Favorite way to teach Study Skills?

[MDL]

I’m trying to figure out the optimal way to give my rising 8th grader some better study skills. There seem to be a plethora of options.

 

Great Courses Superstar Student: free from my library, we tried this last year, end of 6th grade. I think it’s great, but my son didn’t love it. He didn’t mind watching the video, looked to be enjoying it, even, but would never admit it. He wouldn’t do much of the book work...He is in a high state of resistance often these days, though. Maybe we try it again.

 

Victus Study skills: looks good, but I would rather outsource it. Web reviews recommend the DIY student worktext, but since my son is struggling with reliable independent output [emoji23] the author of V3S recommended I teach level 2 to him and his 3rd grade brother.

 

WTM online class: listening for opinions. He took their Socratic Discussion last year and is comfortable with the format, at least

 

Any other online class options?

 

What have you used? What worked and what didn’t?

[Angie in VA]

This might not be an option for you, but competing in speech and debate really helped to prepare my kids for college. 

 

Nothing like learning to flow a round to teach note taking. Nothing like preparing your 1AC (first affirmative constructive speech) to learn how to condense information and present the key points. All those negative briefs and evidence cards? Research! Giving prepared speeches improved my kids' writing. Impromptu/limited prep speeches, and cross ex(amination) helped them think on their feet. 

 

But perhaps the most valuable thing my kids got from it (besides life long friendships) was the feedback they got on their ballots, learning from criticism and making changes to improve. Mom and Dad might say, "We can't understand you. You're mumbling" a zillion times, but getting marked down on coveted speaker points in debate rounds and having community judges tell you to speak up and not to mumble? Yeah, that hits it home. 

 

Oh, and our coach is great because she teaches the two most important rules of this sport (yes, we call it a sport): 

1. Debate is an unfair sport.

2. The judge is always right. (Even when he's wrong.) 

 

Both have received high praise from profs on all the speeches/projects they presented in class. Job interviews are a breeze too. When dd interviewed for her grad school position (free tuition + a stipend), the prof who conducted the interview was blown away by her and told her she was great at interviews. I made sure her debate coach knew that. 

 

 

Edited March 9, 2018 by Angie in VA

[cintinative]

following.

 

This is a Youtube series with handouts someone on here pointed out (handouts link is now broken. boo) : 

another website that was pointed out:  http://faculty.bucks.edu/specpop/topics.htm

 

Here are former threads with some info. 

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/546702-study-skills/

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/561479-teaching-study-skills/

[cintinative]

 

 

This is a Youtube series with handouts someone on here pointed out (handouts link is now broken. boo) : 

 

Update: I was able to get many of the handouts using the Wayback Machine.

[serendipitous journey]

This might not be an option for you, but competing in speech and debate really helped to prepare my kids for college. 

 

...

 

OP, please forgive the digression, but Angie: may I ask how one starts speech/debate?  I'm usually good at finding stuff with search engines but had the hardest time finding something we could do as homeschoolers in terms of competitive debate (there is a course on speaking we could do, through our county's youth education program, but those classes often aren't a good fit for DS and they don't seem to lead to competitive debate).

 

and OP: thank you for this thread!  Study skills are high on my list of priorities, and I'm following.

Edited March 17, 2018 by serendipitous journey

[mlktwins]

Update: I was able to get many of the handouts using the Wayback Machine.

How did you do this? Please 😀

[luuknam]

My oldest is only in 5th grade, so you can take this with a grain of salt, but imo, once you've gone over the basics of study skills with something like Superstar Student, I think the best way to improve study skills is by actually implementing them. So, make the kid take notes during lectures (e.g. while watching video lectures of other GC or w/e), have the student make outlines and summaries of texts (not both of the same text, that'd be overkill), make the student make a schedule for when to study each subject and then help the student stick to his schedule (and help when the schedule isn't realistic), gradually providing less support as needed (do always check up on *some* regular basis... occasionally people will post that they didn't realize their high schooler hasn't done anything for some subject for a whole semester), etc, etc, etc. I mean, if necessary, you can review study skills, but imo, the hard part isn't knowing what good study skills are; it's implementing good study skills, which is learned through practice. 

Edited March 18, 2018 by luuknam

[luuknam]

How did you do this? Please 😀

 

 

You copy the link, you go to archive.org, and then you copy the link into the search box. Then it will show you which dates they have archived. Click on a date, and it will show what the website looked like on that date. E.g.

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20170305134555/http://www.lbcc.edu/LAR/studyskills.cfm

 

(I think that was one of the links that was meant, right?)

[hornblower]

I think as luuknam says, the key is implementing them in all subjects, the ones you do at home as well as any you outsource. 

- have your student prepare a semester schedule. By high school we started doing 'semester at a glance' one sheet calendar pages of the entire semester which hang in the work area & show all the assignments, exams, tests etc.  From that you an plan your week & your day. 

-show how to break down tasks into component parts & make fake deadlines & place in the schedule.  5 page essay due end of May? Break it down into component tasks for research, brainstorming thesis, more research, drafting, editing, polishing and get all those steps on the calendar. 

 

-if you've been doing WTM narrations they're critical in learning to hear information & summarize the key points. If you haven't been, I'd start, no matter the age of the student. 

-start applying mnemonics and other memory tools for memorizing data.If they've been doing memory work with WTM, they already have skills here. We didn't do a lot of memory work early on so we had to go back & learn how to do this.  Have your student get familiar with Anki or Quizlet. Make sure they understand that *making* the study deck is a critical part of learning it. Using other people's decks is a shortcut that robs you of learning. 

-I assigned reading Cal Newport's blog and his books (How to be a High School Superstar, How to be a Straight A Student) 

-I also encouraged checking out the #studyblr hashtag on tumblr for motivation 

 

-there are also entire youtube channels devoted to study skills & motivation. studyign for examples started when she was in highschool & now she's in college. She talks about everything - specific topics, procrastination, time management, taking notes from a textbook etc. If you check out her videos  from a couple years ago, they deal with high school stuff.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7TV5acMx_3Mzsdbts93liA

hth! 

 

[librarymama]

 

-there are also entire youtube channels devoted to study skills & motivation. studyign for examples started when she was in highschool & now she's in college. She talks about everything - specific topics, procrastination, time management, taking notes from a textbook etc. If you check out her videos  from a couple years ago, they deal with high school stuff.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7TV5acMx_3Mzsdbts93liA

 

 

 

I really enjoy the "studyign" YouTube channel as well! I find her very motivating. I've learned a lot myself from her YouTube videos on topics such as how to annotate a novel, how to take notes from a lecture, how to take notes from a textbook, and how to study vocabulary. I plan to implement some of her techniques with my DS next year. 

[cintinative]

You copy the link, you go to archive.org, and then you copy the link into the search box. Then it will show you which dates they have archived. Click on a date, and it will show what the website looked like on that date. E.g.

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20170305134555/http://www.lbcc.edu/LAR/studyskills.cfm

 

(I think that was one of the links that was meant, right?)

 

This is the link I used:  https://web.archive.org/web/20160329071808/http://www.lbcc.edu/LAR/handouts.cfm

 

 

PP--I could probably upload what I downloaded to a google folder. It would save you a ton of time. Just PM me if you want to try that. 

[BetterthanIdeserve]

OP, please forgive the digression, but Angie: may I ask how one starts speech/debate?  I'm usually good at finding stuff with search engines but had the hardest time finding something we could do as homeschoolers in terms of competitive debate (there is a course on speaking we could do, through our county's youth education program, but those classes often aren't a good fit for DS and they don't seem to lead to competitive debate).

 

and OP: thank you for this thread!  Study skills are high on my list of priorities, and I'm following.

 

http://www.ncfca.org/ is the site for information about the National Christian Forensics and Communication Association. The two homeschool groups in my area are both members of this I believe.

[redquilthorse]

On 3/17/2018 at 11:55 AM, serendipitous journey said:

 

OP, please forgive the digression, but Angie: may I ask how one starts speech/debate?  I'm usually good at finding stuff with search engines but had the hardest time finding something we could do as homeschoolers in terms of competitive debate (there is a course on speaking we could do, through our county's youth education program, but those classes often aren't a good fit for DS and they don't seem to lead to competitive debate).

 

and OP: thank you for this thread!  Study skills are high on my list of priorities, and I'm following.

If you are in Northern California, look at STOA.http://stoausa.org/clubs/ I know of a couple of the teams in the Sacramento area if that's close to you. 

[serendipitous journey]

10 hours ago, redquilthorse said:

If you are in Northern California, look at STOA.http://stoausa.org/clubs/ I know of a couple of the teams in the Sacramento area if that's close to you. 

Thanks for that!  We are in Northern CA, but just north of San Francisco. 

[TheAttachedMama]

On 3/19/2018 at 10:47 PM, BetterthanIdeserve said:

 

http://www.ncfca.org/ is the site for information about the National Christian Forensics and Communication Association. The two homeschool groups in my area are both members of this I believe.

 

Not sure where you live, but if you are in the midwest, also check out Christian Communicators of America.   REALLY, REALLY wonderful group.   We dont' have a NCFCA near us, but we do have a local CCA group in our state.  :)