CG 111 10/23/08

• Note:Change in the syllabus & assignment

• Study strategies for academic disciplines– Discussion & interactive chapter review p. 202

• Cornell note taking system in detail(Take notes!)

Cornell Note Taking LectureOverview

• Goals for taking notes

• Benefits of Cornell Note Taking System

• How to prepare Cornell Notes

• Skills you’ll need

• Benefits of each step in the system

• Practice: Give Cornell Notes a Try

Taking Notes From Lecture

Note taking goals

• Accurately record what the speaker says

• Pay attention

• Interpret ideas to make them meaningful

• Condense the info before writing it down

• Organize the notes in a way that makes sense to you

Five Benefits

1. Forces you to decide what’s important– Active reading or listening process– Weigh and evaluate what you read or hear

2. Focus your attention and concentrate

3. Helps you understand underlying pattern of organization, connections

4. Helps you know if you understood what you read or hear

5th Benefit: Additional Repetition

• Writing down what you hear / read helps you learn and master the information via:– Review– Evaluation– Interpretation– Editing• Moves information into long term memory• Provides mental cues to retrieve information

Cornell Note Taking & Study System

Developed by Walter Pauk, at Cornell University

Useful for notes from textbook or lectures

Law/Summary margin paper has Cornell margins

Date

TopicRecall

Clues

2 ½”

6”

Notes

2” Summary

Give Cornell Note Taking a Try!

• Take a blank sheet of paper• Draw a line from the top to bottom of the

page approximately 2 1/2 inches of the way over from the left margin.

• Draw a horizontal line approximately 1 inch from the bottom.

• Date & number page. Topic: Cornell Note Taking

• Take notes in right column as you normally would

What do you record?

• Date, topic, page #• Most important info• What’s written on

board - headings• Meaningful phrases

or sentences• Details• Definitions• Examples, Drawings

• How do you record?

Informal outline

Block

Modified Block

Leave space between ideas

Indent details

Abbreviate!

What skills do you need?

• Active listening & concentration

• Selectivity – instructors speak 150 – 200 words per minute; we write @ 25 wpm.

• Abbreviation

• Interpreting

• Condensing

• Organizing

• Legibility – Leave Space

Improve Your Listening Skills

• Decide to listen

• Focus your attention

• Set aside biases

• Control emotional responses

• Listen for main points & related details

• Ask questions

• Observe lecturer’s physical cues

5 Steps of the Cornell Note Taking System

1.Record

2.Reduce

3.Recite

4.Reflect

5.Review

These are important concepts to remember!

Cornell Note Taking System

First:Set up your paperLabel your pages For text notes

Course nameChapter & TitlePage numbers from book

--------------------For lecture notes

Date Course Topic/Lecture Title

Date

TopicRecallColumn

2 ½”

6” Area for

Notes

2” Summary

Date

Topic

Reduce

Recall

Clues

2 ½”

Record Notes Any formatPrint, drawSkip lines between ideasWrite on one side only

2” Summary

5 R’s of Cornell

Record

Reduce

----------------

Recite

Reflect

Review

(see CG 111 Course Materials p. 103)

2 ½” - 4” Date

Math Topic

Math problems go here

Math vocabulary

Goes here

Write Explanations, Problem solving Steps,

Clues, Hints

Here

Focus on what

your instructor says

Lefties:

explanationsProblems

Cornell also can be adapted to record math

(see handout)

Note: switch this set-up if you are left-handed.

Benefits: Record Step

• You select the most important information

• You are condensing the main ideas and important details so you

a. recall everything that happened in class or

b. don’t have to re-read your chapter

Date

TopicReduce Recall

Clues

2 ½”

Lots of notes that you’ve taken here

2” Summary

Step 2: Reduce

Write

•recall clues

• SQ4R questions

•key phrases summarizing your notes on the right

•Exam questions you predict

Benefits: Reduce Step

• Reduce notes to key words or questions

• You create questions for important info that helps you prepare for future exams

Date

Topic

Notes

2” Summary

Reduce: Summarize

6 – 8 lines at bottom of page

Summarize your page of notes

Good practice for essay exams

Benefits: Recite step

• Provides you with feedback about how well you are learning

• Allows self testing

• Allows preparing for essay exams – if you can recite the information out loud, you can write it down

• Seeing, hearing and speaking help you retain information faster

http://www.muskingum.edu/~cal/database/content/history1.html

Sample Cornell Notes

Benefits: Reflect Step

• Promotes critical thinking

• You are creating a personal method to learn information

• You can use creativity for better understanding

Sample notes of this lecture

• Why? To remember, stay awake, help me study, enhance concentration

• Main pts., imp. Terms, topic, def. date, pg #, graphics, diagrams, blank space

• Skills: Listening, concentration, legibility, organization.

• Types: Outline, mindmaps, summary, Matrix, Cornell system

• When: Immediately after class within 24 hrs.

• Out loud, quiz, rewrite, list main ideas, rework, make test, create questions

• Why take notes?

• What is included in good notes?

• What skills are needed?

• What are some NT structures

• When should I review my notes?

• How can I review my notes?

• Diagrams• Cross Reference

Notetaking, Date Pg.1

Important Terms: Blank Space, Main terms, MindMaps, Matrix, Cornell, Review

How to Outline

1. Determine how much info you need to include

2. Identify how ideas relate

3. Group ideas according to their connections

1. Uses listing order & system of indentation

2. Write main ideas (MIs) close to margin1. Indent information that support/explains MIs

Outlines – Styles and Goal

• Can be formal: Roman numerals, Capital letters

• Can be informal=Figure 16.5 p. 335

• Can be highly detailed or a brief list

Ultimate Goal: Be able to show relative importance of ideas and how they relate to each other

Benefits of Review Step

• Strengthens long term memory

• Practice retrieving information

• Builds your confidence• Recite from the recall column• Recite from the headings• Discuss the information with others

– Predict questions, quiz each other, etc.

When should you review?

• Immediately after class to 24 hours after taking lecture notes

• Right before the next class

• Weekly to move info to LTM and to rehearse thinking about it and retrieving it.

Review, Review, Review

You can “stack” your Cornell notes for review & self-testing.

Organizing & Synthesizing Course Content

Tools for Managing Learning :

• SQ4R – record step• Concept/Category

Cards (course mat.)• 4 x 6 note card• Study sheets (ch.18)

New tools in Ch. 7• Textbook Highlighting• Marginal Annotation

– Summary Notes– Recall Clues

• Outline Notes• Mapping (aka visual

note taking)

Good students DO write in textbooks

Three reasons you should mark, highlight & write in your textbooks

1. To find and select the author’s key ideas and support for those ideas

– You are forced to think about the text & follow the author’s organization, discussion or argument.

– You keep alert & actively engaged, improving your learning

2. To make studying more efficient– You can quickly find key ideas for

• class discussion• Review• Test preparation• Writing papers

3. To record your reactions to the reading

Textbook Highlighting

• Analyze your reading task

• Assess how much you know about the topic already

• Use a consistent system (colors, pencils)

• Determine what’s important w/textbook headings

• Read, THEN highlight up to 25% per page

Marginal Annotations

• You need to know the various types shown in McWhorter, p.330 Table 16.1

• Avoid Pitfalls & Timewasters– overly complex systems (lots of different colored

highlighters = take too long– Medieval monk = too much--- copying, not enough

synthesizing!– Nothin’ Here = too little—check: do I understand this

material?– Rest of the story = have to reread text again to know

what’s going on

Marginal Annotation

• Allows you to identify what to learn– Ex. New terminology, key concepts

• Records your reactions & comments

• Variation 1:– Summary Notes = phrases in the margins

• Forces you to pull together ideas• Makes remembering easier• Good for long, complex passages

Summary Notes (cont.)

• Variation 2:– Recall Clues = words and phrases that briefly

summarize the notes• “memory tags” that trigger your recall of info you’ve

read.– Words,– Phrases– Questions

• Process: Cover up the text, read the clue and test your recall

Variation 3:Text marking (Optional)

• Put a double or wavy line under main ideas

• Use a single or straight line under supporting details

• Circle vocabulary that you need to study and underline the meaning

Outline Notes- How they Help

• You organize information & pull together related ideas

• You discover “the bones” of the text

• You must recognize what’s important and express it in words

• You are forced to be selective

• You start retaining what you learn = notes are a form of elaborative rehearsal

Visual Mapping (aka Visual Note Taking)

General: concept maps

Specialized:

time lines –

process diagrams

part and function diagrams

organizational charts

comparison and contrast charts

Visual Mapping

Benefits:

• consolidate information visually

• Emphasizes particular thought pattern:

• effective for visual and spatial learners

• Fun form of elaborative rehearsal

General: concept maps

• Concept maps are outlines that show ideas spatially

Comparison Contrast ChartTechnique Highlighting Annotation Note taking

Use Textbook Review

Avoid re-reading 80% of text

comments,

reaction to text

Organizing

Difficult text

Helps

You

Concentrate,

Be phys. active,

Evaluate while reading

ID New terms

Comment, summarize

important ideas in own words

Pros •Fast, efficient

•ID patterns of org

Summarize long passages

Test prep: Organize information

Rehearsal – Learning

Easy to carry around

Cons Doesn’t sep. MI from examples

Not good for anthologies, tech

difficult texts

Time consuming

Compare/contrast

Org.charts

Part &

function

timelines

Process diagram

Conceptmaps

A concept map of the five specialized types of concept maps