Ch. 7 Taking Notes and Making Notes

The two ideas I found most important in this chapter are 1.) students are more likely to take notes when they don't feel challenged in a way that they will be graded on the notes they take and 2.) students must first realize that notes can be useful to them before they appreciate the importance of notetaking.  It is proven that when students know that someone else will grade or judge what they are doing, they are less likely to want to do whatever it is they will be graded or judged on.  This is true with notes also.  If a student knows that the teacher is going to take up their notes and give them a grade on them or fuss at them for not doing them right, they are not going to want to take notes at all.  Teachers have to let students know that they want them to take notes during lectures, but for their on good, not to be viewed by anyone else.  This is not to say that teachers shouldn't check notes.  Teachers should check notes just to make sure students are listening, not to give students a grade on them.  Secondly, students trully have to see the benefits that notes can have before they feel it is important to take notes at all.  I know as a student, I don't take notes unless I know the information will be on a test or I really need it.  This is also true for elementary students, they do not want to do something if it is not going to benefit them. 

Another thing that stood out to be in the chapter was the section on notetaking in mathematics.  In this section it talks about how the teacher tells his class to take out a sheet of paper, everyone will be taking notes.  This gives the entire class a anxious and uneasy feeling, until the teacher says "I will tell you what you need to write", and he proceeds to give them a heads up on the information he thinks they need to write down.  This is a great procudure to use when students are just beginning to learn how to take notes.  Teachers can sort of guide them on what they do and do not need to write down, and then gradually they can listen on their own for what is important enough to write down in their notes and what is not so important.  When I read this I was thinking how I wished one of my teachers in elementary school would have done this,  because I would be a much better notetaker now.  When I was in school I was not taught how to take notes at all. 

Questions:
1.)  Why isn't teaching notetaking skills emphasized more in elementary and middle school?  If it was students would be doing better in highschool classes..
2.) In the book it shows how to do an assessment on notes, why would we want to assess students on notes if they are taking them for themselves?  It seems like this would put more stress on students if they are being graded on notes.