GUIDED

NOTES
by Tatiana MacGregor 

WHAT ARE GUIDED NOTES?

ELLS

build and strengthen vocabulary
develop note-taking and
summarization skills
develop writing skills (Honnart and
Bozan, 2004).
Guided notes are teacher-provided hand-outs that outline lectures but leave blank
spaces for key concepts, definitions, facts, etc. As the lecture progresses, the students
fills in the blanks with the appropriate content. This allows the students to partake in
active listening while also summarizing main concepts or ideas.

HOW DO THEY WORK?

STUDENTS WITH
LEARNING DISABILITIES
Guided notes allow for the student to actively take notes while the teacher instructs.
However, it is necessary to note that the teacher pause intermittently to check for
better serve students who are
understanding in order to ensure that the students are actively participating.
unable to identify the
Checking for understanding can be done through choral responding, response cards, 
important data to note
and/or study cards.
assist students who are not
able to maintain writing speed
assist students to make sense
of their notes (Lawrin et al, 
HOW CAN ALL STUDENTS BENEFIT?
2002).

STATISTICS
78 % of students indicated that
guided notes had a positive
impact (Lawrin et al, 2012).
Post-secondary students are
notoriously poor note takers
and were found to record only
about 50% of the main ideas
during lectures (Konrad et al,
2009).
Guided Notes serve as a way to increase active student responding during lecture
and can lead to student organization and engagement. Because students' translations
of lectures are often incomplete and inaccurate, guided notes allow for students to
develop their own note-taking skills (Konrad, Joseph, and Eveleigh, 2009). As a
result, guided notes allow for students to have more complete notes and maintain a
rich reference for tests, quizzes, projects, etc.
To accommodate to students with diverse abilities, the instructor might prepare
several versions of guided notes. Students to find note-taking most challenging
would be given guided notes that requires relatively minimal writing, while more
skilled note-takers would delve deeper into topics and concepts and synthesize the
appropriate information.
 BRINGING
GUIDED NOTES
INTO YOUR
CLASSROOM
THINGS TO
REMEMBER
GUIDED LECTURE NOTES

Use PowerPoint slides to project

Guided lecture notes are notes distributed to students by the instructor. These notes
key content
provide a skeleton of what is covered in class including key points and results with
Leave ample space for students to
spaces left for students to take notes and/or work problems during class (Clason and
write
Smith, 20
Do not require students to write
too much
Provide a prompt or question at the
CORNELL NOTES
top to activate prior knowledge
(Konrad, Joseph, and Eveleigh,
The Cornell Method provides students with a systematic format to organize notes. 
2009).
The notes are organized by questions and main ideas, notes, and a summary at the end.
Students can use guided notes to create Cornell Notes (Conrad, Joseph, and Eveleigh,
2009).

CHECK FOR SUMMARY FRAMES

UNDERSTANDING

Summary Frames are a series of questions that emphasize a main idea or concept
Lottery incentive within a text pattern. Students answer the questions, and then write summaries based
Choral responding off of their questions.
Response cards
Summary Frames
Exit Slips WORKS CITED

Adamson, R.M. & Lewis, T.J. (2017). A Comparison of Three Opportunity-to-Respond     

       Strategies on the Academic Engaged Time Among High School Students Who             
GUIDED NOTES        Present Challenging Behavior, Hammill Institute on Disabilities, 42, 41-50.
EXTRAS
Clason, D. & Smith, K. (2017). Using Blanks in Guided Lecture Notes, Association for     
       Regional Campuses of Ohio, AURCO Journal, 23, 103-115.
Feel free to add any partially complete:
Konrad, M., Joseph, L.M., & Eveleigh . E. (2009).
graphic organizers
       A Meta-Analytic Review of Guided Notes, Education and Treatment of Children, 
diagrams
       32, 421-444.
maps
drawings
Honnert, A.M. & Bozan, S.E. (2004). Summary Frames: Language Acquisition for
charts
        Special Education and ELL students, Science Activities, 42, 19-29.

Larwin, K.H., Dawson, D., Erickson, M., & Larwin, D.A. (2012). Impact of Guided Notes   
        on Achievement in K-12 and Special Education Students, International Journal of   
        Special Education, 27, 108-119.