Tag Archives: notes

Incomplete Outline

Posted on by

The incomplete outline is an excellent way of helping the students recognize the most important or main ideas and the organizational pattern of information given in lecture. It can also be used for the textbook readings/information. Determining the major points can help to sort information and locate the ideas being communicated.

  1. Create a set of incomplete lecture or reading notes in outline format, so some key lines/phrases are missing. What you leave missing from the outline can create a more or less challenging activity, depending on what you need.  For instance, asking students to fill in the word for a definition vs. providing a term and asking them to define it. Or, another example, asking students to label a diagram you provide vs. asking them to draw and label the diagram on their own.
  2. Divide students into pairs or small groups and ask them to fill in the outline together.

Variant: Divide your incomplete outline into sections and assign a different section to each pair or group. Ask the groups to complete their outlines. Once finished, provide each student with their own full blank outline to fill in as groups get up and teach their section’s content to the class. Each group will have a chance to go through and explain their section of the outline. This generates more discussion among the students. Keep in mind, there may be more than one way to fill in missing parts of the outline. 

Notes Review

Posted on by

This is a method of getting the students to work together to review and compile their lecture notes in a complete and organized way. It’s a great warm up activity that you can even utilize every week.

  1. Pair students up (or allow them to choose partners). Alternatively, you could do this in small groups as well.
  2. Ask students to read aloud from their notes. Encourage other students to interject, ask questions, provide missing details, or clarify details about the topic.
    1. Alternative: Ask students to swap notes and read each other’s independently then discuss similarities or differences.
  3. As students find missing parts or holes in their notes, they add to them.

Why do this activity?

  1. Students talk about the content out loud, helping them remember details better
  2. Students can see other styles or approaches to taking lecture notes that may help them better their note taking.
  3. It’s tough to get down all the important details in lecture sometimes. Usually students are missing parts in their notes and/or have some details written down incorrectly. This gives students a space to review and make sure what they’re studying from is accurate and complete.
  4. If students have conflicting information in their notes, it gives you a chance to clarify for them and lead them to finding the correct information.

Variation: Ask students to bring notes in from their assigned class readings and do the same activity.