My son had two significant learning disabilities. One of the many investments I made in his education was sending him to Super Camp. The strategies he learned in Super Camp are often believed to be elementary for students at the secondary level. That belief is not based in research. In fact, these same strategies are often used in corporate training today. Sadly, as students move up in grades, they feel they don’t need the strategies any longer.

One of my high school students wouldn’t use color-coded graphic organizers. He made it very clear by stating, “That’s babyish, Mrs. Fitzell. I’m not going to do that. I did that in elementary school. I’m in high school now.” Many youths believe in the myth that, after elementary school, they shouldn’t need those fun, creative strategies they used in elementary school to learn… and if they do, it means they’re not smart enough. Continuing to use these tools is not “babyish”. It’s the way people learn; especially for our Millennials who need and expect it.

I have spent most of my career teaching at the high school level and today, in my work training in the corporate world, I hear time and again that corporate trainees want and need these strategies. They want hands-on. They need movement and activity. They want and need the same things that our students do. Corporate trainers need to provide that hands-on delivery of information for trainees. Adult learners want to be actively involved and engaged in what they’re learning. This is what’s happening in corporations and business learning environments.

Please don’t get caught up in myths about learning. Teaching kids to learn is hard work when they believe in these myths. Once they see that these learning strategies are used by the largest generation in the workforce today, they will realize using learning strategies is not “babyish”; it’s how we all learn.

CLICK HERE to discover a wealth of teaching strategies and resources for maximizing student success!.

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DEAR SUSAN! I loved your presentations at the Illinois Includes conference. You gave me lots of good strategies for classroom use and to use with my son who has ADD and struggles with executive functioning and organization. My son is finishing up seventh grade and needs to adopt strategies to help him organize assignments, organize information to study, and create strategies for retaining information. Can you recommend a program or book? – A Concerned Parent

DEAR CONCERNED PARENT: I sent my son to SuperCamp. It’s not cheap, with 2017 tuition starting at $2,495, but it is SO worth it. My son attended the Senior Forum, geared toward Grades 9-12. Their Junior Forum is geared toward your son’s grade level, Grades 6-8, and is a six-day program held at one of three locations: Stanford University, Villanova University, or California State University, San Marcos (There’s also a program for Grade 12 and incoming/current college students, the Quantum Forum, held at Cal State San Marcos). Working in teams of 16-20 fellow campers, students learn to define what’s important to them, why they learn the way that they do, and then learn how to apply the knowledge and strategies they gain in camp in order to improve their studying overall.

Also, the book, Umm Studying? What’s That?, co-written with my daughter Shivahn, is a great resource. It offers practical, research-based studying and test-taking strategies, written from the perspective of a teenager, and is aimed at middle school to college-aged students. The key is getting him to use the strategies. Of course, there’s lots of information on my blog as well.

There’s also this option for more teaching strategies: Landmark School: Skills+. I have no personal experience with Landmark, with the exception of attending one of their conferences and learning about Joan Sedita’s Notebook system, which I loved.

I hope this helps. Enjoy your summer!

For more information about study strategies for your student, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Ummm, Studying? What’s That?. Available in both print and electronic versions!

The post Dear Susan: Study Skill Teaching Strategies appeared first on Susan Fitzell.

Most students, parents, and teachers know a lot about managing their time to include homework, studying, and other activities, but many overlook the importance of also learning test-taking time management skills.

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Click on the picture to get this poster for YOUR school! ACHIEVE SUCCESS for your students with this VISUAL REMINDER

Many students do not think much about how to budget their time on a test and just jump right in.  However, in order to do their best on tests, they must learn how to think about how much time they have and how to budget that time when testing.

Test taking time management strategies for student success:

1. Have them count the number of multiple choice questions and calculate how much time they have for each question.
2. When there are essay questions too, have students set aside time for the essay(s) and then calculate their time per question for the rest of the test.
3. On a multiple choice-type test, teach them to answer the easy questions (the ones they know) first.
4. Tell students to cross out obviously incorrect responses to minimize the distractions such responses offer.  This will save them even more time.
5. Then, after they’ve answered all they know, THEN, answer the difficult ones next (and skip the ones they don’t know at all).
6. After they’ve done their best on all the questions they think they could answer, then quickly guess the rest (as long as it won’t count against them). It’s best to pick one letter and guess with the same letter throughout the test. It statistically improves the chances of guessing more right. Remember, “When in doubt, pick C!” It doesn’t have to be C. It just has to be the same letter every time.
7. In general, students should answer multiple choice questions FIRST and then focus on essay questions LAST.  There are often clues to other questions in the multiple choice parts of a test.

How Often Do You Find Yourself Saying: “I Wish I Knew How To Ace A Multiple Choice Test”

Watch this video to reinforce these steps!

For more information about study strategies for your student, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Please Help Me With My Homework. Available in both print and electronic versions!

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I can pass the test

When we store information in long-term memory, it’s filed away by rules, procedures, pairs, and categories. There are two ways to access that information: recall and recognition.

Recall is being able to remember information on demand.

That’s what we ask kids to do on tests: read it and recall it.

Recognition is the process of retrieving pieces of related information and putting them together to complete an idea.

When we recognize that something has happened before – that we’ve learned something before – and we can put those pieces of information together, recognition occurs.

Unfortunately, even the best students can have trouble with recall and recognition when tested on material they have learned.  Nerves can wreak havoc on even the most prepared students.

There are strategies, however, that teachers and students can use to help assist and promote recall and recognition.

For example, research shows that for kids to do better on tests, it’s best to practice taking tests in the same environment, and under the same conditions, as the real test.

When we condition our students to the testing environment, they experience less anxiety during the actual testing process. Providing a positive environment and promoting positive self-talk with fun practice tests makes the process less stressful for them when it counts.

Strategies to Support Student Success on Tests

The Power of Positive Thinking

How many times have people told us, or have we told others, “Think positively!”  Turns out, that simple piece of advice may be some of the best you’ll ever give or receive.

In fact, positive self-talk encourages the brain to release helpful chemicals, dopamine and adrenaline, in the right amounts to the frontal lobe, the part of the brain responsible for problem solving, judgment, and memory.

Teach Students to Use Positive Self Talk.

If students think that a subject or class is too challenging and expect to fail, they probably will fail. Tell them that it’s easy as long as they “practice” their learning.

Water Your Brain!

We are “electrical” beings and our brain’s neurons work by electrical connections. Water has been found to be the best thing we can use to facilitate the thinking process because of its capacity to conduct electricity and assist cell function. So, a simple drink of water before a test or before going to class can have a profound effect on a student’s brain’s readiness to work.

Ensure That Students Understand Test Vocabulary.

Some words include: enumerate, compare, contrast, discuss, illustrate, define, etc. If students are comfortable with these words and able to apply their understanding on a test, their test scores will be higher.

Teach Students Test Taking Tips. Such as:

a. Underline key words (list, discuss, define, etc.).

b. Put a check-mark next to blank questions.

Provide SHORT and FREQUENT Practice Tests in a Stress Free Environment

Have students design a practice test for review then time themselves when taking it. Have them self-correct and then re-take the test trying to improve their score and their test time.

More Strategies to Assist Recall and Recognition

• Allow more time on tests
• Organize information when filing in memory
• If info comes in words: Make pictures
• If info comes in pictures: Talk about it

How to Handle Reading Passages on Tests:

• Find the main idea: Each passage has a main idea. Read for the main idea and skim the details.
• Read quickly, answer slowly: Most students do the opposite: read slowly and answer quickly. Read for the main idea and you’ll read quickly.
• Mark as you read: After reading each paragraph, make a brief note of two or three words in the margin. Indicate what went on in the paragraph. Circle important details.

How to Handle Math Questions on Tests:

• Look for shortcuts: For example, you know that an odd number multiplied by an odd number gives an odd number for an answer. If only one of the choices is an odd number, it has to be correct.
• Work in consistent units:
  • If one side of a rectangle is given in inches and another in feet, convert them both to feet or inches before you multiply or add.
  • Don’t do all the computations in your head.

A full day seminar with Susan Fitzell on video!

This training program is full of memorization and test taking strategies, with a concentration on RTI & DI, that is  perfect for Professional Learning Communities, Long-term embedded professional development, full or half day in-service as well as individualized learning  check out Memorization and Test Taking Strategies: Training DVD Set

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The post Strategies to Support Student Success in Test Taking: Recall and Recognition, and More appeared first on Susan Fitzell.

I quickly grow tired of sitting down when working long days.  Therefore, I can appreciate and understand where a student is coming from when they express the same feeling while studying, doing homework, or even doing work in the classroom. To me there is no reason that I, or a student, should have to remain sitting when working or studying.  Sitting when uncomfortable, or when just plain tired of sitting, could actually be more distracting to your student, and those around her, than moving around.  In fact, motion is a very useful study tool!  Movement oxygenates the brain and involves a deeper part of your brain in the memory process. While some may doubt the motion-memory connection, consider this; when was the last time you sang The Itsy-Bisty Spider?  Unless you have sung it with children, it probably wasn’t recently.  But can you still sing and act out the song? Of course you can! So, maybe motion does help with memory.

Ways to Incorporate Motion into Studying

1. Act out vocabulary words with your student
2. Have your student come up with a (nice) gesture to represent key people, places, or things
3. Use sign language
4. Use basketball memorization: If you have a hoop in your driveway or local gym, help your student to make a game out of stating a fact and then shooting a basket.  It does not matter what rules you make up.  The movement, fun, and challenge in the activity are what are important.  Your student can do this with a friend or classmate and take turns helping each   other.  If your student likes football, soccer, or any other sport better, use that sport as the foundation.  Help your student make their own rules.  As long as memorizing information is part of the game rules, it will be effective.

Watch this Video! Don’t Wait Another Moment! Perform Better On The Test Now!

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The post How To Renew Vigor And Energy While Studying appeared first on Susan Fitzell.

Homework is controversial. There’s research that says it’s not beneficial. There’s research that indicates that it increases achievement. Which is it? Because I know that I need to do some “homework” no matter whether it’s school work or practicing my Kung Fu, I believe there is value on what I call “do-able” homework. The goal of homework is to take something learned earlier in the day and bring it back into working memory before bedtime. Research shows that practice increases recall the next day. It’s not about quantity, or the amount of time spent on the homework. Rather, it’s about forcing your brain to remember what was learned several hours ago and thereby building those neural connections.

As parents, we can use homework strategies to adapt assignments to our child’s learning preferences so that they retain what they learned in school earlier in the day. How? Here is a list of seven strategies that you can use at home to help your child increase their academic performance and make the homework experience more enjoyable, rewarding, and productive.

How to remember the sequence of events

1. To help your child remember the sequence of events in a story or history lesson, have them create a cognitive map with words and pictures. Using visual images to represent facts or a series of events helps to enhance recall and learning. By using colored pencils, crayons, or even colored fonts on a computer, your child can create a step-by-step map of the story – complete with descriptions of events and drawings or clip art to help them remember what happened, in sequence.
2. Another way to help your child remember a sequence of events in a story or history lesson is to have them create a sequence chart. Think of this as a time line or story line that shows events drawn out and written in chronological order. Although this can be done on any type of paper, long adding machine tape works well. Don’t forget to use color and visuals to increase memory.

How to Study Vocabulary Words

3. Increase vocabulary retention by creating visual flash cards. This strategy uses visual images to enhance recall and learning. Have your child write their vocabulary word on an index card and then place a border around it. The border will help them memorize what the word looks like. Then have them draw, print from the internet, or cut out from magazines pictures that help define the word. Attach the visual to the front of the card. On the back of the index card, have your child write the definition and a silly sentence using the word to help them remember the definition.

Foldable Note-Taking

4. Create a “fold-able.” A fold-able is a small book made out of folded pieces of paper that can become a study guide for various things. For example, your child can make a fold-able for a series of vocabulary words, historical figures, or even the cell cycle. Each page of the mini book would display, through words and drawings or pictures, one vocabulary word, a historic figure and related fact, a stage in the cycle of a cell, etc. http://foldables.wikispaces.com/

Have your Child Teach You!

5. It has been shown that we learn and retain the most when we teach someone else – so be your child’s student! Divide up their vocabulary list into manageable chunks (start with two to three words per night), then have them learn to finger spell or sign the words on their list and teach them to you.

Mnemonic Strategies

6. Increase their ability to remember by teaching your child to use various memory devices such as mnemonics, associations, rhyming, chunking, acronyms, and acrostics. These devices help us to remember the order of things as well as facts and concepts. What works for one child may not work for another, so test each device and see what works best. Some examples:

A mnemonic: I Am A Person – The four oceans (Indian, Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific),

An acrostic: Mallory Valerie Emily Meetzahs Just Served Us Nachos – The order of the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune).

A rhyme: 30 days has September; April, June, and November.

Famous Figure Wanted Poster

7. A fun way to help your child remember facts and concepts about famous figures is to have them create “wanted posters.” Have your child either use the computer or hand draw a wanted sign, complete with a picture of the famous figure. Then have them write the name of the person, their date of birth, and a list the “crimes” (facts) the person is “wanted” (famous) for – these will be facts about the person’s life and accomplishments. For example, Susan B. Anthony would be wanted for helping women gain equal rights.
http://mrslampkinsandmrsshawsclass.blogspot.com/2012/09/wanted-dead-or-alive.html

Remember, no one strategy will work for every child. Talk to your child and give them some options. Help them choose strategies that they are comfortable with and that they think will help them to retain the most information.

Have you, or your student, used any of these homework strategies? If so, how did they work for you? Have you adapted any of these homework strategies to make them your own? Tell us about that.

For more information about study strategies for your student, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Please Help Me With My Homework. Available in both print and electronic versions!

Would you like to reprint this article, or an article like it, in your newsletter or journal?
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The post Seven Homework Strategies That Parents Can Use to Reinforce Learning appeared first on Susan Fitzell.

On Standardized Tests:

The easiest questions are at the beginning, the middle more difficult and the end, the most difficult. If a question at the end seems too easy, it’s probably the wrong answer.

On Essay Tests:

• Make notes on back of exam sheet, eg., ACRONYMS, Visual Cues, etc.
• Read directions carefully
• Underline key question words.
• Number all parts of the question.
• Jot notes along side each question as you read it for the first time.
• Pretend the reader is totally ignorant of the topic!

How to Handle Reading Passages on Tests:

• Find the main idea: Each passage has a main idea. Read for the main idea and skim the details.
• Read quickly, answer slowly: Most students do the opposite: read slowly and answer quickly. Read for the main idea and you’ll read quickly.
• Mark as you read: After reading each paragraph, make a brief note of two or three words in the margin. Indicate what went on in the paragraph. Circle important details.

How to Handle Math Questions on Tests:

• Look for shortcuts: For example, you know that an odd number multiplied by an odd number gives an odd number for an answer. If only one of the choices is an odd number, it has to be correct.
• Work in consistent units:
  • If one side of a rectangle is given in inches and another in feet, convert them both to feet or inches before you multiply or add.
  • Don’t do all the computations in your head.

The post Test Taking Strategies for Student Success appeared first on Susan Fitzell.

In fact, according to Eric Jensen in Brain-Based Learning (1996), we remember colors first and content next. Colors affect us on both a physiological and a psychological level. Therefore,using color can be a great way to help students study more efficiently.

• Add color to homework paperwork
• Print notes and alternate two colors for each individual point
• Hang colorful posters around the house to reinforce the concepts being learned

According to research, color communicates more effectively than black and white. How much more effectively?  Here’s what the research says:

• Color visuals increase willingness to read by up to 80 percent
• Using color can increase motivation and participation by up to 80 percent
• Color enhances learning and improves retention by more than 75 percent
• Color accounts for 60 percent of the acceptance or rejection of an object and is a critical factor in the success of any visual experience

The post Using Color to Aid Memorization appeared first on Susan Fitzell.

One surefire way to help students remember more important details when taking tests is to first make sure they are taking good notes!  The following are some good note-taking strategies to make studying (and remembering!) a little easier:

• Print information to be memorized.
• Use two different colored markers or pens when working, alternating the color of each fact in your notes. Color makes facts stand out as unique. If your notes are all in one color, nothing stands out as unique and everything is harder to remember.
• Highlight (Just not the whole paragraph!)
• Alternate color gel pens, markers, crayons, etc.
• Border key vocabulary words, people, places, etc. (Draw a box around key words)

From Umm, Studying?  What’s That? by Susan Gingras Fitzell

The post Note-taking Strategies appeared first on Susan Fitzell.

There are several flashcard packages available to help teach vocabulary using visuals.  Vocabulary Cartoons from New Monic Books reinforces understanding and memorization by linking vocabulary words to memorable cartoons. Vocabulary Cartoons carries generic vocabulary programs for various grade levels, including cards with SAT and ACT test words, so they are appropriate for a variety of ages and grade levels.

While these catchy visual connections work for many students, one might wonder what to do when the words your student needs to learn aren’t on the cards, or when cost is a factor. Thankfully, these kind of flashcard sets aren’t the only way to learn vocabulary with a visual connection.

Some Ways to Help Students Learn Vocabulary, Visually:

1. Have students make their own flashcards by looking up vocabulary words online and finding pictures that show the definitions. Ask them to print the picture, glue it on a card, and write a silly sentence under the picture to help them remember the word.  Then have them write the definition of the word on the back of the card. Students without internet access, and those who are more visual learners, can get creative and draw the pictures themselves!

2. Use these handmade flashcards to make a word wall, where new, and current, vocabulary words can be displayed for your student to see and read daily.

3. Teachers, and parents, might turn their students into vocabulary word detectives! Every day, change a few pictures on the Word Wall, then offer the student(s) who find the changes some sort of prize like, an extra point, a free homework ticket, extra play or TV time, etc.- whatever you use as a reward system. Every day they’ll rush in to see what’s changed; and they’ll be actively engaged with reviewing the words on a daily basis.

4. Use sign language. Provide your student(s) with a copy of the sign alphabet and help them learn to fingerspell a few vocabulary words for homework. In class, teachers might have students pair up and teach each other the words they learned. Not only will they learn to spell their  words, they will gain a life skill in the process!

From Memorization and Test-taking Strategies

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