1. Study Skills Seminar

2. What type of person are you?
Type 1: Hear a name and remember it? Remember a sermon without an outline? Would rather give a 10 minute speech than write a 10 page paper?
Type 2: Need to see someone’s name on a nametag to remember their name? Can picture your notes on the page in your notebook? Would you rather write a paper than give a speech? Do you use “To Do” list and check off items as you go?
Type 3: Do you feel you learn more with school labs and fieldtrips than in the classroom? Would you rather create a collage or display board as opposed to a paper or speech?

3. Learning Styles Type 1: Auditory Learner Type 2: Visual Learner
Type 3: Kinesthetic Learner
What does that mean???

4. Learning Styles - EARS
Auditory learners receive information best by hearing and give answers best verbally.
Positives:
Excellent in class discussions
Enjoy talking in general
Remember information from lectures and discussions
Think and talk simultaneously
Auditory learning is a learning style in which a person learns through listening. They may struggle to understand a chapter they've read, but then experience a full understanding as they listen to the class lecture. An auditory learner may benefit by using the speech recognition tool available on many PCs.
Auditory learners may have a knack for ascertaining the true meaning of someone's words by listening to audible signals like changes in tone. When memorizing a phone number, an auditory learner will say it out loud and then remember how it sounded to recall it.
Auditory Learners are good at writing responses to lectures they’ve heard. They’re also good at oral exams, effectively by listening to information delivered orally, in lectures, speeches, and oral sessions. Auditory learners make up about 20% of the population.[1]
It is believed that when an auditory/verbal learner reads, it is almost impossible for the learner to comprehend anything without sound in the background. In these situations, listening to music or having different sounds in the background (TV, people talking, etc) will help learners work better.
Auditory learning can also be considered a different style of learning. Some people are visual learners, some kinesthetic learners, some tactile learners, and some are auditory learners. This is explained as a person who depends on hearing and speaking as a main way of learning.[2] Auditory learners must be able to hear what is being said in order to understand and may have difficulty with instructions that are written. They also use their listening and repeating skills to sort through the information that is sent to them.[3]
Auditory learners are good at storytelling. They solve problems by talking them through. Speech patterns include phrases “I hear you; That clicks; It's ringing a bell”, and other sound or voice-oriented information. These learners will move their lips or talk to themselves to help accomplish tasks.[2]

5. Learning Styles - EARS Negatives: Speak without thinking first
Easily interested by neighbors, noise
Can be overwhelmed by large reading and writing assignments.
Tend to skip instructions on tests, miss details in multiple choice questions
Tend to “read aloud” (subvocalize) in order to process information through ears
In the article Learning Style Awareness by Annette Vincent and Dianne Ross they explain techniques that auditory learners can use to gain information more effectively. They state, “Advice to auditory learners should include:
Make tapes of class notes and then listen to them.
Remember details by trying to "hear" previous discussions.
Participate in class discussions.
Ask questions and volunteer in class.
Read assignments out loud.
Whisper new information when alone
Make a song of the information you need to learn

6. Learning Styles – EYES
Visual learners take in information by seeing it, reading it, and usually give answers best by writing.
Positive: school is made for you!!
Read the words on the board
Write in your planner
Read the chapter
Write an essay
Fill in the circle, make no stray marks!!
Do not interrupt or talk to your neighbor in class.

7. Learning Styles - EYES Negatives:
Miss verbal directions or assignments
Lose track of classroom discussion
Distracted by loud, noisy environments
Become bored during lectures
Score low on “listening skills” section of tests
More difficulty learning a foreign language

8. Learning Styles - Kinesthetic
Kinesthetic learners take in material best when touch, texture, and movement is presented. They give answers best when a variety of modes are allowed such as art, design, presentation, discussion, and acting.
Positives:
Creative, global thinking, ‘out of the box’ solutions to problems.
Kinesthetic learning is when someone learns things from doing or being part of them. They make up about 15% of the population and they struggle to learn by reading or listening. Many people mistake themselves for kinesthetic/tactile learners because they have not used the full variety of learning options, which means they cannot find the right learning state for them. When revising it helps for the student to move around as this increases the students understanding with learners generally getting better marks in exams when they use that style. The kinesthetic learner usually does well in things such as chemistry experiments, sporting activities, art and acting. They also may listen to music while learning or studying. It is common for kinesthetic learners to focus on two different things at the same time. They will remember things by going back in their minds to what their body was doing. They also have very high hand-eye coordination and very quick receptors. They use phrases such as "I can see myself doing that" and "It's starting to come alive".

9. Learning Styles - Kinesthetic
Negatives:
One-style, visual or auditory, can be missed
Too many details can cause “brain-freeze”
Tend to be moving, active, fidgety in class
Tend to have reading difficulties, dyslexia
Tend to feel “dumb” for missing details despite having great creativity and often high intelligence.
Require more teaching modalities for success
SUGGESTIONS FOR TACTILE-KINESTHETIC LEARNERS
Create a model
Demonstrate a principle
Practice a technique
Participate in simulations
Engage in hands-on activities
Study in comfortable position, not necessarily sitting in a chair
PREFERRED TEST STYLES FOR TACTILE-KINESTHETIC LEARNERS Multiple choice, short definitions fill in the blanks
WORST TEST TYPE Long essay tests
POSSIBLE CAREER PATHS Dancers, physical education teachers, actors, firefighters, athletes, mimes

13. Organizational Skills

14. Organizational Skills
Brain “dominant side” concept
Left Brain – logical, orderly, step by step
Right Brain – global, “gestalt”, intuitive
Not “100%” either but tend toward one type
Notice – each side is OK – not right or wrong

15. Organizational Skills
Left Brain Type
Tends to approach material step by step
Seeks to place things in linear order
Enjoys “to do” lists, checking off one after another.
Likes math, science, law, visual order
Naturally “more organized” than others
Less comfortable with interpretive art, poetic reading, mood and symbolism

16. Organizational Skills
Right Brain Type
Approaches material more randomly
Places things in spatial, 3D view
Likes a flexible, changing “to do” format
Enjoys, language, art, literature, history
Tends to appear “disorganized”
Less comfortable with linear to do lists, math, “showing all the steps” in homework.

17. Organizational Skills
Problem: A Mismatch of skills and tasks!
School success requires the Left Brain student to interpret and think abstractly in literature, history, philosophy, and art despite feeling bored by “vague” discussions.
School success requires the Right Brain student to arrange papers in an orderly, consistent way, to write down “to do” items, to show all the steps in a math problem, and to maintain focus on details every day.

18. Organizational Skills
Solution:
Recognize the Challenge
Customize the organizational skills to the type of student.
Encourage the Left Brain type to “think outside the box” – puzzles, art, practice
Encourage the Right Brain type to learn the skills needed to be detail-oriented.

19. Organizational Skills - What
Three main ways to keep papers:
Traditional binder, with 3 hole punch, tabbed dividers, lined paper, pockets for handouts.
Accordion File, with labeled tabs for subjects, and spiral-bound notebooks for taking notes in class.
Folders for each subject with paper for notes, pockets for handouts, assignments.

20. Organizational Skills - What
Traditional binder, with 3 hole punch, tabbed dividers, lined paper, pockets for handouts
Positive: Holds all subjects, (can have separate binders for classes also), one thing to carry to each class
Negative: Many students are in such a hurry that they don’t take the time to put papers in the proper places. Requires thinning, filing.

21. Organizational Skills - What
The PLANNER – Assignment Book
When
Was it assigned?
Is it due?
Will I work on this?
Will I get each step done?

22. Organizational Skills - Where
A Place to Study
Quiet
Consistent – not the kitchen table
Blah surroundings – not visually distracting
Supplies available – dictionary, tools, paper, water bottle, timer, calendar
File box or drawer with labeled folders

23. Time Management Analyze current daily schedule & activities
Wake up, get ready for school, leave house
End of school, getting home
Activities, meetings, chores
Sleep time

24. Time Management How much time is LEFT OVER for homework?
What is your best time of day to study?
Make a schedule
Use a timer
Take short breaks (time them also!)
Reward yourself for finishing tasks

25. Time Management To Do Lists Linear Left Brain type
Traditional “to do” list, check off in order
Prioritize the tasks – easy, medium, difficult or favorite, OK, least favorite.
Start off with a medium, take a break, get going on the harder tasks, finish, then do easy tasks.

26. Time Management Global, Right-Brain Type
Write assignments or subjects on sticky notes
Arrange sticky notes on a clipboard
Estimate time required for each task
Re-arrange placement of sticky notes by preference, ease, or time required
Remove the sticky note when task completed
Take brief, timed breaks, using timer

27. Time Management Getting Homework DONE
Be REALISTIC about how long things take
DIVIDE large tasks into smaller ones with shorter time frames, “personal” due dates
START a task, write down your ideas, begin the reading = ANYTHING to get started.
Now that you have started, plan out how to finish on time.

28. Time Management Drinking from the Fire Hydrant
When there isn’t enough time to do it all
Learn to Get the Big Picture
Do the most important, costly work first
Skim and review the main ideas
Do something for each subject daily, even if there is no assignment that day.

29. Study Skills - Reading
The word “Reading” represents several types of skills
Recognizing letters and words
Processing the symbols for meaning
Connecting new information to old
Creating a mental picture of what is written
Processing ideas and concepts as one reads
Reading ACTIVELY - “critically” for meaning

30. Study Skills - Reading What is ACTIVE reading?
NOT like reading the cereal box
MORE like hunting for a certain phone number in the phone book
EVEN MORE like re-reading a romantic note from a friend
ACTIVE reading calls for purpose, an alert mind, a sense of searching, and a belief that there is something to be gained by reading.

31. Study Skills - Reading Purpose Alert Mind Sense of searching
Go after each text with a purpose
Alert Mind
Awake, sitting up, leaning forward
Sense of searching
Search hard for information and meaning
Belief that you will find something
Expect to learn something new and find it

32. Study Skills – Read the Chapter
When the teacher says, “Read chapter 5 for tomorrow”, you should hear:
Review all the chapter headings
Review the sub-headings
Look at the pictures, read the captions
Study the diagrams, maps, tables
Write down the new vocabulary
Then, read the text!

33. Study Skills – Read the Chapter
Why go to so much trouble?
You will get the overview and have places to file the details when you come to them.
You will have reviewed the main ideas at least four times
You will be more ready for a quiz than if you started the first page, got sleepy on the second page, and never finished the chapter.

34. Study Skills - Math
Mathematics, algebra, geometry – these subjects build step by step on previous concepts.
If the current math material is very difficult, it may be that previous concepts or memorized facts are missing
Success in math depends on attention to details, showing all work, and keeping up with daily assignments.

35. Study Skills - Math Help for the “Right-Brain” math student
Tell your instructor you may need extra help
Find or ask for ways to learn math concepts with hands-on tools.
Use enough space on your papers to show all your work easily, without having to cramp your handwriting.
Show every step of a problem, even if it seems “silly” to do so.

36. Study Skills – Vocabulary
Vocabulary is easier with words in context
The text puts words into sentences already
Memorize the whole sentence if necessary
Make up odd associations with new words
Sounds like, reminds you of, looks like

37. Study Skills- Test Preparation
DON’T ONLY STUDY THE NIGHT BEFORE*
Review as you go
Save quizzes and homework
Don’t study what you already know well
Make up study cards for difficult areas
***Of course, review some details, but it is really too late to learn new material. Relax, sleep enough, eat a healthy breakfast.

38. Study Skills – Test Taking
Eat enough protein for breakfast
Keep up with water – ½ ounce per pound per day
Get enough sleep
Learn how to calm yourself with prayer, slow, deep breaths, memorized Bible verses.
Bring extra pens and pencils
Expect to think clearly – you have prepared well
Keep track of time as you work through the test.

39. Study Skills Seminar Goals
Identify main learning styles
Review organizational skills
Highlight Time Management basics
Target specific study skills for
Reading,
Chapter review in any subject area,
math,
Tests: preparing and taking with success

40. Study Skills Resources
Your teachers
Guidance counselor
Your parents
Books – see bibliography
Websites – see list
Your rights – U.S. Gov Americans with Disabilities Act, section 504