Study Strategies (continued)

Buy this book »

• What have I learned about _______?
• What should I remember about _______?
• What does _______ mean?
• What are the components of _______?
• How are _______ and _______ alike? How are _______ and _______ different?
• What are the strengths of _______? What are the limitations of _______?
• What caused _______ to happen?
• How does _______ affect _______?
• How does _______ relate to what I already know? How does _______ relate to _______ in the passage?
• What does _______ look (and sound) like?
• What is the significance of _______?

More open-ended self-questions include the following:

• What might be other examples of _______?
• What conclusion can I draw about _______?
• Why is it important that _______?
• What would happen if _______?
• What do I have to say about _______?

Organizing Information Graphically

Graphic representations arrange key terms in order to depict their relationships. Outlines, time lines, Venn diagrams, and webs are different formats for graphically organizing concepts. They all show how selected concepts are organized. A graphic representation of the desert, for example, could consist of terms arranged about such topics as climate, location, plant life, and animal life; it would not be an illustrated scene of coyotes and cactuses.

Writing

Although such strategies as defining learning expectations and questioning might involve writing, study strategies grouped under this heading typically refer to other techniques. Writing strategies that promote learning progress from simply recording facts to assimilating and reflecting on bodies of knowledge. These strategies activate thinking when learners compose the message; they also provide a record for review or revision.

Study cards are one kind of writing strategy. Each study card usually contains a question or vocabulary term on one side with a corresponding answer or definition on the other. These cards are especially useful for factual learning. Many students would not have been successful in fact-filled courses without resorting to study cards.

Note taking is another writing strategy that promotes learning. Note taking assumes many forms. Learners sometimes copy definitions and key ideas verbatim from a passage, comment in the margins of texts, paraphrase information, or add personal examples. They benefit from rewriting their notes, clarifying and consolidating information from class presentations and readings.

Summarizing uses writing to involve learners in selecting and condensing important information. When summarizing, students may abstract important contents.

Learning logs/journals are a variation of class notebooks that require summarization. Students summarize when they record information from class presentations, readings, or outside experiences. Later, students sometimes develop their summaries into more lengthy compositions. In addition, they sometimes use learning logs or journals to pose questions or state confusions about what they are learning. Many mathematics teachers have students write—rather than orally ask—questions about their homework in order to clarify the questions. This practice often leads the students to reach independent solutions.

Essays that call for integration of subject matter or persuasive writing from a particular point of view are forms of writing that powerfully promote content learning, even though they are also time consuming for teachers to read. Most of us still remember papers we wrote in high school and college classes even though we have forgotten much of the rest we learned in those courses.