The Study Skills your Child Needs in Middle School
What is the key to surviving middle school? How can you ensure your children are successful in sixth grade through eighth grade? Are you aware of the skills that students need to be successful in middle school? Adults commonly say, “You are old enough to know better.” But what is better? What are middle school students supposed to know how to do?
This post shares the best study skills to develop to help you prepare your child for middle school.
Middle school comes with a lot of changes for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.
It’s also true that middle school sets standards which prepare students for high school as well as life after the classroom.
With the right tips and guidance, your child can thrive in middle school with confidence.
The Top 3 Study Skills your Child Needs in Middle School
Time Management and Balance
The ability to manage time is vital when students begin middle school. Middle school comes with more subjects, more homework, and greater tasks.
With the increased expectations and subjects, how does your child learn to cope and not feel overwhelmed? The source of procrastination is often overwhelm.
Help you child to prioritize activities and homework. It’s not about giving up one subject or activity to focus on the other. You don’t skip sports practice to do homework- you prepare for both events. It’s about finding a balance.
What order does your child prefer to do things? Do they like to do the hard stuff first and save the best for last? Or is it the opposite? What will give your child a sense of accomplishment?
Teaching your child to balance activities and break down their tasks shows them the importance of scheduling. Moreover it helps them to manage stress and handle tasks without getting burned out.
Organization
Organization is a study skill that every middle school should develop. Notice I wrote should AND develop. Entering middle school does not mean your child magically becomes organized over night - nor should it! It requires patience and practice.
Middle school comes with a full load of academic demands. Students are often unprepared for the challenges that appear move from classroom to classroom and to different teachers. And it all starts on day 1.
Helping your child become organized is key to starting middle school on a strong note. Being organized means creating a system that will allow them to retrieve information with ease, and present it with little stress or fluster.
Not all students enter middle school as masters of organization. Not many students LEAVE middle school with skills in organization. It takes time and patience to develop these skills. Biology prevents our children’s brains from being successfully organized beings – though some are stronger than others. However, as an academic coach, I have helped many students develop systems and practice these skills in our sessions - And this summer I will be bringing it to all students with my summer workshops! You can sign up here to receive information!
Test Prep
Another important study skill which your child needs to learn is how to prepare for tests.
This involves developing a strong definition of what studying is. Many of my academic coaching students start our sessions by claiming that studying is simply rereading the book. WRONG! It’s a process of breaking down the material, learning creative ways to decode the information and taking it a little at a time.
When your child has mastered their own best study techniques, excelling becomes easier. Teach them to ask for help if they are struggling with any subject.
The Bottom Line
What if there was a way to prepare your child for all of these things before the start of the new year? This summer, I am hosting a summer workshop to help students create a rock-solid study strategy. They will walk away learning the keys for note taking, planner use, study tools, motivation and more. Curious? Click here to sign up for the waitlist!
Every middle grader needs to learn how to prioritize, organize, and prepare for tests. With these top three skills, your child can excel in middle school bring these skills to high school and beyond.
Your child is awesome – they just need the skills to get them middle school!
Rock on,
Marni Pasch
MA Counselor ED, ACC Academic Coach
Team Pasch Academic Coaching