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Learning Strategies
Toolkit
Study Like a Brain Scientist:
Tips and Tricks to Make Learning Stick!
ORGANIZATION TIP #1
• Get a Calendar—physical or electronic, make sure it shows the hours of the day. Write out
EVERYTHING—meals, sleep, piano practice, piano lessons, study time, athletic practice…
http://www.wincalendar.com/Printable-Schedule
ORGANIZATION TIP #2
• Make a To-Do list
• Prioritize your To-Do list:
• Unimportant
• Semi-Important,
• Important,
• Crucial!
ORGANIZATION TIP #3
Check calendar
(1) in the morning to preview the day
(2) after school, to keep on track with homework
(3) before bed to make sure you did everything you needed to and preview the next day.
ORGANIZATION TIP #4
If you put your calendar on your phone-customize your ringtones to alert you to chores, homework times, music practice,
bedtime, etc.
TO-DO LIST:
Science Project-Crucial!
Math Homework-Important
History Reading-Semi-
Important
Tennis Practice-Important
Unload Dishwasher-
Important
Clean Room-Semi-Important
Organization Example: Pizza cutter: JUMBO (Great for procrastinators!) Let’s say you have to read a book over the next two weeks for your English class. It has 8 chapters.
Use the Pizza Cutter method to make a plan for reading those chapters a slice at a time, rather than in one big cram session--or
not at all
Organization Example: Pizza cutter: COMBO Take an overwhelming list of tasks and cut it into individual slices. This makes it easier to see what to do when. It makes it
easier to get started.
MONDAY NIGHT TASKS:
READING STRATEGIES:
TIP #1 Sanity Check
After you’ve read a paragraph, stop and ask, “What did I just read?” If you can’t answer that question, don’t keep
reading! Go back and re-read. Once you seem to be tracking, do the Sanity check once per page.
TIP #2 Reading summaries
After reading a chapter in a novel, write a brief paragraph—just a few sentences—VERY brief—summarizing the key
points. If the chapter is super-long, maybe you’ll need a couple of paragraphs. Think of it as making your own Cliff
Notes for the book.
TIP #3 Plot lines
As you begin a chapter, write the chapter number or title in your notes. When something major happens in the plot
(significant action, new character or location appears) write it down. Use a 3-5 word fragment with arrows showing the
chronological order. Keep it BRIEF!
This works with non-fiction: History, science, math: look for boldface terms and key points. Put a ? in a circle at points
you don’t understand.
TIP #4 Enlarge the Margins
If you own the book, write in the margin with a colored pen. Use symbols or colors to mark key terms, ideas, quotes,
and facts.
If you don’t own the book, cut a square block of Post-It notes in half, and place them along the margin.
Use it to track the author’s reasoning:
First, yada yada yada
Second, yada yada yada
Note with a circled 1 and 2 in the margin
TIP #5 Keep highlighting to a minimum!
Highlight less than 10% of the page—any more than that is confusing!
Character’s names when they appear in a novel for the first time
Dates you should remember and what happened on the date
Key terms/Vocabulary
Quotes you want to remember
Themes as they develop, or quotes that support themes
Something you want to ask about—confusing
TIP #6 SQ3R (great for non-fiction like math, history, or science)
Survey—pre-read the chapter’s title, heading, and subheadings. Look at pictures, charts, graphs, maps and read the
captions underneath. Read the introduction and conclusion.
Question—If the chapter has sub-headings, try turning them into questions. Or if there are questions at the end of the
chapter pick out a few of them to try to answer as you read.
Read—Read the material, looking for answers to your questions and take notes to help you remember them. Read
carefully.
Recite—Summarize what you learned by saying it out loud (if possible) or jotting down what you remember (without
looking back at the book) on paper.
Review—Skim back over the chapter and read your notes. Summarize the information in a new way such as a concept
map, flowchart, or other graphic organizer.
Bottom line: Reading is an ACTIVITY so make sure you have something to show for it when you’re done.
MEMORABLE STUDY TRICKS WITH COLOR
COLOR TRICK #1 Rainbow notes
Create your own system using colored pens to color-code your notes. Keep a set of colored pens handy. New words in
red, look them up later. Outline major ideas in purple (or any color you like). Key dates in orange.
You should be able to scan your notes quickly and spot bold terms as they apply to themes or ideas.
COLOR TRICK #2 Entertaining Underlining
A form of highlighting that is color-coded with your own unique key. For instance, red means “I don’t understand this”,
yellow means “this is brilliant”, green means “critical point in story or critical information”.
COLOR TRICK #3 Tinted Tabs
Devise a system where colors represent certain categories and then mark the appropriate color as a check or scribble in
the top right corner of your notes. For example in your lab book mark blue in the corner of the pages that included
dissections, red in the corner of labs that included chemical equations, purple in the corner for notes you took to prepare
for labs.
COLOR TRICK #4 Doodling Diagrams
Doodle with a purpose. Flip to a blank sheet in your notebook and begin to organize what you learned in class into
some type of picture or cartoon. Exaggerate and try to illustrate the concepts and keep the words to a minimum.
COLOR TRICK #5 Constructive Construction Paper
Make some cards out of different bright colors of construction paper—about the size of a 3x5 card. Use different colors
for different subjects. Maybe you have 5 equations to memorize on a green card—tape them on your bedroom wall so
you’ll see them when you wake up and when you go to bed. Put the poem you need to memorize on a yellow card next
to the sink where you brush your teeth so you can look at it while you brush! Put a pink card with your list of Spanish
vocab words in the kitchen near the cookie jar. You get the idea…
MEMORABLE STUDY TRICKS WITH SOUND
SOUND TRICK #1 Foreign Translations
Grab a recorder and a pen and paper and write down a list of sentences you are trying to learn in French. These could
be as easy as “The flower is red.” It doesn’t have to be complicated when you are starting out. The point is for your
brain to hear how the flow of a real conversation sounds in that language, since that’s the ultimate goal of learning a
language—having a conversation!
Find a native French speaker or track down your French teacher—someone who will read the sentence aloud into the
recorder at a normal speed three times, pausing for a moment between each repetition. After she has repeated the
sentence 3 times, speak into the recorder and give the translation of what she said once. Do this for all the sentences
and thank your French speaker! Now put on your earbuds and play back the sentences, over and over. Next try to say
the sentences with the recording.
SOUND TRICK #2 The Price is Cheap
Grab your recorder (your smart phone can record, right?) and make your very own quiz show! Write a list of questions
and answers about whatever you want to study. Read a question into the recorder, “What is Newton’s 1st Law of
Motion?” Pause for 2 or 3 seconds, and give the right answer, “A body at rest stays at rest, a body moving at constant
velocity continues to do so unless acted on by an external force.” Your question list could come from notes you’ve
taken in class, flashcards, flappers, or fans you’ve made. You are just using another way of getting the information into
your head. You may have to hit pause after the question is asked, but you’ll be able to hear the correct answer after
you’ve given yours.
SOUND TRICK #3 Techno Troubadour
If you have to memorize a poem or speech, try recording it in the most enthusiastic way you can on your phone. You
can record it in manageable chunks, and gradually add more to a lengthy passage until the whole piece is memorized.
You can listen to it over and over, play a bit, repeat it yourself, play more, repeat…you get the idea. The key is making
sure you don’t record your monotone voice—make it enthusiastic!
Any of the sound tricks would be great for listening and practicing when you’re waiting around for something else. Don’t listen
while you sleep, however—your brain needs sleep to consolidate your learning from the previous day.
MEMORABLE STUDY TRICKS WITH MOVEMENT
MOVEMENT TRICK #1 Flash Cards
Flashcards are underestimated because they’re just simple index cards, but they are easy to use, inexpensive and very
portable. When you use them you are making a mini-quiz for yourself. You can make them for vocabulary, equations,
quotes (half on one side, half on the other), or put an actual quiz question on one side and the answer on the other. Just
be sure that you shuffle the deck. Keep adding to the deck in a particular subject and your final exams will be a piece of
cake!
MOVEMENT TRICK #2 Paper Flaps
These are related to the flash card. To make one, fold a piece of paper in half lengthwise, with the right half of the paper
falling short of touching the left by an inch or two. On the left-hand side of the fold write the prompt for an equation
you need to memorize, like Newton’s Second Law. Open the paper and on the right-hand side of the fold write the
equation F=ma. Fill both sides with information and give your brain game to play as you flip back and forth. Be sure to
leave enough space between each line so you don’t see the answer to the next question before you’ve asked it.
MOVEMENT TRICK #3 Memory Fan
Fold a paper back and forth multiple times as though you were going to make a fan. The tinier the folds, the more
statistics, definitions and events you can include. On the first flap write a question, word, or date you want to
memorize. Behind that flap, write the answer. Do this for all the flaps until the paper is full. You can use it forward or
backward. Similar to flash cards in some ways.
MOVEMENT TRICK #4 Twister!
Get a pack of colored index cards and pic two different colors for this game, such as green and orange. On all the green
cards write the word, date or date you are trying to learn. On all the orange cards, write the answer. Do this for at least
twenty-four different pieces of information and then spread them out on the floor randomly, but in four even rows. Put
your right foot on a random green card and look for its match, placing your left foot on it. Now place your right hand
on a random orange card and find its match with your left hand. Keep your hands on the ground while you repeat with
your feet.
MOVEMENT TRICK #5 Old Maid
Use the same set of cards as you made for Twister. Play with a friend and deal the card out. Make pairs by matching
definitions and words. You could also play Go Fish or Memory if you’re by yourself. Great for a group if your study
buddies bring their decks of cards, too.
MOVEMENT TRICK #6 Mad Actor
If there is a scene in a piece of literature you need to understand or a historic decision you want to remember, try acting
it out. You could turn this into Charades with a study group
MOVEMENT TRICK #7 LOCI Method
Walk around your kitchen and pick ten “locations” where you will store imaginary information. Example: if you had to
memorize the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Put denial in the microwave,
Anger in the fridge—picture the Incredible hulk picking up your refrigerator and throwing it through the window.
Anger!
In other words—exaggerate to make the memory vivid! Use the same ten locations in the kitchen every time you have a
list to memorize. If the list is longer, move to another room to pick up more locations.
Instead of a room, you can use your body from head to toe and think of the things you want to remember as though you
were putting on pieces of clothing.
What about Mnemonics?
Rhyme Liners puts the main idea at the end of a line and rhymes it with something so it’s easy to remember. (In 1492 Columbus
sailed the ocean blue.)
Learned Letters uses one letter to organize and remember a group of words.
(Roy G Biv to remember colors of rainbow.)
Memorable Melodies rewrites the lyrics to memorable songs so I can “sing” the answers.
MORE STUDY TOOLS
Venn Diagrams
Write the name for the two things you are comparing next to each of the circles below. Write words that describe how these two
things are different in the areas that do not overlap. Write words that describe how these things are similar in the area where the
circles overlap.
Concept Map
Write the main idea in the center bubble. Brainstorm related ideas in the connecting bubbles. Add details to the bubble
connected to each idea.
NIFTY NOTE-TAKING TECHNIQUES
The whole point of taking notes is to use them, and how you intend to use them determines how you should take
them.
TECHNIQUE #1 Outlining
I. Main idea of the lecture or paper.
A. This is a subject. It only needs to be a few words- it
just says that this is the topic the notes under it will be
covering.
1. This is a detail. This is the main part of the
note-taking- the actual information that is
presented.
a. This is a supporting detail. It is
additional information you want to
include to back up the detail.
B. Add more subjects as necessary, using the capital
letters of the alphabet.
1. Add as many details as needed under any
subject.
a. Add as many supporting details as
needed, or none at all if you don't need
more information.
b.
2.
a.
b.
TECHNIQUE #2 Cornell Notes
TECHNIQUE #3 Hash Mash from Study Harder, Study Less by Anne Crossman
Puts the title at the top and hash marks down the left-hand side with notes as I
hear them.
TECHNIQUE #4 Model Model
Take the notes you copied in class and try to build something three dimensional out of them using sponges or toothpicks as
examples of key points.
Best for Last:
TECCHNIQUE #5 The Endgame
Summarize the notes from each class each day onto an index card, and at the end of the week collate them all onto one card. At
the end of the quarter, distill everything onto one card, SAVING ALL THE OLD CARDS.
Topic of Lecture
**Information-sub topic
--detail
--detail
--detail
**More Information-sub topic
--detail
--detail
--detail
--detail
**Even more information!!!
--detail
--detail
--detail
SOURCES:
Brown, Peter C., Henry L. Roediger, and Mark A. McDaniel. Make It Stick: The Science of Successful
Learning. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 2014. Print.
Crossman, Anne, and Chris Kalb. Study Smart, Study Less: Earn Better Grades and Higher Test Scores,
Learn Study Habits That Get Fast Results, Discover Your Study Persona. Berkeley: Ten Speed, 2011. Print.
Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House, 2006. Print.
Martin, Lesley Schwartz., and Samantha Moss. Make the Grade: Everything You Need to Study Better,
Stress Less, and Succeed in School. San Francisco, CA: Zest, 2013. Print.
Medina, John. Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. Seattle,
WA: Pear, 2008. Print.
Shumsky, Ron, Susan M. Islascox, and Rob Bell. The Survival Guide for School Success: Use Your Brain's Built-in
Apps to Sharpen Attention, Battle Boredom, and Build Mental Muscle. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit, 2014. Print.