Note-Taking and Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities: Challenges and Solutions

As more secondary students with learning disabilities (LD) enroll in advanced content-area classes and are expected to pass state exams, they are faced with the challenge of mastering difficult concepts and abstract vocabulary while learning content. Once in these classes, students must learn from lectures that move at a quick pace, record accurate and complete notes, and then demonstrate their mastery of the content on tests. This article provides an overview of the challenges faced by students with LD in content-area classes and discusses the problems that students have learning from lectures and recording notes. Further, the article discusses theory and research related to note-taking and presents note-taking interventions that teachers can use to help students improve their note-taking skills, and ultimately, improve their achievement in these classes.