I used a strategy for something I never would have thought I would have used one for... READING. There are ways to organize your readings, break it up into pieces, so not only is it not going through one ear and out the other, you retain the information. The strategy I tried this week was Charlie Reads SmarT:
The courses I used Charlie Reads SmarT for was History 101 and Earth Science 105. This strategy helps organize your readings so you learn all of the information that you read. History 101 has a lot of external reading that it not direct information from a textbook. So it is difficult to grasp all of the information that I obtain. With this strategy, I can figure out how much I can really read without needing to get up or go on Facebook, and than chunk my readings into pieces. After that, I figure out the information that I am reading. Once I read it, I highlight and than summarize the information that I read. I decided to create on outline, since my chapter was about different characters and than was a good way to organize. After I do all this, I test myself on what I have learned with a couple of questions.
I am an AURAL learner, so reading is tough for me. This strategy is not aural, but helps me towards my other strength of learning through writing rather than reading.
Overall, I have quite mixed feelings about this strategy. I tried it for these courses, but I am not sure if I am going to use it again. I helped a little bit, but it takes way too much time to read merely a chapter, and knowing myself, I will not do all of this. Highlighting key information in the chapter is enough to help me. I can even read it a second time if I really need to. A lot of this strategy is repetitive to the other strategies such as 20 minute test prep, where you are just testing yourself on the information you are learning. If reading is a major weakness for someone, this may help you. But if you are like me and highlighting and some minor notes help you for your reading, than that may be enough.
You should try a different reading strategy that doesn't take as much time! TART was very helpful for me and it can help prepare you for an exam!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good strategy to stay away from procrastinating. Chunking big readings definitely helps me to stay focused too. Like Courtney said, TART could be a good strategy to look at also to not only find the important concepts and facts but also create test questions.
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