Providing Copy of Notes

The Strategy

Providing a copy of notes is when the teacher provides a copy of class lecture notes to the student so the student is not responsible for taking their own notes. Providing a copy of the notes increases the likelihood that the student has all relevant information from class, which may improve homework and test performance. Although this strategy may reduce problems in the classroom (e.g., low homework or test scores, difficulty following lecture content), it will not teach the student independent notetaking skills. Thus, this strategy should be used in conjunction with other strategies that facilitate notetaking skills (e.g., notetaking training; daily report card). The process of taking notes facilitates learning in two ways. First, as the student listens to the teacher, they process the information as they think about and decide what to write in their notes. Second, students process the information when and if they use their notes to help them study. Providing a copy of the teacher’s notes to the student decreases the likelihood that the student will take notes and benefit from the first learning opportunity; although the student may benefit from studying if the students use them.

  1. Determine which subjects and under what conditions the student struggles to take notes. For example, does the student struggle with the time pressure of in-class notetaking in a particular subject? Does the student struggle to sustain attention in the late afternoon and fails to write down what is important from the lecture?

  2. Discuss these difficulties with the student’s educational and mental health support team to identify the times of day or subjects for which notes will be provided. This should be reasonable for the teacher and agreed upon by all participants.

  3. Describe the purpose of providing notes to the student (the level of detail provided can be based on the student’s developmental level) and the student’s parents. Be specific about when notes will be provided and for which subject areas.

  4. Determine when the team will meet again to assess the impact of this strategy on academic and behavioral performance.

  5. Use Beacon progress monitoring tools to evaluate the extent to which this strategy is improving the target behaviors as intended.

Consider using this strategy as a short-term solution. To help the student meet age-appropriate expectations with regard to notetaking, gradually teach the student how to take notes independently. See note taking training intervention for details.

Because providing a copy of notes does not effectively build the skills students need to independently meet age-appropriate expectations, it cannot be evaluated for effectiveness. The goal of providing a copy of notes is to ensure that the student has appropriate study materials for quizzes or tests. If this strategy is selected for use in the short term, it is recommended that it be replaced at some point with an intervention to help the student develop the skills needed to independently meet age-appropriate expectations for independently taking notes.

Intervention Scorecard

This intervention is recommended for the following presenting problems.

Select an age group:

Recommended
Presenting Problem Effectiveness Magnitude Effort

Other suitable presenting problems

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