Learning Tips and Study Habits

Here are the steps to follow for effective listening:

1. Stop talking! Just listen.
2. Prepare to listen - focus on the listener and stop thinking about other things.
3. Put the speaker at ease - help them to feel free to speak by showing you are interested.
4. Remove distractions - don't doodle, text, look out the windows, or check the time.
5. Empathize - try to understand the other person's point and keep an open mind
6. Be patient - if the speaker pauses, it doesn't mean they're finished. Wait to be sure they really have finished before you speak.
7. Avoid personal prejudice - try to stay impartial and keep that open mind
8. Listen to tone - volume and tone of speech add a lot to what's being said and tell you what's most important
9. Listen for ideas, not just words - try to get the whole picture
10. Watch for body language - gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements can all be important to picking up additional meaning from a speech

Homework is practice for the work at school. Unless you have a photographic memory and can memorize everything after you read it once, you need to practice these skills. They will help you in later life - you'll need to use math and science and reading every day. They help you to get a good job because you'll know how to do the things for that job. They'll help you graduate.

Yes, should you like a good job when you are older, completing your homework and handing it in on time should make your life easier.

I think you should because then you get good grades at report cards.

Doing your homework gives you practice for the things you are learning. Unless you have a photographic memory and can remember every single thing you read, you need to practice your skills so you can use them in real life, so you can pass your school, and so you can get on with the fun stuff in your life.
You always feel really good about yourself when you get your homework done early. Also, you'd be surprised how caught up you are in class the next day. If you do your homework, your grades will slowly increase. Since you've already done all of the practice, the amount of time you need to spend studying decreases to almost nothing.

The thing that I use to motivate me is that i think of something i would rather be doing. If i finish all of my homework, i get to do it. Also, set a timer for each subject with a reasonable amount of time. It really helps you get it done quickly since you feel some sort of pressure.
To reinforce what you have learned in class.

To practice what you have learned in class.

To do work by yourself, your own research, your own thinking.

You have to learn how to deal with stress if you're going to be a mature adult. Stress isn't always bad - it helps you to finish your tasks and meet deadlines and do your best work on a project.

Here are some ways to deal with stress:

• organize yourself so you're not always waiting until the last possible minute to do a project (or homework) - the later it is, the more stress you put on yourself
• take deep breaths - you can't panic while you're breathing deeply (scientific fact)
• take small steps - do a little bit at a time instead of looking at how much you still have to do - slow and steady wins the race

Acronyms and Acrostics are very similar, and are ways to help memorize a list of word in a particular order. You have already used at least one of these if you go to school, even if you didn't know what it was!

An acronym is one word that you make using the first letters (or first few letters) of each word in your list.

To remember the Great Lakes in order, think of HOMES
Huron, Ontario, Michegan, Erie, Superior

An acrostic is a phrase that you make, with one new word formed from the first initials of each word in your list.
To remember the colors of the rainbow, remember ROY G. BIV
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet

To remember the names of the planets in order, remember
My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Noodles
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

While some people prefer to have background noise (such as music) going while they study, others prefer complete silence. And it also depends on the type of studying you're doing. For instance, someone studying simple math problems might be less distracted by music than someone studying advanced economics.

The key question to ask yourself is "Am I spending more time listening to the music than I am spending on my studies?" If the answer is yes, then you need to cut the music down or turn it off altogether.

The latest scientific information shows that some background noise usually does help most people "tune out" noises like traffic, construction, or people talking, and help them concentrate on what they are doing. However, this music should be slow to medium paced (not fast rock or heavy metal) and have no vocals or loud drum beats!

Music can affect you in a variety of ways. Depending on the type of music you listen to you can change your brain waves to make you achieve a higher state of awareness/concentration. Instrumentals are usually the best for studying/homework as (as long as decently light) they take you into the alpha brainwave state. You get your most heightened sense of awareness and concentration in this type of brainwave. Stay away from rough beats and lyrics as they can be distracting to your work.

Some people (I am one of them) cannot concentrate when it is too quiet around them. These people do benefit from having music playing quietly in the background while they work. Notice the emphasis on quiet - playing your favorite music loudly will just distract you from your work, and will have a negative effect on your studies. Sometimes it helps to play classical music or jazz - music without words - because many people key in when they hear words, and subconsciously focus to figure out what is being said.

Children whose parents (or any significant adults) read to them are always better students than those who are not read to. Reading to your child exposes him/her to vocabulary, sentence structure, communication skills, and logic. Reading to them shares the joy of reading and storytelling. Reading to them also gives you quality time together, which strengthens your child-parent bond.

Provide plenty of reading material that will interest your child - either buy books or take them to the library every few days. If your child is interested in dinosaurs, have books about dinosaurs in the house - both science or nonfiction books and fiction or storybooks, because reading is not just for fun, but also for information. Find out what your child's interests are, and provide books that feed those interests.

If your child is having trouble reading, first make sure they do not have some sort of correctable problem like poor eyesight. Work with the school to test for learning disabilities like dyslexia, which can cause poor reading skills. Help your child learn vocabulary and spelling so that they can read better - you can either have regular Q&A sessions where you quiz them on vocabulary and spelling words, or you can make games like "Word of the Day" where you find fun ways to teach them new vocabulary words.

This will also help with any school subject. Make a special place for them to do their work, someplace where they will not be distracted by TV, games, cellphones, computer chat rooms or IMs, or anything else. Have at least one hour daily (some children will need longer) during which homework is done - if they say they do not have homework, then they will use the time to read over their material. During this time, you can "assign" reading and writing practice also - have them read a section, then quiz them to be sure they understand what they have read. You can show them how to read for information, how to tell when a term is important in a textbook, and where to look for definitions and more help.

Again, if you use your child's interests, you will have more luck with this. Encourage your child to make up stories and write them down. Don't worry about spelling or grammar at first - just get them to start writing! Read what they have written if they want you to, and talk about their stories over the dinner table, or in the car. The more you encourage them to read and write, the more they will want to - notice I said "encourage" and not nag. The trick is to make it fun for them.

• there are lots of children's learning to read books you can purchase. firstly buy a book that your child can read with slight difficulty and once you help them master the words in that book buy the next book up to that one and do the same again and so on.
• The best way to help a child learn to enjoy reading is to read with them! Helping them work up to more difficult books is a good way; you can also help by "quizzing" them on what they have read. "What do you think that means?" and "Why do you think that character did that?" are great ways to let you see how well they are understanding what they have read. You can also ask thought-provoking questions like "What do you think the characters are going to do now?" and "What do you think you would say to that character if you met them?" You can "quiz" your child on vocabulary words, or choose a new word to learn every day (remember to use that word as much as you can during that day) - there are even "Word-A-Day" calendars that you can buy! You can encourage your child to read more by choosing books on a topic that is really interesting to him or her - ask a librarian or bookstore employee to help you find lots of books about any subject!
• The best way to help children read better is to have a home where reading is a part of life. Start out reading to the child, and let the child see you reading for enjoyment.
• My sister is resource teacher for an elementary school. She said that the problem with younger children is that they think that a book is just a bunch of words that make no sense unless a parent/adult reads them aloud. Try getting your child to write down letters of alphabet. Explain that each letter has it's own sound and is different from all the other letters. Once he has understood what letters make what sounds try getting him to write words, then move onto sentences. After he's been working sentences for a while ask him to tell you a story. Write down the story he tells you then show it to him. Explain to him that he was the one who came up with that story. Then ask him to read the story.
  
• Many popular children's cartoons come in book form. You can also try comic books. You can both take a trip to a local comic book store and let him choose something he likes to read (Make sure it's age appropriate).
• Throw out your TV. A week without television has been shown to improve reading and attention span. Without a TV he will turn to books for the stories and stimulation he got from TV and movies. Reading improves with practice. As his reading improves you might consider bringing it back. But, you might find that your life is better without it. Set a good example and read every day yourself, read for fun.
• try getting a tape recorder and have him read a book aloud being taped and then play the tape back to himself while reading the book of his choice.
• I found that the good old PHONICS books helped me, as I was a poor reader. Once you get the sounds and spellings under your belt, just encourage reading without pressure and negative reinforcement. Keep it simple with a lot of praise for doing well (not "good job") if it's not. Don't be negative but also don't "overpraise" for non-performance. Make it fun. I teach mathmatics while having a great time bowling~! They do great and don't even realize they are learning math ( as well as turn-taking, sportsmanship etc...)
• Years ago, I was a pregnant single mother with two toddlers and very few financial resources. However, I always made it clear to my children that I would buy them any book they wanted if there were something they were interested in reading about. If you make reading important and enjoyable, your children will do the same. Some tips that were useful for me were: 1. Read to him every night, preferably at the same time (Just before bed worked well for me) and keep it relatively short so he won't get bored. 2. Stop the story or the book at an interesting part, so that he'll look forward to the next night's story time. 3. Let him choose books on subjects that he is interested in and pick one day out of the week where he gets to read whatever he wants to you! 4. Make a trip to the bookstore fun and exciting...stop at the park first or get a treat afterwards. And it doesn't have to be Barnes & Noble...the book sections in thrift stores or the local Goodwill are wonderful sources. 5. Sports magazines are great resources to get a child interested in reading. 6. Let him look at the pages as you read. My youngest son was very interested in spiders, snakes and bugs around eight years of age and became something of an expert on reptiles because of all the reading he did. Your question indicates that you are aware of the importance of being a good reader so, you're halfway there already!!

What do you think is Too Much Homework?

• Well, in my opinion, there is too much homework. Kids spend 6 hours a day at school and then come home only to spend another few hours on homework. However, it is vital to succeed in school and learn the things that are taught so there are times when homework is necessary to do so, but, a lot of homework shouldn't be necassary often if the teachers use the class period to teach what they are supposed to.
• "Kids spend 6 hours a day at school" - true, and your parents work 8 to 12 hours a day at their job. Spending an extra hour or two on homework is the same as staying at school those extra hours, so you're still "working" the same amount of time as your parents do. If you have to work longer than your parents do, then you have too much homework.
• I think that people do have too much homework because I have met a lot of people that get stressed from homework. For example: I have met someone that had anger problems from stress and homework. Too much stress is unhealthy for kids and teens.
• More than 1 hour for elementary
• More than 3 hours for Jr. High School/Middle school
• More than 5 hours for High School*
• I'd say more than 3 assignments for elementary kids, more than 5 assignments for Middle schoolers, and more than 6 for high schoolers.

  I am in private middle school, and I know that each grade gets more homework thean the previous. I will not say what grade I'm in, but I will tell you this; I spend about an hour a night on each subject, and I have spanish, history, English, math, science, and technology homework almost every night.

• I think that some teachers give out too much homework. For example today i have been working 8 hours straight just to get all my homework done. I have not had a chance this weekend to stop for more than half an hour and i am very stressed. I almost started to cry with the stress. I haven't slept and am very tired. I think that if you are doing more than an hour or two each night then you are doing too much and if you do more than 6 or 7 hours over the whole weekend that is too much. This is just my opinion.
• It depends greatly on your age. But 30- 60 minutes is reasonable to start. As you grow older it will get more complex so you will need to spend more time doing it. When you get to university you will be doing more 'homework' than classwork.
• I think homework should take 10 minutes every grade. For example a sixth grader should have 60 minutes of homework, a third grader 30 minutes, etc. But schools are giving too much homework which can cause stress, and stress is bad. So the time you should do your homework is multiplied by 2, since teachers are giving so much homework. Instead of 6th graders having 60 minutes, they get 2 hours (or more) and third graders have 1 hour (or more), etc.

This is merely a matter of opinion. Most students would agree with this, whereas some teachers and principals would not.

It also depends on the teachers and subjects the young person has chosen, for example a stricter teacher in a highly essay-based subject such as literature would have more homework than a student who had made choices for more practical subjects such as textiles or graphic design.

Homework can be confusing! Here are some tips to help you figure it out:

• Be sure you know what the assignment is - you can make a homework assignment notebook, where you copy down every assignment from every class in one place so you won't lose it.
• Be sure you know what the teacher wants - if there is anything at all about the homework that confuses you, ask before you leave class! Most likely, half the class had the same problem and were afraid to ask.
• Use your book! Many time, the homework is actually written down exactly the way you need it inside your textbook! If you haven't read the section yet, get out the book and look for the answers.
• Use the internet! If you still can't find the answer, use a search engine to find out how to do the homework - don't try to find a cheat because then you'll never know how to do the next homework you get!

See the Related Questions for more help!