Dreamstime
In last month’s article, “Where am I Now?” (the first of three foundational building blocks in this study guide), you helped your child go through a checklist of his/her current study skills. Next, she or he discovered what kind of learner s/he is: visual – seeing learner; auditory – hearing learner; kinesthetic – doing learner; or a combination of learning styles. Then, you were given techniques to help your child study based on their learning style, and you were encouraged to use those techniques to enhance learning.
The next building block: “Where do I want to be?” takes what has been learned so far and applies it to goals, objectives, and action plans. You will go from just observing your child’s current status related to learning and study skills to constructing manageable steps to reach dreams, solve problems, build “castles in the air.”
Every day your child encounters situations they need to handle, problems that need solving, and/or dreams they want to turn into realities. Let’s develop a process that can be used to meet these challenges.
Big Picture
To begin: Ask your child to come up with some “big pictures” of what her typical week includes. Help her get started by suggesting “School.” Family, friends, sports, church, pets, etc. are reasonable topics she may list. Encourage all responses. Write each of the “main ideas” on an index card or piece of paper. The visual learner may want to write the ideas in different colors. The auditory learner may want to “talk it through” and ask you to write them. The kinesthetic learner may enjoy acting out a typical day and finding the main ideas that way. Have fun with this activity.
Organize
Now, let your child choose one of the cards. Let’s say he picks “School.” Here’s the plan for this main idea: Make a horizontal chart with three columns. Leave room at the top of the chart for labels. Ask him to give you a word or short sentence that states an area he wants or needs to work on in school, such as spelling. Write “Spelling” in the first column.
What does he want to do? Raise his grade from a C to a B. By when? The end of the next grading period. In the second column, write: “Raise my grade from a C to a B by the end of the next six week grading period.” Next, think of ways he could make that happen — use his learning strengths. As he states a way/technique, write it in the third column.
For example: 1. “Make flash cards of the spelling words and go over them every night — say the word then spell the word” (visual learner: use different colors; auditory: say and spell the words out loud; kinesthetic: walk around the room while reviewing the words). 2. “Write the words two times on Monday night and Wednesday night.” 3. “On Thursday night, have someone give me a practice test so that I will be ready for the real test on Friday.” 4. “Keep a list of all grades I make in Spelling in a notebook at home so I know that I’m on track to make a B.”
Support
Praise your child for the good work and ideas. Then, complete the chart. Write the word “School” at the top. Over the first column, write “Goal.” Over the second, write “Objective.” Over the third, write “Action Plan.” Talk about how a subject area that is a problem in school (goal) has been broken down into an action statement that is specific, measurable, realistic, and time-bound (objective) and that some ways to make that action statement happen have been listed (action plan).
Encourage your child to realize that even the most daunting assignment or problem can be accomplished/solved by breaking it down into clear (specific, measurable, realistic, and time-bound) objectives with action plans that will meet those objectives. Choose another card and go through the process again.
“Where do I want to be?” In this article your child has discovered a process to apply to any problem or situation — to be where they want to be and do what they want to do. This pattern of Goal/Objective/Action Plan gives your child a model to organize his or her thoughts and actions. Frustration and fear of failure are replaced with confidence and success as a “big” situation/problem/dream is reduced to manageable organized steps he or she can take. After some practice, your child will not need to fill in a chart because they have learned the thought process.
Next month, “How Do I Get There?” will continue to build the study guide foundation with specific study skills.
Grace Copeland is a retired Memphis educator who now consults families on ways to improve their child’s study habits. Visit victusstudyskillssystem.org for more information.