School-age

Strategies for School Success

Good listening and speaking skills provide a solid foundation for everything your child needs to learn in school. If your child is struggling academically, use homework time to boost your child’s language skills. Here are some strategies that may be helpful:

Preteach vocabulary

Decide which subject you want to focus on, like science or social studies.
Ask your child’s teacher which unit is coming up next (such as “Buoyancy and Boats” in science).
With the teacher’s help, assemble a list of new vocabulary. For example, vocabulary for “Buoyancy and Boats” may include: sink, float, buoyancy, density, waterproof and porous.
You can also check the Alberta Education website for more information about the curriculum. You can find detailed information about the “Buoyancy and Boats” unit, for instance, in the document “Science Program of Studies Grades 1 to 3”.
Work on creating a picture dictionary with your child before the unit is covered in class.

Emphasize listening for the “main idea”

Your child does a lot of listening in school. It is important for your child to understand the difference between the main idea (essential information) and the details (the extra supporting information and examples) when the teacher or other students are sharing information.
Select informational paragraphs from your child’s textbooks and other school materials.
Read a paragraph to your child while they listen. Can they answer the question “What is the most important idea or thought in the paragraph?” Can they explain what the details are?
Here is an example of a main idea: Buoyancy is the ability to float in liquid.
Here are two details that support the main idea:
- A beach ball is very buoyant.
- A marble is not buoyant at all.
Have your child track words they don’t know on their fingers—one word for each finger. When they hit 5 words, you know the passage is too difficult and you must try an easier paragraph or work on helping them understand the unknown words before proceeding.

Help your child organize their knowledge visually
Many children are visual learners who benefit from using images, pictures and maps to organize information.

Your child will be able to retrieve and use information if they have “filed it away” efficiently in their long-term memory.
Graphic organizers are visual maps or diagrams. Encourage your child to use graphic organizers to write stories, plan reports and study for tests.
Ask your child’s teacher which graphic organizers they like to use.
Check out this website for a great set of graphic organizers: http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/
Ask your child to use graphic organizers to organize, retrieve and explain information. Provide tips as necessary. For example, if your child has used a graphic organizer to summarize a story, ask them to retell the story using the graphic organizer. Encourage them to use full sentences and connecting words like “when”, “because” and “although”.

I can also share additional strategies that will help your child get the most out of school. Please contact me to discuss strategies to meet your child’s specific needs.