Summer of Reading - #2 Community-wide Books

The idea of everyone reading the same book and then coming together to discuss and share is quite popular in multiple areas – colleges and universities, communities, and on a small level, local book clubs.        

One Book/One University -  One current trend is for colleges and universities to select a book that is either assigned to all incoming freshmen to read over the summer or one book that will be read across campus during the year.    If you are a freshman and have been assigned to read the book before arriving on campus you should consider the following:

• READ THE BOOK!  Do not wait until you arrive on campus.  You will not have time.
• There may be discussion groups scheduled during orientation.   Think ahead about what ideas or insights you learned from the book and how you might share these.
• During the fall semester you may be expected to make connections to the book in some of your classes.
• Often speakers and events are scheduled around the book and theme.   Be sure to attend the events, especially if you have a chance to hear the author. 

One Book/One Community

• The library system where I live has these programs two or three times year.  The books are available to borrow through the library and there are facilitated discussions at each branch.  I have read many books I might not normally have read and met very interesting people through these programs.

Formal and Informal Book Groups

I currently facilitate three groups – two formal groups through the library and one with my friends. Again, these are ways to expand your reading and talk about books and ideas with other people.   Some tips are:

• Stay on topic.
• Avoid side-bar conversations.
• Be open to ideas that are different from your own.
• Do not dominate the conversation.   It is important that everyone get a chance to talk.
• In a more formal group it is the responsibility of the facilitator to make sure these things happen.   In an informal group with friends it is everyone’s responsibility.

The next post will look at fiction or non-fiction trade books assigned in a class in addition to a textbook – the purpose of these assignments and how to read the book.

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My other blog, www.ReadtoEnrich.blogspot.com has over 160 discussion guides that I created for the various groups I facilitate.

Summer of Reading: #1 Why Read?

The blogs this summer will focus on my favorite subject, reading, starting with independent reading (choosing on your own what to read) and moving through all aspects, ending with reading and learning from textbooks.

 So, why should you read?  What are the benefits?

There are multiple benefits to independent reading, not the least of which are entertainment, escape, learning, enlightenment, and pure joy.  There are so many types of books it is impossible to list them all, but there is something for everyone no matter what your interests, profession, etc.

While reading is mainly a solitary activity, it can be social when talking about a book in a group.  There are an amazing number of book groups – no one really knows how many as most of them are a group of people who decide to get together on their own to discuss books.   When my friends group met at a local restaurant there were two other groups meeting at the same time!

Besides the endless reasons to read listed above, there are two specific benefits:

• Increasing or maintaining your power of concentration: Many people think that all of the time we spend on our electronic devices is lowering our ability to concentrate for an extended period of time.  See Nicholas Carr’s book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brain, for further information.  By reading without interruption you are keeping your power of concentration strong.
• Gaining empathy:  When we read about someone else’s experiences and feelings from their perspective we are better able to understand how they feel and can transfer that awareness to our everyday lives.  (Schwanenflugel & Knapp. (2016). The Psychology of Reading. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.)

Whatever type of books you like, hopefully you will have time this summer to read for the pure pleasure of reading!

The next blog will address the popular program on college campuses, One Book-One College, how the books are used, and some strategies for reading.

Consider voting for your favorite book this summer at The Great American Read, sponsored by PBS.  My vote went to The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak.

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First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com. Click on the upper right link.

Testing and Learning Never End

Our granddaughter just graduated from college in Exercise Science, but before she begins her career she has to pass a certification exam that is known to be very difficult.   She and her classmates had a class to prepare for this, but in their junior year.   She is also considering graduate school which means she has to do well on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE).   Education majors have to pass the Praxis II before they can start teaching.  Nursing students have to pass a certification exam and accountants need to pass the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam to be licensed.   What does this mean?   It means that every class you take is important and that you need to constantly be monitoring your learning so that your knowledge is reinforced and accessible when you need it.

What you can do:

• Keep your notes from earlier classes so that you can review.
• Relate new information you are learning to previous classes.
• Don’t let something slide that you do not understand or fully comprehend.
• Talk to former students who have passed the exam to get an idea of what it will be like.
• Purchase a practice book if one is available.
• Take advantage of any prep or review opportunity.

Many professions also require continuing education in order to maintain certification or earn promotions.  Subscribe to professional journals and read them.  Take advantage of every workshop or class available.  Fields of knowledge are constantly changing and your job is to stay current in your field. 

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First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.   Click on the upper right link.

Digital vs. Print Reading

I watched a webinar sponsored by Pearson this week about the differences between reading digitally and reading on paper.   One interesting fact was that 40% - 50% of students are reading their textbooks on the small screens of their cell phones.   Some concerns with reading on a small screen are:

• The action of scrolling down promotes reading faster and skimming, leaving the reader less time to process or analyze the information.
• With the hyperlinks it is easy to get lost or distracted.
• It is cognitively more demanding because of the many decisions about what to pay attention to.
• The are many unreliable sources providing questionable information.
• Because the reader sees such a limited amount of the information it is difficult to see patterns and the overall picture.

Some things you can do:

• Use the standard reading strategies such as previewing, taking separate notes, actively striving to understand the overall picture.
• Plan on spending a bit more time and effort to successfully accomplish the above point.  Previewing and understanding the overall organization of the piece is harder on screen than when leafing through a book.
• Know your purpose for reading and adjust speed accordingly.
• Plan ahead about how to handle the hyperlinks. Perhaps look at them before reading or wait and view after.

It is bit easier on a computer screen, laptop or iPad because the screen is larger, but the distractions and how the material moves (by pages or scrolling down) are still an issue.

Whether reading digitally or on paper, comprehension and understanding are expected.   Use the same strategies for both with some adaption and extra effort for the screen.

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First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.

Potential changes in how students access textbooks

Last week I watched a webinar about Open Educational Resources (OER) presented by Innovative Educators.  Some things I learned are:

·       Many students cannot afford their textbooks and therefore either do not take a class or try to do without the book and struggle in the class.

·       Five major publishers account for 90% of the textbook market.

·       In the past ten years, the cost of textbooks has gone up by 88%.

·       The average cost of books and supplies for one semester of college is $600.

The idea behind OER is that professors can find textbooks and other documents online through a variety of sources that students can access for free.   Unlike renting an eBook from a publisher, students are able to keep these documents for use and reference later in their studies.

Several of the webinar participants indicated that their institutions were either already using these or starting to adopt this type of material, and one person stated that their institution was hoping to go paper-free in the near future.

What does this mean for the student besides saving money?  As a reading professional, I feel that the reader may have to work just a little harder to comprehend and retain the material they are reading.   At this point we do not know how the information will be presented, but we do know the following strategies will work:

·       Preview the information before starting to read.

·       Periodically stop and recall in your own words what you have read.  If you can successfully do so, move forward.  If not, reread and repeat.

·       Take separate notes.

·       Think about how what you are reading fits in with the lectures and the class as a whole.

·       Stop and review the information when done reading.

One thing we know for sure is that things will keep changing, but how we learn will not.  As readers and learners, we need to be flexible and use strategies that fit the material and our purpose for reading.

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First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right link.

How to Learn - A Mid Semester Review

As you head into spring and the second half of the semester, here is a review of what you need to do to learn:

Review – Be sure you are reviewing your notes after every class.  This starts the learning process.  Read over the notes and make corrections, add information from the textbook, identify any confusions, and be sure the notes are clear enough to be understood later.

Rework – Once your notes are in good shape, do something else with them such as rewriting, making a study guide, making study cards, highlighting main topics, adding color, etc.

Repetition – Learning does not happen in one session, you need to go over and over the information, doing different things with it, not just rereading!

Reflect – Learning also takes time to get securely into your long-term memory.  Start early (as soon as you get the information) and space your learning over time.

Recitation – One very important part of the learning process is to practice recalling the information just like you will do on the exam.   You can do this by covering up your notes and restating the information in your own words from memory, taking practice quizzes (either one you created or ones provided by textbook or professor), forming a study group and explaining the information to each other or quizzing each other, putting the information on study cards and using those to test yourself.  Be creative – there are many fun ways to do this!

Learning is not an act – it is a process that takes time!  Be sure to start early and study often!

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First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the upper right  link.

Mid Semester Check-up

At most institutions the semester is about half over, so this is a good time to pause and see how things are going.  Consider these things:

Check your grades – it may be a few more weeks until you receive your mid-term grades, but in many classes, you have an idea of how things are going.   If you have not been keeping your own record (change this next semester!) you can ask your professor.  There may be some “eye-rolling” because you should be doing this yourself!    

If you are in a class that only has a mid-term and a final, make sure you have all the information you need well before the midterm exam.

Check your attendance – Especially if a class has an attendance policy, make sure you know how many classes you have missed.  Hopefully this is none! If you are perilously close to a cutoff point, be sure go to all remaining meetings of the class!

If there is no attendance policy, that still means you should attend all classes.  Be sure you are doing so!

Check your study habits – How are you spending your time?  Are you making the best possible use of your time?    If anything needs improved, now is the time.  The remainder of the semester will fly by, but there is still time to be sure you are doing your best work possible.

Check your over-all health – are you getting enough sleep, exercising, eating regularly and properly?  Make any changes needed!

It is always a good idea to occasionally pause and reflect and evaluate how things are going, and the middle of the semester is the perfect time.    If something needs fine tuning, you can do that and definitely see the results in your final grades.

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First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com.   Click on the upper right link.