Provide Guided Lecture Notes to Emphasize Key Ideas
If your student writes everything rather than synthesizing while note taking
Teach It!
Objective: Guided notes provided ahead of time will help students listen for the most important information during a presentation or lecture.
Direct Instruction: Create lecture notes for your lesson that you will give to students before you present. Create the notes with blanks or cues in multiple spots where the students will fill in, add information or elaborate as you deliver the lesson. Stop to give students time to fill in the notes, as they learn what to do and get used to listening for the key points. Guided notes keep students more engaged in the lecture, particularly during the most important points, as they are actively listening for the information that they must fill in.
Teacher Notes: a) Guided notes make it easier for students, who might not otherwise take good notes, to have complete notes but still develop note taking skills. b) Guided notes can be provided in multiple formats depending on the content and how the student learns. For students with stronger visual reasoning skills, consider graphic organizers and/or visual timelines.
Guided notes are shown to be an effective learning tool, not just for students who receive copies of class notes as provided in their IEPs. Guided notes help students focus and engage with the most important information so they are more likely to remember it.