Summer is here! After a strange year of rolling with the punches of the COVID-19 pandemic, students need a break. But it is also crucial that they remain engaged through the summer months. In a year of more learning losses than learning gains for many students, keeping academic skills sharp is important for future school success. Some students will attend academic summer programs or camps to stave off content-related learning losses; while others will seek out private tutoring to fortify other non-academic skills.
This summer is a great time for students to practice non-academic skills. Summer offers a period for more relaxed learning and practice of foundational skills of organization and time management; some areas where students will benefit from these things are future test-taking, classroom and study notetaking (i.e., during lectures/presentations and while reading), synthesizing and summarizing information for comprehension, interpreting visual information, outlining, and more. Practicing these valuable skills during the summer will help every student tackle most academic tasks more easily once school starts again in the fall.
Acquiring and applying foundational, non-academic skills is extremely important to every student’s academic success. A student may be proficient in the various academic areas they study, but if they cannot demonstrate that proficiency, their long-term academic success will be impacted negatively. Students can use the summer season to shore up their skills to be better prepared when the new school year begins; if they practice their foundational skills consistently, they will be more successful students.
Balancing academic work and foundational skills practice is difficult for some students. Add on extracurricular activities like school clubs and athletics practices, as well as the time required for homework and studying, and many become so crunched for time that both areas suffer. During the summer, students will be able to focus more easily on being prepared for the upcoming school year because many of the school-related responsibilities students have during the year are lower priorities or are temporarily deferred. This allows students to focus their efforts on the areas where they need the most improvement when it comes to study skills.
Summer tutoring allows students to practice a variety of fundamental learning skills from notetaking to organization skills, listening to reading comprehension skills, and writing to critical thinking skills. This is significant because it helps strengthen each student’s overall learning foundations so they can avoid a struggle with acquiring new learning when they return to the classroom for the new school year. If you need help practicing foundational skills for learning, Tots ‘N Tutors is an excellent resource. Tots ‘N Tutors is a professional mobile and remote tutoring company based in Austin, Texas that offers support to students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and college, in all academic subject areas. Additionally, the professional learning guides at Tots ‘N Tutors help students hone other fundamental learning skills including study skills, organizational skills, and time management skills, for more efficient and effective learning overall. Contact Tots ‘N Tutors today to talk about meeting individually or in small groups, in person, or remotely.