Taking Notes in school

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when I was in late-elementary and middle school, I had a few teachers would would always terribly get in my case as I would not take notes in class during a lecture. My teachers had an ally in my parents, as my parents thought one factor in my poor grades was that I wasn't taking notes and "writing the information down."

I've never been able to take notes in class, as if I have to think about writing something and multitasking like this (for appearances sake,) then I can't focus at all on what the teacher is saying. I can't process or really internalize the content if I have to think about pen+paper and scribbling down the information. When I was about 11, the authorities were so upset that I wasn't doing "what every other kid was doing," that they would check my notes, so I had no choice but to struggle to keep up and write down everything perfunctorily, and I could not enjoy the lesson (which I did in subjects like history)

When I was a young boy and had lots of authority figures hell-bent on "conforming" me, it was like I had to scribble endlessly even if it was just "to be like everybody else." The thing is that then I was so focused on having to write just to make people happy, that I missed the one chance I had during a lecture to actually really focus on and take in, and enjoy the information.

Also, I found note taking redundant as most of the same information was already in the textbook for reference.

I felt mabye the teacher was just upset if I was just sitting there looking at him and not slaving away like a good scribe, or something.

Redacted

During the whole of my GCSE years, I never took notes and I got mostly good grades. Honestly, some peoples' minds just work better without having to take notes, and teachers need to respect that.

This kind of thing is really annoying - making a kid conform to something that is just done even if it harms the kid's learning to do it.

Possibly, when I was in school, there was no conception about AS from the teachers, so it was always....... "one of these things is not like the other" (groan)

Personally, I can only ever learn 1 thing at a time, and most of my notes were rubbish nonsense to me anyway, as I found the text in a textbook far easier to understand then the crap I had hurriedly scribbled.

my brain was closed off from trying to do 2 things at once and "maintain appearances" I was writing down what the teacher was saying in a rote manner, but I was putting no thought into his words or really trying to understand them. Had i been able to stop the writing action, I could have really processed what he said and then been able to really have that information "stick" and draw it out later.

I'm sorry this is off topic but...Since when do little kids need to take notes?

This is an executive functioning issue and it's very common among autistics to have trouble with on-the-go multitasking.

^ I think the purpose is to train NT kids in multitasking.

The bigger underlying purpose is to train kids between ages 10-14 in the acts of multitasking. It doesn't matter so much if they learn the immediate information in the lesson, but they learn how to take notes and master this dual-brain function.

^ I think its somewhere in the middle of both of our ideas. I think notetaking is regarded as an "essential skill" to master, especially for college-bound students.

I think also multitasking is viewed as an "essential skill to learn for jobs in the service sector." You will be required to learn how to interface and chat up with a customer while simultaneously be performing a task to complete his order.

This is similar to you having to pay attention to a teacher during his lecture while filling out a "form" in the form of notes.

While most NTs can be trained to multitask, I think it is inherently unnatural, so it must be taught, even if indirectly.

I was never good at taking notes. Only time I could do it was when the teacher write stuff up on the board and we all had to copy it. Now that was easy. But me listening to him talk and having to take my own notes was impossible because I don't know what notes to write down.


I wonder what the difference is between NTs and aspies having this difficulty? I remember hearing in high school that even normal people have this difficulty too and in college you need to take tons of them but they have people that are paid to take notes and you buy them from them. I even remember a girl saying in my classes a couple time that she can't take notes as she is listening or else she misses what the teacher had said while she was writing them down. She was not in special ed. She was just a regular NT student.


Note taking didn't even exist in my elementary school so this must be something new or my school didn't require that for students. I didn't notice note taking until I was in high school. Because I was in the resource room for all my classes (except PE and choir) in middle school, I don't know if we had note taking.

I hate taking notes. I found it to be a complete waste of time and energy.
At least for the way my mind operates, note taking is not necessary. I have a visual mind, not a verbal one. Note taking is for more verbal people.

Anyhow, my handwriting is so bad, not even I can read my own notes.

^ they certainly required students at my school to take notes. This was regular public school (betwen 1994-1998 ish) when I was that of that age.

Also, as things "escalated" and my parents and teachers got on me about EVERYTHING (underacheiving) , they would review my notes and get upset with me saying I was writing down irrelevant things and minor details that were on the periphery of the lesson. This is because I could not mentally sort out the important points from the minor details or the interjections of the teacher that would not be on the tests.

At this point in my life, my parents had got it into their heads that not taking notes was one of the main reasons I was failing in school. They thought because I was just sitting there staring at the teacher and not doing what all other kids were doing, that I was failing because of this reason.

I have never taken good notes and, during a lecture, I need to do something with my hands in order to concentrate on the words being spoken. Usually, I have to doodle in a total stream-of-consciousness sort of way in order for spoken words to be recorded in my memory correctly. Interestingly enouhg, many of my 'lecutre doddles' ended up being very geometric - lots of straight lines, regular shapes and hardlined symmetry. In drawing, my style is usually the exact opposite of that.

My daughter, on the other hand, has a dx'd writing disability rooted in dyspraxia. her problems are significant. She cannot process words and writing simultaneously. Our plan is to graduate her to recording classes/lectures when she gets to that point. Right now, in 4th grade, we are looking to introduce a laptop or iPad to assist her in writing assignments. With a dx, there is no reason why the accomodation of a recording device should be a problem in the classroom or in the workplace. With smartphones and iPads, there is actually no reason to need to take notes - it's an antiquated skill. As emphasised with comedy in this eBay commercial...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdjOTWByX2w

I always had trouble taking notes in class. I never could take notes when the teacher was just talking, because I am such a visual person, so trying to listen to something and write down something just never worked.

When the teachers had stuff on transparency sheets or on the board, I loved it, but I was too slow in copying it all down.

By junior and senior years of high school, I finally got the system down where I was able to get the notes from the teachers ahead of time. That was perfect. I could see it, follow the notes while they talked about and also write my own notes next to it.

If I take notes I might as well not be there at all because in the end, the result is the same. When I have looked back on my notes I find a bunch of words that don't make sense.