Getting students to pay attention when teaching study skills can be tough. Learning about how to take notes, read more effectively, focus and concentrate, and getting organised can be dull.
BUT, the payoff for learning how to learn effectively and efficiently can be HUGE! Read on to find out three ways to easily engage your students in study skills.
Picture this . . .
It’s Friday afternoon, last lesson. The students are tired, probably slightly smelly, and their eyes are glazed. In fact, you may be feeling the same way (with out the slight whiff of BO, I hope). And guess what you have to try and teach them . . . study skills. Just the words study skills sinks to the bottom of your belly. Ugh. Now, imagine how your students are feeling . . .
One of the hardest things teachers have to deal with is their students lacking basic study skills to perform to their best ability. Many students fail to realise the importance of learning how to study effectively, and so tune out when teachers try to teach it.
So, how do we get our students to pay attention? How do we stop the words study skills from sinking to the bottom of their bellies on a Friday afternoon?
Rewards for learning study skills
Not going to lie – rewards can also be bribes. Now, I know you’re thinking that rewarding students for their attention (which, let’s face it, they should be giving you anyways) may seem drastic, but if it helps them perform to the best of their ability? Totally worth it. Simple (and cheap!) rewards include stickers, positive phone calls, letters or postcards home to parents, colorful pens and pencils etc.
You can also mention the reward of performing better academically, and getting to spend more time with their friends because they’ve finished all their homework.
Use logic to convince them
By reminding students that effective study skills will save them time (which they can spend doing fun stuff) AND help them do better at school, you may just get through to some. CrashCourse has a great video that explains the difference between high-density and low-density fun. By explaining that effective studying leads to more high-density fun (eg: hanging out with friends), students may learn to reduce low-density fun/time-wasting time (eg: scrolling their Facebook/Insta feeds).
Use videos to engage them
Playing a video can engage students quickly and easily. And let’s face it, they’d rather listen to someone other than you. Especially on a Friday afternoon.
Now, I can feel the teacher-guilt coming, click here to find out why you shouldn’t feel guilty about playing videos in class. And click here to find out three great FREE videos to help you teach study skills.
Worried about keeping them on-task while a video is on? Click here to see our no-prep, high engagement visual note-taking worksheets for the CrashCourse Study Skills YouTube videos.