Study Skills Program

Our study skills program consists of ten sessions of one hour each. These sessions include a learner style inventory and lessons on time management, note-taking, retention strategies, active reading, critical thinking, research skills, and essay writing. The goal of the program is to provide a succinct curriculum that teaches important academic skills that will help the students develop into reflective, critical thinkers. Students will learn to recognize and use their own particular learning strengths to their best advantage.

What makes our program unique:

• Interactive material - after each "reading" section, there is a corresponding activity where the student will either reflect on the current topic or apply the skill learned.
• Critical Thinking - There are two critical thinking sections—one that emphasizes high order thinking skills, and one that deals with identifying, evaluating, and critiquing arguments—and each lesson requires application of critical thinking skills through synthesis activities.
• Self-Reflection - Throughout the program, students are constantly asked to reflect on their current studying and school habits in connection with the lessons and the skills they are learning.
• Teaching the student to use their strengths to their advantage. Students are asked, throughout the curriculum, to identify their learning strengths and evaluate the strategies given to them as to which ones will be most useful for them.

Multiple Intelligence Theory:

The learning strengths portion of the curriculum is based on a theory known as Multiple Intelligence Theory, which is supported by a large body of research and implemented as a pedagogy technique in America’s best classrooms.

Multiple Intelligence Theory was created by Howard Gardner, a renowned faculty member of Harvard’s School of Education. The theory posits that nine distinct intelligences exist:

• Verbal-Linguistic ("word" smart )
• Natural ("nature" smart)
• Visual-Spatial ("picture" smart)
• Logical-Mathematic ("math" smart)
• Musical ("music" smart)
• Interpersonal ("people" smart)
• Intrapersonal ("self" smart)
• Bodily-Kinesthetic ("body" smart)
• Existential ("big picture" smart

All nine of these are present in everyone to some extent, but some are more prevalent than others—known as dominant intelligences. During the first session, the students will take a learning inventory that will help them identify their top three intelligences. Throughout the program, students evaluate specific study strategies to decide which are beneficial to them, based on their learning strengths.

At the end of the program students put everything together by creating a study guide based on how they interact with material best. Students will choose one subject and bring in their own textbooks to create a study guide that is directly applicable to their schoolwork.