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Guided notes are instructor-prepared handouts that provide students with background information and standard cues with specific spaces to write key facts, concepts, and/or relationships during the lecture. Guided notes (GN) require students to actively respond during the lecture, improve the accuracy and efficiency of students’ notetak- ing, and increase students’ retention of course content. GN can help organize and enhance lecture content in any discipline or subject area. Instructors can develop GN for a single lecture, for one or more units within a course, or for an entire semester-long course. GN follow the principles of Universal Design for learning – they improve learning for all students.
What Are Guided Notes?
Some Pros and Cons of the Lecture Method
Lecturing is one of the most widely used teaching methods in higher education. The format is simple and straightforward: the instructor talks (and illustrates, demonstrates, etc.) and students are held responsible for obtaining, remembering, and using the most important content from the lecture at a later time—most often on a quiz or an exam.
Advantages of lecturing:
Although some educators consider the lecture method outdated and ineffective, it offers several advantages and reasons for its continued use (Barbetta & Scaruppa, 1995; Michael, 1994).
- Lecturing is an efficient use of the instructor’s time. A good lecture can be presented from one semester to the next, subsequent planning and preparation time limited to review and update. - Lecturing is versatile. It can be used with large or small groups, for any curriculum area, and can last from a few minutes to several hours. - The instructor has complete control of course content. When lecturing the instructor has complete control over the level of detail and degree of emphasis with which course content will be covered. - Lecturing enables coverage of content not available in published form. For example, findings from just-completed or on-going research projects may be presented to students via lecture. - The lecture method can be used to supplement or elaborate course content. Content that is particularly important or difficult for students to learn directly through text-, web-, or field-based activities can be highlighted during the lecture. - The lecture method provides flexibility. The instructor can probe students’ understanding and make on-the-spot adjustments to the lecture if warranted. - Lectures can be personalized. Instructors can tailor lectures to meet students’ interests and backgrounds. - Lectures can be motivating for students. Students can see and hear their instructor’s level of enthusiasm for and commitment to the discipline. For more information please visit the UNLV Disability Resource Center website at unlv.edu/studentlife/drc
NOTE: This tip sheet is available in alternate format upon request. Please call the DRC at 702-895-0866.
Developed by William L. Heward The Ohio State University Partnership Grant Improving the Quality of Education for Students with Disabilities
This publication is funded by the U.S. Department of Education under grant #P333A020033-03. The Ohio State University Parntership Grant Improving the Quality of Education for Students with Disabilities
FACULTY TIP SHEET
guided notes
Improving the Effectiveness of Your Lectures
Guided Notes
Disadvantages of lecturing:
The lecture method also poses some significant challenges for students and instructors.
- Course content is often presented via lecture in unorganized and uneven fashion. This makes it difficult for students to determine the most important aspects of the lecture (i.e., What’s going to be on the exam?). - Students can be passive observers. The typical lecture does not require students to actively participate. One of the most consistent and important educational research findings is that students who make frequent, relevant responses during a lesson learn more than students who are passive observers. (Brophy & Good, 1986; Fisher & Berliner, 1985; Greenwood, Delquadri, & Hall, 1984). - Many college students do not know how to take effective notes. Although various strategies and formats for effective notetaking have been identified (e.g., Saski, Swicegood, & Carter, 1983), notetaking is seldom taught to students. - The listening, language, and/or motor skill deficits of some students with disabilities make it difficult for them to identify important lecture content and write it down correctly and quickly enough during a lecture. While writing one concept in his notebook, the student with learning disabilities might miss the next two points (Hughes & Suritsky, 1994). - Instructors sometimes get off-track from the primary content and objectives of the lecture. Professors—especially those who really know and love their disciplines—are famous (infamous!) for going off on tangents during lecture. Although anecdotes are interesting and provide enriching context, they can make it difficult for even the most skilled notetakers to determine the most important content.
Why Use Guided Notes?
Guided notes offer benefits for students and instructors:
- Students produce complete and accurate lecture notes. Students who take accurate notes and study them later consistently receive higher test scores than students who only listen to the lecture and read the text (Baker & Lombardi, 1985; Carrier, 1983; Kierwa, 1987; Norton & Hartley, 1986). Inaccurate and incomplete lecture notes are of limited value for subsequent study. GN can help level the playing field between students with and without good notetaking skills. - Students’ active engagement with course content increases. To complete their GN, students must actively respond to the lecture’s content by listening, looking, thinking, and writing. - Students can more easily identify the most important information. Because GN cue the location and number of key concepts, facts, and/or relationships, students are better able to determine if they are getting the most important content.
“Guided notes are wonderful, especially during a lecture. They clue you in on what is important.” – College student with learning disabilities.
Guided notes take advantage of one of the most consistent and important findings in recent educational research: students who make frequent, lesson-relevant responses learn more than students who are passive observers do.
Guidelines for Construction and Using Guided Notes
Constructing an initial set of GN is easy; especially for lectures that have been developed previously.
- Examine existing lecture outlines (or create them as necessary) to identify the most important course content that students must learn and retain via lectures. Remember: less can be more. Student learning is enhanced by lectures with fewer points supported by additional examples and opportunities for students to respond to questions or scenarios (Russell et al., 1984).
- Delete the key facts, concepts, and relationships from the lecture outline, leaving the remaining **information to provide structure and context for students’ notetaking.
- Insert formatting cues such as asterisks, lines, bullets to show students where, when, and how many** facts or concepts to write. For example, the box below might be included on the first page of GN.
Explanation of Symbols in Guided Notes Write a definition, concept, key point, or procedure next to each bullet, asterisk, star, or numbered circle.
Fill-in blank lines with a word or phrase to complete a definition, concept, key point, or procedure.
The pointing finger comes into play when you revciew and study your notes after class. It is a prompt to think of and write your own example(s) of a concept or idea for applying a particular strategy.
Big ideas are statements or concepts with wide-ranging implications for understanding and / or applying course content.
X Ï Ì x
_____________
Big Idea
- Use PowerPoint slides or overhead transparencies to project key content. Visually projecting the key facts, definitions, concepts, relationships, etc. that students must write in their GN helps ensure that all students access the most critical content and improves the pace of the lecture.
- Leave ample space for students to write. Providing about three to four times the space needed to type the content will generally leave enough room for students’ handwriting.
- Do not require students to write too much. Using GN should not unduly slow down the pace of the lecture. Two studies found that students’ exam scores for lectures taught with GN that could be completed by writing single words and short phrases were as high as their scores on tests over lecture taught with GN that required more extensive writing to complete (Austin & Sasson, 2001; Courson, 1989).
- Enhance GN with supporting information, resources, and additional response opportunities. Consider inserting diagrams, illustrations, photos, highlighted statements or concepts that are particularly important (e.g., Big Ideas), and resources such as bibliographies and websites into GN. Sets of questions or practice problems interspersed within the GN give students additional opportunities to respond and receive instructor feedback during the lecture.
- Make GN available to students via course website and/or photocopied course packets. Many instructors are understandably concerned that making their lecutre notes available prior to class will reduce attendance because students will assume the notes contain all the information they need. However, distributing GN before class may give students an incentive to attend class in order to complete the notes.
