Homework Helps
Below are some helpful hints for working with your child. Please continue to check this page as we endeavor to update it frequently.
The following tips/hints are excerpts from an article written by professional tutor and Slingerland staff teacher, Vicki Zion:
Learning Styles
Determine your child’s learning style by having him/her take a survey. There is a good one by Kelly Wingate Publishers called Study Skills: (grades 2-4, 5,-8). There is also one in the book Learning to Learn by Gloria Frender. Next, use the study strategies that go with the dominant learning style. Play to your child’s strengths. It will make his/her study time more effective:
Visual Strategies
- Use color codes for notes, study sheets and flashcards
- Visualize information - get the big picture
- Take notes: on flashcards, graphic organizers, study sheets, notebook paper
- Use pictures from magazines or online and put on flashcards or notes
- Watch a movie on the topic being studied (a good website - History Channel or school house rock, Standard Deviants have many topics on DVD)
- Read a map or a timeline and make one to help visual information being studied
- Read or create a chart or graph on material studied
- Put together or create a puzzle
- Make a drawing
- Use mnemonics: Acronyms for what is being studied (HOMES for the Great Lakes) Acrostics - first letter goes with information or a word Rhymes Poem Song/rap
- Use graph paper or turn lined paper sideways to make columns for numbers to stay in the correct order
Auditory Strategies
- Listen to a book on tape while reading it
- listen to a song on the subject (Schoolhouse Rock has many topics)
- Read aloud
- Repeat information out loud
- Have discussion with someone on the topic
- Use mnemonics
- Tape record information while playing it back, repeat it with the tape.
Kinesthetic/Hands-On Strategies
- Play cards or board games on math topics
- Make up cards to play Jeopardy style game, Bingo, Matching
- Use dice or Dominos to practice skills
- Jump rope, dribble a ball, play hopscotch while repeating information aloud
- Dance while repeating information aloud
- Role play
- Write your finger on a surface to practice a skill; sand, shaving cream, dish soap will also work
- Write in the air and practice spelling
- Use Playdough or cookie dough and form words
For a complete copy of this article, please follow this link: Homework Help and Study Strategies.
Additional homework help information may also be found in one of the following links:
Tutoring Resource Providers
The Slingerland® Institute for Literacy maintains a database of tutors, educational therapists and screening professionals. The Institute is happy to provide you with this information, however, the Institute neither certifies nor guarantees any of the persons listed. They are people we know to have satisfactorily completed one or more Slingerland® courses, but we are not able to supervise them and therefore cannot warrant their quality. They are not employed by the Institute – they are independent contractors. Scheduling and price will be worked out between you and the professional. We hope you find the help you need; let us know if we can help you further. The primary caregiver bears the ultimate responsibility for choosing a professional and monitoring the student’s progress. Please download and read the attached fact sheet entitled “Tips for Selecting Tutors and Educational Therapists”
Click the map icon on the left to search for a local resource provider or click here to go directly to that page.
