chapter 7

Before reading chapter 7, I had no clue that there was a difference between note taking and note making. Furthermore, I had no idea that note making even existed. The chapter gave me great insight on determine the difference between the two, both of which I often use to learn things that I need to know.  What I found most insightful about the chapter was the section titled, “Why Teach Students How to Take Notes”.  This information stuck out to me, “Taking GOOD notes trains students not only to pay attention but what to pay attention to. It teaches them to evaluate the importance of information and the relationship between pieces of information as they read textbooks and articles. It also teaches them to organize that information into some format that serves their purpose.” Being a student, I never thought of note taking in that way. In my years of high school and my early years of college, I thought of being required to take notes by our teacher, as a form of busy work, so the teacher could ensure that we remained attentive in class. Also, many of my teachers and some professors would give grades for note taking. I believe this should never happen. The chapter teaches us that note taking is something that a GOOD teacher teaches their students how to do and show them the importance of having notes to use to guide their learning. The chapter also stresses the importance of providing students with signal words. This helps students to know that the information is important and they should spend more time cover that information. Many of my old professors would not use any signal words, they expected you to know every detail about every topic covered in class. I know that it is important to know everything however, I think it is important to stress to students when some things are more important than other. This will ultimately set students up for success not Failure. Lastly, and maybe the most important point that I learned is that there is a difference between note taking and note making. The difference comes in when in one you create notes that are placed in your own words. The other is when you copy notes from a book or PowerPoint or some other source. It is my opinion that a teacher should encourage students to use both note taking and note making to create the best types of learners. Using both makes students more rounded and better able to learn and retain information.

Question

Why is note taking not taught in younger grades such as elementary?

Should note taking and note making be taught interchangeably?