Guided Notes

As an activity for improving note-taking accuracy, guided notes provide the students with an improvement in academic performance in the classroom. This activity also improves the engagement of the students during a lecture or lesson.

Often times students don’t know how to take notes or what to take notes on. Guided notes help the students to take the necessary information out of the lecture for success in the class.

Implementation

Below lists the steps you can take to implement this teaching strategy into your course.

  1. Create an outline of the lecture. 
  2. Strategically omit important information from the outline, providing blanks for students to fill during the lecture.  
  3. Make copies of worksheet or post to Canvas.
  4. Present the lecture and have the students fill out the guided notes.

Variations

Guided notes can also be used effectively for taking notes while reading text. Give open-note quizzes over the material and require students to turn in their guided notes with their quiz to earn extra points.

Reference

  • Persky, A. M. (2012). Pocket guide for evidence-based instruction. Educational Blueprints, LLC. 

Additional Resources