Using Cornell Notes in the Band and Orchestra Classroom

Cornell Notes have been used for decades to improve students ability to take notes and study, using a simple yet effective design. On the left side of the page, students take notes in a column, usually 1/4 to 1/3 the width of a page. The other 2/3 to 3/4 is a blank space for drawing, notes (equations or sketches for example) that relate to the notes. At the bottom, the last 1/4 of the page is left for a summary. The whole idea of Cornell Notes is to improve note taking and studying for students, and help guide them and give direction through that process. The concept gives the student a resource that is meant to be organized and easy to use for study and review when it comes time to utilize the information from that lesson or assignment for a test or project.

This in turn aligns with what we all want students to be able to do: process information logically and be able to transcribe that and transfer that to other areas of learning.

In my work, our school has decided to push forward to implement this wherever we can throughout the building to establish it as a culture of learning. For many classes, this can be more easily done than others. Classes in social studies, history, the other humanities, math, and science allow for note taking, examples in the large right hand section and a summary at the end. English and language arts also work well and are adaptable. But what about the arts? This goes on into a larger project that I do with my students each year mentioned previously. The Chorale Project. During the second half of the semester after our work in music theory and conducting, I have students select a chorale or music excerpt , and ask them to research it, give some background information about the segment, and begin to prepare it for conducting it in front of the group. This has a multi tiered effect in the class. First, along with the gradual release of responsibility and teaching them to be in front of the group, it also offers an opportunity to teach many different pieces of literature and composers that would not normally happen in the traditional band environment. I use the 36 Chorales by Aaron Cole from Rochester, MN (http://aaronmcole.com/chorale.html), but there are other examples out there, including other warm up books and resources over the years. There's also a few places with free downloads where there is flexible instrumentation. This is key, because it needs to be easy enough to play yet substantially relevant to the source material. Once these are selected, students take the score and begin a semester of score study. Basic information about the piece and the composer are required. A big part of our literacy initiative is annotating the text, whatever that may be so that there's a clear and concise idea that the student is making notes for future review and reflection. I created the template used below by google searching a blank template and added music staff to assist students. In the case of the 36 chorales and some others that were only a page or two in length, I was able to take images from them and integrate them into the right hand side 'sketch box' area so that students would have a full 'score' (condensed) that they could reference as they were conducting. This is where the Cornell Notes concept becomes intriguing, because rather than just using the worksheet I created the year previous, students can now use the same (similar) format of Cornell Notes from other classes. At first this became a challenge, as many students as soon as I mentioned 'Cornell Notes' or showed them the format literally rebelled. The entire orchestra groaned at once and rolled their eyes. That was a retreat, and required a little more thought as far as how to approach it with the class. Once I had students do the same 'exercise' on a small level with a simple 3-2-1 ticket out the door with one of their own pieces for the class and pointed out what they had done, it made a little more sense to them and a little less 'scary'.

Below is an example of a Cornell Note sheet from a student who dod the Ave Maria from Rachmaninoff from The 36 Chorales for Band by Aaron Cole. In it she includes several notations about the piece, including history, composer information and source information. She conducted it with the group and had a very effective run, using a lyrical conducting style that reflected the vocal nature of the piece.

Image Sources: http://www.usask.ca/ulc/sites/default/files/Cornell_Notes.png http://tipsinterviews.blogspot.com/2013/12/cornell-note-taking-system.html http://coe.jmu.edu/learningtoolbox/cornellnotes.html