Teaching Study Skills

Students are not born knowing how to study, but study skills are a vital tool for passing high school and surviving college. Poor study habits interfere with the learning process, making it difficult for students to retain information. While there are topics and tidbits that serve no useful purpose other than scoring points on a game show, most information covered is not only needed for school, but also for living in the real world. For this reason, teaching study skills is a key component of ensuring your students’ success.Environment – Teach students the difference between a good study environment and a poor study environment. Many students are not aware that multiple breaks to answer the telephone, a television blaring their favorite program, and an inability to find a pencil have a negative effect on their ability to study. oSet aside one specific place to study. Have all necessary materials—books, paper, pencils and pens, erasers, pencil sharpeners, calculators—at the specified study center.oKeep schedules of assignments and tests and work on each assignment in order of due dates.oGive students a self-assessment sheet that questions them about their study environment. Go over the sheets, explaining how the poor environment choices listed impact the ability to study.Taking Notes – While students may be able to copy to paper what you have written on the blackboard, that does not mean they are able to take good notes.oDiscuss and practice active listening techniques.oExplain the different types of note-taking styles: outline, mapping, clustering.oTeach students how to look for cues that indicate necessary information, such as changes in inflection, repetition, and enumerated points.Processing Information – Having a great study environment and top-quality notes does not enable a student to process the information and actually learn it.oShow them how to break information into chunks or sections so they can study a little at a time.oHelp them develop acronyms. For example, HOMES is the acronym for the Great Lakes—Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. This can be done with simple words or with whole sentences. For example, “A! U stole my gold watch!” can be used to remember that Au is the scientific abbreviation for gold on the periodic table.oAcrostics are sentences where the first letter of each word is the cue for the material being learned. For example, in Every Good Boy Does Fine, the letters E, G, B, D and F represent musical notes.oMethod of Loci is a memory technique that involves imagining a place you know well and placing objects to be remembered throughout that place. For example, Picasso may be painting a portrait of Monet looking at Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, which hangs above your television set.Another technique that may be very helpful is to give the students a learning styles assessment before teaching study skills. It doesn’t have to be complicated. There are several short self-assessment learning styles inventories available. This will allow you to teach specific skills and explain to students which type of learner does well with that skill. In spelling, for example, visual learners try to see the word, auditory learners sound it out, and kinesthetic learners like to write it down. No age is too young to develop effective study habits, but students need someone to show them what to do. The key is in teaching them how to identify what they need to retain, and them show them how to retain it. Once students understand how they learn and have skills to match their needs, it will be easier for them to retain information.

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