Pratt Parents Bone Up On Study Skills

If your child is turning the radio on while studying, at least make sure the music has a heart, says teacher Art Dolan.

Turns out the best music for young scholars is classical baroque, a genre with 60 beats per minute, the same as a heart. That way, if students get tired or excited, the beat of the music brings them physically back in line.

Rap music, on the other hand, is a studying death wish. Kids will focus on the song’s conversation rather than on their books.

Dolan, a Shadle Park science teacher and study-skills consultant, has plenty of other tricks up his sleeve.

He passed a few of them on last week to Pratt Elementary parents gathered to learn how to help their fourth- through sixth-graders improve their study habits.

Parents looked every bit the eager students as they sat in the school gym Thursday night, pens poised to record Dolan’s wisdom.

“We want to make sure our children are ready for middle school and high school,” said Mary Everson, a Pratt parent-teacher group member and parent of a sixth-grader.

“Our focus is always on student achievement,” said Principal Jeanne Baynes. “And we want to keep our parents informed.”

The workshop was in response to the new, more stringent fourth-grade assessment tests taken last spring. Anxious parents met with educators this fall after the less-than-stellar results were announced.

“Parents really wanted to know, ‘What can we do to help?”’ said Mary Weaver, Pratt Site Council member and a fourth-grade teacher.

Dolan was there to provide some answers.

“It’s not how smart you are but how you are smart,” he told the group. “Tonight we’re going to take you through some things that work.”

Among his tips: Make sure students write down their assignments. This will especially help once the students reach middle school, where they’ll be asked to keep track of six different classes a day.

Remember that when you study a list, the first and last things on the list are easiest to remember. The hardest are just past the middle. So, when studying vocabulary words, for example, place the toughest words at the beginning and end of the list.

Finally, what should kids look like when studying?

“Eyes are open?” offered one parent.

“That’s a start,” laughed Dolan. Other suggestions for successful studying: good overhead lighting and sitting up straight with something hard to write on.

Perhaps most importantly of all, said Dolan, is to make time for the whole family to sit down together and “study,” whether parents help the child with homework or simply sit close by doing their own reading.

“If you show the importance you place on education,” he told the parents, “they’ll see your values.”

FBLA students move on to Bellevue

The following Ferris High School students placed in their event last week at the Future Business Leaders of America regional competition: Gene Chatham, Jessica Narolski, Sabrina Slater, Josh Mills and Sam Snow.

The students competed in areas including economics, business law and public speaking. They’ll take part in the state competition April 23-25 in Bellevue.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo