For additional information on improving your child’s middle school study skills, the following books and Web sites offer useful tips and strategies to improve grades and enhance middle school learning.
The Middle School Student’s Guide to Ruling the Universe (Through Work Management and Organizational Skills) This workbook, by mom and educator Susan Mulcaire, provides students with numerous strategies to succeed in middle school. An instructor’s guide for teachers is also available. The companion Web site for the book,
www.middleschoolguide.com, offers downloadable forms and checklists; excerpts from the book; and tips, links, and articles related to middle school education.
The Essential Parenting Guide to Navigating Middle School and Beyond Two Michigan moms, Julie Mack and Rosemary Parker, wrote this eighty-page guide for parents embarking on the middle school adventure. It focuses on strategies to promote academic success and college readiness for young teens. The book is available from the
Kalamazoo Gazette.
Mangrum-Strichart’s
Study Skills Guide-Middle School is written for students and presents information in chunks and bullets, with age-appropriate illustrations. Topics include learning styles, reading for information, building vocabulary, taking notes, math word problems, study groups, and taking tests. A free teacher’s guide is included with the student book.
Visit Mangrum-Strichart’s Web site.
Eagle Hill Middle School in Manlius, New York, has a Study Skills for Middle School page on its Web site with concise information and Web links for important middle school study skills, such as making a plan, getting organized, taking notes, and managing time.
Visit their site.
Video Jug offers a series of online interviews with private tutor Alexa Hale, who talks about various middle school study skills in short (under a minute) video clips.
Visit Video Jug for clips on making time to study, keeping track of assignments, organizing notes, and using a glossary as a study tool.
Elizabeth Johnson is a Lansing, Michigan-based freelance writer and EduGuide contributor.