Teaching · For Tutors

Your notes, with the right words left out.

Paste the full notes and click the words that carry the idea. Students get the structure printed and write the key terms themselves; you get the answer key, and anyone can practice the same set on screen.

Make guided notesWhat you get
$12one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $12

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Tutoring business kit, $69 for 87 items.

The guided notes maker

The worked example notes are written for practice and checked against standard grade 7 science and world history content. Sets save in this browser only.

Loading the guided notes maker. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What you get

Teaching · For TutorsAlso for Teaching · For TeachersAlso for Academics · Study Skills$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
A printed student copy with numbered blanks, a matching answer key and a saved set students can also practice on screen.
Who it is for
Teachers and tutors preparing notes for a lesson, special education teachers adapting note-taking, and students turning their own notes into a self-quiz.
Format
Browser tool: notes editor with click-to-blank preview, student copy and key views, practice mode; prints of the student copy, key or both; .txt download; JSON export and import.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Tutoring business kit ($69) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The For Tutors space in Caveat Teaching; also listed in the For Teachers space in Caveat Teaching (teachers prepare notes for a class); also listed in the Study Skills space in Caveat Academics (students blank their own notes to self-quiz).
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Paste the full notes. Start headings with # and bullets with -.
  2. Click the key terms in the preview, or type [brackets] around them. Aim for a blank every sentence or two.
  3. Read the Check box: it warns when blanks pass about 30% of the words or run longer than four words.
  4. Choose the support: word bank, first-letter hints, blank length, numbers.
  5. Print the student copy and the key, or open Practice and fill the blanks on screen.

Make guided notes

Why guided notes work

the key words, written by the student
Drawn for this page. The structure stays printed; the student writes the words that carry the idea.

Structure printed, ideas written

Guided notes give students the outline and the connecting sentences and leave spaces for the main facts, terms and concepts. Studies of guided notes find students record more accurate notes and score higher on quizzes than with notes taken on a blank page.

Blank the right words

Leave out the terms students must know, not filler words, and keep the share of blanks modest so students can listen as they write. Every blank should be answerable from the lesson.

Then use them again

The finished sheet is a ready-made self-test. Practice mode, or covering the answers, turns the notes into retrieval practice.

Sources

  1. Konrad, Joseph and Eveleigh (2009), a meta-analysis of studies of guided notes, Education and Treatment of Children, 32(3), 421–444.
  2. Heward, W. L. (1994). Three low-tech strategies for increasing the frequency of active student response during group instruction. In R. Gardner et al. (Eds.), Behavior Analysis in Education: Focus on Measurably Superior Instruction. Brooks/Cole.
  3. Austin, J. L., Lee, M., and Carr, J. P. (2004). The effects of guided notes on undergraduate students’ recording of lecture content. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 31(4), 314–320.
  4. Roediger, H. L., and Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255 (PMID 16507066).

The worked example notes are written for practice; check any notes you hand out against your course materials. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.