Study Skills: Learning How To Learn

Many of the troubled teens who come to Discovery Ranch for Girls (DRG) have struggled in a conventional school system. That is why school at DRG is different by design. A new Study Skills class at DRG helps students to learn to identify the ways that they learn best. The class also introduces students to the ways that school is different at DRG.

Getting to Know Each Other

 
Classes run year-round at DRG, so whenever your daughter first comes to DRG, she will enter the Study Skills class. In the Study Skills class, the already small class sizes are made even smaller. Your daughter will be introduced to Kaylee Green, the classroom teacher, and Linda Hansen, one of the teacher’s assistants. Kaylee and Linda will help your daughter take a Getting to Know You survey and a Study Skills survey.

These surveys will help Kaylee and Linda to learn which study skills methods work best for your daughter, so they know how best to help her. They will also help your daughter to acquire any skills that she still needs. Kaylee and your daughter will spend about ten minutes discussing each of the skills on the survey. Kaylee will help your daughter to understand how to use these skills.

“Each girl that arrives at DRG has unique needs and different academic abilities and challenges.  This small class is a safe place for each girl to acclimate to school at DRG,” said Linda. “This small class also helps the school to get to know the girl and how best to help her academically.”

While in the Study Skills class, your daughter will also meet teachers of core subjects once a week, and receive direct instruction from them.

Giving Support While Encouraging Independence

 
How much time your daughter spends in Study Skills class will depend on your daughter. Some young women are ready to leave Study Skills class after a week. Other students take a longer time to develop the skills to prepare them for their main classes. Students have stayed in Study Skills class for as long as four weeks. However long your daughter spends in Study Skills class, being in the class will not slow down her academic success.

“The point of it is to get the student ready for the way school is run at DRG,” said Kaylee. “[Study Skills class] was put in place to help the students be more successful in their schooling at DRG.”

While the Study Skills class has only been active for a few months, the class appears to be succeeding in doing just that.

“There is one student that stayed in study skills for a while because her testing skills were not very good. Since being out of the course she has been able to test more confidently and has continued to get more and more chapters completed per week,” said Kaylee. “Another student voiced that she was really bad at school and that she didn’t see herself ever getting chapters done. She now has been consistently getting three or four chapters completed weekly.”

Study Skills class is one more way DRG supports students success. You can be confident that your daughter will improve her study skills while at DRG. Rather than being lost in a large public school classroom, she will be supported throughout her time at DRG from Study Skills class and beyond. Regular class sizes at DRG typically include 9 students, and Study Skills class generally has even fewer. With individualized attention and a strong focus on developing your daughter’s independent study skills, you can be confident that DRG can help your daughter to succeed.