PaperToolsPro™ for Learning Course Content

by Managing Class Notes

 

PaperToolsPro™ provides a format for students not only to transform handwritten class notes and readings from textbooks and collateral material into learned information, but also to review entered notes in preparation for a test.  The following will assist students to take control of learning course content by using PaperToolsPro™.

 

Ideas Page:

Use the Ideas Page to

• pose questions
• give focus to note taking
• list ideas to discuss with other students or the teacher at the next class session
• list the important ideas to create a scaffold of information
• generate the big picture of the course content

 

Notes:

Enter note card information to

• review and reinforce information learned from handwritten notes and reading textbooks and collateral material
• prevent the necessity of relearning information forgotten within 24 hours of class
• enter notes from class and reading assignments in own words with descriptors and up to 3 keywords in order to analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and transform information
• identify the source of all information

 

Review notes:

Use Organize Notes page to:

• review all notes copied on the Clipboard
• sort notes by keywords on the Clipboard

 

Prepare for test (examples):

Review notes on Clipboard by choosing keywords that designate unit names:

• For example, if a student takes class and textbook notes about the Jazz Age in preparation for an American history unit by that name and notes were entered using “Jazz Age” as a keyword,  all those note cards with “Jazz Age” as a keyword can be put on the Clipboard for review. 
• For example, student in an American literature class preparing for a test on The Great Gatsby may want to review those same notes to understand the historical basis of the novel.  Therefore, notes do not become specific to one unit or to one course, but they become part of students’ knowledge bank. 

 

Why this method works:

Research in cognitive psychology has discovered how we enter sensory data into short term memory (STM) and transform it into long term memory (LTM) as well as why we forget information.

 

The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve reveals that we forget new information rapidly unless we review it. 

After 20 minutes, we recall 58.2%

               1 hour                          44.2%

               9 hours                        35.8%

               1 day                           33.7%

               2 days                         27.8%

               6 days                         25.4%

             31 days                         21.1% (1)

Clearly, even good notes and highlighted text that are reread the night before a test do not contribute significantly to learning information.  Reviewing notes 10 to 15 minutes a night can improve student learning and understanding.

 

Additionally, highlighting notes or text in a book or printout do not engage students in active learning nor transform the content into a new format.  Neural connections occur only when students actively process new information and transform it.  Reading or listening alone do not induce active processing of the information; we learn only 10% of what we read and 20% of what we hear. Therefore, adding new notes on a daily basis to those already entered into PaperToolsPro™ will bring information into students’ LTM

• by associating new information with old information through keywords
• by repeating and rehearsing all information
• by actively thinking about, summarizing, and transforming information into students’ own words and into their own organization to create a scaffold of information on which to build new learning
• by monitoring what they know and do not yet know
• by listing questions at the time students interact with their notes so they remember to search for answers on their own (metacognition) or to discuss in class (we learn 70% of what we discuss with others)
• by putting students in charge of their own learning.

 

Poor learners are not in control of their learning because they do not set goals, do not know whether they understand information, do not have a variety of flexible strategies to improve understanding, may not know if and why they fail, and thus feel helpless and defeated.  Cramming the night before an exam does not induce learning or success on the exam.

 

The Report of the National Reading Panel advocates the use of strategies that teach students metacognitive skills, questioning strategies, and summarization skills.  These strategies should engage students in the active process of consciously transforming what they are learning into organized information for understanding and long term memory retention (2).

 

 PaperToolsPro™ provides all students, successful and struggling, with a format to enhance learning course content.

 

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(1) Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve. Retrieved 05-AUG-2006, fhttp://www2.psych.purdue.edu/~ben/285su2001/notes/figures/5-forgettingcurve.htm.

 

 

(2) National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.