What’s your Strategy for Academic Success?

 Often when I visit with students and ask them to tell me their strategy for being successful in school, the answer is the same, “I don’t know.”  We expect our kids to be able to juggle multiple assignments, accurately record due dates, know how to study for tests and to hand things in on time.  For the vast majority of students, this task is overwhelming and while many muddle through and manage effectively, for most it is an area that provides a constant battle or struggle.  Whether it is the lost points for assignments not turned in, or the heartbreak of not recording a due date of a test or quiz, it is the ensuing embarrassment of performing on that item significantly below one’s potential that can lead to a dramatic shift in self-esteem.
We know this will be expected of them more and more as they move through school, college and on the job front.  It is best if we view these skills as ones that need to be taught as we would assume we have to teach reading, writing and math.  If we take on that attitude toward any of these executive functioning skills, we are able to afford students a greater level of patience and understanding when they do not immediately succeed at it. You can help your student by practicing some of these skills at home and reinforcing simple good choices a student may make.
If we can agree that we can and should be taught these skills, why doesn’t a manual or study skills guide give us everything we need?  It is likely because these skills are ones that are not best learned in isolation but rather need to be embedded in the actual practical application of using them. We have seen a significant increase in performance when we teach these skills in conjunction with working on any of the academic subjects we tutor. We have the tutor act as the “coach” to teach these skills by providing feedback and reinforcement as students make progress in organization, planning and time management.  That is why we require all of our tutors to pass an online certificate course program in our Academic Game Plan, X-Skills™.
For your free consultation, please call me at 661-219-5335, to find out how this Academic Game Plan, X-Skills™ might help your student.  Visit us at www.santaclaritatutoring.com, or www.facebook.com/santaclarita.northvalley.tutordoctor/