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Note-taking and Annotation as Learning Tools

Note-taking is often thought of as a basic skill, primarily intended for the retention of knowledge and documentation of research, rather than a creative or critical thinking activity. However, note-taking assignments and activities can provide valuable opportunities for writing as learning and critical practice rather than simply summarization. Structured, guided, or critical note-taking activities can also help enhance students’ comfort and familiarity with reading, especially in discipline-specific texts.

General and Course-long Strategies for Integrating Note-taking

Create a course-long note document or template for students to use throughout the quarter. 

  1. Guide students to have their notes for the entire course in a centralized location, allowing them to refer back to earlier modules or lessons easily.
    • This could be used by students individually or as an ongoing group document for a collaborative activity.
    • This does not need to be complicated or heavily formatted (it may be preferable to keep the formatting to a minimum to encourage or allow different note-taking options).

Have students annotate the syllabus during the first class and the instructions for major assignments.

  1. Use this as an opportunity to highlight key details, focus on key ideas and develop questions.
  2. Refer back to these annotations at key points in the term to help students plan ahead or reflect on completed work, activities, or materials.
  3. For more on using the annotated syllabus as a teaching tool, see here. 

Create incentives for both note-taking and reviewing notes by asking for notes to be submitted as part of the scaffolding for larger assignments, as in-class work, or as brief reflective assignments that ask students to consider how they integrated their notes into a longer assignment.

  1. Consider having note-taking templates or assignments in separate documents from templates or organizers mapping out an entire project.
    • Project organizers can limit students’ initiative for taking notes in an exploratory fashion. (Notes can certainly be included in or added to organizers at a later date, however.)
  2. Consider giving students multiple options for completing and submitting note-taking assignments. 
    • Some students may have learned very rigid forms of note-taking and/or annotation in high school and may need guidance in shifting to new forms. In addition, many students may be confused by assignments asking them to annotate or take notes on an article they find independently (as opposed to one provided in print, as a Google Doc, or as a PDF).
    • Be explicit about what kinds of work you want to see and various acceptable formats students could use to meet that goal. (For example, you might accept a link to an article followed by bullet points or a photograph of a hard copy document the student uploads; you might also link to tutorials for creating PDFs or Google Docs, etc.)
    • Consider note-taking options that match student learning styles. If students are visual learners, for example, a mind map or flow chart might be the best approach for note-taking.

Rather than assuming students come to class with a generalized knowledge of note-taking, or thinking of note-taking as a rote skill to teach with a defined or universal standard of mastery, consider ways of incorporating note-taking into the overall writing and critical thinking process.

  1. Inquiry-based learning by gathering information and directly applying it to an analytical or evaluative exercise 
    • Creating pre-note-taking questions, taking notes, and articulating a response, demonstrating the thinking or interpretive process
  2. Discipline-specific writing skills by emphasizing and highlighting what questions, information, and evidence are key to the specific discipline.
    • Reinforcing important research and information literacy skills with a discipline-specific focus
    • Demonstrating how arguments are formed, such as identifying claims, evidence, interpretation and conclusions in a text
    • Practicing lateral reading, by using note-taking to make structured, evidence-based comparisons of different texts
  3. Interdisciplinary writing skills by emphasizing writing process, active reading, and critical thinking skills building on a student’s developing individual writing process by experimenting with different note-taking techniques and using scaffolding exercises to promote reflection and revision of initial ideas
    • Helping students build confidence in their accumulating knowledge base and ability to prioritize and find new information as savvy scholars and information consumers
    • Creating low-stakes opportunities for students to collaborate and give feedback on an early stage in the writing process.

Ideas to Incorporate Note-Taking for Different Purposes

One potential consideration is that note-taking for knowledge retention and general comprehension can require different (although overlapping) skills than note-taking for analysis or critique. However, both can be incorporated into projects where writing serves as part of the thinking and learning process. Below, you will find some suggestions to consider.

Before a lecture or activity, take a few minutes to compile or create a collective “What We Know/What We Think We Know/What We Need to Know” document, an activity of your design that asks students to assess their current knowledge of a subject and begin generating questions to seek answers to as they engage. There are many different versions of these documents, one of which is the K-W-L Chart.

  • Documents could include closed-ended questions about facts or the source itself; questions to clarify or explain specific points, ideas, or terms; or open-ended questions about debatable or interpretive issues, etc.  
  • Another option could be to ask students to preview a small portion of a text, activity, lecture, etc. and make predictions or generate questions based on the title, subject headings, images, etc.—this can help students anticipate and identify major ideas or concepts without getting overwhelmed with details. This is also an opportunity for students to practice skills to use in their own research for determining whether or not to use a source—"critical ignoring.”

Read a section of the textbook, an article, a video, or your lecture slides and model taking notes, indicating what the priorities for retention should be.

  • Students can then work in small groups to take notes on a similar or continued selection of text, comparing and compiling their choices of what to include.
  • This is a good opportunity to familiarize or introduce students to organizational cues in the textbook (subheads, diagrams, etc.) and to discipline-specific organizational or stylistic norms. 
  • This can also be helpful to students who are used to note-taking in contexts such as closed-book exams that may be very focused on simple recall; direct guided interaction with a text can provide an opportunity for modeling and discussing what information is important to prioritize, or how to use note-taking to “map” a textbook for easier reference rather than memorization.

Give students time throughout a lecture or lesson to individually summarize what they have learned so far or paraphrase material in their own words. Again, this can be combined with a collaborative activity after students have all written an individual summary and can be incentivized as a low-stakes writing activity. 

  • One model for this is CUES+: Cluster main ideas, Use the teacher's cues, Enter key vocabulary or concepts. Summarize quickly and personalize with ideas or symbols; a more detailed breakdown is available in the resources section.

Provide students with a note-taking template in a separate document from an assignment outline or organizer; this template could guide them in developing questions, narrowing down a focus, or interacting with sources before developing a specific thesis statement. 

  • Note: Having this document distinct from the final project or assignment outline can help promote a more open and exploratory research process where students interact with sources and take notes to narrow down a topic or identify avenues of interest before formulating a specific thesis; organizers that specify the exact number of required sources or ask for an articulated thesis early in the process may lead students to engage in note-taking that is focused on “filling in the boxes” as efficiently as possible, rather than using their preliminary research and notes to engage with the ideas first.

Use a “four square” type template for note-taking related to argumentation or developing a thesis that leads the students through questions, evidence, reasoning, and claim analysis as they evaluate a text. 

Consider dividing a longer text into sections and having students work in pairs or groups to take notes on different sections and then compile the results in a shared Google Doc or slide deck.

Ask students to annotate their own writing at a specific point or points during a larger assignment. (For example, students could annotate an assignment organizer or revision guide as a scaffolding step for completing a larger project, or they could annotate an earlier assignment as part of the pre-writing for a subsequent assignment by considering the choices they made, things they might do differently, etc.)

  • Ask students to submit a short reflection or “check-in” during their research process or after an in-class note-taking exercise. This could be done in a Google form or exit ticket where they could be asked about techniques they tried, to include a piece of evidence they found and an idea of how it relates to their project, or some other short survey or 1-2 sentence response focused specifically on how they approached the note-taking task (effectively reading a longer source and drawing out key information, summarizing or paraphrasing, etc.).

Annotation

Although some of these sections have referred to both note-taking and annotation as skills students may be doing simultaneously, annotation specifically can offer ways of interacting directly with texts, working with different voices, genres, and rhetorical contexts, paying close attention to specific questions of language, including discipline-specific vocabulary and norms, interpreting discipline-specific primary source materials, and interpreting text in specific contexts.

  • Consider using Google Docs/Slides or apps like Hypothesis.is or Perusal for group or class annotation activities. 
  • Look for examples of “annotation” as commentary in real-world contexts, such as fact-checking articles, graffiti or protest art, memes, etc.
  • When asking students specifically to annotate, especially early in the course, consider giving scaffolding for particular ideas, terms, or rhetorical strategies you would like them to identify.
  • Ask students to annotate exemplars of student work or real-life examples and mentor texts similar to what they are being asked to write or produce.

Additional Resources for Note-Taking Strategies, Formats, and Activities

These include both suggestions for creating lessons or activities using some of these techniques as well as simply providing options you can share with your students and encourage them to try.

  

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