Finding your teaching style is really hard. And it took me a lot of trial and error before deciding I’m sold on guided notes for teaching chemistry. I tried A LOT of stuff before ultimately deciding that guided notes were going to be my hill to die on.
If you’re trying to decide, you have your whole career to pick something. And even when you do, you may find the need for something new or want to change. I totally get that. That’s part of how I landed on guided notes in the first place.
Notes Systems I’ve Tried
At the start there was a lot on my plate. Such is typical for brand new teachers. I thought that making slides and having kids copy them was going to work best for me. But I found myself frustrated when a lot of kids didn’t copy the notes. (I later learned that this is not worth caring about – -all kids learn differently). The main complaint was that the kids thought they learned better from listening than they did writing. Many of them acknowledged they were never going to read them, so why bother writing.
When I was frustrated by that, I tried unit packets. But my students lost them. Like all the time. And then would try to play it off as if they were excused from the assignments inside the packets because they were lost. That along with VERY strict copy limits from my school, the unit packets grew to be impractical very quickly. I officially gave up on them while I was teaching physics. It was too hard to make a brand new packet before teaching the unit. I had just started All Star Planning, and still was working out the kinks and my schedule with it. I was overwhelmed by the amount of work the packets meant for me. Plus they made me feel like I was locked in to whatever I had planned weeks back, even if I had changed my mind.
Cue: Guided Notes
I saw a pinterest post of what an interactive notebook was supposed to look like. And again, I was overwhelmed at the level of detail and work they would mean for my chemistry classes. But I kind of loved the idea. At the time, I was working in an Expeditionary Learning school, and I’m pretty sure they weren’t doing it right. My students were almost never in class and always on “Expeditions” (field trips). Not sure how going to the park to go ice skating is required academically, but whatever…
I was teaching three grades and three academic levels so trying to keep up with all these trips was quite miserable. So I decided to make some notes that the kids could quickly grab and add to their composition or spiral notebooks. Then if they missed a day, they could go back and read, and I didn’t have to manage so much of the absence problems.
But then I moved schools (to a not field trip crazy place), and again kids weren’t writing at all. So I took a few words out of the “quick help for absent student” pages and viola! Baby notes were born.
Write Less, Think More
I’m kind of obsessed with guided notes. And this is how I will teach from now on. I love using guided notes for teaching chemistry! It allows me so much teaching freedom, and I believe it really helps the kids to learn. First off, the kids have to write, but you get to pick what they write. So I strategically choose just a few key words that are going to summarize the lesson. As if you were highlighting the words in a textbook that describe a page or section.
For example, I just opened to my notes on Accuracy and Precision. The words the students write are
- accepted value
- reproducibility
- “scientific fact”
- correct answer
- consistent
- 5%
- the experiment
Plus they have some bullseyes to mark low/high precision and accuracy. Because they are writing less, they are listening and thinking more, and more deeply. Guided notes do most of the heavy lifting.
Double Dipping on Notes for all Students
Another reason I love guided notes for teaching chemistry is because of the “differentiation” aspect. In my opinion, if it’s something that’s good for Special Ed students or Language Learners, it’s probably good for your General Education student too. I don’t see any real reason why we need to hold back the extra help from the General Education students. Chemistry is really, really hard. It’s hard for even the best and brightest students. I want to give them all the help that I can.
Special Education and Language Learner students need the help of guided notes for a lot of reasons, but one of which is the ability to write less and think more. That’s exactly what I want my Gen Ed students to do, so I don’t see an issue with “double dipping.”
Accurate Diagrams in Guided Notes
And potentially the most important reason I swear by guided notes for teaching chemistry is the diagrams. Chemistry has a lot of glassware, lab technique and complex diagrams. I can only imagine this is true of other science classes as well. When students have ACCURATE diagrams to learn from, instead of relying on their personal art skills, they can learn from an accurate source. Looking back at my chemistry notes from a few years back I had labeled all of my diagrams simply because I couldn’t distinguish what they were. In my brain, an evaporating dish and a crucible look identical. Even a burette and a test tube have little difference. When kids are learning all this stuff for the FIRST time, I like to give them the diagrams so they have a better chance at keeping it straight.
I’m a Control Freak
I’m a big fan of guided notes for teaching chemistry because I like to give my lessons a numerical code. Keeping the lessons numbered and then referring to them by that code have helped my students tremendously. For example, if a student is struggling to understand when to write formulas for word equations (lesson 6.3 ), I will refer them to lesson 4.6 which is about how ionic bonds are different from covalent bonds. Since we keep all of our notes in composition books, and I control EXACTLY the information that’s in them, I know that I can safely refer my students to old stuff, and actually expect it to be there. Also, with this, I don’t have to stress about the literal page numbers of their notebooks.
It’s easy for me to do keep the same notebook
Because we use guided notes for teaching chemistry, it’s super easy for me to keep the exact same notebook as the kids. I also, only have to write a few words each day to keep my book up to date. When kids are absent, especially for an extended period of time, it’s easy for me to just toss them my notebook to get caught up quickly. Plus I love using the notebook for lesson reflection. I can write ON THE NOTES I gave the kids what I want to change or update for the following school year. It makes editing my lessons super quick.
Chemistry Resources for Notes
I have a few things that can help you with your chemistry notes this school year. Number one is my free chemistry curriculum outline. It shows you exactly what I teach EACH DAY of my chemistry course. There’s about 150 lessons which leaves about six weeks of testing, review and wiggle room.
Additionally I have been working on getting my full collection of baby notes out this summer (2022). This is the link to the chemistry guided notes individually, but stay tuned for the full year bundle. Each of these guided notes lessons comes with a half page for notebooks (my favorite) but also a full page if you prefer packets or binders.
