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If your in-class notes are messy, unorganized, and unclear at first glance, you're not going to get much use out of them. This has nothing to do with how neat your handwriting is - it's all about how your notes are structured.

One of the most effective ways to remember (and understand) what you are learning in class is to take effective notes in the classroom.

Why Are Effective Note Taking Skills Important?

Better notes will help you remember concepts, develop meaningful learning skills, and gain a better understanding of a topic. Effective notes will even lead to less stress when test time comes around!
Learning how to take better study notes in class helps improve recall and understanding of what you are learning because it:

Ensures you are actively listening to what the teacher is saying

Requires you to think about what you are writing

Helps you make connections between topics

Serves as quality review material for after class

Using different note taking strategies is important, especially as you progress through high school and transition to college or university. There are several note taking techniques you can use to start taking better notes in class.

Start taking better study notes

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including note taking templates, tips, and more.

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Try these 5 methods to find the best note taking method for you!

The Cornell Method

The Cornell note taking method helps organize class notes into easily digestible summaries. This method is effective because the main points, details, study cues, and summary are all written in one place.

Advantages:

Notes are neatly organized, summarized, and easy to review

Allows you to pull out major ideas and concepts

What Does it look like?

The paper is divided into 3 sections: a 2.5" margin to the left, a 2" summary section on the bottom, and a main 6" in-class note section.

1. Use the main notes section to take notes during class.

2. Use the cues section to review your notes. After class, write down things you'll need to remember and a prompt for each. You can also use this section for vocabulary words and study questions.

3. In the summary segment at the bottom, write a summary of your notes. This is where you will highlight the main points.

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The Mapping Method

The Mapping note taking method is a more visual way to organize your class notes. This technique is useful when learning about relationships between topics.

Advantages:

Useful for visual learners who struggle with studying from notes.

Helps you remember and connect relationships between topics.

What Does it look like?

The page is organized by topic. The main topics branch out into subtopics with detailed information about each.

How Do You Use It?

1. While in class, begin the map with the main topic.

2. Branching off the main topic, write a heading for each of the subtopics.

3. Write any important notes underneath each subtopic.

4. Continue the pattern.

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The Outlining Method

The Outlining note taking method uses headings and bullet points to organize topics. This method is most useful when learning about topics that include a lot of detail.

Advantages:

Allows notes to be neatly organized.

It is easy to see the relationship between topics and subtopics.

It is easy to turn points into study questions.

What Does it look like?

Each section starts with a heading of the main topic. Each subtopic and supporting fact is written underneath the proper heading.

How Do You Use It?

1. During a lesson, begin your notes with a single bullet point and write the main topic.

2. Place the first subtopic below and indented slightly to the right.

3. List any details below your heading and slightly to the right.

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The Charting Method

Charting note taking method uses columns to organize information. This method is useful for lessons that cover a lot of facts or relationships between topics.

Advantages:

Facts are organized and easy to review.

Highlights key pieces of information for each topic.

What Does it look like?

The page is divided into columns labeled by category. The details of each category are filled out in the rows below.

How Do You Use It?

1. When information about a category is mentioned, jot it down underneath the proper column.

2. When the next topic begins move down one row and begin again.

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The Sentence Method

The Sentence note taking method is simply writing down each topic as a jot note sentence. This method works well for fast paced lessons where a lot of information is being covered.

Advantages:

Jotting main points helps you determine which information is important and which is not.

You are able to cover a lot of details and information quickly.

Notes are simplified for study and review.

What Does it look like?

Each line on the page is a new and separate topic. To organize your notes even more, you can use headings for each main topic.

How Do You Use It?

1. Write down important information the teacher has emphasized. This can be in sentence form or point form.

2. Start a new sentence or point for each new detail.

3. Use headings to organize points by main topics.

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Better Grades Start With Better Notes

Taking organized and thoughtful notes can help improve your understanding and recall of what you have learned in class. Try these methods of note taking in your next classes and see which one works best for you!

Check out our video for more tips on how to boost note-taking confidence.

To learn other ways to make school a breeze, visit the resource section or learn how Oxford Learning's tutoring programs can help you build skills to become a better learner.

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How To Take Study Notes: 5 Effective Note Taking Methods

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Discover 5 methods of note taking to improve memory and make studying a breeze. Learn how to start taking better, more effective notes with these tips!

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Draw a dark horizontal line about 5 or 6 lines from the bottom. Use a heavy magic marker to draw the line so that it is clear.

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free printable templates to organize information

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Help your students classify ideas and communicate more effectively with these free graphic organizer templates, available for download. They can be used to structure writing projects and help in problem solving, decision making, studying, planning research, and brainstorming.

Printable Graphic Organizers

Select a blank graphic organizer from the following categories depending on your curriculum needs.

Sequence of Events

Main Topic and Key Details

Compare/Contrast

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Free Downloadable Graphic Organizer Templates

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Use these graphic organizer templates to help your students classify ideas and communicate more effectively, structure writing projects, and more.

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Example of Developing Conceptual Understanding in Math

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Example of Developing Conceptual Understanding in Math

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Math.Practice.MP4

Common core State Standards

Math: Math

Practice: Mathematical Practice Standards

MP4: Model with mathematics.

Mathematically proficient students can apply the mathematics they know to solve problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace. In early grades, this might be as simple as writing an addition equation to describe a situation. In middle grades, a student might apply proportional reasoning to plan a school event or analyze a problem in the community. By high school, a student might use geometry to solve a design problem or use a function to describe how one quantity of interest depends on another. Mathematically proficient students who can apply what they know are comfortable making assumptions and approximations to simplify a complicated situation, realizing that these may need revision later. They are able to identify important quantities in a practical situation and map their relationships using such tools as diagrams, two-way tables, graphs, flowcharts and formulas. They can analyze those relationships mathematically to draw conclusions. They routinely interpret their mathematical results in the context of the situation and reflect on whether the results make sense, possibly improving the model if it has not served its purpose.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

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Math.Practice.MP6

Common core State Standards

Math: Math

Practice: Mathematical Practice Standards

MP6: Attend to precision.

Mathematically proficient students try to communicate precisely to others. They try to use clear definitions in discussion with others and in their own reasoning. They state the meaning of the symbols they choose, including using the equal sign consistently and appropriately. They are careful about specifying units of measure, and labeling axes to clarify the correspondence with quantities in a problem. They calculate accurately and efficiently, express numerical answers with a degree of precision appropriate for the problem context. In the elementary grades, students give carefully formulated explanations to each other. By the time they reach high school they have learned to examine claims and make explicit use of definitions.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

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Math.7.EE.B.4b

Common core State Standards

Math: Math

7: Grade 7

EE: Expressions & Equations

B: Solve real-life and mathematical problems using numerical and algebraic expressions and equations

4b:
Use variables to represent quantities in a real-world or mathematical problem, and construct simple equations and inequalities to solve problems by reasoning about the quantities.

a. Solve word problems leading to equations of the form px + q = r and p(x + q) = r, where p, q, and r are specific rational numbers. Solve equations of these forms fluently. Compare an algebraic solution to an arithmetic solution, identifying the sequence of the operations used in each approach. For example, the perimeter of a rectangle is 54 cm. Its length is 6 cm. What is its width?

b. Solve word problems leading to inequalities of the form px + q > r or px + q < r, where p, q, and r are specific rational numbers. Graph the solution set of the inequality and interpret it in the context of the problem. For example: As a salesperson, you are paid $50 per week plus $3 per sale. This week you want your pay to be at least $100. Write an inequality for the number of sales you need to make, and describe the solutions.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

Thought starters

1. How does the dotting of solutions help students build conceptual understanding?

2. How does Ms. Alcala build off of her students' prior knowledge?

3. What might you do after this lesson to move from conceptual understanding to procedural skill and application?

School Details

Martin Luther King Middle School
1781 Rose Street
Berkeley CA 94703

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Ms. Alcala and her seventh grade math students explore solving inequalities. Ms. Alcala begins her lesson by having students graph the solutions so that they develop a conceptual understanding before moving on to notation. She says that this method helps students use prior knowledge in order to understand the new concept, rather than learn tricks to solve inequalities.

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Organize math word problems

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Utilizing Interactive Notebooks in the Middle School Math Classroom

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This is a research based article that emphasizes use of technology in the classroom, more specifically for the reason that it can help to make your teaching more student centered. It shares the expansive potential that technology has to offer your students, and it addresses the issue that despite it's importance, students continue to feel unprepared to use technology as they progress into the working world.

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Helping students think about thinking

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by Terry Heick

Years ago, I wrote a post on how to help students think for themselves.

TeachThought reader Peter Duckett wrote me a few months later with these questions below that he added in order to facilitate their use in the classroom. I've added some myself, and am going to continue to add more after giving you a chance to do so.
Let them watch their predictions play out

What do you think will happen?

What do you think will happen to the ...?

What do you think will happen when...?

What actually happened?

Why do you think it happened?

Let them form theories, and immediately test and revise those theories based on observation Give them the right collaboration with the right 'mind' at the right time Allow them to read with choice-without guidelines or external pressure

What would you like to read if you could read anything without anyone listening to you or testing you or telling you what you can and cannot read?
Let them play with content or dynamic learning tools-no goals or prompting or rules (other than basic common sense, safety, etc.)

What would you like to play with?
Let them see the parts of the whole, and the whole of the parts

What parts do you see in this?

How do the parts work together to make the whole?

Help them realize the interdependence between content and themselves

How does this relate to/connect with you?

What's the text-to-self connection?

Make sure they are motivated to know themselves

What do you know about yourself?

What does this let you know about yourself?

Help them serve others, and learn to value themselves and their own human utility in the process Help guide them to write about something complex, personal, emotional, or meaningful Help guide them to write about something complex, personal, emotional, meaningful, or seemingly trite

Who are the people and what are the things that you carry in your heart?

What can you write about that reveals what's in your heart?

Teach them to meditate (seeing without thinking during, thinking about thinking after)

What can you see when you stop thinking?

What can you discover when you think about your thinking?

Help them start with what they don't know-this will guarantee that they think for themselves, as it provides each student with their own launching pad Allow them to navigate "unfiltered" sources of information

Where are all the places you could get information?
Encourage them to begin to separate basic epistemology-the differences between information, knowledge, and wisdom, for example

Is this information, knowledge or wisdom?

How do you know?

Help them attempt to transfer understanding (prompted)

Can you do/make ...?

How did you do it?

Can you show how you did it?

How could you apply your understanding in the world?

Where are all the places and under what circumstances might your understanding be useful in the world?

Allow them to attempt to transfer understanding on their own Encourage them to believe they can, and make the choice to not be denied

What is something you believe you are capable to do but are being told no or someone is roadblocking?
Allow them to practice, practice, practice in the company of some kind of feedback loop Teach them to make mistakes without blame

When did you learn something important from making a mistake?

Why was it an important mistake to make?

Help them explore something they see as mysterious, untamed, or socially "disallowed"

What do you wonder about?

How might you explore it?

Allow them to receive learning feedback from someone just beyond their own "level"

Who can do this slightly better than you?

What can they tell you that would help you get better?

Teach them to try to find the common ground between seemingly disparate positions

What do these two conflicting groups/perspectives have in common?
Encourage them to think critically about the what others perceive as mundane Make sure they think frequently about complex ideas or situations Help them to realize everything is infinitely complex when you see information as a matter of perspective (this causes an endless chain of other realizations if they're willing to consider it long enough) Encourage them to be bored and allow that boredom to "sit"

How can you allow boredom to inform you?

What does it do to your mind to be bored?

Allow their mind to wander Encourage them to play video games or learning simulations Teach them to set goals with extrinsic or intrinsic rewards Help them sense an authentic need to know or understand

What one thing can you identify that you truly need to know or understand?
Ask them what they stand for, and why Leave them alone Make sure they hear "something" in multiple times in multiple ways from multiple perspectives and voices

What does it mean to see an idea from multiple perspectives? What are the best examples you can give?

What can you hear in multiple times, in multiple ways, and from multiple perspectives and voices?

Help guide them to recognize the nuance in other people's thinking Help them to honor the limits of human knowledge

What is the difference between information and knowledge?

What is something from the 'real world' that is somehow 'limited' in its power?

When have human beings (dramatically) exceeded the limits of their own understanding?

What are the limits of knowledge? How do they change and not change?

How is knowledge changing?

Encourage them to operate within their Zone of Proximal Development-the ZPD of that student for that standard (which is really, really difficult to promote consistently)

What could you accomplish with the support and guidance of a knowledgeable "other" and then grow to be able to do it independently?
Make sure they have meaningful choices at every step

What would be a meaningful choice for you right now in your learning process?
Make sure they are given the support to self-direct their own learning

What support do you need right now to be self-directing in your own learning?
Encourage them to make things Help them to see the value of their own performance

What was effective in your work/performance?
Give them personalized direct instruction

What coaching/instruction would be helpful to you at this moment?
Allow them to hear a well-written lecture

Where might you hear a well-written lecture?

Why might that be helpful?

Help guide them to think about their own thinking

What do you notice about your own thinking?
Encourage their passions to lead them into spaces where learning can occur on its own

What are your passions?

If you followed your passions, where would they take you?

Help them honor uncertainty

How might uncertainty be a good thing?
Make sure they are able to establish their own relevancy for content

What is relevant to you in this content/material? Why?
Encourage them to ask their own questions-and then ask better questions

What question might you ask to understand this better?

Can you come up with an even better question than that?

Encourage opportunities for inquiry to meet a motivated mind

About what things do you deeply wonder?
Guide them to dynamic spaces characterized by people, thought, and creativity (rather than intricate policies, rules, and standards)

Where might you go to find interesting people, intriguing thoughts and boundless creativity?
Expose them to something worth doing, and is expertly gamified

What is most worth doing?
Help them to confront and internalize diversity and divergence

How are diversity and divergence valuable?
Encourage them to revisit their past mistakes, thinking patterns, and moments of genius

What can you learn from your past mistakes, thinking patterns, and moments of genius?
Guide them to seek self-awareness not content-awareness

What do you know to be true about yourself?
Help them to not take anything too seriously beyond playful curiosity

Where and when do you engage in playful curiosity?
Encourage them to trust themselves to fail

Under what conditions can you trust yourself to fail?

How might failing be useful?

Allow them to see their own progress Guide them in studying patterns

1. What patterns do you notice?

2. What do the patterns tell you?

Make sure they can explain the significance of an idea, skill, or other academic topic

What is the significance of this idea, skill, or academic topic to me, to others in the field, to the world?
Allow them to see or experience affectionate modeling

Where do you see or have you experienced affection, caring, compassion, and/or empathy?
Make sure they are mentored with love

Who has mentored you with love? What effect did that have?

How might you do that for others?

100 Questions That Help Students Think About Thinking image attribution flickr user peterlindberg

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100 Questions That Help Students Think About Thinking

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by Terry Heick Years ago, I wrote a post on how to help students think for themselves . TeachThought reader Peter Duckett wrote me a few months later with these questions below that he added in order to facilitate their use in the classroom.

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For student to complete

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Engaging Students in Mathematical Discourse

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Engaging Students in Mathematical Discourse

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Ready: 100 questions that promote Mathematical Discourse

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100 Questions to Promote Mathematical Discourse by Ready author Dr. Gladis Kersaint. A free printable with 100 questions to promote mathematical thinking and encourage classroom discourse.

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NCWiseOwl is available to North Carolina Public School Units for school and remote use through funding at NC Department of Public Instruction, Division of Digital Teaching and Learning. Please request the remote-use password from your local media/tech contact. Students should work in partnership with teachers and parent/guardians while curating digital content through NCWiseOwl. Students, parents and educators should adhere to locally adopted Acceptable Use Policies and other applicable guidelines/standards. Visit the toolkit linked above for best practices and tutorials.

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NCWiseOwl is available to North Carolina Public School Units for school and remote use through funding at NC Department of Public Instruction, Division of Digital Teaching and Learning. Please request the remote-use password from your local media/tech contact. Students should work in partnership with teachers and parent/guardians while curating digital content through NCWiseOwl.

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ONE Access™ | Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

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When libraries and schools work together, everyone wins. In 2015 the Library, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte accepted the White House ConnectED Library Challenge, pledging to provide students with easily accessible information and educational resources.

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This is housed in our Destiny Portal website.