Essential STUDY Skills

Study skills gives your students tools they will use repeatedly to be a more efficient life-long-learner. Consider teaching at least one skill each semester within a core subject you are teaching – skills like reading comprehension, note taking, creating flashcards or outlining skills. For example: if you are focusing on note-taking, have your students take notes while reading chapters in their history text.  It will take some practice, but they will get better at it. Next semester (or year), have them continue taking notes while reading history, but implement time management or memory techniques to their science studies.

Here are a few ideas that we have used:

• What type of learner are you?
• Note-taking skills
• How to read a textbook
• Problem solving / critical thinking / logic course
• Speed Reading course

What Type of Learner are You?

Determining your learning style can be the difference between, “I get it” and, “No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to remember it.”  Take a learning styles assessment such as: vark-learn.com

Note-Taking Skills

Since so much of our school work is done orally, we worked on this skill.  I would suggest helping students match their note-taking method to their learning style.

How to Read a Textbook

Don’t assume students will know! Teach the process.

Problem Solving / Logic

Like any other skill, learning to think critically or problem-solve takes time, perseverance, and practice. Knowing which steps to take and how to apply them will help students master the process. The more problems we solve, the more our self confidence increases and we learn to trust our own judgement. The first step to avoiding GroupThink! Problem solving can be practiced under the umbrella of academics, but I encourage families to be intentional in teaching Essential Life Skills and watch your student’s problem-solving ability overflow into academia.

Speed Reading Course

Really?  Speed Reading?  CollegePlus (now Lumerit) encourages all their students to realize the benefits that Speed Reading can provide … to my amazement, it’s not just about reading faster.  The program we used was called Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics – Videos and Workbook.   My kids (then 4th, 6th and 7th grades) watched the video how-to’s with me and then we would do the drills together.  The cost of the program if purchased new might give you sticker shock, but I found I could purchase the set of 3-VHS tapes used a few years ago for just a few dollars (the hair styles are a little out of date!).  A google search will turn it up: Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics VHS.  It also might be at your public library.  Our library didn’t have the videos, but had the workbook that goes with the program … it wasn’t included in my used purchase but is essential for completing the drills on the video.  It is titled: Fred Pryor Seminars: Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics.

To fully understand the benefits and how the drills work, I educated myself with two books:  The Evelyn Wood Seven-Day Speed Reading and Learning Program by Stanley D. Frank and Break-Through Rapid Reading by Peter Kump. These books aren’t essential, but I was not convinced of the benefits of Speed Reading, nor was I convinced that middle-school-aged kids could grasp it or would benefit from it.  These really helped me get how speed reading works to change your brain and eye functions and I needed to be convinced!  They also contained additional drills that we practiced once we were done with the videos.

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Category: Building Blocks