Read to Understand: Generating Questions

Video: Generating Questions Demonstration

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• Specify a reading assignment, for inside or outside of class.
• Ask students to read the assignment and generate questions as they read.
• Questions should include “How” and “Why” stems to go beyond literal meaning.
• Students also answer the questions.
• Students can work individually or in groups.
• Take up their questions and answers.
• Use the rubric to assess their work.
• Provide feedback to students.
• Submit composite sheet reflecting scores to Institutional Research.
• Require students to use the strategy as often as you choose; assess a minimum of two times.

 

Read to Understand: Graphic Representations

Video: Make Concept Cards Work for You

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• Select a type of graphic organizer that is suitable for your discipline.
• Select a passage from a reading assignment.
• Share the graphic organizer with the students and model the process of completing the graphic organizer, using the reading passage’s content.
• Assign another reading passage whose key details could be demonstrated through the same type of graphic representation that was modeled.
• Ask students to construct a graphic representation to illustrate the key details of the assigned reading passage.
• Provide appropriate feedback to the students.
• Continue to require students to construct graphic organizers for specific reading assignments as desired.
• Continue to provide feedback.
• Assess a minimum of two times, using the appropriate rubric.
• Submit a compilation of assessment information to Office of Instructional Effectiveness.

 

Listen Actively: PowerPoint Note-Taking

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• As with all learning strategies, it is important that the teacher model the strategy for students prior to assigning it.
• Instructor creates a PowerPoint lecture and makes it available to students in a 3-slides per page note-taking format
• Instructor requires students to print and bring to class the PowerPoint lecture.
• Instructor delivers the prepared lecture. 
• Students use the lines provided to write the supporting detail information.
  • Students will need to be taught to recognize signal words or phrases, transitions, and other clue words that provide the foundation for students to be able to record accurately the supporting details of a lecture.  For the first few lectures, the instructor may need to assist students by stressing the signal words and other cues he uses. 
  • Students gain understanding in the way in which relationships and levels of importance are communicated in a lecture and improve their ability to record the information. 
  • Students are simultaneously recording their notes in an organized way that is designed to serve as a tool for active processing of the information.
  • The PowerPoint strategy helps the student to concentrate during the lecture by requiring him to record the examples, the applications, the “why’s” and “therefore’s” of the points on the slide, i.e. the important information the instructor provides that supplements the slides. 
• Once the student completes his PowerPoint notes, he has created a valuable review tool.  Using the information in the left-hand column as prompts while the right-hand column is covered, he can attempt to recite the related information while not having access to viewing it.  As needed, he can uncover the right-hand column to see the answer he could not supply.  The review system can also be reversed by covering the left-hand column and trying to recite from memory by using the right-hand column information as prompts.
• Instructor provides a model version of what good notes would look like as he models the strategy.
• Instructor continues to make PowerPoint lecture notes available in the 3-slides per page format, requiring students to take notes during the lectures to gain practice and experience with the strategy.
• The instructor collects relevant page(s) and provides students with a replacement model of the pages collected.
  • Leaving the classroom with a complete set of notes is important for students to be able to review efficiently.
  • Providing feedback is important, and it is especially important for students’ initial attempts in using the strategy. 
  • Allowing the students to see the professor’s view of what supporting information was important to include in the notes is an excellent way to provide feedback without requiring a lot of class time.
• Instructor uses the rubric to assess the collected pages at least two times during the semester.
• Instructor returns the students’ notes.
• Instructor credits students in some way for having completed the notes.

 

Listen Actively: Two-Column Note-Taking

Video: Try Two-column Note-taking

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• The method teaches students to use cues that reflect importance and to record the notes in a pattern that is clear, organized, and designed to serve as a tool for active processing of the information.
• Students will need to be taught to recognize signal words or phrases, transitions, and other clue words that provide the foundation for students to be able to record the main ideas and supporting details of a lecture.
• Students need to understand the process well enough to recognize that clues may be implied rather than stated because some professors may not be explicit in their use of signal words, transitions, and other clues.
• As a student gains understanding in the way in which relationships and levels of importance are communicated in a lecture, he will improve his ability to record the information in the appropriate column.
• The left-hand column is the place to record main ideas, key words, ideas, people, or events.  This information should be very brief.  The right-hand column is the space dedicated to explanation, description, subordinate details, definitions, examples, etc. 
• Once the student completes his two-column notes, he has created a valuable review tool.  Using the information in the left-hand column as prompts while the right-hand column is covered, he can attempt to recite the related information while not having access to viewing it.  As needed, he can uncover the right-hand column to see the answer he could not supply.  The review system can also be reversed by covering the left-hand column and trying to recite from memory by using the right-hand column information as prompts.
• The two-column note-taking strategy helps the student to concentrate during the lecture by both giving him something to listen for and something to write down. 
• As with all learning strategies, it is important that the teacher model the strategy for his students. 
• For the first few lectures, he may need to assist them by stressing the signal words and other cues he uses.
• Providing feedback is important, and it is especially important for students’ initial attempts in using the strategy.   Allowing the students to see the professor’s version of two-column note-taking is an excellent way to provide feedback without requiring a lot of class time.
• Credit students in some way for having completed the notes.
• Assess the assignment (with the assessment based upon the prepared rubric) a minimum of two times.
• Submit assessment results to Institutional Research.

 

Organize for Effectiveness: Assignment Calculator

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Roane State's Assignment Calculator

• Entails teaching students how to break down a long-term assignment, such as a research paper or project, into manageable tasks with targeted due dates along the way. 
• Involves determining the necessary sequence of tasks involved in completing the assignment; the amount of time needed to complete each task, including recognizing resource needs; and selecting targeted dates for completion of each task.
• Has value as a time management resource. 
• Has value as a way to help students understand the multiple elements of a long-term complex assignment.
• Has value because it can effect a positive impact on student motivation. 
• To directly teach the Assignment Calculator strategy, the instructor provides an explanation for its usefulness and then provides relevant examples from his field of study. 
• The instructor explains the rationale for the tasks and dates in order to expose the student to the intellectual reasoning and time management approach entailed within the various projects. 
• Next, the teacher provides a multi-step assignment for students to complete along with targeted due dates for the various steps. 
• The instructor evaluates the student’s application of the assignment calculator and the product generated through the application of the rubric. 
• The Roane State Library staff is working to create web-based assignment calculators that include important resources that connect to the discrete tasks.  The Minnesota model of web-based calculators demonstrates a successful union of tasks, due dates, and helpful resources:  http://www.lib.umn.edu/help/calculator/.
• Paper-based models can also include helpful resource information.

 

Organize for Effectiveness: Organized Notebook

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• As with all learning strategies, it is important that the teacher model the strategy for students prior to assigning it.
• Instructor defines a list of required elements for the assignment/course and determines how they can be structured as dividers/sections of the notebook
• Instructor provides to students the requirements for the notebook:  type and size of binder, number of dividers, etc.
• Instructor displays a sample notebook as a model
• Instructor defines the organizational requirements for each section of the notebook
• Including dates/page numbers
• Keeping related material together
• Locating materials
• Putting things in place immediately
• Adding related supplemental materials and/or using resources effectively (examples:  student added notes on handouts/PowerPoint slides, included chapter summaries, corrected homework/quizzes, revised essays, etc.)
• Instructor provides due dates for the various notebook assignments
• Instructor explains rationale behind the strategy
• Instructor provides feedback to assist students in understanding the strategy
• Instructor credits students in some way for completing the notebooks
• Instructor assesses the notebooks a minimum of two times during the semester by using the prepared rubric
• Instructor submits rubric data to Institutional Research

 

Organize for Effectiveness: Study Guide

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• Faculty prepare study guides, one for each chapter, using a two-column table format rather than a linear design.  The study guide prompts (questions, terms, and various types of prompts such as fill-in-the-blank) go in the left column.
• Students write the answers in the right columns directly across from the prompts.
• Faculty should consistently require students to complete the study guides.  Several options exist, but it is recommended that the study guides be handled the same way.  Some of the options include the following:
• The study guide could be required prior to class in which case it becomes a reading guide as well as a study guide.
• The study guide could be completed during class if the instructor’s lecture is appropriately aligned with the material.
• The study guide could be completed after class as a way to reinforce the material.
• To make the requirement effective, completion of the study guides should be tied to a student’s grade in some way.
• The study guide serves as an active review tool.  Students can cover the right columns and use the prompts in the left columns to elicit the answers and vice versa, covering the left columns and using the right columns as prompts.  Active review is very important because the students are now studying in a way that parallels the testing environment, i.e. without notes. 
• The active review will reduce test anxiety.  Students who have been actively reviewing by retrieving the information from their brains will be more confident than students who have reviewed by merely recognizing the information as they simply read over their notes.
• Considerable thought should be given as to the length of the study guide.  It should cover the most important information from the chapter.  Going into too much detail could be overwhelming and counterproductive.
• Faculty use the study guide rubric to assess the first and final student work products.
• Submit results, using the Data Compilation Form that will be emailed to you.
• Encourage students to take the student survey in which they evaluate the study guide strategy.
• Complete the faculty survey to evaluate the study guide strategy.
• Gateway courses also have a course-embedded assessment.

 

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