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Lesson 1 Reading Selection

College is What You Make It

Maria Loreto T. Capuno

Congratulations! You’ve just finished your High School years, and said goodbye to
many of your childhood friends, with promises to stay in touch. Now, you’re about
to experience another phase in your young life: the challenge of going to college!
Of course, I’m sure that you’ve given much thought to what you’d like to get into.
Perhaps, Mathematics, Engineering, Literature, or Music. Whichever path you’ve
chosen to go into, one thing is for sure: you need to develop certain skills in order to
achieve success in this new phase in your life.
Going to college is not simply a matter of deciding on a program and settling for a
particular university or college. After such decisions, you now have to deal with the
nitty-gritty of college life.
Are you aware that about a third of college students fail to graduate within the
expected program time frame? Some reasons given for failure are lack of maturity,
teenage pregnancy, early marriage, financial difficulties, lack of motivation, and
poor life skills among others. The strategies given below may help safeguard you
against many of the causes of failure which prevail in college life.
First of all, college life demands that you know yourself more. Why? It’s because
you may be asked to create your own class schedules. Are you an early riser and a
morning person? Or would you prefer to take on a part- time job and go to class at
night?
Also, you must have a strong sense of self-discipline. Since vacant periods are a
given in college life, and with entertainment possibilities in just about every street
corner, it just seems too easy to give in to temptation: the call of the mall. This is
where your time management comes in. Are you so busy with the unnecessary things
that you can’t even attend to what’s essential? Or are you overstretched in terms of
finding time for each and every little thing you want to accomplish? Or do you laze
about all day and generally avoid doing any tasks at all? Or perhaps you have such a
good listening ear for listening to others’ problems that you hardly have enough time
to attend to your own. You may even be so accommodating that you feel a sense of
obligation to chat with everyone who passes by. Or are you a slave to your mobile
phone that you seem to accomplish nothing but to answer texts all day and night?
To have staying power in college, you must also practice a certain degree of
tenacity, which is the ability to hang on. You must also stay focused on your goals
and determined on your success. Otherwise, what is there to hang onto?
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Gone is the homogeneity of your classmates in the basic education years. Along
the way, you will be meeting so many different kinds of people from all walks of
life. Your fellow students may be of a different nationality, language or religious
belief. You must practice maturity as well as level-headedness alongside with
discernment and self-control.
Priorities must be set and certain parameters followed for you to be better
organized in terms of reacting effectively to the various attractions and distractions
of college life. There may be times when you may have to choose between the values
learned at home and popularity among your classmates. Or you may feel pressured
into trying out something over the edge, such as drugs, as some sort of rite of
passage. Even indulging in sex could be from peer pressure, because “everybody is
doing it.”
Next, you have to determine your study habits. You could be one of those
students who learn best by first taking notes on a scratch paper in class and then
rewriting them at home. Alternatively, you could be one who prefers to create an
audio record of what the professor is saying, for transcribing later. Or, you could be
one of those who learn best by simply trying to figure out the relationships of the
various components. During homework time, either you prefer to work in a quiet
corner, or with music playing in the background. You may also prefer studying your
notes late at night or upon waking up at dawn; either way would be preferable to
cramming on your commute to classes.
Of equal importance is the ability to listen to the professor’s instruction with
respect to turning in coursework. You probably wouldn’t want to be like many a
student who failed in class only because he or she failed to listen with attention,
therefore turning in a completely different project from what the instructor had
specified.
Aside from the ability to listen well, you must also do a bit of self-talk, in order to
remain in touch with yourself and your feelings, as well as to motivate yourself. Self-
talk is vital but often neglected in relation to self.
Still some students merely lack focus. Due to lack of drive to succeed, students
may fail to maximize their time and energy for study-related activities. Instead of
staying at the school library to read, you hang out at the local mall needlessly,
depriving yourself of a good education. Or, you spend hours and hours in front of the
television, with no particular show to watch, mindlessly pressing the remote. Or you
know you’re supposed to be researching on the internet, but catch yourself
thoughtlessly surfing, page after webpage.
The time to focus on your education is now, when you’ve just started college.
Quit wasting your energy on the unnecessary. Time and energy wisely spent now
will equate with a sound education later, and that could give you better leverage
when it’s time for you to start your dream career.
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Word Power
Directions: Choose the most appropriate meaning of the highlighted word
based on how it is used in the sentence. Encircle the letter that represents your
choice.
1. The educational party to which he belongs does not have much leverage in
terms of educational reform.
a. Level-headedness c. freedom to change
b. Power to influence d. scheme to socialize

2. School policies regulate the parameters in grading and failing students.

a. Conditions that arise from certain problematic situations.
b. Limits or boundaries of a particular process or activity
c. Measurements taken to ensure that all sides remain equal
d. The area surrounding a property of which it is a part

3. Due to the archipelagic form of the land, Filipinos cannot achieve homogeneity
in terms of culture.
a. To be of the same gender c. to be bilingual
b. To be culturally complex d. to be of the same kind

4. The parents were shocked to discover that the school principal had an
astonishing lack of discernment.
a. Ability to judge well c. the capacity to visualize
b. Responsibility for decisions d. the experience

5. Few students now possess the tenacity to pursue their particular goals.
a. Frugality in spending money c. persistence in a course of action
b. Ability to save money d. total hardships which a person has
undergone
Think Aloud
1. Why is a college education important to Filipinos? What role does it play in
terms of succeeding in a profession?

2. Is college only for the intellectually-gifted?

3. How could a strong sense of self-discipline help one succeed in college life?
Give some examples.
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4. What reasons for failure in college life are given in the selection? What
suggestions are given to safeguard against these?

Group Activity
Directions: Form a group of 5 members and create an artwork in a form of a
collage, painting, drawing or any visual representation that contrasts practices
which can either make or break your chances of achieving college success.
Explain your output in class.

KWL for Reading Skill

Improving Reading Comprehension Through KWL

In college, students fresh from High School are in for a shock to find out
how heavy the reading assignments are in some courses. This shocked
reaction is even more pronounced among those who failed to develop good
reading habits during their basic education years. This exercise intends to help
college beginners improve their reading comprehension.

KWL has three components, namely, K which stands for what you know
about a topic beforehand; W which stands for what you want to know about
the reading topic; and L which is what you have learned after reading a
certain selection.

K includes looking at the text searching for key words and phrases,
categorizing and listing down any previous knowledge about the given topic
in the selection. It is a pre-reading inventory.

W is based on what is listed under K. You will be assessing what else you
want to find out about the topic and creating questions which you think the
selection should answer. You will also take a closer look at any non-prose
forms presented in the selection. All these will help you stay focused in your
reading.

L includes listing down what you learn either during the reading or right
after. Compare this column with the other two columns and then correct any
misinterpretations or misconceptions which you previously had.
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Graded Seat Work # 1

Name___________________ Score____________
Directions: Here is an exercise that helps you to practice KWL. Go back to the
selection read. Using the worksheet below, accomplish the columns as you go
about your reading. Share your list in class.
K W L
What You Know What You Want to Know What You Have Learned