[nabs-l] study techniques and reading

Fri Oct 24 07:17:42 UTC 2008

Dear Ashley,

Have you tried getting the text in an electronic format where you can 
download it to your Braille note, or use a Braille display,  or even emboss 
it yourself?  I know not everyone has a voc rehab counselor who will buy 
them a Braille embosser, but this would certainly be good justification for 
one.

Another practical tool I've used is Kirtzwhile.  Kirtzwhile has many good 
notation functions.  You can place notes throughout the document which is 
indexed for ease of later navigation.  This is similar to having your reader 
highlight the text you think is important, but allows you to read that 
material when in independent study mode.  Best of all, with a good scan job, 
you will have spellings of key terms.  Kirtzwhile has many built in tools 
that allows optimal studying.  While in a document you can use its 
dictionary to look up words, you can cut important text and move it to 
another document and you can even simultaneously search for books on online 
databases such as the NLS web Braille and BookShare websites!  It can 
automatically paginate your text as you scan, you can create searchable 
headings and chapters and much more.   In other words, it's an under-used 
and less understood tool that we have available.  Perhaps the next 
generation is learning of it's full potential.

One difficulty I've had is cross referencing scanned materials that are 
similar yet different in content.  I've also had a hard time  citing scanned 
material.  My friend says that this is where you can use a reader most 
efficiently.  Have your reader read the citation information such as author, 
page number, chapter name, etc.  I think she Brailles it onto a 3x5 card and 
paper clips it to the book to be scanned later.  This might also help with 
the cross referencing problem.  She'll even have them read what page numbers 
are included in a chapter (I.e. chapter 2 p. 20-30).  I once had a reader 
paper clip the assigned pages of reading together.  This system would work 
best by adding the brailed 3x5 card with the citation information!  This 
system especially helps with compilations  of articles that are in one book 
with many titles and sections of page numbers to sort through.
Oh, and my sister Brook,  would even have readers scan or read scanned text 
for errors while she was in class!  Ingenious!

Personally, I do best with readers, but using all our tools is most 
imperative.

I hope these ideas are helpful.

Note:
Joe, if you're reading, you may use these as study tips for our website!

I'd like to know if anyone else has had success with other study methods!

Thanks for the question, and thanks for those who have already given their 
input.
Sincerely,
Bruce Sexton (B.J.), board member
NABS

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Serena" <serenacucco at verizon.net>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 5:13 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] study techniques and reading

> Just wondering, Rania, do you also take notes in class?
>
> Serena
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Rania" <raniaismail04 at gmail.com>
> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 7:10 AM
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] study techniques and reading
>
>
>> good topic. I also miss the high school days when I had things brailled. 
>> I
>> struggle to remember things too. I also look over my notes and use the
>> books
>> from RFBD but like you said I can't just skip the things on the pages 
>> that
>> the teacher told us not to wery about because if I go to another page 
>> then
>> I
>> miss what information is on the page that I need to know. I also have
>> trouble with getting the spelling of some wirds because some times when
>> the
>> spelling of a wird is in the book it is spelled to fast and other wirds
>> are
>> not spelled at all. I try to make up my own study guides if I know what 
>> is
>> going to be on the test and try to make up my own test questions. Another
>> thing I do is I record the class and play it back and I even have a 
>> friend
>> quiz me on the material. Any other tips will be helpful.
>> Rania,
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Ashley Bramlett" <bookwormahb at earthlink.net>
>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 12:07 AM
>> Subject: [nabs-l] study techniques and reading
>>
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I may have asked a similar question; but with new people here there may
>>> be
>>> more ideas.  As a student with lots of dense matterial to learn and
>>> multiple classes its overwelming.  I miss the high school days when I 
>>> had
>>> braille texts and audio books from RFB; I used both and this made me
>>> retain info better.  Right now to study and read matterial I do this:
>>> 1. Take notes while reading.  If with a reader, ask them to highlight
>>> some
>>> info and I can review the highlights later with a reader.  Repetition
>>> helps.
>>> 2. I read over notes.
>>> 3. I go over the points in the summary if the text has one as well as
>>> bold
>>> words with a reader; my reader skims for them.
>>> 4. Occassionally the text has a website with practice questions.  If
>>> accessible, I'll use it.
>>>
>>> The challenges i face without seeing and the benefit of skimming are
>>> many.
>>> First I cannot look up concepts independently.  What if I forget
>>> something
>>> and wish to look it up since its unclear in my notes, I can't do this.
>>> For instance today I wanted to look up family systems in my abnormal
>>> child
>>> psychology book.
>>> Second, I don't know how to spell some words.  I try and ask a reader as
>>> we go along or if electronic text, listen to it, and copy.  But since 
>>> i'm
>>> focussed on the matterial, sometimes i forget.  Third, tables and charts
>>> are challenging.  Sometimes my readers read it well.  Depends on the
>>> complexity; those with boxes and arrows are harder than reading tables
>>> with text in columns.
>>> Fourth, unless I'm reading with someone live its harder to skip over
>>> irrelevant info.  Texts can be redundant giving you multiple research
>>> studies for the same thing.  So I read all of it taking longer.  A
>>> sighted
>>> student will skim and skip for highlights.  I consider myself a good
>>> student and wish to do well.  But it takes longer doing it auditorily 
>>> and
>>> that can be annoying.
>>>
>>> So any ideas you have for study and remembering would be good to know.
>>>
>>> Ashley
>>>
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>>
>>
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