Chapter 7: Note taking or note making?

I have a tendency to be obsessive compulsive when it comes to note taking. But I wasn't always this way. I remember the specific day that I realized the power of properly taking notes. I was in Mrs. Davis' eighth grade science class at Alexander Junior High school. Up until that point I had never thought of categorizing what the teacher was saying by grouping them together by main topics. Due to my lack of note taking knowledge, I never did very well on tests. I had honestly never even realized that there were sub-categories to the main topic. All of the information was just sort of jumbled in my head with no order to it at all. The two days prior to my note taking revolution I was out sick. I asked one of my friends if I could borrow their notes. She could have majored in note taking! Everything was so orderly and clear to read. I was in shock that the information could be so easy to learn when the proper techniques were implemented to categorize the information. From that day forward I made it my business to take clear notes in all of my classes.

I really liked reading about the different strategies because one of my favorite things to do is organize things. This showed me that there are several ways to make notes your own. I especially liked the part about the importance of these skills for ELL students. I think that so many students are set up for failure because teachers never actually teach them how to take notes!! They are forced to jump straight into figuring it out on their own. For some students, notes are a great way of chunking information so they are not overwhelmed by the big picture when studying for a test. Without a strong foundation, how are students supposed to digest large amounts of information? Was I the only one who was never taught by a teacher how to properly take notes? ...because I feel that it should be one of the focal points of teaching. Most children are not born knowing how to seperate the information given to them into categories.