What are the best note-taking strategies to get essential information from social studies textbooks or articles?

Question

I am a social studies teacher and academic coach. One of the concerns that I see among students is students not taking great notes in class. It is hard for them to remember key ideas and phrases to prepare for tests and quizzes.

Answer 1

I am on my 20th year of teaching Social Studies and I find it more important that students listen to the material and be actively engaged in the class versus being able to take notes, effectively. I use a tool to take polls (in real time) during the class to keep them engaged and off their cell phones. I find this is a really good way to keep them involved. Also, every couple slides...put a short quiz into the lecture that they can take live. Kahoot has some of these tools.