Many teachers expect their students to be able to take good notes, but we too often assume that students know how to take notes effectively. Here are some great sites for learning about effective note-taking.
St. John's University: Lecture Note-taking
This site has a particularly good list of "signal phrases" that students can be listening for when lecturers are moving from one topic to another.
Education World: Note-Taking Lessons
Education World offers a number of different lessons for grades 3-12, as well as some additional information on plagiarism.
Taking notes or creating them?
While lectures are an efficient way for teaching, they are not always an effective way for learning. Consider using these tools for having students build knowledge collaboratively rather than trying to absorb it from the teacher:
