College Planning: Cornell Note Taking System
By Mimi RothschildHome-school is a great way to encourage active and creative thinking in home-schooled children and teenagers. However, there are some practical skills that children in traditional schools learn which may elude children who have been in home-school. In order for a child who has been in home-school to be successful in college, it is necessary for him to learn some of these skills: one of these skills is in note taking. Note taking is an essential skill that children in traditional schools begin learning in middle school and develop through high school. Children who have been home-schooled may not take notes or listen to lectures as often as their counterparts in traditional schools. However, using the organization and creativity that has been honed in home-school, children who have been in home-school can be more adept and more efficient listeners and note takers.
There are several methods of note taking; one of these is the Cornell Method. The Cornell method of note taking is great for children who have been home-schooled because it promotes and utilizes active learning; a process with which many home-schooled students are already adept. The note taker begins the session by dividing the page into two parts by drawing a line about a quarter of the way in from the left margin. This leaves about 3/4 ‘s of the page. The smaller side on the left hand margin is for the student to write keywords, questions and dates. The other side of the page is for more in depth information concerning the information on the left hand side. The ingenious part of this system is that it easily allows the student to quiz himself on the information. By simply taking a piece of paper and covering the right hand side of the paper, he can think about what the keywords, dates and questions are, how they are relevant, etc. When he has a concept learned, he can simply make a little tick mark on the paper and from then on can simply review the information before a quiz, test, or paper.
This method is great for kids who are in home-school because it allows them the ability to self-quiz. For those who are new to taking notes, the format makes it easy to pick out what the key words and concepts are so that he does not waste time or energy studying irrelevant material. Note taking, like many other skills, can be learned and perfected with lots of practice. Indeed, many home-schooled students turn out to be better listeners and better note takers than their traditional-schooled peers because someone took the time to actually teach the home-schooled child how to properly and effectively take notes. Home-school also breeds longer attention spans and better organizational skills that help with note taking. Soon, your home-schooled child will be taking notes and studying them like it is his second nature.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, children's rights activist, author, and Founder and C.E.O. of online education company Learning by Grace, Inc. Rothschild and her husband of twenty-eight years reside in suburban Philadelphia with their eight children.
Feeling that “our current system of education has broken its promise,” Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. to provide families with Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children all over the world.
In addition to her twenty years of experience as a homeschool mother, Rothschild has written a number of books dealing with education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Home Education Websites Blog consists of helpful online content and activities for Christian homeschooling families.
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