Semester Project 8 Title: Book Notes Purpose:
This activity is designed to help students review text and other sources to
enhance understanding of concepts presented in the course.
Objectives:
- Help students keep up with reading assignments
- Enhance understanding of material through this review strategy
- Provide students with review materials for exams
Student Activity:
In this course, and probably many others, multiple demands are made on your
time as a student. It can be difficult to keep up with all the reading assignments
and other projects. For this reason, you will be asked to keep notes on your
reading of the text (and other materials, if assigned). Though this sounds like
more work, it will pay off as you prepare for exams and later pursue a teaching
career. Your instructor may allow you to bring in your book notes as you take
an exam.
As you read each assigned chapter or section, take notes on index cards or 8½
x 11 paper (of course, your instructor may assign a particular format). These
notes should contain the most important elements of the reading. For instance,
they include definitions of concepts, descriptions of particular theories or
theorists associated with a particular view, examples generated in class, summaries
of key topics (no more than two or three sentences) in your own words, etc.
To encourage summarizing and deeper cognitive processing of information, your
instructor may suggest that book notes for each chapter consist of no more than
one page or one or two index cards.
It is NOT acceptable to photocopy or otherwise reproduce sections
of the text and present them as book notes. Such activity will be considered
plagiarism and may be subject to university regulations regarding plagiarism.
Assessment:
Book notes may be turned in with exams. Students may receive variable points
on the exam, depending on the quality of the notes. By reviewing book notes,
instructors are assured that students have spent time going through the text
thoroughly and can often spot the source of student misconceptions.
NOTE: This assignment may be highly motivating for students if they are allowed
to bring in book notes to exams but may be somewhat ineffective if done as a
last minute preparation for a test.
Variations:
- Assign students to develop a mnemonic device for a particular topic,
to enhance retrieval of the material covered in a particular section of the
text. Students may be invited to share their mnemonics with classmates.
- Rather than having students generate book notes for the entire semester,
particular chapters might be assigned to different members of the class. These
notes could be compiled and discussed as a review activity for the exam.
- Book notes might be graded in place of an exam. The instructor might
look for such elements as uniformity of entries, depth of processing as presented
in summarized material, misconceptions, etc.
