Make College Yours

Layli Liss

Description

Most people think that getting ready to start college classes means buying a textbook and reading a syllabus. In reality, entering college is like entering a whole new world with new expectations and ways to interact and grow. The transition is rarely easy, but you can take ownership of your experience in college.

Make College Yours: Mindsets and Methods for College Success is designed for students in First Year Experience or similar courses at the college level. This text combines evidence-based instructional content with insightful anecdotes from students of varying backgrounds. In this book, you’ll find personal stories of college students grappling with the same problems and issues you’ll grapple with, stories that are as relatable as they are complex.

In these pages, you’ll find lots of helpful lessons about the basics of starting college, like:
• Improving study skills
• Combating test anxiety
• Being a good group member
• Developing a growth mindset
• Making campus connections
• Becoming an active learner

Make College Yours goes way beyond the basics, too. This book will also teach you about major life skills, including:
• Learning to persist through difficult times
• Managing negative emotions
• Understanding personal agency
• Making wise choices
• Taking responsibility for your own growth
• Overcoming procrastination

Sujets

• Test-Taking Skills
• Study Aids
• Study

Informations

• Publié par: Chemeketa Press
• Date de parution: 16 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781955499033
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

Make College Yours
Mindsets and Methods for College Success
Edition 1.0
Layli Liss
with additional contributions by Neil Liss, Karl Meiner & Steve Richardson


Make College Yours:
Mindsets and Methods for College Success
© 2018, 2019, 2021 Chemeketa Community College
978-1-955499-01-9
All rights reserved. Edition 0.8 2018. Edition 0.9 2019. Edition 1.0 2021.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Chemeketa Press
Chemeketa Community College
4000 Lancaster Dr NE
Salem, Oregon 97301
[e-mail]
chemeketapress.org
For desk copies or ordering inquiries, contact [e-mail].
Printed in the United States of America.

Land Acknowledgment
Chemeketa Press is located on the land of the Kalapuya, who today are represented by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians, whose relationship with this land continues to this day. We offer gratitude for the land itself, for those who have stewarded it for generations, and for the opportunity to study, learn, work, and be in community on this land. We acknowledge that our College’s history, like many others, is fundamentally tied to the first colonial developments in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Finally, we respectfully acknowledge and honor past, present, and future Indigenous students of Chemeketa Community College.


Contents
Make College Yours 6 Chapter 1 | Entering the Culture of College 9 You Are Responsible for Your Own Learning 10 You Are Responsible for Everything Else, Too 17 Chapter 2 | Making Connections 29 Making Campus Connections 30 Making Community Connections 34 Making Professional Connections 37 Chapter 3 | Developing Your College Persona 45 Personas and Emotional Intelligence 46 An Effective College Persona 49 Leaving Ineffective Personas Behind 56 An Effective Digital Persona 61 Chapter 4 | Building Personal Agency 71 Understanding Personal Agency 71 Developing Judgment 75 Being Purposeful 77 Changing Your Internal Dialogue 79 Making Wise Choices 81 Analyzing Your Fears 85 Overcoming Procrastination 88 Chapter 5 | Choosing a Growth Mindset 97 Where Mindsets Come From 97 How a Fixed Mindset Works 103 How Learning Changes Your Brain 106 How a Growth Mindset Works 108 Defeating Stereotype Threat and Impostor Syndrome 110 How to Change Your Mindset 111 Chapter 6 | Becoming an Active Learner 121 Barriers to Learning 122 Demonstrating Knowledge131 Acquiring Knowledge 143 Chapter 7 | Learning to Persist 161 Well-Being Basics 162 A Closer Look at Emotional Intelligence 166 Develop Emotional Intelligence 169 Manage Negative Emotions 172 Access Positive Emotions 174 Manage Performance Anxiety 177 Chapter 8 | Developing Healthy Motivation and Goals 193 External Motivation 194 Internal Motivation 196 Setting Appropriate Goals 202 Managing Discomfort 207 Chapter 9 | Learning with Others 215 Developing a Collaborative Persona 216 Getting the Most from Group Work 222 Psychological Safety in Groups 230 Study Groups 237
Acknowledgments 244
Glossary & Index 245


Introduction Make College Yours

Coming to college was a good decision on your part. You came here for a reason, and as long as you are willing to take college for what it is, you won’t be disappointed.
Students come to college for a thousand different reasons, but almost all of those reasons come down to a single word— change . They want things to be different in some way, and they come to college to make that difference. Fortunately, every college of any kind is designed to bring change to the lives of its students.
Isn’t this great? You want to change, grow, learn new ideas, develop new skills, possibly break into a profession, and here you are now in college, a place that specializes in that kind of change. The only problem, as you may have already noticed, is that college expects you to already know what’s expected of you, even though you’ve only been here for a few days. It expects you to understand how class schedules and financial aid deadlines and everything else works, what terms like “syllabus” and “final exam schedule” mean, what to bring to class, who to talk to when you have questions— everything .
If you think that’s ridiculous, you’re right. College has no business expecting that from you as a new college student. Especially if you haven’t been exposed to college before, coming to college is like coming into a foreign country. And even if you have been prepared for this by the examples of older siblings, for example, or a rigorous high school experience, being in college is not the same thing as hearing about being in college. There’s still a lot to figure out if you’re going to get the most out of the experience.
In the end, though, it is still mostly up to you to figure out how to navigate through college and make the most of this amazing opportunity. This book will help you get started so that you will have more success and less confusion right from the start.
The first two chapters begin with two things you really should know from the start—how the culture of college operates and how you can play your chosen part within that culture. After that, we’ll look at how learning in college works and how to cope with the discomfort of taking responsibility for your learning. We’ll wrap things up by looking at how you can get the most out of learning with others while you’re here and how to find opportunities for learning that take place outside the classroom.
Before we get to any of that, though, the first and most important thing for you to remember as you begin your college career is this: You belong here. You can do this. Don’t let anyone—including yourself—say otherwise. It’s going to be frustrating sometimes, of course. When has learning new stuff ever not been frustrating? That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re here. You’re doing this. You belong. You’re ready to make college yours.
College in Uncertain Times
Make College Yours was developed just prior to the global COVID-19 pandemic. As of this writing, we are still experiencing the impacts of the pandemic and we are actively trying to make sense of them. We do not know what lasting effects the pandemic will have on the culture of college—its values, its beliefs, its practices, and its tools. Still, the mindsets and methods that we promote in Make College Yours are based on some bedrock life skills, regardless of the situation: taking responsibility for yourself as a learner, making connections to build your support network, making and acting on good decisions, managing setbacks and stress, tapping into your internal motivation, and collaborating effectively with others. If anything, we hope that the ideas presented here are especially meaningful and empowering after more than a year of disruption and uncertainty.


Chapter 1 Self-Assessment
Before you begin reading the chapter, answer the following questions. Don’t spend too much time on your answer. Instead, respond with your first thought. The goal is to see where you are right now. We’ll return to this assessment at the end of the chapter to see if or how your thinking has changed about these topics.
Disagree
Unsure
Somewhat agree
Agree
Strongly agree
College professors assume students chose to pursue higher education and make life adjustments to prioritize college learning.
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My typical schedule prioritizes college learning.
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College professors expect students to attend every class, focus, participate, and take notes as needed.
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I have the personal resources to attend every class, focus, participate, and take notes as needed.
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College professors expect students to submit their best work by its due date and do so honestly.
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I am committed to doing my best work honestly and by the due date.
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College professors expect students to seek help if they are confused.
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