[MysticCat]

I'm going to throw in my $0.02. Definitely do what you can to help your daughter learn to take notes. But at the same time, pay attention to her learning style(s). My learning style is heavily auditory, and also visual. If I hear it, I remember it; if I see/read it, I'm also likely to remember it. But if I try to write while something is being said, I don't hear it and end up missing half of what was said because my focus goes to what I'm writing. As a result, note-taking is not helpful at all for me; it's counter-productive. And yes, that means that the notes I took during classes in four years of college and three years of law school could be mailed with one stamp.

We are seeing indications of the same traits with our daughter (middle school) now—the one class this past year where the teacher required note-taking, meaning "write down everything I say," was the class she struggled in the most. She did great in the classes where the teacher would say "do what works best for you." When we talked about it, she'd say "When I'm taking a test, I can remember and hear what my teachers said in my head. But when I have to take notes, then when I get into a test I can't hear in my head what the teacher said."

I'm not saying give up on notes. But I am saying recognize that there really are people for whom note-taking is not helpful. The goal shouldn't be learning to take good notes, it shoud be learning what works best for oneself. If your daughter is one of the people for whom note-taking is not helpful, then what she may need to focus on are things like paying attention in class and then some way of reinfocring that later, like taking time every night to write down what was said in class that day.

Good luck!