Note-taking Stations in a Middle School Classroom

Last year I listened to a lot of podcasts. Both of my kids studied virtually so my commute to and from school was lonely. Wisconsin Public Radio and podcasts kept me company.

Some of my favorite podcasts were History Chicks, Stuff I Missed in History Class, Teaching Hard History, Codeswitch, Stuff You Should Know, The Next Big Idea, and The Cult of Pedagogy.

A couple episodes that really stuck with me pertained to the topic of note-taking. Honestly, as a high school teacher, I kind of neglected teaching this important skill. I remember giving tips here and there but I never specifically taught note-taking. I naively thought my students already knew how to do this.

As I enter year four as a middle school teacher, I'm aware that a huge component of my job is to teach skills and give students ample opportunity to practice those skills.

This year, inspired by Jennifer Gonzalez's episode on note-taking stations, I decided to create and implement the idea in my classroom. I did it on the third day of school with both my 7th-grade Geography and World Cultures students and my 6th-grade U.S. History students.

The lesson went well. I'm actually a little surprised by how well it went. We were unable to get through all three stations in one class period but all students were able to learn about and practice two note-taking styles. (Before beginning the activity, I introduced the topic and shared the first few minutes of a video highlighting the following styles: outline, Cornell, and mind maps. I also shared a short video focusing on sketch notes.

I gave my students 10 minutes at each station. I told my students they would practice a different note-taking system at each station. I assigned 2 pages from our textbooks to take notes on. I provided several examples/exemplars at each station for students to reference.

If you want to learn more about the research regarding note-taking and learn more about note-taking stations in your classroom, I recommend both of Jennifer's episodes on note-taking! Definitely worth your time!

Interested in my Note-Taking Slides? You can find them here!

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