Study Strategy

BED114 v14.2: Early Childhood Writing and Research 1

20140802

Gong Shuyi

Reading is an important skill in academic study. It is crucial to have a good reading ability. There are several reading strategies are mentioned in this course. In this essay,
I will mainly talk about three skills, which are how to improve reading comprehension, reading speed and how to make notes. And I also will explain how I will use these strategies to support my study.

To start with, how to improve reading comprehension, active reading strategies are required. While I am reading an article, I will go through the article and have a general sense of it first（Cottrell, 2003）. By doing this, I can skip the most difficult section and start with the easy one. After this, I am able to write down questions and find the answers easier. Once you read with clear questions, it is much easier to find answers while reading than read blindly. The next thing to do is to read the difficult parts again, not only slowly, but also over and over again. Highlighting is another good way to help understanding the reading (Cottrell, 2003). By highlighting the key words and phrases, the important information and the reading’s outline will be seen much more clearly. It is also good to know that important information usually can be found in headings, the first and the last sentences of paragraphs and it is better to use colors or special symbols to mark them (Cottrell, S, 2003).

Move on to speeding up the reading, one long-term strategy I can think about is reading more. More reading experience enable us to keep stable on effective reading because our vocabulary will get enlarged and we will also be good at dealing with

BED114 v14.2: Early Childhood Writing and Research 1

20140802

Gong Shuyi

long sentences. Another effective way to speed up reading during the reading process is finger tracking (Cottrell, 2003). Finger tracking is a method which aims at finishing the readings more faster. Read and move the fingers through each line at the same time, then I will try to move my fingers faster and keep my eyes following where my fingers point at.

The last thing I will refer to is making notes, which is also the most essential part. As
Cottrell (2003) mentioned, there are three different types of notes, they are nuclear notes, liner notes and pattern notes respectively. Base on my personal learning style, I will use nuclear notes when I read an article, which has one very clear topic and key ideas. As for liner notes, I will use them when a reading has two or more topics, and below each topic, there are some clear key points. For pattern notes, it should be used when a reading does have a clear topic, but includes a lot of messy key information.

To sum up, there are many reading strategy can be used to understand the article well, fast and effectively. As a student, it is very necessary to have these skills because too much reading material will be required during the study life.

BED114 v14.2: Early Childhood Writing and Research 1

20140802

Gong Shuyi

Reference list
Cottrell, S. (2003). The study skill handbook (pp. 121-132). New York, NY:
Palgrave Macmillan.

BED114 v14.2: Early Childhood Writing and Research 1

20140802

Gong Shuyi

I have learned a lot of study skills during this class. Some of them are very easy to do and useful as well, such as making study plan and learning thorough technology.
Possible challenges are also mentioned in this class, as well as how to deal with them.
Actually, although there are many study skills can be used to make study effective, challenges still cannot be avoided, like language problem and procrastination.
Therefore, in this essay, I am going to talk about the study skills I will use in my study and the challenges I may face and how I will get through them.

One main skill I will use through out all my study life is making study plan, which is a very effective way to make tasks clear and easy to finish on time. The most important thing about making plan is how to make a good plan. A good plan is the plan, which is easy for me to stick to. The first thing is setting small goals in the plan
(Lengefeld, 2009). No one can complete a very big goal at one time. Setting small goals, in other words, taking baby steps, are truly helpful with keeping me motivated.
And after I achieve each small goal, I will reward myself to keep moving on to the next goal. For example, I may go shopping, travelling or treat myself with a nice meal.
In addition, the plan must be realistic (Lengefeld, 2009). That means the plan must be established according to my needs and schedule, it also need to be suitable for my learning style. An unrealistic plan will be hard to follow and it will also reduce my motivation because I will never achieve it. For example, if I set a very big goal in my plan, like “ I am going to finish a 10 thousands words assessment today.” I would never make it because it was too much for me to finish in one day.

BED114 v14.2: Early Childhood Writing and Research 1

20140802

Gong Shuyi

Another way I have learned to study effectively is using technologies, such as the
Internet. It is known by all that computers from all over the world are connected by the Internet. Therefore, I can find almost all kinds of resources from every corner of the world on the Internet. Furthermore, as Cottrell (2003) indicated that the amount of information which is published electronically is keeping increasing. There are a variety of information on the Internet. The information can be music, videos, pictures, pages and so on. I can search these information by typing key words in the Google website or just typing the website address directly in the provided space. After the information comes up, it can be printed out. If I have any question, I can also send real-time massages or e-mail to my friends to ask them and receive their answers on line (Cottrell, 2003). But one thing needs to be paid extra attention is every information on line has an author. So when I use this information in my assessment, I need to be very careful about the references.

Move on to the challenges I may have. The first and biggest challenge I find as an international student is the language issue. We are studying at an English-speaking country. Therefore, English is more than essential for us. To be specific, there are four sections for English learners, which are speaking, listening, reading and writing.
Speaking English a lot is a long-term strategy to improve English. For example, discussing questions with classmates and teachers is the easiest and the most direct way. In my opinion, speaking and reading are related very closely and they cannot be separated. Watching English-speaking videos with Chinese subtitles will help me with

BED114 v14.2: Early Childhood Writing and Research 1

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Gong Shuyi

not only listening, but also speaking. While I am watching, I will write down the useful words or sentences and try to use them as much as possible next time. Reading
English materials is another good way to enlarge my vocabulary. I can note down the new words, phrases or good sentence structure, then I think it will be better for me to review them regularly and try to use them in my written assessment. All of these methods can improve my English skills.

Another challenge for me is procrastination, which is not only a big problem to me, but also an extremely topical problem nowadays. I always tend to put off things until the last minute. I do feel struggle with this but I still cannot help procrastinating.
However, I have learned some ways to solve this problem in this class, such as working together and keeping motivated (Cottell, 2003). As for working together, for instance, I have to force myself to stick into my schedule by working with others because the last thing I want to do is dragging others down. That is to say, I hate it when I let my teammates cannot finish their work on time because of me. Another way to solve procrastination at its source is keeping motivated. Finding out the reason of why should I study or why do I have to success is the most effective way (Cottell,
2003). For example, I want to acquire excellent English skills and be a great early childhood teacher through my study and that is why I need to work hard, so once I feel like that I want to be lazy instead of studying, I will image the picture of I am working in the early childhood center and speaking English very fluently, then I will full of the passion of learning again.

BED114 v14.2: Early Childhood Writing and Research 1

20140802

Gong Shuyi

Above all, making personal study plan and learning through technology can help me with making study effective, and although language problem and procrastination are holding me back, they can still be overcome in many ways. Anyway, either using study skills or trying to find out how to overcome challenges, having the willpower to resist temptations is all I need. If I have a clear aim of study outcome, I will definitely work hard.

BED114 v14.2: Early Childhood Writing and Research 1

20140802

Gong Shuyi

Reference list
Cottrell, S. (2003). The study skills handbook (pp. 121-132). New York, NY: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Lengefeld, U. (2009). Study skills strategies: Get the most from every minutes of learning (pp. 19-25). Rochester, NY: AXZO Press.