains, they will know how to take good notes.