Note–taking Revisited

A recent article from the Atlantic is sure to reignite the debate about taking notes by hand or using electronic aids such as laptops, tablets, or phones.  While the article is certainly an engaging and enjoyable read, the research behind the article is not only suspect, it simply ignores the whole body of knowledge around note–taking and learning styles.

Note–taking needs to be taught just as reading, writing, and scientific investigation need to be taught.  Telling students to take notes is probably worse than not saying anything because at least if a lecturer says nothing, the students might remember something interesting from the talk.

In Mueller and Oppenheimer’s study, there is no mention of how students were instructed to take notes.  Teachers already know students try to take verbatim notes, even when hand-writing them.  Laptops by themselves aren’t distracting.  Checking email, having the device beep, chirp, and notify users of everything from dental appointments to when their next class begins is certainly distracting.  I teach middle school, so students don’t usually take notes while viewing Game of Thrones at the same time.  Taking notes without reviewing the material afterwards has already been proven useless in countless studies dating back to at least the mid-nineties.  Whether electronic or hand written, students need to interact with their notes.  They need to rearrange the information into outlines, mind maps, or highlight one side of an argument in red, the other in blue.

The good folks who run high school and college learning/tutoring centers have a whole body of research devoted to this topic.  Consider the guidelines at the University of Minnesota Center for Teaching and Learning or the Note–Taking in the 21st Century Tips for Instructors and Students from Texas Tech University.

Many, if not most, teachers are facile with writing notes and, if older than 25, probably developed some type of handwritten note taking system.  Today’s students learn differently, organize information differently, and store information differently than their teachers did as youngsters.  How many teachers teach note–taking differently?  Inspiration!, one of the early mind-mapping applications seems to have come and gone, yet the idea of teaching kids to clump information has been proven to be far more effective for later recall/studying than bullet points or just writing random thoughts.  Schools using Google Apps for Education have access to mind-mapping add-ons, yet most students are still trying to take electronic notes using only typing skills in empty Google Docs.  Since teachers have little skill using modern note-taking tools such as Notability or Evernote, they are unable to teach these tools to students.

Thanks to advanced brain research, teachers are aware of differently intelligences and different learning styles.  That knowledge should inform how note–taking is taught.  For example, students could focus on a presentation that filled a board with information, take a picture of the board with their phone, then, when given 5 minutes to share with a classmate the implications of the presentation, could summarize and insert the photo into Google, Word, Evernote, etc. for easy access while reviewing the material.

Mueller and Oppenheimer proved that note–taking needs to be taught.  Perhaps the Atlantic article will help focus the spotlight on teaching students not just how to take notes, but how to organize, categorize, and utilize those notes combined the accompanying pictures, diagrams, and color-highlighted text to more effectively learn and access new material.

Works Cited 

Boye, Allison. "NOTE-TAKING IN THE 21st CENTURY: TIPS FOR INSTRUCTORS AND STUDENTS." Texas Tech University Teaching Resources. Texas Tech University, n.d. Web. 4 May 2014. <http://www.tlpd.ttu.edu/home/TLPDCTeachingResources/documents/Notetaking%20Whitepaper.pdf>. 

"Effective Handouts: Using PowerPoint to Guide Study and Encourage Active Preparation." Effective Handouts: Using PowerPoint to Guide Study and Encourage Active Preparation. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2014. <http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/powerpoint/handouts/>. 

Meyer, Robinson. "To Remember a Lecture Better, Take Notes by Hand." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 01 May 2014. Web. 04 May 2014. <http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/to-remember-a-lecture-better-take-notes-by-hand/361478/>. 

MindMeister-iPad. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2014. <http://info.padalog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/mindmeister-ipad.jpg>. 

Today we learned about the Civil War

Part of the Revolutions! unit involves students planning and teaching an activity related to the time period 1600-1920.  Today, three boys treated us to a lesson on Civil War weapons.  Reenactors of the world would be proud.  After a brief deck explaining a bit about weaponry including a rather graphic reenactment of Lincoln's assassination, the boys led the class on a field trip.  At each stop, they had set up a display of rifles or pistols or cannons.  Then, we were led to the Fir Grove where the boys had set up a target, had brought nerf weapons from home and baked mock apple pie for us to enjoy.  It was a glorious way to spend a sunny morning.  Enjoy the pics!

A Year of Change

According to Google, it has been nearly I year since I last posted.  What a year it has been.  In that year, I have tweeted over 400 times.  For so many reasons, I prefer Twitter right now.  There have been a few things rattling around in my brain, and, as Will Richardson probably said once, "Just write it."  I know realize I have a lot to write about, so, look for a few posts closely spaced in the next month or so.  I'll begin with my attempt to move to an all-electronic classroom.

This past summer, I was talking with a friend, and I pulled my phone out of my pocket and asked the question, "What if all the information one needed were accessible from this device?"  My friend and I started laughing.  All the information one needs IS accessible from my phone.  Then I began thinking about how my teaching needed to change.  I informed my division head I would be reserving a cart of laptops for my World Cultures class every period, every day.  Next, I discussed with my ultra-talented IT Director the idea of allowing kids to personalize laptops by assigning them to particular students.  We agreed that since most information would be kept in the Googlesphere, it was easier, from a management standpoint, to keep laptops generic.  Given the middle school proclivity towards ownership, I assigned laptops anyway to discourage kids from using laptops as social bait (I call Orange Papa!)

And, so began the year.  If a word comes up in discussion that kids don't know, somebody looks it up almost before I can ask what the word means.  No more passing out papers, documents are shared with classes either when I create them or just prior to the beginning of class.  No child has ever shown up and asked for another paper or has had to dig through a notebook looking for the elusive assignment.  Completed projects and project pieces have been shared with me.  I comment on them and email students that they should check the comments.  The change was seamless and appropriate.

Ah, I hear you cry.  There must be a dark side.  Of course there is.  I teach seventh graders.  Google's fabulous chat feature, so useful for adults, is candy for seventh graders.  It is very hard for kids to type questions into chat while simultaneously listening to a discussion.  If any reader has successfully integrated chat into their teaching, please let me know.  I'd love to hear the stories.  Students also struggle with naming conventions.  Students who turn paper in with a proper MLA heading share online documents with only generic names, making it difficult for me to track their work.  Next year I will insist on a shared folder with the student's name in which all work is shared.  That will help my work flow, and, I suspect organize life bit more for students.



The highlight of the year so far was FAME, Feudal Asia/Medieval Europe.  Electronic research was accomplished using EasyBib.  Kids navigated notecards and work has never been so properly cited.  The presentations themselves were not overly slide heavy. Most students know that paper posters, models, acting, etc are far more effective than watching slide presentations.  Students took notes on laptops the first two days.  The group that presented on day 3, having realized what a distraction that was agreed among themselves to upload and share all of their research and notes.  It was a paradigm shift.  Students focused on the presentations themselves, not on trying to take notes; knowing that all the information they were taking in was already uploaded and could be accessed from anywhere.  For the FAME Final Fling (Test is so anxiety inducing,) I used a Google Form scored by Flubaroo, allowed full and open access to the Internet, and allowed kids to organize their notes anyway they wanted.  An enterprising young student created a 65 person study group and invited his class to contribute.  While most students took the idea seriously, there were a few social issues that arose, and we eventually suggested the student make his document view only.  Next year, I will probably suggest smaller study groups and may even assign them.

At the halfway point in the year, I am excited to continue the paperless experiment, am still having fun teaching, and think I may even begin blogging more regularly.  Thanks for being patient and allowing me to enjoy a posting pause.  Next on the horizon?  Preparing a Puppet Pals tutorial!

The Tools Work! 23 Google Doc Collaborators

Oh, my, I had no idea it had been so long since I posted.  I guess it's true.  If one doesn't have anything to say.....but, I do now.  Read on, gentle reader....

Catlin Gabel students attended Diversity Day presentations last week.  These seminars, sessions, and presentations were put on by faculty, parents, and students from three local schools.  Middle and Upper School students attended together.  This was my first experience with grades 6-12 in the same room at the same time.  I had proposed looking at different types of calendars.  But what to actually DO?  I didn't want to just talk at students for 50 minutes, I wanted them to be part of the seminar.  Three students stepped forward to help me organize activities.  They became the sounding board and together we planned to have students create a wiki and a Google doc.  I decided to experiment with Haiku, our new LMS.  After setting up the class, I created a wiki project, and enrolled the students in the class.  It will went very smoothly.  Next step was to email the Upper School students asking them to bring their laptops.  Middle Schoolers would use laptops from our mobile carts.  All was set.

After a brief introduction to calendars, I showed students the Haiku page that had links to Wikipedia and the Google Doc I wanted them to complete.  I allowed them to copy and paste interesting facts from Wikipedia, but also asked them to consider linking video, images, and other cool sites about calendars to our class wiki.  I was amazed that it all worked!  I left the blank Google Spreadsheet open on the big screen and watched in amazement as 23 students worked to fill in the document at the same time.  Here's a link:  http://bit.ly/13L6nWY

The wiki took a little longer.....but it worked, too.  In less than 50 minutes, we had created a place for folks who enjoy calendars to collect information.  Here is the link:  http://bit.ly/XCzpHN

Simply amazing!  And yes, one kid chose to focus on stardates...nice.

Snap! Logo creation

Over the last year, I've needed four new logos for units or projects. The good folks at LogoSnap have graciously allowed me to use their really cool tools to create mind-blowing logos. In short, any non-artistic person can use LogoSnap. Artists could too, and then really go to town with their imagination. Creation involves choosing a shape, adding text, then prettifying the logo with color, scale, rotation, etc. Then, download the creation and use it. A wise curriculum guru once told me that units with logos helped kids focus on a unit. They could navigate websites because they recognized the logo and knew they were in the right spot. Seemed simple enough. Each of the units now has its own identity and....you guessed it.....logo. Creation was a snap. Logosnap.

Fun Collaboration

Today I tried something I have been thinking about for a long time.  My colleague, Mike Gwaltney, currently at Oregon Episcopal School, has his students blog on a regular basis.  Ever generous, Mike allowed me to duplicate his site/experiment for my seventh graders.  Today, I asked the seventh graders to read Mike's kids' blog posts and comment on them.  I had no idea if seventh graders would understand the sophisticated writing they encountered.  The closest experience they had was writing their own blog entry and responding to their classmates' blogs.  Not only did they understand it, their comments were spot on!  They responded to topics such as collaborating on a group project, modern political thought, and what online courses have to offer.  What a fabulously successful experience.  I have more respect than ever for this special group of seventh graders, thank both the Age of Ex class and the OSG AP US History cohort for not only reading seventh grade writing, but having the patience to respond and continue the discussion; and once again, thank Mike for pushing me to engage kids in authentic experiences.  What a day!

Revolutionary Celebration

This past summer, I visited Scott Duyan at Presidio Hill School in San Francisco.  I had been reading Alfie Kohn's The Homework Myth, and wanted to chat with Scott about homework, teaching, and life in general.  During our lunch at the delightful Burmese Kitchen, I outlined what I was hoping to accomplish in the coming year.  I was trying to reduce the amount of homework in my seventh grade class and encourage kids to follow Google's model of spending 20% of their time working on projects of interest to the students.  Scott encouraged me to implement the changes, and to, "report out my findings."  Scott, this post is for you.


The biggest success, by far, has been the class blog, CulturesRev. Setting it up involved creating a standard Blogger document, figuring out a color scheme seventh graders would like, and tweaking the sections to fit what I wanted the class to see.  Next, I copied and edited Mike Gwaltney's AgeofEx blog posting, commenting, and author reply instructions.  Mike has a very thorough document explaining to students why they are blogging, and about the importance of tone, audience, accuracy, and research.


The students took the blog experiment seriously.  As I explained the assignment to them, they asked typical "fear" questions such as, "How do I decide what to blog about?" or "Do I have to send the post to you [teacher] first?"  Because our school uses Google Apps for Education and our Middle School art teacher, Dale Rawls, and intern, Shelly Redden, had already begun having kids post value studies and reflections, most kids knew how to post.  Early on, I allowed kids to post about long-term projects, difficulties in starting, procrastination, etc.  After a couple of weeks, posts became more research based.


I would have been satisfied once the entire class posted.  The posts themselves reflect a depth of thought I have seldom seen in seventh graders.  Posting their findings, including links, images, and references became a challenge to students.  If one person found a cool image, the next poster wanted to find two cool images, etc.  I was nervous about the comment phase of the project, and it was fast approaching.  Moderating a public discussion was not something I wanted to do, so I set comments to be public meaning that anyone could publish a comment.  I also explained to students why I would not be commenting on their writing.  If I commented on one person's writing, I would have to comment on everybody's writing.  The kids instantly grasped that my writing "Good job, Joey," 64 times in a variety of ways would not be particularly meaningful.


Instead, students took on the role of commenting themselves.  They reflected writing back to the authors, asked probing questions, encouraged their peers to both write author replies and do more research.  For the project, the minimum number of blog responses was four, but many students wrote seven or more replies, comments, etc.


Reducing the number of assignments and, therefore, the amount of homework in the Revolutions Project did not reduce the quality of learning in the project.  On the contrary, students probably wrote more deeply than in other group completing this project.  For the first time ever, all students turned the project in on time.  My colleagues reported fewer conversations about stress, amount of work, etc. than in previous iterations of the project.  Six students turned in the whole project electronically.  Here is one example.  This project lends itself to statistics, here they are.  64 kids completed 2752 assignments in 59 calendar days.  Students and parents sent me 1477 emails relating to this project.  CulturesRev has been viewed 3654 times and counting.  


It is a good time to celebrate success.  Everybody worked hard, took risks, and pushed themselves to write and think their best.  Thank you, Scott (and others,) for the encouragement to take this risk.  For now, Jasper has the final thought, "Time to sit on the couch and be lazy again."