If you have been following along, you know that this is the fourth and final post on how to build note-taking skills for students. The previous parts are HERE, HERE, and HERE.

In this episode (cue the exciting music): Notehand.

Notehand is unlike shorthand, which was a way for secretaries to quickly take word-for-word notes by using special symbols and swirls to later decipher the notes back into a complete script.

Notehand, however, is a way for students to compile important information so they can refer to it later. It should not be word-for-word, but rather point-for-point. Because it is simply not possible to write out words as quickly as someone is speaking, you have to come up with a way to write information in a shorter form in a way that is easy to understand when it is read later.

By using abbreviated words, incomplete sentences, and various symbols that stand for larger or regularly used words, you can more easily notate the information given in a lecture or presentation. The best way to do this is to begin to form a notehand method that works best for YOU. It needs to be intuitive to each person. That means what works for one person may not work as well for another. So here are some helpful hints to get you started.

The first point to remember is that you don’t need to write every word said. As a matter of fact, you don’t even need to write ALL of each word, either. One way to do this is to drop many vowels. “Among” would be amng, “because” would shorten to bcs, “however” would become hwvr.

You can also drop the last letters of long words. “Medium” would be med, “abbreviation” would be abbrev, and “circumference” would be circum.

Within a sentence, small articles and short words can be dropped. You can eliminate is, are, was, were, a, an, the, this, of, and many more. Pronouns can also often be dropped. Words like they, these, his, that, and them. But you don’t want to remove connecting words or words that help to join important ideas.

Many words can be replaced with symbols. Use the ampersand (&) for and, w/ can replace with, w/o for without, and w/in for within. Betw for between, # for number (NOT a hashtag!), #s for numbers, and govt for government. 1˚ means primary, 2˚ means secondary, and so on. Ordinal numbers can be written by 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. Now, some of these you are probably already using, but it is good to remind yourself how easy it is to shorten your words to write more quickly.

When there is a summary statement, three small circles in the shape of a triangle like this    ̥ ˚   ̥ means therefore. It is a good way to highlight a concluding or summary idea.

Of course you can use the symbol + for plus or and, = for equal or is, > for more than or greater than, and < for less than. You can also use an arrow for leads to or produces.

So how might this be helpful in a sentence? Well, let’s take a sample sentence and then write it with notehand:

Now look at this one:

Can you see here how only the important information is written? The notes just include the facts and any needed info to connect those facts.

Another helpful hint is to figure out if there are any frequently used words during a course or in any lecture type. For example, if you taking an American history course, you will very likely be hearing the name, George Washington. You can determine to always abbreviate his name GW whenever you hear it. In a physics or physical science course, the word, energy, pops up often. It can be written as a capital E.

In biology, photosynthesis is a word that is too long to take the time to write out. You can shorten it to photsyn or whatever makes good sense to you.

The point here is to come up with a convention that helps you to take down information in a way that can easily be referred to later. It has to be intuitive to you. So there are no step-by-step instructions. However, as you practice taking notes, you will get better and better at doing it.

Think of this as learning to snow ski. You can watch videos on how to ski. You can talk with people who have done it and ask them for help. But the only way you are actually going to learn it is to go on those slopes and do it. You start slowly, perhaps on a bunny slope which is gentle and short. Then once you have mastered skiing there, you are more prepared to go for longer runs!

I know. Note-taking may not be as fun as downhill skiing, but it does make education more enjoyable if you are able to remember important information presented to you. It will benefit you throughout your life, not only during your high school and college years.

By listening to a lecture, writing notes into a notebook or laptop, and reviewing the notes at a later time, you will better remember the information because it has been processed in an auditory, visual, and kinesthetic manner. This simply means the information has passed to your brain through many channels of your nervous system: your ears, eyes, and hands.

And by using these methods, you will always have a “plan of attack” when you enter a presentation. You will be more able to confidently sift through the information given to you, writing it down in a way that will be useful for study or reference at a later time. This leads to a better understanding of the information given which ultimately results in successful learning!

If you read my last post HERE, you know that I believe it is important for students to have good note-taking skills as they enter high school, college, and career. And there are some simple ways to build these skills.

Previously, I talked about how it is important for students to get proficient in summarizing material. This builds their ability to take a large amount of information and distill it down to the major points. After all, that is pretty much what note-taking is, isn’t it?

Taking notes does not mean that the student writes down EVERYTHING that is said in the way a court reporter does. That is not note-taking. In fact, unless you are professionally trained in shorthand or other abbreviation constructs, then you will not be ABLE to write as fast as a person can speak. Instead, you are expected to take good notes, sifting through the sentences coming out of the lecturer’s mouth and determining what is significant and what is not.

Why is this so important? Well, one reason is that taking notes presents you with two opportunities to learn the information presented. One opportunity is during class while you are taking the notes and the other is when you review the notes during study times. Another reason to take notes is that when you write notes in an organized manner, you are better able to see the overall organization of the information presented, and this will help you to identify the central ideas given and the overall flow of thinking.

Additionally, when you write information as well as listen to it, you are more likely to remember the material better. This is actually a proven fact: when students record information to study, they will more easily remember it later and will do better on exams.

Finally, taking notes helps you to maintain your concentration in class. Less daydreaming will occur if you are actively involved in the lecture by note-taking. This is especially helpful if you have one of those “less than interesting” professors.

There are many more benefits to taking notes, but let’s get into some practical helps!

Let’s say you are sitting down to listen to a lecture or a presentation. How do you know what to write down? Well, there is not one easy answer to this because there are innumerable ways that people present information. Often, a lecturer will use a Power Point presentation that includes an outline from which he or she will speak. Well, if that happens, you are fortunate, because you can just write down the outline headings as each one is addressed. Then you can fill in extra information in each section as it is presented.

But what if there is no outline? Or what if there are just one or two points given? In that case, you need to begin to listen for signal words. You see, instructors don’t do a song and dance when an important idea is given. But often they give you verbal helps to clue you in to what they are doing. For example, they may introduce new information using signal words, just like I did in this sentence. The words, “for example,” can clue you in to an important point or explanation of a topic.

Here are some specific verbal signal words:

“An important point to remember is…”

“You need to know that…”

“The main idea here is…”

“There are 4 reasons why…” (and here they come, get ready to write numbers 1-4!)

“This will be on the test.” (I know this is an obvious one, but I can’t tell you how many students would just stare at me when I would say this.)

A new idea is coming if you hear:

“First,” “Second,” or “Third”

“On the other hand…”

“Similarly” or “In contrast”

“Also” or “Furthermore”

Sometimes a lecturer will have a louder voice when moving to a new topic. This means that if you are writing notes in outline form, you may be adding another point. Another way to signal a new topic is with a pause. This often means that the lecturer has completed a thought or idea and is getting ready to go on to another one.

Now a lecturer may also give you a clue that a specific point is important by repeating it. Remember…in a lecture or presentation, time is often limited. So if you hear a point repeated, you can be pretty sure that it is important. Write that point down!

Also, if a lecturer takes time to turn around and write something on the board, you should be writing it as well. Any idea that is written on a board or put on a Power Point slide is likely to be important.

Finally, you can identify that a summary is coming if you hear words such as: therefore, in conclusion, as a result, in summary, or finally (see what I just did there?).

Once a student has been alerted to and on the lookout for word signals, their ability to take notes will greatly improve. They will be identifying the verbal clues given by the lecturer to help them follow along with the organized structure of the lecture, whether they are given an outline or not.

In the next post, I will go over how to organize your notes as you write them, and then we’ll go over specific “note-hand” that helps students to write or type lots of information more quickly.

I have actually put all this material into a small note-taking booklet that includes much, much more information, but at present it is not available. As I go through this blog series, if there is much interest, I will likely make it available as a very inexpensive download. I would appreciate any feedback on this!

Have an extraordinary day!

~Sherri

Click HEREfor Part III!

During my years as a homeschooling mom, I have had the opportunity to not only teach my own children but also other homeschoolers in co-op type classes. Doing this has been such a pleasure, but it has also given me some interesting insights to the strengths of homeschooling as well as some weaknesses. Now don’t get me wrong. I believe that homeschooling is one of the best educational options for your children. My husband and I have homeschooled all of our children from K-12 and are so grateful we did. But the nature of home education creates some interesting situations that all homeschooling families need to be aware of so that they can best prepare their children for college or career situations.

One of the most interesting things I noticed about the students who came to my classes is during our discussion time, when I would give a hint that a specific piece of information would be on the test or when I would write out a chart on the board, I noticed many of my students would just sit there and watch me.

Why weren’t they writing this down? I made sure to stress that it was an important point, and I’m using valuable class time to turn around and write it on the board for them. Why were they just sitting there?

Well, after encouraging them to copy things down as I said them, I began to realize that most homeschoolers had very little opportunities to take notes. Therefore, their note-taking skills were often lacking.

Now why is this important? Well, whether a student is college directed or not, there are many other situations where it is helpful to be able to take good notes. In nearly every career, there are circumstances where recording information is critical, such as in meetings, seminars, and presentations. There is the obvious need for these skills during a college lecture, but it is also helpful for how-to workshops or even church sermons – any situation where you need to weed through information given and write down the important points.

After all, you cannot write down every word that is spoken. Note-taking allows you to refer back to important presented material for later use, and it is much easier if your notes are clear, concise, and organized.

You see, note-taking is a skill that is learned by doing. In order to take good notes, a student has to process the information by listening to it and then determine what is important. He or she then needs to be able to write those points down while the lecture is still going on. Taking too many notes with too many details makes the student possibly miss other important lecture points because he is too busy recording previous lecture information. Yet, if too few notes are taken, some important information may be missed, and the notes may not be understandable when referred to later.

So note-taking is a learned technique. The note taker has to utilize good listening skills, process lecture information, and then write down notes into an easy-to-use personal format. However, don’t fret if you are intimidated by this. Good note-taking can be learned, and there are easy ways to encourage it.

I want to give you several ideas over the next few weeks so you can help your students gain those skills. I’ll try to link the posts together so you can follow along, too.

WHAT IS THE BEST AGE TO BEGIN?

For this post, let’s first discuss the best age to begin building note-taking skills. Once a student is able to write on his or her own, note-taking can begin. Actually, the process of taking notes can begin even earlier, too. The goal is to get children in the mode of summarizing information given to them. So building reading comprehension is helpful. When a short story is read, ask your children what happened in the story. Have them use the words, “first, next, last” in their summary. This helps them to determine the main points in chronological order.

WHERE CAN THEY TAKE NOTES?

Once your kids are able to write well on their own, you can have them read paragraphs or short stories and write summaries of them. Again, this is good practice for them to take a larger amount of information and boil it down into its most important points.

Now, during lectures or in workshops, most teachers will not be giving information in story form. So students need to transition to quickly identifying the key points of a lecture and then writing them as notes.

This, of course, requires your students to be in some sort of classroom situation. Now, I’m not saying you have to put your children in a class. But you CAN look for opportunities for them to listen to some type of teaching. We had our children take notes during Sunday Sermons. They looked for three or four main points that were given, and then we talked about what they wrote during lunch afterwards.

You can also look for educational videos that coincide with something you are already learning about. These can be videos you find at the local library or they can be online videos that touch on specific topics. I recommend that you preview the online ones, but if you look around, you will likely find short videos on practically any topic you desire.

Once they are used to the idea of summarizing information, then it is time to add more skills to their note-taking arsenal.

Stay tuned for more helpful info in an upcoming post! And feel free to leave questions in the comment section. UPDATE: Part II of the series can be found HERE.

There is something about the middle of the school year that makes us all take a step back and assess what we are doing. Are we making any progress? Are there things we need to change in our schedule? Are we covering all the academic bases?

 Of course it is important to make sure you are getting the reading, writing and ‘rithmetic in, but you may be surprised to know that there are some key skills and experiences you can include in your students’ education to help them succeed when entering the high school years and beyond. These simple things will help your young adults become godly, able young men and women.

Now, don’t stress out that I’m adding MORE to your schedule. I am here to encourage you to think about some easy and helpful activities you may already be doing or can easily incorporate into your day that will help your students to shine as young adults in high school, college, and the workplace.

1. Build time management skills.

Taking responsibility for their education is a key skill that will help students stand out in college and a career environment. It is important to transition from giving out a few tasks at a time to training them to organize their own day. Help them to discover what method of organization works for them, whether it is checking off a list of tasks or working completely through a weeks’ worth of a subject at a time. By giving them ownership of some of their schedule, they have the opportunity to learn, make mistakes, feel the consequences of mis-managed time, and then make adjustments – all in the safe environment of your home.

Self-management will come with a few bumps along the way, but it WILL come. The goal is for you to be overseer while THEY become managers of their time. As homeschool parent your goal is to basically work yourself out of a “job.”

2. Encourage study skills and note-taking.

Study skills are often related to note-taking skills. Both are more easily learned by experience. Provide your students with lots of opportunities to take notes, whether it is in a co-op class, Sunday Sermon, or even an online instructive video. They can take the presented information and break it down into major points.

Another good skill-builder is to outline the major points of a textbook as it is read. For literature, they can summarize what they read in each chapter in order to more easily go over a story’s plot.

And you can’t go wrong with helping them to build memorization techniques. Whether they are visual, auditory, or tactile learners, encourage them to find out what method best works for them.  

3. Teach test-taking strategies.

I understand. It is not all about the test.

Our goal is for students to LEARN and become life-long learners. Yet, if they are college bound, tests are going to be plentiful. Even students who go directly into a career path out of high school will find that there are often certifications or skill assessment tests to face.

Provide lots of opportunities for your students to see the various test methods that exist. Fill in the blank, multiple choice, and essay tests are all common assessment types. There are lots of test prep courses available to help you with this. Taking a test is much easier if a student knows how to prepare for it and how to approach it. And doing this first from home will help your students build the strategies they need to approach testing situations.

Believe it or not, exposure to good books is a great way to build grammar and vocabulary which helps in standardized exams as well as essays. A combination of individual reading along with family read-alouds (No, they are never too young for those!) enables students to take in excellent English with their eyes AND ears.

A strong vocabulary and understanding of solid grammar rules will help your students to shine in their writing, whether it is a theme paper or an email!

4. Build computer and technological skills.

I know things were different when “we” were in school, but today students need to have time to develop “e-skills.” This will make them better prepared for college and more competitive in the job market. First and foremost, make sure they know how to type. Have them learn Power Point and present some of their lessons to you or to a class in that medium. There are several online tutorials for Power Point, Excel, and Mac versions of these computer skills.

One thing I loved doing with my teens was to encourage them to start a blog. Why you say?

Well, all of my kids had certain things they were passionate about. One in particular liked cars…EVERYTHING about cars: manufacturers, models, concept cars, engine size, speed, etc.

I had him write a short post each week on whatever aspect of cars he wanted. A new safety feature in some models. The difference between truck bodies and car bodies. Whatever “floated his boat.” He was motivated to do it, especially because I scaled back on his other writing to give him time for this. And he learned how to better navigate around a computer, explored blog page design, experimented with good writing format, dealt with editing images, better understood plagiarism issues, and so much more.

Many blogs can be set up for free. By writing about something they love (Legos, cooking, skateboarding, sports, cars, sewing or crafts), students will be building their writing abilities as well as their computer skills.

5. Give them time.

Students today are often overbooked. This can stunt their creativity and time to think deeply. Leisure is an important part of invention, so try not to over schedule your kids. Monitor their time on electronic devices and allow them opportunities to explore, ask questions, hypothesize, test ideas, fail, adjust, and try again. If necessary, reign back their curricula a bit (yes, I just said that!).

More time allows them to volunteer and to be leaders in groups. Have them start a film or book club, a summer art fair or something else they love.

6. Build character.

This may be the most important “skill” of all. Character comes as a result of years of training and modeling. It is a heart change that slowly comes about from day-by-day influence.

Something you are doing with your children right now.

Why is character so important? Well, if you have a student who has learned diligence, for example, he or she will complete whatever given task to their best ability…without procrastinating (Procrastinating? MY child? Never!). Patience helps students endure when things get difficult. They will persevere because they desire to do their best.

How do we teach character? Well, that’s another entire blog post (maybe even a book!), but I CAN tell you that by humbly going about your days, exhibiting your desire to have character in your children and in yourself, you will be giving them the best opportunity to understand its benefits. Of course, demonstrating a relationship with the Lord and being quick to ask forgiveness when we fail in our shortcomings is another GREAT way to help your students own this for themselves!

Now, I’m not sharing these points to provide stress. I’m all about encouragement and inspiration. As homeschoolers, we just sometimes get bogged down in the “academic race” that tends to put undue pressure on our teens. Our job is to continue to inspire in them a love for learning, give them the tools to succeed as adults in the world, and find opportunities to strengthen their character.

Most importantly, we need to remember to ENJOY being with them! You are your children’s best advocate, and you are doing a great job!