Motivating and learning strategies for college success chapter 8-9

Helloo guys welcome back to my blog . This is the next chapter from motivating and learning strategies for college success. Happy reading!! Hope you enjoy it J

Chapter 8 : Learning From Textbooks

Individuals spend a good deal of time reading throughout their lives. They read for enjoyment, relaxation, or knowledge. As a result, they often read differently depending on the purpose for reading. For example, students do not read a college textbook the same way they read popular magazines or best-sellers. Have you ever watched people read a magazine? How often do you see them underlining or taking notes on what they read? For the most part, these individuals do not care about how much they remember, because they do not expect to be tested on the material. Yet, because of their interest in the material, they often remember a great deal of what they read. College students are expected to read and remember material in courses whether or not they are interested in the content or believe it has any relevance to their future occupational goals. Success in different courses depends on learning to use effective reading strategies for a variety of college textbooks. What else do you do beyond simply reading a textbook? Do you ask yourself questions about what you have read? Do you attempt to summarize the author’s main points? How do you know that you have identified the main ideas in a chapter? What strategies do you use to remember what you read? Many students underline passages in their textbooks as they read. Unfortunately, underlining is a rehearsal strategy that does not require much thinking about the content and, as a result, does not help move material into long-term memory. Another problem is that irrelevant information is often underlined along with relevant information. When it comes time to review the understanding of the text, the underlining may be confusing. Thus, it is possible to spend considerable time underlining a textbook and still not remember most of the important ideas in a chapter. Underlining must be used in concert with other reading strategies.

WHAT DOES RESEARCH TELL US ABOUT GOOD READERS? Good readers attempt to comprehend and remember what they read by using specific learning strategies to manage their understanding. The following is a summary of these strategies (Dole, Duffy, Roehler, & Person, 1991):

•Determining importance. Good readers identify main ideas and separate them from examples and supporting details. Poor readers often underline or highlight text as they read and do not differentiate between important and less important ideas.

 •Summarizing information. Good readers summarize information by reviewing all the ideas in a passage or chapter, differentiate important from unimportant ideas, and then synthesize the ideas to create a statement that represents the meaning of the passage or chapter. Poor readers do not stop to summarize what they have read.

•Drawing inferences. Good readers use inferencing extensively to fill in details omitted in a text and to elaborate on what they read. In other words, they ask questions like: What is the author implying? What is the implication of the actions suggested in the passage? How do these ideas relate to other points of view on the issue? Poor readers rarely go beyond the written words in the text.

•Generating questions. Good readers maintain active involvement by generating questions and attempting to answer them while they read. Poor readers tend to be more passive and fail to generate such questions.

•Monitoring comprehension. Good readers are not only aware of the quality and degree of their understanding but know what to do and how to do it when they fail to comprehend material. Poor readers fail to monitor their understanding. As a result, they frequently rely on others to determine their degree of understanding.

Before Reading :

1.   Preview the Book for Learning Aids.

2.   Survey the Assignment Before Each Reading Session

3.   Read Questions That Are Provided at the Beginning or End of Each Chapter, in Accompanying Study Guides, or Provided by Your Instructors.

During reading :

1.   As You Begin Reading, Think of the Text as a Conversation Between the Author and Yourself.

2.   Turn the Headings in Your Textbook into Questions and Answer Them.

3.   Underline and Annotate Textbooks.

4.   Comprehension Monitoring.

After Reading :

1.   Answer Out Loud the Questions You Generated From the Headings, Printed in Your Textbook, or Given to You by Your Instructor.

2.   Consider Summarizing the Material.

3.   Consider Outlining the Material.

4.   Consider Representing or Mapping the Material.

Chapter 9 : Learning From Lectures

Much of the information learned about a subject in college is presented in lecture form. Remember the discussion of the informationprocessing system in chapter 2. Because human memory fades quickly, it is important that you learn how to record major ideas and supporting details. Also, unless your notes are organized, it will be difficult to understand what you recorded weeks after you first took the notes. The most frustrating experience is to look at your notes and ask yourself: What does this mean? One of the major differences between learning from texts and lectures is that in reading you can control the flow of information. If you do not understand something, you can reread it, take notes, or put down the text and return to it at another time. However, in lectures, the pace is controlled by the instructor. As a result, you need to use strategies to capture the main ideas more rapidly.

Before the Lecture:

1.   Complete Assigned Readings Before Class

2.   Review Notes From the Previous Class.

3.   Bring All Necessary Materials (e.g., Notebook, Pen, Handouts, Syllabus, and Textbook) to Class.

4.   Sit Toward the Front of the Room if You Have Difficulty Concentrating.

5.   Date and Number Each Day’s Notes.

During The Lecture :

1.   Listen Carefully to the Instructor and Take Notes That Focus on Main Ideas and Supporting Details.

2.   Condense the Main Ideas and Supporting Details Into Short Phrases or Sentences, Using Abbreviations Whenever Possible.

3.   Use an Indenting Form for Writing Notes

4.   When the Instructor Moves to Another Idea or Topic, Show This Shift by Skipping Two Lines

After the Lecture :

1.   Add Any Important Information You Remember the Instructor Saying but You Did Not Write Down.

2.   Locate Information You Did Not Understand in the Lecture From the Instructor, Another Student, or the Textbook.

3.   Play a Form of Academic Jeopardy and Think About Notes as Answers to Questions.

4.   Once a Question Has Been Identified, Return to the Lecture-Note Text and Underline a Key Term or Phrase That Triggers an Answer to the Question.

5.   Read the Key Terms or Phrases to Verify That They Help You Recall the Information in the Notes.

6.   Cover the Notes With a Blank Sheet of Paper and Attempt to Answer Questions.

7.   If Appropriate, Construct Representations to Depict the Organization of the Material in the Lecture.

8.   Write a Summary Question for the Total Lecture at the End of Your Lecture Notes for the Day.