Back to: Module: Helping with Instruction
“Student,” is a word that means, “one who studies.” When you teach children study skills, you help them become better students. That means a lot! Students who take ownership for their own learning tend to remember what they learn better and longer. They also are better at applying what they learn. Parapros can help struggling learners take tests better and learn better at the same time.
Once students have better study skills, they can also help you help them. Why? Because they have tools for tracking their learning needs. They can do more than say, “I don’t get it.” They can tell you more clearly where the problem lies. A student might say, “See, I understood cell division up through step 5, but I just can’t memorize the whole process!”
Students who have good study habits in place also help make the classroom more dynamic. Instruction flows better, and engagement with learning increases throughout the classroom. The outcome is greater depth of knowledge. And this works for students and for instructors. The diagram below shows how instruction typically proceeds in such classrooms.
In this unit, you’ll learn how to help students create good study environments. You’ll also learn how to help them develop useful study habits. These processes include such things as minimizing distractions, managing time, limiting stress, and planning rewards (like TV or game time).
You’ll also learn about some of the most widely used methods of studying. These methods will help students improve both their classroom work and their out-of-school learning.
Some of these methods have fancy names, but they are all commonsense approaches—easy to explain to students. For example, the “Pomodoro Method,” is just the practice of setting a 25-minute timer and always taking a five-minute break when the timer rings. And then diving back in for more studying. The “Corsin Method” has students ask themselves, “What, in this process of learning, don’t I understand? Where did I get lost?” The unit explains these things in more depth. Then, you can pass this knowledge on to the students with whom you work. This unit covers:
- Self-assessment of learning style as a way to help students tailor study techniques to their learning style strengths
- Mnemonics: acronyms and other abbreviations to aid memorization
- Manipulatives: models, crafts, posters, flash cards, and so on
- Note-taking and organization skills: how to group ideas, details, and insights
- Textbook summary skills
- Reading-for-learning skills
- The Corsin Method
- The Pomodoro Method
- The Loci Method