Use Homework to Teach Organization Skills

· Encourage your child to use an assignment book, write all assignments into the book daily, and check them off when completed. Your child should also break down long-term assignments and projects into smaller parts, writing each part into the assignment book. Many children also find it helpful to put other commitments into the assignment book as well, including music lessons, sports, and jobs.

· Encourage your children to estimate how long it will take to complete each assignment and help them plan their schedule accordingly.

· Help your children set performance goals for their assignments and estimate how much effort it will take to do that well. This will help them learn to divide study time effectively.

· Help your children learn to plan ahead. They should start working on major assignments or reviewing for major tests well ahead.

· Help your children increase their concentration time. At first they may be able to concentrate for only 10 minutes. Parents can help their children build up this length of time gradually, so that homework takes less time. Even high school students should take a 10 to 15-minute break after studying for 45 or 50 minutes. Otherwise, they lose the ability to concentrate.

· Encourage your child to circle the verbs in directions.

· Encourage your child to review class notes and add details, make corrections, and highlight the most important information.

· Help your children to improve reading skills by having them pre-read non-fiction reading assignments (reviewing the headings, picture captions, reviewing tables, charts, and graphs). Children can pre-read fiction by reading the front cover, back cover, and introduction, and skimming the first quarter to determine setting, character, and plot.

· Encourage your child to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words by using the context or by looking them up in a dictionary and writing them down.

· Help your child learn effective reading techniques such as SQ3R, where the reader:

• Surveys: Looks over the material before beginning to read to obtain a general orientation.
• Questions: Writes down questions about the material before beginning to read.
  
• Reads through the material in the normal way.
  
• Recites and Writes: Writes down or gives the answers to another person.
  
• Reviews: Goes over the material several times before being tested.
  

· Encourage your child to outline or "map" reading material for better understanding. To "map," a child places the main topic in the middle of a blank sheet of paper. He then draws a branch for each subheading, and places supporting details on smaller branches going out from the subheadings. This creates a visual aid that increases organization and comprehension.

· Make sure your children understand their textbooks. Children should be able to read 9 out of 10 words accurately and answer a least 3 out of 4 questions correctly.

· Help your child predict outcomes, distinguish fact from opinion, discern emotional appeals, recognize bias, and discern inference as they read.

· Encourage your children to organize their thoughts before beginning a written assignment, and write at least two drafts.

· Have your child proofread and check for success or failure in answering the purpose of the assignment, legibility, neatness, spelling, complete sentences, and punctuation errors.

· Help your child to see tests as an opportunity to "show off" what they have learned, rather than something to be feared.

· Help your children predict test questions as they study for tests.

· Encourage your child to space studying over several sessions instead of cramming the night before. Five hours of study spread over a week is better than studying five hours the night before the test. Cramming for tests increases anxiety and causes lower grades.

· Avoid acting as a tutor for your child. If a child needs a tutor in a particular subject, call the local high school and ask for a student tutor through the Honor Society.

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