Award-Winning Study Skills and Organization Tutors serving Minneapolis, MN

Overall, we are on a positive path, relative to last week. The student was more prepared this morning. We had an important development. After communicating twice with his health teacher, the student completed the assignment "determinants of health" which was due back in December. He received a perfect score (100%) on this assignment. In addition to helping him clarify the wording of one of the questions, I also helped him develop his ideas so that he felt confident enough to submit his work. This is the first time in a week that he has asked for my help while working on a project. Before my arrival today, an account was set up for the student on a site that looks for plagiarism and then generates a report. We spent some time together showing him how to submit his annotated notes. The student is still learning how to navigate several pieces of each assignment, for example, saving annotated notes and vocabulary lists into a "virtual backpack." He is also beginning to navigate the process of communicating with his teachers. I have noticed a negative reaction on his part to asking teachers for clarification or support, and this is an area where we can support him. Where the student excels is completing objective quizzes. With some prompting, he completed a quiz on "narrative structure" and received a 100%. Where he is challenged is by completing the "busywork" components that make up his larger assignments.

The student recently took a school trip to Barcelona and was asked to make a journal about his experiences. Today we spent a lot of time going over how to write expressive papers, and how to remove filters on thought and how to properly condense your work to a well-written paper. I showed him how to cater writing organization to his thought-process, so he could best harness his own strengths.

As of Thursday night, the student's grades according to school website are no lower than a B, with several in the B+ to A range. We talked though his plan to prepare for his Spanish test on Friday; he sounded on track to do well on this test. We spent the last half of the session working on a history review for a quiz.

The student and I spent our last session reviewing the goals we have set throughout the year, as well as adding two additional goals, consistent note taking and neat writing. I walked him through some scenarios when he will need to keep a calendar or to-do list for activities, assignments, due dates, etc. He has definitely improved on overall organization and study skills. He's consistent with his binders, and his grades have continued to improve, showing that putting the extra effort in does work. I think he will continue to take that knowledge with him as he gets older. I went through some examples where I wish I had taken better or neater notes, and I do believe he understands why I had him add neatness and note taking to his goals. I know that with reminders and continued improvement in his grades, he will see how important all of the goals we've discussed are and will be as he gets older. The student has been a pleasure to work with, and I know he will continue to become a more organized student.

Since our previous session, the student was able to complete a long overdue video project in her chemistry class. Submission of that project raised her grade to an A. She seemed relieved and it was clear her mom was happy with this improvement. Currently, the student has only one outstanding math assignment to submit. When she submits Problem of the Week (POW) #4, she will have completed all outstanding assignments. She assured me she would complete this tonight and turn it in on Monday. While these latest two submissions by the student are clearly moving her in the right direction, she and her parents have yet to establish a regular assignment due/ status report on a daily basis. I will revisit that with strategy as I believe it to be very advantageous for all. During her recent Student Led Conference (SLC), that included her parents, both her advisor and co-advisor suggested that each of them work with her twice weekly to help her be accountable for her work and mentor her. She seemed pleased as am I with this additional support. She also spoke about taking introductory college-level music classes at a nearby college during the upcoming summer. Another indication of wanting to achieve her long-term goal of college and a music career.

The student was just at the end of his Spring Break, so we worked to make sure he will go back into the semester on top of assignments and prepared. He has a couple of assignments that he is not sure of the due date for. I have pressed him to figure out when these things are due and he believes they are due by the "end of the unit." We have tried to spread the work out on these assignments so he isn't surprised at the end of the unit when they must be completed.