The objective of this unit is to encourage students to prepare for lectures and to maximise their value in terms of knowledge acquisition.

This unit offers advice on how to prepare for a lecture, how to identify key points and make useful notes, and how to revise notes following a lecture. It also includes a listening activity on how children learn to talk, giving students the opportunity to practise note-taking and to compare their notes with a model answer.

This unit is designed to be accessible to all students in this age range, so that while the language is kept relatively simple, the content is appropriate to all.

The activities are divided into three distinct sections that address how students can prepare before the lecture, the attention and skills required to maximise learning during the lecture, and the revision of material after the lecture.

Students may find the concept of preparing before a lecture the most difficult to grasp. Teachers can use this opportunity to make a regular feature of this activity, setting some research work to be done prior to any new topic to reinforce this point.

There is an extended series of activities here to support the skills of note-taking, and a short audio exercise that simulates a real lecture for students to take notes from. The emphasis is on finding a style that suits the individual. Stages include being aware of clues that suggest what is important and needs to be recorded in lectures, the actual note-taking itself, and an opportunity to compare their own notes against a model answer.

Extension

• You can help students to establish preparation as part of their learning patterns by giving them a list of new words to learn about, or a book to research prior to starting a new topic. Before starting the lesson, do a short brainstorm of students' collective knowledge from their research.
• Remind students that every time they listen to a talk or to a video, they should be taking notes. Ask students to swap notes with each other to see what they might have missed out or have added. Give them plenty of practice and make a feature of this as a discrete skill. Stress how important this is for all subjects.
• Ask for notes to be handed in from time to time and encourage organisation or materials.
• Review the usefulness of making notes after tests or examinations. Encourage discussion of why some notes have worked successfully and why others did not.
• Use this unit together with other materials in this series, in particular, the units on 'Learn from lessons', on 'Note taking' and 'Revision'.