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The Cornell Note Taking System

lsc.cornell.edu

11–20 of 83 posts

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#11
The main thing I learned watching these videos is that Cornell students—or Americans more generally, perhaps—hold pens in a way that seems unusual to me. For example, with the thumb wrapped round the pen or with it gripped by the tips of all five fingers.

Is that normal in the US? In the UK, I was taught to grip the pen with my thumb and forefinger tips and rest it on my middle finger. Most people I see writing hold the pen that way too.

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#12
They forced us to use this in middle and a little bit in high school, never really liked it. The usable space on the page to write details was so low compared to a blank piece of paper, and the summarizing I didn’t think really helped (especially if you needed all the details from the notes like in a history class).

Other people like it though, maybe I was just doing it wrong.

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#13
post #11

The main thing I learned watching these videos is that Cornell students—or Americans more generally, perhaps—hold pens in a way that seems unusual to me. For example, with the thumb wrapped round the pen or with it gripped by the tips of all five fingers. Is that normal in the US? In the UK, I was taught to grip the pen with my thumb and forefinger tips and rest it on my middle finger. Most people I see writing hold…

I'm unsure about these descriptions but in Canada/Qc this is the way I was taught to hold a pencil: https://www.fergusonvalues.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Ha...

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#14
post #11

The main thing I learned watching these videos is that Cornell students—or Americans more generally, perhaps—hold pens in a way that seems unusual to me. For example, with the thumb wrapped round the pen or with it gripped by the tips of all five fingers. Is that normal in the US? In the UK, I was taught to grip the pen with my thumb and forefinger tips and rest it on my middle finger. Most people I see writing hold…

That isn't normal, most people hold a pen as you describe.

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#16
post #11

The main thing I learned watching these videos is that Cornell students—or Americans more generally, perhaps—hold pens in a way that seems unusual to me. For example, with the thumb wrapped round the pen or with it gripped by the tips of all five fingers. Is that normal in the US? In the UK, I was taught to grip the pen with my thumb and forefinger tips and rest it on my middle finger. Most people I see writing hold…

That's very weird. I'm an American and I hold my pen the way you do, which is the way I was taught. I had never noticed it before but now that I see it, the way the students are holding it in the video is very strange to me.

Edit: apparently I do the "quadrupod" grip, while you do the "tripod" grip. But neither of those is what some of the students in the video were doing.

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#17

I wish this had been taught week 1 of college when I went in the mid 90s. All college's should have a mandatory module on note taking, learning techniques and general planning and productivity.

I'd also add general theory of education content to that. How do we expect people to learn if they don't understand teaching?

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#18
post #11

The main thing I learned watching these videos is that Cornell students—or Americans more generally, perhaps—hold pens in a way that seems unusual to me. For example, with the thumb wrapped round the pen or with it gripped by the tips of all five fingers. Is that normal in the US? In the UK, I was taught to grip the pen with my thumb and forefinger tips and rest it on my middle finger. Most people I see writing hold…

I am a student here in the US.

I was certainly taught to hold and write with pens/pencils in the way that you describe. That being said, I have noticed that I and many of my peers somehow moved over to holding it with the thumb wrapped around the pen, and the pen held more straight up and down.

I am not quite sure what causes this, but I think that is is related to the way that you must hold many cheap ballpoint pens for them to write consistently. I personally fixed this bad habit when I switched over to fountain pens.

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#19
post #11

The main thing I learned watching these videos is that Cornell students—or Americans more generally, perhaps—hold pens in a way that seems unusual to me. For example, with the thumb wrapped round the pen or with it gripped by the tips of all five fingers. Is that normal in the US? In the UK, I was taught to grip the pen with my thumb and forefinger tips and rest it on my middle finger. Most people I see writing hold…

Also UK here, I don't remember being taught how to hold a pen. Mine rests on the third knuckle of the ring finger, with the middle fingertip bracing the pen tip and the index fingertip bracing about a third of the way up. Then the upper part of the pen rests in the crook of the thumb and palm. The thumb-tip rests across part of the index finger and middle finger, providing some stability.

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#20
post #11

The main thing I learned watching these videos is that Cornell students—or Americans more generally, perhaps—hold pens in a way that seems unusual to me. For example, with the thumb wrapped round the pen or with it gripped by the tips of all five fingers. Is that normal in the US? In the UK, I was taught to grip the pen with my thumb and forefinger tips and rest it on my middle finger. Most people I see writing hold…

The secret is that American school doesn’t really bother itself with that much teaching. Nobody teaches children how to hold pens properly, cursive writing, etc.
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