Study Skills Tips

ATTENTION AND CONCENTRATION . Be certain that the child is giving complete attention before giving instructions (see 'good listening' below. . Be conscious that your rate of speech allows the child to keep up, and is varied in pitch and intonation to maintain interest. . Use colour, mind maps, spidergrams, designs etc. to aid memory. . Review the information from a piece of work or a lesson so that it is easier to retain and recall. . Ensure that the amount of information given does not cause the memory system to crash. Note the overload level of the individual child, and teach to that level.

LISTENING . Make sure listening is an active process, so that the child learns to say when it is difficult and ask for repetition or clarification. . Encourage the child to repeat the key words or order of an instruction so that they can remember. Repeat the instruction in their own words to aid memory. . Teach 'good listening': intent to listen/no fiddling/look at the speaker/use good posture/wait your turn for talking.

MOTIVATION . Establish the child's strengths and weaknesses so that the emphasis is not on failure. . Define success vs failure and reward the small steps in achieving a target.

COMPREHENSION . Give outlines before the class so that students can prepare for new vocabulary and concepts. . Identify and highlight key elements in a lesson beforehand so that the student knows what salient points to focus on. . Be prepared to repeat and simplify as often as is necessary. . State instructions in clear, specific terms. . Teach prediction skills to help problem solving. Model prediction through films, novels and recent events, discussing reasonable and unreasonable outcomes. . Keep oral directions short and simple, chunked into easily memorised segments. . Support oral instructions with written or visual cues. . Use colour, mind maps, designs and logos to help understand new ideas. . Students should be encouraged to ask if they don't understand; ask for the meaning of a word, help in organising the response or ask for another explanation'. . Students may need more concrete learning experiences to grasp new concepts.

EXPRESSION . Teach new vocabulary directly, either as topics, as specialised terminology (Chemistry), as language enrichment (range of adverbs). . The student may need plenty of time to think and reply to questions.

READING FOR MEANING . Scan text quickly to ascertain basic information. . Read questions next to help focus on salient points. . Read second time and framework and recall meaning/events in each paragraph. . Highlight unknown words and look them up or ask immediately. . Teach scanning skills so that the student can skim a passage for key words.

PLANNING ANSWERS . Read the question and establish the question word. Highlight if it is a wh? word or the important question word. . Encourage redrafting of written work so that presentation can be checked once the meaning is established. . Drafting may have to be done in stages so that a separate check is done for spelling, then punctuation etc.

STORY WRITING . Plan beginning, middle and end of a story before starting. . Use story maps to build details, you can add or change order easily. . Brainstorm vocabulary associated with title and use as needed.

NOTE TAKING . Some students can organise information better if they are encouraged to make rough notes during a lesson, and extend these with information from handouts or discussion later. . Use colour, boxes, stars, highlighters to help information stand out visually. . Consider using tapes to record lessons and replay as often as necessary.

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RESOURCES . Promote the use of a personal dictionary or thesaurus to stimulate use of vocabulary. . Use ring files and coloured dividers with a contents list for organising subjects. . Use wall planners/weekly plans to give daily reminders of what is needed for the next day or the next week.

ACTIVE STUDY . Use spidergrams or mind maps to summarise topic areas and use these for revision. . Make summary index notes in each subject for revisions. Pose relevant questions on the reverse of the card to jog memory. . Plan a study timetable, building in short breaks for own choices and recognising own schedule for learning breaks. . Self test at the end of each study period, and review this information at the beginning of subsequent session. . Divide homework/revision time into blocks of no more than 40 minutes, as concentration falls off after this. . Organise the week into realistic work blocks. . Help child to work in a quiet place, free from distractions, to complete independent work