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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Teaching Tips From Your TCC


Active Reading from Day One

The following exercise, written by Matt Fox (TRS), is designed to actively engage the student in understanding the text in the course information sheet through the use of specific reading strategies. These can be applied to any reading assignment throughout the semester. You are welcome to adapt any of it for use with your own course information sheet.

A well-written course information sheet should explain the nature and extent of the work that you have to do in the course and should clearly state the instructor’s policies.  It is therefore very important that you read, understand, and question any CIS that you are given, so that you can plan and organize your responsibilities for the semester and avoid running afoul of any policies.

For our very first class, we will read, annotate, and analyze the CIS for this class.  We will work in small groups to complete the steps below.  Please write on the CIS document that I gave you.  I copied it one-sided, so there should be ample room on the reverse of each page for notes, questions, etc.

1. It is important to annotate with a purpose.  One may, for example, annotate a textbook chapter in order to prepare for a test, or annotate a journal article in order to use some of its ideas in a research paper.  What is the purpose of annotating a CIS?  In other words, what kind of information do you hope to acquire when you read a CIS?

2. Preview the document.  Do not read it in its entirety yet; instead, scan through it, and read only the headings and bolded font.  Please answer the following questions, writing your answers anywhere in the handout.
a. Based on your preview, what sorts of assignments that you will be expected to complete?
b. What are the policies by which you will be expected to abide?

3. Preview the document again, read anything that is listed, bulleted, or included in a table.  Please answer the following questions.
a. Read the Course Description, and rewrite it in your own words on the reverse side of the page.  Write it in a way that you can easily understand.  You may change whatever you like, so long as you retain the original meaning.
b. What is the purpose of the Course Learning Outcomes?  What role do you think they will play in the course?  Write your answer in the margin above the list of course learning outcomes.
c. What is the purpose of the tables under the Quizzes, Class Assignments, and Online Discussions sections?  Write your answer in the margins.
d. What does the Grading Breakdown tell you about the work that you will be expected to do in the course?  Which assignments are more and less important, in terms of your grade?
e. Come up with an example of each item under Code of Conduct, and write it in the margins.

4. Read the document in its entirety and do the following things:
Refer to question #1 and underline or highlight any information that is important to your purpose.
Circle any words that are unfamiliar, so that you can look up the definitions later.
Reword at least three of the important ideas that you underlined or highlighted above in #a.  Write in the margins or on the reverse side of the sheet.

Ask questions.  Write at least five questions in the margins.

Write at least one question that asks for clarification on a policy or assignment.
Write at least one question that asks for information that is not included in the CIS.
Write at least one question that poses a hypothetical situation in which one of the policies may be tested.

It is important that you keep your CIS in a safe place, so I will not collect this assignment.  Rather, I will look at it during class, give you feedback on your annotations, and credit you 0-2 points for your first Class Assignment.

Neeta Primo
Mathematics
01/14/2014