Study Techniques: speed notes

Perfect for summarising in 7-10 minutes what you have learned on a topic, etc. at the end of a lesson.  

How you can boost your grades with great note taking skills

This pretty much sums up everything you need to know to succeed at your studies. Three note taking styles are explained here and, crucially, how and why you need to review your notes, once a week for DEEPER LEARNING and doing fantastically well in exams! 

Any student who did half of what is suggested in this video must improve their grades.

Notetaking is like Texting: you process information for its key points and ideas

Several students who reviewed their academic year recognised the importance of taking good notes.  That is, knowing the key points to make and writing notes in a condensed form. This teacher makes an excellent point on the relationship between text messaging and note-taking. Students have to make decisions many times a day and PROCESS the key/main points in their text messages. 

I've been pushing the Cornell method of making notes with my students and it is an excellent method for making effective notes which great for revising for exams, etc. I'll post a template for this type of note taking soon.

Reading and note-taking for "Captain Corelli's Mandolin"

Class 13A English A2 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
Read chapters 7-11 (inclusive)
Annotate your texts and write a few paragraphs for each chapter on the following:

1. The theme of relationships and connected themes, i.e. various forms of love, education, fate, honour, madness, history, the past, position of women, waste, etc.

2. Structure form and language
Structure
(Is the chapter dramatic? For instance, is there a sequence of events leading to a powerful conclusion?
Does the chapter: set out a series of problems and seek to resolve them? Does it involve questions and answers? Involve Cause and effect? Have thesis, antithesis, and synthesis? Is the structure logical? Does it involve the contrast of time? Is it a summary?)

how and why the following are used:
· styles of narration and attitude and values of narrators
· Use of language/vocabulary
· parallel narratives; balance of dialogue/description
· the purpose of chapters in the overall narrative:
(for instance, the presentation of historical events, counterpoint, the
introduction or presentation of characters and their dilemmas;
· the presentation of characters through dialogue, description, imagery,

events and symbolism associated with them.

3. Points that could be made about the historical and literary contexts through the use of background events and incidents affecting the characters:
from the time in which events are set – the early 1940s to the early 1990s
from the time in which the novel was written.
(i.e. events in the Balkans in the early 1990s – the civil war in Bosnia and the West’s early reaction to it.)
( i.e. post modernism, polyphonic novel, magic realism, etc.)