Why Teaching Study Skills is Important

I’m on my way to host a workshop at AMATYC on incorporating study skills into a developmental mathematics class. (The workshop is Thursday morning from 9-11 am.) I am also excited to be giving a similar talk at Bunker Hill Community College.

Sadly there are still instructors who feel that teaching study skills has no business in a developmental math class. They say “This is college, and college students need to figure these things out for themselves. When I was in college I was never taught how to be a student, and I turned out just fine. If a student can not figure out how to be a college student, they should not be a college student.” This strikes me as an elitist attitude. I view my job as helping students to learn and understand mathematics, and if my students do not know how to learn mathematics then I can not be successful.

Other instructors say that students know what to do in order to be successful. Although this may be true, my claim is that students do not know how to do these things. Or even why they do these things. On the first day of class, ask your students “What do you need to do in order to be a good math student?” Your students will generate a lengthy, though very general, list: come to class, take notes, do homework, study, ask for help, … If you ask follow up questions like “Why do you take notes?” or “What is an effective study plan?”, you will see nothing but blank stares. When pressed, a student will tell you that they take notes in class because everyone else does, that they blindly copy whatever is on the board without thinking about what is going on, and that they do not use their notes outside of class.

I incorporate math study skills into every developmental math class I teach. The skills I cover include note taking, time management, test preparation, test taking, test analysis, practice quizzes, note cards for memorization, study groups, learning styles, math anxiety, reading a math textbook, and doing homework. I am able to do this while still covering all of the material in the course outline through the use of short in-class activities and assignments. During my workshop I will be sharing many of the assignments and activities that I use. If you would like to these assignments and activities, or if you would like to view the PowerPoint slides I will be using, you can find the on the Presentations page on my website: georgewoodbury.com .

If we can teach our students the study skills that are needed to learn mathematics, we are increasing their chances for success. By success I am not just referring to their success in our class, but also in their future classes. And in college. And hopefully in life.

Wrap Up

How much time do you spend on study skills? Do you feel that we shouldn’t be teaching study skills? If you have any questions or feedback, let me know by posting a comment or reaching me through the contact page on my web site: georgewoodbury.com .

Intro to my 2010 AMATYC Study Skills Workshop

This week at AMATYC (Thursday November 11) I will be hosting a 2 hour workshop (9-11am) on incorporating study skills into a developmental math class. Here is the beginning of my talk, explaining why I feel incorporating study skills into mathematics courses is important, as well as some pointers for how to do this without sacrificing any material.

Why teach study skills?

Are developmental math students struggling solely because of poor math skills? Although poor math skills could be part of the problem, I don’t think that’s the only reason they are struggling. Could part of the problem be that they do not know how to learn mathematics? I think that this is the key. If a student is lacking the necessary math study skills, then success is a long shot at best.

Should we teach study skills?

There are many instructors who would answer “No” to this question. I think the reasoning is that we are teaching at a college, and if a student doesn’t have the survival skills needed in college they have two choices – develop them on their own or disappear.

I think that this approach is unfair, and perhaps slightly elitist. If a student did not learn in K-12 how to succeed in a mathematics class, or how to succeed in school in general, then we cannot continue to penalize them for this. The same holds true for the re-entry student who has been away from school for 10+ years.

Another thing to keep in mind is that even though we are teaching at a college, many of the students are enrolled in a class considered to be a pre-collegiate course such as Prealgebra or Elementary Algebra. One of the many reasons I love teaching at a community college is because we are in a position where we can help students to start anew, to give them the tools that will change their path in life. Helping a student understand how to learn is a great first step in this journey.

General Study Skills Courses and Their Shortcomings for Math Students

At our college, many (first year) students take a general study skills course.  These “Student Success” courses focus on the college’s resources and programs designed to help students. The courses also offer general guidelines as to how to be a successful student. The courses are typically taught by the Counseling division. These courses can be quite helpful to students in general, but in many ways fall short in helping students to be successful in mathematics.

The set of study skills required to be successful in a math class are in many ways different than the skills needed in a history class, an English class, or an art class. Of course, being an active listener is important to success in all of those classes, but I feel it is crucial in mathematics.

Another problem for me with the general study skills class is that many of the study skills are taught out of context. When the instructor says note cards are a great aid for memorizing facts, the students will most likely forget about this skill by the time they will be able to apply it in my class. However, when I reach the first specific instance that I feel the use of note cards would be helpful I can briefly stop the class, explain the power of using note cards, exactly what to write on the card, how to make use of the cards, and so on. This is a skill that my students will now understand and incorporate them into their general strategy. Later in the semester all I have to say is “This is a note card moment” and my students know what to do.

Teaching the study skills within the framework of a math class helps students to understand the current material while also adding to their study skill toolbox.

Study Skills That I Cover

I have a list of 12 study skills that I cover in my developmental math classes.

• Note Taking
• Doing Homework Effectively
• Reading a Math Text
• Creating Note Cards
• Test Preparation
• Practice Quizzes
• Test Taking
• Test Analysis
• Time Management
• Study Groups
• Math Anxiety
• Learning Styles

Three Essential Elements for Every Study Skill

Every study skill that I teach must address the following three elements.

• How do we do it?
  Obviously I have to show them how to apply or incorporate each study skill. I also have to discuss when to apply the skill and under which circumstances to apply the skill.
• Why do we do it?
  Students need to know why each skill is important, and what benefits come from applying the skill. If they don’t know why each skill is important, they won’t see why they need to incorporate that skill into their routine. If you don’t explain the benefits associated with a particular study skill, they will assume there are none.
• Encourage them to do it.
  To get students started, you must encourage them to use the study skills. That includes suggesting when to use a particular study skill – read through the next section of the textbook before tomorrow’s class, create a set of note cards for problems that you find to be difficult, create a practice quiz that coves today’s material, … You also have to remind them of the benefits – by going over your mistakes on last night’s homework you’ll increase your chances of getting a similar problem correct on the exam.

How do I cover study skills and still cover all of the material in the course outline?

It’s possible! I incorporate study skills into my mathematics lectures. My preference is to talk about study skills within the flow of the daily lectures. I have designed short in-class activities that I can use. I try to keep the time commitment to 10 or less minutes. I have also developed a series of assignments that can be completed outside of class.

The remainder of the talk lists a series of activities and assignments that I use in my classes. These activities and assignments will be presented in future blog articles. You can view the assignments on my web page, as well as the PowerPoint presentation. They are stored on the Presentations page on georgewoodbury.com.

If you’re at AMATYC in Boston be sure to come by my workshop, or at least swing by the Pearson booth to say hi.

Note – Study Skills related articles appear here every Tuesday.

I am a math instructor at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA. If there are topics you’d like me to address in future Study Skills articles, send in your requests through the contact page on my web site. – George

New Arithmetic/Study Skills Course

At my college we have just started to offer a new arithmetic course. Previously our lowest course was prealgebra, and we had a good number of students who lacked the arithmetic skills to succeed in that course. If a lack of arithmetic skills was one of the primary reasons for student failure, we determined that the lack of (math) study skills was another cause of failure.

Arithmetic Concepts

So we started by deciding the arithmetic topics to be covered. We settled on whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and percents. While covering whole numbers, we will devote at least 2 days to helping students to learn/memorize their multiplication facts. Fractions will be developed slowly and conceptually. We hope that the students, at this point in the course, will have little trouble with decimals. Besides the basic concept of percents, we will cover converting percents to fractions & decimals and vice versa. We will finish with some friendly percent equations.

Study Skills

We have two AI (augmented instruction) sessions per week, and we will cover such topics as time management, taking notes, doing homework, studying for exams, using note cards, test taking, and test analysis. The idea is that we will teach study skills in context. For example, after covering multiplication facts we will teach students how they can use note cards to help them learn their multiplication facts.

So Far, …

On the first day of class I gave a pretest that covered all of the material in the course outline. Some students did pretty well, scoring 16-20 out of 25. For most of these students fraction problems were the ones they missed the most. (I’m not surprised.) Some students struggled with all of the problems, with a handful getting fewer than 5 correct.(If you would like a copy of the pre-test so you can see for yourself, drop me a line and I’ll send it to you.)

The abilities of these students vary greatly, making it even more challenging to teach this course. It may be the most challenging course I have ever taught. For example, I spent 30 minutes with a student during office hours trying to show a student how to round whole numbers to a given place value. She knew the place values and she could determine whether the digit to the right was less than 5 or not, but she could not figure out what to do from there. There were some tears shed, but I think by the time we were done she was starting to get it.

I’ll keep you updated as the semester progresses.

If you have any suggestions for teaching a course like this, or if you have some experience to share, please leave your comment or you can reach me through the contact page on my website .

-George

I am a mathematics instructor at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA. Each Friday I usually blog about technology, inside and outside of the classroom, but I will also be sharing my progress with this new course from time to time. Let me know if there are other topics you’d like me to cover by leaving a comment or by reaching me through the contact page on my website.

Warming Up – Study Skills Activity

In this week’s study skills blog I am focusing on how to “warm up” for math class. I’m not going to say that math and athletics are identical, but just as it is helpful to warm up before exercising or participating in a sport, it is also a great idea to warm up for a math class.

Classroom Activity

Put your students together in pairs or groups of 4 and ask them “What are the best ways to get ready for math class? In other words, how should you spend the last 5-10 minutes getting ready for class?”

I give my students up to 5 minutes to compile their list. I then ask groups to give me an idea from their list, which I write on the board. As I write an idea on the board, I offer my 2 cents worth on the idea – “This is a good idea because it refreshes your memory about questions from yesterday.” Once we have exhausted all of their ideas, my students have plenty of options to choose from to warm up for class.

How My Students Warm Up

Here’s a list of some things my students do.

• Look over their notes from the previous class session. This is a good reminder of what we covered yesterday, and should lead into today’s lecture. They pay particular attention to the questions they wrote in the margin, their end of page summaries, and the examples I worked out.
• Look over last night’s homework. They look over any errors they made and any questions they have. At the beginning of class they can then ask me their questions, or better yet, they can ask a classmate the question before class starts.
• Look through the section in the textbook that we will be covering that day. A brief look through the textbook’s examples gives them an idea about what type of problems we will be covering, and what techniques we will be using. They can start to form their questions early.
• Look at the homework exercises for today’s section. Again, it’s a decent way to get an idea about the types of problems that will be covered today. I prefer that they look at the examples in the textbook, but it’s still not a bad idea.
• Rework a couple of problems from the previous night’s homework. This is a great way to get the brain engaged while reviewing previous material.
• Cycle through the note cards they have been preparing in this chapter. Note cards are great because they are portable, and it doesn’t take long to look through them.
• Select a “top 5” from the previous section. Students identify 5 problems that they should know how to do in the previous section. Essentially, this is similar to creating a practice quiz.
• Write down the top 3 things to remember from yesterday’s section.
• Prepare their note pages for Cornell notes. (OK, this is more busy work than warming up, but at least they are doing something.)

If you have any “warm up” activities, I’d like to encourage you to share by leaving a comment, or reaching me through the contact page at my web site – georgewoodbury.com.

-George

I am a math instructor at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA. Each Tuesday I post an article related to Math Study Skills on my blog. If there’s a particular study skill you’d like me to address, or if you have a question or a comment, please let me know. You can reach me through the contact page on my website – http://georgewoodbury.com.

Study Skills – Intro to my CalADE Talk

This Friday (April 23) I will be giving a talk on incorporating study skills into a developmental math class at CalADE. This is the first conference for California’s NADE chapter, and I’m excited to be taking part. The talk is similar to the study skills talk I gave at MATYC 2009, so I thought I would recycle my thoughts on incorpirating study skills into the developmental math classroom. Here is the beginning of my talk, explaining why I feel incorporating study skills into mathematics courses is important, as well as some pointers for how to do this without sacrificing any material.

Why teach study skills?

Are developmental math students struggling solely because of poor math skills? Although poor math skills could be part of the problem, I don’t think that’s the only reason they are struggling. Could part of the problem be that they do not know how to learn mathematics? I think that this is the key. If a student is lacking the necessary math study skills, then success is a long shot at best.

Should we teach study skills?

There are many instructors who would answer “No” to this question. I think the reasoning is that we are teaching at a college, and if a student doesn’t have the survival skills needed in college they have two choices – develop them on their own or disappear.

I think that this approach is unfair, and perhaps slightly elitist. If a student wasn’t taught in K-12 how to succeed in a mathematics class, or how to succeed in school in general, then we cannot continue to penalize them for this. It’s not their fault. The same holds true for the re-entry student who has been away from school for 10+ years.

Another thing to keep in mind is that even though we are teaching at a college, many of the students are enrolled in a class considered to be a pre-collegiate course such as Prealgebra or Elementary Algebra. One of the many reasons I love teaching at a community college is because we are in a position where we can help students to start anew, to give them the tools that will change their path in life. Helping a student understand how to learn is a great first step in this journey.

 

General Study Skills Courses and Their Shortcomings for Math Students

At our college, many (first year) students take a general study skills course.  These “Student Success” courses focus on the college’s resources and programs designed to help students. The courses also offer general guidelines as to how to be a successful student. The courses are typically taught by the Counseling division. These courses can be quite helpful to students in general, but in many ways fall short in helping students to be successful in mathematics.

 

The set of study skills required to be successful in a math class are in many ways different than the skills needed in a history class, an English class, or an art class. Of course, being an active listener is important to success in all of those classes, but I feel it is crucial in mathematics.

Another problem for me with the general study skills class is that many of the study skills are taught out of context. When the instructor says note cards are a great aid for memorizing facts, the students will most likely forget about this skill by the time they will be able to apply it in my class. However, when I reach the first specific instance that I feel the use of note cards would be helpful I can briefly stop the class, explain the power of using note cards, exactly what to write on the card, how to make use of the cards, and so on. This is a skill that my students will now understand and incorporate them into their general strategy. Later in the semester all I have to say is “This is a note card moment” and my students know what to do.

Teaching the study skills within the framework of a math class helps students to understand the current material while also adding to their study skill toolbox.

 

Study Skills That I Cover

I have a list of 12 study skills that I cover in my developmental math classes.

• Note Taking
• Doing Homework Effectively
• Reading a Math Text
• Creating Note Cards
• Test Preparation
• Practice Quizzes
• Test Taking
• Test Analysis
• Time Management
• Study Groups
• Math Anxiety
• Learning Styles

 

Three Essential Elements for Every Study Skill

Every study skill that I teach must address the following three elements.

• How do we do it?
  Obviously I have to show them how to apply or incorporate each study skill. I also have to discuss when to apply the skill and under which circumstances to apply the skill.
• Why do we do it?
  Students need to know why each skill is important, and what benefits come from applying the skill. If they don’t know why each skill is important, they won’t see why they need to incorporate that skill into their routine. If you don’t explain the benefits associated with a particular study skill, they will assume there are none.
• Encourage them to do it.
  To get students started, you must encourage them to use the study skills. That includes suggesting when to use a particular study skill – read through the next section of the textbook before tomorrow’s class, create a set of note cards for problems that you find to be difficult, create a practice quiz that coves today’s material, … You also have to remind them of the benefits – by going over your mistakes on last night’s homework you’ll increase your chances of getting a similar problem correct on the exam.

 

How do I cover study skills and still cover all of the material in the course outline?

It’s possible! I incorporate study skills into my mathematics lectures. My preference is to talk about study skills within the flow of the daily lectures. I have designed short in-class activities that I can use. I try to keep the time commitment to 10 or less minutes. I have also developed a series of assignments that can be completed outside of class.

The remainder of the talk lists a series of activities and assignments that I use in my classes. These activities and assignments will be presented in future blog articles. You can view the assignments on my web page. They are stored on the Presentations page on georgewoodbury.com.

If you’re at CalADE in Anaheim be sure to stop by and say hi.

Note – Study Skills related articles appear here every Tuesday.

I am a math instructor at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA. If there are topics you’d like me to address in future Study Skills articles, send in your requests through the contact page on my web site. – George

Things I’ve Learned – Tell Them Why

I hear instructors talking about how their students lack motivation and display little to no effort. They can’t figure out why, so there’s usually a shrug of the shoulders followed by a sigh. In the last few years I’ve made a concentrated effort to tell my students “why” – why they should take notes in class, why they should try to solve the problem instead of waiting for the instructor to do it, why they should do homework, etc.

Students will do the work if they know why they are doing it. This is especially crucial for developmental students. Based on their high school experience homework is just a task – it’s our job to let them know that the purpose of doing homework is to increase their understanding and that it’s not just some task that will be checked off. They need to know that we take notes in class not just to keep busy, but instead to keep a transcript that they can use outside of class. So I tell them why.

A perfect example is my new MyMathLab homework/quizzing policy. Can you imagine developmental math students doing homework that is worth 0% of their grade? My students do. (In my class homework is worth 0%, and serves as a prerequisite for the quizzes in MyMathLab.) On the first day of class I explained to them that the homework is there for them to gain understanding while using any resources available to them, and that the homework is intended to prepare them for the quizzes. That made so much sense that they were willing to accept this, and they have been doing their homework faithfully.

“Tell Them Why” does not just apply to getting students to work, but also to helping students understand mathematics. Telling them why we use a certain procedure, rather than just saying “Here are the steps”, will help your students to gain conceptual understanding and be more likely to buy in.

Tell them why.

I am a math instructor at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA. If there are topics you’d like me to address in future articles, or if there’s something you would like to share, send in your requests through the contact page on my web site. Be sure to check out next Wednesday’s article.  – George

Study Skills – Intro to my AMATYC Talk (Tuesday 11/10/09)

This week at AMATYC (Saturday 11/14) I will be giving a talk on incorporating study skills into a developmental math class. Here is the beginning of my talk, explaining why I feel incorporating study skills into mathematics courses is important, as well as some pointers for how to do this without sacrificing any material.

Why teach study skills?

Are developmental math students struggling solely because of poor math skills? Although poor math skills could be part of the problem, I don’t think that’s the only reason they are struggling. Could part of the problem be that they do not know how to learn mathematics? I think that this is the key. If a student is lacking the necessary math study skills, then success is a long shot at best.

Should we teach study skills?

There are many instructors who would answer “No” to this question. I think the reasoning is that we are teaching at a college, and if a student doesn’t have the survival skills needed in college they have two choices – develop them on their own or disappear.

I think that this approach is unfair, and perhaps slightly elitist. If a student wasn’t taught in K-12 how to succeed in a mathematics class, or how to succeed in school in general, then we cannot continue to penalize them for this. It’s not their fault. The same holds true for the re-entry student who has been away from school for 10+ years.

Another thing to keep in mind is that even though we are teaching at a college, many of the students are enrolled in a class considered to be a pre-collegiate course such as Prealgebra or Elementary Algebra. One of the many reasons I love teaching at a community college is because we are in a position where we can help students to start anew, to give them the tools that will change their path in life. Helping a student understand how to learn is a great first step in this journey.

General Study Skills Courses and Their Shortcomings for Math Students

At our college, many (first year) students take a general study skills course.  These “Student Success” courses focus on the college’s resources and programs designed to help students. The courses also offer general guidelines as to how to be a successful student. The courses are typically taught by the Counseling division. These courses can be quite helpful to students in general, but in many ways fall short in helping students to be successful in mathematics.

The set of study skills required to be successful in a math class are in many ways different than the skills needed in a history class, an English class, or an art class. Of course, being an active listener is important to success in all of those classes, but I feel it is crucial in mathematics.

Another problem for me with the general study skills class is that many of the study skills are taught out of context. When the instructor says note cards are a great aid for memorizing facts, the students will most likely forget about this skill by the time they will be able to apply it in my class. However, when I reach the first specific instance that I feel the use of note cards would be helpful I can briefly stop the class, explain the power of using note cards, exactly what to write on the card, how to make use of the cards, and so on. This is a skill that my students will now understand and incorporate them into their general strategy. Later in the semester all I have to say is “This is a note card moment” and my students know what to do.

Teaching the study skills within the framework of a math class helps students to understand the current material while also adding to their study skill toolbox.

Study Skills That I Cover

I have a list of 12 study skills that I cover in my developmental math classes.

• Note Taking
• Doing Homework Effectively
• Reading a Math Text
• Creating Note Cards
• Test Preparation
• Practice Quizzes
• Test Taking
• Test Analysis
• Time Management
• Study Groups
• Math Anxiety
• Learning Styles

Three Essential Elements for Every Study Skill

Every study skill that I teach must address the following three elements.

• How do we do it?
  Obviously I have to show them how to apply or incorporate each study skill. I also have to discuss when to apply the skill and under which circumstances to apply the skill.
• Why do we do it?
  Students need to know why each skill is important, and what benefits come from applying the skill. If they don’t know why each skill is important, they won’t see why they need to incorporate that skill into their routine. If you don’t explain the benefits associated with a particular study skill, they will assume there are none.
• Encourage them to do it.
  To get students started, you must encourage them to use the study skills. That includes suggesting when to use a particular study skill – read through the next section of the textbook before tomorrow’s class, create a set of note cards for problems that you find to be difficult, create a practice quiz that coves today’s material, … You also have to remind them of the benefits – by going over your mistakes on last night’s homework you’ll increase your chances of getting a similar problem correct on the exam.

How do I cover study skills and still cover all of the material in the course outline?

It’s possible! I incorporate study skills into my mathematics lectures. My preference is to talk about study skills within the flow of the daily lectures. I have designed short in-class activities that I can use. I try to keep the time commitment to 10 or less minutes. I have also developed a series of assignments that can be completed outside of class.

The remainder of the talk lists a series of activities and assignments that I use in my classes. These activities and assignments will be presented in future blog articles. You can view the assignments on my web page. They are stored on the Presentations page on georgewoodbury.com.

If you’re at AMATYC in Vegas be sure to come by my talk, or at least swing by the Pearson booth to say hi.

Note – Study Skills related articles appear here every Tuesday.

I am a math instructor at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA. If there are topics you’d like me to address in future Study Skills articles, send in your requests through the contact page on my web site. – George

I’m Ba-ack

Well, I will be on Monday anyway. I’ll be following a new schedule on my blog – here it is.

• Monday: MyMathLab
  I’ll be discussing teaching strategies, features, and all things MML.
• Tuesday: Math Study Skills
  I’ll be discussing particular study skills, and sharing activities & assignments that can be used in your math class.
• Wednesday: General Teaching
  I’ll be sharing my thoughts on teaching mathematics – both at the developmental & transfer level.
• Thursday: Potpourri
  Success stories, Q & A, Things I’ve Learned, Guest Blog Posts, …
• Friday: Recreational Posts
  The mathematical side of sports, TV, cooking, poker, …

Be sure to give my blog a look starting Monday November 2 – George

Math Study Skills – Notetaking

There are so many places to begin … Which study skill should be covered first? Doing homework effectively? Reading the textbook? Time management? I decided to begin with note taking.

Note taking is a crucial skill for students in a developmental math class. Students do most of their learning in the classroom at this level, and a good set of notes is like their transcript of exactly what went on in class. Quality classroom notes are a valuable aid to students while they are working on homework, as well as while they are studying for an exam.

Students know that they are supposed to take notes, but many have no idea how to do this. Some students faithfully copy down everything the instructor writes or says, but do not think about what they are listening to or writing down. Others use their notes to try a problem here or there, but do not have anything they can really refer to after class. By the way, if you want your students to take note taking seriously you have to let them know why they should be taking notes and how they can use them. Otherwise they view it as another pointless exercise.

I decided to use a version of Cornell notes in my classes. Here’s the setup. (Click the picture to see a full-size image.)

On day one I told the class that they had to take their notes in this format. (I did tell them that they could adjust the size of each section to fit their particular needs.) I explained what belonged in the Comment Section, and as we started to take our notes I prompted them for things that they could be writing in that section. Students intuitively understood the column system. Once we reached a point when my students were getting close to the end of page 1, I explained the summary section. Then I gave them a minute to summarize, in a couple of sentences, what was covered on the page of notes. I had a few volunteers share their summaries, and they were excellent.

OK, so now they could fill out the comment & summary sections. I needed them to understand how these sections would help them to learn. A quick glance at these sections will help them to remember what was covered in class, the sections help students to find material while working on their homework, the process of thinking about what to write in these sections will encourage students to think about the material – which will help them to understand the material, …

I spent at most 10 minutes on that first day talking about how to take notes, why it was important, and what could be gained. 10 minutes, that’s it. My students are taking excellent notes, and I didn’t have to sacrifice math material to teach this skill. As I walk around class, I am blown away at how well they are doing.

I also gave a handout explaining how I wanted their 3-ring binder to be set up.

your-notebook (pdf file)

I check their notebooks on the day of the exam. Students who have complete notebooks (incluing each day’s notes and each homework assignment from the text), 100% on all MyMathLab online assignments, 85% or better on each MyMathLab quiz, no more than 1 absence, and a minimum of 4 hours spent in our tutorial lab can earn 10 bonus points on their exam.

To sum up, I was able to teach my students how to take quality notes in 10 minutes of class time.

• I helped them understand why taking notes is important, not just something to keep them busy during class.
• I taught them to think while they are taking notes (comment section) and to reflect on their notes after class while reviewing them (summary section).
• I taught them how to organize their notes, a valuable skill in and of itself.

Note taking is a skill that a student can use every day in class, improve their success in the course, and carries over to their other courses as well. It’s a great way to start the semester, high on reward while low on classroom time commitment.

In the next update I will move on to time management.

(By the way, if you’d like to see copies of students’ notes, just drop me a line. – GW)