Lecture Maps: Notetaking: Study Skills by James M. Deem

Lecture Maps

THE TIME LINE: Number of columns = 2 Format = Date/Event

Advantages = helps students match events/main ideas to dates. May help students visualize the sequence of events. Disadvantages = not appropriate for history courses concerned with larger themes (and less with sequence of events)

THE CLUSTER MAP: Number of columns = 0 Format = Free-form diagram

Advantages = encourages students to interpret the lecture in a visual way. Allows students to create an organization for unstructured lecture. Disadvantages = student may feel uncomfortable with a free-form approach

An alternative approach to the above notetaking methods is to create a map of the lecture. A map is essentially a diagram constructed during the lecture that represents the main ideas that the instructor presents.
Here are two mapping suggestions: the time line and the cluster map.

The Time Line

A time line may be helpful in a course like history that covers the material chronologically. By keeping notes in a time line, you will be able to visualize the sequence in which events occur.
Step 1. Draw a vertical line on your notebook page. On one side of the line, mark off dates that are mentioned during the lecture. On the other side of the line, describe the events associated with each date.
Step 2. Reread your entire time line as soon as you can after class.
Step 3. Test yourself by reciting the events for each date you recorded. Cover the events column and recite the material from memory. When you know the material for one date, move on to the next date and repeat the procedure.

The Cluster Map

Cluster maps are a highly creative method of notetaking that some students find useful for two reasons. First, they provide an effective technique for recording material that does not have a particular order. This can be material presented in a disorganized lecture, but it can also be material in a well-organized lecture. The instructor may discuss concepts that have a variety of characteristics or parts that don't fit into neat categories. Second, cluster maps are easier for visual learners to recall than notes. These maps are so personal and unusual that the student can remember them as they would a drawing or illustration they created.

Step 1. Record the topic of the lecture in the center of your notebook page. At first, it may help to think of this topic as the hub of a wheel. Each time the instructor introduces a main idea, record it just outside the hub and connect it, as a kind of spoke. Then connect examples and other supporting information to the main ideas.
Step 2. Reread your map as soon as you can after class.
Step 3. Cover one section of material that branches from the central idea. Recite it until you know the material by heart. Then go on to the next section.

EXERCISE

Choose one of the notetaking methods (Informal Outline or Lecture Map) you learned in this chapter. Incorporate at least one add-on (Memory Margin and/or Summary Space). Then use it for one week in any class you select. At the end of the week, answer the following questions and submit your responses to your study skills instructor along with your photocopied notes.

COURSE: ____________ NOTETAKING METHOD: __________

1. Did you have any problems taking notes? What were they?

2. Answer these questions if you chose either the Memory Margin. a. Did you have any problems or concerns with writing questions or key words? What were they?

b. Did reciting your notes make it easier to remember them? Why or why not?

3. Answer these questions if you chose one of the mapping methods.

a. Did you have any difficulty constructing the map during the lecture? Explain.

b. Did you need to supplement your map with any other form of notes? Why or why not?

c. Did you have an easier time remembering the lecture material that you mapped? Why or why not?

4. Will you continue to use this system? Why or why not?

Here's a time line that Francine created while listening to a history lecture:

Civil Rights Movement from 1950-1960
19533		Earl Warren named CJ of Sup Ct/Eisenhower regretted it
19543		May: Brown v Bd of Ed of Topeka: CJ Warren wrote unanimous decision: "separate but equal is wrong"

19553		Montgomery AL: Rosa Parks wouldn't give up seat on bus to wahite man
		--she was arrested --local black leaders met --ML King elected leader --boycott of local bus (1 yr)
1956 3		Sup Ct decides Jim Crow laws are unconstitutional --Jim Crow = segregation laws
1957 3		ML King becomes Prez of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
		Sept: Ark gov stops desegregation in Little Rock Central HS --sent Natl Gd to block black students from entering --Eisenhower didn't intervene --federal ct finally stopped Natl Gd
1958-9 3		Little Rock closed all public high schools to avoid desegregation

(based on Norton/et al, A People & a Nation. Houghton Mifflin: 1990)

Notice that Francine placed the main events discussed in the lecture in sequential order. She included additional information under each main heading, using a format similar to the Informal Outline method.

Here's a cluster map that Dwight took on the coping lecture shown on the Informal Outline page. The map begins with the central idea (coping/stress) and relates to it the other ideas presented by the instructor.