TEACHING STRATEGIES

How to Teach Note Taking to Students: Strategies That Work

30 April 2025/ By Zineb DJOUB

You’re going too fast!”

I’ve lost count of how often I’ve heard that during class. And no, it’s not because I speed through content—it’s because students are trying to write down every word I say.

While note-taking may seem a simple activity, many students don’t know how to take notes. And we teachers, instead of teaching them how to do this skillfully, often utter the “Take notes!” command.

But, how to teach note-taking more effectively?

In this post, we’ll explore practical ways to teach note-taking to students so that they stop scrambling to copy and start learning to listen, think, and write with purpose.

What is note-taking?

Note-taking is more than simply writing what you hear. It’s a cognitively demanding activity that consists of a complex and simultaneous sequence of mental and physical actions that occur under time pressure. These include:

The process:

• Listening and comprehending the aural input.
• Encoding that information in written form.

 

The product:

• Creating an external repository of information for future study and review (for instance, outline format, mind map, charts, etc.).

 

Researchers have identified two key effects of note-taking:

• The storage effect: This occurs when students take notes that they will later use to help recall or revise the lecture.
• The encoding effect: This is the mental effort of selecting, organising, and paraphrasing while writing notes during the lecture.

 

I’ve noticed that students place more value on the storage effect; they‘re concerned with writing every word the teacher says so they can return to it for revision and understanding later.

But researchers suggest that the depth of encoding—how much mental processing is involved during note-taking—has a greater impact on learning than the storage effect alone.

This means the way students process and reorganise ideas as they write is critical to their understanding and long-term retention.

How to teach note-taking

Research has shown that note-taking generally improves learning by producing greater engagement with content, leading to better retention and comprehension.

Therefore, students need to understand the note-taking process, its effectiveness, and how to further develop this skill.

To teach note-taking more effectively, there are three main steps you can follow:

Step 1: Helping students decide what information is relevant

Students should first learn to decide whether the information is noteworthy or not.

Here are some essential tips to guide them:

#Clarifying the objective of the lesson

Start by explaining the objective of the lesson or what you’re expecting students to learn and do. Show clearly the points you’ll discuss by sharing a detailed outline of the lesson and how you’re expected to proceed.

Research on note-taking shows that being aware of the structure of the lecture helps recall.

Students can also preview the content of a lecture before it begins. For instance, if your lecture is about environmental sustainability, students can read and discuss a short case study about a real-world sustainability project.

This will familiarise them with the content and help them focus on listening and note-taking.

In addition, to get students more attentive and engaged, you can address questions related to this lesson and encourage students to think about them throughout the lesson’s stages and suggest possible answers.

If your students are taking notes from reading texts, make sure to explain the purpose of the tasks or what information is worth preserving.

#Categorising information

As students listen or read, they need to categorise information by asking themselves:

• What type of information is it? Is it a fact (true statement) or an opinion (a belief)?
• Does the information relate to the topic of the lesson?
• Do I need this information?
• Is it necessary to remember it?

 

However, thinking about those questions, listening and simultaneously taking notes can be tough.

Therefore, to facilitate the process, you should adjust your delivery:

• Speak at a slower pace, with frequent pauses for students to process information.
• Use verbal signals (e.g., “This is important” or “You might want to write this down”).
• Chunk information into smaller pieces rather than delivering long, uninterrupted lectures.

 

Another effective way is to provide guided note-taking. This is by handing out outline sheets, information transfer tables, graphic organisers, subheadings or unfinished notes for students to complete while listening to the lecture.

Step 2: Teach students how to organise their notes

As stated previously, a crucial aspect of the note-taking process is the encoding effect, which entails transforming information from a linear format into an organised and patterned structure that makes sense to the note-taker and reflects the significant relationships among the pieces of information presented in the lecture.

Several methods exist for achieving this. For example:

Concept diagrams: Place the topic in a circle at the centre of the page. Then, connect various aspects of the topic to the circle and elaborate on them using lines.

Outline format: Write the main idea or topic first, then include the subtopics or components of the topic, answering questions such as what, why, where, when, how, or who. After that, add supporting statements, such as definitions, explanations, examples, opinions, and proofs that support the subordinate topics.

T-Chart: Put key ideas at the top of the chart, and write bullets in the right-hand column beside each key idea. Remind students to skip two lines after the last bullet beside each key idea to keep their notes organised into paragraphs.

In addition, short notes are better than long notes because they support the note-taker in making decisions about what is important and what can be left out.

This implies that students should use:

• Symbols (such as +, =, →).
• Numbers to organise lists.
• Abbreviations (for example: “e.g.” instead of “for example,” “lag” instead of “language),
• Paraphrase to convey the same ideas in fewer words.

 

Since note-taking is an individual skill, encourage students to create their personalised shorthand system that they’re more comfortable with.

Telling them to organise their notes and keep them short sounds simple, but it’s not nearly enough to help them master the art of note-taking.

It’s important to demonstrate and provide practice (both controlled and independent ones). Here is how:

• Show real examples: Bring examples of different ways of taking notes — both good and poor examples — and discuss with students why some notes are more effective than others.
• Live demonstration: Get one student to take notes during a short lecture and, at the beginning of the next lesson, display their notes (anonymously if needed) using a document reader or projector. Then, collectively discuss improvements.
• Practice chunking: Provide practice activities where students chunk transcripts or reading passages into information units while listening or reading.
• Note-revision exercises: After note-taking, give students time to review and reorganise their notes, adding missed information and clarifying their structure.

 

Step 3: Monitoring note-taking

Studies have shown that students remember more when they review their notes, particularly if they do so during class or while taking a break from reading, rather than waiting until the class ends.

To this end, provide opportunities for students to examine and reflect on their notes. Here is how monitoring could be done:

• Allow time in lectures for students to discuss and compare their notes with their neighbours.
• Give them a checklist (see the example below) to help them evaluate their note-taking process.
• Encourage students, in groups, to study and review their notes. They can create summaries, reports, project ideas or follow-up questions based on their notes.
• Hold group discussions where students share their learning strategies to make effective use of their notes, difficulties they encounter and their needs within the process.

 

Remember! Allowing some pauses in the lecture (or at the end) for students is essential to look back over their notes, reorganise and elaborate them.

 

And that’s how to teach note-taking to students!
The strategies shared in this post can easily be woven into your existing lessons. There’s no need to devote extra time—just use these moments to reinforce learning, check for understanding, and keep students actively engaged.

Stay creative, stay kind, and keep inspiring minds. Until next time!