Grade Transformer for the Modern Student: Upper High School Edition

By Barbara Dianis MA ED

Why spend months and years trying to figure out the scholastic secrets of top academic achieving students when they are available in Grade Transformer for the Modern Student.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Oct 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483418032

Book preview

GRADE TRANSFORMER

FOR THE

MODERN STUDENT

UPPER HIGH SCHOOL EDITION

Barbara Dianis MA ED

Copyright © 2014 Barbara Dianis MA ED.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-1802-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-1803-2 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 9/23/2014

dianiseducation.com

CONTENTS

Introduction

A Test Taking Makeover To Help Improve Grades

Chapter 1

August Learning Eleventh And Twelfth Grade Educational Solutions

Chapter 2

September Back To School

Chapter 3

October Learning Techniques For Juniors And Seniors

Chapter 4

November Learning

Chapter 5

December Learning During The Holiday Rush

Chapter 6

January Learning For The New Year

Chapter 7

February Learning Strategies

Chapter 8

March Learning Strategies To Help Students Earn Higher Grades

Chapter 9

April Learning Techniques To Help Students Succeed Academically

Chapter 10

May Learning To Help Students Become Academic Winners

Chapter 11

June Learning To Help Restore Scholastic Edge

Chapter 12

July Learning To Help Students Gain Academic Success

Chapter 13

Study Techniques And Strategies To Help Ensure Academic Success

Chapter 14

Bibliography

Glossary Of Terms

About The Author

INTRODUCTION

D aily modern parents and teenagers open class grades online hoping to see satisfactory to above-average grades. Unfortunately, the grades staring back at them are low average, below average or to everyone’s horror failing ones. Parents and students find themselves wondering what can be done to transform this devastating learning situation into success.

Parents and teenagers often want to handle academic struggles in private. Others wish only a handful of people are aware a class or classes have become overwhelming and earning high test and above-average grades may seem improbable. Students need help now! They need proven educational solutions and methods to help transform their low grades and learn how to earn higher test grades, as fast as possible.

Numerous students and their parents are unable to spend hundreds of dollars to help them overcome their learning obstacles. Now for the first time the methods used to transform the academic performance of Struggling Students is now available in Grade Transformer for the Modern Student. The book is comparable to having a private tutor guiding the teenagers through the academic maze to help them, so they can transform into academic winners.

Traditionally once a teenager begins to fall behind his or her peers in one or more fundamental subject areas it can be very difficult to maintain one’s scholastic competitive edge. As one low or below average grade evolves into a series of substandard grades, and classroom performance seems incommensurate with their peers one’s self-esteem can deteriorate towards academic learning. Grade Transformer for the Modern Student can help restore teenagers’ academic self-esteem and can hope for a brighter scholastic future.

Whether students’ educational issues are directly correlated to Dyslexia, ADD, ADHD, disorganization, poor executive management skills, motivational problems or a lack of understanding step-by-step educational and test taking solutions can help them reach their true learning potential.

Educational secrets and solutions, teenagers apply directly to their current academic curriculum’s homework, and study time, can transform underachieving students into ones with a restored scholastic competitive edge.

The author Barbara Dianis has stood in the shoes of numerous students falling behind in school. She was diagnosed with Dyslexia and began her own personal journey to overcome every learning obstacle she faced. During the years, Dianis was being educated answers and solutions for academic issues were few. Subsequently, Dianis set out to design her own educational methods and study techniques for the purpose of making herself an academic winner despite being Dyslexic.

Through her journey to be educated, she discovered educational methods and study techniques that took her from Dyslexic to a member of the National Deans’ List for the academic elite. Dianis determined if she could overcome her learning obstacles so could other students.

The journey continued as she became an Educational Specialist who is certified to teach Pre-K- 12th-grade students. During the past twenty-one years, Dianis has taught students from all walks of life Pre-K-12th, who were experiencing scholastic difficulties how to succeed at learning.

The educational methods and techniques detailed in Grade Transformer for the Modern Student, and Book I and Book II of Don’t Count Me Out are a compilation of years of helping Dyslexic, ADD, ADHD, and Struggling Students become academic winners.

Whether your teenager needs to improve their grades in one, or more of the fundamental scholastic subject areas, this book can help transform teenagers into victorious students. The methods, educational secrets, and study techniques can help create happy, confident, and academically successful students who enjoy learning.

A TEST TAKING MAKEOVER TO HELP IMPROVE GRADES

CHAPTER 1

I don’t understand any of this material, and I’m going to fail! How often have parents and peers heard these words uttered by panicked students, who truly believe they do not have a clue about how to pass the upcoming test or exam. Even the word test can cause a typically placidly calm student to experience stomach tremors from feelings of trepidation and past failures. What effect does the word test have on the more anxious Struggling Student, one may ask?

More importantly what can be done to help your son or daughter? In addressing the first question one should consider the semantics of the word. The word test often has a deeper level meaning to the Struggling Student. The deeper meaning frequently carries feeling of dread for these students. The deeper meaning, to them, is: here is another chance to expose my academic weaknesses to my classmates, teachers, siblings and worse of all parents. Here is also another opportunity to prove to myself that I do not academically measure up to my peers. My low grades make it harder and harder truly to believe what others have told me that I am smart.

I present this description of students’ common feelings of frustration from two vantage points, one my own personal journey, which caused me to develop my own test taking techniques earlier on in my educational years. The other is from a career spent observing and counseling students and their parents in all aspects of test taking.

Moreover, through years of observation and questioning my own peers while in high school who were considered to be the curve breakers on the high end of the spectrum, I surmised various test taking theories. I professionally came to the conclusion that test taking is an art. Some students seem to innately have a stronger ability to analyze test questions and reason their way to the correct answer. Test after test scores for these students placed them in the highest point levels on the curve. Therefore, test taking seems to be an almost effortless task for them.

Test taking is a skill. Learning how to take tests can be taught to most students, even if they have experienced years of low or failing test grades. Not all students innately have the skills necessary fully to relate in a test-taking situation their true knowledge of a subject, or an academic unit. However, years of test taking failure can be alleviated with test taking techniques and strategies. If high school students employ viable test-taking skills, they can improve their test scores.

Even small boosts in different areas of study eventually add up to a large test-taking makeover. And yes, these test makeovers mirror fashion makeovers shows which are dedicated to making the fashion-challenged into nattily dressed fashionable person. Once that fashion makeover candidate is taught how to change their sartorial style in a series of small ways, they often emerge as a totally different-looking person. The appearance of the makeover now transformed can be easily applied to a test-taking strategy makeover. As your son or daughter emerges as a transformed test taker, years of academic winter melt into spring, and defeat is replaced with accomplishment.

A STEP-BY-STEP PROCEDURE TO HELP RAISE TEST GRADES

Raising test scores from the dregs of defeat is best accomplished using a systematic and step-by-step procedure. First of all, your son or daughter needs clearly to understand that test questions are usually written in a way to trick them – this verbal slight-of-hand is sometimes considered by the teacher to be part of the challenge itself. Thus a question can both test a student’s knowledge of an exact answer and also test the student’s familiarity with relevant concepts. This is done by phrasing the question in a way that it requires a general understanding of the topic in order to make clear sense of the specific question. The skill of learning to analyze the language of test questions has a direct correlation to any students’ test performance.

Moreover, a student must know to use reasoning skills to answer test questions. Acquiring good reasoning skills is the first step in analyzing test questions. Because many students do not really understand they must use reasoning skills to decipher the test questions’ meaning many students earn low test scores. However, some Struggling Students are so literal in their interpretation of instructions that they expect test questions to be asked in the same manner in which the information is learned.

Study for any test needs to include focus on learning the key language used. This enables students to interpret and analyze test questions and mull through the answer choices. There are books available that are designed to help teach the language of test taking, and your son or daughter can work through them at their leisure to increase their test-taking skills. Motivation may be a problem, so be prepared to assist them in walking through the material. You are investing in the child’s future as well as your own. In addition, encourage your child or adolescent to make it a practice to reread test questions before answering them. This simple practice can greatly assist your student.

Another good practice to strengthen test taking is to train the student to pause long enough to read the chosen answer with the question. This helps determine if the test and possible answer really do go together. The student should check to see if the question and potential answer feel right together. Many potential mistakes will be caught when a test questions, and possible answers are read by the students to sample the answer before marking it before locking in their choice and moving on.

Encourage your student mentally to block out the other people around them. It is vital to assure them