Study Skills

Module 7

The tutor will add more reading and study strategies tools to their repertoire of skills.

The tutor will be able to apply relevant skills to tutoring and to his/her own academic work.

Background:

            Being skilled at a variety of study strategies can make or break the tutoring session.  Incorporating study skills is not as simple as it sounds for several reasons:

• Study skills are behaviors that take time to develop and change.  Just as any habit needs to be established over time, academic habits are the same.  Be patient and encouraging with your clients and with yourself as you set new study goals for yourself. Some people think if they go to a workshop or tutoring session in which study skills are addressed, they will find a "silver bullet" to solve all their problems.  Tips will be given which will be beneficial, but things take time.
• An academic approach or strategy that works for one person may not work for another.  Beyond that, what works in one class for one person may not work in another class for that same person.  Background experiences, interests, and learning styles all have an effect on study behaviors.
• Study skills incorporate a wide range of topics which include time management, memory/concentration, note taking, test preparation, test taking skills, reading comprehension, reading rate improvement, etc.

Your best approach is to have many tools in your toolbox so when various tasks come along, you will be equipped to pull out one that is effective.  The old saying, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, then you will see everything as a nail," is very true for study skills.  No matter what subject you teach, applying study techniques appropriate for the material will maximize learning.

Before the lesson:

            Activate and assess prior knowledge, develop background experiences, extend experiences when necessary, introduce vocabulary words and concepts, and help students set purposes for the session. Develop a schema when cultural differences exist.

During the lesson:

            Break the material into chunks.  If it is a reading assignment, set a purpose for reading each section. (Ex. "What do you think will happen? Let's find out," or "Let's read to learn about…") Discuss each section before advancing to the next part.  Involve the student in a creative and personal way during or after reading. Summarize what was read.  Identify a possible test question related to the material. Look at the boldface headings and create questions then read to answer the questions. "The topic for this section was Psychology's Methods. Let's make that topic into a question like, ‘What methods are used in psychology?' The answer would include the case study, the survey, etc."

If this is a math or science session, break the problem into components.  Does the student understand the symbols?  Does he/she understand the technical terminology? Translate problems into English. Putting problems into words will help you understand what is being asked.  When you study equations and formulas, put those into words, too.  The words will help you see a variety of applications for each formula.  For example, the Pythagorean theorem, A2 + B2 = C2, would be translated as, "The square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is to the sums of the squares of the other two sides."

            During this step, the tutor may need to teach, explain, demonstrate, or model the concept.  It is important that enough time is taken to clearly present explanations or questioning strategies so that the client can grasp the concept.  Try to link new concepts to information that is known.  If possible, give the client a chance to practice the new information with your guidance.  Once the client can do the concept with your guidance, have him/her practice independently.  This strategy works for material as varied as learning new mnemonic tricks to practicing chemistry formulas.

            Students should personally construct meaning during this part of the lesson.  In this section, also consider learning styles.  Knowing what his/her learning preferences are may help you provide appropriate materials and activities. Observe and evaluate the student at this time to determine whether you should go ahead or approach the material in a different manner.  Have a plentiful supply of resource materials available.

At the end of the lesson:

            Encourage the student to respond to the lesson in order to reinforce comprehension. Give the student opportunities to apply what was learned to other situations.  Encourage the student to verbalize what was learned and what could be improved.  Use the understandings and ideas gained from the lesson to move to new goals. 

Set next goal:

            Establish the goals for the next lesson as partners. Involving the client in planning the next session encourages progress toward independent learning.

Reflect:

            Evaluate the lesson and reflect on the strengths/weaknesses of the session.  What other strategies could be employed to tap into the student's learning styles?  What occurred as planned?  What could have been better?  What should you "reteach" using a different method? Were the materials appropriate?

Now that an overview of a lesson has been given, specific questions for working with a student are addressed:

What are some additional techniques for math and science classes?

• Perform opposite operations.  If a problem involves multiplication, check the work by dividing; factor, multiply; square root, square; differentiate, integrate.
• Analyze before your complete.  Set up the problem before your begin to solve it.  When you take time to analyze a problem, you may see ways to take computational short-cuts.  By canceling or combining factors, for example, you may save time.
• Draw a picture.  Draw a picture or a diagram if you are stuck.  Sometimes a visual representation will clear a blocked mind.
• Estimate first.  An estimation is a good way to double check your work.  When you estimate first, you will notice if your computations go awry and you can correct the error quickly.
• Check your work systematically.  Ask yourself, "Did I read the problem correctly?  Did I use the correct formula or equation?  Is my answer in proper form?"

What should the client do when he comes to an unknown word?

*Read to the end of the sentence or paragraph to see if the meaning can be determined from the context.

*Look for base words, prefixes, suffixes, and other ways to break the word into meaningful units.

• Try to use phonics and sound it out.
• Use a dictionary.
• Ask someone.
• Make a flashcard or a word list to review the word/concept later.

What are some strategies that clients can use to improve their reading comprehension?

KWL:  The purpose of this strategy is to activate prior knowledge and set a purpose for reading text.  Before reading, students ask, "What do I know (K)?" and "What do I want to learn (W)?" After reading, they ask, "What did I learn (L)?" Included in this list, or in a fourth list, students may ask, "What do I still want to learn?"  Students read to answer these questions.

Graphic Organizers, Mapping, Semantic Maps, Webs:  These terms apply to basically the same concepts.  They provide visual summaries that contain verbal and sometimes pictorial information.  The layout and presentation can indicate the relationship among the ideas.

Cloze Procedure: This strategy fosters the practical use of sentence context clues when a student comes to an unknown word.  This procedure can be simple or complex.  Within a passage, words are intentionally left out.  The interval can be every 5^th, 7^th, or 10^th word. The tutor determines the format based upon the student's reading performance. The student is to predict what word makes sense in the sentence from the context.  He may need to read the sentence following the sentence in which the cloze procedure appears in order to get more clues.  Once a word has been predicted, the student reads further to confirm or revise the prediction.

Predicting/Confirming: This strategy is useful for monitoring reading comprehension.  It helps focus attention and keeps the student actively involved in the reading process.  It is useful for students who report their minds wander or they get sleepy when they read.  After reading, the student uses evidence from the story to confirm or revise the previous predictions. Tutors and clients can take turns predicting/confirming questions generated from the course content.  This strategy actively gets the client involved in their session.

Formulate Questions: Have the client initiate questions on the content.  Use question words such as, "who, what, when, where, how, how much, how long, who." Once the questions have been established, have the client read and answer them.  This can lead to other comprehension activities such as analyzing the events or delving into fact versus opinion.

Tutor Quiz 7 - L1