The midterm assignment for CLS 100 includes both a group presentation and an individual essay on research-driven study skills.
Your group presentation and individual essay will cover one of the following study methods:
The videos on the left side of this page provide brief, general introductions to each of these study methods. The boxes on the right side of the page provide resources for both APA and MLA citation, as well as videos with information on navigating the Syracuse University Libraries search tools, to assist you in locating and citing the required sources for your presentation.
Your instructor will provide detailed instructions for this assignment; be sure to review them thoroughly so you can fulfill all required components. The guide below is designed to supply you with additional resources as you work on your project.
Resources in the Research-Driven Study Strategies box give brief overviews of the various study strategies you can pick for your midterm topic. Be sure to decide as a group which strategy you are going with.
SQ3R is a reading technique involving 5 steps to process and retain information: survey (or skim), question, read, recite, and review. Jen Jonson gives a brief overview of how to use this method in the video below, which is around 2 and a half minutes long.
PQ4R is a reading strategy that builds on and expands the SQ3R technique, reimagining it as six steps: preview, question, read, reflect, recite, and review. Summer Hailstones on YouTube gives an overview of the technique in this video, which is roughly 3 and a half minutes long:
Retrieval practice is a study technique designed to assist with recalling information you've studied, training your brain to retrieve the material when you need it later. This video from Pocket Prep provides an overview of the process in a little under 2 minutes:
Spaced repetition is a study technique that involves reviewing and practicing material multiple times with built-in breaks/gaps between sessions, often with the amount of dedicated time becoming briefer with each session. Thomas Frank of College Info Geek gives a breakdown of the strategy in the below video, which is around 8 minutes long and includes closed captions and audio track options in English and a variety of other languages.
Interleaving is a learning strategy that involves moving back and forth between different subjects as you study. This is used as an alternative to blocking practice, which involves working on one subject until mastery is achieved before moving on to the next. Interleaving can encourage mental flexibility and improved retrieval, by training the brain to move between subjects while retaining information in long-term memory (as opposed to simply being able to recall something while it's still fresh in your mind). This roughly 2-minute video from CENTURY Tech iDEA Courses gives a brief overview of how it works:
The Leitner Method is a technique for studying with flashcards, designed to incorporate spaced repetition and active recall in a tangible way to improve learning effectiveness. In the below 7-minute video, Mariana Vieira gives a breakdown of the process in this video, along with some background to assess compatibility with various learning styles:
Dual-coding theory focuses on integrating verbal information (spoken/written language) and visual information (images) to help reinforce concepts while studying. Dr. Yu-Ling Lee of Trinity Western University gives a brief overview of how it works in this 4-minute video:
Resources in this column will help you navigate through the many useful tools and items in the Syracuse University Libraries' collection. These will not only help you with your midterm, but in your future classes at SU!
Citations for both your presentation and the individual essay should be documented using either APA or MLA format. Resource guides for these citation styles are provided in the boxes below.
For information on citation management tools such as Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote, please see the Citation Management Tools page.
Developed by the American Psychological Association for its own publications, this style has become the standard for works in the social and behavioral sciences.
Check out our research guide on APA citations for more help and recommendations regarding the APA Style.
MLA: Modern Language Association
MLA style for documentation is widely used in the humanities, especially in writing on language and literature.
Visit our research guide on citation styles for more information about the formatting and rules of MLA Style.
The resources in this box are all useful resources from the Syracuse University Libraries that you may want to use while creating your midterm presentation or writing your midterm paper. Additionally, these are all things you may want to use while you are a student here!
While working on your midterm, you may decide you want to cite a YouTube video or other form of video. The video below from Syracuse University Libraries explains how to properly cite a video in both APA and MLA citation styles. It is about 3 minutes long and has English subtitles.
The below video gives a quick overview on using the general search functions on Syracuse University Libraries Search. It is about 3 minutes long and has English subtitles.
The video below offers more advanced tips and techniques for the Libraries Search system, including limiting your search to specific locations, physical items, scholarly resources, and ebooks. The video is about 6 minutes long and has English subtitles.
The following links are to other research and study guides you might find useful for your projects.