What study skills do you emphasize and teach?

Hello colleagues, There have been lively discussions among HSE and bridge teachers in my local program about incorporating study skills into our instruction. What study skills do you emphasize and teach? Can you share any anecdotes about how study skills have led to successful outcomes for students? Please share any online resources you've found to be helpful!

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, Teaching & Learning CoP

Comments

I teach a class for students who are interested in enrolling in the local Practical Nursing program but who can not pass the entrance test.  When I am teaching them how to pass the test, I am acutely aware that my efforts will be for naught if they can not then pass their nursing school tests.  I therefore walk them through things like "how to organize your materials", "how to take notes and keep a neat notebook" ,"how to write and utilize flashcards", I also talk about the best ways to study- using active retrieval, taking practice tests, relating graphics to the text, studying with a focused goal, etc.  But equally important in my mind, however, is the emphasis I place on the latest research regarding how we learn. 

After researching growth mindset, grit, and some of the latest studies on how we learn, I've come to the conclusion that my classroom environment has to be one that embraces struggle and failure in order for that attitude to transfer to my students.  Study skill experts will tell you that true learning happens when the learner fully engages all of his/her senses into the process and asks why? how? and tries to inter-relate the various pieces of content he is tackling.  Lately, I have been setting up my lessons more and more as "discovery sessions" where the students come to "aha" moments slowly as the lesson unfolds.  When they struggle, I say "your brain is working hard!" - "celebrate it!' .  When they take a chance and give me a wrong answer with wrong thinking, we discuss where they veered off track and applaud the attempt!  We are emphasizing process over right answers and that does not come naturally for my students.  Some of them will appear frustrated and will say, "I'm discouraged because I thought I did it right, but I didn't," My answer has been "you are thinking that wrong answers are failures and you've tied that to negative emotions- don't be discouraged, be excited! Wrong answers are your brain's attempt to make sense of a challenging new situation.  Keep struggling and eventually those neurons will connect!"   So, I guess what I'm saying is that yes, my students need some practical help staying organized and knowing how to process their learning materials, but EVEN MORE THAN THAT they need to know that they are capable and that struggling is good, fun and ultimately extremely powerful in helping them reach their learning goals.

  Also, would mention that many of my students have made great reading gains (especially my ELLs) on Readtheory.org   They LOVE the interesting topics and I love watching their reading levels (and vocabulary) slowly improve.