My vote is for a middle ground...
For most students, CR is easier to understand than RC - it's shorter, and the language is usually more straightforward. If they have no trouble understanding what they've read, they should take NO NOTES.
For most CR question types (find assumption, flaw, evaluate, strengthen, and weaken), the right answer will hinge on what's NOT stated in the argument - on a missing assumption, a logical gap. Taking notes on what IS stated in the argument usually doesn't help students to pinpoint what's missing. I recommend jotting down one line about what's missing on these question types, since that's what the right answer will address. For example, OG 2016 #90:
Exposure to certain chemicals commonly used in elementary schools as cleaners or pesticides causes allergic reactions in some children. Elementary school nurses in Renston report that the proportion of schoolchildren sent to them for treatment of allergic reactions to those chemicals has increased significantly over the past ten years. Therefore, either Renston's schoolchildren have been exposed to greater quantities of the chemicals, or they are more sensitive to them than schoolchildren were ten years ago.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
You'd write:
all children exposed sent to nurse?
There are students (especially English language learners) who don't have as easy a time reading and processing CR arguments. If the act of jotting quick notes helps you to understand and process what you read, then of course do it!
My recommendation:
1) try a set of 10 questions, taking notes on the argument AND writing a note about what you want the answer to address.
2) try another set of 10. Don't take any notes on the argument, but write down a note about what you want the answer to address.
3) compare the two sets and see which one yielded better results and better timing.
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
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