How can I help my child take better notes in class?

Even though teachers don’t spend time teaching students how to take notes, it is one of the most important skills for success, especially as your child progresses to middle and high school.

Note-taking will help your child synthesize the information he learns while reading or in class, and will help him keep organized and focused as he studies for exams. Offer your child these key techniques to becoming a better note-taker.

~ The most important component of taking good notes is listening closely. Most teachers give cues, as they lecture, to help students identify key information. Any time the teacher calls information “important,” it is. Suggest that your child pay special attention to definitions and have him write down examples the teacher gives in class and things she repeats. The subjects on which she spends a significant portion of time should be studied the most right before a test.

~ Your child’s class notes should not be a complete summary of what the teacher said. Rather, the notes should be a concise review of the most important information. If your child struggles with identifying information likely to be on a test, tell him to take his notes to the teacher for suggestions on improving his skills.

~ Teach your child shorthand methods for recording information during fast-paced lectures, such as using abbreviations (w/, +, ~) and breaking sentences into shorter phrases.

~ Your child should organize and elaborate on his class notes as he reviews them. Tell him to pick out vocabulary words and key phrases or dates and relate new information from the textbook or current lessons to things learned in previous classes.

~ A good technique for reorganizing notes during review is to draw a line on a piece of paper, leaving more space on the right than the left. Your child can write main ideas, concepts and vocabulary words on one side, and the definitions or supporting details on the other. This makes for easy self-testing.

~ When reading a textbook, have your child first skim the headings and table of contents to get an overall idea of where the text is headed, as well as what the author considered important enough to feature in his headers and subheadings.

~ If your child owns the book, he can use a highlighter, underline, or jot down notes in the margins to aid concentration.

~ Show your child how to use diagrams for tasks from mapping out a math problem to keeping track of all the key characters in a book.

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