Effective Study Skills

From time to time we will share guest authors with you. This is one of those posts. We asked Rachel Carney and Willow Smith to share their ideas with you, and your students. Enjoy, and please let us know what you think, and as always share your questions and ideas.

We are excited to be guest bloggers for Symbiosis. Many of the skills that we teach to

students with special needs are tools that all students can learn to help them be successful.

We went through and picked out our favorites. Please comment below with strategies that

may work best at your house. We are always adding to our bag of tricks!

1. Agenda- finding a way to organize what you have to do is an important middle school skill.

Agenda skills start in 6th grade when students are given an agenda book. They learn how to

write down homework, upcoming assignments and events. We find that teachers are good at

reminding students to write down assignments, but students are not so great at actually

looking in their agenda to see what they have to do. Please take time each day to help your

child look at their agenda and discuss what is due and upcoming assignments and

assessments.  

2.  Although we provide and teach students how to use a paper agenda, more and more

students by 8th grade are using their Google Calendar. There are many different tools to

use in this calendar to help organize your child. Here is one of our new favorites:

Video on How to Use Tasks on Google Calendar

3. After school schedule- being moms ourselves, we understand that it can be crazy after

school. This is why it is important to have an after school routine, especially with

co-curricular activities. This routine will look very different from house to house but most

should  include some of these: time for a snack, homework, free reading, tech time, outside

play and any other organized activities your child has. We have found if you don’t plan in

the homework, study and read time, they might not fit in! Make sure to actually schedule

this into your child’s routine.

4. How do I learn? The middle school years are when students start to understand who

they are as learners and to develop strategies that what works for them. Please take a

few minutes to watch this video offering some study tips: 5 Effective Study Tips. It is

important to help your child figure out what does and does not work for them. Some kids

work really well late at night doing homework and reading. For others, the work will never

get done and they need to complete it right after school. It is important for your child to

start to recognize who they are as a learner.

5. Goal-Plan-Do-Review- This is a great skills to help students who are weak with

organization and executive function skills. We teach kids to stop before they get

overwhelmed and make a plan. We write down, what do I need to do (goal), plan the steps

needed to finish the goal (plan) and then sit down and start working (do). At the end, we

have them review it. This helps to imagine the steps, creating a concrete amount of time it

will take to complete the task, and problem solve.

Click Here for Goal, Plan, Do, Review Template

These strategies help all students develop stronger executive function skills. These are

important skills for both school, and career readiness success: organization, decision

making, impulse control, project management, time management, adaptability, and goal

setting.

Thank you for allowing us to be guest bloggers. We enjoy sharing our knowledge of helping

students develop effective study skills and sharing them with everyone. Please feel free

to contact us: wsmith@kearsarge.org rcarney@kearsarge.org