study skills

There are some excellent strategies for notetaking and reading content material in the LD InDepth section of this site- any one of which would make an appropriate presentation.

Robin

Hi,
I am currently teaching study skills/ reading to a 9th grader with very poor vocab. She doesn’t know that I am teaching her to study. For half an hour I either read aloud, and ask her if she knows what the words mean, and write them down, or have her read, and tell me which words are unfamiliar. She then writes the words out after me, for spelling.
I have her use dictionary.com to look up the words, and she hand writes the meaning after talking about it with me, in her own words so she will remember.
She then makes a typed list of the words.
I talk to her about the subject/ text as she works.
This helps with several subjects at once.
Maybe one day she will do this on her own!

I often do a lesson of this duration to middle school students at the beginning of the year - but always before an actual test that is coming up - may as well make it practical. I know they all are concerned about content material, so I teach 2 things, a spelling strategy and one for studying definitions. They seem self-evident, but are well-received generally!
1) Accordion method for studying spelling: I start by giving them a small piece of paper from the recycling bin - a 1/4 sheet or smaller - to show that you don’t need any fancy stuff to use to study effectively. They copy a difficult word they may need to know at the top of the sheet - could be a new teacher’s name or a sports figure or a word from the science unit etc. They then fold the paper back on itself & try to print the word again, flipping back to check. If incorrect they look at the correct word again, make another fold and keep trying. It’s quite effective.
2) For definitions: I give them a sheet of 3-ring paper - again, something we hope they all have at home. The students fold it in half length-wise. The name of the word (e.g., photosynthesis) or concept (e.g, War of 1812) that needs to be defined goes beside the margin. The definition goes on the other half of the page. When completed and folded in half the students have a page with words/concepts on one half and strictly definitions on the other. (A lot of kids balk at having to write things out again. I point out that that helps imprint it on their brains.) With this method they can test themselves or have someone else test them. I always tell them that the beauty of this is that anyone can help you - your 10 year old sister who doesn’t know anything about this topic yet, your grandfather who didn’t go to school in this country or your friend in another class. When demonstrating it, I often give them a sheet I’ve started, and we work on just a few from their text or notebooks in class. They then go home with a valid study sheet for a real test. Hope this helps!

I really appreciate your accordian and bifold study ideas. They are self propelled, and reinforce the writing it yourself strategy, which I agree does help imprint. Any ideas for me to help a 14 year old very low vocabulary, who hates reading? I showed her MAUS by Spiegelman and she loved it. The school she enters in the Fall might run out of comic book versions of books, though. This kid simply does not read, she likes to look at pictures. Thoughts?

has she tried books on tape? comic books cannot be appropriate for too much longer … or avaiable as you said. is your student an artist? maybe she could illustrate as she listens?