Weekly Study Strategy

Weekly Study Strategy:

Topic: Digital Flashcards Almost everything you ever wanted to know about making flashcards in the digital age!

Ibex - wild goat from European Ibex mountains.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42311564@N00/439899125 8/sizes/t/in/photostream / / wikipedia

Digital Flash Cards: (Unless students study flash cards over time (distributed practice) this strategy will not be successful.)

Hints when making flash cards:

The strategy for flash cards is not to write too much or too little. Be able to provide a vocabulary word when given the definition. Draw a picture when possible to demonstrate the information. Use colors to differentiate different sections or types, e.g. parts of speech – nouns are red, verbs are blue, land animals – green, sea animals – blue, etc.

Making physical flash cards is helpful if a student responds to text to understand the information. However, many students need to attach some type of visual representation to get the big picture. In fact, many students become frustrated because the words become a big jumbled mess that do not connect information in a meaningful way. Therefore, think – digital flashcard. Taking a little more time to make history or world cultures flash cards may save time later and the information may be more meaningful. Look at the link below to see how the flash cards contained the basic name and date of a battle on the front. Flip the card over and there is a basic sentence that is the main idea of what happened along with a You-Tube video from a reliable source along with a map or detailed battle line-up graphic. http://www.screencast.com/t/M2Q2MjAwYz

While some girls might benefit from the conventional flash card exercise, others become frustrated because they lose them, forget them when they need to study, etc. There is another place to go:

Digital flashcard supports: http://www.studystack.com/ The above Web site links to other digital flash card sites at the bottom. The site itself was helpful for reviewing the ways in which flash cards are being used to make connections. It creates many other studying possibilities to assist in learning the vocabulary. Games are a good way to learn vocabulary words with meanings. See if your daughter can provide the correct vocabulary word when given the meaning. Increasing vocabulary will also assist with college entrance tests.

Below are several others that may be helpful.

Use the online resources for middle level science, https://conjuguemos.com/ for language and all levels of Sadlier-Oxford vocabulary at https://www.sadlierconnect.com/login.html Just go to the bottom right hand side where it says student and family resources. Click where it says Let’s go. Then find your vocabulary book and level by clicking on the vocabulary books on the bottom right side of the page. Flash cards, practice tests, and games are available online. http://quizlet.com/ This came highly recommended by the students with whom I work. This is particularly helpful in learning the periodic table. http://www.bucks.edu/~specpop/flash-card.htm Using flash cards provides hints on how to keep the information on the flash card limited to the most important information. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/make-flashcards-google-docs-spreadsheets-web-iosandroid/ From Google, students make their own flash cards from a spreadsheet gadget.

Let me know what you think about the ability to go digital with flashcards.

Comments or suggestions: please email Marge Potter at [email protected]