ShareThisBy Dr. YVONNE FOURNIER
Dear Dr. Fournier:
My son is in the 10th grade. Until now, his teachers have given him study sheets or told him what to study in his book to prepare for tests. This year, two of his teachers do not do this. He is afraid he will not do well in their classes.
He has never had to take notes on his own from his book or a lecture in class. It seems to me that when he reads, he doesn't know what is important, so he tries to learn everything.
THE ASSESSMENT
Reading a textbook has its own strategy, much like a murder-mystery "whodunit." The textbook mystery has its own clues _ important information _ and its own false leads. The challenge is to put together only the clues, and to disregard the false leads _ to help simplify and solve the mystery.
WHAT TO DO
When you son reads information in a textbook, he needs to ask himself:
Does this say anything important?
Does this support the main idea or theme of this section?
If the answer to these questions is "no," then the information is likely a false lead, pointing him in the wrong direction or simply restating the clues that he has identified already.
If the information is new and important, your son should underline or highlight it as he reads. When he has finished a section, he should go back and separate the main idea from the supporting detail. As he begins to take notes, he should not copy the ideas verbatim from the text. Instead, have him use his own words, enhanced with drawings, abbreviations and symbols that will help him understand and remember the concepts.
Next, help your son to be selective about the supporting information he chooses to include in his notes. There are two types of supporting information: descriptive and detail. Descriptive information does just that: it describes the main idea. Detail adds information to the main idea. Descriptive information is important; it might be a definition, a cause, a result, etc. Details might or might not be important. Your son needs to learn to choose only the most relevant of these details.
Help your son to identify information that is obviously there to add weight to the textbook. He should not be surprised by filler. Recognizing it as such means he is getting better at solving the mystery.
Your son should complete his selective reading and note taking before the material is covered in class. This way, he can add information to his notes during the class discussion. By updating his reading notes in class, he can mark specific details that his teacher stresses as important.
Attempting to memorize the information will only leave your son frustrated and overwhelmed. Instead, he should use his notes to simplify the information so that he can process it in his own individual way. This is how he can solve the mystery of test preparation.
(Write Dr. Yvonne Fournier, Fournier Learning Strategies Inc., 5900 Poplar, Memphis, Tenn. 38119. E-mail YF7thsense(at)aol.com.)
