Building Skills, Better Tests

1/18/2013

Open-Book, Open-Notes Exams

Several years ago we had a district-wide PD session with a guy named Alan November. He was a terrific keynote speaker: humorous and full of great ideas about teaching and technology. Throughout his lecture he emphasized the open-notes, open-book test. I loved what he said about this strategy -- it's more real-life, it focuses on developing important skills, and it de-emphasizes cramming the brain with useless crap -- so I incorporated it into my teaching practice.

Last week, I gave two open-notes, open-book tests. One was my Creative Writing course's quarterly exam. This covered every lesson, every handout, and every piece of writing we had studied the past eight weeks.

From Day One, the students knew this exam was coming and they knew it would be open notes. This strategy allowed me to emphasize NOTE-TAKING and ORGANIZATION skills all year-long.

In my AP Language class, students used their notes, articles, mind maps, and even the book! for their final exam on The Great Gatsby.

They busted their butts to polish off their notes, collaborate with classmates, read over the book, and prepare in any way possible. The open-notes, open-book exam encourages all the best practices we want in students: preparation, organization, close reading, and careful note-taking.

Plus, when students know there will be an open-notes test, they put more effort into taking notes and spend more time reading over their materials. They know it's not a test of memory: it's a test of their comprehension and long-term learning. Naturally, I favor the mind-maps-&-colored-markers techniques of teaching note-taking. These strategies are creative, mind-expanding, interesting, artistic, student-centered, and fun.

I emphasize note-taking every day in every class I teach. Direct Instructions sound like this: "Copy this down..." or "Write the answer..." or "Add this to your mind map..." These commands keep students engaged during a discussion by giving them a hands-on experience.

Teachers know that most students will not take notes unless they are directly told to do so. When students don't take notes in your class, you can't ignore the behavior! It's your duty and obligation to teach note-taking, to motivate your students to write and brainstorm, and to maximize their learning in your classroom.

The key to teaching note-taking is to be patient and give students time to take notes. You need the with-it-ness to know who is following your directions and who isn't. You have to acknowledge whether each and every pupil is complying with your requests. It's not about embarrassing students or picking fights with your non-note-takers. You have to encourage them with positive reinforcement, teach them how to be good students, and reward them with tests that depend on those notes.

Ironically, of course, this method of testing is very different than standardized exams. Then again, my goals are to inspire young people, to teach reading and writing skills, to motivate long-term learning, and to get students even more invested in their educations. (Not really the goals of most $tandardized te$t$.)

If that's the type of teaching you want to do, try out some of the ideas I learned from Alan November: try the open-notes, open book test!
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Student response to my lessons about abstract art!

7 Comments

N. Sheahan

1/20/2013 12:49:11 am

Thank you for sharing these thoughts and your use of this strategy. I agree with getting students to see the value of note-taking and organizational strategies that will allow them to actually USE the work they produce throughout their study of a particular text or unit. You're right that it is much more of a life skill than depending wholly on memorization. Other than certain professions (e.g., surgeons, air traffic controllers, pilots, pro sports coaches...), not many professionals do not have the opportunity to refer to their sources before making key decisions. By using the open book, open-notes format, you instill in your students a reason to pay attention, to be organized, and to be thoughtful in their note-taking. I also think you hit upon something that I think we as high school teachers often overlook: we need to TEACH note-taking strategies -- expose students to a variety of methods and how / when they might apply them. A mind map might feel like a heavenly moment of freedom for one student but a torturous exercise in futility for another, but unless each tries it (several times), neither one will know. Direct instruction, as you describe it, seems an effective first step toward students' developing the ability to make those decisions themselves. Do you, as a course progresses, back off the direct instruction -- possibly pausing at a point in a text, for example, and asking students to add to any organizational devices they see fit? (Not a well-worded question, but I hope you can get the gist. Thanks!) Thank you, again, for this thoughtful post.

Daniel Weinstein

1/20/2013 11:14:51 pm

Thank you for thoughtful reply!

Yeah, as the course goes forward, I back off the direct instructions. However, I begin just about every class, every day with the same instructions: "Take out your pens, pencils, and magic markers. Open your notebooks to a blank page." Students must comply with these directions if they are going to learn anything....

And, as time moves on, I become interested to see WHO will do WHAT in terms of note-taking during class. I'm more likely to walk around the room and say to a student, "You didn't write anything down for Chapter 3?? Don't you think you should add SOMETHING to your notes?"

Marilyn J. Hollman

1/21/2013 11:40:43 pm

I encountered this over 40 years ago in a advanced university lit course. No notes, but, yes, the novels, poems. I discovered it wasn't all that useful -- the time it took to check something . . . but I was still a dumb junior and didn't realize direct quotes might be useful!
Gave me a feeling of liberation, however. Always useful.
In the department where I later taught - some colleagues allowed students a page of notes/quotes -- one side -- for an exam; the prompt was given in advance, always. This is how folks generally write, it was reasoned.
The page of notes came in with the essay.
It is an excellent approach. Thanks for reminded your readers about it.

Kate Baker link

1/23/2013 07:51:32 am

I've always be a proponent of open notes & book for tests and focusing on applying and synthesizing the information learned in class. I will vary the amount of time though that students can use their notes. They will not be able to use the notes/book for the 1st ten minutes, or they only get the last 10 mins of the test to catch what they missed by referring to their notes. Other times, I give them the entire class period. I do ask students to reflect on the test taking process in a journal entry and ask them to evaluate themselves prior to receiving a grade back on the test.

Any preferences for type of notes? I show my students Cornell, double-entry, charts, and mind mapping for note taking. Do you have preferences or requirements?

Thanks!

1/23/2013 08:27:29 am

I only like the colorful mind map:)!!!!

Desi St. Amant

6/20/2013 03:55:18 am

I dabbled with this method, and I really saw students working harder and engaging more with the text and each other during discussion, which was great! My questions are more logistical:
-Do you allow hand-written notes, typed notes, or both?
-Are students required to turn in the notes with the exam (or do you check them in any way)?
-My exams are short essay responses (analyze a short passage from the reading/poem we studied, etc.), so how would a student be prevented from--say--copying analysis of a work online and adding it onto his/her notes or sharing notes with a friend in another class period? I am not sure if this has happened, but our school has a wide-spread cheating culture, so I am a little bit paranoid about it. :/

California Feet Party link

10/23/2022 08:08:34 am

Great post, much appreciate the time you took to write this.