My method for annotating Chapter 2 of “What The Best College Students Do” is the same method I use for annotating really any text. I highlight or underline bits and pieces I think are very key to understanding the main idea of the text and adding a little note on what I believe they are trying to say or what is important about what they are saying. I believe this method is very effective because writing out these foot notes helps me retain the information and the things I can’t remember I can always go back to and read my thoughts that I had made earlier.
If I had to think back to a time I was a surface learner it would have to be when I took AP calculus in my senior year of high school. Like most other classes in high school, I really only looked aimed for the grades and not so much learning and understanding the content I was being fed day in and day out. But in no other class was it more clear to me that I was only learning at the surface level. I took notes, passed the tests, quizzes and homework and ultimately passed the course. As Bain puts it “Surface learners usually focus only on passing the exam, not on ever using anything they read”. And that’s exactly what I did, I did not pass the AP exam, an exam that really required a deep understanding of the material. I achieved the bare minimum and as a consequence I have to take calculus again this year. The second time around I do not plan on making the same mistakes.
It has become common today to dismiss criminals as these delinquents beyond hope of redemption or improvement. It is easier to think of them as these people who do not care about anything and who will not learn from their mistakes. This could not be further from the truth for former prisoner Robin Woods. In his youth he used to break into houses and steal things to sell later. But one time, he was careless and stole too much to be able to reasonably sell and when he tried to sell them to friends, one of them soled him out. He was arrested and given a harsh sentence of 16 years in prison. He described the prison as the worst he had ever been in, beatings were very common and it was every man for himself. Conditions were so bad that he and other prisoners started a riot, Robin was severely beaten and an extra seven years were added to his sentence and he was sent to a super max prison. To pass the time he tried reading, but as a kid he was placed in special ed and never learned to read. Determined Robin used dictionaries to teach himself to read and eventually he learned and started his own library in his cell. He became so advanced that he picked up mistakes in Mark Stephens encyclopedia, he even wrote Mark Stephens a letter about the mistakes and received responses. Eventually Robin was transferred to another prison and his books were taken from him, Mark Stephens heard of this and fought to get his books back. Eventually Robins was sent home 5 years early on good behavior and he even got to meet his long time friend, Mark Stephens and spent an entire day with him. Ironically after spending the day with him, he was robbed and said that he finally got how it felt.
My annotating process for Carol Dweck’s ted talk and for all other pieces of writing is to read through one time without underlining or highlighting to try and understand the main idea of the piece. After that I skim through it again this time looking for bits and pieces that go with the main idea in order to further understand it. Finally I usually write a little bit at the bottom or on a separate sheet of paper basically giving my reaction or take away.
Out of all the work spaces I found Thoreau’s cabin at Walden pond to be the most interesting simply for the fact that it wasn’t very flashy. It was the most minimalistic, just a desk and a chair as opposed to the mainly flashy work spaces of other authors. Compared to my work space here at school it is very similar, just a very small area with a chair and a desk. I think this approach leads to the least distraction and means you are just focusing on your work.
The two alternate spaces I chose to work on some homework assignments were a path behind the beach and the Padua lounge. Both of these spots had both ups and downs, but I could see myself doing homework at either one o f these spots again. The ups of the beach was the relaxing fresh air, the breeze and the quiet. However there was some downs, there was virtually no internet connection so it was impossible to do online homework at the beach, but overall it was a good spot for offline reading assignments. As for the Padua commons I liked the change of scenery, the fact that others are there who will oftentimes be willing to offer help or feedback, and the comfortable couches. However, more often than not people in the lounge are socializing and watching tv so it can be very difficult to get work done. Overall I liked both spaces but in the end I’d probably prefer my room since it is more convenient and quiet.
One situation in which I had a growth mindset was sophomore year of high school when I took algebra 2. Before this, I did not do so well in Algebra 1 in 8th grade so at first I was worried about not doing well again. But after realizing that it was a totally different class, a fresh start, I was able to get past my pre-conceived notion that I would not do well. This time around I was okay with not knowing everything and because of this, I did very well the second time around and passe with an A.
After having my peers read and comment on my essay and reviewing their comments I was able to make some global and local revisions. The most important revision I made was a global one, more specifically the change was to my thesis. At first it wasn’t really clear where my thesis was and what exactly my stance was on grades, but after revising it I made it very clear that my position is that grades are flawed but necessary. As for local revisions, I change the entire closing sentence for the third paragraph as one of my peers pointed out that it was all over the place and hard to follow.
When peer reviewing I tend to focus on the global, big ideas rather than the local, sentence level and grammatical errors. I believe that getting the main idea of a paper organized and coherent is far more important than the easily fixable and detectable grammatical errors. I try and focus on the thesis of their paper and supporting arguments to make sure that they aren’t contradicting their own main idea and to make sure that it makes sense.
The comments I received on my paper were very helpful, after reading their responses I became well aware that my thesis statement needed to be clearer, I needed to definitively pick a side and I needed to support it more clearly. I noticed that my peers who commented on my paper had a similar process to myself, commenting on global, big ideas rather than the small stuff.
Recent Comments