Establishing Strong Study Skills During Middle School
Study skills are a variety of skills that help us process, organize, keep, and use information. Middle School is a critical time for developing study skills as students learn to juggle multiple courses and adjust to having more autonomy. Like me, you might be having thoughts of carrying your sticker-covered paper planner around all day and finding a parent to sign it each night. However, just like for adults, different study skills work better for different situations and different people. We can support study skill development for middle schoolers by exposing them to an array of study and organizational techniques. Then, most importantly, we can help them reflect on these tools and identify which ones work best for them in a variety of situations.
Why do Study Skills Matter?
Study skills are critical to both school and life success. We need to get to appointments on time, meet deadlines, and remember to do important tasks. Studies show that “Capable students at all grade levels may experience difficulty in school, not because they lack ability, but because they lack good study skills.”(2) To be successful, students need to both “have a wide array of study strategies at their disposal, and know where, when, and how to use these strategies.” (2)
Studies also show that stronger students are better at self-monitoring. They are able to determine if their study methods are effective and adjust when necessary. (1,3)
We can help middle schoolers be successful in school, and life by:
Explicitly teaching students how to choose and use a variety of study skills.
Helping students develop self-monitoring skills that will allow them to make adjustments independently.
Selecting and Using Study Skills
Many students operate with the misconception that studying is all about memorization. However, memorization is one small part of a successful study skill tool belt. Effective study skills require students to be able to organize information, manage their time, sequence tasks appropriately, and think critically. To be successful, students must have a wide variety of study skills and know when to use each.
We can help kids develop a tool belt of study skills by helping them to identify what their goal is and then find a study tool that fits the job.
Developing Self-Monitoring Skills
Sometimes students have a plan, and it works out beautifully! We can help them celebrate their win and identify why their plan worked so they can build on their success.
If their plan didn’t work, that’s ok! That is a great moment to celebrate what did work and recalibrate what didn’t.
Remember, school is as much about the process as the knowledge. By helping students reflect on both their wins and losses, we build resilient and self-aware kids who can work through setbacks and achieve their goals. We can use a three-step process to validate students, help them identify what did and didn’t work, and plan for the future.
Empathize & Validate:
Getting feedback can be difficult, even for adults. We can help students learn to process and use feedback efficiently. Starting by naming and validating students' feelings normalizes this process and allows them to learn from both their successes and failures.
“I know you worked hard to get ready for your math test and then did not get the score you hoped for. I bet that feels really frustrating. Let’s take a look and see what went well and what we could do differently next time.”
“Wow! I see you did really well on the essay. You worked so hard on it, you must feel proud of yourself. Let’s take a look at it!”
Explore:
To improve, students need to understand what worked and what didn’t. It’s easy to focus on what didn’t work. However, examining what worked will help students identify and strengthen strategies that work for them.
“I see you did well on these types of questions. What did you need to know to do these questions? How did you learn that? How did you practice these types of questions?”
“I see you struggled with this question. What was difficult about this question? What necessary information did you not understand? How did you practice this skill? Do you think that type of practice worked for you? Why?”
Plan:
Once students have identified what did and did not work for them we can help them develop a plan going forward. This plan will reinforce tools that are working for them while adjusting or replacing those that have been less successful.
“Why do you think this strategy worked well for you? Could you do anything to make it work even better? Where else could you use that strategy in the future?”
“Why do you think this strategy didn’t work well for you? Can you think of another strategy that might have worked better? Why do you think that?”
What it Looks Like
In the Classroom
When giving an assignment or announcing an assessment, we can help students identify what skills they will need to be successful. Then, we can show students various study skills and tools that are a good fit for this need. It is often helpful to introduce tools one at a time so students can see how they work. Once students have developed a strong set of study tools you can move towards students selecting tools for each task by themselves. This helps students start to identify the tools that work best for them in a variety of circumstances.
For example, Ms. Young has her 8th-grade students write a one-page response at several points throughout a novel. For the first response, Ms. Young had everyone use a mindmap to organize their ideas. For the second essay, everyone uses an essay planner. For the third essay, everyone uses a traditional outline. For each tool, Ms. Young explicitly models how to use it. Then, at the end of the lesson, she has students who used the tool effectively share their planner with the class. This allows students to see multiple examples of how each tool can be used and encourages students to think critically about each tool.
For the fourth and final essay, Ms. Young has students choose one of the three planning tools to use. On the back of their template, she has them explain why they chose this tool and how it helped them. By allowing students to try a variety of study tools and then identify one that works best for them and why, Ms. Young is building students' critical thinking, planning, and problem-solving skills. For future writing tasks, these students will be more capable of self-identifying strategies and tools that will help them be successful.
At Home
When helping students use study skills at home, the goal is to help students be successful while also helping them build the skills that will allow them to one day accomplish these tasks without support. It can be tempting to do the organizational part of a child’s project ourselves. However, by making the lists, buying the supplies, and providing reminders, we are cheating children out of the opportunity to build these skills.
For example: Jacob has a 6th grader named Sky. Sky has a poster due next Friday and is feeling overwhelmed and unsure of how to start. Jacob and Sky sit down and make a list of everything that needs to be done and bought for the project. They then use a calendar to decide when to do each task. Throughout the week, Sky marks off each small task as it is finished. Every few days, Jacob uses the calendar to check in with Sky about the progress of the project. By allowing Sky to plan out the project, Jacob is helping her build organizational and study skills. When Jacob uses the calendar to check in with Sky about her progress instead of just reminding her, he helps her take responsibility for her work and learn how to budget her time.
Conclusion
Study skills are critical for student success, and middle school is a great time to really focus on developing these skills. We can help students build study skills that will benefit them throughout their lives by explicitly teaching them how to use a variety of study tools and then helping them build self-monitoring strategies to know when their tools are working.
Resources
Project planning template- It can be hard for students to know where to start on big projects. Fill out the form below to download our free project planning template to help students organize big tasks into small manageable chunks.
Navigating the transition from elementary school to middle school
References
(1) DiFrancesca, D., Nietfeld, J. L., & Cao, L. (2016). A comparison of high and low achieving students on self-regulated learning variables. Learning and Individual Differences, 45, 228-236.
(2) Gettinger, M., & Seibert, J. K. (2002). Contributions of study skills to academic competence. School psychology review, 31(3), 350-365.
(3) Meneghetti, C., De Beni, R., & Cornoldi, C. (2007). Strategic knowledge and consistency in students with good and poor study skills. European journal of cognitive psychology, 19(4-5), 628-649.