Bulkpack SSUSU - LG Revised SP1 2022

Skills for Success in US Universities
Table of Contents
Success in US Higher Education......................................................................................................................................3
What is Success?........................................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
U.S. Higher Education and the Culture of Choice...........................................................................................................5
Understanding the Culture of Higher Education in the U.S..........................................................................................11
Learning Environment: Teacher-Centered vs. Learner Centered......................................................................13
Academic Integrity........................................................................................................................................................14
University of Pennsylvania's Code of Academic Integrity..................................................................................15
Culture of Campus Communication..............................................................................................................................17
Campus Communication 1: 7 Considerations for Writing Effective Emails......................................................17
Time Management........................................................................................................................................................26
Acting on Purpose: Harnessing the Power of Quadrant II.......................................................................................26
Acting on Purpose: Self-assessment.....................................................................................................................29
Choosing Actions....................................................................................................................................................31
Interruptions...........................................................................................................................................................33
Managing Interruptions: The Pomodoro Technique®.......................................................................................38
Work and Flow: How do you work?..............................................................................................................................41
Maximize your time:................................................................................................................................................41
How Geniuses Spent Their Day...............................................................................................................................41
Flow.........................................................................................................................................................................46
Learning........................................................................................................................................................................49
Learning and Memory: What’s the Connection?.....................................................................................................49
Active Learning and Getting the Most out of Class..................................................................................................52
Becoming an Active Learner..................................................................................................................................52
Getting the Most out of Class.................................................................................................................................55
Metacognitive Note-taking....................................................................................................................................56
Notetaking for Reading..........................................................................................................................................60
Interrogating Texts: 6 Reading Habits to Develop in Your First Year at Harvard............................................61
A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop............................................................................................64
Active Learning:......................................................................................................................................................66
Culture of Campus Communication – Working in Study Groups.................................................................................69
Study Groups............................................................................................................................................................70
Forming a Formal Study Group: Role Play...........................................................................................................74
Interdependence: Friendships in the US......................................................................................................................77
Friendship, American Style: Part One......................................................................................................................77
Friendship, American Style: Part Two......................................................................................................................78
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Making Friends with Americans: Article Investigation............................................................................................81
Success and Motivation................................................................................................................................................83
12- Item Grit Scale (The Grit Test)...........................................................................................................................86
Discovering Self-Motivation: Popson’s Dilemma.....................................................................................................89
Discovering Self-Motivation: Identifying Your Life Scripts.......................................................................................91
Final Projects.................................................................................................................................................................97
Final Reflection Paper..............................................................................................................................................98
Final Presentation..................................................................................................................................................100
Presentation Topic Proposal..................................................................................................................................101
Additional Resources..................................................................................................................................................103
Places to Study on Campus....................................................................................................................................104
Study: Doodling Helps You Pay Attention..............................................................................................................105
Friendship Article 1...............................................................................................................................................107
Friendship Article 2................................................................................................................................................109
Exploring Logical Fallacies......................................................................................................................................119
Exploring Answers – Working in Groups................................................................................................................122
To all who believe there is only one right answer:................................................................................................123
Advice for students taking LPS Summer Courses from past ELP Students:...........................................................124
Note taking in Math Courses.................................................................................................................................125
Studying for Tests...................................................................................................................................................126
Extra Schedule Activity...........................................................................................................................................130
Active Learning = Life of Learning..........................................................................................................................132
Welcome to Skills for Success at US Universities.

This course is designed to assist you to become acculturated to and ready for your classes at a US
University. The course is divided into the following themes:
 Success in US Higher Education
 Time Management & Procrastination
 Work and Flow
 Note-Taking and Study Strategies
 Reading & Reflection
 Learning for Life
Each week you will explore and investigate these themes while reflecting on how you currently employ
these ideas or how you can incorporate these ideas into your academic life. Studying at a US university is
a serious undertaking – you will face cultural, linguistic, and academic challenges that you have not
faced before. We hope that this course can help you navigate these challenges with success and get
ready for your upcoming adventure in higher education.
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Success in US Higher Education
Defining Success
Guiding question for the course:
1. What do successful What do I do?

students do?  What purposeful
 What purposeful actions do I take?
actions do they take?  What habits do I
 What habits do they have?
have?  What choices do I
 What choices do they make?
make?
2. What are successful What am I like?

students like?  What characteristics
 What characteristics define me?
define them?
Defining success- what does success look like?
1. What do successful students do?

2. What are they like? With a partner, make a list of specific actions.
Successful Students….
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For this course, we will work from the following definition of success:
Success is staying on course to your desired outcomes and

experiences1.
In U.S. universities, there is one key ingredient to success. What do you think it is? Unscramble
to find out:
HEGOCDOIOCS
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ !
1
Downing, Skip (2014). On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life. Boston: Cengage. –
Several of the readings in this bulkpack about success, culture, and choice come from this source.
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U.S. Higher Education and the Culture of Choice
One main ingredient of success, in US higher education culture, is good choices. That’s because
a prevailing belief in US universities is that the quality of our lives is determined by the quality
of the choices we make on a daily basis. Successful people stay on course to their destinations
by wisely choosing their beliefs and behaviors. Do you believe you have control over your own
success? Why? Why not?
Take a look at the following list of “choices” of successful students. With your classmates, try to
come up with a definition for each concept. Then look at the opposite and decide: What do
struggling students do? Finally, rate how important you think each concept is from 1-10
Definition: What do successful Opposite: What do struggling Rating

Concept students do? students do? (1-10)
Accept personal
responsibility
Discover self-
motivation
Master self-
management
Employ
interdependence
Gain self-awareness
Adopt lifelong learning
Develop emotional
intelligence
Believe in themselves
Rate & Reflect:

On a scale of 1-10 (1= low; 10=very high) rate yourself on each topic. How well do you use each
of these concepts in your life? What are your strengths and weaknesses in each area?
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Successful vs. Struggling Students
Successful students and struggling students have different profiles. Take a look at the following
chart and compare it to your responses on the previous page.
Successful Students Struggling Students
accept personal responsibility – seeing see themselves as victims, believing that

themselves as the primary cause of their what happens to them is determined
outcomes and experiences primarily by external forces such as fate,
luck and others.
discover self-motivation, finding purpose have difficulty sustaining motivation,
in their lives by discovering personally often feeling depressed, frustrated, and/or
meaningful goals and dreams resentful about a lack of direction in their
lives
master self-management, consistently seldom identify specific actions needed to
planning and taking purposeful actions in accomplish a desired outcome, and when
pursuit of their goals and dreams they do, they tend to procrastinate
employ interdependence, building are solitary, seldom requesting, even

mutually supportive relationships that rejecting, offers of assistance from those
help them achieve their goals and dreams who could help
(and help other do same)
gain self-awareness, consciously make important choices unconsciously,
employing behaviors, beliefs, and being directed by self-sabotaging habits
attitudes that keep them on course. and outdated life scripts.
adopt lifelong learning, finding valuable resist learning new ideas and skills,
lessons and wisdom in nearly every viewing learning as fearful or boring
experience they have
develop emotional intelligence, live at the mercy of strong emotions, such
effectively managing their emotions in as anger, depression, anxiety, or a need for
support of their goals and dreams instant gratification
believe in themselves, seeing themselves doubt their competence and personal
as capable, lovable, and unconditionally value, feeling inadequate to create their
worthy human beings desired outcomes and experiences.
(adapted from: Downing, Skip (2014). On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life. Boston: Cengage
Take the Quiz!
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Self-Assessment Quiz2
Read the following statements and score each one according to how true or false you believe it
is about you. To get an accurate picture of yourself, consider what is true about you, not what
you want to be true. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers. Assign each statement a
number value from 0 to 10 as follows:
Totally false  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Totally True
1. ____ I control how successful I will be.
2. ____ I’m not sure why I’m going to university.
3. ____ I spend most of my time doing important things.
4. ____ When I encounter a challenging problem, I try to solve it by myself.
5. ____ When I get off course from my goals and dreams, I realize it right away.
6. ____ I’m not sure how I prefer to learn.
7. ____Whether I’m happy or not depends mostly on me.
8. ____ I’ll truly accept myself only after I eliminate my faults and weaknesses.
9. ____ Forces out of my control (such as poor teaching) are the cause of low grades I receive.
10. ____ I place great value on getting my university degree.
11. ____ I don’t need to write things down because I can remember what I need to do.
12. ____ I have a network of people in my life that I can count on for help.
13. ____ If I have habits that hurt my success, I’m not sure what they are.
14. ____ When I don’t like how an instructor teaches, I know how to learn the subject anyway.
15. ____ When I get very angry, sad, or anxious, I do or say things that create a problem for me.
16. ____ When I think about performing an upcoming challenge (like taking a test or doing a
presentation) I usually see myself doing well.
17. ____ When I have a problem, I take positive actions to find a solution.
18. ____ I don’t know how to set effective short-term and long-term goals.
19. ____ I am organized.
20. ____ When I take a difficult course, I study alone.
21. ____ I’m aware of beliefs I have that hinder my success.
22. ____ I’m not sure how to think critically and analytically about complex topics.
23. ____ When choosing between an important school assignment or something really fun, I do
the school assignment.
24. ____ I break promises that I make to myself and others.
25. ____ I make poor choices that keep me from getting what I really want in life.
26. ____ I expect to do well in my university classes.
27. ____ I lack self-discipline.
28. ____ I listen carefully when other people are talking.
29. ____ I’m stuck with my bad habits that hurt my success.
30. ____ My intelligence is something about myself that I can improve.
31. ____ I often feel bored, anxious, or depressed.
32. ____ I feel just as valuable as any other person.
2
Downing, Skip (2014). On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life. Boston: Cengage
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33. ____ Forces outside of me, such as luck or other people, control how successful I will be.
34. ____ University is an important step on the way to accomplishing my goals and dreams.
35. ____ I spend most of my time doing unimportant things.
36. ____I am aware of how to show respect to people who are different from me (race,
religion, sexual orientation, age, etc.)
37. ____ I can be off course from my goals and dreams for quite a while without realizing it.
38. ____ I know how I prefer to learn.
39. ____ My happiness depends mostly on what has happened to me lately (recently).
40. ____ I accept myself just as I am, even with my faults and weaknesses.
41. ____ I am the cause of low grades I receive in school.
42. ____ If I lose my motivation in university, I don’t know how I’ll get it back.
43. ____ I have self-management system that helps me get important things done on time.
44. ____ I seldom interact with people who are different from me.
45. ____ I’m aware of habits I have that hurt my success.
46. ____ If I don’t like the way an instructor teaches, I’ll probably do poorly in the course.
47. ____ When I’m very angry, sad, or anxious, I know how to manage my emotions so I don’t
do anything that I’ll regret later.
48. ____ When I think about performing an upcoming challenge (like taking a test or doing a
presentation), I usually see myself doing poorly.
49. ____ When I have a problem, I complain, blame others, or make excuses.
50. ____ I know how to set effective short-term and long-term goals.
51. ____ I am disorganized.
52. ____ When I take a difficult course, I find a study partner or join a study group.
53. ____ I’m unaware of beliefs I have that hurt my success.
54. ____ I know how to think critically and analytically about complex topics.
55. ____ I often feel happy and fully alive.
56. ____ I keep promises that I make to myself or to others.
57. ____ When I have an important choice to make, I use a decision-making process that
analyzes possible options and their likely outcomes.
58. ____ I don’t expect to do well in my university classes.
59. ____ I am a self-disciplined person.
60. ____I get distracted easily when other people are talking.
61. ____ I know how to change habits of mine that hurt my success.
62. ____ Everyone is born with certain amount of intelligence, and there’s not really much you
can do to change that.
63. ____ When choosing between an important school assignment of something really fun, I
usually do something fun.
64. ____ I feel less valuable that other people.
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Self-Assessment Scoring Sheet
Transfer your scores to the scoring sheet below. For each of the eight areas, total your scores in
columns A and B, then add 40 as shown in the sample:
SAMPLE 1. Accepting personal 2. Discovering self-

responsibility motivation
A B A B A B
6. 8 29. 3 1. 9. 10. 2.
14. 5 35. 3 17. 25. 26. 18.
21. 6 50. 6 41. 33. 34. 42.
73. 9 56. 2 57. 49. 50. 58.
28 + 40 – 14 ___ + 40 – ___ ___ + 40 – ___
= 54 = ___ = ___
3. Mastering self- 4. Employing 5. Gaining self-awareness

management interdependence
A B A B A B
3. 11. 12. 4. 5. 13.
19. 27. 28. 20. 21. 29.
43. 35. 36. 44. 45. 37.
59. 51. 52. 60. 61. 53.
___ + 40 – ___ ___ + 40 – ___ ___ + 40 – ___
= ___ = ___ = ___
6. Adopting lifelong learning 7. Developing emotional 8. Believing in myself

intelligence
A B A B A B
14. 6. 7. 15. 16. 8.
30. 22. 23. 31. 32. 24.
38. 46. 47. 39. 40. 48.
54. 62. 55. 63. 56. 64
___ + 40 – ___ ___ + 40 – ___ ___ + 40 – ___
= ___ = ___ = ___
Interpreting your scores:

0-39 Indicates an area where your choices will seldom keep you on course.
40-63 Indicates an area where your choices will sometimes keep you on course.
64-80 Indicates an area where your choices will usually keep you on course.
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Reflection Questions:
1. What were the areas of self-assessment in which you had your highest scores? Why do you
think you scored higher in these areas than others? How do you feel about these scores?
2. What were the areas on the self-assessment in which you had your lowest scores? Why do
you think you scored lower in these areas than others? How do you feel about these
scores? What specific changes would you like to make in yourself?
Successful Students Struggling Students

accept personal responsibility – seeing see themselves as victims, believing that what
themselves as the primary cause of their happens to them is determined primarily by
outcomes and experiences external forces such as fate, luck and others.
discover self-motivation, finding purpose in their have difficulty sustaining motivation, often feeling
lives by discovering personally meaningful goals depressed, frustrated, and/or resentful about a
and dreams lack of direction in their lives
master self-management, consistently planning seldom identify specific actions needed to
and taking purposeful actions in pursuit of their accomplish a desired outcome, and when they do,
goals and dreams they tend to procrastinate
employ interdependence, building mutually are solitary, seldom requesting, even rejecting,
supportive relationships that help them achieve offers of assistance from those who could help
their goals and dreams (and help other do same)
gain self-awareness, consciously employing make important choices unconsciously, being
behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes that keep them directed by self-sabotaging habits and outdated
on course. life scripts.
adopt lifelong learning, finding valuable lessons resist learning new ideas and skills, viewing
and wisdom in nearly every experience they have learning as fearful or boring
develop emotional intelligence, effectively live at the mercy of strong emotions, such as
managing their emotions in support of their goals anger, depression, anxiety, or a need for instant
and dreams gratification
believe in themselves, seeing themselves as doubt their competence and personal value,
capable, lovable, and unconditionally worthy feeling inadequate to create their desired
human beings outcomes and experiences.
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Understanding the Culture of Higher Education in the U.S.
Geert Hofstede, a Danish psychologist and anthropologist, has studied cultures all over the
world. According to Hofstede, culture is the ‘collective programming of the mind that
distinguishes the members of one human group from another.’
A common model to explore culture is the idea of the iceberg. The iceberg that you can see is
considered the surface culture and the part of the iceberg underwater is considered the deep
culture. Take a look at the diagram:
Surface Culture: food, fashion,

language, gestures, games, music,
art
Deep Culture – norms, beliefs,

rules, attitudes, opinions, taboos,
expectations, world views
Discuss: What have you learned so far about American higher education? Compare and
contrast with your home country. Then discuss your answers with your class.
USA My Country
Discuss:
1. What are some surface and deep cultural characteristics that you identified in your chart?
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2. Have you broken a deep cultural rule in a foreign country? What did you do? How did
others respond? How did you feel about it? Was it easy to get used to this cultural rule?
Culture is the collection of surface and deep level customs and beliefs that get passed on from
generation to generation. Each culture provides ‘approved’ choices at significant, and even
insignificant, forks in the road. Culture tells us, “This choice is normal and that one is strange.”
Or, “this choice is good and that choice is bad.” At each fork in the road, we learn how to
navigate a set of cultural rules. To put it succinctly, “Culture is the way we do things around
here.”
Because American higher education is a unique culture, you will face some challenges. For
example, like all cultures, higher education has its own language, so you’ll probably learn how
to talk about the campus and its resources with new words like Canvas (an online learning
management system) or Psych (psychology) 101. In terms of deep culture, though, this course
will be exploring some of that throughout our time together. The one aspect of deep culture
that is sometimes difficult for students is the high regard for intellectual curiosity. When
professors are asked what they like to see most from students, they often say, “Intellectual
curiosity.” Your instructors want you to be as curious about their subject as they are. Or at least
curious about something. They want you to think about something. They want you to think
deeply about life. They want you to ask thoughtful questions and pursue the answers with
enthusiasm. Questions like Why? How do you know? Who else believes this? What’s the cause?
What’s another explanation? When might this not be so? How can I use this? Bottom line:
Intellectual curiosity is greatly prized in the deep culture of higher education.
So, how might a student clash with this aspect of deep college culture? Here’s just one
possibility. A student gets back a writing assignment, and the grade is lower than he expected.
A lot lower. Darn, he thinks, I spent hours writing that paper. What does the instructor expect
anyway? This would have been a B in my other classes. What is she thinking? For an answer,
let’s visit the instructor at home the night before where we catch her reading that very
student’s paper: Darn, she thinks, this essay is so boring. It’s as though the writer simply copied
sentences from various Internet sites and strung them together as an essay. His main concern
seems to be having enough words to fulfill the assignment. Where’s the writer’s curiosity, his
passion, his quest of answers? What is he thinking?
The student is discouraged, and the instructor is too. They both have good intentions yet
neither may realize the problem: Deep cultures clashing. He wants to get a good grade. She
wants to see intellectual curiosity.
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Discuss: Has this kind of grading/assignment situation every happened to you? What did you
do? What did your instructor do? How did you overcome this situation? Or did you just accept
the grade and forget about it?
(adapted from: Downing, Skip (2014). On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life. Boston: Cengage
Learning Environment: Teacher-Centered vs. Learner Centered
One cultural feature of a higher education in the U.S. deals with the different roles of teachers
and students in the classroom. Many classrooms in the U.S are learner centered. What does this
mean? How does it differ from teacher centered? With a partner, make list of different features
of these learning environments. Think about teaching methods, instructor roles, evaluation
methods, etc.
Teacher Centered Learner Centered
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See P. 14 for complete chart.
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Teacher centered vs. Learner Centered
Teacher-Centered Learner-Centered
Aspect
Teaching Lecture Lecture, discussion in large and small groups,

method application of theory
Instructor Direct learning process, be a source Present content, facilitate dialogue,

Role of knowledge, clarify and interpret demonstrate analytical skills
written texts
Learning top down; instructor imparts cooperative, participatory, interactive between

mode knowledge to students instructor and students
Desired memorize texts, absorb knowledge apply concepts to new situations, critical
outcomes analysis skills
Evaluation teacher evaluates students teacher evaluates students, students evaluate

instructors, classmates
Evaluation written and oral exams written and oral exams, presentations,
method participation, papers, quizzes, group projects,
peer evaluation
(chart from NAFSA U.S Culture Series: U.S. Classroom Culture P. 12)
______________________________________________________________________________
Academic Integrity
Another aspect of surface and deep culture in higher education is the idea of academic
integrity. While it’s usually written out for students to see and understand, it is often somewhat
confusing to practice, thus making academic integrity part of both surface and deep culture.
Take a look at the University of Pennsylvania’s Code of Academic Integrity. Answer the
questions that follow.
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University of Pennsylvania's
Code of Academic Integrity
Since the University is an academic community, its fundamental purpose is the pursuit
of knowledge. Essential to the success of this educational mission is a commitment to
the principles of academic integrity. Every member of the University community is
responsible for upholding the highest standards of honesty at all times. Students, as
members of the community, are also responsible for adhering to the principles and spirit
of the following Code of Academic Integrity.*
Academic Dishonesty Definitions
Activities that have the effect or intention of interfering with education, pursuit of
knowledge, or fair evaluation of a student’s performance are prohibited. Examples of
such activities include but are not limited to the following definitions:
A. Cheating
Using or attempting to use unauthorized assistance, material, or study aids in

examinations or other academic work or preventing, or attempting to prevent, another
from using authorized assistance, material, or study aids. Example: using a cheat sheet
in a quiz or exam, altering a graded exam and resubmitting it for a better grade, etc.
B. Plagiarism
Using the ideas, data, or language of another without specific or proper

acknowledgment. Example: copying another person’s paper, article, or computer work
and submitting it for an assignment, cloning someone else’s ideas without attribution,
failing to use quotation marks where appropriate, etc.
C. Fabrication
Submitting contrived or altered information in any academic exercise. Example: making

up data for an experiment, fudging data, citing nonexistent articles, contriving sources,
etc.
D. Multiple Submissions
Multiple submissions: submitting, without prior permission, any work submitted to fulfill
another academic requirement.
E. Misrepresentation of academic records
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Misrepresentation of academic records: misrepresenting or tampering with or attempting
to tamper with any portion of a student’s transcripts or academic record, either before or
after coming to the University of Pennsylvania. Example: forging a change of grade slip,
tampering with computer records, falsifying academic information on one’s resume, etc.
F. Facilitating Academic Dishonesty
Knowingly helping or attempting to help another violate any provision of the Code.
Example: working together on a take-home exam, etc.
G. Unfair Advantage
Attempting to gain unauthorized advantage over fellow students in an academic

exercise. Example: gaining or providing unauthorized access to examination materials,
obstructing or interfering with another student’s efforts in an academic exercise, lying
about a need for an extension for an exam or paper, continuing to write even when time
is up during an exam, destroying or keeping library materials for one’s own use., etc.
* If a student is unsure whether his action(s) constitute a violation of the Code of

Academic Integrity, then it is that student’s responsibility to consult with the instructor to
clarify any ambiguities.
______________________________________________________________________
Discuss:
1. Do your home universities have such a code? If not, how does your university deal with
issues such as cheating and plagiarism? If it does, how similar/different is that policy to
Penn’s policy?
2. Take a look at each definition in the policy. Which definitions are surprising for you?
Why?
3. What do you think the consequences are if you are found guilty of breaking the code of
academic integrity? (Not sure, take a look at the website:
http://www.upenn.edu/academicintegrity/index.html)
4. Take a look at the very end of the code: “* If a student is unsure whether his action(s)
constitute a violation of the Code of Academic Integrity, then it is that student’s
responsibility to consult with the instructor to clarify any ambiguities.” – does your home
culture put the main responsibility of student conduct with the student or with the
teacher?
Culture of the Syllabus Investigation – take a look at your Canvas course site to
complete this activity.
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Culture of Campus Communication
Throughout the course you will investigate communicating on a U.S. campus in the form of
written and spoken activities that help you to refine and master the art of clear communication.
There will be certain expectations of you as student from both your professors and your
classmates. You will be expected to communicate your ideas clearly and reflectively, clarify
misunderstandings, communicate your needs, and ask for help when you need it. This direct
style of communication may be new for you, so be sure to use the time in this class to figure out
how to maintain your personal cultural values while at the same time successfully working and
living in your new academic culture.
Some Principles of Communication
 Know your audience – to whom are you writing/speaking? What are they expecting to
see/hear from you? What types of language are appropriate/inappropriate? How do you
think he/she will take in your message?
 Know your purpose – why are you writing/speaking to this person? What do you hope
to accomplish?
 Consider the most appropriate mode – How will you communicate your message?
Would an email or text be appropriate? Would it be better to have a conversation? How
long should your message be?
 Others? – add your own ideas here
Campus Communication 1: 7 Considerations for Writing Effective Emails
Discuss: When is an email the most appropriate mode of communication? What do you know
about writing effective email in on a U.S university campus? Below are 7 considerations for
writing effective emails:
1) Your email address
Your email address should clearly identify you. Cryptic, cute, silly, or pornographic names may
be appropriate for communication with your friends, but not for communication with your
university campus community. Try to use your school email address so that you can be reached
in Canvas messages and other communication from the ELP/UPenn community. If you are going
to use a personal email address to contact somebody for educational or professional purposes,
make sure that it is appropriate. Generally some version of your name works best:
EX: If your name is Jon Michael Smith, below would be some appropriate email addresses:
Jon.smith@gmail.com j.m. smith@gmail.com jon.m.smith@gmail.com Jonsmith17@gmail.com
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2) Subject lines
Write specific meaningful subject lines. If your subject line is vague or blank, you’re missing an
opportunity for meaningful communication. The subject line not only tells the reader the
subject of the email but it will be used to reference the subject forever. Instructors and
professors may get up to 50 emails per day and may not reply right away. It’s easy to go back
and find an email when the subject is clear and specific. A busy professor appreciates efficiency.
A clear meaningful subject line promotes efficient communication.
Examples:
Good Subject Lines Bad Subject lines

PL 101 Homework Question Question
EN102 Paper 3 Draft 1 My paper
Absence Friday 1/18/13 Missed class
Problem in class—please advise Problem
EN102 Class today 1/15 Important! Read Immediately!
3) Greetings
An email is different from a formal letter, but has many of the same characteristics. “Dear
Professor” is not necessarily the most appropriate opening for an email contacting your current
instructors. For general emailing to your current instructors, appropriate openings would be:
Professor Tolbert: Hi Professor/Dr. Tolbert, Dear Professor /Dr.Tolbert
Consider the formality of your relationship and how the instructor refers to him/herself. Also be
aware that you may be dealing with teaching assistants—graduate students who are not yet
professors. In this case, a first name would be appropriate.
4) Closings
Some professors prefer more formal closing such as “Respectfully” or “Sincerely,” but once you
establish a relationship with your instructors, closings like “Thank you,” “See you tomorrow,”
“Thanks again,” will be appropriate. Make sure to write your whole name in your closing in the
first communication. Clearly identify yourself for your instructors so they don’t need to guess
who you are.
5) The Body
In the first line of your email, it’s a good idea to tell the recipient why you are writing the email.
Ex: 1) I’m writing to let you know that… 2) I wanted to ask you…. 3) I wanted to know….
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Notice the “past tense” in examples 2 and 3. Step back your language a tense as you do for
reported speech. Although you presently “want” to know something, stepping back a tense and
saying “I wanted to know” adds a degree of respect and formality. Also, look to use modals in
any requests.
For example: You want to know if you can turn in your homework tomorrow instead of today.
Possibilities:
 I wanted to know if it would be possible to turn in my Unit 2 assignment tomorrow 1/17….
 I was hoping it wouldn’t be a problem if I could possibly…
Not:
 I will turn in my homework tomorrow please….
 I want to turn in my homework tomorrow please…
Help your reader focus on your message: keep your text readable.
 Proofread, especially when your message asks your recipient to do something for you.
Remember that emails speak on your behalf and are forever.
 Write short paragraphs, separated by blank lines. Most people find unbroken blocks of
text boring, or even intimidating. Take the time to format your message for the ease of
your reader.
 Avoid fancy typefaces. Don’t depend upon bold font or large size to add nuances.
 Avoid text message abbreviations
6) Emails as documentation
Consider your correspondence with your instructor as documentation (proof) of any

agreements that you make. For example, if you need an extension on an assignment, will miss a
class, or have requested a letter recommendation, make sure you get email documentation to
support the agreements that you make. Professors are very busy and may forget about an
agreement so email documentation is a friendly reminder. To effectively use emails as
documentation make sure that you:
1. Send a confirmation/reminder email if you make any agreements in person before or

after class
o Ex: Professor Smith, I’m writing to remind you that I will be absent on Thursday
8/29….
2. Keep an email chain going of your correspondence on a given topic
o Reply to or forward emails; don’t create new email strands
7) Remember: Emails are forever

This last tip is self-explanatory. Emails are forever. Think about that when you write them!
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Practice: Look at the sample emails below. Make any suggestions for improvement.
1. Requesting extra help/appointment
To: smith@university.com smith@university.com smith@university.com

Subject: appointment required appointment request schedule an appointment
Message: Hi Professor Smith, Hi Mr. Smith, (professor, dr.) Hi Smith:
I have some difficulties I am(was) wondering if I
I am having problems with the understanding the topic you can(could) make an appointment
limit chapter. I wanted to visit discussed with us in today's with you to discuss some
your office for some help. Is 3 pm lesson. I was wondering questions.
tomorrow convenient for you? whether you have time
available between 2:00 pm to Unfortunately, I have classes
Thank you, 3:00 tomorrow afternoon. I during your office hours and I am
Yuke (Yoco) would like to stop at your available before 10 o'clock and
office during that time and after 4 o'clock from Monday to
discuss with you my Friday.
difficulties. Please let me
know whether this time is If you are free in any of these
convenient for you. times, please tell me. That will be
so grateful.
Thank you
Xiaoyue Zhang (Cheryl) Thanks again
Tiffany(yue) Song
Look at the subject line and message content in the above emails and note any
corrections/suggestions below:
Tips and language chunks for requesting appointments:
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2. Informing of a lateness or absence:

Subject: late tomorrow(ENG 101 class 1/21
late tomorrow)
Message: Hi Professor Smith, Dear Professor Smith, Dear Professor Smith,
Unfortunately I will be late I am writing to let you I will not be in class

for the class tomorrow. I know that I will be a little tomorrow because I must
will have a doctor’s late for class tomorrow go to the doctor. Sorry to
appointment. Please because I have a doctor’s miss the class.
excuse me. appointment. Sorry for any
inconvenience. Thank you Thank you,
Thank you, for understanding. Eloise Burion
Sultan
Sincerely
Giana Maleri
Look at the subject line and message content in the above emails and note any
corrections/suggestions below:
Tips and language chunks for informing of lateness/absence:
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3. Sending a homework or assignment

Subject: my homework homework Weekly Learning Journal
Message: Hi Professor Smith, Weekly learning journal Hey Dr. Smith!
Transition workshop
Here is my homework from Tiffany: Attached is my learning
today. journal for this week. Hope
I cannot believe that the u like it! LOL 
Thank you, summer course has
Chelsea already finished a half. So
many interesting things
happening each day that I
may not even be able to
memorize them all.
This week I finished an
essay for microeconomics
class. This may seems
normal for Americans, but
for me, this is the first
time. Writing an essay is
actually very interesting. I
can analyze the
information generated by
the precedents and add my
own point of view in it.
Although it is challenging
to include not only the
knowledge we learned but
also to express our
thoughts, I handled it
successfully. I am so proud
of myself.
(assignment pasted in
body of email)
Tips and language chunks for informing of lateness/absence:
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More Practice (See Canvas assignment)
Write an email for the following situations:
4. You missed a day of class and you want to know what you missed.
To:
Subject:
Message:
5. You plan to go to office hours this week to get help with your math homework .
To:
Subject:
Message:
6. You want to send your homework to your professor because you will miss class next Thursday,
Jan. 21st.
To:
Subject:
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Message:
Another important consideration in writing effective emails is to ask yourself: Should I send an email?
What should it contain? When should I send it? Look at the following scenarios:
 You will miss class next week because your cousin is visiting from your country. It’s a large
lecture of 200 students.
 You have a meeting scheduled with your instructor to discuss your essay next Wednesday.
 Your homework is due tomorrow and you don’t understand problems 7 and 8.
 You missed class today and don’t know what the homework is for tomorrow.
What other situations might you send an email to a professor?
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Last consideration for writing effective emails:
Another way to think of making a request is DAPPS – Dated, Achievable, Personal, Positive, and
Specific
Look at these requests – how is DAPPS applied (or not applied) in each one:
1. I’m going to be absent next Friday. 1. John, I’m going to be absent next
It sure would be nice if someone Friday. Would you be willing to call me
would let me know if I miss anything. Friday night and tell me what I
missed? (Can I call you Friday night
and find out what I missed?)
2. I don’t suppose you’d consider 2. I’d like to request an extension on
giving me a few more days to my research paper. I promise to hand
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complete this research paper? it in by noon on Thursday. Would that
be acceptable?
Did you use DAPPS in your emails? Did the sample? What sentences show the use of “DAPPS”?
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Time Management
Discuss:
 What have you noticed about the importance of time in the American culture?
 How is it similar to or different from your own culture of education? Think about:
o Deadlines
o Difficulty of your work vs. the time you’re given to complete the work
o Responsibility for successfully meeting deadlines (you vs. teacher)
 How are you at managing your own time? Is this a cultural question? Can you be “better” at
time management in one culture of another?
Acting on Purpose: Harnessing the Power of Quadrant II

Adapted from: On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life. P. 103-105. Author: Skip Downing
Importance and urgency are key considerations in choosing your actions at any particular time.
The chart below shows that our actions at any moment can fall into one of four quadrants
depending on their importance and/or their urgency. Take a moment to familiarize yourself
with the quadrants, then continue reading for details and examples:
Urgent Not Urgent

Quadrant 1 Quadrant 2
Important The action is important and The action is important but not
urgent. urgent.
Not
Important The action is urgent but not The action is not important and not
important. urgent.
Importance
Only you can determine the importance of your actions. Others will have their opinions
(including teachers, friends, advisors, parents, etc.), but they don’t really know what value you
have for the activities and responsibilities in your life. If an action will help you achieve
something that you value then it’s important. Unfortunately, many people fill their time with
unimportant actions that delay and distract them from achieving goals.
Urgency
Likewise, only you can determine the urgency of your actions. Again, others (including teachers,
friends, advisors, parents, etc.) will set deadlines for you, but these external finish lines won’t
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be motivating unless you make them personally important. If meeting an approaching deadline
will help you achieve something you value (like a good grade), it’s urgent. Unfortunately, many
people miss urgent deadlines because they don’t value them. There is always an excuse for not
doing something you don’t feel like doing, or for not getting an assignment in on time.
However, if asked if you could have met the same deadline for a million dollars, that would
probably change your actions. Now you would suddenly value such a deadline.
As you read on about the four quadrants, ask yourself in which quadrant you are choosing to
spend most of your time.
Quadrant 1 Actions: Important and Urgent
These are important activities done under the pressure of nearing deadlines. At the last
minute, procrastinators dive desperately into Quadrant 1 to handle an action that has always
been important but is now urgent. Procrastination is the choice to do unimportant tasks while
neglecting important tasks, violating your priorities. People who live their lives in Quadrant 1
are constantly running around putting out brush fires in their lives. They frantically create
modest achievement in the present while sacrificing extraordinary success in the future. Those
who live in Quadrant 1 feel stress, anxiety, and often don’t reach their potential.
Quadrant 2 Actions: Important and not urgent
These are important activities done without pressure of looming deadlines. When you engage
in an important activity with time enough to do it well you can create and achieve your goals.
Quadrant II actions are easily postponed by procrastinators. Almost all the suggestions in this
course belong in Quadrant 2.
Quadrant 3 Actions: Not important and urgent
These actions are unimportant activities done with a sense of urgency. How often have you
responded to the demand or your ringing phone only to be trapped in a conversation with a
friend or relative? Or you agree to do something at the moment because you don’t know how
to say no? When you allow someone else’s urgency to talk you into an activity that is not
important to your goals and dreams you have chosen to be in Quadrant 3.
Quadrant 4 Actions: Not important and not urgent
These activities are simply time wasters. Everyone wastes some time, so there should be some
Quadrant 4 activities in your life, but it’s best to minimize wasting the irreplaceable hours of the
day.
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This perspective on time allows you to think compartmentally about where you are currently
spending your time and where you should be spending your time. How can you increase the
time you spend in Quadrant 2?
Urgent Not Urgent

Example: staying up all night and Example: Creating a study group

Important cramming for an 8:00am test to review practice problems.
Example: answering a call from Example: playing video games

home when you have a test the until 4am or binge-watching a
Not next day. new series on Netflix
Important
Discussion:
 In what quadrant do you spend most of your time?
 What keeps you out of quadrant 2?
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Acting on Purpose: Self-assessment
Let’s take a look at how you currently spend your time and see where you can find some
improvements. Make a list of 10 or more specific actions you have taken in the past two days.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
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Write each action from your list into the quadrant chart below:
Urgent Not Urgent
Important
Not
Important
Reflection
 In which quadrant are you spending most of your time?
 If you continue to use your time this way, are you likely to reach your goals/dreams/
Why or why not?
 What most often keeps you from working in Quadrant II?
 What is the most important thing you have learned from this exercise? How will you
change/not change now that you have looked at how you spend your time?
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Choosing Actions
Discussion:
 Are you a rational decision maker?
 How do you think a rational decision maker makes decisions about his/her time?
Consider the balance of importance and urgency.
You’ve probably concluded that a rational decision maker would spend most of his/her time in
Quadrant II. You probably also consider yourself to be a rational decision maker, yet you may
not necessarily spend most of your time in Quadrant II. Does this mean you’re not a rational
decision maker? To understand why seemingly rational people make poor decision about how
they spend their time it’s helpful to take a closer look at Procrastination and the brains of those
who do and those who don’t. (See PowerPoint Picture Story)
______________________________________________________________________________
What does procrastination look like for you?
Your day may start off:
Today is a great day to get stuff done!
What happens next? Does your day look something like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItMFWpKofSg
What’s happening?
You look at something you would really rather not do, like write an essay. This activates areas in
your brain associated with pain—actual pain receptors. Your brain naturally looks for a way to
stop the negative stimulation by switching your attention to something else (anything else!).
Instagram? Twitter? The cookie jars? The discomfort then disappears and your feel happier…
temporarily.
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9:30 am on a Saturday morning
Today is going to be a productive day! I

think I’ll start my essay!
What would happen next for you?
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1-Walk around for a while.
2- Programming review.
5- Math Quiz Rev.
6- Memorized 10 Vocab Words.
7- Walk again
8- Read articles.
9- Read Two Kinds.
Share your story with your classmates.
Is there a common ingredient to procrastination?
Interruptions
Interruptions are a common ingredient in procrastination. We tend to think of interruptions as

something external that takes our attention away from what we’re doing. However, it’s helpful
to expand the concept of interruptions to include both internal and external forces.
Internal interruptions include the following:

 Sudden impulse to check your email or Facebook
 Suddenly remembering that you need to call your grandmother
 Sudden urge to order pizza
 What else? List some below:
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External interruptions include the following:
 Your roommate stands in your door to complain about something hoping that you’ll
commiserate and help him procrastinate
 You get a Facebook notification or an email
 You get a text message or phone call
 The pizza guy is at your door
 What else? List some below:
The first step in managing your interruptions is to recognize them. You should now have a
pretty good idea about what is interrupting your progress on daily basis. The next step is to find
strategies to help you to overcome them. What are some common strategies you know to
manage procrastination and overcome your interruptions? List a few below:
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A few tips for preventing procrastination
Make your plans public – when you have a job that has to be completed or a goal that you
want to reach, write it down. Or announce your intentions to close friends or family members.
For example, “I plan to finish the research paper this weekend.” once you’ve made your
intentions official, you’re less likely to put them off. Procrastinators commonly fall into the habit
of deceiving themselves, but they are less likely to deceive the people around them.
Step back and check your progress from time to time – One way many people procrastinate is
by getting needlessly entangled in the details of their work. If, as you’re working, you
periodically step back and measure your progress, it will be easier to tell if you’ve gotten
unnecessarily bogged down. If you discover that you have, you should be able to pick up your
pace so you can reach your goal in the allotted time.
Use a timer instead of a watch – Clock watching is a time-honored technique of perpetual

procrastinators. If you want to keep to a schedule but avoid disrupting your concentrating by
constantly checking your watch or clock, use a timer instead.
Be specific – A task is almost always more intimidating and stressful when it looks large and
undefined. Instead of constantly telling yourself, “I’ve got to start writing that research paper,”
zero-in on a specific aspect of your paper, such as choosing the topic or compiling a working
bibliography. Suddenly your goal becomes more concrete, more doable, and thus much easier
to complete.
Verbalize your excuses – You may think you’ve got perfectly good reasons for putting off what
needs to be done. If you let your excuses see the light of day by writing them out or explaining
them to a friend, you’ll often find that your reasoning isn’t nearly as logical as you’d thought.
Visualize success or completion – Take a moment to imagine accomplishing a task, passing a

test, or achieving a goal. Through visualizing, you chart a course in your mind’s eye. That course
gives you a tangible game plan. The positive outcome you’ve imagined provides an incentive to
follow that course until you reach the point of completion.
Reflect: Did you and your classmates come up with some of the same strategies as those
above? Of all the strategies that you’ve seen in order to prevent procrastination, which one(s)
might work best for you? Why?
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Reclaiming Lost Time3
All of us have claimed that we don’t have enough time to accomplish what we need to do.
But the fact is that everyone is allotted the same amount of time: 24 hours a day. Many of us
allow a lot of this time to go to waste by failing to realize it is available in the first place. In
addition, it’s often our day to day habits, activities we no longer notice, that save time or
waste it. You can put your time to better use by pinpointing areas of ‘hidden’ time and
cultivating time saving habits.
Finding Hidden Time – there may be moments of your day that could be used as micro-study
sessions. While much of our time studying is done in chunks of time, there are small chunks
that we might be able to access for quick reviews, brainstorming, and other small activities
that can boost our motivation and feelings of success.
Carry Pocket Work – many situations may leave you with a few moments of unexpected free
time – a long line at the grocery store, a delayed bus or train, your commute, a wait at the
doctor’s office. If you make a point to bring along a book, a photocopied article, index cards
on which you’ve written key concepts, vocabulary words, or formulas, you’ll be able to take
advantage of otherwise frustrating experiences.
 What about your phone? What kind of apps do you use to help you with your pocket
work? Share your favorites with the class.
Employ spare-time thinking – you can make the most of the moments immediately before or
after class by recalling the main points from the last lecture as you’re heading to class or by
quickly recalling the points of a just-completed lecture as you’re leaving class.
 Try it out now! With a partner, take one minute and summarize the ideas that you
have learned so far in our class.
Use your sub-conscious – at one point or another, you have awakened during the night with a
bright idea or a solution to a problem that you had been thinking about before bedtime. Your
subconscious works while your conscious mind is resting. If you want to capture the ideas or
solutions produced by your subconscious, write them down as soon as you wake up;
otherwise, they’ll be lost. Many creative people know this and keep a pad and pencils near
their beds. This hidden time activity just might be the idea you need to get that essay or
research paper started.
 Do you do this activity already? If yes, why? how does it work for you? If not, do you
think you’d try out this idea? why or why not?
Planning for Work

 How do you plan for your work on a day to day basis? weekly? monthly? Share your
current time management systems with your classmates.
3
Pauk, W. & Owens, R.J.Q. (2008). How to Study in College. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
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A cultural difference you may be experiencing while studying in the USA, is one of self-
management. Some cultures depend on higher authorities to set the daily and monthly
activities for students. If you are coming from high school, this is especially true. Your teacher
has a lesson plan for the entire day and tells you what to study, when, how, and then tells
you when the test is planned for. In universities, your instructors will give you your deadlines,
but how you reach those deadlines is entirely up to you. So your monthly and yearly goals are
usually set, but managing the day to day and how to get to those monthly and yearly goals
can be an adjustment for most students.
A very useful way to get through the day to day of life is to create a task list. Now, for some
people this might not work – perhaps a calendar with reminders/alarms is a better system.
But for many, planning for your work is a great way into gaining control over your time. In
order to plan for your work, it is useful to write it down. The simple act of writing it down can
dispel the idea that you have ‘too much to do’ or reinforce the fact that you do have a lot to
do, so you better use your time effectively.
Starting from the beginning of this class until the beginning of class tomorrow, try keeping a
log of your activities. We will then analyze your use of your daily time and come up with a
plan for adjusting your activities to better meet your goals.
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Time
Start
Reflect:
Look back at your 24-hour period of time. Answer the following questions. In your opinion:
 Did you use your time effectively? Why or why not?
 At what times of the day did you have the most energy to work towards your goals?
 At what times of the day did you need to take a break?
 What adjustments can you make to your time to ensure that you are properly working
towards achieving your goals?
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Managing Interruptions: The Pomodoro Technique®
This is a time management technique that helps people get work done,
avoid burnout, manage interruptions, and defeat procrastination. This
technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo, a graduate student in Italy,
while he was in university. The idea is pretty simple: Think about studying or
making progress on a task in small chunks of time. Complete the following:
 Set aside 25 minutes to only work on one task

 Set a timer for 25 minutes (www.tomato-timer.com) or use one of these:
This method is called the
“Pomodoro” Technique because
Cirillo used a tomato-shaped
kitchen timer Pomodoro is Italian
for tomato, hence the Pomodoro
technique
 Focus… with no interruptions for 25 minutes—Interval training for your brain.

 Protect you Pomordoro—it’s only 25 minutes. You can do anything for 25 minutes, right?
 Keep a tally sheet of internal and external interruptions that you beat!
Internal
External
 After 25 minutes, take a 5 minute break. If you can, set the timer again for 25 minutes and
complete another round of work. Then 5 minute break.
 Keep track of your Pomodoros
Pomodoros
Some thoughts on the system:
It’s important to remember that this is a productivity system and not a set of handcuffs. If
you’re making progress and the timer goes off, it’s okay to finish what you’re doing, then take a
break. The goal is to help you get into the zone and focus. Sometimes the hardest part is getting
started and this technique allow you to dive into a task. There is more to this technique and
Cirillo has actually written a book to go over more specifically how to use this method to help
users get work done.
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Watch the video and hear about one person’s experience using this technique and the other
small details that help people get work done:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH-z5kmVhzU
Listen: What extra information does the speaker mention that is important to the Pomodoro
technique?
 How is Greg more successful as a result of this technique?

 How does Greg have more freedom?
TRY IT! Bring in some homework or other academic project you need to complete. In the next
class (or for homework) you will choose your work, focus, and get some stuff done. Then as a
class, you will reflect on the experience to see if incorporating this time management strategy is
useful for you.
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Pomodoro Time!
Before you begin, we’re going to add a layer of “metacognition” to your experience.
Metacognition means “thinking about thinking.” It’s a level of awareness above the subject
matter that you are working on. Having “metacognition” allows you to plan, monitor, and
evaluate your understanding of the material you’re working with or your performance with the
task you’re completing. Metacogition is having a critical awareness of the thinking and learning
that is going on in your brain. Or, having critical awareness of yourself as a thinker and learner.
In other words, as you focus for this 25 minutes, be aware of how well you’re doing with the
technique and monitor your performance.
Interruption Management Central

Keep track of the interruptions you beat here:
Internal
External
---------------------------------------------------25 minutes-----------------------------------------------
Post-Pomodoro Discussion:
 What did you work on?
 How much work did you get done? More or less than you thought?
 How productive did you feel? What were your strengths and weaknesses as a focuser?
 Were there any interruptions you were able to manage?
 Were there any interruptions you were not able to manage?
 Can you imagine incorporating this system into your study habits in the future?
Why/Why not?
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Work and Flow: How do you work?
You have reflected on how you spend your time and what actions take you off course from
achieving your goals. Continuing with the theme of time, we’re going to examine time on a
larger scale and consider alternative perspectives on the actions that fill a day. Specifically
we’re going to look at how great minds of history spent their days. The article below was
published on BuzzFeed, March 31, 2014:
Maximize your time:

Ailbhe Malone, BuzzFeed Staff
This Marvelous Chart Shows How Geniuses Spent Their Day
How do creatives – composers, painters, writers, scientists, philosophers – find the time to produce
their opus? Mason Currey investigated the rigid Daily Rituals that hundreds of creatives practiced in
order to carve out time, every day, to work their craft. Some kept to the same disciplined regimen
for decades while others locked in patterns only while working on specific works.
Design Highlights
Representing each day as a continuous 24 hour cycle invokes the ever spinning wheel of time, and
more simply the face of a clock with midnight placed in the “12 o’clock” position and noon at “6
o’clock.” Colors mark major categories of activity – work, sleep, exercise, etc.
Created by RJ Andrews, the project breaks down the work patterns of a number of geniuses.
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infowetrust.com / Via Inspired by Mason Currey’s book Daily Routines.
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Perhaps most fascinating, is reflecting on how you spend your days compared to these creative
masters. Do you have a routine that helps you be productive every day?
Current use of time
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Change your use of time
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Time Circles Discussion:
1. After completing this exercise, what seems to be more important:
 Quantity of time on task?
OR
 Quality of time on task?
2. How do you achieve quality of time on task?
We can think about the quality of time on a task as productivity. We’ve already explored some
strategies for improving productivity such as eliminating interruptions and becoming self-aware
(metacognition), next we’re going to explore the concept of flow.
Flow
One concept that is being talked about in relation to work and life is the concept of flow.
Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed
in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. It’s
the feeling of being in the zone. When have you experienced flow?
Flow is another concept we can better understand through a chart.
Mapping Flow
According to the graph, how can

you find flow?
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According to the chart, you can achieve flow when the challenge is high, but your skills are high
enough to meet the challenge. It’s that feeling you have when you solve a difficult math
problem, or have a great idea for an essay. On the contrary, if the challenge high and your skills
are lower, you’ll experience anxiety, like the in the chart below:
Psychologist Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi is the expert on flow. His studies offer insights into how
we can purposely create such positive inner experiences in college and beyond. Watch an
excerpt from his TED talk as he explain this chart:
http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow
(minute 13:55 to the end)
Discussion:
1. In your own words, what is flow?
2. In which area of the chart do most people fall?
3. What activities in your life fall into the different areas of the chart?
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After understanding the concept of flow, an important question becomes: How do you find
flow? According the chart, you’d increase your skills to meet the challenge:
But, how exactly do you do that? How do you achieve flow? How do you increase your skills?
Where do new skills come from?
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Learning
Learning and Memory: What’s the Connection?

Have you ever wondered why you can remember the name of your first family pet, yet you
can’t seem to recall the details from a lecture you attended last week, or remember much from
a course you completed last year? The answer to this question lies in the way you learn.
Some considerations:
 We gain or lose information though an information-processing system in our brain. This

system identifies how we store, encode (change information in some way before it’s stored)
and retrieve information.
 Learning involves getting information into our long-term memory. Much of what we think
we have learned is soon forgotten or was never really learned in the first place.
 The specific strategies you use to store information in your long-term memory affects how
likely it is that you will remember the information.
 Frequent review keeps memory from fading over time. We lose about 50% of what we learn
in a 24-hour period because our short-term memory decays quickly.
 Unless you reinforce and review notes and information frequently, you will lose it.
 An effective processing system makes it easier for you to retrieve specific information.
 The Feedback Loop (see chart) lets you know whether you’ve learned something. Test
yourself to see if you’re getting it:
o Can you explain it or put it in your own words?
o Can you work the problem without looking?
o If the feedback is positive move on; negative keep studying.
 There are three main activities related to long-term memory: storage, deletion and
retrieval
o Information from short-term memory is stored by recursive review.
o The repeated exposure to a stimulus or piece of information transfers it into the
longer-term memory.
o Recursive review works best when distributed over time.
 There are 2 types of information retrieval: recall and recognition
o Recall: information reproduced from memory
o Recognition: you know you’ve seen the information before
 Be more aware of your information processing system and develop good preparation and
learning strategies
Adapted from: http://arc.duke.edu/documents/Learning%20and%20Memory%20handout.pdf

(Academic Resource Center, Duke University)
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Attend to Input Work your Working Memory Long Term Memory
 The flow in information begins with input  This is the active part of the memory system.  Long term memory stores all the
from the environment. When we are consciously trying to think of information we process but are not
 This information enters the STM where it is something or actively trying to remember immediately using. Storage of information is
stored temporarily until it can be attended to we’re using our working memory (WM). believed to be permanent.
by the WM.  Your WM filters and decides how to handle  Forgetting is not so much the loss of
 Everything you see, hear, or smell is stored in different input/stimuli. If you believe information rather the inability to retrieve it.
the STM, but many of the stimuli we information is important it should not be left  Information enters the LTM from the WM
experience never get into our WM because in your WM because it will be forgotten and must be classified, organized,
we don’t attend to them.  Information must be processed in your WM connected, and stored with information that
 Can you remember every student you walked before it can be transferred into your Long is already in the LTM
passed or sat next to in a day? Or everything Term Memory (LTM)  It takes time and effort to properly move
a professor said in class?  This mean you need to do something active information in the LTM
 You remember things you find attractive or with it.  The more information you know before
interesting but only because you pay  Students mistakenly believe they will going to a lecture the easier it is to learn
attention to them. remember something important that a new information. Prior knowledge plays an
 Unless you make special attempt to attend to professor says and don’t write it down. important role in learning.
and record information, it is never stored in  You can only learn 1-6 new ideas from every  To keep knowledge fresh and accessible you
your memory and you don’t learn it. minute of lecture so you need to be need to have a good information processing
conscientious and decisive about what you system in place.
record.
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Discussion on Learning and Memory:
1. How does the human brain learn? How can you use this knowledge to improve your
information processing system? What are some specific strategies based on the reading?
Make a list with a partner:
Write down the list you came up with as a class:
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Active Learning and Getting the Most out of Class
Becoming an Active Learner4
Successful athletes understand how to get the most out of their physical abilities. Likewise, to
be a successful learner, you need to know how to get the most out of your mental abilities.
Much has been discovered, especially in the last few decades, about how human beings learn.
To benefit from these discoveries, let’s take a quick peek into our brains.
How the Human Brain Learns
The human brain weighs about three pounds and is composed of trillions of cells. About 100
billion of them are neurons, and there’s where much of our learning takes place. When a
potential learning experience occurs (such as reading this sentence), some neurons send out
spikes of electrical activity. This activity causes nearby neurons to do the same. When neurons
fire together, they from what is called a ‘neural network.’ Picture a bunch of neurons joining
hands in your brain, jumping up and down, and having a learning party. If this party happens
only once, learning is weak (as when you see your instructor solve a math problem one day and
can’t recall how to do it the next.). However, if you cause the same collection of neurons to fire
repeatedly (as when you solve 10 similar math problems yourself), the result is likely a long-
term memory. According to David Sousa, author of How the Brain Learns, “Eventually, repeated
firing of the pattern binds the neurons together so that if one fires, they all fire, ultimately
forming a new memory trace.”
In other words, if you want learning to stick, you need to create strong neural networks. In this
way, learning literally changes the structure of your brain. Through autopsies, neuroscientist
Robert Jacobs and his colleagues determined that graduate students actually had 40 percent
more neural connections than those of high school dropouts. Jacobs’s research joins many
other brain studies to reveal an important fact: To excel as a learner, you need to create as
many neural connections in your brain as possible.
Three principles of deep and lasting learning
How do highly effective learners maximize their learning? Whether they know it or not, they
have figured out how to create many strong neural connections in their brains. And you can,
too. Become an active learner. Learning isn’t a spectator sport. You don’t create deep and
lasting learning by passively listening to a lecture, casually skimming a textbook, or having a
tutor solve math problems for you ( even though these methods may have worked before, at
some point you will encounter material that actually challenges you, so keep reading!).
4
Downing, Skip (2014). On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life. Boston: Cengage..
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Good learners, consciously or unconsciously, implement three principles for creating deep and
lasting learning:
 Prior learning
 Quality of processing
 Quantity of processing
What do you think the above three phrases mean? Brainstorm some ideas with your
classmates.
Prior Learning
Brain research reveals that when you connect what you are learning now to previously stored
information (i.e., already-formed neural networks), you learn the new information or skill faster
and more deeply. For example, think about using your cell phones. If you switch from an iPhone
to a Galaxy, your previous knowledge of smart phone technology, apps, etc. helps you to learn
your new phone faster than say, your parents who did not grow up with smartphones.
The contribution of past learning to new learning helps explain why some learners have
difficulty in college with academic skills such as math, reading, and writing. If their earlier
learning was shaky, they’re going to have difficulty with new learning. They don’t have strong
neural networks on which to attach the new learning. It’s like trying to construct a house on a
weak foundation. In such a situation, the best option is to go back and strengthen the
foundation, which is exactly the purpose of developmental (basic skills) courses. However,
there’s no point trying to learn these foundational skills the same way you learned them
before. After all, how you learned them before didn’t make the information or skills stick. So
this time you’ll need to employ different, more effective learning strategies, ones that will
create the needed neural networks. If that’s your situation, this time you will have the
advantage of employing the more effective strategies described here.
Quality of Processing
How you exercise affects your physical strength. Likewise, how you study affects the strength of
your neural networks and therefore the quality of your learning. Some information (such as
math formulas or anatomy terms) must be recalled exactly as presented. For such learning
tasks, effective memorization strategies are the types of processing that work best. However,
much of what you’ll be asked to learn in college is too complex for mere memorization (though
many struggling students try). For mastering complex information and skills, you’ll want to use
what learning experts call deep processing. These are the very strategies that successful
learners use to maximize their learning and make it stick.
Don’t just use one deep-processing strategy. Successful athletes know the value of cross
training, so they use a variety of training strategies. Similarly, successful learners know the
value of employing varied deep processing strategies. That’s because the more ways you deep-
process new learning, the stronger your neural networks become. When you actively study any
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information or skill using numerous and varied deep processing strategies, you create and
strengthen related neural networks and your learning soars.
Quantity of Processing
The quality of your learning is significantly affected by how often and how long you engage in
varied deep processing. This factor is often called ‘time on task.’ The most effective approach to
quantity of processing is ‘distributed practice.’ The human brain learns best when learning
efforts are distributed over time. No successful athlete waits until the night before a
competition to begin training. Why then do struggling students think they can start studying the
night before a test? An all-night cram session may make a deposit in their short-term memory,
perhaps even allowing them to pass a test the next day. However, to create strong neural
networks, you need to process the target information or skill with numerous and varied deep-
processing strategies and do it frequently.
In addition to how frequently you use deep-processing strategies, also important is the amount
of time you spend learning. Obviously, deep processing for sixty minutes generates more
learning than deep processing for five minutes. So, highly effective learners put in sufficient
time on task. The traditional guidelines for a week’s studying is two hours for each hour of class
time. So if you have fifteen hours of class that means thirty hours a week of “studying” would
be sufficient time on task. Many struggling students neither study often no very long. You don’t
need a geniuses IQ to be a good learner and do well in college. What you do need is a learning
system that employs what you’ve learned about the human brain and your information
processing system. There are billions of neuron between your ears that are ready to party!
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Getting the Most out of Class
From what you’ve learned about how the brain works and how to maximize your information
processing system, you know that as a learner you should:
 Attend to the information going into your brain—in other words: pay attention!
 Do something active with the information—think about it! Write it down!
 Connect it to prior knowledge
When the information that you’re learning is coming from a class (rather than a book, etc.)
these actions are taking place in the classroom. Active learners know how to get the most out
of class.
With a partner, come up with: Top 5 tips for getting the most out of class:
Top 5 tips for getting the most out of class…
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Tips from other groups:
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Metacognitive Note-taking
What kind of note-taker are you? Here are some examples of a few extremes:
1. “There”
You sit in class and get hardly any information down on paper. You might have a list of topics
that the professor has put on the board, or what you believe to be the main ideas from
listening. You haven’t gotten down any details or even recognized what the details or examples
or illustrations are. Very likely you find the class uninteresting.
2. “Scribe”
Big contrast to “there.” You are getting nearly everything down. You are a note-taking machine!
Whatever your professor has written on the board, on the overhead, or put on PowerPoint,
you’ve got. You’ve got the examples, and even the tangents or anecdotes. Many ambitious
students find themselves to be scribes, which reflect their abilities to take complete notes in
high school.
What is the problem with these strategies? What method of note-taking do you use?
A Metacognitive Approach
Recall the meaning of metacognitive:
Many researchers suggest that merely recording information doesn’t necessarily encode that
information onto/into your brain. These researchers suggest that by being aware of what you
are thinking about while you are listening or reading and then taking notes about those
thoughts encodes the information more strongly because you are attaching this new
concept/idea to something you already know or were thinking at the time. In fact, some
researchers say that by taking notes on what you are thinking, including thoughts like “I am
losing focus. I am tired” helps you to pay attention when you are losing focus 5. By attaching this
new information to a different thought or connection, your recall for the new information may
be stronger. Additionally, these metacognitive notes just might be fun while you are studying.
5
adapted from: http://arc.duke.edu/documents/metacognitive_notetaking.pdf
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Metacognitive Note-taking
Duke:
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Metacognitive note-taking: Let’s try it!
Watch the video: Introduction to Memory (on Canvas)

It comes from a course on Coursera called Learning How to Learn from the University of
California San Diego and taught by Dr. Barbara Oakley. It reinforces a lot of the strategies we
discussed in class about learning and memory. Watch the video and take notes using the
metacognitive method:
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Metacognitive Notetaking Discussion:
1. Compare notes with your partner: what is similar? Different?
2. What was it like to take notes like this? What was helpful? Difficult?
3. Can you imagine taking notes like this during a long lecture? Why or why not?
Notetaking for Reading
Discussion:
1. Do you take notes when you read? How is it different from when you listen/watch?
2. How might an “active learner” take notes when he/she reads?
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Interrogating Texts: 6 Reading Habits to Develop in Your First Year at
Harvard
Susan Gilroy, Librarian for Undergraduate Programs for Writing, Lamont and Widener Libraries 10.23.13
Copyright © 2013 President and Fellows of Harvard College http://guides.library.harvard.edu/sixreadinghabits
Critical reading--active engagement and interaction with texts--is essential to your academic
success at Harvard, and to your intellectual growth. Research has shown that students who
read deliberately retain more information and retain it longer. Your college reading
assignments will probably be more substantial and more sophisticated than those you are used
to from high school. The amount of reading will almost certainly be greater. College students
rarely have the luxury of successive re-readings of material, either, given the pace of life in and
out of the classroom.
While the strategies below are (for the sake of clarity) listed sequentially, you can probably do
most of them simultaneously. They may feel awkward at first, and you may have to deploy
them very consciously, especially if you are not used to doing anything more than moving your
eyes across the page. But they will quickly become habits, and you will notice the difference—in
what you “see” in a reading, and in the confidence with which you approach your texts.
1. Previewing: Look “around” the text before you start reading.

You’ve probably engaged in one version of previewing in the past, when you’ve tried to
determine how long an assigned reading is (and how much time and energy, as a result, it will
demand from you). But you can learn a great deal more about the organization and purpose of
a text by taking note of features other than its length.
Previewing enables you to develop a set of expectations about the scope and aim of the text.
These very preliminary impressions offer you a way to focus your reading. For instance:
 What does the presence of headnotes, an abstract, or other prefatory material tell
you?
 Is the author known to you already? If so, how does his (or her) reputation or
credentials influence your perception of what you are about to read? If the author is
unfamiliar Compare your notes with your classmates- what are some similarities and
differences in your note taking?
 What was it like to take notes like this? Describe your experience.
 What do you think about this article? Do you agree or disagree with what the
researchers suggest? Why or why not?
 or unknown, does an editor introduce him or her (by supplying brief biographical
information, an assessment of the author’s work, concerns, and importance)?
 How does the disposition or layout of a text prepare you for reading? Is the material
broken into parts--subtopics, sections, or the like? Are there long and unbroken blocks
of text or smaller paragraphs or “chunks” and what does this suggest? How might the
parts of a text guide you toward understanding the line of inquiry or the arc of the
argument that's being made?
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 Does the text seem to be arranged according to certain conventions of discourse?
Newspaper articles, for instance, have characteristics that you will recognize; textbooks
and scholarly essays are organized quite differently. Texts demand different things of
you as you read, so whenever you can, register the type of information you’re presented
with.
2. Annotating: Make your reading thinking-intensive from start to finish.
Annotating puts you actively and immediately in a "dialogue” with an author and the issues
and ideas you encounter in a written text. It's also a way to have an ongoing conversation with
yourself as you move through the text and to record what that encounter was like for you.
Here's how:
 Throw away your highlighter: Highlighting can seem like an active reading strategy, but
it can actually distract from the business of learning and dilute your comprehension.
Those bright yellow lines you put on a printed page one day can seem strangely cryptic
the next, unless you have a method for remembering why they were important to you
at another moment in time. Pen or pencil will allow you do to more to a text you have to
wrestle with.
 Mark up the margins of your text with words and phrases: ideas that occur to you,
notes about things that seem important to you, reminders of how issues in a text may
connect with class discussion or course themes. This kind of interaction keeps you
conscious of the reasons you are reading as well as the purposes your instructor has in
mind. Later in the term, when you are reviewing for a test or project, your marginalia
will be useful memory triggers.
 Develop your own symbol system: asterisk (*) a key idea, for example, or use an
exclamation point (!) for the surprising, absurd, bizarre. Your personalized set of
hieroglyphs allow you to capture the important -- and often fleeting -- insights that
occur to you as you're reading. Like notes in your margins, they'll prove indispensable
when you return to a text in search of that perfect passage to use in a paper, or are
preparing for a big exam.
 Get in the habit of hearing yourself ask questions: “What does this mean?” “Why is the
writer drawing that conclusion?” “Why am I being asked to read this text?” etc. Write
the questions down (in your margins, at the beginning or end of the reading, in a
notebook, or elsewhere. They are reminders of the unfinished business you still have
with a text: something to ask during class discussion, or to come to terms with on your
own, once you’ve had a chance to digest the material further or have done other course
reading.
3. Outline, summarize, analyze: Take the information apart, look at its parts, and then try to
put it back together again in language that is meaningful to you.
The best way to determine that you’ve really gotten the point is to be able to state it in your
own words.
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Outlining the argument of a text is a version of annotating, and can be done quite informally in
the margins of the text, unless you prefer the more formal Roman numeral model you may
have learned in high school. Outlining enables you to see the skeleton of an argument: the
thesis, the first point and evidence (and so on), through the conclusion. With weighty or
difficult readings, that skeleton may not be obvious until you go looking for it.
Summarizing accomplishes something similar, but in sentence and paragraph form, and with
the connections between ideas made explicit.
Analyzing adds an evaluative component to the summarizing process—it requires you not just
to restate main ideas, but also to test the logic, credibility, and emotional impact of an
argument. In analyzing a text, you reflect upon and decide how effectively (or poorly) its
argument has been made. Questions to ask:
 What is the writer asserting?
 What am I being asked to believe or accept? Facts? Opinions? Some mixture?
 What reasons or evidence does the author supply to convince me? Where is the
strongest or most effective evidence the author offers -- and why is it compelling?
4. Look for repetitions and patterns:
The way language is chosen, used, positioned in a text can be important indication of what an
author considers crucial and what he expects you to glean from his argument. It can also alert
you to ideological positions, hidden agendas or biases. Be watching for:
 Recurring images
 Repeated words, phrases, types of examples, or illustrations
 Consistent ways of characterizing people, events, or issues
5. Contextualize: Once you’ve finished reading actively and annotating, take stock for a
moment and put it in perspective.
When you contextualize, you essentially "re-view" a text you've encountered, framed by its
historical, cultural, material, or intellectual circumstances.
 When was it written or where was it published? Do these factors change or otherwise
influence how you view a piece?
Also view the reading through the lens of your own experience. Your understanding of the
words on the page and their significance is always shaped by what you have come to know and
value from living in a particular time and place.
6. Compare and Contrast: Set course readings against each other to determine their
relationships (hidden or explicit).
 At what point in the term does this reading come? Why that point, do you imagine?
 How does it contribute to the main concepts and themes of the course?
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 How does it compare (or contrast) to the ideas presented by texts that come before it?
Does it continue a trend, shift direction, or expand the focus of previous readings?
 How has your thinking been altered by this reading? How has it affected your response
to the issues and themes of the course?
Let’s try it! Read the part of the following article from Scientific American 6 about note-taking.
Do not use a highlighter, do not underline, rather, use metacognitive note taking.
A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop

Students who used longhand remembered more and had a deeper understanding of the material
By Cindi May | June 3, 2014
The old fashioned way works better. Credit: Szepy via iStock
“More is better.” From the number of gigs in a cellular data plan to the horsepower in a pickup
truck, this mantra is ubiquitous in American culture. When it comes to college students, the
belief that more is better may underlie their widely-held view that laptops in the classroom
enhance their academic performance. Laptops do in fact allow students to do more, like
engage in online activities and demonstrations, collaborate more easily on papers and projects,
access information from the internet, and take more notes.
Indeed, because students can type significantly faster than they can write, those who use
laptops in the classroom tend to take more notes than those who write out their notes by
hand. Moreover, when students take notes using laptops they tend to take notes verbatim,
writing down every last word uttered by their professor.
Obviously it is advantageous to draft more complete notes that precisely capture the course
content and allow for a verbatim review of the material at a later date. Only it isn’t. New
research by Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer demonstrates that students who write out
their notes on paper actually learn more. Across three experiments, Mueller and Oppenheimer
had students take notes in a classroom setting and then tested students on their memory for
factual detail, their conceptual understanding of the material, and their ability to synthesize
and generalize the information. Half of the students were instructed to take notes with a
laptop, and the other half were instructed to write the notes out by hand.
6
full article available at: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret-don-t-take-notes-with-
a-laptop/?print=true
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As in other studies, students who used laptops took more notes. In each study, however, those
who wrote out their notes by hand had a stronger conceptual understanding and were more
successful in applying and integrating the material than those who used took notes with their
laptops.
What drives this paradoxical finding? Mueller and Oppenheimer postulate that taking notes by
hand requires different types of cognitive processing than taking notes on a laptop, and these
different processes have consequences for learning. Writing by hand is slower and more
cumbersome than typing, and students cannot possibly write down every word in a lecture.
Instead, they listen, digest, and summarize so that they can succinctly capture the essence of
the information. Thus, taking notes by hand forces the brain to engage in some heavy “mental
lifting,” and these efforts foster comprehension and retention. By contrast, when typing,
students can easily produce a written record of the lecture without processing its meaning, as
faster typing speeds allow students to transcribe a lecture word for word without devoting
much thought to the content.
Discuss:
 Compare your notes with your classmates- what are some similarities and differences in
your note taking?
 What was it like to take notes like this? Describe your experience.
 What do you think about this article? Do you agree or disagree with what the
researchers suggest? Why or why not?
 Take a look at the last sentence: “While typing, students can easily produce a written
record of the lecture without processing its meaning, as faster typing speeds allow
students to transcribe a lecture word for word without devoting much thought to the
content.” – what do you think about this claim? How does metacognitive note-taking
engage students with content?
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A metacognitive approach to note-taking while reading or listening is all part of an active
learning system, the next topic in the course:
Active Learning:
What does it mean to be an active learner?

Decide what active and passive learners do in and out of the classroom.
Passive Learners Active Learners

class lectures
textbook reading
studying
Share you thought with your classmates and make adjustments to your chart
A note about passive learning:
You probably came up with a lot of great examples for active learning. By contrast, your
“passive learning” column probably represents a student who lacks motivation, initiative, and
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doesn’t do a lot in or out of the classroom. Note that is not representative of most passive
learners. Most passive learners seem to be doing what’s right on the surface: They listen, write
down what the professor says, read the book, and re-reads his or her notes to study. Maybe
that describes you perfectly. Does it? Look at the completed chart on the next page.
Discussion
1. What are 2 courses you have now where you could be a better learner? Write down at
least 2 ways you can be a better learner in those classes.
Class 1:
Class 2:
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Active vs. Passive Learners
Passive Learners Active Learners

class  listen  decide what’s important to

lectures  write down what write down
the professor
 write down information in
says
their own words
textbook  read  read, think, ask questions, try

reading to connect ideas
 try to discover purpose of
assignment and how it fits
into course
studying  re-read book or  make outlines, study sheets

notes  predict exam questions
 look for trends, patterns
 condense information
 self-test
 participate in study groups
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Culture of Campus Communication – Working in Study Groups
Before we dive into starting a study group, let’s take a look at what they are, what they aren’t,
and how they can run.
 What is a study group?

 Have you ever participated in one? If not, why not? If so, talk about how you formed it
and what you studied.
 What might be the benefits to forming a study group? What might be some drawbacks?
Take a look at what Dr. Fortenberry from MIT has to say about study groups 7 (On Canvas)
Discuss:
 Why should we listen to Dr. Fortenberry? What are his qualifications?
 What does he say about study groups and interdependence?
 Why does he use the word ‘team’?
 What other advice does he give?
Notes on Video:
7
Taken from Barbara Oakley’s Learning How to Learn free online course on coursera.org.
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Study Groups
Let’s look further at what the MIT Center for Academic Excellence has to say about forming
study groups. Study groups may be informal or formal. There are distinct differences in their
characteristics and the way they run. One is not better than the other: each type works better
for certain students in certain situations.8
Take a look at the following comparison of informal vs. formal study groups.
Discuss: Which academic disciplines require what kind of group? Which kind of group do you
foresee working best for you? What can you add to the chart?
Comparison of Informal vs. Formal Study Groups

Informal Formal
Minimal structure required Moderate structure required
Varied location from week to week Designated, neutral meeting space
Weekly schedule may vary Meets at same time each week
Set time to start and (approximately)
No set start or finish time
finish
Students leave when their task is
Students remain for entire session
complete
Designated leader or schedule of rotating
No designated leader
leadership
Participants may vary from week to week Same participants each week
5-7 participants for optimal benefit 3-6 participants for optimal benefit
Pset (problem set)9 driven; preparation for Pset driven; preparation for exams,
exams and papers papers, presentations, group projects
Often formed among living
Often initiated among classmates
(dorms/apartments) and social groups
Varied degrees of productivity High degree of productivity is expected
8
Retrieved from: http://web.mit.edu/uaap/learning/tutoring/organizing.html on 8/27/2015
9
A problem set is essentially homework assigned to students; however, problem sets are often not
checked or graded. Students are responsible for completing them and asking questions about solutions to
the professor during office hours or the TA during recitations. Psets can be given in just about any
discipline and are essential for mastering any subject.
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Pair work: In pairs, one person read the following information for formal groups; the other
person read the information for informal groups (start p. 61). In pairs, discuss what you read
about.
Forming a Formal Study Group
 Start on the first day of class. Ask your instructor and TAs about how to find or start a
group in that class. If you're a freshman, ask for help from your orientation leader,
associate advisor, and advisor.
 At the first or second recitation, look for a sign-up sheet for study groups.
 If no one else is starting a group, this is your chance to exercise leadership!
 Try to find classmates who have similar learning goals and values, but be diverse: the
different perspectives of women and men and students from various backgrounds add
richness to the learning experience.
 Exchange contact information and set a first meeting (date, time, place).
Running a Formal Study Group

At the first session:
 Discuss goals, expectations, and ground rules for the group.

 Set a regular meeting time that will work for everyone.
 Choose a neutral meeting place that will be available throughout the term—a quiet,
private dorm lounge; a department lounge or conference room; an unused classroom,
etc.
 Designate a leader or set up a schedule for rotating leadership.
 Review the subject syllabus and make a schedule of topics for the semester.
For each session:
 Attempt to do your homework prior to each session.

 Compare notes and information.
 Actively listen without interrupting others; be respectful of differing opinions.
 Do not allow one student to dominate the group.
 If conversation wanders, try to redirect it to the stated topic.
 Do not let the session become a forum for complaints.
 Schedule times for breaks.
 Reserve 5–10 minutes at the end of each session to determine whether set goals were
accomplished as a group.
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Pitfalls of a Formal Study Group
 Sessions at a fixed time might be difficult to fit into participants' schedules, especially as
they change through the term.
 Because everyone is expected to remain for the entire session, students who have
completed their work need to accommodate others.
 Groups with high expectations and productivity might be too structured for some
students.
 Few interruptions are expected. Participants must stay on track, creating a more intense
and less relaxed atmosphere than in an informal group.
 A formal study group may include students you don't know: are you comfortable with
that?
 Inviting a TA to visit the group may be difficult if the regular weekly time doesn't fit the
TA's schedule.
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Forming an Informal Study Group
 At the beginning of the term, ask your friends, living group (check dorm postings), or
teammates about forming a study group. Doing this before you need help and the
semester progresses is much easier.
 Find a niche of students in your classes to join you.
 Exchange contact information and set a first meeting (date, time, place).
 Start studying by yourself in a lounge and others will approach you.
 Don't make your study group your only source of help.
 Limit your expectations and goals for the group.
Running an Informal Study Group

Setting up the group:
 Meet when it is convenient for you.

 Meet in a place that is comfortable and convenient.
 Don't designate a leader.
For each session:
 Decide what you want to accomplish in that session only. Don't worry about a longer-
term plan.
 Compare notes and information.
 Actively listen without interrupting others; be respectful of differing opinions.
 Do not allow one student to dominate the group.
 Don't expect to stay on track all the time.
 Limit time spent complaining to a minimum.
 Take a break at your leisure.
 After you leave, determine whether your personal goals were accomplished.
Pitfalls of an Informal Study Group
 With no set time for sessions, schedules may conflict and the group may wither away.
 You have to be socially connected to join a group.
 Since participants are not expected to stay until the session ends, students who need
more help might not receive it.
 With lower expectations, the group may be unproductive at times.
 Multiple interruptions can be expected. A session may turn into socializing,
thus minimizing productivity.
 Without a set time to meet, it may be difficult to find upperclass students or TAs who
can be a resource for additional help.
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Forming a Formal Study Group: Role Play
1. You want to start a formal study group for the course English 101A. No formal group exists
so you decide to create a small poster to advertise your idea in the Student Center and
recruit other students. What do you think your advertisement should include? Create a
quick advertisement for your study group:
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2. Share your advertisement with a partner. In the space below, write an email in response to
your partner’s advertisement and request to join his or her study group:
To:
Subject:
Message:
3. Respond to the message your partner wrote in response to your advertisement and set a
day/time place to meet
To:
Subject:
Message:
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4. Reject the initial offer of time to meet because you have another class.
To:
Subject:
Message:
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Interdependence: Friendships in the US
Discussion:
 Have you made many friends with students from other countries?
 What insights have you gained about making friends with students from other cultures?
 Have you made any friends with American students?
 What is easy or difficult about making friends with Americans?
Friendship, American Style: Part One

Do you wonder how to get to know Americans, or feel that it is difficult to meet them? Do you
wonder what to talk about with your classmates or officemates, or when you go to social
gatherings? The topic of friendship is one that everyone is interested in, but can be a bit difficult
to describe. In this article, we will look at the experiences of some international and American
students at Cornell and see how they relate to the topic of friendship.
Friendliness and Openness
A student from Japan was visited by her sister, and when they went to a department store, a
clerk came over to them. "Hi!" she said, "How are you today?" Surprised, the sister asked: "Do
you know her?" A student from Germany was confused that everyone was so nice and polite to
her right away.
Americans are often very friendly and helpful to people that they do not know well, and they
may also be more open in what they talk about than people from many other countries. This
can be confusing to someone who comes from a country where people are initially more
reserved. An international student may also feel that Americans are superficial or are not good
friends when this initial friendliness does not continue as friendship. A model of friendship
referred to by Margaret Pusch, president of the National Association of International Educators,
may help us understand some of the differences. Sometimes known as the "wall theory," it
describes two patterns of friendship: one American and one found in many other countries.
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American Other Countries
The American pattern shows how Americans are initially very friendly and open: as symbolized
by the first wall being very low. However, American values stress privacy and independence,
and the walls become higher and higher before one reaches the stage of a good friendship
(represented by the Xs in the center of the diagram). Thus, many international students are
very happy when the American they meet is so friendly and open. However, when the
American does not continue to act in a way that the international student expects of a friend,
the international student is disappointed and confused. They may sometimes conclude that
Americans are superficial and do not really know how to be friends. What the international
student may not realize is that they have not yet reached the stage of being good friends with
the American: they need to go over some "higher walls" before reaching the center and a good
friendship. Alternatively, Americans living in a country where people are more reserved and not
as initially friendly as in the US, may sometimes become discouraged about ever making friends
in that country: they may feel that people in their host country are very unfriendly.
When meeting people from other countries, it may be helpful to keep this model in mind, or to
think about what model might be used to describe your own country's patterns of friendship. It
is also important to be aware that ways of getting to know someone may be different in
different countries, and to try to avoid making judgments about the people of that country.
Retrieved from http://www.isso.cornell.edu/ithacalife/friendship.php on July 11, 2014
Friendship, American Style: Part Two
Expectations
A student from China said that her American friends got mad if she asked them to do too many
things for her, so she always asked her Chinese friends. She said that in China, if your friend
asked you to do something, and you had your own things to do, you did your friend's thing first.
A student from Switzerland was asked if he and the American girl he was speaking to were
friends. He said no, which insulted the girl, as she considered them to be friends. He told her
that in Switzerland it took time to make friends, and that friendship really meant something.
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Two important American values are privacy and independence. Thus, Americans may prefer to
do something themselves rather than asking for help, as they do not want to impose on the
other person's privacy. They may also expect others to do the same. This can create
misunderstandings with people from societies with more interdependent relationships, who
assume more obligation to friends.
In addition, expectations of friendship may be very different in various countries. Americans

tend to use the word "friend" where people in some countries might use the word
"acquaintance;" and they often have different types of friends: friends just to do activities with,
close friends, and best friends. In some countries, people reserve the word "friend" for a few
people who are very close.
Topics
What is considered an appropriate topic to talk about with friends or acquaintances can vary
somewhat between countries. Many international students comment that they do not know
how to start a conversation with Americans, because of a lack of shared background. When
speaking to someone they do not know well, Americans tend to talk about fairly neutral topics
and to look for similarities. Conversation generally begins with"small talk": people may discuss
the weather, or the immediate situation (the class, professor, party, host, decorations, etc.) It
might continue with questions or comments about common acquaintances, sports, movies,
work or school. As they get to know someone better, Americans will gradually talk about
increasingly personal topics.
Style
Regarding style, Americans frequently use "self-disclosure" about personal preferences or

activities, and they often ask questions about someone's background or interests. They usually
avoid potentially controversial topics, such as politics, religion, or opinions about certain social
issues. Debate about politics tends to be less common in the US than in many countries, where
people may be much more accustomed to analyzing and debating about politics or religion with
both friends and acquaintances. When discussing current events, Americans may often begin
with questions, rather than with strong opinions. Even between good friends, vigorous debate
about controversial topics is uncommon: Americans often choose to focus on their similarities
instead of their differences.
Conclusions
So, you may ask, how can I actually make friends? Here are a few suggestions:
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 Don't be afraid to take the initiative: Start a conversation, show interest in others by asking
questions, ask someone to go to lunch after class, or to go to a movie. Even if they can't go,
once you have taken the initiative, they are much more likely to be open or to even invite you
the next time.
 Be positive: Don't assume someone doesn't like you if they don't respond in a way that
you expect, they may just be busy or preoccupied with school or work.
 Be informed: Read The Daily Pennsylvanian, philly.com, The Inquirer - This way you
will be more aware of what is happening on campus and in the area. This may help
create a more common background to start conversations and let you know what
activities are going on.
 Take advantage of Penn's international activities. Many Americans who have travelled
or lived abroad particularly enjoy meeting people from other countries.
 Take advantage of campus and area clubs and activities that sponsor activities that you
enjoy: Sing in a chorus, take a pottery class or a dance class, participate in team sports.
Sharing activities is a good way to meet people with common interests, which makes it
is easier to become friends.
 Be aware that differences in expectations about making and having friends may
sometimes be confusing or frustrating, and that misunderstandings or
miscommunications may occur.
 Remember to be patient with yourself and others. Try to suspend your judgment, and
don't take things too personally if you run into difficulties.
 Finally, relax, have fun, and realize that it takes time to make friends, no matter what
country you are from!
Retrieved from: http://www.isso.cornell.edu/ithacalife/friendship2.php on July 11, 2014
Further investigation:
With a partner or in small groups, explore one of the other articles about friendship between
Americans and international students in the back of the bulkpack. Each article approaches this
subject from a different perspective. Some give advice, others give personal stories about the
struggle, and some explore a research question. After reading, answer the following questions.
You can take notes on the next page. Then report back to the class.
1. From what perspective does the article approach the topic of friendship?
2. What problems did the article address?
3. What solutions or perspective does the article offer?
4. What do you think about the issues and/or solutions?
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5. What issues or solutions did the article not provide that seem relevant?
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Making Friends with Americans: Article Investigation
Directions--Choose an article from the back of the bulkpack on the topic of friendships and
answer the following questions:
1. From what perspective does the article approach this topic?
2. What problems did the article address?
3. What solutions or perspective does the article offer?
4. What do you think about the issues and/or solutions?
5. What issues or solutions do you think the article didn’t address that might be relevant?
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Notes from other groups:
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Revisiting Success
We’ve looked closely at the habits and behaviors of successful students and learners. We know
what a successful student should do in and out of the classroom. Another important
consideration of success is:
What are successful Students like?
Key ingredient: _______________
Notes from PPT:
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TED Talks Education · Filmed April 2013 · 6:12
Angela Lee Duckworth: The key to success? Grit
https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit/transcript?language=en
Transcript:
When I was 27 years old, I left a very demanding job in management consulting for a job that
was even more demanding: teaching. I went to teach seventh graders math in the New York
City public schools. And like any teacher, I made quizzes and tests. I gave out homework
assignments. When the work came back, I calculated grades.
What struck me was that IQ was not the only difference between my best and my worst
students. Some of my strongest performers did not have stratospheric IQ scores. Some of my
smartest kids weren't doing so well. And that got me thinking. The kinds of things you need to
learn in seventh grade math, sure, they're hard: ratios, decimals, the area of a
parallelogram. But these concepts are not impossible, and I was firmly convinced that every one
of my students could learn the material if they worked hard and long enough.
After several more years of teaching, I came to the conclusion that what we need in
education is a much better understanding of students and learning from a motivational
perspective, from a psychological perspective. In education, the one thing we know how to
measure best is IQ. But what if doing well in school and in life depends on much more than your
ability to learn quickly and easily?
So I left the classroom, and I went to graduate school to become a psychologist. I started
studying kids and adults in all kinds of super challenging settings, and in every study my
question was, who is successful here and why? My research team and I went to West Point
Military Academy. We tried to predict which cadets would stay in military training and which
would drop out. We went to the National Spelling Bee and tried to predict which children would
advance farthest in competition. We studied rookie teachers working in really tough
neighborhoods, asking which teachers are still going to be here in teaching by the end of the
school year, and of those, who will be the most effective at improving learning outcomes for
their students? We partnered with private companies, asking, which of these salespeople is
going to keep their jobs? And who's going to earn the most money? In all those very different
contexts, one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success. And it wasn't social
intelligence. It wasn't good looks, physical health, and it wasn't IQ. It was grit.
Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking
with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for
years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it's a marathon,
not a sprint.
A few years ago, I started studying grit in the Chicago public schools. I asked thousands of high
school juniors to take grit questionnaires, and then waited around more than a year to see who
would graduate. Turns out that grittier kids were significantly more likely to graduate, even
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when I matched them on every characteristic I could measure, things like family
income, standardized achievement test scores, even how safe kids felt when they were at
school. So it's not just at West Point or the National Spelling Bee that grit matters. It's also in
school, especially for kids at risk for dropping out.
To me, the most shocking thing about grit is how little we know, how little science knows, about
building it. Every day, parents and teachers ask me, "How do I build grit in kids? What do I do to
teach kids a solid work ethic? How do I keep them motivated for the long run?" The honest
answer is, I don't know.
What I do know is that talent doesn't make you gritty. Our data show very clearly that there are
many talented individuals who simply do not follow through on their commitments. In fact, in
our data, grit is usually unrelated or even inversely related to measures of talent.
So far, the best idea I've heard about building grit in kids is something called "growth
mindset." This is an idea developed at Stanford University by Carol Dweck, and it is the belief
that the ability to learn is not fixed, that it can change with your effort. Dr. Dweck has
shown that when kids read and learn about the brain and how it changes and grows in
response to challenge, they're much more likely to persevere when they fail, because they
don't believe that failure is a permanent condition.
So growth mindset is a great idea for building grit. But we need more. And that's where I'm
going to end my remarks, because that's where we are. That's the work that stands before
us. We need to take our best ideas, our strongest intuitions, and we need to test them. We
need to measure whether we've been successful, and we have to be willing to fail, to be
wrong, to start over again with lessons learned.
In other words, we need to be gritty about getting our kids grittier.
Thank you.
Discussion:
 What is growth mindset?
 How gritty are you? (take test)
 How can you get grittier?
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12- Item Grit Scale (The Grit Test)
Directions: Here are a number of statements that may or may not apply to you. For the most accurate score, when
responding, think of how you compare to most people --not just the people you know well, but most people in the
world. There are no right or wrong answers, so just answer honestly!
1. I have overcome setbacks to conquer an important challenge.

__ Very much like me
__ Mostly like me
__ Somewhat like me
__ Not much like me
__ Not like me at all
2. New ideas and projects sometimes distract me from previous ones.*

__ Mostly like me
__ Somewhat like me
__ Not much like me
3. My interests change from year to year.*

__ Mostly like me
__ Somewhat like me
__ Not much like me
4. Setbacks don’t discourage me.

__ Mostly like me
__ Somewhat like me
__ Not much like me
5. I have been obsessed with a certain idea or project for a short time but later lost interest.*
__ Mostly like me
__ Somewhat like me
__ Not much like me
6. I am a hard worker.
__ Mostly like me
__ Somewhat like me
__ Not much like me
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7. I often set a goal but later choose to pursue a different one.*
__ Mostly like me
__ Somewhat like me
__ Not much like me
8. I have difficulty maintaining my focus on projects that take more than a few months to complete.*
__ Mostly like me
__ Somewhat like me
__ Not much like me
9. I finish whatever I begin.

__ Mostly like me
__ Somewhat like me
__ Not much like me
10. I have achieved a goal that took years of work.

__ Mostly like me
__ Somewhat like me
__ Not much like me
11. I become interested in new pursuits every few months.*

__ Mostly like me
__ Somewhat like me
__ Not much like me
12. I am diligent.
__ Mostly like me
__ Somewhat like me
__ Not much like me
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Scoring:
1. For questions 1, 4, 6, 9, 10 and 12 assign the following points:
5 = Very much like me
4 = Mostly like me
3 = Somewhat like me
2 = Not much like me
1 = Not like me at all
2. For questions 2, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 11 assign the following points:
1 = Very much like me
2 = Mostly like me
3 = Somewhat like me
4 = Not much like me
5 = Not like me at all
Add up all the points and divide by 12. The maximum score on this scale is 5 (extremely gritty), andthe
lowest scale on this scale is 1 (not at all gritty).
Duckworth, A.L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M.D., & Kelly, D.R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and
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passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 1087-1101.
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Discovering Self-Motivation: Popson’s Dilemma10
10
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Best Advice 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Worst Advice
Discussion:
1. Which Professors gave the best advice? Why? What does this say about what
motivates you?
2. Discuss with a partner. How do your answers differ? What insights do you have
about personal motivation?
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Discovering Self-Motivation: Identifying Your Life Scripts11
11
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection:
Choose a behavior pattern, thought pattern, or emotional pattern that you checked on the list,
or identify another self-defeating pattern that isn’t on the list but that you do often.
 What exactly is your self-defeating pattern?

 What are some specific examples of when you did this pattern?
 What may have caused this habit?
 What undesirable effects has it had on your life?
 How would your life be improved if you changed it?
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FINAL PROJECTS
Reflection Paper – assignment, rubric
Final Presentation – choices, proposal, rubric, participation
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Final Reflection Paper
Step 1: Consider what you’ve learned:
What have you learned about being a successful student and learner at a U.S.
university? What strategies or perspectives have been helpful? Top 5 seems
appropriate.
Step 2: Consider the self-awareness you’ve gained:
What have you learned about your own strengths and weaknesses with regard to
being a student and a learner based on the course content?
Step 3: Look to the future:
How will you move forward as a student at U.S. University? What will you need to
do (strategies) to be successful? Be specific. Consider your own strengths and
weaknesses.
Recommended Word count: 400-650 Words
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Your Final Reflection Paper will be graded using the following rubric:
Points
Content (75 Points):
 Student specifically addressed strategies and perspectives presented in the
course (Step 1)
 Student showed evidence of self-awareness about strengths and weaknesses
as a learner and a student (step 2)
 Student identified strategies for success or areas for growth in the future as
based on (Steps 1 and 2)
 Content was relevant to course themes and topic
 Content included specific insights and perspectives that shows depth of
critical thought
Comments:
Organization (10 points):

 Content was thoughtfully and appropriately organized and logically
presented the reader.
Comments:
Language (15 points):

 Syntax and grammar representative of 800-level student (or 700 if
appropriate).
 Student uses rich vocabulary to convey meaning
Comments:
Total Points
/100
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Final Presentation
Due Date:____________
Overview: Students will give a presentation during week 6 or 7. The presentations can be
individual or with a partner. If two people present, make sure that each person speaks for equal
amounts of time. The length of the presentation will be determined by the instructor and
students based on the choices below (if there are other ideas, please discuss as a class)
Choice #1: Extended topic in SSUSU

Step 1: Choose one of the topics we covered in class (for example: self-management, culture of
US higher education, note-taking, procrastination, etc.)
Step 2: Find outside information on the topic- expand on what we have covered
Step 3: Create a presentation to teach the class about what you have learned to expand our
understanding of this topic.
Choice #2: Top 5 List

What are the top 5 concepts or perspectives you’ve gained from this course? Present your list
in a creative format (game, video, class activity, or classic presentation) that demonstrates what
you have learned.
Choice #3: New student workshop

Imagine you are giving a workshop to new international students from your country on how to
be successful at a US university. Consider the topics we’ve explored in this course and create a
presentation to help them prepare for success. Keep in mind that through this presentation you
are demonstrating your deep knowledge on these topics.
Recommended Presentation length: 10 minutes (or assigned by your instructor)
Your presentation will be graded using the following rubric:
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Points
Content = 60 points
 Student(s) demonstrated understanding of their material and thought critically
and reflectively about their subject.
 Students provided insightful, creative, college-level content that added to the
class’s understanding of success at US universities.
 The content was thoughtfully and appropriately organized.
 The content was relevant to the course and presentation topic.
Comments:
Language & Delivery = 30 points

 Language represents 800-level student (see 800-level student profile in teacher’s
guide or student handbook) ______/20
 Stays within time limit; maintains eye contact with audience ____/5
 Student(s) delivery was engaging (not reading off notecards or slides).
Pronunciation does not impeded comprehension; uses stress to mark key points
of presentation _____/5
Comments:
Visual aids = 10 points

 Power Point supports the content and is creative and interesting for the audience
– not text heavy ______/10
Comments:
Total
100
Presentation Topic Proposal

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Prior to presenting you will be required to submit a topic proposal on Canvas by answering the
following questions:
1. What would you like to present on? Briefly describe your idea and be as specific as possible.
2. Which of the project choices best fits your topic? If none, please present an original project
prompt.
3. Will you work by yourself or with a partner? (If a partner, who?) Why have you chosen to
work by yourself or with a partner?
4. If this idea is not approved, do you have a second idea that might work? Please describe.
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
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Places to Study on Campus
Explore these areas at Penn; then try to find out (on the internet) where you might study at
your future university:
Van Pelt – anywhere there is a desk of course, but also:

Weigle Information Commons – to book a room: http://wic.library.upenn.edu/
Goldstein Undergraduate Study Center, on the bottom floor, is open 24 hours

Monday-Thursday, fall and spring semesters only. You must have a valid Penn ID. For
more info: http://www.library.upenn.edu/access/gusc.html
Also check out the sixth floor – it’s been recently renovated and includes views of
downtown
David Rittenhouse Laboratories –

Math/Physics/Astronomy Library – Located on the third floor (3N1) of DRL, the MPA
library has carrels for quiet individual work, four-person tables for small group work,
and two small private work rooms with blackboards.
There is also a larger seminar room (up to 30 people) that may be reserved by students
up to one week in advance. The library hours are 9AM-11PM on weekdays and 12PM-
10PM on weekends. For more info:
http://www.library.upenn.edu/facilities/facmpa.html.
Education Commons – located near DRL; enter through Fox Fitness Center – you must have
your valid Penn ID – take the elevator or stairs up to level 3, enter through glass doors
To book rooms: http://www.library.upenn.edu/ec/about/
Engineering Library – located in 217 Towne building, across 33rd Street from the DRL. Penn Card
is required to enter on weekends and holidays, and after 7PM on weekdays. This library has
tables to accommodate group study, as well as a private group study room furnished with
whiteboards. For more info: http://www.library.upenn.edu/facilities/faceng.html.
Fisher Fine Arts Library – located diagonally from Van Pelt, it’s the red castle-like building; it has
limited hours, but it’s a very grand space and could perhaps inspire you
Houston Hall – the first floor has couches, comfortable chairs, tables, and the cafeterias are
there if you need a snack
check out how many libraries you have access to: http://www.library.upenn.edu/locations/
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You may also want to check http://pennstudyspaces.com/ , a website maintained by the UPenn
Undergraduate Assembly for the benefit of Penn students.
Study: Doodling Helps You Pay Attention

By John Cloud Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009
Kelly Redinger / Design Pics / Corbis

http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1882127,00.html
A lot of people hate doodlers, those who idly scribble during meetings (or classes or trials or
whatever). Most people also hate that other closely related species: the fidgeter, who spins pens or
reorders papers or plays with his phone during meetings. (I stand guilty as charged. On occasion, I
have also been known to whisper.) We doodlers, fidgeters and whisperers always get the same jokey,
passive-aggressive line from the authority figure at the front of the room: "I'm sorry, are we
bothering you?" How droll. But the underlying message is clear: Pay attention.
But I've never stopped fidgeting, and I've always thought I walked out of meetings remembering all
the relevant parts. Now I have proof. In a delightful new study, which will be published in the
journalApplied Cognitive Psychology, psychologist Jackie Andrade of the University of Plymouth in
southern England showed that doodlers actually remember more than nondoodlers when asked to
retain tediously delivered information, like, say, during a boring meeting or a lecture. In her small
but rigorous study, Andrade separated 40 participants into two groups of 20. All 40 had just finished
an unrelated psychological experiment, and many were thinking of going home (or to the pub). They
were asked, instead, whether they wouldn't mind spending an additional five minutes helping with
research. The participants were led into a quiet room and asked to listen to a 2½-min. tape that they
were told would be "rather dull."
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That's a shocking bit of understatement. The tape — which Guantánamo officials should consider as
a method of nonlethal torture — was a rambling (and fake) voice-mail message that purported to
invite the listener to a 21st-birthday party. In it, the party's host talks about someone's sick cat; she
mentions her redecorated kitchen, the weather, someone's new house in Colchester and a vacation in
Edinburgh that involved museums and rain. In all, she mentions eight place names and eight people
who are definitely coming to the party. (See pictures of office cubicles around the world.)
Before the tape began, half the study participants were asked to shade in some little squares and
circles on a piece of paper while they listened. They were told not to worry about being neat or quick
about it. (Andrade did not instruct people explicitly to "doodle," which might have prompted self-
consciousness about what constituted an official doodle.) The other 20 didn't doodle. All the
participants were asked to write the names of those coming to the party while the tape played, which
meant the doodlers switched between their doodles and their lists.
Afterward, the papers were removed and the 40 volunteers were asked to recall, orally, the place
names and the names of the people coming to the party. The doodlers creamed the nondoodlers:
those who doodled during the tape recalled 7.5 pieces of information (out of 16 total) on average,
29% more than the average of 5.8 recalled by the control group. (See pictures of a diverse group of
American teens.)
Why does doodling aid memory? Andrade offers several theories, but the most persuasive is that
when you doodle, you don't daydream. Daydreaming may seem absentminded and pointless, but it
actually demands a lot of the brain's processing power. You start daydreaming about a vacation,
which leads you to think about potential destinations, how you would pay for the trip, whether you
could get the flight upgraded, how you might score a bigger hotel room. These cognitions require
what psychologists call "executive functioning" — for example, planning for the future and
comparing costs and benefits.
Doodling, in contrast, requires very few executive resources but just enough cognitive effort to keep
you from daydreaming, which — if unchecked — will jump-start activity in cortical networks that will
keep you from remembering what's going on. Doodling forces your brain to expend just enough
energy to stop it from daydreaming but not so much that you don't pay attention.
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So the next time you're doodling during a meeting — or twirling a pencil or checking the underside of
the table for gum — and you hear that familiar admonition ("Are we bothering you?"), you can tell
the boss with confidence that you've been paying attention to every word.
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Friendship Article 1
How do you make friends with American people?
I have been staying in the U.S. for the past 5 years. Most of my social circle includes people
from my native country. I am kind of surprised with myself that i haven't managed to be
friends with any Americans. How do you become friends with them? I might add that I am
an introvert guy.
Andy Huang, Founder of SF Urban Adventure Club, the best club for making friends in SF.
What's stopping you from becoming friends with Americans is not the fact that you're an
introvert. Introverts are not bad at making friends, they simply do not feel energized by
social situations the way that extroverts do. The problem is also not a lack of social skills
because you already have a social circle. That means you have decent enough social skills to
make friends.
So the question really should be: "Why can you make friends with people from your
native country but not with Americans?"
Making friends with people from your native country is relatively easy. We naturally like
people who are similar to us and we feel more comfortable around them. When you share a
similar culture and background with someone, you feel a sense of mutual understanding
with that person. You can talk about familiar topics like food, or family dynamics, or cultural
holidays. It's easy to talk to them and so you naturally gravitate towards them. This explains
why you often see social cliques that are based on race.
I think there are 2 main reasons why you have a hard time making friends with Americans.
The first part is pretty straightforward, but the 2nd part is what's really holding you back.
1. You think Americans are very different from you.

This is understandable because the differences between you and the Americans are very
easy to spot. Americans look, speak, and behave differently. Their culture and values are
also different. So when you see an American, you see more of the differences between you
than the similarities you share.
When you focus on what's different between you and the other person, you automatically
distance yourself from that person. That sense of distance is part of what discourages you
from making friends with Americans.
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2. You also believe that Americans don't want to be friends with you.
If you believe Americans are very different from you, then you may also believe that the
Americans are thinking the same thing. And if the Americans believe that you are very
different from them, then they may not want to be friends with you.
This is very much like when you have a crush on a hot girl. You want to talk to her but
because she's hot, but you are intimidated by her. You fear being rejected, and so instead of
talking to her, you convince yourself that you have no chance and that she doesn't want to
talk to you. And you give up on the opportunity before giving yourself a chance.
The solution:
To solve this problem, you have to do two things.
First, you need to get over your fear of rejection and treat Americans as normal people who
also enjoy making friends. If you see them as intimidating or unfriendly, you'll never get
yourself to approach them and talk to them.
Americans are no different than any other people. They are human just like you and struggle
with many of the same problems. Many Americans also have trouble making friends with
people from other cultures. Try to believe that you are special and have something different
to offer to Americans. That will help you accept the fact that Americans want to be friends
with you and learn from you.
Second, you need to focus on what you and Americans have in common. Since you are
surrounded by Americans, you probably share some things in common with many of them.
It could be school, or work, or a hobby, but you need to find something in common and
focus on that.
Once you start talking about something you have in common, you'll often find other things
you share in common. The more things you have in common, the more likely you are to be
comfortable around that person and become friends with them. From there just let your
natural social skills take over and treat them as if they were a person from your native
country.
Good luck!
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June 15, 2012 8:24 PM Trouble Making Friends in America
By Minjae Park
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/blog/trouble_making_friends_in_amer.php#
The thinking behind U.S. colleges accepting large numbers of international students, at least ostensibly, is
that American students will have much to learn from them, while those students—who fill spots that could
go to American students—will also improve their English, encounter American culture and make
American friends.
But a study published Thursday by the National Communication Association suggests cross-cultural

exchanges are not happening quite like that.
Four in ten international students studying here had no close American friends and would like more
meaningful interaction with U.S.-born students, says the study by Elisabeth Gareis, a communication
studies professor of communications at the City University of New York’s Baruch College. Gareis surveyed
454 college students in the South and Northeast for the study, which will appear in the Journal of
International and Intercultural Communication.
Respondents pointed to a number of factors, such as language barriers, lack of time to socialize, and
different values and interests. But most students said the main problem came from the American students
and cited “their lack of interest and—in case casual friendships did materialize—their unwillingness to
engage in close and intimate relationships.”
Or, as one Korean student put it, “[Americans] don’t really want to be an Asian’s friend because we cannot
speak English well. Some of them don’t even want to talk to me.” Asian students find it harder to make
American friends than do students from Europe or English-speaking countries, the study says.
No doubt the blame lies, in part, with both sets of students. How hard are the foreign students dissatisfied
with their friendships trying to fit in? And how welcoming and accommodating are the American
students? One also wonders how students whose English skills are so limited as to hinder them from
making any close American friends cope academically—and if they can’t, what does that say about the
school that admitted them?
All of this matters because, as of 2008, 624,474 students—3.4 percent of all college students—were from
other countries, according to the study. These students not only boost the U.S. economy through tuition
and other spending—the Institute of International Education measures the impact at $21 billion—and can,
provided they get a work visa, continue to contribute once they graduate. They also have the potential to
advance “international goodwill,” as Gareis calls it, once they return home.
This international goodwill can play out on many different levels, but one easy example is to look at a list
of U.S.-educated world leaders, such as Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. More often than not these leaders perhaps left with favorable impressions
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of the United States; positive college experiences in the United States might have left permanently
favorable impressions of the country. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has said, “I can think of no more
valuable asset to our country than the friendship of future world leaders who have been educated here.”
International goodwill is but one benefit of fostering friendships across nationalities on college campuses.
As a result of such inter-cultural friendships, lonely international students could become less isolated and
improve their English-speaking skills—thereby making it easier to make even more American friends. And
American students could learn about countries they have never have visited and cultures they have never
come across.
The study suggests colleges might have to do a little more than just throw students together for four years
to make that happen.
Minjae Park is an intern at the Washington Monthly.
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Why Aren’t Americans and International Students Becoming Friends?

by Jessica Stahl - Tuesday, June 19th, 2012 at 1:28 pm
http://blogs.voanews.com/student-union/2012/06/19/why-aren%E2%80%99t-americans-and-international-
students-becoming-friends/
American students like having international students on campus. Only 10% of the American
students who took our anonymous survey (a survey designed to find out what Americans really
think about their international classmates) told us that they wouldn’t want more international
students at their school.
But what we didn’t discuss yesterday is that this positive attitude towards international students
isn’t necessarily translating into friendships.
Although 85% of American students who took our survey reported having at least one international
friend, only about 50% said they have more than two international friends.
The international students in our survey had a slightly different experience. 75% said they have
more than two American friends. But 10% told us they have no American friends at all.
And that may be an optimistic estimate. A recent study by Baruch College professor Elisabeth
Gareis found that more than one in three international students have no close American friends.
Why the separation?
Some American students in our survey acknowledged they don’t do as much as they could to get to
know international students.
“When I was a student I didn’t make an effort to get to know international students because they
weren’t in my classes or in any of the organizations I was in,” said a graduate from the University of
California, Berkeley.
Randy from the University of Kansas explained, “I am a natural introvert, which may have made
communication between myself and other international students even more difficult.”
And several international students said that they feel more comfortable hanging out with other
international students than with Americans.
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“Most of the international students in my social environment are from Asian countries and thus
they are brought up in a similar culture to me and I find it easier to communicate with them,” said
one international student at Oberlin College, adding that “we are used to live our lives in a more
similar way compared to Americans.”
The plot thickens
But here’s something interesting – for the most part, each group told us they are the ones trying to
make friends, and it’s the other group that’s not doing enough.
80% of the Americans in our survey said either that they make an effort to get to know international
students or that making friends with international students doesn’t require any special effort.
Fewer than half of their international classmates agreed.
“When they’re in their own country and there’s a minority outsider who they’ll have to put
particular effort into getting to know, I think most of them just don’t bother,” said one international
student at Oberlin College.
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Tara from the University of Southern California said her American classmates have “no interest to
know how [international] students struggle to live here.”
Americans, on the other hand, complained that international students keep to themselves and
make it hard to reach out.
“At my school, international students stick together,” said Laura at the University of Central
Oklahoma. “There’s always a group of two or more in my classes and they rarely try to talk to us, so
we sort of just leave them alone. It’s like they don’t want to make friends with us.”
Kristin from Southern Illinois University said that “getting to know international students can be
difficult – while international students are in the same classes as American students, the
international students have a tendency to group together.”
“As someone who has studied abroad, I understand this tendency,” she added, “but it can still make
breaking into their group of friends slightly daunting.”
Answering the burning question
The obvious question is, if Americans and international students both think the other group isn’t
putting in their fair share of the effort, who’s right?
I’m not sure we can answer that, but our survey turned up one illuminating result.
Among the 80% of Americans who told us they try to get to know international students, a
whopping 42% said that making friends with foreign students doesn’t require any special effort.
International students didn’t exactly agree that extra effort isn’t required – only 19% of them had
the same response.
In fact, international students seemed much more aware of the barriers created by cultural
differences than their American counterparts. Many international students wrote comments about
overcoming (or failing to overcome) specific differences between American and international
students.
They are “more about self and less about give and take” said one international student of American
students. “[We] aren’t open and outgoing like them,” said another.
Americans, by contrast, often said that they make friends from among the people they encounter
during their day, whoever they might be.
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“They are just like other students to me,” said one Oberlin College student. “I had never really
thought of them as a separate category than everyone else. They blend in so well.”
“I get to know people who are around me, regardless of whether they are national or
international,” added a Princeton University student.
For Americans, perhaps, an international student is just another type of student in a sea of types of
students.
So the correct question may be not who needs to put in more effort to relate to one another, but
rather, how to reconcile these two views of how much effort is actually required.
Or we could all just take the zen approach of Vikram from the University of Chicago.
“Some people like making international students their friends, some don’t. Simple,” he said.
“Some might want to know international students to know more about different cultures, while
some are content being ignorant. That’s fine, though. Everyone should be free to choose his/her
own way in living life.”
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How to make American friends

http://internationalstudents.org/Home/ISI-Students/Survival-in-the-US/Tips/How-to-make-American-friends
 Make an effort to get out and meet new people and make new friends. That's the best way to
improve your English and experience American culture. You may have to push yourself
beyond the easy and comfortable temptation to just spend your time with others who speak
your language or come from your home country. But remember that this time in your life
represents a real opportunity. Make the most of it!
 Many Americans watch or participate in various levels of sports. Whether going to local
games, cheering on their children’s teams or watching a televised game for a favorite
college or professional team, you will see a great deal of passion expressed and exhibited by
fans around the country. This provides an excellent opportunity to interact with Americans
and learn about sports in a different environment.
 Although American society and people are generally friendly and open, keep in mind that
most do value their privacy and independence. Do not get too personal too quickly. For
example, many people might say, “Come over any time,” but they do not mean it literally.
 While difficult to gauge, the best estimates for comfortable personal physical space for an
average westerner is about 24.5 inches (60 centimeters) on either side, 27.5 inches (70
centimeters) in front and 15.75 inches (40 centimeters). Americans usually have larger
personal space boundaries than people from other cultures. If you notice people backing up
a little while talking to you, don’t step toward them as they most likely feel uncomfortable
with the lack of distance between you.
 If you receive an invitation, they will expect you to arrive very close to the time they gave
you, either a few minutes early or a few minutes late. If you arrive too early, they will likely
not feel prepared, but if you arrive too late, you communicate disrespect for their time. If
you find that you are running late, call and explain that you still plan to come and give them
an estimate of when you will arrive.
 The most common form of greeting between acquaintances and colleagues in the U.S. is a
hand shake. Men shake other men’s hands, men shake women’s hands and women shake
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other women’s hands.
 If you get to know someone well enough, a hand shake can sometimes turn into a hug or
brief pat on the back or shoulder. Women-to-women turn their greetings into warm
embraces much more often and sooner than men-to-men, or men-to-women. While in many
countries men kiss the cheek(s) of women when they meet, in the U.S. that action is
reserved for very close friends.
 If you feel unsure how to greet someone, a handshake is probably your best option. Observe
the greetings of those around you for clues to what might be expected in each situation.
 Do not ask adults their age, or how much money they make, or why they don’t have
children, if they do not.
 In the U.S. staring at someone intensely is considered rude.
 Get involved with ISI. You will be introduced to a lot of different people, activities, events
and opportunities. To find the nearest staff member in your area.
 Join community groups or events to get involved in your area. Get involved with
community sports teams just for fun and to meet people.
 Ask questions, interact. Don’t sit quietly off to yourself because you don’t feel your English
measures up. People enjoy interesting people, so get out there and get involved.
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5 Ways International Students can make friends with Americans
http://blog.peertransfer.com/2013/09/13/5-ways-international-students-can-make-friends-with-americans/
It is not surprising to find International students experiencing some level of

loneliness and hurdles to overcome when trying to connect with American students
and American culture. Leaving your family and friends, finding yourself in a new
and strange culture, and speaking a different language can be pretty challenging.
We are here to give you five easy steps to help develop your social lives in the
United States.
1. It’s fine to be different

You’re from a different country with a different culture. Your habits may
sometimes appear strange or weird to Americans, but don’t be embarrassed about
being different. Instead, talk about yourself and help others understand why you do
certain things and in ways you do. People will love you for who you are
2. Ask people to speak slowly and repeat

If English is your second language, it can make finding and connecting with friends
just a tad harder. But no worries, the more you speak and engage, the quicker you
will learn. When you speak, make sure you speak slowly and distinct in your
pronunciation so that others can understand you better. Also, when you don’t
understand something or if people are speaking to fast, make sure to let them
know and ask questions.
3. Don’t talk to home too much

We get it, you’re homesick and want to share all new experiences with your family
and friends from home. But spending too much time on the phone or email with
home will not only make your homesickness worse, you will also miss the chance to
interact with fellow American students more. Get busy and don’t miss out on your
American college experience!
4. Pursue your hobbies and interests

The best and most efficient way to bond with people is through group activities.
Check out your school’s clubs and organizations and get involved at your
institution. What do you love doing?, what are your hobbies?, do you play a certain
sport?, do you like singing, acting, or has it always been your dream to join a
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sorority or fraternity? Do it. Sign up for what you enjoy doing or try something new.
You will be surrounded by like-minded people which will make it easier to bond
5. Be open minded

Get out of your comfort zone. International students tend to stick together and do
what they know and what they’re used to. Try to do something different, watch
what American Students do, ask them if you can join them. Meet them out for
meals and try new foods. Let them teach you about the culture and customs. You’ll
have a great time broadening your horizon while improving your English at the
same time
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Exploring Logical Fallacies
Fallacy Explanation Example
slippery
slope
hasty
generalization
cause-effect
genetic
fallacy
begging the
question
circular
argument
either/or
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emotional
appeal
red herring
straw man
weak analogy
appeal to
authority
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Match the fallacy with the definition and the example
1. Repeating what was already said a) Wearing uniforms to school is like
Hasty instead of proving it. being in a prison of clothing. Students
Generalization didn’t do anything wrong so why are
they being punished?
Weak Analogy 2. presenting a complicated issue in b) That test was hard because the
black and white terms questions were so difficult.
Circular 3. Jumping to a conclusion at the end c) Italians are passionate people

Argument of a chain of events.
Cause-Effect 4. When the comparison between 2 d) Governor Jones’ plan is to give tax
things is not fair or appropriate breaks to the wealthy and raise the
taxes of the middle class
Either/Or 5. Reaching a conclusion before e) As soon as the town allowed people to

Thinking adequate evidence has been keep chickens in their backyard,
presented people started getting sick.
Slippery Slope 6. Creating a weak opposing f) We need to elect Jon Smith to be the
argument so that it’s easy to defeat next President or America will lose its
rather than presenting both sides place in the world.
of an issue fairly
Straw Man 7. Assuming without evidence that A g) If we allow the developer to build the
caused B because A came before B. hotel on the lake, the area will turn
into another Las Vegas.
Red Herring 8. A side argument or tangent that h) I should not have to take the TOEFL as
distracts from the real argument part of the application process. My
grades and resume are excellent and
the program matches my goals 100%. I
make an excellent candidate.
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Exploring Answers – Working in Groups
As far as your students are concerned, the issue of note-taking is probably a combination of
things. A lot of the time, prof's will hand out the lecture slides for their class, which often gives
students the idea that they don't need to take notes. Also, many profs are spending less time
writing on the board, and a lot of kids have the mentality that they only have to write what the
prof writes. They also might not have a lot of experience actually taking notes, so they might not
understand the value of it or even know how to differentiate what needs to be recorded from
what doesn't. For me, it serves three purposes: 1. it keeps me awake/aware during class 2. it
helps me internalize things (I often find that the act of writing something helps me to remember
it a lot better) 3. it gives you something to look back on when studying for midterms and finals.
Additionally, when actually working in a lab or for a firm, documentation is absolutely necessary.
If you don't properly document everything that you do then you cannot prove that you followed
the proper protocols (if challenged in court/for publication/by a superior/etc).
Another point, which I believe you and I discussed a while back, is the fact that the majority of
science and engineering jobs involve a great deal of collaboration. Without effective
communication and documentation, collaboration can be extremely difficult.
Regarding self-motivation and finding answers/solutions, I thought of something that I read early
on in college. Supposedly, the story is about Niels Bohr, but I'm pretty sure that's just urban
legend. You can read it here: http://www.netjeff.com/humor/item.cgi?file=barometer Basically,
it is a story about a student that was being a smarta** and answering a poorly-worded question
with responses that are technically correct, but not what the instructor wanted to hear. It hints at
the idea that there is not always a "right" answer, especially in regards to physics. I think that a
lot of students come out of high school physics thinking that every problem can be plugged into
the proper equation and solved, but that rarely gives you the whole story. I don't think that I am
communicating this effectively, but, if nothing else, the story can get you to think and might help
to crack some of the lockstep mentality that can come out of lower-level science courses.
As far as "what it means to be a science major at a university," I would say that it is important to
stress the fact that you will not be able to avoid working with other students, even if that is not
always actually in the assignment. You also might find yourself working with people that you
wouldn't choose to be grouped with. It is important to learn both your own limitations and the
limitations of others. When I was in undergrad, I had a study group of kids that would meet
every week to go over our homework problems. We would take turns explaining how we each
solved a problem and challenging one-another one why on method was chosen over another. It
really became clear who the math people were, who the theory people were, etc.
Best of luck!
-David
Cell Phone Engineer for Mercedes
BS, Electrical Engineering/Physics, NYU
MS, Electrical Engineering, Columbia University
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To all who believe there is only one right answer:
Retrieved from: http://www.netjeff.com/humor/item.cgi?file=barometer
A young man was being interviewed for entrance to Cambridge College to study physics. He
was asked among other things, the following question: How would you measure the height of a
skyscraper using a barometer?
The candidate replied as follows: Take a very long piece of string. Tie one end of it to the
barometer. Keeping hold of the other end, dangle the barometer off the roof of the skyscraper
until it reaches the ground. Then the length of the string plus the length of the barometer
equals the height of the skyscraper. The interviewing tutors did not accept the answer, and the
candidate was rejected. But he appealed to the university authorities on the grounds that his
answer while perhaps unorthodox, was undeniably correct.
It so happened that professor Iza Conman of Michigan was in Cambridge at the time as visiting
professor, and he was asked to arbitrate in the dispute. He asked the candidate to see him, and
gave him five minutes to reply to the same question in a way that showed knowledge of the
basic principles of physics. The young candidate was silent for three minutes. Conman warned
him that the time was running out. "The problem is," said the candidate, "I've thought of
several possible answers, but I can't decide which is the best."
"One minute," said Conman. "Well," said the candidate, "You could take the barometer to the
roof of the building and drop it, using a stopwatch to measure the time the barometer took to
reach the ground. If this t is time, and the acceleration due to gravity is g, then the height of
the building would be gt/2. (editor's note: neglecting friction and lift.) But then you've got an
ex-barometer.
"If the sun is shining, you could measure the length of the barometer, the length of its shadow,
and the length of the skyscraper's shadow. Then it's just a matter of proportional arithmetic to
work out the height of the skyscraper.
"If you want to be highly scientific you could tie a piece of string to the barometer and make it
swing like a pendulum, first on the roof and then on the ground. Then you could work out the
acceleration due to gravity on the roof and on the ground from the period of the oscillation of
the pendulum. From this difference you can determine the height of the building.
"Or you could walk up the stairs with the barometer and a pencil, marking off lengths of the
barometer as you go. Adding them up at the end." "If you want to be boring you could
measure the air pressure on the roof and at ground level, convert millibars to meters and get
the height of the skyscraper from that.
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"But in the end the best method would probably be to knock on the janitor's door and say,
`Look; if you tell me how high this building is, I'll give you this lovely new barometer.'"
Advice for students taking LPS Summer Courses from past

ELP Students:
 Reconsider the summer course – try to take fall or spring semester course; the summer
course is really difficult and quick
 Take a lower level just to see what is going on and get accustomed to the culture, pace,
language
 Depends on if you are transferring credits – if you are not, take a chance! Who cares if
you fail!
 Know how to manage your time:
o Study everyday/start yesterday
o Make a weekly list of ALL activities, wake up, breakfast, class, study, lunch,
exercise, etc
o See your life as a work day (for example: 7:30am-6:30pm)
o Be sure to plan personal life things too- exercise, dinner out, park trips, etc
 I sometimes spent more time than I thought on homework and studying, so I had to be
flexible, have a plan B for everything.
 Prioritize
 Preview the things you are going to study; read the textbook
 When you preview, preview EVERYTHING! (especially economics courses )
 Go to office hours to ask questions from lecture, etc
 Make a summary of key concepts
 Make outlines
 Don’t be shy in class – if you have questions, just ask professor – class time is best or just
after class
 Many students talked to professors after class
 You CAN do it – and write this down on a piece of paper and put it on your door “Good
morning! I CAN DO IT!”
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Note taking in Math Courses
(or other problem-based subjects like Physics or Chemistry) – The Three Column System
This system is pretty simple; it just adds a column to explain steps that you might miss or need
extra explanation with when you are outside of class and studying on your own or in a group.
Take a look:
Problem as presented by Steps of solution Explanation – an elaboration of

instructor steps that helps you understand
WHY something was done that
way
 Do you use a system like this already? Why or why not?

 Test drive: Go to Khan Academy online. Choose a short video of a math or physics
problem. Using the three columns above, watch the video and take notes.
 What do you think of taking notes like this for problem based subjects? What are the
benefits to this kind of system? challenges? How can you get better at taking notes like
this?
Note Taking Apps/Software – what kind of technology do you/can you use for note taking?
Share your favorite platforms with your classmates. If there is class time do some research on
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popular tools like OneNote, Evernote, Google Keep, etc. There are many tools out there; what’s
important is to find one that works for you.
Studying for Tests

In groups of 2-4 students, brainstorm your top 10 tips for studying for tests and exams. What
kinds of strategies do you use? Activities? Tricks? List your top 10 ideas below:
# Study tips for tests
10
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Compare your lists with other classmates. Decide which tips are really the best and make a class
master list on the chalkboard/whiteboard/computer screen. Be sure to defend your tip with
why it is effective and how it helps you learn information for the long term – not just to ‘pass a
test’.
Discuss: Now compare your master class list with the following lists from Barbara Oakley, PhD,
PE, who is a professor of engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Her
research focuses on the complex relationship between neuroscience and social behavior, and
recently on how to study effectively.
 Which of your tips does Dr. Oakley also recommend?
 Are these similar tips on her ‘good’ list or ‘bad’ list?
 Which of her tips are new for you?
 Which of her tips will you try to incorporate into your study routines? In your opinion,
why might these tips be a better way of studying?
10 Rules of Good Studying12

1. Use recall. After you read a page, look away and recall the main ideas. Highlight very little, and never
highlight anything you haven’t put in your mind first by recalling. Try recalling main ideas when you are
walking to class or in a different room from where you originally learned it. An ability to recall—to generate
the ideas from inside yourself—is one of the key indicators of good learning.
2. Test yourself. On everything. All the time. Flash cards are your friend.
3. Chunk your problems. Chunking is understanding and practicing with a problem solution so that it can all
come to mind in a flash. After you solve a problem, rehearse it. Make sure you can solve it cold—every
step. Pretend it’s a song and learn to play it over and over again in your mind, so the information combines
into one smooth chunk you can pull up whenever you want.
4. Space your repetition. Spread out your learning in any subject a little every day, just like an athlete. Your
brain is like a muscle—it can handle only a limited amount of exercise on one subject at a time.
5. Alternate different problem-solving techniques during your practice. Never practice too long at any one
session using only one problem-solving technique—after a while, you are just mimicking what you did on
the previous problem. Mix it up and work on different types of problems. This teaches you
both how and when to use a technique. (Books generally are not set up this way, so you’ll need to do this
on your own.) After every assignment and test, go over your errors, make sure you understand why you
made them, and then rework your solutions. To study most effectively, handwrite (don’t type) a problem
on one side of a flash card and the solution on the other. (Handwriting builds stronger neural structures in
memory than typing.) You might also photograph the card if you want to load it into a study app on your
smartphone. Quiz yourself randomly on different types of problems. Another way to do this is to randomly
flip through your book, pick out a problem, and see whether you can solve it cold.
6. Take breaks. It is common to be unable to solve problems or figure out concepts in math or science the
first time you encounter them. This is why a little study every day is much better than a lot of studying all at
12
Excerpted from A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel in Math and Science (Even if You Flunked Algebra), by Barbara
Oakley, Penguin, July, 2014
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once. When you get frustrated with a math or science problem, take a break so that another part of your
mind can take over and work in the background.
7. Use explanatory questioning and simple analogies. Whenever you are struggling with a concept, think to
yourself, How can I explain this so that a ten-year-old could understand it? Using an analogy really helps,
like saying that the flow of electricity is like the flow of water. Don’t just think your explanation—say it out
loud or put it in writing. The additional effort of speaking and writing allows you to more deeply encode
(that is, convert into neural memory structures) what you are learning.
8. Focus. Turn off all interrupting beeps and alarms on your phone and computer, and then turn on a timer
for twenty-five minutes. Focus intently for those twenty-five minutes and try to work as diligently as you
can. After the timer goes off, give yourself a small, fun reward. A few of these sessions in a day can really
move your studies forward. Try to set up times and places where studying—not glancing at your computer
or phone—is just something you naturally do.
9. Eat your frogs first. Do the hardest thing earliest in the day, when you are fresh.
10. Make a mental contrast. Imagine where you’ve come from and contrast that with the dream of where
your studies will take you. Post a picture or words in your workspace to remind you of your dream. Look at
that when you find your motivation lagging. This work will pay off both for you and those you love!
Ten Rules of Bad Studying: Avoid these techniques—they can waste your time even while they fool you
into thinking you’re learning!
1. Passive rereading—sitting passively and running your eyes back over a page. Unless you can prove that the
material is moving into your brain by recalling the main ideas without looking at the page, rereading is a
waste of time.
2. Letting highlights overwhelm you. Highlighting your text can fool your mind into thinking you are putting
something in your brain, when all you’re really doing is moving your hand. A little highlighting here and
there is okay—sometimes it can be helpful in flagging important points. But if you are using highlighting as
a memory tool, make sure that what you mark is also going into your brain.
3. Merely glancing at a problem’s solution and thinking you know how to do it. This is one of the worst
errors students make while studying. You need to be able to solve a problem step-by-step, without
looking at the solution.
4. Waiting until the last minute to study. Would you cram at the last minute if you were practicing for a track
meet? Your brain is like a muscle—it can handle only a limited amount of exercise on one subject at a
time.
5. Repeatedly solving problems of the same type that you already know how to solve. If you just sit around
solving similar problems during your practice, you’re not actually preparing for a test—it’s like preparing
for a big basketball game by just practicing your dribbling.
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6. Letting study sessions with friends turn into chat sessions. Checking your problem solving with friends,
and quizzing one another on what you know, can make learning more enjoyable, expose flaws in your
thinking, and deepen your learning. But if your joint study sessions turn to fun before the work is done,
you’re wasting your time and should find another study group.
7. Neglecting to read the textbook before you start working problems. Would you dive into a pool before
you knew how to swim? The textbook is your swimming instructor—it guides you toward the answers.
You will flounder and waste your time if you don’t bother to read it. Before you begin to read, however,
take a quick glance over the chapter or section to get a sense of what it’s about.
8. Not checking with your instructors or classmates to clear up points of confusion. Professors are used to
lost students coming in for guidance—it’s our job to help you. The students we worry about are the ones
who don’t come in. Don’t be one of those students.
9. Thinking you can learn deeply when you are being constantly distracted. Every tiny pull toward an instant
message or conversation means you have less brain power to devote to learning. Every tug of interrupted
attention pulls out tiny neural roots before they can grow.
10. Not getting enough sleep. Your brain pieces together problem-solving techniques when you sleep, and it
also practices and repeats whatever you put in mind before you go to sleep. Prolonged fatigue allows
toxins to build up in the brain that disrupt the neural connections you need to think quickly and well. If
you don’t get a good sleep before a test, NOTHING ELSE YOU HAVE DONE WILL MATTER.
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Extra Schedule Activity
Imagine you are in your third week of classes at your future university. Usually by this
time, the professor is introducing new material, there has been a quiz or two, or you’re
maybe 2-3 weeks away from a mid-term. Thinking of all that you have learned about
how to study, how to process new information, and time management, create a
schedule for yourself. Be specific about what strategies you will use within each time
block (think pomodoros, note taking strategies, rest times, meals, graphic organizers,
etc) Create a one week schedule for how you would go about getting stuff done in week
3 of your new college life:
MWF: Classes meet Monday, Wednesday, Friday

T TH: Classes meet Tuesday, Thursday
Course Schedule:
(HM) History of your major: MWF: 9-9:50am
(SB) Science background for your major: T TH: 9:15-11am
(WM) Writing in your major: T TH: 11:30am-1:15pm
(CC) Computer class for your major: MWF: 10-10:50am
(EM) Elective concentration for your major: MWF: 1-1:50pm
Activities Schedule:
Mid-term for SB Thursday; Mid-Term for HM & EM: Friday
Special Guest Lecture for HM: Saturday 7-10pm
Club meeting: Wednesday 6-7pm
Soccer match: Friday 3-5pm
Example: Fall Semester, Week 3 Schedule

Time Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturda Sunday
y
Workout / Sleep Workout / Workout / Sleep
7-8am Breakfast in/Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast in/Breakfast
Library: Library:
Library: Library: Library:
Alternate Alternate
Reading Alternate Reading Sleep
Math Math
8-9 time for Math time for
problems problems
am elective & problems vs. elective &
vs. flash vs. flash
history flash card history
card card
courses reviews courses
reviews reviews
9-
HM SB HM SB HM
10am
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Fall Semester, Week 3 Schedule
Time Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
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Active Learning = Life of Learning
Here are four ways to change the way you think about learning and thus become an active
learner who leads a life of learning, not just during your college years.
Think of your brain as a muscle – Like a muscle, the more you use your brain, the ‘smarter’ and
more capable it becomes. The technical term is neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the ability of
your brain to use new experiences and to revise old neural networks and create new ones. This
is how learning happens. Once you understand this concept, you’ll realize that – with mental
effort- your brain is designed to grow and change. The idea that each human brain has a fixed
capacity belongs on the scrapheap of faulty beliefs along with the ‘world is flat.’ Just because
you may be challenged to learn something today doesn’t mean that you can’t learn it. Because
of your brain’s neuroplasticity, effort and persistence combined with effective study strategies
are the keys to effective learning.
Set learning goals….as well as performance goals – Many college students set performance
goals by way of their grades and grade point average. That is they aim to get A’s or the highest
grade they can in a course, doing whatever they need to do to get that grade. Often, because of
this kind of goal, students might play it safe and avoid courses that are deemed ‘hard’ or
professors who are ‘too strict’. By studying only to get grades, students learn just enough to
pass tests. These students get their degrees and a ticket to the world of employment, but at
what cost?
Don’t misunderstand, there’s nothing wrong with setting a goal to get good grades. Obviously,
good grades are the means to many future goals, such as a job or more education. But there is
something wrong if the only goal is to earn a grade. Such goals limit a student’s potential. Such
goals also get in the way of really understanding what your professor is trying to teach you –
professors are professors because they LOVE what they are teaching you. They come with a
passion to watch you grow and learn a subject that they love; if you are only in it ‘for the
grade’, you might find yourself at odds with the professor over grading and/or not enjoying the
class for what it has to offer.
Performance goals, like getting an ‘A’, while helpful, can keep you from developing knowledge,
skills and wisdom that enriches your life beyond the classroom. Performance goals provide you
with measurable accomplishments (like grades), whereas learning goals offer knowledge and
skills you can use for the rest of your life.
So what is a learning goal? Suppose you are taking a writing class for your major. A
performance goal is to get an ‘A’ in the class. A learning goal would be to master three ways to
write an effective introductory paragraph. Suppose you want to lose weight. A performance
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goal would be to weigh 150 pounds by next summer. A learning goal would be to learn three
important principles of good nutrition. Suppose you are taking a chemistry class. A performance
goal would be to finish reading your assigned chapters by December 1st. A learning goal would
be to learn how to read the challenging content for at least 20 minutes without losing focus.
Notice that performance goals usually give us defined, often measurable, outcomes. By
contrast, learning goals help us grow by giving us skills and abilities we can use to achieve
future performance goals. Whereas a performance goal can help you to achieve X, your
learning goal can be to learn five strategies while helping you get to X. Those five same
strategies may also help you to achieve other goals that you set for yourself in your life.
Seek Feedback
Feedback is essential to learning. Luckily, life offers us helpful feedback every day. Sadly, many
ignore it. At first, feedback taps us politely on the shoulder. If we pay no attention, feedback
shakes us vigorously. If we continue to ignore it, feedback may knock us to our knees, creating
havoc in our lives. This havoc might be failing out of school or getting fired from a job. There’s
usually plenty of feedback long before the failure of firing if we will only heed its message.
In college think of yourself as an airplane pilot and your instructors as your personal air traffic
controllers. When they correct you in class or write a comment on an assignment or give you a
grade on a test, what they are really saying is, “Okay okay, you are on course, your flight is
good….whoops, now you are off course, off course…..okay, good you are back on course….”
Airplane pilots appreciate this feedback (we hope!). Without it they might not get to their
destination. Likewise, effective learners welcome their instructors’ feedback and use it to stay
on course. They heed suggestions that instructors offer on assignments; they understand the
message in their test scores; they request clarification of any feedback they don’t understand;
and they ask for additional feedback. Maybe the idea of paying attention to feedback sounds
obvious to you, many students make the same mistakes over and over, ignoring both the
feedback and the reality that when they keep doing what they’ve been doing, they will keep
getting what they’ve been getting.
Change course when needed
It’s one thing to realize you are not succeeding at what you set out to do. But it can be difficult
to actually do something about it. You need to admit that what you are doing isn’t working,
seek alternatives, abandon the familiar, and to walk in to the unknown. Read some reflections
from students who had to change their habits and strategies to head towards success:
 “I was feeling overwhelmed by all I had to do, so I made some changes. I had to change
the way I was dealing with projects. By breaking it up in to small chunks and doing a
little bit everyday, I was able to feel more relaxed, finish my project, and get to sleep
regularly!”
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 “I often blamed others for my failures: my boss, my teachers, my parents. I had to hold
myself more responsible so I spent more time doing the tasks I had to do rather than
asking people to feel sorry for me and creating excuses for why my work wasn’t getting
done.”
 “I realized I was always looking for ways to cut corners – ‘what’s the least amount of
homework I can do? I got that one math problem right so I must know what I’m doing.’
When my grades slipped and my scholarship was in danger, I realized I needed to put
the time in. Now my classmates come to me for help with homework.”
 “The only goal I set for myself was to get good grades. As a graduate student, I found
that when I focused on learning and understanding the material, my grades took care of
themselves.”
Responsibility and Culture
In the 1950s, American psychologist Julian Rotter set out to study people’s beliefs about who or
what was responsible for the outcomes and experiences of their lives. He called it a study of
‘locus of control’. Locus in Latin means place or location. So, locus of control defines where
people believe the power over their lives is located. Since Rotter’s study, locus of control has
been one of the most examined aspects of human nature. What researchers discovered is that
different cultures see locus of control differently.
People of some cultures believe they control their own destiny. Researchers call this mindset
and internal locus of control. People with this mindset believe their outcomes and experiences
depend on their own behaviors. This mindset is part of North American culture, where maturity
is often defined as taking responsibility for one’s own life. Not surprisingly, a strong part of the
deep culture of North American higher education is a belief that college students are adults. As
such, students are expected to make adult choices and be willing to accept responsibility for the
consequences of those choices.
However, researchers found that people from some cultures assign responsibility for their fate
to factors beyond their control. If you find that you are uncomfortable with the idea of personal
responsibility, the cause may be found in your deep culture. For example, members of Latino
culture, with roots in Catholicism, are likely to believe that a higher power is guiding their lives.
The saying Si Dios Quiere (If God Wants) reflects this belief. Muslims have a similar phrase in
Arabic, Insha’Allah means “God willing” or “If God allows.” Traditional Native Americans also
value fate over self-determination. And members of working-class cultures – regardless of their
ethnicity- may experience economic frustrations and doubt their ability to create the life of
their dreams.
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These differences in cultural mindsets highlight both the challenge and importance of deciding
where our responsibilities begin and end. One the one hand, accepting too little responsibility is
disempowering. We become little more than a feather floating on the breeze. On the other
hand, accepting too much responsibility is disempowering as well. In some cases, we become
like a pack mule crushed under the weight of problems not of our creation or in our control.
The reality is that some choices truly are futile because of the personal limitations or limitations
imposed by fate or the will of others with more power. Like some kind of cosmic joke, one of
our greatest responsibilities, then, is deciding what we are and are not responsible for, what we
do and do not have control over. Worse, those decisions may change at the very next fork in
the road. As a guideline to help you choose, in North American culture you’ll usually be wise to
adopt the philosophy of the English poet William E. Henley, who in 1875 wrote: “I am the
master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” In fact, had Henley been a college student at
the time, he might have added, “And I am the captain of my GPA.”
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Look at the chart of successful students’ characteristics. Reflect on this course and fill
out the second column with your thoughts.
Concept Class lessons that addressed this
concept directly or indirectly; what I
learned about myself
accept personal responsibility
discover self-motivation
master self-management
employ interdependence
gain self-awareness
adopt lifelong learning
develop emotional intelligence
believe in themselves
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Skills for Success in US Universities

Welcome to Skills for Success at US Universities.

Guiding question for the course:

1. What do successful What do I do?

2. What are successful What am I like?

Defining success- what does success look like?

1. What do successful students do?

Success is staying on course to your desired outcomes and

Definition: What do successful Opposite: What do struggling Rating

Adopt lifelong learning

Rate & Reflect:

Successful Students Struggling Students

accept personal responsibility – seeing see themselves as victims, believing that

employ interdependence, building are solitary, seldom requesting, even

SAMPLE 1. Accepting personal 2. Discovering self-

3. Mastering self- 4. Employing 5. Gaining self-awareness

6. Adopting lifelong learning 7. Developing emotional 8. Believing in myself

Interpreting your scores:

Successful Students Struggling Students

Surface Culture: food, fashion,

Deep Culture – norms, beliefs,

Learning Environment: Teacher-Centered vs. Learner Centered

Teacher Centered Learner Centered

Teaching Lecture Lecture, discussion in large and small groups,

Instructor Direct learning process, be a source Present content, facilitate dialogue,

Learning top down; instructor imparts cooperative, participatory, interactive between

Evaluation teacher evaluates students teacher evaluates students, students evaluate

Academic Dishonesty Definitions

Using or attempting to use unauthorized assistance, material, or study aids in

Using the ideas, data, or language of another without specific or proper

Submitting contrived or altered information in any academic exercise. Example: making

E. Misrepresentation of academic records

F. Facilitating Academic Dishonesty

Attempting to gain unauthorized advantage over fellow students in an academic

* If a student is unsure whether his action(s) constitute a violation of the Code of

Some Principles of Communication

Campus Communication 1: 7 Considerations for Writing Effective Emails

1) Your email address

Jon.smith@gmail.com j.m. smith@gmail.com jon.m.smith@gmail.com Jonsmith17@gmail.com

Good Subject Lines Bad Subject lines

Professor Tolbert: Hi Professor/Dr. Tolbert, Dear Professor /Dr.Tolbert

Consider your correspondence with your instructor as documentation (proof) of any

1. Send a confirmation/reminder email if you make any agreements in person before or

7) Remember: Emails are forever

1. Requesting extra help/appointment

To: smith@university.com smith@university.com smith@university.com

Tips and language chunks for requesting appointments:

To: smith@university.com smith@university.com smith@university.com

Unfortunately I will be late I am writing to let you I will not be in class

Tips and language chunks for informing of lateness/absence:

To: smith@university.com smith@university.com smith@university.com

Tips and language chunks for informing of lateness/absence:

Write an email for the following situations:

What other situations might you send an email to a professor?

Acting on Purpose: Harnessing the Power of Quadrant II

Urgent Not Urgent

Quadrant 1 Actions: Important and Urgent

Quadrant 2 Actions: Important and not urgent

Quadrant 3 Actions: Not important and urgent

Quadrant 4 Actions: Not important and not urgent

Urgent Not Urgent

Example: staying up all night and Example: Creating a study group

Example: answering a call from Example: playing video games