Encouraging Students to Use Notes for Sense-Making

When my son started seventh grade this year, I quickly noticed a shift in his schoolwork. Assignments were no longer just about completing readings or answering journal prompts. Now, he was expected to take notes in class—a task that seemed straightforward to his teachers but felt impossible for him. One evening, after struggling to review his notes for a science test, he slammed his notebook shut and said, “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to write down! This is useless!”

His frustration was palpable. He was trying to keep up with his teacher’s lesson while writing down as much as possible, only to find he’d lost the thread of the story. His notes were a jumbled mess of half-sentences and unrelated facts.

Why middle school is prime time to sharpen Cognitive skills

For many middle school students, taking notes can feel like trying to catch a waterfall in a paper cup—there’s more information than seems possible to hold on to. But the challenge isn’t just logistical; it’s cognitive. Effective note-taking requires more than writing fast; it demands active engagement with new material. This can be especially difficult for students whose brains are still developing critical thinking and organizational skills.

Research compiled by Erin Stapleton-Corcoran highlights how strategies like summarizing, questioning, and organizing information are more effective than merely recording lectures. While structured approaches like the outline note-taking method and the Cornell note-taking method provide useful frameworks, studies show that no single system guarantees better memory, deeper understanding, or improved application.

This is where the shift from note-taking to sense-making comes in. Note-taking is about capturing information, while sense-making is about transforming it. When students reorganize information in their own words, create visuals, or connect ideas to prior knowledge, they engage in deeper learning processes. Research from the Teaching + Learning Lab at MIT shows that this kind of active processing strengthens understanding and retention, helping students move beyond passive recording to meaningful learning.

6 strategies for shifting from note-taking to sense-making

Rather than treating notes as static records, I encourage students to see them as tools for thinking, exploring, and creating new insights. Here are the six essential principles I share with students to help them shift from seeing themselves as passive recorders into being active learners.

1. Capture the essence, not everything. The first step in effective sense-making is to prioritize ideas over details. To help students engage with the flow of ideas rather than passively transcribing, encourage students to do the following:

• Focus on key concepts, arguments, and relationships rather than full sentences.
• Use abbreviations and shorthand to keep up with fast-paced discussions.
• Develop a personal system for emphasis such as underlining key terms and using asterisks for important ideas.

2. Rephrase the lesson, don’t regurgitate it. Simply copying or repeating information doesn’t lead to real understanding. To truly absorb material, students must take an active role in reshaping it. Small group and all-class discussions after note-taking can help students reshape and remember new information.

Inviting students to paraphrase concepts in their own words, summarize key points as if they were explaining them to a friend, and use metaphors or analogies to make the information more personal and memorable can all help solidify new concepts.

These strategies do more than enhance comprehension—they also build essential communication skills. By regularly practicing rephrasing and summarizing, students become better prepared for writing assignments, class discussions, and exams, where they must clearly express understanding of academic ideas and demonstrate a grasp of overarching themes.

3. Look for connections and patterns. Reviewing and making connections is an essential part of deep learning. After new material is presented, make time for students to be able to revisit their notes and identify themes and patterns that emerge.

Open-ended prompts can help students make connections and think critically about the ideas captured in their notes. Teachers can ask things like “How do these ideas build on what you already know?” and “What are the contradictions or gaps?”

Modeling how to add annotations like margin notes, arrows, brackets, and questions to their notes can also help students identify relationships between concepts and shift from passive recording into active knowledge-building.

4. Bring in background knowledge. One of the most powerful ways to retain new information is to link it to what is already familiar. Teachers can support students in understanding and retaining lessons by anchoring new ideas to concepts they already understand.

The following prompts can help students connect to background knowledge:

• What historical events does this lesson remind you of?
• What kinds of personal experiences have you had with this concept?
• How might this learning be helpful in the real world?
• How does this lesson connect back to our conversation last week about ___?

• Where have you encountered these ideas before?
• In what ways did this concept challenge or confirm what you already knew?

By supporting students in this critical thinking, new knowledge becomes integrated rather than isolated.

5. Draw out ideas. Some ideas are difficult to grasp through words alone. Visualizing concepts can help students make sense of complex ideas. By incorporating one or more of the following activities into sense-making, students have the opportunity to see their learning come to life and teachers can review the visuals for a quick formative assessment.

• Organize notes spatially, such as clustering related points together.
• Break down complex processes into step-by-step diagrams.
• Create mind maps to organize concepts hierarchically.
• Use flowcharts to understand cause-and-effect relationships.
• Add a system of symbols, colors, or highlighting to categorize information in notes (for example, pink for definitions, green for examples, yellow for counterarguments, etc.).

Even rough sketches can activate different areas of the brain and make abstract concepts more concrete.

6. Treat notes as a living document. Good sense-making is an ongoing process, not a onetime task. To deepen their understanding, students should regularly revisit and refine their notes as they gain new insights. This might include merging information from different sources—lessons, books, websites—into a cohesive knowledge base that provides a broader perspective.

Adding personal reflections can also make learning more meaningful. When students connect new material to their interests and goals, they reinforce retention and develop a deeper appreciation for the subject. Encouraging them to see their notes as evolving, flexible tools ensures that the notes remain useful long after the class ends.

At its core, sense-making is about shifting students’ mindsets—from recording to remembering, from input to output, from collection to creation. When students treat their notes as dynamic, evolving artifacts rather than static records, they become agents of their learning. Sense-making not only fuels innovation and critical thinking but also ensures that the knowledge they build remains meaningful and useful far beyond the classroom.