Discussion
2
1. The topic resources have reviewed the reasons and importance of using online GCU Library resources in your research. Using examples from the topic 2 Resources, explain why it is important to use scholarly, peer reviewed resources retrieved from the online GCU Library vs. a general Internet search. In those instances where you need to do a search on the Internet, what guidelines should you follow? Why?
2. Assessment Description
3. Review the "Tools for College Success" section of Chapter 7 in the textbook Information Literacy. Apply one of the reading strategies towards one of the peer-reviewed articles you chose in the Topic 1 Brainstorming Worksheet. After reading your article, select a sentence that supports your essay topic. Format this sentence into a direct quote and include an in-text citation. Then, paraphrase the quote and include an in-text citation. In addition, include a reference citation at the end of your response.
4. Here is an example of what your response to this DQ should look like:
5. Topic: Exercise and its effects on obesity
6. Direct Quote: "Guidelines suggest that there are no added health benefits of high-intensity exercise other than the shorter time frame needed to expend the appropriate amount of energy” (Ross et al., 2015, p. 325).
7. Paraphrase: Exercise is beneficial for one’s health regardless of intensity levels (Ross et al., 2015).
8. References
9. Ross, R., Hudson, R., Stotz, P. J., & Miu, L. (2015). Effects of exercise amount and intensity on abdominal obesity and glucose tolerance in obese adults. Annals of Internal Medicine, 162(5), 325-334. doi:10.7326/M14-1189
Chapter 7: Preparing for Success in College and Career
By Kevin Thrasher
Introduction
Many people assume that success requires luck or superior talent, but this is not true. The vast majority of successful people achieve their goals through one simple combination of characteristics: hard work and dedication. Although there are those lucky few who win the lottery, this is not a smart way to plan for your future. If you are going to improve your life, you must stack the cards in your favor so that you are given more advantages (in a way, more “doors of opportunity” through which you can choose to enter) over those in society with whom you must compete for access to the best jobs. The key to this door is applying the virtues of hard work and dedication to your education. Education will open up far more doors of opportunity in your life than luck or fate will. Education truly is one of the most important determiners of those who “make it” in this world and those who do not.
Twenty years ago, you could enter the workforce and acquire an entry-level job with just a high school diploma. Many individuals prior to the 1990s were able to find a job pretty easily after graduating high school and, as long as they stuck with the same company, they could work their way up the ladder and eventually gain access to better positions and higher salaries over time. However, those days are gone. During the 1990s, individuals started needing a bachelor’s degree in order to be considered competitive and to have opportunities for advancement to higher levels of management in a company. Those who went to college and obtained a bachelor’s degree stood out as having an advantage and therefore were often hired more quickly by employers seeking the best and brightest talent.
As you can see, these individuals did not win a bachelor’s degree by playing the lottery. Instead, it took years of dedication and hard work in college. By now, it should be obvious to you that the best way to be successful in life is to have a clear plan. The plan should include achieving a degree in college so that you have more opportunities for the better-paying and more fulfilling jobs.
This chapter will focus on a set of topics that will prepare you for success in college. None of these strategies is magical. With plenty of hard work and unyielding dedication, anyone can apply these techniques and achieve a college degree. Below is a list of topics that will be outlined in this chapter. Each section is introduced with an activity to get you thinking about the topic and finishes with a reflection opportunity for reviewing the information related to the section’s topic:
· Importance of education
· Goal setting
· Strategies for college success (reading strategies and test-taking techniques)
The Importance of Education
As noted in the introduction to this chapter, individuals with an advanced education have far more advantages and opportunities than those without one. Not only do educated people have a greater chance of being hired for the better jobs, but they are also paid significantly more over their lifetime than those with less education. The U.S. Census Bureau (2012) has shown that individuals who do not graduate high school earn on average $12,000 a year less than those with a high school diploma. That is about $1,000 per month difference in income. However, individuals with a bachelor’s degree earn far more than someone with only a high school education. Statistics estimate this difference to be as large as $1,600 per month. At first, this might not seem like a lot, but when you multiply this monthly difference over the working lifetime of the average adult (approximately 40 years), it turns out to be a dramatic difference in earnings.
Let’s look at the numbers again. If someone with a high school diploma earns about $1,000 more per month than a high school dropout, this equates to about $480,000 more in lifetime earnings over 40 years (i.e., almost one half a million dollars more). With a monthly difference of $1,600 between someone with a bachelor’s degree and someone with a high school diploma, we get $768,000 in a lifetime of paychecks. That is more than three-quarters of a million dollars. In addition, these monetary amounts are probably low estimates because individuals with college degrees are also more likely to receive bonuses, pay increases, and job promotions over the 40 years of their working life. Therefore, the total amount is most likely well over a million dollars more if you simply have a college degree.
Individuals with college degrees are more likely to be hired for better jobs, and they typically receive superior benefits (such as health coverage, retirement plans, unemployment benefits, etc.), are less likely to be laid off, and are considered more financially secure. They also receive better credit scores from banks and so are more likely to be able to borrow money for buying a house, car, more education, etc. Finally, because individuals with college degrees are hired for the better jobs, job satisfaction is higher and physical demands lower than for individuals with less education, who often need to work in manual labor, in the heat and cold, for hourly pay that is sometimes seasonal. With less wear and tear on the body, college-educated individuals end up living longer, are able to afford better quality nutrition, live in safer and less stressful neighborhoods, and experience fewer work-related health injuries. All these benefits far exceed any monetary advantage and add to the quality of life of the college-educated individual.
To summarize, the importance of education cannot be exaggerated. Those who have a college degree are estimated to earn much more money in a lifetime (probably exceeding one million dollars per person) and are able to receive many other quality-of-life benefits related to health and standard of living. By now, there should be no doubt how necessary it is for you to graduate with your bachelor’s degree. It is the first step toward opening many more doors of opportunity and happiness in your future. But to do this you must set a goal
and then stick to it.
|
Time for Reflection Which of the above reasons for a college degree are most important to you? How will your life be different after you obtain your diploma and graduate from GCU? |
Goal Setting
Setting a goal is not the hard part. The difficult part is keeping momentum toward reaching the goal. Achieving long-term goals, especially ones that take four years to reach like a college degree, is never easy if we only focus on the final goal. In other words, in order to achieve a long-term goal, you must first focus on smaller pieces of the larger goal and use the smaller pieces as easier, more immediate milestones to reach. For example, those amazing individuals who have climbed to the summit of Mt. Everest never focused only on the summit point. Instead, they focused on reaching certain smaller milestones along the way as “steppingstones” to reaching the bigger goal of the final summit’s peak. They broke the bigger task into smaller tasks that were achievable and thus allowed for targets along the way. In other words, they planned!
The hikers might plan to reach the first base camp within two days. Then, after spending some time there to acclimate to the altitude, they might decide to reach the second base camp in one more day of trekking. Next, the hikers might plan to leave before dawn and reach a certain point on the mountain’s elevation by midday so that they could rest and evaluate the weather conditions before venturing up the final section of the journey, while the whole time calculating for the amount of oxygen they have in their tanks and the number of hours necessary to ascend and then descend without running out of oxygen. As you can see from this example, the big goal of standing on top of the world’s highest peak and looking out over the breathtaking sights of the Himalayas did not really happen as a single goal but instead was made up of smaller, more achievable goals that allowed progression and accomplishment along the way. You must approach your goal of achieving a college degree in the same way. That is, do not focus on the one-time, four-year goal at the end but try to divide the years into smaller chunks (semesters, classes) that allow you to chip away at reaching smaller targets that eventually will bring you closer to the greater goal of graduating with your college degree.
As mentioned in the beginning of this section, just setting a goal is not the hard part. Sticking to the goal is. So, just filling out the above planning grid will not be enough to get you to your destination. Let’s use another analogy to illustrate. Suppose you want to travel from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, California. A wise traveler will start by breaking the larger journey into smaller, achievable pieces. So, you might plan to drive from D.C. to Louisville, Kentucky, on your first day. Then, you might decide to travel from Louisville to Kansas City, Missouri, on Day 2. Next, you might calculate driving from Kansas City to Denver, Colorado, on Day 3, and from Denver to Las Vegas, Nevada, on Day 4. Finally, on Day 5 you might contemplate finishing your journey by traveling from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. As can be seen from this five-day journey, you were able to break the larger goal into smaller, more easily achievable tasks that allowed you incremental progress and success along the way. However, merely breaking the segments of the journey into smaller pieces with different cities as your daily targets is not enough to guarantee that you will complete your journey. You might have a flat tire along the way, there could be detours due to construction, you might be interested in staying another day in one location, you might get tired and decide to stop at a different city to rest, and so on. All of these diversions can interfere with the planned timeline for your journey.
The educational journey toward graduating with your college degree is similar to this journey across America. That is, each semester you have a plan for the number of courses you need to take and where you need to be along the timeline toward graduation. Just as your journey across America can be interrupted by unforeseen distractions, your journey toward graduation can also be interrupted with roadblocks along the way that can detour you from your path. Sometimes life gets in the way. We have marriages, jobs, children, bills, etc., that act as road bumps in our journey.
Remember, creating the plan is the easy part. Staying focused on finishing the journey and reaching the destination is the hard part. You must plan for what you will do when “life happens” and you have a roadblock that appears. Knowing that roadblocks are part of the journey and staying determined to problem-solve the temporary setback is often enough to keep you moving forward on your journey. Do not let the roadblocks discourage you and never let them be a reason to stop you from reaching your destination. Just as every prudent traveler will have some tools to use when his or her car breaks down along the journey, all college students must have a set of skills or tools to assist them in their academic journey toward graduation.
There is no single tool that is the magic wrench for all projects. Instead, the successful college student must have a collection of different skills and strategies at his or her disposal and know when to use the right tool for the task at hand. Time management, note-taking, and study skills are some very important tools for a successful college journey. Since these were already discussed in your University Success course (UNV 103), we will not spend time discussing them in this chapter. However, you should review the UNV 103 textbook for a refresher on these.
The next section of this chapter will focus on adding some new strategies to your college toolbox: reading strategies and test-taking techniques. Since college work is heavily dependent on your being a strong reader who independently comprehends assigned texts, we will start our discussion with strategies for being a better reader. We’ll then move on to discussing ways to be a better test-taker, since exams are often the instruments by which professors evaluate your understanding of the course’s content.
Tools for College Success
Reading Strategies
Have you ever read a chapter and then thought, “What did I just read? I don’t understand or remember anything!” This is a common occurrence, especially for dense, expository texts in college courses. Textbooks are not primarily designed to be read for pleasure, but instead for information. If we do not pay attention to our comprehension as we read, we will often not remember what we read. College reading requires meta-cognition, the ability to think about your own thinking and to monitor your mental activity. Every college student needs to understand that there are four variables that interact and affect the quality of reading:
1. The reader: What are your reading skills, prior knowledge about the topic, interests, attention span, or other physical factors like hunger?
2. The text: How difficult is the text? What genre is the text (e.g., a novel, a science text, a magazine)? Is there graphical support or summary information?
3. The strategies: How do you approach the reading task? What do you do as you read?
4. The goal: Why are you reading the text? What do you want to accomplish by reading the text?
The reader interacts with the words in the text by applying strategies that help him or her comprehend the message printed on the page. The act of reading can be broken into three key periods: before, during, and after. By following the suggestions below, you can increase your reading effectiveness.
Before You Read
· Try to read earlier in the day when you are most alert.
· Make sure you choose an area that is quiet and has good lighting. Do not lie in your bed or have distractions near you (such as the TV, computer, phone, music, etc.). You must choose a location that allows you to concentrate and have peace. If possible, always use this study area for reading only.
· Set a goal for reading. Ask yourself what you want to learn. Why are you reading the text?
· Survey and preview the chapter by looking through it and paying attention to the titles, headings, bold print, figures, tables, charts, and pictures. If there is a summary of the chapter, read it first. By surveying the text, you will be able to get the big ideas of the chapter before you actually read about the details.
· While surveying and pre- viewing the chapter, ask questions based on the headings, subheadings, and bold printed words that you find in the text. For example, if a heading in a science text is “Mammals,” you could ask a question like, “What are mammals?” Then, when you read the chapter, look for the answers to your own questions.
While You Read
· Write as you read. Keep notes and answer the questions you created when surveying the text. Be sure to also record the points where you have difficulty understanding so that you can ask your instructor later in class or during office hours.
· It is also helpful for students to keep a T-Chart Journal as they read. To make a T-Chart, draw a line across the top of your page (from left to right) and then a line down the middle of your page (from top to bottom) so that there is a big capital letter T on your page. As you read, copy important information on the left side of your T-Chart and then add your personal thoughts on the right side of your T-Chart. This will help you more deeply process and therefore remember the information you are reading.
· Another way to make your text more meaningful is to use a coding system like the one below:
· “+” means that it is new information
· “?” means that it is information you have a question about or do not understand
· “√” means you already know the information
· As you read the chapter, use these codes and write a +, ?, or √ in the text to show your reaction to the text. Afterward, you can return to the “?” marks to reread or ask questions of your instructor later.
· Divide the reading into smaller pieces like sections or page amounts instead of trying to do a whole chapter at once.
· Take breaks as you read, usually about every 45 minutes. During the breaks, reflect or review what you just read. Get up and walk around so that oxygen flows to your brain. This will help you remain alert.
· Use the Reading Response Journal (see example at end of this chapter) to help you more actively process the information in the text you are reading.
After You Read
· When you finish reading the chapter (or even after reading each section before a break), write a quick two-minute summary of what you read. For two minutes, write everything you can remember.
· Return to each of the questions that you made in the beginning and try to answer them without looking at your answers. If any question is difficult to answer, return to that section and reread it.
Other Reading Strategies
This section provides a brief list of some powerful strategies that you can use to help you better understand what you read in college.
SQ3R
SQ3R is a popular strategy for increasing your comprehension when you read (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000). It stands for Survey, Question, and 3 R’s (Read, Recite, Review).
· Survey: Look over the text before you read and pay attention to the titles, headings, pictures, diagrams, graphs, tables, bold words, etc.
· Question: Create your own questions about the topic before you read.
· Read: Read the text or sections and try to answer your own questions.
· Recite: After reading each section, close the book and recall everything you can remember about what you just read before going on to the next section.
· Review: Be sure to return to the text on a regular basis in order to review the material you read so that it stays fresh in your memory.
Predict-Read-Prove
Divide the text into segments or sections and follow this three-step process (Roe, Smith, & Burns, 2005):
· Based on the heading or title (or what you have read so far), make predictions about what the next section or paragraph will discuss. For example, if the next section in your history text talks about the Pilgrims, you might make several predictions like, “I think the section will talk about why they left Europe, their journey to America, and what happened when they got here.”
· Next, read the section and search for answers to your predictions.
· Finally, based on what you read, look for evidence that shows whether or not your predictions were correct.
K-W-L
Another great tool for improving your learning and helping you as you read is the KWL model (Alexander, 2006). Each letter represents a word or phrase: K= Know, W= Want to Learn, and L= Learned. To use this strategy, follow these steps:
· K (Know): For this step, you write everything you already know about something. Before you read about a topic, write down everything you know about it. Just brainstorm short sentences related to the topic. If you are going to read about the Pilgrims, you might write, “They came to America on the Mayflower. They landed on Plymouth Rock. They were some of the first Europeans to settle in the New World.”
· W (Want to Learn): For this step, you write down things that you want to learn about the topic. For example, you might write, “Why were the Pilgrims persecuted for their religion? How many days did it take to travel on a ship across the Atlantic? What problems did they experience on the journey? What hardships did they experience once they arrived here?”
· L (Learned): Finally, read the text and look for answers to the things you wanted to learn. You might not find the answers to all your questions. That’s okay. You can read other sources to find the answers, if you choose. Once you are finished reading, write down everything that you learned about the topic from the readings. This is not only a good way to practice remembering, but also helps you create notes about anything new that you learned.
Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers are visual tools that help you gather and organize information as you read (Slavin, 2003). It basically takes the printed information and turns it into a pictorial diagram that summarizes the important concepts (see Figure 7.1). By using the right graphic organizer, you can increase your understanding of the information you read and create a study tool that summarizes what you read at the same time.
Figure 7.1
Reading Response Journal
|
List five key points from the reading |
Provide a summary of the most essential information to know from the reading |
|
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. |
|
|
Create a graphic representation of the information from the reading |
What questions do you still have or want to know more about from the reading? |
|
|
? ? ? ? ? |
Word Maps for Learning Vocabulary
Word maps are a handy strategy to use for learning new vocabulary words. Using a word map , you can expand your understanding of words, increase your recollection of them, and make a good review sheet for future studying. Another useful tool for learning vocabulary is the Frayer Model .
The above section provided a synopsis of key strategies that will help you become a more effective reader. You do not need a huge assortment of tools in your college toolbox. You just need a collection of the right ones for the job at hand. The strategies described here are some of the best and most well researched. Give them a try and you will quickly see the benefits of these simple reading strategies. Now, we will examine ways to improve your performance on tests.
|
Time to Reflect Which of the above reading strategies did you like best? How will you use one of the strategies to increase your reading comprehension? Try the new strategy while reading the next section. |
Test-Taking Strategies
Not all exams are created equal. Different types of tests require different kinds of test-taking strategies. How you take a multiple-choice test is very different from how you approach an essay test. Below are some tips for taking different types of tests. Remember, be sure to follow the suggestions in the “Study Tips” section of the UNV 103 textbook. The test-taking tips below are only good if you have adequately prepared for the test by effectively studying beforehand.
Objective Examinations: True/False, Multiple-Choice, Matching, Fill-in-the-Blank
Because many students are anxious when taking a test, it is important to know a couple of simple techniques that can improve performance. Think of the Disney character Shrek as a strategy for taking objective exams (i.e., those that have answers that are either right or wrong).
· Surveying: Look over the whole test to find out what types of questions are being asked. Surveying helps you to know what to expect and allows you to organize your plan of attack for the test.
· Have confidence: Remember to relax. You are more likely to do better if you are calm. The best way to eliminate your worries about a test is to make sure you are adequately prepared. This means doing a good job of studying and reading during the days before the test.
· Read directions: Read the directions carefully! Answer the questions exactly the way the directions state. Sometimes the directions indicate to answer “only one” or “choose two,” etc. Many times, students miss questions even though they know the answer because they do not follow directions.
· Easy questions first: Spend your time answering the easy questions first. If you come to a hard question or one that you cannot answer within a minute or so, skip it and come back to it later. If you waste a lot of time on one or two hard questions in the beginning of the test, you may end up running out of time before you even have a chance to answer other, easier questions. When answering multiple-choice or matching questions, always scan all the choices first and then eliminate the wrong answers in order to narrow down the choices. Sometimes the answer to one question is revealed in the other test questions. Therefore, skip any questions you do not know and maybe the answer will become clear in another question later in the test.
· Key words: Look for one or more key words. A key word is one that carries the weight of the question and determines how you will choose your answer. For example, in the following question, “Which factor prevented Napoleon from escaping his final fate?”, one of the key words is “prevented” because the question really hinges on this word. It is not asking how he escaped his final fate or even what his final fate was, but what prevented him from escaping. It is critical to pay close attention to the key words in the question so that you can focus your answer on what exactly is being asked.
When answering multiple-choice or matching questions, always scan all the choices first and then eliminate the wrong answers in order to narrow down the choices.
Essay Examinations
Most students dread essay exams the most. However, there is no reason to fear if you follow a couple of easy tips. First, always be aware of your time. Since essay questions take more time to complete, pay attention to how much time you have left in order to answer the questions fully. If there is more than one essay question, pick the ones that are easiest to answer first so you can save more time for the harder ones. Always keep your eye on the clock so that you use your time effectively.
As in multiple-choice tests, read the directions carefully and pay attention to the key words the instructor has included. Words like “list,” “describe,” “compare and contrast,” and “outline” are important signals for how to answer the question. That is, do not merely “describe” if the professor is asking you to “compare and contrast.” Next, it is important to brainstorm and organize your ideas before you even begin writing your essay answer. Start by doing a “memory dump.” This requires you to brainstorm a list of words for everything you know about the topic in the question. Then, use the list as points of discussion while writing your answer. Organize your answer around the words you brainstormed by grouping them together in your response. Mark things off the list as you talk about them. Also, be sure to support your ideas by giving examples from the readings or lectures as references.
Finally, when you are finished, reread the questions and your answers to make sure that they match, that you answered the questions fully, and that your writing makes sense. Remember that good handwriting (where applicable), grammar, punctuation, and spelling are very important. A well-written, grammatically correct answer is more likely to receive a higher grade than a poorly written, grammatically incorrect answer.
One strategy you can use to prepare ahead of time for essay questions is called PORPE (Simpson, 1986).
· Predict: As you study and prepare for the essay test, predict potential essay questions that your instructor is likely to ask. Many times, your notes, syllabus, or textbook readings point to big topics that could serve as potential essay questions.
· Organize: Take all the keywords and concepts from your chapter readings, syllabus, and notes. Write them as a list and organize them so that words are grouped together into a hierarchy or outline that consists of categories and subcategories of ideas and words. A good way to do this is to make a semantic web (like a spider web of connected ideas) to organize all the words. Also, be sure to use mnemonics for helping remember groups of ideas. SHREK and PORPE are examples of mnemonics, in which the letters represent words that aid in remembering things more easily.
· Rehearse: Once you’ve organized your ideas into a visual outline or web, study it. Try to use the graphic information as a way to learn (and eventually remember) the information related to the test.
· Practice: Most students stop at the “rehearse” stage above. That is, they just study the content but never self-assess. To be a better test-taker, you must practice taking a test. To do this, create your own essay test by returning to the potential questions you generated during the “predict” step above. Now, without looking at your outline or web, try to answer your questions by writing out complete answers as if you were really taking a test. Be sure to time yourself so that you will have an estimate of the amount of time you will need to answer the essay questions.
· Evaluate: Finally, after you write your answers for the practice test, you need to evaluate your answers for completeness, accuracy, and appropriateness. Compare your answers to the visual graphic you created during the “organize” step (i.e., your hierarchy or web). Did you leave anything out or put something in the wrong place? If so, focus your attention on re-studying those areas.
|
Time to Reflect What is the difference between the SHREK and PORPE techniques? Can you recall what each letter represents? If not, review them now. |
What to Do Before the Test
Be prepared: Nothing can take the place of studying on a regular basis. All the tricks in the world will not help you if you do not take the time to prepare for your test.
· Keep up with your homework: Homework and assignments provide you with practice and help you build knowledge related to the course and exams. Obviously, exam questions come from the homework and assignments related to the class, so be sure to complete all homework regularly so that you can benefit more from the daily lectures and readings.
· Spread the learning out by reviewing regularly: Reviewing a little each day is a good way to keep things fresh in your head. Try to review class notes, your homework, and the textbook for a few moments every day, especially right after and right before class. Add information to your notes when you review them and focus your time on the hard stuff. Flash cards are good for doing this as well.
· Ask for help: Many students do not ask for help when they need it. If you do not understand something, it is your obligation to ask for help. The best choice is to ask for clarification from your instructor. Set up a time during their office hours when you can have more one-on-one time. Also, form study groups with your classmates. Even if you are an online student, you can communicate directly with your professor for extra help or contact other classmates via e-mail to establish opportunities for sharing ideas and gaining insight into difficult concepts in the class. Contact the Center for Learning & Advancement for guidance if needed (www.gcu.edu/centerforlearning).
· Never miss classes: Stay engaged in what is going on. The temptation to miss class can lead to serious problems, even for online students. Always go to class unless it is absolutely unavoidable. If you must miss class, contact your instructor immediately and get notes from a classmate. You might want to exchange e-mails or phone numbers with a peer during the first week of class in case one of you misses. For online students, try to log in daily so that you are on top of everything that is happening in class and remain abreast of any last-minute news that appears in the course or announcements.
|
Time to Reflect 1. Which of the five test-taking tips above do you need to do better on? 2. Which ones are your strengths? 3. How is studying online different than going to class in a face-to-face classroom? 4. Knowing that there are differences between online and ground classes, how can you modify the suggestions to benefit you regardless of the type of classes you take? |
The previous section discussed several techniques for improving your performance on both objective and essay exams (SHREK and PORPE, respectively). In order for these strategies to work, you must start practicing them now. Do not wait until the last minute. Procrastination is the enemy of success in college. It is the number one reason college students fail. As discussed in the beginning of this chapter, success is not about luck or fate—it is achieved through hard work and dedication.
Will you begin your college journey on the right foot or will you take your chances and just wing it? The choice is up to you. Make a plan, stick to it, and stay focused. By using the strategies explained in this chapter, you can reach the destination of your journey and have strong tools in your toolbox for when there is a speed bump in the road. When you arrive at graduation, all the hard work will have been worth it!
Check for Understanding
1. How important is education? Provide some examples.
2. What will you do to achieve your goal of graduating? Be specific in your plan.
3. Name two strategies for improving your reading effectiveness. Explain how to use both.
4. What makes the PORPE technique so unique? How is PORPE different from other ways of studying for exams?
References
Alexander, P. A. (2006). Psychology in learning and instruction. Merrill Prentice Hall
Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies that work. Stenhouse Publishers
Roe, B. D., Smith, S. H., & Burns, P. C. (2005). Teaching reading (9th ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company.
Simpson, M. L. (1986). PORPE: A writing strategy for studying and learning in the content areas. Journal of Reading, 29, 407–414.
Slavin, R. E. (2003). Educational psychology: Theory and practice. Allyn & Bacon.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2012). College degree nearly doubles annual earnings. http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/censusandstatistics/a/collegepays.htm
Vacca, R. T., & Vacca, J. O. (2005). Content area reading. Allyn & Bacon.
Go to previous section