Building Successful Study Skills: A
Handbook for Students
A Study Skills Program from Chalk Dust Press
An innovative, classroom-tested study skills program which can be used across the curriculum is now available from Chalk Dust Press Educational Publishers of Joplin, Missouri.
| Building Successful Study Skills is aimed at students in the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grades. It is during these years when students leave one teacher in a self-contained classrooms for many teachers in departmentalized classrooms. It is a time when participation in extracurricular and non-school activities increases dramatically. It is a time when young people first become aware of the challenges that they will face in high school and beyond. It is also the time when both good and bad study skills and time management habits are developed. | |
Building Successful Study Skills is designed to create within each student
positive attitudes toward learning
lifelong organizational habits
key time-management skills
complex note-taking skills
essential research and library skills
critical test-taking capabilities
Study Skills Are Life Skills
A fundamental premise of Building Successful Study Skills is that the skills needed for effective learning are the same skills needed for success as an adult.
| The Successful Student | The Successful Adult |
| Keeps an assignment book or planner | Keeps an appointment calendar |
| Maintains a notebook | Keeps important papers, documents, files |
| Completes library reports or projects | Completes business reports or projects |
| Prepares for quizzes, tests, and final exams | Prepares for projects or presentations |
| Strives for good grades | Strives to meet long-term goals |
An Authentic Approach to Teaching Study Skills
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Most "how to study" instruction is carried on independently of actual classroom activities. Study skills classes are taught as electives, during orientation week, after school, or in summer school. The setting for this instruction is unrealistic but is tolerated by both teachers and students because it is "better than nothing." Because specific skills are applied differently in each content area, individual teachers know best the requirements and techniques that are vital to their courses. Building Successful Study Skills provides the classroom teacher with an overall framework for study skills instruction. The Teacher's Activity Book that accompanies Building Successful Study Skills contains thirty-one activities and eighteen blackline masters that enhance the material in the student text.
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Building Successful Study Skills is based on student readings and coordinated activities. Each of the ten text chapters is about one thousand words. The lesson plus accompanying activities can be covered in two or three advisory or homeroom periods. The premise on which the entire program is built is that a unified approach from the entire faculty to help students understand that the skills needed to take notes, pass a quiz, or complete a project in science or English class are exactly the same as the skills needed to take notes, pass a quiz, or complete a project in math or social studies class.
Program Content
| Student Text | Teacher Activity | |
| 1 | Learning How to Study | By-products of Study and Study Skills are Life Skills activities |
| 2 | Building Attitude and Interest | Ways of Learning activity; two student check lists |
| 3 | Making a Place to Study | Television and study experiment |
| 4 | Managing Your Time Daily | Time Management Log; Learning to Prioritize activity |
| 5 | Organizing Your Notebook | Notebook checklist |
| 6 | Succeeding with Homework | Value of One Homework Assignment activity; The SQ3R Method |
| 7 | Taking Notes While You Read | Parts of a textbook; Four
systems for taking notes with readings; Two activities for note-taking from lecture |
| 8 | Writing Reports and Papers | Library research graphic organizer; Proofreading activities |
| 9 | Preparing for and Taking Tests | The Value of Distributed Study activity; Using mnemonics |
| 10 | Taking Different Kinds of Tests | Two critical thinking activities; Physical aspects of test taking |
Building Successful Study Skills is priced to allow each student to keep the text for use from year to year. Contact us at the address below for further information.
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Chalk Dust Press
Educational Publishers
PO Box 1711
Joplin, MO 64802-1711
Tel: 417.483.0433
Fax: 800.878.9053
sales@chalkdustpress.com