Study Skills Year At A Glance
Academic Year 2013-2014
Guiding Goals:
 Students will practice weekly time management strategies.
 Students will set academic study goals, create action plans and reflect on success/challenges.
 Students will study in a classroom environment that models an appropriate study environment.
 Students will engage in individual study time and discover how this can benefit them.
 Students will engage in small group study and learn how to achieve benefits from this type of study.
 Students will track their grades and reflect on outcome against practiced study habits.
 Students will learn academic success strategies via monthly topics for classroom activities.
Grading Policy:
 Organization 60%: Planner checks; Journal/ThinkBook Checks; Coming To Class Prepared For
Work; etc.
 Classroom Activities 20%: Performance With In-Class Activities.
 Participation 20%: Participating In In-Class Activities; Staying On-Task During Study Days.
Weekly Schedule:
Monday
Classroom Activity Related to Monthly Study Strategy Topic
Full Week Planning in HBMS Planner, Including ALL Activities/Appointments/Etc.
Tuesday
Goal-Setting for Study Time/Action Plan/Reflection
Individual Study Time
Wednesday
Goal-Setting for Study Time/Action Plan/Reflection
Individual and/or Small Group Study
Thursday
Goal-Setting for Study Time/Action Plan/Reflection
Individual Study Time
Friday
Classroom Activity Related to Academic Success and/or Monthly Topic
Week’s Reflection:
 Did you have any quizzes or tests? If so, what was your study plan? How well did you do
on the test? How did the success or failure of your study plan reflect on your quiz/test
grade?

How well did you do this week juggling your schedule with school, activities and
homework? Any time crunches? What do you need to adjust to ease stress or to better
manage your time?
The following are suggested topics which may vary according to particular grade level/particular class
needs:
August Focus: Defining Good Study/Homework Habits
 Class Expectations & Procedures
 Graffiti Project
 Introduction to Daily Goal Pages for Class Notebook
 Introduction to Time Block Management
 Discover What Where Students in Class Feel Weak/Unsure in Study Skills/Management/Organization.
 Team Build to Foster Supportive Environment
 Do a learning style inventory to learn individual learning style and discuss how that factors into smart study
strategies.
September Focus: Getting Organized & Establishing Good Homework Habits
 Establish habit of using the HBMS planner. (8th Grade To Learn Electronic Time Planning As Well.)
 Establish habit of creating a Monday “Week At A Glance” Time Planning Sheet
 Establish habit of daily Goal Charting (see attached.)
 Homework space organization/lists of useful materials to have and how to organize.



Binder organization.
Locker organization
Electronic organization (how to keep files organized.)
October Focus: Note-Taking Strategies
 Learning to use Cornell Notes.
 Learning how to take notes via outlining.
 Learning to take notes by a mapping method.
 Learning to take notes via sentence method.
 Learn to use topic/concept cards.
 Note management.
November Focus: Reading Strategies
 Close Text-Dependent Reading Skills
 Annotation and Extraction
 Vocabulary Building and Tracking
 Identifying Signals and Layers in Reading
December Focus: Test-Taking Strategies
 Managing Test Anxiety
 How To Create A Study Plan
 Types of Tests and Strategies to Succeed for Each Type
 Close Text Reading of Direction
For The Future:
Study Skills, with this structure, achieves balance and accountability. This class needs to keep a degree of
responsiveness to be most effective, since the power in it lies in day-to-day management. A prescribed curriculum
will not allow responsiveness. We recommend, instead, that a “Topic Bank” be created on the network drive so that
as Study Skills teachers identify class needs, they can access the “Topic Bank” to pull ideas/strategies/lessons that
respond to class needs (thank you to Vejah for this excellent suggestion!)
A Few Resources:
** Penn State Schuykill Note Taking Document:
http://www.sl.psu.edu/Documents/Note_Taking_Strategies.pdf
** 2012-2013 Study Skills Book -- Study Strategies Made Easy
** Nodehill Study Skills & Learning Games -http://nataliagarcia.typepad.com/nodehillstudyskills/games_and_other_cool_stuff/