Learning Activities
Overview
Learning Activities for Unit 7
Activity 7.1
Practice the Search Process
Try an experiment with a group of classmates. Without looking on the Internet, try to brainstorm a list of 10 topics that you may all be interested in but know very little or nothing at all about. Try to make the topics somewhat obscure rather than ordinary - for example, the possibility of the non-planet Pluto being reclassified again as opposed to something like why we need to drink water.
After you have this random list, think of ways you could find information about these weird topics. Our short answer is always: Google. But think of other ways as well. How else could you read about these topics if you don’t know anything about them? You may well be in a similar circumstance in some of your college classes, so listen carefully to your classmates’ ideas on this one. Think beyond standard answers like “I’d go to the library,” and press for what a researcher would do once they are at the library.
What types of articles or books would you try to find? One reason that you should not ignore the idea of doing research at the library is because once you are there and looking for information, you have a vast number of other sources readily available to you in a highly organized location. You also can tap into the human resources represented by the research librarians who likely can redirect you if you cannot find appropriate sources.
Once you have the resources to answer your questions, what do you do with them? What would be your plan of attack, so to speak?
Attributions
Content on this page is a derivative of “Reading and Notetaking: Summary” and “Reading and Notetaking: Rethinking” by Amy Baldwin, published by OpenStax, and is licensed CC BY 4.0. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/college-success/pages/1-introduction.
Activity 7.2
Explore Reading & Notetaking Resources
What resources can you find about reading and notetaking that will help you develop these crucial skills? How do you go about deciding what resources are valuable for improving your reading and notetaking skills?
The selection of study guides and books about notetaking vary dramatically. Ask your instructors or a campus librarian for recommendations. Understand the list below is not comprehensive but will give you a starting point.
- College Rules!: How to Study, Survive, and Succeed in College, by Sherri Nist-Olejnik and Jodi Patrick Holschuh. More than just notetaking, this book covers many aspects of transitioning into the rigors of college life and studying.
- Effective Notetaking, by Fiona McPherson. This small volume has suggestions for using your limited time wisely before, during, and after notetaking sessions.
- How to Study in College, by Walter Pauk. This is the book that introduced Pauk’s notetaking suggestions we now call the Cornell Method. It is a bit dated (from the 1940s), but still contains some valuable information.
- Learn to Listen, Listen to Learn 2: Academic Listening and Note-taking, by Roni S. Lebauer. The main point of this book is to help students get the most from college lectures by watching for clues to lecture organization and adapting this information into strong notes.
- Study Skills: Do I Really Need this Stuff?, by Steve Piscitelli. Written in a consistently down-to-earth manner, this book will help you with the foundations of strong study skills, including time management, effective notetaking, and seeing the big picture.
- “What Reading Does for the Mind,” by Anne Cunningham and Keith Stanovich, 1998, https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/cunningham.pdf
- Adler, Mortimer J. and Charles Van Doren. How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1940.
- Berns, Gregory S., Kristina Blaine, Michael J. Prietula, and Brandon E. Pye. Brain Connectivity. Dec 2013.ahead of print http://doi.org/10.1089/brain.2013.0166
Attributions
Content on this page is a derivative of “Reading and Notetaking: Summary” and “Reading and Notetaking: Rethinking” by Amy Baldwin, published by OpenStax, and is licensed CC BY 4.0. Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/college-success/pages/1-introduction.