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 Project: 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.
Variation:
- 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.
