Teach Like a Champion

Teach Like a Champion ,by Doug Lenov, 2010 is a nice book. Well, I have to be positive. But the notes truly reflect what I got and what you are likely to get from reading the book.

T 13

Name the steps.

T 14

Make what you write on board look like what you want your students to write down in their books.
Model good note-taking behavior.

T 16 : Break It Down

1. Provide an example.
2. Provide a context.
3. Provide a rule.
4. Provide a missing step or a first step.
5. Roll back.
6. Eliminate wrong choices.

T 23 and 24

Groupwise recall, review, chorus, reinforcement.

Reading

Using your skills with vocabulary and grammar, you decode and deposit some facts and ideas into your short-term memory.

Skills levels :
words, phrases, sentences --> paragraphs --> essay/chapter/article, book, topic/theme
--> field/subject/discipline

Pre-reading:
1. Provide some context or background knowledge.
2. Alert them to focal points, like a tour guide.
3. Front-load, that is, introduce key scenes in advance as in movie ads/trailers.

While reading:
1. Ask.
2. Solve bit by bit. Don't let problem or difficulty pile up.

"Ace Any Test," by Ron Fry : Book Review

Ace Any Test by Ron Fry, 2000, 4th edition, is an excellent book. My son likes the section on Cramming a lot!

What Parents Can Do?

1. Set up a study routine for the kids.
2. Convince them of reality and real life.

If You Must Cram

1. Set realistic goals. Be modest, don't be greedy, ambitious.
2. Go for selective depth, not breadth.
3. Use mnemonics.
4. Decide when to go to sleep. Get up early.
5. In the exam room, write down things during the first few minutes.

Taking Notes during Class

1. Select:
   
   1. What is unknown to you?
   2. What does the teacher emphasize?
   3. Explanations
   4. Examples and demonstrations.
2. Summarize.
3. Sort: relationships between the points.

Efficient Reading

1. Read the questions at the end of a chapter. Ask why you should read this?
2. Ignore repetitions.
3. Slow down with the new.
4. Focus on what is highlighted.
5. Maps, photos, drawings etc are key.
6. Get the big picture:
   
   1. Rephrase the headings.
   2. Read the introductions and the first few sentences.
   3. Answer your initial questions, those question you asked yourself before you started reading.
   4. Write down summary notes.

Essays

free associate to generate new ideas --> organize --> write, leaving some spaces --> correct/edit

Exam Room, Exam Time

1. Read the whole question paper.
2. Mark the easy ones you intend to tackle.

"How to Study " by Ron Fry : Book Review

How to Study by Ron Fry, 2005, 6th edition is a wonderful book for study techniques. The section titled "How to Read Technical Text" is particularly excellent.

Reading Purposes

1. You may be reading to grasp a certain message.
2. You may want to answer a specific question.
3. You may be reading to evaluate what you are reading.
4. You may be trying to find important details.
5. You are only interested in applying what you are reading to your task at hand.

Technical Text Reading

Concentrate on:

1. Definitions, terms, vocabulary. They are the foundations.
2. Examples. They help you consolidate your understanding.
3. Visuals. They save you a lot of work. A picture is often worth more than a thousand words.
4. Relationships e.g. classifications, contrasts, cause and effects, etc.

Tie up often. Pause and  stop to check and to solidify your understanding.

Review and solidify often, especially with definitions, examples, formulas.

"What Smart Students Know" : Book Review

What Smart Students Know by Adam Robinson, 1993 is still fresh and relevant for today students. I recommend this section in particular : "What if You Get Confused while Reading?"

What to Focus while Reading?

1. Purpose


2. Your existing knowledge


3. The big picture


4. Key ideas, definitions, terms


5. Your summary


6. Your organization


7. Your mental picture


8. Your hook/cue/mnemonics

What if You Get Confused while Reading?

1. Return to the big picture.


2. Backtrack. Retrace your steps to note the wrong turns you've taken.


3. Jump to the end


4. Find an example.


5. Skip it!

Concepts

1. Definitions


2. Examples


3. Relationships

How to Organize

1. Ways to compare


2. Similarities and differences


3. Dependency, order, relationships etc

Kinds of Hooks or Mnemonics

1. Pictures


2. Patterns


3. Rhymes


4. Stories

Problem Solving

imitate -----------> understand
what --------------> why

1. Guess, trial and error. Play around.


2. Approximate.


3. Try extreme cases


4. Try special or general cases


5. Restate or re-formulate the problem.


6. Remind yourself of similar problems, or some relevant/related concepts


7. Reconstruct the problem in smaller or simpler ways. Our favorite trick.

Study Smarter, Not Harder : Book Review

Today I am reviewing Study Smarter, Not Harder by Kevin Paul, 2009, 3rd edition. The book has a lot of useful tips for students at all levels.

First all of, here come tow major findings from the book.

1. No stress, full emotions ----------> good learning
2. Meditation ---> Gamma waves ---> good learning

Memory

Causes of good memory are :

1. Learning through multi-senses, multi-channels e.g. see, hear, do, touch, smell
2. Similarity
3. Association, links
4. Emotions
5. Intensity, vividness, sharpness
6. Repetitions
7. Mnemonics
8. Chunking: primacy effect (you remember most what you notice first), recency effect (you remember most what you notice most recently.)
9. Linkage
10. Reviews: After every hour, After every half day, After every whole day.

Stages of Reading

1. Read clues to know what to expect, what to look for, what to focus.
2. Slow reading to facilitate real, deep learning
3. Summarize and sketch.

Taking Lecture Notes

1. Key words, in your own words.
2. Key patterns
3. Diagrams, graphs.
4. Flexible, non-linear arrows to link points.
5. Spaces to fill later: With what you might have missed, With our own insights, etc.

If You Have to Cram, Cram Five Days in Advance

1. Focus on the possible. Cut back your ambitions.
2. Try to do just 2 new topics per day.
3. Practice output activities i.e. write, speak, present, demo etc.
4. Stop new input as the target date nears.

"How to Win at College"

"How to Win at College," by Cal Newport, 2005, is full of useful and practical tips for students. Here I share tips on Time Management, When to Quit and Memory.

Time management

1. Block out obligations.
2. Assign hour-long blocks to specific projects.
3. Set aside at least one block for slack and emergencies.
4. When knocked off your schedule, re-organize your blocks.
5. Time blocking is more effective than daily todo lists.

When to quit

Define "Productive" as efficiently accomplishable and in a reasonable amount of time.

If you're sure you won't be able to solve it without outside/extra information/help,

or if you can't specify a time frame within which you will be able to solve it,

or if you've put in a long time but you are still unable to finish it off,

then, you should give up.

Memory

1. Quiz and Recall : Make yourself recall specific information.
2. While reviewing or reading, jot down your recall questions.
3. Then, quiz.
4. Then, articulate with emotions, using multi-senses etc.

This Quiz and Recall technique has the same effect as TDD (Test-Driven Development) or TFD (Test-First Development) in software development. You are very clear about your objectives and you are also very clear about whether you've made it or not.

"How to Be a High School Superstar" : Play Some Politics

"How to Be a High School Superstar," by Cal Newport, 2010, is a wonderful book.

I am surprised to find that this book discusses politics unwittingly. These superstars know how to play politics at a premature age!

Step 1: Cut back

Have a stop-work point e.g. In my Graduate school, I stopped all forms of study at 4:00 p.m sharp.
Reduce your study time so that you get more time for other steps below, for instance.

Step 2: Explore

1. Experience interesting stuffs: people, places, events, especially. communities that are well-known but little-understood and that still have open roles.
2. Deconstruct a success path.
3. Pursue something hard to mentally simulate, but not that hard to execute. By the way "Parkinson Rule," Book 3, said this a lot better.
4. Have patience if you can't have faith. Don't think, just believe you'll have it.

Step 3: Focus

Review and reduce your goal list to just 1 or 2 "deep interests."
Litmus test: Does that excite you on a weekend morning?

Step 4: Execute

1. In your chosen community, pay your dues first, get political buy-in first.
2. Get good: Give up your assumptions, learn from the successful. Immerse.
3. Do what the Community Elders recommend/suggest/offer. Or just add a tiny bit of the new in something already existing.
4. Sequence your objectives in terms of achievability. "Underdog Advantage" said this better in many ways.