Category Archives: Study & Success Skills

Select the BEST Response

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Materials Needed: A copy of questions for each student or questions presented electronically via document camera or PowerPoint

Preparation: Prepare several multiple choice questions that require students to select the best answer. Include
answers that are all correct, but one is the most relevant or appropriate based on the question asked. This
teaching strategy helps students develop critical thinking and effective test taking strategies.

Procedure:
1. Ask students to answer each of the multiple choice questions as an individual effort, just as if they
were taking a test.
2. When they have completed answering all of the questions, call on students to present and
discuss the answers, including why the correct answer is the best response for the question
asked.

from Utah State University

In Your Own Words

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For a Topic:

Assign a topic to a group (or individual). Have them a) take notes from the book/notes, b) write the notes in their own words, and finally c) write one word or phrase to summarize or remember the topic. You can use a matrix format to organize their thinking.

For a Vocabulary Word:

Assign a vocabulary word to a group (or individual). Have them a) write the definition from the book/notes, b) write the definition in their own words, and finally c) write one word or draw a picture to summarize or remember the term.

3 Before Me

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This is an activity, but also a facilitation best practice. This is a good strategy to model at the beginning of the semester and utilize throughout your sessions. It can help with redirecting questions and encourage students to interact and see each other as credible resources for questions.

  1. When a student asks a question during a session, have 3 students contribute to answering the question.
  2. The SI Leader can mediate correct responses and help fill in gaps in understanding once 3 students have contributed.

Example:

  • Student: “I’m confused about the different types of operant conditioning – the positives and negatives get me tripped up?”
  • SI: “Can anyone explain a bit more about operant conditioning?”
    Student 1: “The positives and negatives aren’t about good or bad. Positive means adding something. Negative means taking it away.”
  • Student 2: “Yeah, so just think of positive like a + sign and negative like a – sign.”
  • Student 3: “So negative punishment means taking away something good. For instance, taking away your kid’s Playstation. Positive would be giving him more chores to do.”
  • SI: Good… *can add more information if needed*

*** As the SI Leader, it can be helpful to count on your fingers as each student chimes in. It might be silly at first, but if you make this a habit, your students will know to expect it and be ready to chime in with more information. Also, you don’t have to stop after 3! In this scenario, there is definitely more information that could be shared. Maybe instead, you ask another follow up question to prompt the group. For instance, “Good, what about positive/negative reinforcement?” ***

Incomplete Outline

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The incomplete outline is an excellent way of helping the students recognize the most important or main ideas and the organizational pattern of information given in lecture. It can also be used for the textbook readings/information. Determining the major points can help to sort information and locate the ideas being communicated.

  1. Create a set of incomplete lecture or reading notes in outline format, so some key lines/phrases are missing. What you leave missing from the outline can create a more or less challenging activity, depending on what you need.  For instance, asking students to fill in the word for a definition vs. providing a term and asking them to define it. Or, another example, asking students to label a diagram you provide vs. asking them to draw and label the diagram on their own.
  2. Divide students into pairs or small groups and ask them to fill in the outline together.

Variant: Divide your incomplete outline into sections and assign a different section to each pair or group. Ask the groups to complete their outlines. Once finished, provide each student with their own full blank outline to fill in as groups get up and teach their section’s content to the class. Each group will have a chance to go through and explain their section of the outline. This generates more discussion among the students. Keep in mind, there may be more than one way to fill in missing parts of the outline. 

Notes Review

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This is a method of getting the students to work together to review and compile their lecture notes in a complete and organized way. It’s a great warm up activity that you can even utilize every week.

  1. Pair students up (or allow them to choose partners). Alternatively, you could do this in small groups as well.
  2. Ask students to read aloud from their notes. Encourage other students to interject, ask questions, provide missing details, or clarify details about the topic.
    1. Alternative: Ask students to swap notes and read each other’s independently then discuss similarities or differences.
  3. As students find missing parts or holes in their notes, they add to them.

Why do this activity?

  1. Students talk about the content out loud, helping them remember details better
  2. Students can see other styles or approaches to taking lecture notes that may help them better their note taking.
  3. It’s tough to get down all the important details in lecture sometimes. Usually students are missing parts in their notes and/or have some details written down incorrectly. This gives students a space to review and make sure what they’re studying from is accurate and complete.
  4. If students have conflicting information in their notes, it gives you a chance to clarify for them and lead them to finding the correct information.

Variation: Ask students to bring notes in from their assigned class readings and do the same activity.

Setting S.M.A.R.T Goals

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Help your students plan for the year, semester, unit, or week by setting SMART goals. SMART goals are ones that meet the following criteria.

The SMART acronym is displayed with the meanings for each letter. S for Specific. M for Measurable, A for Attainable, R for Relevant, and T for Time Bound.

You can give students this SMART goals template to guide them in choosing a goal, or you can ask them to write it down somewhere where they’ll see it regularly as a reminder.

Ways to use SMART goals in SI session:

  • Beginning of the Semester: Ask students to create a SMART goal for the semester as a whole. What do they want to challenge themselves to achieve this semester? For a longer term goal like this, ask them to add in 3 concrete action steps they’ll take to get there. For instance, if a student want’s to earn an A, maybe one of their action steps is to “review lecture notes for 10 minutes every day before bed.”

    • Accountability Buddies: After students set a goal, have them find a partner and share their goals with each other. Suggest they exchange contact information so they have a buddy in the class for questions and someone who can hold them accountable for progress toward their goals.
  • Post Exam: After an exam is a great time to set a new goal. Students just had an assessment of how their progress has been thus far. What do they want to achieve by the next exam?
  • Weekly: As the semester goes on, you’ll likely have your regular SI attendance crowd. Make it a habit each week to have one warm up activity be setting a weekly goal. The next week, people share how it went and set a new goal. You can participate too! We’re all in this together!
  • Outside of Session: Maybe you don’t have time to set goals during your session, but introduce the idea of SMART goals and encourage your students to set goals on their own. You can even provide them with the blank SMART goals template to take home and let them know you’re available to discuss their goals with them as well.