Academic Success Program

The Academic Success Program develops active reading skills, organizational skills (planner, binder, prioritizing, time-management), note-taking skills (reading and listening), and test-preparation and test-taking skills (vocabulary of tests, strategies, learning style) through individual instruction, encouragement, and accountability over the period of a full semester to a year. Placement in the program is based on referral by teachers, counselors, or administrators.

Weekly, students meet individually with the Academic Success Counselor during one or two of the student’s study periods. During each meeting, the counselor “chit-chats with a purpose” – building a personal relationship with the student; asks the student what learning strategies he/she tried during the past week and which were most beneficial; introduces new strategies to try during the next week; and prays for and encourages each student. We connect what students do with their learning – focusing on their effort, rather than grades. When a student is pleased with a grade on a test, for example, we redirect the conversation to “What did you do to prepare for that test?” “So you feel that writing a summary of your class-notes led to learning the material more thoroughly?” Students reflect on and talk about what they do, what they need to do, and the learning that results from those actions, rather than merely being proscribed a course of action.

Tentative Schedule of Instruction

1^st Quarter:

• First Session*: Successful Students / Goals
• Second Session*: Organizational Skills / Binder
• Third Session*: Time-Management / Planner
• Fourth Session*: Learning Styles / Study Strategies
• Fifth Session*: Listening Skills / Note-Taking
• Sixth Session*: Reading Strategies (i.e. SQ3R; vocabulary; annotating; summarizing)
• Seventh Session*: Reading Strategies (i.e. textbooks)
• Eighth Session*: Concentration / Memory Skills
• Ninth Session*: Test Preparation Strategies
• Tenth Session*: Specific Test-Taking Strategies
• Eleventh Session*: Essay Test Strategies
• Twelfth Session* and on-going: Reading Strategies (content-specific)

End of 1^st Quarter: Begin Compiling Portfolio

Throughout 2nd Quarter: Reinforcement of Strategies / Compiling Portfolio

Mid 2^nd Quarter: Final Exams (Action Plan for Studying)

End of 1^st Semester: Student-Led Conferences / Portfolio Presentation

2^nd Semester: Focus on Maintaining / Improving Behaviors

• monitor progress of students
• build portfolios
• meet with new students, following course of 1^st semester

Mid 4th Quarter: Final Exams (Action Plan for Studying)

End of 2nd Semester: Student-Led Conferences / Portfolio Presentation

(*Ideally, students will attend two sessions per cycle during study periods within their individual schedules)