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WHY TAKE A STUDY SKILLS CLASS?

• Learn new strategies and skills.

• Improve upon a good thing.

• Prepare for the challenges ahead.

• Become acclimated to a new school.

• Meet new classmates.

It has almost become a cliché to say that STUDY SKILLS ARE THE KEYS TO LEARNING.

What is meant by that analogy? Basically, students devise unique, personalized methods for learning instructional concepts.

While the basic underlying strategies for learning-
      • Read and listen with adequate comprehension
      • Take notes
      • Organize information for recall
      • Review and memorize
have not changed significantly since their presentation after World War II, information related to individual learning styles did not explode until the 1980's. Each of us processes information to a greater or lesser extent through our visual, auditory, and tactile senses. Thus, reading, listening, note-taking, and memorizing continue to be the preferred method for studying academic material. The glitch in applying this method is that most of the information presented in the classroom setting is presented through lecture-auditorily-when less than 20 percent of the students are primarily auditory learners. The large majority of individuals are visual learners who remember what they see far more easily than what they hear. Actually, the integration of listening, reading, and writing offers most of us the most ideal methodology for understanding and remembering principles.

Students who are comfortable in the classroom are confident in their abilities, feel successful, and set high goals for academic achievement. The emphasis on student success begins with a summer study skills program available through Educational Resources. Whether an entering 9th grader or a rising 10th, 11th, or 12th grader, study skills instruction will enable students to start the school year on a positive note.

THE BASIS OF ALL STUDY STRATEGIES IS READING COMPREHENSION

The basic components of reading are phoneme awareness, decoding, fluency, and comprehension. If the student pronounces words correctly and reads smoothly, s/he should be reading with adequate comprehension. However, many readers do not read in thought groups, but rather read word-by-word. They fail to gather meaning from print and are required to reread text to grasp adequate meaning.

SPEED READING STRATEGIES improve comprehension because individuals learn to read in meaningful phrases and thought groups. The average high school student reads 200-250 words per minutes with 70-80% comprehension. Adequate reading speed and comprehension are an impressive duo. They are an essential combo for studying both effectively and efficiently.