Noble School

Dean of Students

Students learn using their senses, at school they tend to rely on their hearing and seeing senses most often. On any given day, your child will have to read text books, handouts, and what ever is written on the board to meet the day 's objective. During this time the classroom teacher is modeling, explaining and helping your child make sense of all this information.

By interpreting the information that their senses are receiving, they are beginning to make sense of the world around them. For the most part, new information is going into their short-term memory. Short-term memory allows us to store information long enough to be able to remember a phone number, but forget it after we dial it. Short-term memory is what enables your child to get an A on the spelling test on Friday, but forget how to spell a word on Monday.

How do we help our children retain important information?

The simple answer is practice. For example, when most of us were first learning to drive a car we were very focused on one task only - driving. As we got used to our car, through practice, we got more comfortable and driving became an easy task. Learning is not an easy task, but practice will make your children better at reading, writing, math, or whatever subject they are studying.

1. The best thing that you can do for your child at home is to create a learning zone that is free from distractions such as TV, radio, friends, or family members during learning time. When children are watching TV and trying to do their homework, their full attention is not the homework, but the television show that they are trying to watch.
2. Self-control. As students your children have a lot of responsibilities. For example they need to complete assignments on a regular basis. They need to follow school rules and they need to arrive on time and be ready to work everyday. The more self-control your child has the better he will perform in school.
3. Time management. If your children develop bad time management skills now, they might get worse as they get older. Some teachers give out homework packages on Monday and collect them on Friday. The majority of students who continuously fail to return completed assignments attempt to complete the whole packet on Thursday. First of all, do not allow your children to do this. Second, teach them to break large tasks into smaller tasks. Give them plenty of time in their learning zone to not only complete an assignment but to check it for mistakes.

What are some effective Academic techniques?

1. Listening. People think faster than they speak. This is why our mind tends to wander while we are listening to someone speak or as we read. Teach your children the concept FACT. (Focus, Ask, Connect, Try to Picture). Focus means to pay attention and eliminate distractions while they are trying to learn. Encourage your children to ask questions and take notes in order to connect to the lesson. Finally, they need to try to picture themselves completing a task.
2. Reading SQ3R. Have you noticed that sometimes kids read from a book but can't explain what they read? The problem is that they are too busy trying to read or are too busy focusing on text. Teach them to Survey a book by looking at the pictures or chapters. Question the book before they read it. Read. Retell what they have read to someone else. Review the story by writing a short summary or answering some comprehension questions.
3. Note taking. As adults we take notes in order to remember important events or instructions. Your child could use this same skill in the classroom to recall information at home. Learning to take notes is a skill that will prove very beneficial in high school and college.
4. Test taking skills. Preparing for a spelling test is not the same as preparing for a math or science test. Different tests require different skills. While one test may require lots of repetition, another test might require more in-depth knowledge of a specific subject.