Two-Column Notetaking

By Doug Buehl,
Madison East High School teacher
Member, Wisconsin State Reading Association

May 1998

Summarize, then organize key information

A workshop on how to set up a Web page. A genealogical investigation of vital records at a county courthouse. My mother’s recipe for au gratin potatoes. The directions to a track meet in a neighboring city. A classroom presentation on “Multiple Intelligences.”

What do all of the above situations have in common? They all involved notetaking. As you recall instances when you have taken notes recently, you too will probably notice that your notetaking had a very pragmatic emphasis. You took notes because you needed a written record of information that you could refer to and use. Sometimes your notes serve a particular function and are discarded. Other notes are kept as a reference for years.

The Strategy

Students, however, do not tend to view notetaking as a natural way to deal with information. Instead, taking notes ranks as a particularly onerous classroom task for most students, and teachers are frequently disappointed with both the quality and quantity of student notetaking.

Helping students internalize useful notetaking routines involves the following steps.

Step 1: Establish the unreliability of a person’s short-term memory with some classroom experiments. For example, during a presentation, do not cue students to take notes. A day later, quiz them on important information and ideas (avoid “trivial pursuit” items, however). Instead of “catching” students with a “pop quiz,” this activity leads to a discussion of why so much is apparently forgotten so quickly. Share research findings which reveal that people forget as much as 80% of material they hear or read within 24 hours. Emphasize that you would expect poor recall, unless students had access to notes to jog their memories.

This step is essential, because many students assume that motivated listening guarantees that they will remember. In addition, students come to rely on classroom redundancy and repetition of key information by the teacher as a major “crutch” for memory.

Step 2: Introduce the two-column notetaking system (Pauk, 1997). Two-column notes combine the two major activities of notetaking – summarizing and organizing – into an easy-to-use format. (See “Habits” example.) The right side, 6 inches wide, is where information is recorded during notetaking. The left side, 2? inches wide, is reserved for a “cue” column for organizing after notetaking. The bottom 2 inches is blocked off for a note summary.

Have students prepare a sheet or two of paper for two-column notes. (Two-column note paper can also be purchased.) As you present information on a topic being studied, students should attempt to get down notes any way that is comfortable for them, writing only in the right column.

Then, on an overhead transparency, share your notes of the presentation. Ask students to compare their efforts with yours. You will likely hear that your notes are better organized, have abbreviations, and contain more elaboration. As you discuss, model using the left “cue” column by asking what each section of the notes seems to be about. Show students how recording these prompts in the left column organizes key points.

Finally, ask students how they might summarize the entire presentation in a couple of sentences. This summary is written in the box at the bottom of the page.

Step 3: Continue developing notetaking skills by providing opportunities for taking notes, comparing results, and providing exemplary models. Integrate notetaking into classroom expectations, and periodically collect student notes for feedback.

In addition, create frequent classroom situations where students use their notes as an aid for learning. When students realize that their notes are valuable, they are more inclined to take notetaking seriously. For example, sometimes allowing access to notes for quizzes and exams encourages thorough notetaking. This also emphasizes that useful information need not always be memorized.

Advantages

Two-column notes are especially conducive for reviewing.
During study, students can cover the notes, leaving the cue column exposed as a prompt for reciting information.
In addition, students are conditioned to revisit their notes after class, to organize them and identify key ideas.

Further Resources: Pauk, W. (1997) How To Study In College, 6th Ed. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.