Lesson 7: Note Taking and Academic Writing

Attention

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:

  • Demonstrate analytical text reading for comprehension
  • Demonstrate note making ability specific to lectures for comprehension

Teaching

Reading a Book

Click here for a printable guide on how to Read a Book: Rules for Analytical Reading

Meothods of Note Taking

Visit THIS site hosted at the University of British Columbia. Review the videos and the following 4 methods of note taking:

  • Cornell Method
  • Outline Method
  • Mind-Mapping Method
  • T-Method

Still Struggling...Don't Understand the Material?

If you find yourself confused by the material you are reading try these tips:

  • Don't stop immediately, it may be that later in the chapter or paragraph you might read the explanation
  • Consider if the information itself is important to understand the reading
  • Understand that there are no easy ways to comprehend some information...some things are just hard to understand! Don't give up, but it takes work!
  • Focus on any examples that might be provided related to the concept
  • Go slowly!
  • Talk to yourself...out loud! Talk yourself through the words
  • Look up the important words in a dictionary
  • Review back to previous sections
  • Break down the confusing section into parts
  • Draw a diagram
  • Try to consider the overall framework or context of the passage
  • Focus on the parts that you DO understand
  • Make a guess!

If none of this works...

  • Read on...skip it and come back to it later so you can still make good use of your study time
  • Mark the spot in your reading so you can find it later
  • Ask someone who might know
  • Consider that the author may not have written it well
  • Some material is just too hard for you at this time...that is OK...learning is a process of growth and you can grow to enable yourself to understand more and more complex concepts.

Assessment

Lesson 7 Assignment

For this Lesson Assignment download THIS file. It is a short examination of the cognitive theory of Jean Piaget. Read the document and take notes using one of the note taking methods from the UBC site. You coud write this out in a file in MS Word or you can do this by hand and scan the document to send it to me.