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"What the Best College Students Do," a book by historian and educator Ken Bain, draws a road map for how students can get the most out of college, no matter where they go

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College-admission letters go out this month, and most recipients (and their parents) will place great importance on which universities said yes and which said no. A growing body of evidence, however, suggests that the most significant thing about college is not where you go, but what you do once you get there. Historian and educator Ken Bain has written a book on this subject, What the Best College Students Do, that draws a road map for how students can get the most out of college, no matter where they go.

( MORE: Does College Put Kids on a Party Pathway?)

As Bain details, there are three types of learners: surface, who do as little as possible to get by; strategic, who aim for top grades rather than true understanding; and deep learners, who leave college with a real, rich education. Bain then introduces us to a host of real-life deep learners: young and old, scientific and artistic, famous or still getting there. Although they each have their own insights, Bain identifies common patterns in their stories:

( MORE: Can Tough Competition Hinder Academic Performance?)

Pursue passion, not A's. When he was in college, says the eminent astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, he was "moved by curiosity, interest and fascination, not by making the highest scores on a test." As an adult, he points out, "no one ever asks you what your grades were. Grades become irrelevant." In his experience as a student and a professor, says Tyson, "ambition and innovation trump grades every time."

Get comfortable with failure. When he was still a college student, comedian Stephen Colbert began working with an improvisational theater in Chicago. "That really opened me up in ways I hadn't expected," he tells Bain. "You must be O.K. with bombing. You have to love it." Colbert adds, "Improvisation is a great educator when it comes to failing. There's no way you are going to get it right every time."

Make a personal connection to your studies. In her sophomore year in college, Eliza Noh, now a professor of Asian-American studies at California State University at Fullerton, took a class on power in society: who has it, how it's used. "It really opened my eyes. For the first time in my life, I realized that learning could be about me and my interests, about who I was," Noh tells Bain. "I didn't just listen to lectures, but began to use my own experiences as a jumping-off point for asking questions and wanting to pursue certain concepts."

( MORE: Highlighting Is a Waste of Time: The Best and Worst Learning Techniques)

Read and think actively. Dean Baker, one of the few economists to predict the economic collapse of 2008, became fascinated in college by the way economic forces shape people's lives. His studies led him to reflect on "what he believed and why, integrating and questioning," Bain notes. Baker says: "I was always looking for arguments in something I read, and then pinpointing the evidence to see how it was used."

Ask big questions. Jeff Hawkins, an engineer who created the first mobile computing device, organized his college studies around four profound questions he wanted to explore: Why does anything exist? Given that a universe does exist, why do we have the particular laws of physics that we do? Why do we have life, and what is its nature? And given that life exists, what's the nature of intelligence? For many of the subjects he pursued, Bain notes, "there was no place to 'look it up,' no simple answer."

Cultivate empathy for others. Reyna Grande, author of the novels Across a Hundred Mountains and Dancing with Butterflies, started writing seriously in her junior year in college. "Writing fiction taught Reyna to empathize with the people who populated her stories, an ability that she transferred to her life," Bain notes: "As a writer, I have to understand what motivates a character, and I see other people as characters in the story of life," Grande says. "When someone makes mistakes, I always look at what made them act the way they do."

( MORE: The Biggest Barrier to Elite Education Isn't Affordability. It's Accessibility)

Set goals and make them real. Tia Fuller, who later became an accomplished saxophone player, began planning her future in college, envisioning the successful completion of her projects. "I would keep focused on the light at the end of the tunnel, and what that accomplishment would mean," she tells Bain. "That would help me develop a crystalized vision."

Find a way to contribute. Joel Feinman, now a lawyer who provides legal services to the poor, was set on his career path by a book he read in college: The Massacre at El Mozote, an account of a 1981 slaughter of villagers in El Salvador. After writing and staging a campus play about the massacre, and traveling to El Salvador, Feinman "decided that I wanted to do something to help people and bring a little justice to the world."

MORE: Campus Scandals and College Admissions: What Applicants Should Know

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Secrets of the Most Successful College Students

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"What the Best College Students Do," a book by historian and educator Ken Bain, draws a road map for how students can get the most out of college, no matter where they go College-admission letters go out this month, and most recipients (and their parents) will place great importance on which universities said yes and which said no.

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Assignment Overview

The literacy narrative assignment calls you to investigate your past literate experiences, share stories about moments and situations that shaped your trajectory as a reader and writer, and make an overall point. Throughout your life, many experiences have helped you develop as a reader and writer. Parents, teachers, mentors, and institutions are among the entities that have likely helped you develop your literacy. These sponsors (as Deborah Brandt) would call them, are agents that enable and procure literacy opportunities but also stand to gain something from the sponsorship situation.

Begin by considering your history as a reader and writer. Mine your memory for important moments and situations that helped you develop your sense of value regarding reading and writing. Think about who helped you to develop your sense of value regarding reading and writing. Think carefully about key experiences that impacted your perception of writing and reading.

Brainstorming
Start the brainstorming process by answering all of the questions below:

What is your earliest memory of reading and writing?
How did you learn to read and write?
How did you come to identify certain values with reading and writing?
What kinds of reading have you done in your past and what kinds of reading do you do now?
Which teachers do you remember from your past who had a particular impact on your reading and writing?
What is your current attitude towards reading and writing?
Were there any aspects of reading or writing that frustrated you as you grew up?
How have institutions impacted your reading and writing?
How much have you enjoyed particular kinds of reading and writing that you did in your past? Why?
Has there ever been a sense of reward or punishment associated with reading or writing from your past?
What from your past has made you the kind of reader and writer you are today?
What moments from your past do you remember as particularly empowering or dis-empowering?

Organizing
After you have answered these questions, you should make a literacy profile. You might arrange your literacy experiences according to empowering experiences and dis-empowering ones. You should organize your profile in any way that makes sense to you. Below is an example of my literacy profile:

Professor Longhany's Literacy Profile

Early Listening Experiences:My earliest recognition of literacy was listening to my grandmother tell fairytale stories. My parents told these stories too, but I remember my grandmother telling us about the Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, and The Woman with a Wig and a Wag who stole a bunch of money from a witch among others. These stories all carried themes about working hard, persevering, and upholding certain values.

Early Readers: My parents had a rich clustering of story books for us to read as well. We had the Dr. Seuss collection, books of poems by Shell Silverstein, a series of biographical picture books about famous Americans, and cards from Wild Kingdom that depicted different animals and plants from around the world. We read these story books with my mother before going to bed. I remember reading The Lorax and again I was being exposed to books that carried these little lessons- this one being that it is important to take care of the environment.

Learning Disabilities: When I got to second grade, I was diagnosed with a learning disability called ADHD. My teacher was about 85 years old with the temperament of a drill sergeant. I remember being led into a doctor's office where nodes were attached to my head. The final prognosis: I was to be put on Ritalin. My father refused to let me go on Ritalin and I was sent back to school. Surprisingly my grades turned around when I got to third grade. The class was much more engaging and fun. I started to get A's and B's again.

My mother gave me interesting things to read: In fifth grade my mother gave me a book called Bo Knows Bo, the autobiography of Bo Jackson. Since I was athletic and enjoyed sports, Bo Knows Bo was great. In the first twenty pages, Bo wrote about losing his virginity at age seven. I really enjoyed showing my friends the racy sections where Bo talked about his sex life. In 7 th grade my mother came through with another book titled The Hot Zone. This thriller is about an Ebola outbreak in a small African nation. This book really sparked my interest and there were times where I was sneaking some reading while in class.

Sports Literacies:My mother pushed my academics, but my father pushed me to develop sports literacies. I learned a lot about how to be a good teammate and set personal goals aside for the betterment of the team. I'll never forget the little league game where I pitched a one-hit shutout. Our only run scored was by our first baseman who hit a homerun. He gave me his homerun ball after the game and said if it hadn't been for my pitching performance that day, we would not have won the game. I learned about perseverance, teamwork, giving credit to others, and how to both lose and win gracefully.

Video Game Literacy: After having me, my mother had my brother eighteen months later. Taking care of us both became quite a task, so my mother got me a video game system called Atari. Since Atari, I have come to own many other systems including Sega Genesis, Nintendo, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Wii, and so on. One genre of video games really stuck with me- it was role playing strategy games. These games involve an epic story where a hero character (the one I controlled) set out on an adventure. I remember playing various role playing games, but there was always the character setting out on an adventure that brought me back to the game. Inadvertently I started to develop a taste for these adventures, and along with the early stories that my grandmother told me, these stories that emerged out of my game console were also filled with lessons to be learned. One offshoot of this was learning about failure. Every time I failed at the video game, I learned better ways to try it another time. No failure in the world of gaming was enough to cripple me, and I almost always found a way to finish the game.

Decline of traditional print literacies: Once I got into early high-school I fell out of favor with writing and reading for a bit of time. I read the sports page of the newspaper nearly every day, but I began to be less interested in reading and writing. The downward spiral of traditional print literacies continued into 12 th grade where I had an instructor who had us watch movies for the duration of our senior year of English. We watched many films, but I didn't really learn any writing skills that would help me write in college.

The community college English teacher grabbed my butt: I earned a C in my first college level English course and was still disappointed in my abilities as a writer and reader. This freshmen level English teacher wore Kansas Jayhawks shirts to class every day. She regularly tore into my papers, and this was justified because I had just spend one year of an English class my senior year of high school watching movies.

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Finding a Main Point or Theme

After completing your profile, you should start to see some sense of direction or some themes emerging with your profile. You must decide upon what it is that you will talk about out of all the possibilities from your past. As you consider what you want to write about, you should consider an overall 'main theme' or an overall 'so what' point that will guide your narrative. Your main theme, also known as your central finding, should guide and control the overall direction of the essay. For example, you might have discovered that you were steered away from certain kinds of literacy, but this motivated you to pursue those types of literacy even more fervently. Or, you may notice an insight emerge that helps explain why you read and write as you do today.

This main point or main finding should be supported by evidence from your past experiences. For example, if I pull some common themes from my narrative, a few ideas emerge:
1. The impact of the adventure story has carried throughout my literacy development
2. My motivation fluctuated at different points of time based on relationships I had with sponsors

I might make a claim that relationships are paramount for sponsorships to succeed and for literacy to flourish.

What makes the literacy narrative good?
1. Tells a story about past literacy experiences
2. Makes connections between your literate past and where you are now as a reader and writer
3. Delivers an overall point

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Assignment Overview The literacy narrative assignment calls you to investigate your past literate experiences, share stories about moments and situations that shaped your trajectory as a reader and writer, and make an overall point. Throughout your life, many experiences have helped you develop as a reader and writer.

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We published an updated version of this list, "401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing," as well as a companion piece, "650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing."

Sign up for our free weekly newsletter and get five new Student Opinion questions delivered to you every week.

If anything ever published on The Learning Network could be said to have "gone viral," it is last February's " 200 Prompts for Argumentative Writing," which we created to help teachers and students participate in our inaugural Student Editorial Contest.

We've now updated last year's list with new questions and what we hope is more useful categorization.

So scroll through the 301 prompts below that touch on every aspect of contemporary life - from politics to sports, culture, education and technology - and see which ones most inspire you to take a stand. Each question comes from our daily Student Opinion feature, and each provides links to free Times resources for finding more information.

What issues do you care about most? Find something to write about here, or post a comment if you think we've missed a topic you would like to see us cover.

And if these 301 questions aren't enough, the Room for Debate blog provides many, many more.

TECHNOLOGY Technology
1. Does Technology Make Us More Alone?

2. Are You Distracted by Technology?

3. Do Apps Help You or Just Waste Your Time?

4. Do You Spend Too Much Time on Smartphones Playing 'Stupid Games'?

5. Will Wearable Technology Ever Really Catch On?

6. Are Digital Photographs Too Plentiful to Be Meaningful?

7. Do You Worry We Are Filming Too Much?

8. Would You Want a Pair of Google's Computer Glasses?

9. What Role Will Robots Play in Our Future?

10. How Many Text Messages Are Too Many?
Internet and Social Media
11. Has Facebook Lost Its Edge?

12. Does Facebook Ever Make You Feel Bad?

13. Would You Consider Deleting Your Facebook Account?

14. Should What You Say on Facebook Be Grounds for Getting Fired?

15. Should People Be Allowed to Obscure Their Identities Online?

16. How Much Do You Trust Online Reviews?
Technology in Schools
17. Are the Web Filters at Your School Too Restrictive?

18. Do Your Teachers Use Technology Well?

19. Should Tablet Computers Become the Primary Way Students Learn in Class?

20. Can Cellphones Be Educational Tools?

21. Should Computer Games Be Used for Classroom Instruction?

22. Is Online Learning as Good as Face-to-Face Learning?

23. How Would You Feel About a Computer Grading Your Essays?
ART, FILM, BOOKS, VIDEO GAMES AND OTHER MEDIA Movies, TV and Theater
24. Is TV Stronger Than Ever, or Becoming Obsolete?

25. Do TV Shows Like '16 and Pregnant' Promote or Discourage Teenage Pregnancy?

26. Does Reality TV Promote Dangerous Stereotypes?

27. Does TV Capture the Diversity of America Yet?

28. Is TV Too White?

29. Why Do We Like to Watch Rich People on TV and in the Movies?

30. What Makes a Good TV Show Finale?

31. What Makes a Good Commercial?

32. Why Did a Cheerios Ad Attract So Many Angry Comments Online?

33. What Were the Best Movies You Saw in the Past Year?

34. Does Live Theater Offer Something You Just Can't Get Watching Movies or TV?
Music
35. What Can You Predict About the Future of the Music Industry?

36. What Current Musicians Do You Think Will Stand the Test of Time?

37. What Artists or Bands of Today Are Destined for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

38. What Artists Do You Consider 'Sellouts'?

39. What Musician, Actor or Author Should Be a Superstar, but Hasn't Quite Made It Yet?

40. Who Does Hip-Hop Belong To?

41. Will Musical Training Make You More Successful?
Video Games
42. Should Video Games Be Considered a Sport?

43. Should Stores Sell Violent Video Games to Minors?

44. Do Violent Video Games Make People More Violent in Real Life?

45. When Should You Feel Guilty for Killing Zombies?

46. Can a Video Game Be a Work of Art?

47. What Game Would You Like to Redesign?

48. How Sexist Is the Gaming World?
Literature
49. Would You Trade Your Paper Books for Digital Versions?

50. Does Reading a Book Count More Than Listening to One?

51. To What Writer Would You Award a Prize?

52. Who Are the Characters That Authors Should Be Writing About?

53. Do You Prefer Your Children's Book Characters Obedient or Contrary?
Art
54. Can Graffiti Ever Be Considered Art?

55. Do We Need Art in Our Lives?

56. Does Pop Culture Deserve Serious Study?

57. Where Is the Line Between Truth and Fiction?

58. Should Society Support Artists and Others Pursuing Creative Works?
GENDER AND RELATIONSHIPS Gender Issues
59. Do Parents Have Different Hopes and Standards for Their Sons Than for Their Daughters?

60. Is School Designed More for Girls Than Boys?

61. Is There Too Much Pressure on Girls to Have 'Perfect' Bodies?

62. How Much Pressure Do Boys Face to Have the Perfect Body?

63. Do Photoshopped Images Make You Feel Bad About Your Own Looks?

64. Doctored Photos: O.K. or Not?

65. Is It O.K. for Men and Boys to Comment on Women and Girls on the Street?

66. Do We Need New Ways to Identify Gender and Sexuality?

67. What Should We Do to Fight Sexual Violence Against Young Women?

68. How Do You Feel About Rihanna and Chris Brown Getting Back Together?

69. Why Aren't There More Girls in Leadership Roles?

70. Why Aren't More Girls Choosing to Pursue Careers in Math and Science?

71. Should Women Be Allowed to Fight on the Front Lines Alongside Men?

72. Do You Believe in Equal Rights for Women and Men?

73. Are Women Better at Compromising and Collaborating?

74. Do Boys Have Less Intense Friendships Than Girls?

75. Can a Boy Wear a Skirt to School?

76. Is It O.K. to Refuse to Serve Same-Sex Couples Based on Religious Beliefs?
Dating and Sex
77. Should Birth Control Pills Be Available to Teenage Girls Without a Prescription?

78. Should the Morning-After Pill Be Sold Over the Counter to People Under 17?

79. How Should Children Be Taught About Puberty and Sex?

80. Is Dating a Thing of the Past?

81. Is Hookup Culture Leaving Your Generation Unhappy and Unprepared for Love?

82. Should Couples Live Together Before Marriage?

83. Could Following These Directions Make You Fall in Love With a Stranger?

84. How Should Educators and Legislators Deal With Minors Who 'Sext'?

85. How Should Parents Address Internet Pornography?
SPORTS AND ATHLETICS Football
86. If Football Is So Dangerous to Players, Should We Be Watching It?

87. Should Parents Let Their Children Play Football?

88. Should College Football Players Get Paid?

89. Is It Offensive for Sports Teams to Use Native American Names and Mascots?
Sportsmanship
90. Are Some Youth Sports Too Intense?

91. Should There Be Stricter Rules About How Coaches Treat Their Players?

92. Do Sports Teams Have a Responsibility to Hold Players to a Standard for Their Personal Conduct?

93. Should Athletes Who Dope Have to Forfeit Their Titles and Medals?

94. Do Fans Put Too Much Pressure on Their Favorite Professional Athletes?

95. Does a Championship Game Always Need to Have a Winner (and a Loser)?

96. Should Sports Betting Be Legal Everywhere?

97. Should Colleges Fund Wellness Programs Instead of Sports?

98. Where Should Colleges and Sports Teams Draw the Line in Selling Naming Rights?
Other Sports
99. Has Baseball Lost Its Cool?

100. Is Cheerleading a Sport?

101. How Big a Deal Is It That an N.B.A. Player Came Out as Gay?

102. Would You Want a Bike Share Program for Your Community?

103. How Young Is Too Young to Climb Mount Everest?
POLITICS AND POLICY Government
104. Do You Trust Your Government?

105. If You Were Governor of Your State, How Would You Spend a Budget Surplus?

106. What Local Problems Do You Think Your Mayor Should Try to Solve?

107. Should Rich People Have to Pay More Taxes?

108. What Is More Important: Our Privacy or National Security?
Leadership and Politics
109. Do Leaders Have Moral Obligations?

110. Do Great Leaders Have to Be Outgoing?

111. Is It Principled, or Irresponsible, for Politicians to Threaten a Shutdown?
International Relations
112. Should the U.S. Be Spying on Its Friends?

113. When Is the Use of Military Force Justified?

114. Should Countries Pay Ransoms to Free Hostages Held by Terrorists?
Police, Prisons and Justice System
115. Should the United States Stop Using the Death Penalty?

116. When Should Juvenile Offenders Receive Life Sentences?

117. What Do You Think of the Police Tactic of Stop-and-Frisk?

118. Do Rich People Get Off Easier When They Break the Law?

119. Should All Police Officers Wear Body Cameras?

120. Will What Happened in Ferguson Change Anything?

121. Should Felons Be Allowed to Vote After They Have Served Their Time?
Gun Policy
122. How Should We Prevent Future Mass Shootings?

123. Would You Feel Safer With Armed Guards Patrolling Your School?

124. What Is Your Relationship With Guns?

125. Where Do You Stand on Unconcealed Handguns?

126. Should Guns Be Permitted on College Campuses?

127. Did a Newspaper Act Irresponsibly by Publishing the Addresses of Gun Owners?
Immigration
128. Should Millions of Undocumented Immigrants Be Allowed to Live in the U.S. Without Fear of Getting Deported?

129. Are Children of Illegal Immigrants Entitled to a Public Education?
PARENTS AND FAMILIES Parenting and Childhood
130. How Much Freedom Should Parents Give Their Children?

131. How Should Parents Discipline Their Kids?

132. When Does Discipline Become Child Abuse?

133. Do 'Shame and Blame' Work to Change Teenage Behavior?

134. Do We Give Children Too Many Trophies?

135. Are Adults Hurting Young Children by Pushing Them to Achieve?

136. Is Modern Culture Ruining Childhood?

137. How, and by Whom, Should Children Be Taught Appropriate Behavior?

138. Are 'Dark' Movies O.K. for Kids?

139. Should Halloween Costumes Portray Only 'Positive Images'?

140. Are Parents Violating Their Children's Privacy When They Share Photos and Videos of Them Online?

141. Should Children Be Allowed to Compete on TV?

142. How Young Is Too Young for an iPhone?

143. Should Parents Limit How Much Time Children Spend on Tech Devices?
Parents and School
144. How Should Parents Handle a Bad Report Card?

145. How Important Are Parent-Teacher Conferences?

146. Who Should Be Able to See Students' Records?

147. Would You Want to Be Home-Schooled?

148. Should All Children Be Able to Go to Preschool?
House and Home
149. How Important Is Keeping a Clean House?

150. Does Keeping a Messy Desk Make People More Creative?
Millennial Generation
151. What Can Older People Learn From Your Generation?

152. Does Your Generation Have Too Much Self-Esteem?

153. Is Your Generation Really 'Postracial'?
Becoming an Adult
154. When Do You Become an Adult?

155. When Should You Be Able to Buy Cigarettes, Drink Alcohol, Vote, Drive and Fight in Wars?

156. When You Are Old Enough to Vote, Will You?
CHARACTER AND MORALITY Personal Character
157. Can Money Buy You Happiness?

158. Does Buying and Accumulating More and More Stuff Make Us Happier?

159. Are We Losing the Art of Listening?

160. Do People Complain Too Much?

161. Which Is More Important: Talent or Hard Work?

162. How Important Is Keeping Your Cool?

163. When Should You Compromise?

164. Is Your Generation More Self-Centered Than Earlier Generations?
Religion and Spirituality
165. Do You Believe That Everything Happens for a Reason?

166. How Much Control Do You Think You Have Over Your Fate?

167. Can You Be Good Without God?

168. How Important Do You Think It Is to Marry Someone With the Same Religion?
Morality and Personal Responsibility
169. Does Suffering Make Us Stronger and Lead to Success?

170. Do Bystanders Have a Responsibility to Intervene When There is Trouble?

171. When Is Looting Morally O.K.?

172. Can Kindness Become Cool?
Language and Standards
173. Have Curse Words Become So Common They Have Lost Their Shock Value?

174. What Words or Phrases Do You Think Are Overused?

175. What Words or Phrases Should Be Retired?

176. Do Laws That Ban Offensive Words Make the World a Better Place?

177. Should Newspapers Reprint Cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad That Some Deem Offensive?

178. Is It Wrong for a Newspaper to Publish a Front-Page Photo of a Man About to Die?
EDUCATION Teaching and Learning
179. Do Teachers Assign Too Much Homework?

180. Does Your Homework Help You Learn?

181. What Are You Really Learning at School?

182. Does Class Size Matter?

183. Do We Need a New Way to Teach Math?

184. Does Gym Help Students Perform Better in All Their Classes?

185. Should Reading and Math Be Taught in Gym Class Too?

186. What Are the Best Ways to Learn About History?

187. What Is the Right Amount of Group Work in School?

188. What Do You Think of Grouping Students by Ability in Schools?

189. How Important Is Arts Education?

190. Do Schools Provide Students With Enough Opportunities to Be Creative?

191. Does the Way Your Classroom Is Decorated Affect Your Learning?
Discipline and School Rules
192. What Are the Best Teaching Methods for Getting Students to Behave Well in Class?

193. How Does Your School Deal With Students Who Misbehave?

194. Should Schools Be Allowed to Use Corporal Punishment?

195. Is Cheating Getting Worse?

196. Should Schools Put Tracking Devices in Students' ID Cards?

197. Should Middle School Students Be Drug Tested?

198. Should Students Be Barred From Taking Cellphones to School?
Bullying
199. How Big a Problem Is Bullying or Cyberbullying in Your School or Community?

200. How Should Schools Address Bullying?

201. How Should Schools Address Cyberbullying?

202. What Should the Punishment Be for Acts of Cyberbullying?

203. When Do Pranks Cross the Line to Become Bullying?

204. How Should Schools Respond to Hazing Incidents?
Time in School
205. Should the School Day Start Later?

206. Is Your School Day Too Short?

207. Do You Think a Longer School Calendar Is a Good Idea?

208. Should the Dropout Age Be Raised?

209. Should We Rethink How Long Students Spend in High School?

210. Should Students Be Allowed to Skip Senior Year of High School?

211. Should Kids Head to College Early?

212. Class Time + Substitute = Waste?

213. Do Kids Need Recess?
Grading
214. Should Students Be Able to Grade Their Teachers?

215. Does Your School Hand Out Too Many A's?

216. Do Girls Get Better Grades Than Boys in Your School?

217. Does Separating Boys and Girls Help Students Perform Better in School?

218. Why Do Boys Lag Behind Girls in Reading?

219. Should Discomfort Excuse Students From Having to Complete an Assignment?
Standardized Tests
220. How Well Do You Think Standardized Tests Measure Your Abilities?

221. How Seriously Should We Take Standardized Tests?

222. Do You Spend Too Much Time Preparing for Standardized Tests?

223. Should Schools Offer Cash Bonuses for Good Test Scores?
School Life
224. Would You Rather Attend a Public or a Private High School?

225. How Much Does It Matter to You Which High School You Attend?

226. Are Small Schools More Effective Than Large Schools?

227. Should Home-Schoolers Be Allowed to Play Public School Sports?

228. Should All Students Get Equal Space in a Yearbook?

229. Should School Newspapers Be Subject to Prior Review?

230. Is Prom Worth It?

231. Is Prom Just an Excuse to Drink?
COLLEGE AND CAREER College
232. How Necessary Is a College Education?

233. Is College Overrated?

234. Should a College Education be Free?

235. What Is the Perfect Number of College Applications to Send?

236. Should Colleges Find a Better Way to Admit Students?

237. Should Colleges Use Admissions Criteria Other Than SAT Scores and Grades?

238. Do You Support Affirmative Action in College Admissions?

239. Does It Matter Where You Go to College?

240. Do College Rankings Matter?

241. What Criteria Should Be Used in Awarding Scholarships for College?

242. Should Engineers Pay Less for College Than English Majors?

243. Do Fraternities Promote Misogyny?

244. Should Colleges Ban Fraternities?
Jobs and Careers
245. Would You Quit if Your Values Did Not Match Your Employer's?

246. Should Employers Be Able to Review Job Applicants' SAT Scores?

247. Do You Worry Colleges or Employers Might Read Your Social Media Posts Someday?

248. Would You Rather Work From Home or in an Office?

249. Is 'Doing Nothing' a Good Use of Your Time?
HEALTH AND NUTRITION Drugs, Cigarettes and Alcohol
250. Is Smoking Still a Problem Among Teenagers?

251. Are Antismoking Ads Effective?

252. Is Drinking and Driving Still a Problem for Teenagers?

253. Should Marijuana Be Legal?

254. Should Students Be Required to Take Drug Tests?

255. Why Is Binge Drinking So Common Among Young People in the United States?
Nutrition and Food
256. Do You Think a Healthier School Lunch Program Is a Lost Cause?

257. Should French Fries and Pizza Sauce Count as Vegetables?

258. How Concerned Are You About Where Your Food Comes From?

259. Is It Ethical to Eat Meat?

260. Is Breakfast Really the Most Important Meal of the Day?

261. Do You Prefer Your Tacos 'Authentic' or 'Appropriated'?

262. Should Sugary Drinks Be Taxed?

263. Should the Government Limit the Size of Sugary Drinks?
Health Issues
264. How Should Schools Handle Unvaccinated Students?

265. Should Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legal in Every State?

266. Should Texting While Driving Be Illegal in Every State?

267. Should Terminally Ill Patients Be Allowed to Die on Their Own Terms?
Appearance and Fashion
268. Should Children Be Allowed to Wear Whatever They Want?

269. What Are Your Opinions on Cosmetic Surgery?

270. Do 'Saggy Pants' Mean Disrespect?

271. Should You Care About the Health and Safety of Those Making Your Clothing?
SCIENCE TOPICS Science and the Environment
272. How Concerned Are You About Climate Change?

273. How Should Nations and Individuals Address Climate Change?

274. Should Developers Be Allowed to Build in and Near the Grand Canyon?

275. Should Scientists Try to Help People Beat Old Age So We Can Live Longer Lives?

276. Given Unlimited Resources, What Scientific or Medical Problem Would You Investigate?

277. When Is It O.K. to Replace Human Limbs With Technology?

278. Should Fertilized Eggs Be Given Legal 'Personhood'?
Outer Space
279. Do You Think Life Exists - or Has Ever Existed - Somewhere Besides Earth?

280. Do You Believe in Intelligent Alien Life?

281. Will Humans Live on Mars Someday?

282. Would You Want to Be a Space Tourist?
Animals
283. Should Certain Animals Have Some of the Same Legal Rights As People?

284. Is It Unethical for a Zoo to Kill a Healthy Giraffe?

285. Should You Go to Jail for Kicking a Cat?

286. Should You Feel Guilty About Killing Spiders, Ants or Other Bugs?

287. How Do You Think Dinosaurs Went Extinct?
MISCELLANEOUS Rich and Famous
288. Should the Private Lives of Famous People Be Off Limits?

289. Do You Think Child Stars Have It Rough?
American Dream
290. Should the United States Care That It's Not No. 1?

291. Is It Possible to Start Out Poor in This Country, Work Hard and Become Well-Off?

292. Do Poor People 'Have It Easy'?

293. How Much Does Your Neighborhood Define Who You Are?
Charity and Philanthropy
294. Should Charities Focus More on America?

295. What Causes Should Philanthropic Groups Finance?

296. Is Teenage 'Voluntourism' Wrong?
Shopping
297. Do You Shop at Locally Owned Businesses?

298. Is Amazon Becoming Too Powerful?

299. Should Companies Collect Information About You?

300. What Time Should Black Friday Sales Start?

301. How Long Is It O.K. to Linger in a Cafe or Restaurant?

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For our Second Annual Student Editorial Contest, in which teenagers are invited to write on an issue they care about, we have gathered a list of 301 writing prompts that may help - an update to last year's popular list of 200.

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VIDEO: Writing a Killer Thesis Statement

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VIDEO: Writing a Killer Thesis Statement

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How To Write A Killer Thesis Statement by Shmoop

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How to Write an Argumentative Essay by Shmoop

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Writing Grabby Intro Sentences by Shmoop

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How to Write a Reader Response (with sample essays)

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How to Write a Reader Response (with sample essays)

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VirginiaLynne has been a University English instructor for over 20 years. She specializes in helping people write essays faster and easier.

Reading Response Essays

Summarizes what you read.

Gives your reaction to the text.

Your reaction will be one or more of the following:

1. Agreement/disagreement with the ideas in the text.

2. Reaction to how the ideas in the text relate to your own experience.

3. Reaction to how ideas in the text relate to other things you've read.

4. Your analysis of the author and audience.

5. Your evaluation of how this text tries to convince the reader and whether it is effective.

Your introduction will be 1-3 paragraphs. For this essay, because you want to give both information about the subject and also briefly summarize the article you are responding to, you probably need at least two paragraphs. In all introductions, you want to:

Get the reader's attention.

Describe your subject.

Give your thesis.

For a responsive reading essay, you also need to:

Mention the author and title of the article you are discussing.

Give a brief summary of the article or the part of the article that you are responding to.

Introduction Ideas

Paragraph One. Get the reader's attention by describing the subject in one of the following ways:

Use a startling statistic.

Cite an interesting fact.

Pose an appropriate quotation.

Tell an anecdote.

Describe a scenario.

Write a conversation.

Tell a story.

Put forth a question your essay will answer.

Give an example.

Explain general information about the topic.

Using a Frame for Your Introduction and Conclusion

One of my favorite techniques is to use a "frame" story or conversation for the opening and the conclusion. The way this works is that you tell half of a story or conversation in the introduction and then tell the rest of the story in the conclusion. Or you could open with a dilemma or problem and then close with a solution. Another approach is to retell the same story in the conclusion with a different (usually better) ending. Examples:

In an essay about cell phone use in cars, you could open with a scenario showing a person getting a call while driving and thinking about what to do. In the conclusion, you could tell the end of the scenario-maybe the driver pulls over to take the call or decides to let voicemail take it.

In an essay about dealing with a family member with Alzheimer's, you could open with a conversation between family members trying to figure out what to do and conclude with a conversation between the same people after they have decided to place that person in a nursing home.

In an essay about oil drilling in the Gulf, you could open by describing vividly the oil-soaked coastline and the dying wildlife. You could conclude with what that coastline looks like now.

On any topic which you have personal experience, you can open with part of your story, and then conclude with the ending of your story.

Introduction and Conclusion Ideas

Paragraph 2: After your introduction, transition by explaining what the author of the article you have written has to say about this topic. Briefly explain the main points of the article that you want to talk about. Then you will give your thesis.

Example: According to Mary Johnson in "Cell Phones are Dangerous," we should not use our phones while driving and should educate others not to use them either. Johnson gives statistics showing that talking on a cell phone is as dangerous as driving drunk. Moreover, she points out the increasing number of accidents caused by cell phone use. Her conclusion is that we need to personally decide not to use a cell phone while driving and that we need to educate our friends and family to give up cell phones while driving, too.

Then add a thesis statement like one of the following examples:

(Agree) I agree with Johnson because I have observed many people driving dangerously while talking on cell phones and have even been in an accident myself while talking on the phone.

(Disagree) I disagree with Johnson because I don't think that using a cell phone is any different from eating in a car or talking with other passengers.

Then reflect and expand:

(Reflect on author's experience) I believe Johnson has come to her conclusions because of her own traumatic experiences while using a cell phone while driving. (Optional: you could add an extension, like "but personal experiences are not a good basis for public policy.")

(Expand on an assertion made in the essay) I agree with Johnson's assertion that cell phones are dangerous, but I'd go even further than she does because I think we cannot control this problem by merely educating the public. We need to have laws prohibiting the use of cell phones while driving.

Here are six different ways to respond to an essay:

1. You can agree with the article and explain three or more reasons why you agree.

2. You can disagree with the article and explain three or more reasons why.

3. You can agree with some parts of the article and disagree with other parts and explain why.

4. You can analyze the rhetorical situation (occasion, purpose, audience, and context) of this article and explain why the author's personal experience causes them to write this piece.

5. You can take one part of the essay, agreeing or disagreeing with it, and expand on that idea, giving reasons for your reader to agree with you.

6. You can explain your reaction to the article and then analyze how the writer's style, tone, word choice, and examples made you feel that way.

Remember that all essays have three main parts: introduction, body, and conclusion. There are many ways to write a good essay, but I will give you a general guide to follow which will help you to organize your ideas.

Here you will argue your thesis and give support for your ideas from your personal experience and your own thinking and reading. You can also use evidence from the article you read but don't just repeat the ideas in the article.

The body of your paper should have three or more paragraphs.

Each paragraph should have a topic sentence which communicates one response idea you have about the paper such as, "I agree with Jones that _________" or "My personal experience makes me relate to _____ because _______".

The rest of the paragraph should give details to back up that point. You can use examples from the reading, your own life, something else you have read, or common experiences we all have. You can also use reasoning to prove your points. Explain why you think this way.

Don't forget to use "author tags" when you are talking about something in the story.

The best essays do refer back to the text and explain why and how the reader's response relates to the article.

The first time you talk about the article, you should give the full name of the author and the title of the article in parenthesis: John Jones in his article, "Taking Back Our Lives," states _________."

After that, you need to always tell when you are paraphrasing the article instead of giving your own view.

Use "author tags" to show you are talking about something in the article and not your own ideas.

Author tags use the last name of the author and a verb. Try these variations:

Jones argues
Jones explains
Jones warns
Jones suggests
Jones advises
Jones contends
Jones investigates
Jones asks

Differentiating Your Voice from the Author's: Instead of "Jones says," you can use:

Contrary to what you may have learned in previous writing classes, you should not repeat or summarize your arguments in the conclusion. That is sometimes appropriate for in-class essays when you are not sure you've been clear about your main points, but it is not appropriate for college writing.

Instead, you need to actually conclude your arguments. You can often use the same type of technique that you use in an introduction. You can also:

call attention to larger issues

call for a change in action or attitude

conclude with a vivid image

appeal to the reader to agree with you

or link back to your introduction by finishing the story/scenario, revising it, or explaining how it proves your point

This is a sample reading response essay to an article titled "Cell Phones are Dangerous" by Mary Johnson, agreeing with the article and extending one of the ideas.
Intro:
Paragraph 1: Dramatic re-telling of a personal story of picking up my cell phone and then realizing that I am going to crash into another car. Stop the story right before the crash.

Paragraph 2: Like most people, I thought I was a good enough driver to handle using a cell phone while driving. I found out I was wrong. It turns out I'm not unusual. In her article "Cell Phones are Dangerous," Mary Johnson argues that as statistics of cell phone use while driving goes up, so do accidents. According to Johnson, we should not use our phones while driving and should educate others not to use them either. Johnson cites statistics showing that talking on a cell phone is as dangerous as driving drunk. Moreover, she points out the increasing number of accidents caused by cell phone use. Her conclusion is that we need to personally decide not to use a cell phone while driving and that we need to educate our friends and family to give up using cell phones while driving too. I agree with Jones that cell phones are dangerous and that we should personally choose to not use one while driving; however, I'd go further than Jones by adding that we need to have laws that prohibit anyone from using cell phones in cars.
Body:
Each of these statements would be the topic sentence of one of the body paragraphs. For the first one, I also give examples of the type of arguments and support I would use to write that paragraph and prove my point.

1. Laws make people realize that cell phone driving is dangerous. (Below is an example of some support I could use to back up this idea-you can use ideas from the article but do not repeat the article.)

support with an anecdote of friends or family thinking a call is more important than driving

use statistics from article

argue some people will be convinced by being educated, but not everyone

use example of seatbelt laws saving lives

argue that using a cell phone endangers others and not just yourself

2. New technology requires changes in public policy.

3. People in my generation feel obligated to take a call, but if it is illegal to call while driving, they won't feel that pressure.

4. Using hands-free headsets won't work because it is the call which is distracting, not holding the phone.

5. This law will save a lot of lives.

Conclusion:

I would return to my personal story and pick it up where I left off. I do crash and there is a lot of damage to my car, but no one is hurt. I can explain my great relief that my cell phone use did not end more tragically, and my personal decision to put my cell phone where I can't reach it while driving. End with an appeal to the reader to do the same, but to also support legislation to prohibit cell phone use while driving.

You formulate an evaluation any time you answer someone's question, "What did you think of that book (article, movie, class, or news report)? Responding personally to an article is usually the start of any analysis of writing, so it is a good first paper type to write. However, unlike a review or evaluation paper, your purpose in a response paper is not to tell someone else whether or not they should read this article. Instead, your purpose is to explain your reaction and to give reasons (this will be the body of your paper) why you reacted that way. Doing an evaluation paper would take the reading response a step further and is probably one of the papers you will do next in your course.

Questions & Answers

Question:

My reading response paper is about a short story that we read in our class. Our assignment is to write a response to the story and express our opinion, Can you explain how to do this?

Answer:

I'm glad you've asked whether a reading response paper can be about a piece of literature. You can actually use many of the same techniques in writing about a short story as you do in writing about non-fiction articles. Here is a step-by-step:

1. Begin your paper with a brief description of the story, using the author and full title of the story to start. Here is an example:

In the short story, "I'm Afraid of Bears" by Jon Junko, a young man in college named Ben goes on a camping trip with friends to overcome his fear of being outside which started when he was bit in the head by a bear while sleeping in a tent with his parents when he was eight. Ben's journey on this camping trip parallels his journey through his fears to overcome them and includes...

2. End this paragraph with a thesis sentence which tells your main response and opinion about the story. Here is an example:

Junko's story is engaging, and his character of Ben is believable, authentic and relatable; moreover, I found the story suspenseful and was moved to think about how I needed to confront and overcome my fears.

3. In this "roadmap thesis," you can give yourself (and your reader) an outline of everything you will be talking about in the paper. So turn these ideas into topic sentences. Example:

Junko's story is engaging

The character of Ben is well described and believable.

The story is suspenseful.

While reading, I was moved to think about how I need to confront and overcome my fears.

4. Conclude your paper with why you liked or did not like the story and maybe what you will continue to think about or do after having read the story. If the class discussion also influenced you, you can talk about that as well.

Question:

What is the word count required of a Reader Response essay?

Answer:

There is no particular word count required for this sort of paper. Your instructor will probably have this information for you. However, I usually assign at least a 3-4 page essay to make sure the students do a thorough job.

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How to Write a Reading Response Essay with Sample Papers

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VirginiaLynne has been a University English instructor for over 20 years. She specializes in helping people write essays faster and easier. Summarizes what you read. Gives your reaction to the text. Your reaction will be one or more of the following: Agreement/disagreement with the ideas in the text.

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"The Flight from Conversation"  - Chapter 2

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"The Flight from Conversation"  - Chapter 2

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A businessman laments that he no longer has colleagues at work. He doesn't stop by to talk; he doesn't call. He says that he doesn't want to interrupt them. He says they're "too busy on their e-mail." But then he pauses and corrects himself. "I'm not telling the truth. I'm the one who doesn't want to be interrupted. I think I should. But I'd rather just do things on my BlackBerry."

A 16-year-old boy who relies on texting for almost everything says almost wistfully, "Someday, someday, but certainly not now, I'd like to learn how to have a conversation."

In today's workplace, young people who have grown up fearing conversation show up on the job wearing earphones. Walking through a college library or the campus of a high-tech start-up, one sees the same thing: we are together, but each of us is in our own bubble, furiously connected to keyboards and tiny touch screens. A senior partner at a Boston law firm describes a scene in his office. Young associates lay out their suite of technologies: laptops, iPods and multiple phones. And then they put their earphones on. "Big ones. Like pilots. They turn their desks into cockpits." With the young lawyers in their cockpits, the office is quiet, a quiet that does not ask to be broken.

In the silence of connection, people are comforted by being in touch with a lot of people - carefully kept at bay. We can't get enough of one another if we can use technology to keep one another at distances we can control: not too close, not too far, just right. I think of it as a Goldilocks effect.

Texting and e-mail and posting let us present the self we want to be. This means we can edit. And if we wish to, we can delete. Or retouch: the voice, the flesh, the face, the body. Not too much, not too little - just right.

Human relationships are rich; they're messy and demanding. We have learned the habit of cleaning them up with technology. And the move from conversation to connection is part of this. But it's a process in which we shortchange ourselves. Worse, it seems that over time we stop caring, we forget that there is a difference.

We are tempted to think that our little "sips" of online connection add up to a big gulp of real conversation. But they don't. E-mail, Twitter, Facebook, all of these have their places - in politics, commerce, romance and friendship. But no matter how valuable, they do not substitute for conversation.

Connecting in sips may work for gathering discrete bits of information or for saying, "I am thinking about you." Or even for saying, "I love you." But connecting in sips doesn't work as well when it comes to understanding and knowing one another. In conversation we tend to one another. (The word itself is kinetic; it's derived from words that mean to move, together.) We can attend to tone and nuance. In conversation, we are called upon to see things from another's point of view.

FACE-TO-FACE conversation unfolds slowly. It teaches patience. When we communicate on our digital devices, we learn different habits. As we ramp up the volume and velocity of online connections, we start to expect faster answers. To get these, we ask one another simpler questions; we dumb down our communications, even on the most important matters. It is as though we have all put ourselves on cable news. Shakespeare might have said, "We are consum'd with that which we were nourish'd by."

And we use conversation with others to learn to converse with ourselves. So our flight from conversation can mean diminished chances to learn skills of self-reflection. These days, social media continually asks us what's "on our mind," but we have little motivation to say something truly self-reflective. Self-reflection in conversation requires trust. It's hard to do anything with 3,000 Facebook friends except connect.

As we get used to being shortchanged on conversation and to getting by with less, we seem almost willing to dispense with people altogether. Serious people muse about the future of computer programs as psychiatrists. A high school sophomore confides to me that he wishes he could talk to an artificial intelligence program instead of his dad about dating; he says the A.I. would have so much more in its database. Indeed, many people tell me they hope that as Siri, the digital assistant on Apple's iPhone, becomes more advanced, "she" will be more and more like a best friend - one who will listen when others won't.

During the years I have spent researching people and their relationships with technology, I have often heard the sentiment "No one is listening to me." I believe this feeling helps explain why it is so appealing to have a Facebook page or a Twitter feed - each provides so many automatic listeners. And it helps explain why - against all reason - so many of us are willing to talk to machines that seem to care about us. Researchers around the world are busy inventing sociable robots, designed to be companions to the elderly, to children, to all of us.

One of the most haunting experiences during my research came when I brought one of these robots, designed in the shape of a baby seal, to an elder-care facility, and an older woman began to talk to it about the loss of her child. The robot seemed to be looking into her eyes. It seemed to be following the conversation. The woman was comforted.

And so many people found this amazing. Like the sophomore who wants advice about dating from artificial intelligence and those who look forward to computer psychiatry, this enthusiasm speaks to how much we have confused conversation with connection and collectively seem to have embraced a new kind of delusion that accepts the simulation of compassion as sufficient unto the day. And why would we want to talk about love and loss with a machine that has no experience of the arc of human life? Have we so lost confidence that we will be there for one another?

WE expect more from technology and less from one another and seem increasingly drawn to technologies that provide the illusion of companionship without the demands of relationship. Always-on/always-on-you devices provide three powerful fantasies: that we will always be heard; that we can put our attention wherever we want it to be; and that we never have to be alone. Indeed our new devices have turned being alone into a problem that can be solved.

When people are alone, even for a few moments, they fidget and reach for a device. Here connection works like a symptom, not a cure, and our constant, reflexive impulse to connect shapes a new way of being.

Think of it as "I share, therefore I am." We use technology to define ourselves by sharing our thoughts and feelings as we're having them. We used to think, "I have a feeling; I want to make a call." Now our impulse is, "I want to have a feeling; I need to send a text."

So, in order to feel more, and to feel more like ourselves, we connect. But in our rush to connect, we flee from solitude, our ability to be separate and gather ourselves. Lacking the capacity for solitude, we turn to other people but don't experience them as they are. It is as though we use them, need them as spare parts to support our increasingly fragile selves.

We think constant connection will make us feel less lonely. The opposite is true. If we are unable to be alone, we are far more likely to be lonely. If we don't teach our children to be alone, they will know only how to be lonely.

I am a partisan for conversation. To make room for it, I see some first, deliberate steps. At home, we can create sacred spaces: the kitchen, the dining room. We can make our cars "device-free zones." We can demonstrate the value of conversation to our children. And we can do the same thing at work. There we are so busy communicating that we often don't have time to talk to one another about what really matters. Employees asked for casual Fridays; perhaps managers should introduce conversational Thursdays. Most of all, we need to remember - in between texts and e-mails and Facebook posts - to listen to one another, even to the boring bits, because it is often in unedited moments, moments in which we hesitate and stutter and go silent, that we reveal ourselves to one another.

I spend the summers at a cottage on Cape Cod, and for decades I walked the same dunes that Thoreau once walked. Not too long ago, people walked with their heads up, looking at the water, the sky, the sand and at one another, talking. Now they often walk with their heads down, typing. Even when they are with friends, partners, children, everyone is on their own devices.

So I say, look up, look at one another, and let's start the conversation.

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A businessman laments that he no longer has colleagues at work. He doesn't stop by to talk; he doesn't call. He says that he doesn't want to interrupt them. He says they're "too busy on their e-mail." But then he pauses and corrects himself. "I'm not telling the truth.

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Ethos, Pathos, and Logos - SET OF HANDOUTS.docx

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WEEK 2 - What Type of Learner are You? Online Quiz

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WEEK 2 - What Type of Learner are You? Online Quiz

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Auditory

If you are an auditory learner, you learn by hearing and listening. You understand and remember things you have heard. You store information by the way it sounds, and you have an easier time understanding spoken instructions than written ones. You often learn by reading out loud because you have to hear it or speak it in order to know it.

As an auditory learner, you probably hum or talk to yourself or others if you become bored. People may think you are not paying attention, even though you may be hearing and understanding everything being said.

Here are some things that auditory learners like you can do to learn better.

Sit where you can hear.

Have your hearing checked on a regular basis.

Use flashcards to learn new words; read them out loud.

Read stories, assignments, or directions out loud.

Record yourself spelling words and then listen to the recording.

Have test questions read to you out loud.

Study new material by reading it out loud.

Remember that you need to hear things, not just see things, in order to learn well.

Visual

If you are a visual learner, you learn by reading or seeing pictures. You understand and remember things by sight. You can picture what you are learning in your head, and you learn best by using methods that are primarily visual. You like to see what you are learning.

As a visual learner, you are usually neat and clean. You often close your eyes to visualize or remember something, and you will find something to watch if you become bored. You may have difficulty with spoken directions and may be easily distracted by sounds. You are attracted to color and to spoken language (like stories) that is rich in imagery.

Here are some things that visual learners like you can do to learn better:

Sit near the front of the classroom. (It won't mean you're the teacher's pet!)

Have your eyesight checked on a regular basis.

Use flashcards to learn new words.

Try to visualize things that you hear or things that are read to you.

Write down key words, ideas, or instructions.

Draw pictures to help explain new concepts and then explain the pictures.

Color code things.

Avoid distractions during study times.

Remember that you need to see things, not just hear things, to learn well.

Tactile

If you are a tactile learner, you learn by touching and doing. You understand and remember things through physical movement. You are a "hands-on" learner who prefers to touch, move, build, or draw what you learn, and you tend to learn better when some type of physical activity is involved. You need to be active and take frequent breaks, you often speak with your hands and with gestures, and you may have difficulty sitting still.

As a tactile learner, you like to take things apart and put things together, and you tend to find reasons to tinker or move around when you become bored. You may be very well coordinated and have good athletic ability. You can easily remember things that were done but may have difficulty remembering what you saw or heard in the process. You often communicate by touching, and you appreciate physically expressed forms of encouragement, such as a pat on the back.

Here are some things that tactile learners like you can do to learn better:

Participate in activities that involve touching, building, moving, or drawing.

Do lots of hands-on activities like completing art projects, taking walks, or acting out stories.

It's OK to chew gum, walk around, or rock in a chair while reading or studying.

Use flashcards and arrange them in groups to show relationships between ideas.

Trace words with your finger to learn spelling (finger spelling).

Take frequent breaks during reading or studying periods (frequent, but not long).

It's OK to tap a pencil, shake your foot, or hold on to something while learning.

Use a computer to reinforce learning through the sense of touch.

Remember that you learn best by doing, not just by reading, seeing, or hearing.

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What's Your Learning Style? 20 Questions

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Auditory If you are an auditory learner, you learn by hearing and listening. You understand and remember things you have heard. You store information by the way it sounds, and you have an easier time understanding spoken instructions than written ones.

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Germanna Community College Tutoring Services

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When you're writing a paper, it's important to back yourself up. With citations; not literally. Doing so literally could result in other sorts of citations if you're anywhere near a street.

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MLA - Identifying Parts of a Website Citation

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MLA - Identifying Parts of a Website Citation

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WEEK 2 - Literacy Narrative - Teacher's Guide

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WEEK 2 - Literacy Narrative - Teacher's Guide

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WEEK 2 - How to Write a Literacy Narrative

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WEEK 2 - How to Write a Literacy Narrative

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Reflect

What is the earliest or most vivid memory you have of learning to read or write? Who taught you-a parent, grandparent, older sibling, or teacher? What books or stories were significant in your early life, and how do they resonate in you today?

How did you respond to being read to as a child? Think about looking at illustrations, hearing rhymes and voices for different characters. In school, were there any writing assignments that you found challenging or illuminating? How did your attitudes toward writing and reading develop?

These are some of the questions you should think about when writing a literacy narrative, whether as a school assignment, a journal entry, or an exercise to help you focus your writing experience.

Tell a story

As you may know, a narrative is a story. A literacy narrative is a personal account of learning how to read or write. It often explores the significance of books or written text in one's life and how they shaped one's attitudes toward writing or thinking.

I used to read Calvin and Hobbes out loud to my cousin, who was only a year younger and could read herself. There was something special about reading aloud, sharing the experience together. We would both pore over the strips collected in the books at my grandparents' house, one of our more peaceful activities (when we weren't playing blind-man's bluff in the basement and causing a general ruckus).

I learned to write sitting at a miniature school desk, practicing tracing letters on gray lined paper that easily smudged or tore when it met an eraser. We were encouraged to write our own stories and illustrate them, one of my favorite kindergarten activities. Mrs. Weinberg was my scribe as I narrated the story, writing it into the white booklet made from papers folded and stapled together. She asked me what happens to the bad guys in the story. "They die in the end," I said, pronouncing their final judgment with grim finality for a six-year-old. "Let's say they went to jail instead," she suggested.
Listening to our teacher read stories was also a treat. Even the fidgety kids enjoyed it. In the third grade we were introduced to Mr. Popper's Penguins and The Wind in the Willows. Little girls sat one behind the other and braided one another's hair as Mrs. Bartling read about Mole and Toad or explained how stories can jump back and forth in time.

Freewriting

A writing exercise that many teachers recommend is freewriting. It can help you get ideas flowing freely without worrying about logical flow, errors, or other self-censoring issues. The idea is to write nonstop, whatever comes to mind. Try not to lift your pen from the paper for more than a second. Go from one thought to the next without pausing. Even if your mind goes blank for a moment, keep writing the same word over and over, keeping the rhythm of the pen moving. Don't worry about spelling, grammar, or decent penmanship! Freewrite for five to ten minutes--the more you try it, the longer you can go.

Look at what you've written. It's probably messy, scatterbrained, discursive, amusing. That's fine! Freewriting is supposed to loosen the mind, take away the inhibitions that many writers face when they stare down a blank page. Think of athletes who stretch their muscles before a race. It's the same idea: you're getting yourself used to the act of writing, and letting all the little nuggets stored deep in your mind come out into the light. You may even hit on some fascinating thoughts that you want to write about further. Explore your mind--it's like dreaming when you're awake, and capturing the word and image flow on paper.

Brainstorming tips

Think about the questions posed in the first paragraph. To brainstorm, jot down some memories that are meaningful to you and think about why they are important. What emotions do they evoke in you-sadness, joy, pride, regret?

Think about detail, sensory details like how things look, smell, sound, taste, and feel.

Remember that this narrative is a story; include descriptions of characters and setting.

Dialogue can help bring people to life and make the story more dynamic.

Your literacy narrative may focus on one key event or it may cover a period of time; however, make it clear to the reader why the narrative is significant for you now. Discuss how it has changed or affected you. Why does this story matter to you?

I was pretty quiet at school and perfectly content to read by myself. I thought this was normal, but when I was in the seventh grade at a new school, a teacher urged me to put down Little Men and play with the other kids at recess. I know that her concern was not that I was reading but that I make new friends, and I still wonder if I part of the reason I love to read is because it allows me to retreat to my own world.

Consider the audience

As you draft the literacy narrative, think about who your audience is. It may be your teacher, your family or friends, or just yourself. Whoever it is reading your story, you want it to say something about you and your experiences.

What do you want your readers to take away from the story? Is the experience something they can relate to? Will you challenge them to see something in a different way? Also consider your stance as the writer. How do you want the readers to see you-detached, sincere, critical, or humorous? The attitude you project will affect the reader's perspective.

Even if your literacy narrative is something you keep between you and your journal, writing it will give you a new perspective on reading and writing. Maybe it will inspire you to explore other areas of your life for creative nonfiction pieces. Whatever your purpose, just keep writing.

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What is the earliest or most vivid memory you have of learning to read or write? Who taught you-a parent, grandparent, older sibling, or teacher? What books or stories were significant in your early life, and how do they resonate in you today? How did you respond to being read to as a child?

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The first time I took the ninth-grade proficiency test was in March of eighth grade. The test ultimately determines whether students may receive a high school diploma. After months of preparation and anxiety, the pressure was on. Throughout my elementary and middle school years, I was a strong student, always on the honor roll.

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WEEK 2 - What is a Literacy Narrative - Black Columbus

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WEEK 2 - What is a Literacy Narrative - Black Columbus

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WEEK 1 - How and Why We Read - Crash Course Literature

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WEEK 1 - How and Why We Read - Crash Course Literature

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How and Why We Read: Crash Course English Literature #1

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Annotations are... ...notes we take as readers. The notes help us make more in-depth meaning in text. Why? What is annotation and what does it mean to annotate? Reading = Thinking If we takes notes while we read, the notes help us stop and think about what we already know, what we don't know, and what might happen next.