Tuesday, September 22, 2009

There are several ways to organize a person’s thinking. I have different ways I like to organize my thoughts for different subjects. I will discuss a few of the different techniques I use.
In literature class, it is important for me to write notes on all the readings that I do for class. First, I will start out reading the article or story just to get an overall idea. I will do this first reading without taking any notes. The second process I do is to go back and highlight some important word or phrases as I am reading the information again. The final step in my organization process is to reread the material a third time and take detailed notes on the material. These three steps do require a great deal of time but in order for me to truly comprehend the material it is important for me to do this process.
Another activity I use to organize my thoughts is to create idea webs. There is so much information that I need to process when I am reviewing my notes. Therefore putting the ideas into an idea web assists me in organizing the information into sections so that I can better comprehend the material. By using this technique, it easier for me to find the main ideas faster and then I can discuss them in the classroom.
I organize my thoughts differently for different subjects. In math I find what works best for me is to break down the problems into smaller pieces. In our math class we are looking at different ways to organize addition problems. The easiest way for me to explain this type of problem is to draw out the numbers and to count them out. This may seem a difficult and tedious task for an addition problem, but this process assists me in learning and teaching a topic such as addition.
The other subject that I organize differently is science. I find it easiest to put the information down into a table when doing science activities. For example, making a table for a science experiment not only makes it easy for me to read but also for me to explain. The techniques that I use help me to be better organized in school and when I am teaching a new play to the freshman football team that I coach.

1 comment:

  1. You use a lot of stategies that I haven't thought about doing while reading and organizing for class. I keep things basic and highlight. I may use some of your ideas.

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