This past February, I was at a conference when another English professor said, “We need to go back to eighteenth-century ways of learning.”

Immediately, I thought, Yes! We need more time with notebooks.

Students in the eighteenth century relied on pen, paper, printed books, and lectures. They didn’t have the sprawl of tools we have access to. For many eighteenth-century students, learning meant recording information in notebooks. In some ways, that hasn’t changed. Notebooks remain one of the most effective and accessible learning tools we have.

When I started Noted in August of 2022, I thought of notebooks as my own niche hobby. I didn’t really use them much in the classroom. Instead, I had students keep multimedia commonplace books online: They collaged video clips and photographs with our course readings. But that no longer feels as pedagogically valuable. Today, I want my students to spend less time online, not more.

This past summer, I completely redesigned my composition and literature classes, centering them on handwritten notebooks. Students kept commonplace books and took naturalist’s notes. They wrote in the margins of our assigned texts. and they interviewed people in their lives about technology and reading habits. I piloted one class over the summer. Another class rolls out this week.

There are several reasons why I made this change. Most immediately, I can’t stomach reading more AI papers. You know that line in Peter Pan—every time a child says they don’t believe in fairies, one of those winged creatures drops dead. Well, every time I read a paper completely generated by AI, a little part of my teacher-heart dies.

My turn to notebooks is not just reactionary. I want my students to have the experience of being in the material world with words. Of writing another author’s lines in their own hand. Of capturing a fleeting thought, sitting outside in a city park with nothing but a pen and notebook. I want my students to observe the world they are in.

I loved reading students’ reflections on what it was like to sit in a park without their phones, and what this exercise allowed them to notice. The trees came alive in their descriptions. One of them remarked that he had never spent so much time thinking about pigeons.

Throughout our course, students also keep a commonplace book, much as eighteenth-century students did. In case you’re curious, here is the 2-minute video I made to introduce the concept to them:

Commonplace books have helped me slow down and spend more time thinking about what I was reading. And the Commonplace Book Club (CBC) has taught me how much fun it can be to take notes as part of a community. Through Noted, I’ve met many of you who still write in notebooks and appreciate the slowness and depth they offer.

Four years ago, I started this newsletter to explore how creative people took notes throughout history. Two years ago, we started keeping commonplace books in community together through the CBC. If you’re interested in notebooks, commonplace books, and how creative people have used them, you’ve come to the right place.

If you’d like to start or revive your own note-taking practice, our 8th Commonplace Book Club session starts tomorrow. Join us!

Yours in note-taking,

P.S.

Three years ago, I wrote my first Noted anniversary post. Paid subscribers can read it here:

And my post-script on how I write posts for Noted: