The College & Career Readiness & College Completion Act was signed by the Governor of Maryland in 2013. Hopefully, in a few years’ time college instructors will find that the students entering their classes are better prepared. But what do we do in the meantime? The ability to embed student success skills into the course curriculum is essential so that students can develop techniques that will improve their chances of success throughout their college career. The following topics were shared during the presentation: concept mapping, critical thinking, tips for proper reading of a textbook, time management, notetaking tips, how to condense information covered in class, and how to research and write a paper. The challenge of teaching student success skills during the semester is that of completing all required course information at the same time. Participants were asked to discuss potential methods of creating time within their courses so that student success techniques could be taught.

2. A new state law has changed the guidelines for high school students in order to have
them be better prepared for the rigors of college. This presentation covered
suggestions on what can be done in the meantime to help our students succeed.

3. Cutting out the easy stuff – I discussed the development of pre-lecture outlines to
guide the students through their reading of required chapters in the textbook. More
information on this topic later.
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5. How often do we ask students did they read the book? The student then opens the
book and shows you the assigned chapter looking like the picture on the left?
I discussed the idea of summarizing in the margins of the book and even what tools to
use while reading: pen, legal pad, Post –it notes, tabbies, but definitely not a
highlighter. The pad is for notes, particularly if they don’t want to write in the book
(they are renting or want to sell it back). Post it can be used to mark areas where they
have questions, and tabbies to mark the required chapters for easier reference at a
later date.
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6. This is an example of a pre-lecture outline that guides the student’s reading.
The burning question was How do we get/force them to read in preparation for class?
I developed a set of pre-lecture quizzes that the students take in the learning
management system. The quizzes are due two hours prior to lecture time. That gives
me time to look for the questions that the students most frequently missed.
These questions are the first questions that I address at the start of lecture.
I also discussed the importance of having an in-class lecture outline that will help
students with their note taking.
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7. Power points that are placed in the Learning Management System prior to lecture can
take away some of the stress of note taking.
How does this help? The students don’t have to copy everything that is on the slide
and can concentrate more on what I am explaining.
I discussed how some of my students print out each slide and write directly on the
pages during class, while others use their laptops and have figured out how to take
notes within the system.
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8. We discussed why students get stressed out when they are asked to condense their
notes. I explained the way I feel the brain functions when presented with large
amounts of information on a written page.
I feel the brain is so efficient that when we continue to look at a single page over a long
period of time, the brain begins doing other functions that we don’t even realize are
happening (ae. Monitoring blood pressure or temperature, sending messages to all
parts of the body). All the while we think we are studying.
I feel the brain does better with small chunks of information that it can assimilate more
easily and retain for a longer period of time.
Condensing information is an important component of active learning. Active learning
skills include: rewriting information multiple times, repeating the information orally or
listening to taped lectures more than once.
Examples of methods I use in class to condense notes are on the following pages
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9. I give the students the partially filled out concept map and I make the areas to write in
small on purpose. This forces them to condense information down to three words or
less.
When we are finished writing the information within the shapes and on the connecting
lines then I ask the students to count up the number of note pages this replaces.
The students then usually ask: Is this what I will need to know, or write on the exam?
Most times the answer is no, I am giving you a way to learn the information and you
must then apply it.
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10. Flow charts help my lab students understand the progression of different tests that
must be done in order to correctly identify a micro-organism, but the same thing could
be used for the steps of solving a complicated math problem.
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11. Again notice the size of the answer blocks. I am forcing my students to place in the
block just the most important words.
My students ask, what if I leave out something important? I suggest they start with
eliminating small words like: is, the, and. They might need to know more than just the
2 words that will fit in the box, but hopefully if the words are well chosen then they will
trigger remembering the related information.
I also give my students the option of showing me their condensed information. I review
it and make suggestions (this may take about 10 minutes of my time).
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13. I discussed how I introduce “Thinking Outside of the Box” (my terminology for critical
thinking). Within each lecture I introduce a scenario that relates to a topic we have just
discussed and have the students work in groups to try to solve the problem. Then with
each exam I reinforce these concepts by also including scenario/critical thinking
questions.
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15. We discussed the importance of research papers. It is something that students will be
expected to be able to do in the upper level courses at a four year institution. Also,
some community colleges require writing across the curriculum, meaning that writing
is required in each course and not just writing some essay questions on an exam. How
do we find time for teaching this to our students? Embedding a librarian in your course
is part of the solution.
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