Upper School Study Skills Program

The primary goal of the Study Skills class is to develop a repertoire of skills necessary to complete work independently and efficiently in a traditional classroom setting. Time management, study strategies, note taking, outlining, textbook and library usage, research techniques and public speaking form the basis of this structured curriculum. Once students have moved from a twice a day tutorial to a once a day tutorial they are placed in a Study Skills class. This class meets daily for forty minutes and aims to teach skills first in isolation and then guide students to apply these skills to contextual situations.

The curriculum for this class is tiered into three levels. During the first year of the program students learn “the basics” (study environment, time management, note taking, etc.). The second year of study skills focuses upon introducing students to additional learning strategies to the ones they learned during their first year. Students spend time exploring their learning styles and this information, coupled with analyzing their learning tasks, helps them decide which strategy they will use in various situations (e.g., using a graphic organizer versus column notes while taking notes). Students involved in the Language Arts program do not have a designated study skills class, but receive intense study skill instruction within their content area classes, history and science, that is related to test taking preparation and research for both research papers and public speaking.