I'm interested in making the switch to Cornell Notes for my 7th grade social studies class. Last year (my first year,) I used guided notes, which I felt were a little stale, provided too much information, and required no thought on the part of the student. I've done a lot of research, but my only concern is that students will not get all of the information that they will need. Has anybody used these in their classroom, in any subject? If so, how did you model and structure it? Did they prove to be effective?
I have found that you really need to take a few days to teach CN. Give them an example, model, etc. Have you used Newsela? You could print off an article and work together as class, assign another one for homework. Central to the ability to take good notes is being able to identify the main idea and supporting details, so maybe spend some time on this as well.
Yeah, I set aside a few days to teach it, but I wasn't exactly sure how to do so. Newsela is a great idea! Thank you!
Guided notes are basically worthless cognitively. If kids aren't taking their own notes they are doing almost no processing. That said, getting 7th graders to do that is really tough. I model and practice it all year long and still my kids just want to copy. The key to Cornell notes is the follow up step - the interactions through writing questions, marking up the notes and doing a summary. If your school has an AVID program there's a ton of great lessons on Cornell notes on their website.
Agree about the guided notes. I just felt that I was using them so they would pay attention to the lecture, but that's about the only purpose they served. I don't believe my school has an AVID program, but that is something to look into. Now, as far as grading, how do you grade their notes, if you do at all?
You can pick the questions they Answer. I have a conference with each kid and point out if they need to fix or add anything to the notes once they turn them in. I let them know they will not get a grade for incomplete notes. This works for 9th grade
