• Previewing a book

    Date: 2009.09.06 | Category: Learning Skills Exercises, Unit SSK12 | Tags: ,,,

    Learning Skills Exercise
    Unit:     SSK12
    Week: 1
    Date: 06 September 2009
    Exercise: Exercise 15 – Previewing a book

    Activity 1: Finding out what books are about
    A Guide to Learning Independently
    This book is design to help the student adjust to university learning. It gives technique that the student can you to be a successful independent leaner. Skills such as: reading; writing, including essay writing, learning by evaluation; etc…. The authors claim that the book isn’t just a collection of techniques, but rather the book helps the student discover who they are as a learner and encourages the readers to learn how the techniques can work for them.

    Marshall, L. & F. Rowland. 2006. A Guide To Learning Independently. 4th ed. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Education Australia

    A Learning Companion
    A Learning Companion is a learning guide design to help the student develop effective and efficient learning skills. It is a collection of exercises that the student can complete in order to foster life long learning skills that can hopefully used for the duration of their studies. Exercises cover such topics as: Learning how to learn; reading; and writing essays, amongst others. The book’s hope is to be a learners’ companion.

    Marshall, L. 2006. A Learning Companion: Your Guide To Practising Independent Learning. 4th ed. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Education Australia

    In my attempt to get to know the two unit texts I read the back cover first, then I overviewed the table of contents, before quickly reading over the Preface or the Introduction. I found the back cover to summarise the book’s contents clearly and concisely. The table of contents also gives an excellent overall understanding of the information covered. If I had more time than 5 minutes to preview the books, the introduction would be the best part of the book to find the most information.

    Activity 2: Previewing a book

    No written entry required

    Activity 3:

    <Activity 3 summary goes here>

    Activity 4: Reflection
    It was good to do the quick preview exercise at the start of this exercise. It reinforced to me the importance of previewing text, especially in the context of tertiary study. Although it is not uncommon for me to preview my books by reading the back cover and index, I am reminded of the value of thoroughly reading the introduction in order to get a big picture understanding to the book.

    I never was a strong reader and even now, although I tend to read a lot of books, I don’t read them very fast. One of my biggest challenges is going to be whether I am able to improve my reading ability, especially in the area of reading rate variation. I may find it difficult to learn to read at any other rate than the snail’s pace I am used to.

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