Notetakers
--04/20/2009
Utilizing “notetaker” handouts can be effective in large and small classes and is a concept easily adapted to online teaching.
Purpose: a.) present concepts; b.) promote higher-order thinking; c.) assess knowledge & mastery; d.) make information relevant; e.) link content to previous material; f.) engage students in learning content.
Process: A notetaker is a handout given to students before class by which they receive and interact with an organized (but incomplete) body of information intended to promote learning. By deliberately building in learning activities, students engage with the content and become active agents in their own learning. Notetakers emphasize the structure and connections between your content. To use the notetaker as the class progresses, have students work individually or in small groups to complete the activities. Out of class, have students complete the notetaker and bring it to class.
Typical learning tasks that might appear in a notetaker:
- Check which attributes of … are correct (excellent assessment)
- Label the diagram, which direction will forces act on this…
- Select, pick out, identify, classify or categorize
- Mark the line on the graph that represents…
- Circle parts of the mathematical formula
- Mark on the map/diagram…
- List factors that inhibit/promote…
- Make a scale drawing (great to assess misconceptions/preconceptions)
- Balance the chemical equation
- Provide words that link these 2 concepts
- Predict what will happen if…
Potential Learning Benefits to Student
- Reinforces recall of lesson content
- Promotes higher-order thinking skills
- Assists students in learning how to learn
- Models selecting and organizing information
- Provides a product for later review
Potential Teaching-Learning Benefits
- Reinforces student preparation
- Introduces concepts & their connections
- Focuses student attention on a learning task
- Injects your personality into the lesson
- Telegraphs what is important
- Allows teachers to show students what they will learn
Potential Teaching Benefits to Instructor
- Prevents you from inadvertently skipping information or objectives
- Allows you to inject humor into the lesson
- Creates a time-flexible lesson
- Produces clear, easy-to-follow lesson plan
- Puts effective questions into lesson
- Allows both direct and indirect questioning
- Assesses student understanding
- Builds variety of learning tasks into lesson
- Allows for individual to group learning
- Helps students make up work when absent
- Makes productive use of class time
- Facilitates transition from one concept to the next
- Builds closure into lesson
- Helps new instructors become better teachers
Adapted from: Millis, Barbara, The Teaching & Learning Center, The University of Texas at San Antonio. Retrieved January 15, 2009, from University of Texas San Antonio Web site: http://www.utsa.edu/tlc
Tip References
Noyd, R. (2005, October). A Simple and Effective Way to Drive Content, Promote Thinking & Assess Mastery. Workshop presented at the University of Nevada, Reno.