Improving Academic PerfORMANCE

When a paper is looming, it can be easy to get into absolutes and assume that, unless you can get something really fantastic down in the next couple of hours, you’re doomed. But let’s remember the old adage Rome wasn’t built in a day - and neither was your essay, short story, or research project. All good writing comes from rewriting. Even the greatest writers on earth will admit that their first drafts and ideas were often lackluster. Sometimes downright terrible. So don’t be discouraged. Be willing to write poorly, and then be willing to improve! (Remember that growth mindset!)

Reading and writing are two skillsets that are imperative in school. Any successful student will tell you that both reading and writing are keys to improving grades and learning. You cannot be successful in school without reading and writing. Fortunately, these are two highly valuable skills that can also be easily improved. However, keep in mind that to get better at anything you must be dedicated to practicing regularly, the same goes for reading and writing.  Here are some easy ways to improve your reading and writing skills to help you become a successful student. 

Guiding students to a deeper mastery of mathematics, science, or language arts skills is a daunting challenge, since no two students are completely alike and instruction must, therefore, be individualized. However, “the wheel need not be entirely reinvented” for each student: after a diagnostic assessment has been administered, it is possible to view the individual student as aligning with one or another of several basic groups (or demonstrating a need for targeted instruction in multiple areas at once)

I work primarily with language arts students, so this article is geared towards that subject. But a similar approach can likely be applied to most other subjects.