A Brand New "Learning How to Learn" Strategy:

This week my video series features music, the seventh independent learning strategy I shared during the “Learning How to Learn” Workshop I presented to parents and students last fall. Using music in a variety of ways as a study strategy yields powerful results. Especially helpful is the use of “piggyback songs.” When we take the tune of a familiar song and substitute content-related lyrics for the original lyrics, then we are using a piggyback song. About two-thirds of my students attended the hour-long, after-school workshop, and I followed up with the families of the remaining children at a later time. Though I try to create rich, authentic, contextual learning experiences for my students on a daily basis, there are still times when they need to learn how to study and remember discrete pieces of information independently, especially as they progress through the upper elementary grades and into middle school and high school.