Most people have smart phones in their pocket with an abundance of free resources including videos, textbooks, and activities. So, is there still a place for notes at all?
Notes
Notes are usually the written work that students complete in class. This might be in an exercise book or on paper in a folder. Typically, the teacher will advise on the title, stress important content to be written down as well as ‘checking’ the notes and may add comments to improve the notes. But, why are we doing this, what is the purpose of notes?
As a teacher, I hope that students are engaging in the content and committing to memory the important information. To help my students focus on the important points, I encourage them to make notes and take part in active learning. This is not a passive skill; they should not just be copying what is on the board or what is dictated to them. Students should use more than one source such as listening to the teacher in class, a video, their textbook, or discussion with their peers. Students need to analyse the information, then refine the key information and record it in a way that speaks to them. This could be a diagram, bullet points or prose.
Being able to effectively take notes is a skill that needs to be developed, and educators need to take time to explicitly teach this skill. We should give classroom time for students to try out different methods, evaluate and refine their own note taking technique. Notes should be personal and make sense to the person writing them.
As we explicitly explain how to make notes and model note taking, we need to help students understand that the process of note taking helps them organise the information and make connections to other parts of their learning. We should reassure our learners that note taking is messy, as learning is messy, and we should give permission to cross out, start again and redraft. I encourage using different colours and each revision of the notes with crossings out and additions can use a different colour showing the iteration of the notes with it becoming a living document rather than a completed beautiful piece of work.
Cornell Notes
In the 1950s, Walter Pauk, an education professor at Cornell University, developed a style of note taking which he hoped would help students to organise and summarise notes in a condensed and logical way.
Cornell notes split the page into three sections: the left column is for the key terms and big questions; the main section contains the main ideas; and the bottom of the page is for the bullet point summary. This approach to note taking has been shown to aid critical thinking and improve recall and retention.
New Collins Organise and Retrieve for A level Science
The Collins A level Organise and Retrieve Revision Guides harness the power of Cornell notes by using the Cornell layout to provide a framework for revision. The books provide a specification-specific summary in the main body of the page; on the left-hand side there are prompts for students to define Tier 3 (subject-specific) vocabulary and answer key questions; and the space at the bottom is ready for students to write their own summary of the topic.
In addition, the books have QR codes which link to videos created by A level teachers to add more depth to the trickier concepts covered in the Cornell notes. Browse the range here.
The series incorporates exam-style questions on the opposite page to each Cornell notes section to exercise the newly acquired knowledge. This is a fantastic way to build confidence as often learners feel they understand the concept in the lesson, but they may have only passively engaged and so when faced with an exam question, they often struggle. Having the questions clearly linked to the specification points and the summarised notes, which are easy to refer to, help students to build exam technique and resilience.
At the back of the book there are Required Practical notes with space for students to annotate, as well as a set of full exam practice papers.
So, should my students take notes? Taking notes effectively enhances students’ ability to remember lesson content. While mastering this skill can be challenging and requires practice, it ultimately helps them to organise their learning. I encourage my students to use their notes actively for revision and to practise exam questions. This approach not only reinforces their understanding but also prepares them for assessments.
Sam Holyman is Head of Chemistry in Coventry, and formerly West Midlands ASE President. She is also the author of a number of bestselling science textbooks for Secondary Science Teaching (including the Collins A level Chemistry Organise and Retrieve), and a keen advocate of innovative teaching and learning.