Writing Tips and Strategies for Middle School Students

At Think Tutoring, I get this comment every day. The student would say, “I don’t know where to start.”  She would be sitting at her desk, hand on her head, and tapping her pencil.  My response, “We need to create a graphic organizer.” 

There are many graphic organizers available to students.   You can just GOOGLE it. My favorite is a web or cluster chart especially for middle school students.  This is the perfect graphic organizer to develop a well-written five paragraph essay.

Tips/Strategies to Help your Child Write:

1. Graphic Organizers:   Types of graphic organizers include webs, cluster charts, cause and effect charts, sensory charts, pro v. con, Venn diagrams, t-charts, and more. One of these is bound to help your child organize her thoughts.
2. Outline: Outlines are rather boring for kids to do; however, parents know how to outline.  This is a very common strategy for teachers and parents.  You cannot go wrong with it.
3. Make a Thesis: A thesis is the answer to your essay question.  I tell my students to make sure to add examples (paragraph topics) into your thesis statement.  You have now paved the way for a well-developed topic sentence and essay.
4. Mind map: Can’t think of examples?  Use a mind map to write down everything that you know on a given topic.  This will help put the information down on paper for you to gather your ideas.

Think Tutoring provides these tips and strategies in both our language arts and study skills programs.  Call today for more information on how we can help your child’s writing and organization skills. We would love to help.

Feeling Overwhelmed This School Year? Time Management is Key

It is back to school time.  Some parents love this time of year and others dread it.  Some students love this time of year and others DREAD it.  For some students, there is nothing more exciting than picking out new backpacks, school supplies, and clothes. A new school year is a new start.

Organization and time management are keys to success during the back to school season.  Even if your child dreads the start of the school year, make sure he or she has the tools necessary to stay organized and focused on schoolwork and homework assignments.

According to WPRI.com, “The key to teaching your child time management is knowing how long each task should take, according to Katherine Firestone, found of the Fireborn Institute, a nonprofit that focuses on parent training.”  You can put stickers on an analogue clock to show how long each task (or homework assignment) should take.

We at Think Tutoring also offer our study skills program year round.  Tips and strategies such as color coding a calendar, color coding textbooks and notebooks, active reading, setting timers, and incorporating aspects of technology are just a few strategies that can boost time efficiency for your child.

However, there are some students that are just so overwhelmed during the beginning of the school year.  At Think Tutoring, we also have certified teachers that can provide homework support for your child.  We can get them ahead in their textbooks and you can now have a child that is confident and motivated to succeed.

Call Think Tutoring today at 973-593-0050 for more information.  We would love to help your child have a confident school year.

Developing your Study Skills: Create a Test Attack Strategy

Summer is the perfect time to master your study skills.  Without the stress of school work, homework, sports, clubs, and various extra-curricular activities, summertime gives students the opportunity to come up with a test attack strategy.

5 Strategies to Improve your Test Scores

1.        Know your Learning Style

Think Tutoring’s study skills program allows students the opportunity to find out whether they are auditory, kinesthetic, or visual learners.  When you have found out your learning style, you can create a more effective study session.

 2.       Create a Homework and Study Schedule

Managing your time is necessary to improve your test scores.  Cramming is the worst thing a student can do before an exam.  Creating a 5 day test preparation plan is your ticket to success.

3.       Learn the Cornell System of Note-taking

If it takes you three hours to create flashcards for a test, then you are wasting your time.  Your teacher will not care if you have a stack of flashcards ready before the exam.  Your teacher wants to see if you have mastered the content.  The Cornell System of Note-taking allows you to make instant flashcards with your notes and actively study.

4.       Use Technology to your Advantage

Websites and apps such as Facebook and Twitter are designed to waste a student’s time.  However, apps such as Quizlet, Evernote, and EasyStudy can help you to organize your time and create an effective study strategy.

 5.       Use a Mind Map

The day of the test has arrived and you are anxious.  Create a mind map.  It is one page of making categories and linking the information together.  If you can do this before an exam, then take a deep breath.  You got this!

Think Tutoring offers both study skills workshops and customized study skills sessions.  Summer is the perfect time to work on remembering information, organization, time management, note-taking, and test-taking strategies.  Call 973-593-0050 for more information.  We would love to help!

Struggling Writers: Free Writing or Graphic Organizers?

Teachers, parents, and students all agree: our students are struggling with writing.  What is the root of this problem?  Many teachers believe in free writing: a prewriting technique in which a person writes continuously without regard for spelling, grammar, or topic. It produces raw, often unusable material, but helps students overcome blocks in their thoughts. Why spend so much time on a technique in which the material is unusable?  It is a waste of time especially since our students have other homework assignments to accomplish.

Think Tutoring offers a different approach: graphic organizers.  Think Tutoring’s language arts program gets to the heart of pre-writing with graphic organizers such as webbing, cause and effect charts, sensory charts, venn diagrams, and more.  These organizers can cut your student’s writing time in half.  It creates a clear and organized path for essay writing.

Here is one of the graphic organizers that Think Tutoring uses.  Give it a try at home.  It works!  To help your child even more with his/her writing, call Think Tutoring at 973-593-0050.

Language Arts

Struggling Math Students

What the Data Says

An article in Education Week titled  What We Know About Struggling Math Students, According to PISA Results cites a direct correlation between homework levels and school performance in Math, particularly for low-performing students who experience a high level of anxiety about math. 

In fact, the article argues that poor performance in Math can sometimes be a self-fulfilling prophesy, driven by a student's confidence (or lack of thereof) in Math.   The author suggests, however, that low performers don't necessarily hate or even dislike math -- they just get discouraged with poor results.   The dynamic can be cyclical -- poor performance reduces confidence which in turn reduces motivation with results in even lower performance.

The study also suggests that students who participate in a variety of extra curricular activities, particularly creative outlets such as music or the arts demonstrate increased confidence and performance in Math.

Finally, as the article states -- Homework goes a long way.   Students who routinely spend one hour each night doing Math homework perform far better than those who do not.

What's  a Parent To Do?

 Parents of children who struggle with Math can take active and sometimes even fun steps to help their child.

1. For younger kids, make math part of every day home life, such as working with measurements, adjusting receipes in the kitchen, for example using multipliers and divisors.  
2. When traveling in the car, employ simple family games such as sequential math, having each family member perform a unique arithmetic operation to maintain a running total.
3. Support your child during homework times, and if necessary, get them the additional help they may need so that the one hour of homework is active, productive, and rewarding.

Think Tutoring offers homework support in many Math areas including basic math, word problems, Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, and Trigonometry.  Call us at 973-593-0050 for an appointment today.