5 Creative Note-Taking Strategies for Middle and High School Students

How do you teach middle and high school students to take good notes? How do you help students have fun and stay engaged in the process? If you have ever asked these questions or something similar, you're in the right place! This post shares ideas to help your students develop effective note taking habits. 

1. Use doodle notes for chapter read alouds 

Did you know that there is scientific proof that doodling improves attention to a primary task? Psychologist Jackie Andrade studied a group of 40 people who tried to do the same listening task. He found that the portion of the group that doodled remembered 29% more of the information. Other doodling benefits include stress relief, making connections between ideas, and boosting creativity. 

As students are listening to a scene being read aloud, they can sketch memorable images. This is a fun way for students to visualize scenes from the text. They can also use this template to jot down questions they have and take notes on the characters and setting. 

2. Write chapter summaries for book studies

If you are pacing a class book study over several weeks, it can be easy for students to forget what they read in early portions of the book. Chapter recap notes can provide a quick summary for students to review before assessments, essay projects, and book reports. This reading comprehension chapter note taking guide includes space for students to jot down:

• a list of things they want to remember 
• questions they have 
• a 1-sentence summary of the themes and main events in the chapter 

The skill of summarizing texts is critical for students to learn because it teaches them to identify important ideas, ignore unnecessary details, and recall what they have read. This builds learning habits that can be applied to every subject area. 

3. Create a puzzle to review a book's setting, characters, main plot points, etc. 

This puzzle note taking template is a fun twist on traditional summary methods. Students will be challenged to fill in the puzzle pieces with: 

• setting details 
• character updates
• main plot points
• questions they have
• important quotes 
• predictions about what might happen next in the story 

If your students use this puzzle technique, encourage them to write page numbers that connect with key details. This can save them time and energy if they need to find that information again in the future. 

4. "Brain dump" new information and draw symbols to represent key details

I absolutely love the Cornell Note Taking System. This method was developed in the 1950s by a university professor who wanted to provide a way for students to take concise notes that would help them study later on. His templates involve columns where students can write questions, summaries, etc. 

This "Picture It" doodle and writing note taking sheet is inspired by the Cornell system. Students can doodle three icons to represent what they read in the film squares. Additionally, they will jot down new vocabulary, dates, people, places, formulas, examples, etc. The template will encourage them to avoid writing in full sentences and paragraphs. Instead, they will be prompted to use abbreviations and bullet points to save time and space. 

When you teach this method, I highly recommend using a document camera to model the note taking strategy or showing slides with photos of other folks' note taking. 

5. Decorate an imaginary corkboard by "pinning" important information

So many note taking templates that I see on the Internet are boring. (Just keeping it real!) This playful corkboard-themed template includes:

• Instructions for jotting down keywords, terms to define, questions, study goals, etc.
• A film template where students can doodle three icons that summarize the main points of the lecture

Finally, let your students explore what methods work best for them. 

There's no one-size-fits-all method for education, and note taking skills are no exception! As you work with middle and high school students, try to introduce several different note taking techniques and templates throughout the school year. Encourage students to find a technique that works best for them and makes their studying experience more productive. 

Check out this bundle of note taking templates at Creating2Learn's TPT shop.