Journal Entry 10: Experimenting with muscle reading
After experimenting with the steps included in Muscle Reading, reflect on your reading skills. Are you a more effective reader than you thought you were? Less effective? Record your observations.
I discovered that I…
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Many students find that they only do the “read” step with their textbooks. You’ve just read about the advantages of additional steps to perform. Depending on the text, reading assignment, your available time, and your commitment level to the material, you may discover through practice which of those steps work best for you. Right now, make a commitment to yourself to experiment with all or several of the additional Muscle Reading steps by completing the following Intention Statement.
I intend to use the following Muscle Reading steps for the next 2 weeks in my __________ class:
· Preview
· Outline
· Question
· Focus
· Flag answers
· Recite
· Review
· Review again
Journal Entry 9: Make the career connection
Your next job may require you to prepare budgets, keep financial records, make financial forecasts, and adjust income and expenses in order to meet an organization’s financial goals. The ability to do such tasks successfully is called financial literacy.
Take a few minutes now to reflect on your current financial literacy. Are you using any of these skills at work now? Did you use them during a former job? If so, what specific money tasks did you do, and how confident did you feel about doing them?
I discovered that I…
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Now plan one action that you will take this term to develop more financial literacy. For example, you could interview people who work in your career field and ask them about how they handle money on the job. Or, you could sign up for a financial literacy course offered by your employer.
I intend to…
Journal Entry 11: Make the career connection
Reading a lot will fill you with information. Creating knowledge, however, calls for another step—testing information by acting on it and seeing how well it actually works for you in practice. This skill is especially useful for expanding your work-related skills.
If you’re reading about how to lead meetings more effectively, for example, write an Intention Statement to practice a new technique in your next meeting. Follow up with a Discovery Statement about how well that technique worked and how you could modify it to be more useful in the future.
Start turning information into knowledge right now. To begin, choose one strategy from this chapter that you will definitely use within the coming week.
I intend to…
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After using this strategy, reflect on how well it worked for you. I discovered that…
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Can you modify the strategy to make it more effective? If so, describe how you will do that. I intend to…
Journal Entry 8: Show me the money
See whether you can use The Essential Guide to Becoming a Master Student to create a financial gain that is many times more than the cost of the book. Scan the entire text, and look for suggestions that you can turn into Intention Statements that could help you save money or increase income.
When it comes to taking charge of your money, what suggestion do you most want to act on right now? For example, you might choose to start a part-time business to increase your income this year.
I discovered that I want to . . .
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Now, translate your discovery into a goal to achieve within the next few months or an action to take within the next 24 hours. I intend to . . .
Journal Entry 4: Discovering how you learn from experience
Place a check mark next to any of the following statements that accurately describe the ways you prefer to learn. This checklist is not a formal assessment of learning styles. Instead, it offers a way to reflect on how you learn while looking through the perspective of David Kolb’s ideas about experiential learning.
1. I enjoy learning in ways that involve all my senses.
2. When solving problems, I often rely on intuition as much as logical reasoning.
3. I function well in unstructured learning situations where I can take the initiative.
4. Before taking action, I prefer to watch and ponder what’s going on.
5. I like to consider different points of view and generate many ideas about how things happen.
6. When trying to understand information, I value patience, good judgment, and being thorough.
7. I enjoy intellectual analysis and like to view information from many perspectives.
8. I value the scientific approach—using theories to make sense of experiences, creating predictions based on those theories, and testing those predictions.
9. I usually excel in learning situations that are well-defined and highly structured.
10. Activity helps me learn, so I like to jump in and start doing things immediately.
11. I like to use learning to produce new results in my life.
12. I look for practical ways to apply what I learn.
In the above list, Items 1-3 describe a preference for learning through feeling (concrete experience).
Items 4-6 illustrate learning through watching (reflective observation).
Items 7-9 describe thinking (abstract conceptualization).
Items 10-12 refer to doing (active experimentation).
Did you find out something new about yourself by reflecting on this brief list? Or did it confirm and give a name to something that you already knew?
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I discovered that…
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Consider experimenting with a mode of learning that differs from your current learning preferences.
Journal Entry 5: Discovering how you learn through your senses
Each question below has four possible answers. Place a check mark next to the answer that best describes how you would respond in the stated situation.
This checklist is not a formal assessment of learning styles. Instead, it offers another method to explore the ways that you prefer to learn—this time through the use of the VARK system.
You enjoy courses the most when you get to do which of the following?
1. View slides, overhead displays, videos, and readings with plenty of charts, tables, and illustrations.
2. Ask questions, engage in small-group discussions, and listen to guest speakers.
3. Read texts that interest you, write papers, and take detailed notes.
4. Take field trips, participate in lab sessions, or apply the course content while working as a volunteer or intern.
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When giving someone directions on how to drive to a destination, which of these do you prefer to do?
1. Pull out a piece of paper and sketch a map.
2. Give verbal directions.
3. Write down your directions.
4. Say, “I’m driving to a place near there, so just follow me.”
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When planning an extended vacation to a new destination, which of the following do you prefer to do?
1. Read colorful, illustrated brochures or look at photo essays about that place.
2. Talk directly to someone who’s been there.
3. Read books and articles about the destination.
4. Spend a day or two at the destination on a work-related trip before taking a vacation there.
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You’ve made a commitment to learn to play the guitar. What is the first thing you do?
1. Go to a library or music store and find an instruction book with plenty of diagrams and chord charts.
2. Pull out your favorite recordings, listen closely to the guitar solos, and see whether you can play along with them.
3. Search out books and articles with specific strategies for learning the guitar.
4. Buy or borrow a guitar, pluck the strings, and ask someone to show you how to play a few chords.
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You’ve saved up enough money to lease a car. Which of the following is the most important factor in your decision when choosing from among several new models?
1. Your visual impressions of the car’s interior, exterior, and engine.
2. The information you get by talking to people who own the cars you’re considering.
3. Reading information about the car from sources like Consumer Reports.
4. The overall impression you get by taking each car on a test drive.
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You’re browsing the Internet with the intention to learn a new skill. What features are most important to you in choosing the websites you’ll explore in detail?
1. Design, color, and videos that demonstrate the skill.
2. Podcasts that feature interviews with experts.
3. Text-heavy pages with clear written explanations.
4. Links that you can click on to produce an effect, such as rearranging the elements on a page.
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You get a scholarship to study abroad next semester, which starts in just three months. You will travel to a country where French is the most widely spoken language. To learn as much French as you can before you depart, you do which of these?
1. Buy a video-based language course that’s recorded on a DVD.
2. Set up tutoring sessions with a friend who’s fluent in French.
3. Find workbooks with exercises that guide you through the basics of reading and speaking French.
4. Sign up for a short immersion course in an environment in which you speak only French, starting with the first class.
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Now take a few minutes to reflect on the meaning of your responses:
· The answers numbered 1 are examples of visual learning.
· The 2’s refer to auditory learning.
· The 3’s refer to read/write learning.
· The 4’s illustrate kinesthetic learning.
Finding a consistent pattern in your answers indicates that you prefer learning through one of these sensory modes more than the others. Or you might find that your preferences are fairly balanced.
Did you find out something new about yourself by completing this brief checklist? Or did it confirm and give a name to something that you already knew about yourself?
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I discovered that…
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Consider experimenting with a way of learning through your senses that differs from your current preferences. I intend to. . .
Journal Entry 6: Get back to the big picture about learning styles
Take a few minutes right now to practice metacognition by completing the following sentences.
The most important thing that I discovered about myself by doing the learning styles activities in this chapter is . . .
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I discovered that what I would most like to change about the way I learn is . . .
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In order to make that change, I intend to . . .
Journal Entry 3: Getting started with learning styles
This Journal Entry offers you a way to “open up” to the idea of learning styles. There are no correct answers and nothing to score. Just spend a minute or two thinking about specific times in the past when you felt successful at learning. Then place a check mark next to the statements that accurately describe those situations.
1. I was in a highly structured setting with a lot of directions about what to do and feedback on how well I did at each step.
2. I was free to learn at my own pace and in my own way.
3. I learned as part of a small group.
4. I learned mainly by working alone in a quiet place.
5. I learned in a place where there was a lot of activity going on.
6. I learned by forming pictures in my mind.
7. I learned by moving around, touching something, or trying out a process for myself.
8. I learned by talking to myself or explaining ideas to other people.
9. I got the overview before I tried to understand the details.
10. I listened to a lecture and then thought about it after class.
11. I read a book or article and then thought about it afterward.
12. I used a variety of media—such as a videos, films, audio recordings, or computers—to assist my learning.
13. I went beyond taking notes and wrote in a personal journal.
14. I was considering where to attend school and knew I had to actually set foot on each campus before choosing.
15. I was shopping for a car and paid more attention to how I felt about test-driving each one than to the sticker prices or mileage estimates.
16. I was thinking about going to a movie and carefully read the reviews before choosing one.
Reviewing the list, do you see any patterns in the way you prefer to learn? Briefly describe them.
I discovered that I . . .
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Perhaps the above list sparks some ideas for new learning strategies that you’d like to explore. Describe how you will use one of them. I intend to . . .
Journal Entry 7: Make the career connection
Recall times when you excelled at work and look for patterns in what happened. For example:
· Were you working alone or with other people as part of a team?
· Did you excel primarily at making decisions or in carrying out decisions made by others?
· Were you coaching another person or were you being actively coached by someone else?
· Were you working in a predictable environment or an unpredictable one?
· Were you working in a small company or a large organization?
· Were you working with a lot of direction, or were you free to accomplish an assigned task however you chose?
Summarize your answers to these questions by completing the following sentences.
I discovered that I tend to excel at work when…
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In order to build on my strengths, I intend to…
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