Five Days to Focused Cornell Notes
Created By Meg E'amato
Research
The research is simple...TAKING NOTES MATTERS!
A comparison of two note taking methods in a secondary English classroom. Jacobs, K. (2008, April 25). Retrieved September 16, 2014, from Wichita State University Soar: Shocker Open Access Repository: http://soar.wichita.edu/handle/10057/1388
Keil Jacobs conducted an experiment with two of his similarly matched sophmore English classes. In the experiment, he taught each class a different method of notetaking. One class was taught to use guided notes and another was taught the Cornell note taking system. The students were then allowed to study their notes and then take a quiz. Students in his guided notes class scores improved from 51% to 84%, whereas the students in the Cornell notes group scores only increased from 56% to 61%. However Jacobs notes that students in the Cornell Notes class were better able to answer higher-level questions than those in the guided notes class. Jacobs concludes that while both methods are valuable, only the Cornell notes helped students to use synthesis, application and evaluation. In light of the common core push towards skills that promote college and career readiness, the Cornell notes would still be my choice for notes in my classroom.
AVIDly Seeking Success. Nelson, J. (2007, April). Educational Leadership, 64(4), 72-74. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from: http://thesciencenetwork.org/docs/BrainsRUs/AVIDly%20Seeking%20Success_Nelson.pdf
In this article, Jim Nelson chronicles the story of Romona high school's adoption of AVID. In 1988, Romona high only had 10 of its 325 graduating seniors going off to college. They obviously had a problem and adopted AVID as a tool to better prepare their students for college. AVID offers strategies cruicial to college success like Cornell note taking and peer tutoring. In 2007, when the article was written, Romona had an AVID senior class of 542 students, about 26% of the population. All of them were accepted to four year universities and 98.7% had plans to attend.
Helping Students Take Effective Notes. Steidler, A. Retrieved September 24, 2014, from 4 Faculty: http://www.4faculty.org/includes/digdeeper/helpstudents/notes.jsp
In Helping Students Take Effective Notes, the author Alyse Steidler, is promoting the idea of content area professors in college to take the time at the beginning of their courses to discuss the necessity of good notes and to provide a few useful tips and guidelines on how to go about doing it. The paper is designed to help professors teach note taking skills to students, raise student awareness of the importance of note taking, inform students of skills that will improve their listening and retention, and provide students with basic guidelines and tips to help students take better notes.
Notes on Note-taking: Review of Research and Insights for Students and Instructors. Friedman, M. Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching, Harvard University. Retrieved September 24, 2014, from: http://hilt.harvard.edu/files/hilt/files/notetaking_0.pdf
In Notes on Note-taking, the author reviews several key aspects of good note-taking strategies and the research behind it. He also gives data backing up the importance of good note-taking habits among students. Friedman offers advice for students and teachers alike, giving tips to make the most out of note-taking. In this paper, Friedman praises the Cornell Note-taking system and proposes that Cornell Notes possess all of the qualities necessary in order to take "good" notes. Three of these being a general framework from which to generate the notes, multiple reviews of the notes, and generative activities that allow the student to make connections between one idea and the next.
Note Taking Will Make You a Better Student. Frederick, R. Rust College, Division of Business. Retrieved September 24, 2014, from: http://www.rustcollege.edu/businessdivision/note_taking.pdf
In Note Taking Will Make You a Better Student, Frederick gives advice to would be college students about how to improve their grades in their classes by taking notes. He outlines several benefits of note taking like improving listening while in class and giving students a way to organize the material covered. Frederick also gives advice to students about how to prepare and use their notes before, during and after class. He also lists several key points for students to remember while taking notes and several tips to help students write faster when taking notes.