Learning Strategies for Under-Achieving Adults in Technical Classrooms
Leecy Wise- Instructor
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Syllabus
Day 1| Day 2 | Day 3| Day 4 | Day 5 |Day 6 | Day 7 
 Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11| Day 12

DAY 3  - April 10, 2000 ( 4-6:30 PM)

Objectives: By the end of this session, you will be able to...

  1.  help students study and prepare for classes

  2. help students make the most out of theirs textbooks

DAY'S AGENDA

Minutes

Topics

Activities
30

Review Day 2 Objectives and complete presentations/ discussions.

Review Student Characteristics and Implications for learning

The minority-culture student

(Left over from Day 1)

 

Review major points, finish presentations using the direct method, and discuss employer/environment characteristics.
20 Taking Notes and other study skills Class Handouts from Day 2 
35

Navigating the textbook (Have your most basic text.)

Lay-out

Exercises and quizzes

Sections, topics, and sub-topics

Discuss strategies for introducing the text to students and for helping them use texts that are difficult for them.

1.  In pairs or alone, answer the following questions about your text:

  • What pattern does the presentation follow?
  • How can the student identify the major sections of the book? Of each chapter?
  • How can the student predict questions that are likely to be on a test?
  • How would you test a student whose predominant style is kinesthetic (hand-on)?
  • Why are students having difficulty with this text? 

2.  Strategies for helping students cope

 
10 BREAK

 

 

 Stretch and Regroup

 

 

50

Main ideas and details

 How to identify main ideas, details, and relationships in writing.

Paragraph knowledge.

Devices and exercises for teaching the above.

  • color areas
  • finishing or starting paragraphs
  • writing summaries
  • others...

Exercise in pairs or alone: Take a section from your text.  Identify the main idea of the lesson. Provide at least 5 details to support that idea. Use different teaching styles to present the idea to the group.

 
(If time permits) Multiple Intelligences (see passage below) Discuss Howard Garner's theory and application in the technical classrrom. Exercise (below)

 
5 Review, Reminders and Wrap-Up Compare outcomes to objectives. Next Class: Bring a basic text (again!) as your model for working with Day 4 objectives.

How to Teach or Learn Anything 8 Different Ways
(Taken from http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm

"One of the most remarkable features of the theory of multiple intelligences is how it provide eight different potential pathways to learning. If a teacher is having difficulty reaching a student in the more traditional linguistic or logical ways of instruction, the theory of multiple intelligences suggests several other ways in which the material might be presented to facilitate effective learning. Whether you are a kindergarten teacher, a graduate school instructor, or an adult learner seeking better ways of pursuing self-study on any subject of interest, the same basic guidelines apply. Whatever you are teaching or learning, see how you might connect it with

words (linguistic intelligence)
numbers or logic (logical-mathematical intelligence)
pictures (spatial intelligence)
music (musical intelligence)
self-reflection (intrapersonal intelligence)
a physical experience (bodily-kinesthetic intelligence)
a social experience (interpersonal intelligence), and/or
an experience in the natural world. (naturalist intelligence)

For example, if you’re teaching or learning about the moon, you might read books about the moon (linguistic), calculate its distance from the earth (logical-mathematical), examine photos of the different phrases of the moon (spatial), listen to songs about the moon (e.g. "Fly Me to the Moon") (musical), reflect on your earliest memories as a child of the moon (intrapersonal), build a hands-on model of the moon revolving around the earth (bodily-kinesthetic), plan a "moon-watch" via telescope with some friends (intepersonal), and/or investigate the geographic terrain of the moon (naturalist). You don’t have to teach or learn something in all eight ways, just see what the possibilities are, and then decide which particular pathways interest you the most, or seem to be the most effective teaching or learning tools. The theory of multiple intelligences is so intriguing because it expands our horizon of available teaching/learning tools beyond the conventional linguistic and logical methods used in most schools (e.g. lecture, textbooks, writing assignments, formulas, etc.)... "

"... To get started, put the topic of whatever you’re interested in teaching or learning about in the center of a blank sheet of paper, and draw eight straight lines or "spokes" radiating out from this topic. Label each line with a different intelligence. Then start brainstorming ideas for teaching or learning that topic and write down ideas next to each intelligence (this is a spatial-linguistic approach of brainstorming; you might want to do this in other ways as well, using a tape-recorder, having a group brainstorming session, etc.). Have fun! "