On
the tip of my tongue...
The Sherrill Library – my home away from home - working on chapter
five and making some notes in the margins for my “AH HA” moments.
I was almost done reading about short-term memory when an idea for a
commentary came to mind. With just a couple sentences to go, I
finished the paragraph before jotting down my note. When I finished
that portion of reading, any semblance of what I was going to write
was completely gone from my short-term memory. Next time I know to
make the notes before finishing.
Not
just from left-field!
I sometimes wonder if all minds work the way mine does. To
elaborate, often is the case that a friend or a family member will
mention something and within mili-seconds my mind is thinking of
something else entirely. Often, if I need to responding to my
friend/family member my response is not even in the realm of what
they were looking for. My answers very often require a path of
thought - a schemata if you will – to detail how I got from point A
to point B. My mind tends to link insignificant or mostly random
items together and the links only seem to make sense to me.
Freshly
back to school and wondering how I will ever remember everything!
My study habits have varied over the years. On thing that has always
helped my studies has been the creation of acronyms or as the text
calls them – initial-letter strategies. Coming from an accounting
background there were many relatable terms that I could group
together to recall at a later date, such as: what account had credit
balances, what account had debit balances, and the different line
items of financial statements. Thankfully, I have wiped most of that
information from my memory instead to focus on education related
initial-letter strategies. Of course some acronyms will always stick
with me. As my brother was detailing the rainbow cake he was
decorating for my niece's birthday he listed off the colors. I had to
break the news to him that he forgot one color – indigo. I cited
Roy G. Biv (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). My
brother “the perfectionist” was forced to start over.
An
open letter to the author...
Dear Dr. Slavin,
I have been enjoying your textbook thus far and have found it very
useful in thinking not only og how a child may develop on varying
levels, but also how it relates to me. As a returning student after
seventeen years away from higher education, I have one question for
you. Why sir, did you not put the segment entitled, “What Study
Strategies Help Students Learn?” at the beginning of your
text??? Seriously, I could have used this information about one
hundred and sixty-nine pages ago!
Sincerely,
Jason A. Tavares
PS: I actually use a hybrid of PQ4R in conjunction with underlining.
My concern is of course for other students.
PQ4R
back to sixth grade!
Way back in the sixth grade I had my all-time favorite teacher
standing before my class. Mr. O'Connell was instrumental in my being
the reader and writer that I am today. Within the four walls of our
classroom he introduced us to writing and studying more so than any
teacher I had before and possibly since. While it may be true that I
have taken much from the myriad classes that I have attended since
sixth grade, Mr. O'Connell's basics have stuck with me the longest.
Thank you Mr. O'Connell and thank you long-term memory!
Mr. O'Connell was a firm believer in writing each and every day and
was especially an advocate of using our creativity on our writing. He
demanded that we always question what we were reading and what we
were about to write. Typically, he would launch into an almost word
for word transcript of the famous Abbot and Costello bit – Who's on
First? Each time we proposed an idea he would make us ask ourselves
questions: who is your main character? what is the dilemma that is
being faced? Where is the story set? Who is on third? No, I don't
know is on third...and so on.
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