How to Read a Book (With Apologies to Mortimer Adler) Susan Wise BauerDo not reproduce without permission. Please give appropriate credit for quotes and ideas. All civilization comes through literature now, especially in our country. If you are fortunate, you encounter a particular teacher who can help, yet finally you are alone, going on without further mediation. GRAMMAR-STAGE READING. 1. 2. For a novel: Keep a list of characters as you read Briefly note the main event in each chapter For a history: List the major events of the history Look for a stated pupose. 3. For a novel: Make initial notes on passages that seize your imagination. For a history: Mark central dates and people. 4. For a novel: Who is the central character? For a history: Who is this story about? LOGIC-STAGE READING. 1. For a novel: What does the central character want? For a history: What causes the challenge/problem/question? 2. For a novel: Is this novel a “fable” (allegory or speculation), “chronicle” (physical or psychological?) 3.
THE MACHINE STOPS ... E.M. Forster Imagine, if you can, a small room, hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee. It is lighted neither by window nor by lamp, yet it is filled with a soft radiance. There are no apertures for ventilation, yet the air is fresh. There are no musical instruments, and yet, at the moment that my meditation opens, this room is throbbing with melodious sounds. An armchair is in the centre, by its side a reading-desk-that is all the furniture. And in the armchair there sits a swaddled lump of flesh-a woman, about five feet high, with a face as white as a fungus. An electric bell rang. The woman touched a switch and the music was silent. "I suppose I must see who it is", she thought, and set her chair in motion. "Who is it?" But when she listened into the receiver, her white face wrinkled into smiles, and she said: "Very well. She touched the isolation knob, so that no one else could speak to her. "Be quick!" "Kuno, how slow you are." He smiled gravely. "I really believe you enjoy dawdling." "Well?"
Study Tips and Productivity Advice to Help Students 50 Tips for College Students I did the "extended tour" of college. From about 1991-2002. I did get 4 degrees, so at least I have an excuse. :) I've also been an adjunct professor, so I've also been at the other side of the classroom. 1) The Freshman Fifteen does exist. So does the Freshman Twenty. 2) Pizza - the ubiquitous college snack. 3) If it's either take out a loan or quit school, take out a loan. 4) If you can live harmoniously with someone in a 20×20 ft. space, you can do anything. 5) Flip-flops: Wear them in the dorm shower. 6) Always attend the *real* class, and use the Internet one for review. 7) If you are not a morning person, don't schedule classes for 7am. 8) Get involved on campus. 9) Too much socializing = bad grades. 10) If you are feeling overwhelmed, are having problems sleeping, or have gone through a breakup, visit your college's counseling center. 11) There are a lot of free activities on campus. 12) Many colleges have free tutoring centers on campus. 13) Sit near the front of class. 47) Sleep.
Postmodernism and Truth Explanations > Critical Theory > Concepts > Postmodernism and Truth Pre-modernist truth | Modernist truth | Post-modernist truth | See also Postmodernism can be a confusing concept that gets dropped into intellectual conversation and presentations, typically to make a complexifying point that prevents easy conclusions being made. But what is postmodernism? Pre-modernist truth In the days before modern science emerged, how did you know if something was true? The other way of knowing truth was to trust another person who declared something to be true. Archetypally, priests were critical truthsayers. Truth could also be asserted by one's superiors, from parents to craft masters to judges to the monarch. Pre-modernist philosophers, from Socrates onward (and probably before), sought truth through thought and reason. There is still plenty of pre-modernist truth around today, yet there are serious challenges to this order. Modernist truth And yet there are challenges to these truths. See also
The New Way Doctors Learn Turning a medical student into a doctor takes a whole lot of knowledge. B. Price Kerfoot, an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, was frustrated at how much knowledge his students seemed to forget over the course of their education. He suspected this was because they engaged in what he calls “binge and purge” learning: They stuffed themselves full of facts and then spewed them out at test time. (MORE: Couch Potatoes Rejoice! The theory behind spaced repetition is simple: when we first learn a fact, our memory of it is volatile, subject to change or disappear. Since that first study, published in the journal Medical Education in 2007, Kerfoot has evaluated the effectiveness of spacing out exposure to a variety of other topics that doctors in training need to learn, such as performing a physical exam, diagnosing medical ailments, and administering a cancer screening test. (MORE: The American Hopsital: The Most Dangerous Place?) MORE: The Two Faces of Anxiety
100 Amazing How-To Sites to Teach Yourself Anything | Rated Colleges Posted by Site Administrator in Online Learning May 7th, 2009 Learning new skills and expanding your knowledge doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. There are loads of free resources on the Web that can help you find instructional videos, tutorials and classes to learn a wide variety of skills from fixing basic car problems to speaking another language. With 100 sites to choose from, you’re bound to find something here that will help you learn just about anything you could want. General Tutorials These sites offer a wide range of tutorials and videos. Around the House Want to know how to fix that broken cabinet or hang up some great wallpaper? Business and Management If you feel like you’re seriously lacking on business and management skills at work, no need to worry. KnowThis? Language and Writing Those who want to learn a new language, improve their writing skills or just learn more about literature will be well-served by these instructional sites. Technology Math S.O.S. Science Creativity
Values Explanations > Values About values | Historical values | Research on values | So what? Values is a confusing word that often gets confused with 'value' as in the value you get from buying a cheap, but well-built house. Values are, in fact powerful drivers of how we think and behave. About values Value categories: different spheres into which we place values. Historical values American Values: A list of traditional US cultural values. Research on values Career Anchors: identified by Edgar Schein as shapers of what we do. Values are also often a significant element of culture, where they form a part of the shared ruleset of a group. When I break my values, I will feel shame and guilt. Know the the values to which the other person will subscribe (these are often common sense) as well as the actual values they enact in practice (watch them for this). Beware of the values in practice which can be harmful to you (will they betray you?). See also Social Norms, Guilt, Repulsion, Pride, Shame
Developing Good Study Habits Really Works Knowledge is the essence of smart thinking. No matter how much raw intelligence you have, you are not going to succeed at solving complex problems without knowing a lot. That's why we spend the first 20 (or more) years of our lives in school. Robert Bjork and fellow PT blogger Nate Kornell have explored some of the study habits of college students in a 2007 paper in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review . Of course, guidelines from memory research come from studies in idealized circumstances. To address this question, Marissa Hartwig and John Dunlosky related the study habits of college students to their grade point average (GPA) in a 2012 paper in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review . The students with the highest GPA were more likely to study by testing themselves than the students with lower GPAs. All college students tend to focus their study on upcoming assignments. Finally, the time of day that students study also matters.