This week, we concentrated on ramping up the study time as the second exam looms before them. They still have one new chapter to process, as well as LearnSmart, and then to start to put it all together by refreshing the important info from Chapters 3 & 4! Instead of asking the professor for the “study Guide” (and making him crazy in the process!) I suggested they learn how to make their own!!
So we spent the class time with me doing a demonstration of creating a study guide of one section of CH 3, using the TOC, the professor’s PowerPoints (which they haven’t been tapping enough), their Cornell Notes, chapter quizzes, and the chapter worksheets. Then each group of 3 students was assigned 3 sections from which they were to create a study guide – they met briefly, chunked up the work, and got to work! With 21 students in the class, we had exactly enough for each student to take a section and by the end of class, we had an entire study guide for all three chapters. The template was a 3 column table – use the TOC for the framework (left column), main points from the PowerPoint – center column – associated quiz questions (from the online quizzes) – right column. I collected them and scanned them right after class and posted them online.
My mantra between exam 1 and now was for them to have a modest goal of 10 improvement points over the last exam – I’m secretly hoping for more – but I don’t want to be unrealistic either – But the truth is, everyone spending quality time studying should do reasonably well on the exams… Between LearnSmart, the Cornell Notes Toolbox assignments, and the work we do together in class, everyone should have a reasonable shot at success.