It’s pretty ironic I am an educator who is consumed with student academic growth. I say this because I wasn’t always the best student – and my final high school GPA was definitely nothing to brag about. Although my parents (one a teacher!) both stressed the importance of studying, no one ever showed me how to study, or what studying should look like. To me, once I finished my homework, I felt I was done with studying – I really had no clue what studying really involved. It wasn’t until I was well into my college years before I finally stumbled upon what techniques and tricks worked for me.

My son is currently in the fifth grade, and in trying to prepare him for middle school, I want to make sure he knows how to study correctly.

Just like anything else being taught, I found the best way was to describe and model what studying looks and sounds like, as well as what he needs to gather beforehand, and how often he should practice studying. The biggest and most important part, of course, is teaching him what he should be doing while he’s studying (click to find my top 5 studying strategies).

I created this nifty graphic to help remind him of what proper studying is – and to share with you guys! You can download a full-page copy for free by clicking here. I would even suggest enlarging it to a small poster to pin up on a wall or bulletin board!

We just recently started putting studying into practice, so we’re a work in progress. So far it’s been great – we haven’t had any complications yet – and I anticipate he’ll have great study habits down just in time for middle school!

If you download and use the graphic, be sure to come back and let us know if it made study time easier for your young learner!