P2: Norma

Introduction
In this essay I’m going to focus on note taking. For me note taking is one of the biggest and most important ways of learning. When I do it I only try to write the most important stuff. I am a visual learner so it is very important for me to take notes.The main reason that I wanted to do note-taking is because for me is one of the most helpful sources I have when it comes to studying. I always try to write everything down. My question is Does taking notes affect the way we learn? My answer is it depends on your learning strategies and what is affective for you. For a lot of people writing helps them to study, others just by hearing what the teacher says. But what is good note-taking? For me it involves both a good summary and your own knowledge, and of course what the teacher says. A lot of people use different kinds of strategies while doing their note. What works for me is having everything in different colors, so when it is time for me to study it doesn’t look boring. In this research I’m going to do an experiment and an interview afterwards.So my topic basically is how note-taking and how it helps you in your learning, and if it is effective.
Literary Review
I couldn’t find articles that their main point was notetaking but the first article that I chose is Haas and Flower. They talk about how reading is both rhetorical and constructive. You might think that this is not really about how to take notes. But because I found notes a type of reading that we do even if we don’t notice it. They also say for a student to understand a text better they use their own knowledge of the topic. And it is just like note taking, maybe you don’t understand everything the teacher is saying when you’re writing your notes, so your use your own knowledge and put it in your own words. The second article that I chose is Downs and Wardle and they say that in order for us to understand writing we have to study it. And I totally agree, teachers are the ones that need to teach us about the writing and reading disciplines. Just like note taking we need to know and learn how to write better notes and just have the essential in them. The third article that I chose was from Janet Emig and she talks about the importance of writing in our school lives, like the notes that we take are a big part of me and my classes. They are very interesting articles but I chose Haas and Flower as the main one because I think it has a little bit more to do with my idea about note taking.
Connection Piece
The three articles that chose have different but very interesting points of view, and they don’t necessarily talk about note taking, but they have a little do with it. Like Haas and Flower, they talk about reading, and when you’re doing your notes you might not notice but you are reading. Downs and Wardle talk about how writing is universal but that is just one example of a misconception. And that content doesn’t matter but grammar does. And is just like when you are writing your notes you might write them all pretty with a very extensive vocabulary, but you don’t write the most important things, then how are you going to learn or study? Note taking is all about the content. Also they say that writing is a discipline. Like notes we need to know what they are all about and rules, their rules might be on how to take good notes, and what exactly is good note taking? You have to pay attention on what your teaching is saying, you might not want to write everything down, just they important things, and they shouldn’t be very long. They can just have keywords and their meanings. At the end they might not look very pretty but what’s important is their content.
Methodology
For my research I’m planning on doing an experiment. This experiment will be to test whether note taking helps you. I want to do it on a couple of people, from 3 to 5. I will give them a video. And give them the option whether to take notes or not. Then I’ll have them write a summary of what they learn and maybe a couple of questions about the video. After that I’m planning on doing an interview and ask them how they feel about the way their notes helped them while writing their summaries, their struggles, etc. But I’m still not very sure about the interview part. I feel like this experiment will help me answer a lot of questions I have when it comes to note taking, like for example, do notes really work? maybe not for everyone. We all learn differently. For some people notes are just a waste of paper and time, and for some others notes are super essential, and are the most important study tool. I’m not sure about the interview part because a lot of people lie, and say what they think is the best answer for them. So I don’t think it’s a very accurate tool.
Research Data
For the research I did two things, an experiment and an interview afterwards. For the experiment I had five people watching a video about photosynthesis. I gave them the option to take notes. After they watched the video I asked them to tell them what they learned. I told them that if they wrote notes they could just read it. Four people took notes. The other person chose not to because he already knew about the topic. So after that I talked to them individually, and asked them why did they take notes? Four of them answered that they always take notes and it really helps them when it comes to studying. The other person answered that he doesn’t like to take notes and they don’t really work for him. I also asked them if they take notes during their classes. Some answered yes and some answered no, but they get them from a friend. We all have different techniques when it comes to learning. For some of us taking notes is very essential and they work really well for me. I liked my results, at the beginning I thought they were all going to be the same, and no, we all learn differently.
Research Analysis
Based on my results I can conclude that we have different strategies when it comes to learning. When I was doing my experiment the one person that didn’t take notes was because he already knew a lot about the topic of the video. Maybe if he didn’t know anything about it he would have notes. The fact is that we need some kind of notes in order for us to memorize or know about a topic. We might not do our notes the same way, like people write just keywords, and a very short explanation, while some others write a lot. But the question, what is good note-taking? Came to me. I can say it in my own words but I don’t really know if that’s the correct meaning. For me good note taking is having just the key points, a little summary of what they were about, and markers so my notes look color coordinated, but that is just me. I think that it depends on the person, like for me that I have everything in color I do it because I learn visually, so in order for me to read something it has to have color, so it doesn’t look boring.
Conversation Piece
What I found by the end of the research was that my hypothesis was right, we all have different strategies. When I was doing the experiment people were writing their notes differently. And I was observing how they were writing them, like when the video was remarking something some people wrote that but others didn't. Now I can say that I was kind of right.