These days, the modern education system has changed much of the teaching and learning methods that were employed before.
Now, the presence of creativity is an essential component in everything related to education. Note-taking is a boring activity for many, but it is extremely valuable when it comes to studying for your exams.
So, here are some creative methods to take notes in a classroom.
Color Coding
Using pens of different colors for certain portions of your notes can enhance their appearance. In addition to that, this practice helps you categorize the various portions of your notes according to their importance.
You can assign a specific color to each portion according to the importance of the content, and then use it every time to write such content that fits the same category.
This way, you can figure out what information is extremely valuable and must be memorised, what is less valuable but must be read thoroughly, and so on.
In this manner, you get to choose how to read your notes. If you read them according to the color coding, they can be easier to comprehend and memorise.
Highlighting
If you highlight the key parts of your notes, you can easily memorise them. When rereading your notes, you can quickly spot the important points and remember the topic and its basic concept. Highlighting helps you focus on what is crucial to understand your topic.
This helps you revise whatever you have learned in class without going through the notes of the entire lecture.
Summarizing
When you attend a lecture, it is natural to note down every piece of information that your lecturer imparts to you.
However, reading all of that information while reviewing your notes is not practical. So, it is better that you write a summary of the topics introduced in class according to your understanding.
When you summarize a topic, you can remove all the unnecessary information and focus on the essential parts.
You don’t have to learn everything that is discussed in the lecture about a topic; only a summary will suffice.
So, making your notes with a summary of the topics can help you review them in a better way.
Using Mnemonic Devices
Mnemonic devices like rhymes, acronyms, storytelling, and more can be very helpful when creating notes. They can be both a creative teaching method and a learning tool.
They are aids to your memory so that you can remember important information easily. By using a mnemonic device, you can memorize the information quickly.
It is an excellent tool for note-taking for this very reason. Students make notes so that they can review what was told in the lecture and then learn it for their exams.
If there is a way to make that learning process quick and easy, it is something a student must try.
Writing Personal Remarks
What you think of the topic is as important as what the lecturer thinks of it. Your opinion and remarks help you to better understand the topic.
It is also a great help when you are revising said topic because you can understand your thought process easily.
So, if your notes include your personal remarks, you can quickly grasp the topic that contains such remarks.
Dividing Topics
It is essential that you divide your notes into different sections according to the topic as well as the category of the topic.
This helps you to keep them separate in your mind when you review the notes. You are able to search easily for information regarding a certain topic when you have it neatly divided.
This keeps your notes organized and enables you to create a topic-wise plan of study without getting distracted.
Mind Mapping
The concept of mind mapping has been introduced to make one’s thought process clear and orderly.
If you use mind maps in your notes for any topic, you are bound to understand it better than a topic without a mind map.
Once you visualize the entire map related to the topic, you are able to remember it better.
Mind maps allow you to dive deep into the topic and its relationships with different key points. Once you know how everything relates to each other, you get a better grasp of that topic.
This is why mind mapping is a great tool to complement regular note-taking to enhance your learning.
Creating Flashcards
Flash cards are an excellent addition to your notes. They are, in themselves, a form of note-taking and a creative learning method.
You write down the important points on one side of the cards and then the explanation related to them on the other.
Using such a method ensures that you are able to understand the topic quickly. Flash cards also help you remember the key points easily.
This allows you to revise your notes in a thorough manner just by reading the cards.
Making Questions Out of Topics
A great way to make sure your notes help you remember the topics is by making questions out of them. When you know the kind of questions that can be framed from a certain topic, you can study them and give proper answers.
The questions that you frame show you what parts of the topic are important, and they also help you practice writing answers for them.
This exercise is a great way to build your understanding of the various topics and memorize their key parts.
Creating Sketchnotes
It might not be a conventional method of note-taking taking but it sure is an effective one. Visual aids make for excellent memory aids and also help you to gain a clear understanding of the concepts.
So, creating sketches of different kinds along with written notes can lead to better memorization.
Sketches not only make your notes look fun and even aesthetically pleasing, but they also function. Because of the attention-drawing ability of sketches, your eyes instantly search for them in the mass of the written content.
This leads you to remember them and, in turn, the topic to which they are related in a better way.
The Bottom Line
These are some of the most creative ways of note-taking that can be used in a classroom.
A school, be it The Best School in Agra, Delhi, or any other city, is not completely working on the principles of modern education if it does not apply such creative methods in both teaching and learning processes.
