Transcript Communicating and Studying

Adapting to Life as a College Student
How is College Different?
 Professors do not always reach out to students
individually to address problems
 Professors may be less involved in administration than
high school teachers
 Classes run by semesters, not years, giving professors less
time to get through material
 You see your professors less frequently than you saw your
high school teachers
How Can You Make it Easier?
 Reach out to your professors via e-mail
 Go to your professors’ office hours to introduce yourself
 Familiarize yourself with the offices around campus you
may need to use (e.g. STAR office, Financial Aid,
Registrar, Academic Advisement) by finding the office
and their website
 Use your Yorkmail account to get updates from the
administration on important dates
 Be professional and ask politely for what you need
Writing an E-mail
Subject: Notes
Subject: Notes from Today’s
ENG125 Class
From: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Sry I mised class today prof I was
sick n couldnt come to school
Dear Professor Smith,
I’m sorry I missed class today, I
wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t
come to campus. Can you please
help me get the notes from today?
Thank you,
Jane Doe
Writing an E-mail:Do’s and
Don’ts
Subject: Notes
Don’t:
From: [email protected]
 Use text language
 Make spelling or
Sry I mised class today prof I was
sick n couldnt come to school
punctuation errors
 Use an e-mail address that
is inappropriate
Writing an E-mail:Do’s and
Don’t’s
Subject: Notes from Today’s
ENG125 Class
From: [email protected]
Dear Professor Smith,
I’m sorry I missed class today, I
wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t
come to campus. Can you please
help me get the notes from today?
Thank you,
Jane Doe
Do:
 Include a salutation and
closing
 Identify yourself and what
class you are in
 Ask for what you need
Exercise: Fix This E-mail
From: [email protected]
Subject: student
professor,
Hope ur semester is off to a god start i would like to meet
with u.
let me know good time to meet with u on campus
Thx much
Watch Your Tone
 While it is important to be
assertive in an e-mail, it is
easy to accidentally sound
hostile.
 You should probably not
complain or demand
things from your
professor. Ask for tools
that can help you instead.
Dear Professor Smith,
I think that you don’t give
enough time on the
homework. I had a really
bad week and didn’t have
time. I’m going to hand it
to you on Monday.
Jane Doe
What Should I do?
 STAR students that need special accommodations in class
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should talk to their professors at the beginning of the semester
about their needs!
Use the paperwork from the STAR program as a beginning of a
conversation with your professor. Do not just hand it to him/her
and run off.
Find out if your professor has any questions or concerns and
relay them to the STAR program coordinators.
Gently remind your professors of your accommodations before
exams and important due dates.
YOU are in charge of your education, and it is YOUR
responsibility to make sure that you get the help that YOU
need.
Time Management
 Professors expect you to do more work on your own than
you did in high school.
 Taking 15 credits of college classes is the equivalent of a
full time job. This means that for each class you should be
spending around 6 hours each week working for that class.
 With commuting and other commitments, it can be hard to
find this much time each week.
Where Can We Find Time?
 Break assignments in to small chunks and get started
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early.
For each class you are taking, try to work about one hour
per day outside of class on assignments.
Make a checklist each week, so that you know what
assignments are coming up.
If you need to, write out what you plan to do each day and
hold yourself accountable.
Reward yourself for accomplishing tasks!
How Should I Study
 Everyone has different ideal study conditions
 I like to study with music on, sitting on my couch
 Some people need complete quiet
 Other people like to study in the library
 How do you like to study?
 Different people have different studying stamina
 I can study for several hours in one sitting
 Many people need breaks after about an hour
 Cramming & all-nighters aren’t good for ANYONE!
 At what point do you zone out when you study?
 If you are unsure about your answers, try different study
conditions and times to see what works best.
Exercise: Make a Schedule
Let’s say that you are taking four classes and you have to do
the following assignments for next week:
 Do 25 problems for Math Class
 Do 20 problems for Chemistry
 Read 20 pages in Chemistry textbook
 Read 100 pages for Philosophy
 Write a 5 page paper on Jane Eyre for English
 Work Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 5PM-10PM and
Saturday 10AM – 4PM
 Go to class MW 10AM – 2:50PM and TR 10AM – 450PM
Write a schedule to make sure you get everything done.
Tools to Help: Google Cal
Reading to Learn
 It likely that you will be asked to read for every class you
are taking
 While you are probably experienced in reading for your
English class, it is less likely that you have ever read for
many of your other classes, especially Mathematics and
Science
 Your professors do not assign readings to torture you.
They want you to experience their subject and learn from
the reading. Every assignment has a purpose.
Reading Strategies
 Read the provided excerpt without picking up a pen or
pencil.
 What is the point of the excerpt? What did you get out of
it?
Strategy 1: Annotation
Annotation is the most common strategy used by academics
While reading the passage underline or highlight passages
that you think are interesting or challenging.
Write notes to yourself in the margins to record your
thoughts while you read.
Circle words that you don’t understand.
After you read the passage once, go back and look at what
you marked. Write a short summary of the text.
Strategy 2: Double-entry Notebook
Draw a line down the center of your notebook paper.
Label one side “Says” and the other “Means”
After each paragraph, write a short summary in the
“Says”column. Then, in the “Means” column, record your
reaction to the paragraph (i.e. any questions or thoughts
you have).
You can also vary this to make a triple-entry notebook by
separating out questions and other thoughts.
Strategy 3: Free Writing
Read the whole text once.
After you are finished take a few minutes to write, any way you want,
about you reactions to the passage.
This is just for you. You may want to summarize the text and ask
yourself questions about what you just read.
You are basically thinking out loud, so write any thought that pops in to
your head.
You can revise your free-write by rereading the text and answering
some of your own questions.
Strategy 4: Draw a Picture
Read the whole text once.
In the center of your page, draw a circle and write down the
author’s main point in the circle.
Draw lines to new bubbles and write down a few quotes or points
the author made the explain and support the author’s thesis.
Link these to other points you know the author made. If one
bubble supports another, draw a line between the bubbles.
Exercise
 Re-read the passage using one of the strategies we just
discussed.
 Turn to your neighbor and discuss the article. Do you
understand better it better?
 Which strategy did you use?
 Which ones might you use in the future?
Different Strategies for Different Subjects
 Not all readings are made equal. Some subjects, like Math
and Science, are harder to read than others.
 We may need to rethink how we use our strategies when
reading Science and Math articles.
 Scientists do not typically use the free-write or argument
plotting strategy, mostly because the writing is more
upfront about what is being argued.
 Triple-entry notebooks are often more successful than
double-entry.
Science Annotation
 When annotating the text, use different marks or colors to show
different types of information
 Use a box for words you do not understand. Reread the sentence
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around the word and try to write a definition in the margins. Box
and star definitions of new science words
Use a squiggly line, or a different color, for data that is used.
Use a straight line, or third color, for a conclusion that is drawn
from the data
Use a different symbol, or new color, for the major conclusions of
the article
In each paragraph, try to identify the main point of the paragraph
and write an note in the margins explaining it.
Science Notebook
 When reading an article about an experiment or
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phenomenon, it is useful to understand the procedure.
Draw two lines down your notebook paper
In the left write down any new science vocabulary, or
steps in an experiment. If there are different groups or
trials in the experiment, mark them in different rows.
In the middle, draw a picture to help you understand the
definition or a picture of the set-up of the experiment and
procedure
In the third, write down a definition or any conclusions
that the author draws from the trial.
Exercise
Read the following two short science texts using the two
different science strategies.
Which one worked better for you?