Download Column Notes

Column Note Taking
Basic Format
Below is the basic layout you can use for column notes. Remember that the left side
column is used to organize the notes you take in the right side column.
Main Idea
- Smaller idea
- Smaller idea
- Detail
- Smaller idea
- Detail
Main Idea
- Smaller idea
- Detail
- Detail
- Smaller idea
- Smaller idea
Vocab word = Definition
- On this side you can
write down the main idea
for a group of notes you
wrote in the right column
- On this side you can write down ideas as you find them
and think they are important
- You can skip spaces between ideas if you think they
might belong to different larger ideas
- You can also use this
space for vocab words or
added notes to yourself
Example using 1.1 of World Studies: Medieval Times to Today
Notice in my example that I highlighted certain pieces in colors. The red and blue titles
are the red and blue titles from the book that I used to guide my note-taking. Using
those titles as a guide, I then wrote down information I thought was important from
those sections.
Section 1.1: The Byzantine Empire
Constantinople at a
Crossroads
- Constantinople = capital of the Byzantine Empire (pg.
10)
- Christian Byzantines and Muslim Arabs fought over the
Middle East after the Roman Empire failed
THERE’S MORE ON THE NEXT PAGE!!!
Constantine and his
Capital
- Constantine = Emperor of Roman Empire starting in 306 AD
- Constantine became Christian and stopped persecution of
Christians
- Constantine renamed Byzantium to Constantinople and
made it the capital of his empire
- Later the empire split into Eastern and Western halves. The
Eastern half was stronger because of its military and trade.
Trade
- Constantinople was built near a lot of roads and water
passages
- Bosporus strait = a narrow body of water that connected the
Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea; next to Constantinople;
lots of trade went through
- Constantinople got trades from Russia, Egypt, and Asia
- Taxed traded items and made money from it
Fall of the Western
Empire
- Germans invaded and took over by 476 AD
Age of Justinian
Emperor Justinian
- Rule started in 527
- Born to a poor family
- Listened to ideas from any person (even peasants)
Justinian’s Code
- J’s Code was an organized collection and explanation of
Roma laws for use by the Byzantine Empire; was the basis
for legal systems of modern countries
- Before J’s Code, laws were disorganized and didn’t make
any sense
Byzantine Culture
- Byzantines blended Greek, Roman, and Christian cultures
THERE’S MORE ON THE NEXT PAGE!!!
Empire’s Later Years
- Empire declined after Justinian died in 565 and new
emperor’s had to fight wars against Persians, Turks, Arabs,
and Germanic groups
A Religious Dispute
- Christianity was practiced differently in Byzantine and the
Byzantine Christians rejected the authority of the pope, who
lead the Roman church
- Byzantine church used greek language while the Roman
church used Latin language
- Byzantine emperor banned the use of icons of saints, which
went against the pope. The pope banished the emperor from
the church and caused a split between the two groups of
Christians (Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox)
- Schism = split
A Second Golden
Age
- The empire was doing well again from 900 to mid-1000s
- Basil II was the best emperor since Justinian
Fall of
Constantinople
- Byzantine Empire got into wars with Turks, Europeans, and
Christian Crusaders
- Constantinople fell to the Turks, who renamed it Istanbul and
it became the capital of the Ottoman Empire