Of Little Note: Thoughts On Recording Observations about Texts

A common assignment in high school English classes has students taking notes on a story, poem, or section of a text. Certainly it is valuable for students to have a means to record thoughts and observations, and such assignments give teachers a way to check if students are reading and at least thinking about the text in some way. More recently, however, I have been wondering what the value is in taking notes on works of fiction. How often does anyone take notes on fiction? This is not a rhetorical question, but a real inquiry. Do people take separate notes on works of fiction? I took notes on textbooks throughout college, but with fiction, I relied almost exclusively on highlights, underlines, and other notes written directly on the page. Of course, high school students can't write directly on their books, since the books must be re-used. Still, if students do not take this skill with them beyond their high school texts, then what is the value in note-taking outside of the classroom? It seems like it would be more effective to assign sections of books using photocopies, poems, and copied short stories and have students write directly on the pages. This skill seems more applicable to the study of literature and other texts beyond the English class.

Marginalia presents its own problems when taken outside of the classroom though. It is a somewhat class-biased activity, as only students who can afford to buy their own books are able to practice this skill. Further, on non-written texts, it is an impossibility to work directly on the text. Here, note-taking seems to hold primacy. If we are to teach and require note-taking, it should be done in such a way that students will pick up note taking as a habit for texts outside of class.

It seems that note-taking should be practiced on a variety of texts, from movies to magazines, and sit alongside marginalia, which should be practiced more often n class. In this way, we are equipping students with the means to analyze, question, and relate to texts in written form beyond their high school English classes.