STUDENT SUCCESS NEWS - OCTOBER 2006
Available in February 2007!
Announcing the Fifth Edition of Downing, On Course
This best-selling text continues to offer a concise length, tight focus, and an emphasis on self-development. Distinctive guided journal entries help students develop essential life skills.
Skip Downing has added many new features, including "One Student's Story" student essays (see an example), which provide insight into how students applied On Course strategies in their lives; Eduspace, Houghton Mifflin’s Online Learning Tool, which offers online journal entries, technology exercises, and discussion groups; and Video Skillbuilders for Student Success (available in Eduspace), which expand lessons on topics such as time management, note-taking, and reducing test anxiety. MORE
Workshops to help you improve student learning outcomes and retention
If you attend only one professional development event in 2007, treat yourself to an On Course Workshop or the National On Course Conference*.
For over ten years, Skip Downing has been leading highly successful interactive workshops aimed at helping educators empower their students to become active, responsible learners.
"Every other educational conference seems a sad waste of time and money by comparison."
Tom Hale, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College
For a schedule of upcoming events, more detailed information, registration forms, data from On Course retention programs, and testimonials, visit www.oncourseworkshop.com.
* On Course Workshops are not Houghton Mifflin sponsored or funded events.
Teaching Tip: Critical Reading as a Process
Richard Paul, in his book Critical Thinking, defines critical reading in part as a situation in which “a critical reader actively looks for assumptions, key concepts and ideas, reasons and justifications, supporting examples, parallel experiences, implications and consequences, and any other structural features of the written text to interpret and assess it accurately and fairly.”
To use this process in the classroom, hand out a short editorial from a newspaper or magazine and form groups of six. First, ask students to read the article as they normally would. Next, ask students to write a short paragraph stating the main point. Then ask each group to read the article again and this time to use the criteria listed in Paul’s definition. Ask three students with each group to support the position of the article and the other three to take an opposing position. Each team of three will have five minutes to state their points of view using facts and inferences. Have each group of six discuss the differences they noticed between the two methods of reading.
Source: Becoming a Master Student, 11/e HM ClassPrep CD
2006 College Survival Scholarship Essay Contest
How do your students define success? If they let us know, they could win a $1000 scholarship.
Encourage your students to enter today.
Don’t Forget about National Non-Traditional Students Appreciation Week! November 5-10! |
