The week before Spring break and the actual week during the strategy to focus on was reading. I am surprisingly content that this was the selected topic of focus for the time period because I had plenty of reading to accomplish for two of my classes. The reading strategies I used were successful for completing my work and even during a break when focus is impossible to come by in terms of school, I still did alright.
I used reading strategies in two of my courses. I adapted the strategies to my Psych 205 class which contains a thick textbook and class notes as always, and then I brought in my ETS 107 Living Writers class into the strategies as well. For Psych 205 I used the reading strategy as a process which included the “before, during and after” method. This is key for a class like this because Psych has a textbook that never looks too friendly to read nor do am I ever motivated. This strategy worked for me because before I began reading the assigned chapter, this week it was on social psychology, I located the patterns within the text. Psychology generally has loads of definitions, so that is what I picked up from the reading. The definitions were bolded in my textbook and also outlined at the end of the chapter in the chapter summary, always a helpful aid. During the reading I used a highlighter and picked out the most important definitions, concepts, or main points. The
book is also nice because it separated the main point into paragraphs and split up the concepts by themselves so learning the information kind of built off of each other. Highlighting and writing in the margin also is a great way for me to learn this textual information because I know I am a kinesthetic and visual learner and things really pop out at me this way. Because the strategy is “before, during, and after” after the chapter reading was complete I outlined the information and took the bold headings from the text and labeled them according to outline form, so one huge topic would be I,II etc, and then the little subtitles fall under as in “a, b” etc. My notes flow under all of that and are labeled by “1,2,3.” Outlining is a great way for me to organize my thoughts and what I just read because it is almost like re-writing the chapter but in simpler terms so I really only focus on what needs to be studied in the end for my exam.
This week I had to read a poetry book, so it was a lengthy book of poems about 160 pages worth and it looked like something I could complete. Then, during the actual reading since this is comprehensive reading and not skeletal reading I had to try and analyze the poetry in different ways and grasp the message the poet was trying to convey thorough his text. Since I had to write a page report after I took plenty of notes in the margin and highlighted significant stanzas or lines in the poetry which I thought I could either quote or use as support in my paper. After I read each poem I wrote a little note at the top of the page to say what the overall subject matter was so when I went back through the poems I could flip to a page and know exactly what happened on that page. After I finished reading the entire poetry book it was time to write my paper and I flipped back to the pages where there was the most highlighted lines and written down information in the margins. After reading through the poems either once, twice, or three times it was easier for me to retain the messages and either take the poetry for a literal meaning or metaphorical meaning.
Overall, I learned that the before, during, and after method can be changed and adapted to whatever type of text a student is reading and I find this method to be successful for a learner like me because it breaks down the assignments and reading into three parts and I don’t feel as overwhelmed while I’m trying to soak up information or review it by the end.
I didn't try highlighting but that looks like a great idea. Not only does it capture your attention, but it makes the important terms stick out even more. Thanks for sharing your experience!
ReplyDelete