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We teach the tools that are indispensable to learning

In order to empower students, SI attendees must leave SI sessions rearmed with better tools for learning than they came in with. SI leaders should be looking for opportunities to weave in learning skills as students cover course content. Below are many tried and true ways for SI leaders to model or present learning skills in SI sessions and move students toward becoming more independent learners.

1. When a concept or problem and solution are complete, ask students what are some ways to learn this material. 2. As you write information from students on the board, model a neat, well-organized format. 3. When students are finished building notes on the board on an important concept, draw a box around main ideas and another box around details as a model of how to set up material on notecard so that students may self-test. 4. Offer to model how you learned or would learn material needed for an upcoming exam. 5. When the situation arises, model how you spot main and details in textbooks and lectures. 6. A week or two before an exam, announce in class that you will show students a good way to self-test to identify what has and has not been learned before the real exam is taken. 7. Ask students from time to time, how they are studying to learn certain material.

8. Listen for frustration statements such as My notes are a mess, or How can we possibly learn all of this etc. to weave in a helpful study skill. 9. When students are receptive, pass out models of how you set up information to be learned: notecards, Cornell System, SQ3R, diagrams, charts, tables, sample tests, etc. 10. When students complain that there are not enough SI sessions, suggest forming study groups and do what is done in SI sessions. 11. When there is a list of items to remember, work with the SI attendees to construct a mnemonic. 12. Offer to construct a diagram, chart, mind map, or sketch for students to include in notes that will help with later recall on exams. 13. After an exam, conduct a post-test survey. Focus on helping students develop the skills to identify answers that were missed on an exam and to connect those answers with study skills that didnt work so that they may be adapted or replaced. Next, do the same for connecting correct answers with study skills that did work so that those skills may be identified and repeated. 14. After students work through a problem and they all say that they understand, dont believe them; they are guessing. Give them a similar problem on which to check the reliability of their understanding. 15. When there is a problem or specific task, break students up into smaller groups and have each group put their solution or results on the board along with a way to learn and remember the material.
10/01 Developed by University of Central Florida SI Leaders Sade Ajayi, Phil Berry, Jeff Draude, Vanja Grbic, Dawn Howard, Christopher Jordan, Lisa Klepczyk, Gina LaRocca, Erin Moughan, Tony Pacheco, Amish Patel, Sam Spelsberg, John Wiseman, and Dennis H. Congos, Certified Supplemental Instruction Trainer and SI Coordinator, Student Academic Resource Center, POB 163115, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816 407-823-3789. Email: dcongos@mail.ucf.edu. SARC Web Site: http:/pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~sarc. SARC is a Unit of Academic Development and Retention which is a Division of Student Development and Enrollment Services.