LANGUAGE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM-BEd notes
Unit 5 – Developing proficiency in written Comprehension and Production
Prepared by
Sabarish P
Contents
- Study skills
Writing process – Phases, Types – Note making & Note taking
Study Skills
Study skills or study strategies are approaches applied to learning. They are generally critical to success in school, considered essential for acquiring good grades, and useful for learning throughout one's life.
Effective Study Strategies
Effective study strategies include:
Open-Mindedness – keeping your mind free and clear of distractions
Meaningful learning– you must take responsibility for your learning
Practice – review your learning experiences often
Concentration - can be increased by developing your study habits, using time efficiently, & become involved with the learning task quickly
Making sense – relate learning to real world or to our own experiences
Critical thinking – question, summarize, & redefine new concepts and ideas
Studying involves:
Reading Textbooks
Learn speed reading
Skim and Scan
SQ3R
Survey – gathering, skimming, and reviewing the information
Question – raising issues as you are surveying
Read – rereading material & looking for answers to the questions you raised previously
Recite – Rereading material & putting concepts into your own words
Review – going over material until you know it
Taking Notes
Make notes brief
Put notes in your own words
Outlines help organize major and minor thoughts
Use the Cornell Note taking method
There are six steps
Record
Question
Recite
Reflect
Recapitulate (summarize)
Review
Example - Cornell Note taking method
Listening
Be ready for the message
Listen for the main ideas
Listen for new ideas
Understand what your hearing
Repeat mentally
Ask questions
Listen to the whole message
Respect all ideas
Decide what is important and what is not
Sort, organize, and categorize
How you go about studying
Original learning
Early review
Intermediate review
Final review
Concentration and Memory
Have a routine study environment
Study as early in the day as possible
Deal with distracters and interferences
Set time goals
Take breaks
Motivation
Set study goals
Learn actively
Plan out your study time
Work with study groups or with one other person
Smart Students
Are not the most talented or the hardest working.
Know the rules of good grades.
Learn more in less time, & get more satisfaction out of the learning process.
Know you can teach yourself better than anyone else can.
GPA of Success
Goal – reflects your wants and needs
Plan – route you plan to take to reach your goal. It should be effective and specific.
Action – brings your plan to life. Requires self-discipline & power over procrastination.
Manage your Time
You must develop time management skills.
If you want to enjoy your life, give time to your family &/or friends, & fulfil your responsibilities; you need to have control over your schedule.
Five – ten minutes each day, plug in your schedule.
You need a daily calendar and a paper to update your daily list.
Update Calendar Each Morning
Record all your to-dos & deadlines on your calendar.
Jot down new tasks & assignments on your list during the day.
Next morning transfer these new items from your list onto your calendar.
Then take a couple of minutes to plan your day.
Study Plans
A.S.P.I.R.E.
Approach – positive attitude, avoiding distractions, & making time for study
Select – studying in reasonable chunks of time, selecting key materials to review
Piece together - summarize material you’re studying
Investigate – find alternative sources for information you don’t understand
Reflect – apply the concepts your learning to make them more interesting & easier to remember
Evaluate – examining your performance
Mind-mapping
Mind maps are created around a central word, idea, or theme
Create branches to other major concepts related to the central word
From there continue to create branches from every word or concept you add to the map
Mnemonics
Techniques that help you remember things
Memory hooks
Simply gimmicks
Come in handy when you have masses of information to memorize
They help you remember information, but they do not help you understand it.
M.U.R.D.E.R.
Mood – right attitude &environment
Understanding – marking what you don’t understand so you can go back to it later
Recall – bring to mind key information
Digest – going back to the material you did not understand, & try to comprehend it
Expand - apply the concepts you’re learning to make them more interesting and easier to remember
Review – going over material until you are confident that you know it
P.O.R.P.E.
Predict – determine the most important concepts & formulate questions to deepen you understanding of the material
Organize – summarizing key information and outline answers to your predicted questions
Rehearse – reciting aloud key information & quizzing your memory of the material
Practice – answering predicted questions from memory
Evaluate – assessing answers to make sure they contain critical information and concrete examples
Dialogue with the author
Create a dialogue with the author, even thought the author doesn’t talk back
Take an active role in your reading of the text
Question the author’s reasoning and information
May get answers to your questions several pages later
Makes learning interesting
Gets you thinking and keeps you focused
4Rs
Reducing – organizing all course information & condensing it into small chunks
Reciting – speaking aloud about reduced material without looking at it – talking through ideas in your own words
Reflecting – thinking about what you learned and connecting it with what your prior knowledge
Reviewing – going through your notes, several more times, concentrating on areas of weakness, until you understand all the material
3Rs
Read – read the material once
Recite – as much as you can remember
Review – read & skim material again to get key concepts and major details
Flash Cards
Good for classes with a lot of terminology or vocabulary
Helpful for remembering material
Real strength of flash cards is testing yourself on the concepts
An alternative to words on one side and definitions on the other is questions on one side and answers on the other
Use them to quiz yourself
Study Groups
Benefits
See the material from different perspectives
Stay motivated because the group needs you
Commit more time to studying
Group discussions help you learn the material
Share class notes and other material
Pick up new study tips & habits
Writing process – Phases, Types – Note making &
Note taking
Writing
Writing is to communicate specific information or ideas, utilizing the formats, language, and content relevant to the situation. Writing aims to capture a thought or idea, to transfer it to a permanent format, making it tangible. The responsibility for that transfer falling squarely on the writer’s shoulder. If communication is the ultimate goal, write for your audience, not for personal style.
Any idea can be conveyed through writing. If you can think it, you can write it. Great care is required to ensure that your message is accurately interpreted by its audience. Nearly any statement can be shortened while retaining its full content; concise wording is less likely to be misinterpreted.
The Writing process (Phases of writing)
There writing process has 5 stages
Prewriting
Before you sit down to write something you need to figure out what you are going to write about.
Drafting
Once you have planned your ideas concentrate on getting your ideas on paper, organizing your information logically and developing your topic with enough detail for your audience and purpose.
Revising
Looking your writing with a reader’s eye.
To revise means literally to re-look or re-see at your writing
Editing
Checking grammar, sentence structure, word choice, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, document format etc.,
Publishing
Releasing your writing for the public to read
Four Different Types of Writing
Expository
Expository writing is a pedagogical term for any form of writing that conveys information and explains ideas.
Also called exposition, informational writing, and informative writing.
Expository writing is a subject-oriented writing style, in which the main focus of the author is to tell you about a given topic or subject, and leaves out their opinions.
This is one of the most common types of writing styles, which you always see in textbooks and “How To” articles.
Expository writing is usually in a logical order and sequence.
e.g. - Essays, Newspaper, magazine articles, text books, manuals, encyclopedia etc.,
Descriptive
Descriptive writing is a style of writing which focuses on describing a character, an event or a place in great detail.
It is sometimes poetic in nature in which the author is specifying the details of the event rather than just the information of what happened.
The author visualizes to you what he sees, hears, tastes, smells and feels.
e.g. –Poetry, Diary, Descriptive essays
Persuasive
Persuasive writing, unlike expository writing, contains the opinions, biasness and justification of the author.
Persuasive writing is a type of writing which contains justifications and reasons to make someone believe in what the author believes in.
In persuasive writing, the author takes a stand and asks you to believe their point of view.
e.g. – Advertisement, Critical review, Editorials, Job application, Recommendation letter, Resumes etc.,
Narrative
Narrative writing is a type of writing in which the author places himself as the character and narrates the story.
Narrative writing often has situations like disputes, conflicts, action, motivational events, problems and solutions.
e.g. Anecdotes, Novels , Short stories, Poetry, Oral history, Autobiographies and biographies.
Five keys to effective writing
Put the reader in the first place
Use simple words and short sentences
Use jargon only when necessary
Write with verbs and nouns
Format to improve readability
Note making & Note taking
Note taking
Note-taking is the process of writing down important information from a text, lecture, or other learning opportunity in order to review and remember the information later. the first stage in the process of producing effective notes. It is a process that involves writing or recording what you hear or read in a descriptive way during lectures, tutorials or seminar, copying notes from original resources seen, heard or read.
Note making
Note making is the link between study reading and answering assignment questions. When you are learning new material you have to ensure that the material is processed (encoded in your memory) in such a manner that you understand and recall it. It follows on from taking notes and happens when:
You synthesize your reading from a number of sources on the same topic.
You summarize for yourself the connections in any reading or from any lecture.
You add your own critical comments to what you read or hear.
Similarities
Both provide the student with material for easy reference, preparation and study during an exam.
Both aid the student in remembering facts easier as it utilizes both reading and listening senses.
Both have the same purpose that is for the student to excel in their studies.
Both help students concentrate better a n d more effectively.
What’s the difference?
Note-taking is when you simply write what you hearing lectures, or from printed texts. When you hear or see something for the first time and you jot down information for later use. Should be regarded as the first-stage only of the process and should lead on to note-making. Note taking is a passive process which is done at lectures whereas note-making is more active and focused activity where you assimilate all information and make sense of it for yourself.
Note-taking |
Note-making |
Brings no obvious improvement towards the skills in studying. |
Making notes improve the skills in study. |
Only jotting down points. Involve no sight interpretation. |
Helps student to see each point clearly along with its link or connection with each other |
Very less changes are required. |
Easier to change the notes made |
Taking points from one source on a time. |
Involve the taking of points from different sources. |
Less understanding process involved, the aim is to take notes/ point |
Aimed in making note is that the making of the notes must be in a way that helps students to understand the topic related better |
Points or notes were rewrite in full form. Points given by sources are taken straightly |
Making notes are often in short form (comprises only the main point or key words that may help the study process). process must involve the process of summarizing all the information within the points studied |
Summarizing
Summarization is the restating of the main ideas of the text in as few words as possible.
It can be done in writing, orally, through drama, through art and music, in groups and individually.
Summary must be:
Comprehensive: included all of the author’s major ideas, assertions and findings.
Accurate: in your choice of words and paraphrasing you did not misrepresent the author’s ideas
Neutral: did not include your own evaluation or comments
Independent: a person who has not read the source text can understand what you have written
Transactional & Reflexive skills
Transactional skills
Transactional writing starts with the purpose of communicating ideas and information between individuals. Transactional writing includes a broad range of text types, such as business letters, friendly emails, invitations, speeches, and interviews. Transactional writing is writing that is “intended to convey factual information or to argue the validity of a point of view with objective evidence.”
Students need to learn both social and business writing formats to be successful in school, the workplace, and social settings.
Examples of assignments for students for developing transactional skills
Write a letter to your MP. You may write for or against the use of animals for experiments.
A news paper has recently printed an article arguing that the film stars are paid too much money. Write a letter to the news paper giving your views on the issue.
Write a letter to your principal with your recommendations for improving the appearance of the school or college.
Why Use Transactional skills
Even in the age of technology with chats, texts, tweets, and emails, students must learn the essential skills and formats particular to transactional writing. Forms and structures speed up reading and clarify writing that acts as communication with friends, family, colleagues, employers, and others in school, at work, and socially.
Reflexive writing
Reflexive (self-reflexive) writing concerns the writer's feelings and personal experience. Such writers find a way to place themselves 'outside' of their subject matter and blend objective and reflexive approaches. This enables the writer to express a critical awareness of how they are writing about the subject. It verges on self-awareness.
Reflexive writing originated in the 1980s for literary criticism and, by about 1990, was also adopted for cultural studies. Other disciplines has since adopted reflexive approaches as part of a search for new forms of written discourse. For instance Michael Ashmore has written a heavy-going discussion of how self-aware reflexive writing practice avoids the problems in scientists' accounts of their practices (Ashmore 1989).
Reflexive writing is most commonly used in conjunction with narrative analysis and auto-ethnographic studies, as it is within these contexts that the dual nature of an author as both observer and effecter/subject has the greatest prevalence, making the need to consider the authors effect upon the subject, perceptions of the subject and/or nature as the subject themselves as a part of their analysis. Reflective learning skills are often called upon as part of a practice-based assignment, project or work-placement.
Reflective writing
Reflective writing is a means of turning 'surface' learning into 'deep' learning. In brief, reflective writing: is not just an account of the event, it shows some analysis explores motives, including the views and motives of others, and considers them against the author’s own.
Reflection & Reflexivity
Reflection is concerned with thoughtful questions about something you want to understand. We might say it is about using your "mental tools" in order to build your understanding and so solve some problem or puzzle you are interested in. In contrast reflexivity is concerned with thoughtful questions about yourself. We might say it is about asking why you see something as a problem or puzzle, and why you and (instinctively) choose particular frames / tools for thinking (and not others - of which you may not yet be aware). Reflection achieves some learning but learner is the "same person" afterwards. Reflexivity achieves learning but also leaves the learner changed as a result.
So we could say that reflexivity is reflection + self change.
Reflection is:
Self awareness: thinking of yourself, your experiences and your view of the world
Self improvement: learning from experiences and wanting to improve some area of your life
Empowerment: putting you in control of making changes and behaving in a different way
Reflexive skills
explores how reactions relate to behaviour
considers questions ideas in depth
includes other (potentially critical) perspectives as well as your own: it requires you to ‘stand back’ from the event
mentions external information and how it impacted on behaviour
doesn’t make one point at a time, but links ideas together
recognises that the personal frame of reference can change according to the emotional state in which it is written, the acquisition of new information, the review of ideas and the effect of time passing.
(Adapted from 'Reflective Writing: Guidance Notes for Students' Pete Watton, Jane Collings, Jenny Moon. (April 2001)
Writing aims to capture a thought or idea, to transfer it to a permanent format, making it tangible. The responsibility for that transfer falling squarely on the writer’s shoulder. If communication is the ultimate goal, write for your audience, not for personal style.Verbal communication is aided by nonverbal cues, like hand movements and facial expressions. Writing has to be much clearer than spoken language because it lacks these assisting cues. Objective, factually-based writing is stronger and more persuasive than writing that relies on opinion and hearsay.
Prepared by
Sabarish P
