1. Session III: Reading & Note-Taking Strategies
Study Smarter! Not Harder!

2. It All Starts With Listening
If you’re not listening you’re NOT engaged, and your notes will reflect that.
Listening vs. Hearing
Actively listening
Interest and understanding is YOUR responsibility
Follow along
When in doubt write it out
Not Engaged- don’t let your mind wander, your attn. span can be increased with deliberate effort, listening is a skill that must be developed
Listening vs. Hearing – listening is active and hearing is passive
Actively Listening - Look for the main idea or ideas of the presentation. Facts are important only as they support the speaker's points. Have a question in mind.
YOUR Responsibility – not the speaker’s. Learning is up to the learner.
Follow Along - Look for the speaker's pattern of organization. In a lecture, a speaker is generally referring to notes or some other source of information. You can understand much better if you are able to recognize what the speaker's driving at and how the speaker's getting there.
In doubt- Take notes while you listen. even if you recognize everything being said, jot it down, because you won't remember it later unless you do.

3. Ask Questions! 10 bad listening habits Calling The Subject “Dull”
Criticizing The Speaker
Listening Only For Facts
Faking Attention
Tolerating Distraction
Using this as an excuse to wander off.
Pat attn. to WHAT is said, not HOW it is said. The message is 10x more important than the clothing
Listen for the main ideas. Use facts as connecting threads. See the whole picture.
The pose of chin propped on hand with gaze fixed on speaker does not guarantee good listening. Attention (what it looks like) = it's characterized by a slightly increased heart rate, quicker circulation of the blood, and a small rise in bodily temperature. It's energy consuming; it's plain hard work
Poor listeners are easily distracted and may even create disturbances that interfere with their own listening efficiency and that of others. They squirm, talk with their neighbors, or shuffle papers. They make little or no effort to conceal their boredom. Good listeners try to adjust to whatever distractions there are and soon find that they can ignore them. Certainly, they do not distract others
Ask Questions!

4. Reasons to Take Notes Notes trigger memories of lecture/reading
Your notes are often a source of valuable clues for what information is important (i.e., what will show up on the next test).
Notes inscribe information kinesthetically
Taking notes helps you to concentrate in class
Notes create a resource for test preparation
Your notes often contain information that cannot be found elsewhere (i.e., in your textbook).

5. Note-Taking Basics Use Abbreviations Be Brief Translate Organize
Write Legibly
Don’t worry about spelling/grammar
Leave Extra Space
Look Back!

6. Different Types of Notes
Cornell
REAP
Outline Format
Webbing/Mapping

7. Cornell Record Reduce Recite Reflect Summary
Different parts of the notebook paper have different functions. Notes are recorded on one half, key words and concepts are recorded in another area called the recall column, and a summary is recorded at the bottom of the paper.
Record
Reduce
Recite
Reflect
Summary
Advantages:
Organized
Quickly identify key words and concepts
Easily used as a study guide
Easy to locate information

8. Reap Strategy Purposes of the strategy: organize notes
make course content more personal
Class notes are taken on one side of the paper and the opposite page is used for recording memory triggers and related information.

9. REAP STRATEGY Divide Paper (Triggers, REAP, Class Notes)
Takes notes only on the right-hand pages.
Use short sentences and skip lines between major ideas.
Record Triggers
Trigger column = record words, phrases, or visual images that will trigger the main idea in the notes section.
Fill in this section immediately or shortly after class.
Record REAP Words
The REAP column should also be filled in immediately or shortly after class.
In the REAP column, the student writes words or phrases that...
Relate the material to his/her own life
Extend the material outward into the outside world
Actualize the material= how information might work in the world
Profit from the ideas - consider how society might profit from the ideas

10. OUTLINE FORMAT Information is arranged from general to specific
The format may be used while recording notes, or it may be employed when recopying and reorganizing notes.
Helps to detect and understand relationships and associations among different pieces of information.

11. Outline format Develop a Template
Use the main ideas in the lecture/text as headings.
The details are filled in during lecture/reading.
Arrangement of Information
Each major section of the outline should cover one major topic.
Fill in the “levels” with details
Symbols
Common symbols: Roman numerals, upper and lower case letters, numbers, circles and squares
Short phrases, symbols, shorthand, and abbreviations may be used to record notes in the outline.
Drawings or figures may be incorporated

12. Webbing & mapping less conventional methods of organizing information.
Notes may be recopied and reorganized into concept maps, spider maps, flow charts, and other formats.

13. Try it out! Take out your notes from a class this week.
Compare them with the examples given today.
Examine where your notes:
Are missing info
Need clarification
Are able/unable to answer the Learning Target
Need reorganization