Teaching Study Skills for Students in the Classroom

The next time you announce an upcoming test and give time to prepare for it, take a look around the room. You may see several of your students look completely overwhelmed. Some read one page of their study guide repeatedly. Others are kicking back, planning to study everything the night before. A few honestly do not know what studying even looks like. Teaching study skills for students can turn that uncertainty into a clear, manageable plan. When you use direct instruction and practice, your students can discover strategies they can actually use.

Why We Need to Teach Study Skills for Students

We often tell our students to study. But do we explain what that word means? To us, studying may include reviewing notes, highlighting questions, or organizing information. We have years of experience that have defined this word for us. But our students, on the other hand, do not. Students may hear the same direction and be left wondering what to do. To help them develop strong study skills, we need to teach them, just like we would any other topic. 

Study skills for students work best when we teach them before a major assessment. Choose an upcoming quiz or test with several days available for practice. This gives your students time to try each strategy with real class content. They can then decide which approaches help them notice gaps and remember information.


Ready to learn more about teaching study skills in the classroom? Let's dive in!

1. Teach Students That Studying is a Process 

We know what often happens when our students wait until the night before a test. They try to review everything at once and quickly become frustrated. Help students break the cycle of last-minute cram sessions by showing them that studying is a process. Then show them how to create a schedule of short study sessions that feels more manageable and gives them time to review over several days.

Start by working backward from the assessment date as a class. Place the date on the board, then identify several possible study days. Ask your students to consider homework, practices, family plans, and other responsibilities. They can then choose short review periods that fit their actual schedules.

I remember when a student had an "ah-ha" moment during this lesson. They said something along the lines of 'Oooohhhhhh! This is why you tell us we have a test next Friday.' I realized that I had been guilty of statements like this without explaining why I was giving them advance notice.

2. Teach Students Why Reviewing Notes Matters

For many students, the idea of going back and reviewing notes is a foreign concept. To them, notes are just something we do while sitting in class.  They aren't really sure why, but this is what they have been taught to do. But. . . they have never been taught that the real value of notes comes in reviewing them later. Once we help our students understand that reviewing the notes can help us remember, we then need to teach them how to review their notes. 

We have all watched our students reread the same page without actually processing it. They may reach the bottom and remember almost nothing. Show your students that reviewing notes requires them to pause, question, and mark important information. This gives them something specific to do instead of simply reading the page again.

Model the process with one page of notes from your current unit. Read a small section, then pause beside an important idea. You might say, "I remember this person, but I cannot explain why this event mattered." Mark that spot and show your students how it becomes a question for later.

Build this skill into the final few minutes of class each day. Give them three minutes to reread, mark one key point, and circle one question. Then, your students can ask you for help before a misunderstanding grows. This short routine also makes test preparation feel less overwhelming later.

3. Teach Them About Color Coding Their Notes

We've known for years that color can help with attention, memory, and recall. In fact, the scientific evidence of color and how it affects memory and learning has been around for many years. That makes color coding more than just a way to make notes look nice. Let's teach them why and how to use it effectively.

This strategy works really well with the reviewing notes strategy above.  I like to begin by encouraging students to write their notes by hand instead of typing. Handwriting naturally slows the process and gives your students time to consider each idea. Then I like to show them how to add color to their notes to make them even stronger.

When students use color with a purpose, it can help them organize information and find important details more easily. I suggest that you teach students to color-code their notes using different colors for people, events, vocabulary, definitions, causes, and effects. When they use the same colors on all their notes, they can quickly identify an important person from a vocabulary word in social studies, science, or math class. 

Make sure to explain that every color needs a clear job connected to the content. Then show them what this looks like.  Show them how to color only the most important details, not everything.  I like to show an example of notes color-coded by key bits of information and an example where the entire page has been given color. This really helps them see that coloring everything is not as useful as focusing on the most important facts and details. 

4. The Student Becomes the Teacher

Another simple strategy you can share with your students is to have them teach the topic to someone else. Using their notes, students can verbally tell another person, or even the family dog, about the topic. Your students may laugh when you suggest teaching their notes to a pet, but that is part of the fun. The listener does not need to understand the topic or ask difficult questions. Your students simply need to explain the information without reading every word. 

When they do this, they will quickly notice where their explanations become a little shaky. They will realize what areas they solidly understand, and what areas they rely a little too heavily on their notes. The key is having them put the information into their own words. This process quickly reveals which ideas your students understand and which ones remain unclear.

Demonstrate this study skill for students with a familiar topic. Explain one concept without reading directly from your notes. When you get stuck, show your students how to return to the page and check the missing detail. This helps them see that forgetting is part of the learning process, not something to be embarrassed about.

Next, place your students in pairs for a short practice session. Give each partner one minute to explain a person, event, process, or vocabulary term. The listener can ask, "Why does that matter?" or "What happened next?" After the exercise, ask students to identify what information they felt strongly about and what needed more review. 

5. Teach Different Ways to Organize Information

Sometimes students know lots of facts, but they don't really see how they fit together. That's where this study skills strategy comes into play. Organizing information helps your students see how separate details connect. There are a variety of ways students can organize information: lists, outlines, timelines, mind maps, and graphic organizers. Each format serves a different purpose, so your students might need help choosing one. Make sure to show students what type of information works best with each format. 

For example, if you are studying the order of key battles in World War II, you would want to use a timeline. Show students how a timeline helps us sequence events.  On the other hand, if you are reviewing the causes of the Civil War, a mind map might be a stronger tool to use. By introducing your students to a variety of organizing methods, you equip them with strategies to help them better understand what they have learned.

My Step-by-Step Lesson for Teaching Study Skills

If you are ready to teach study skills to your students, my Study Skills Doodle Notes is the perfect place to start. This resource includes everything you need to teach these strategies to your students and to give them explicit practice with each strategy. 

Begin by introducing each study skill, one at a time. The PowerPoint guides your students through the notes as a class. Students can use the coordinated Doodle Notes page as they learn.

Pause after each strategy to model what it looks like. Don't just show students, but tell them what you are thinking, too. I like to use an example from the current topic we are studying because the information is fresh in their minds. Then ask students where they could use that strategy during the week. This type of discussion helps them internalize the strategy and see how it can play out in their day to day life. 

Next up, give students a chance to practice these study skills without a test grade being on the line. You can teach one strategy then practice it, or teach all the strategies and then rotate through the stations. Allow 10 to 15 minutes at each station for your students to really try and experience each strategy.

Finish up with a discussion of the study skill strategy. Ask them what they like about it, and what they didn't like. Ask them how they found the strategy helpful. And. . . ask them how they might make small changes to the strategy to make it work better for them. This is the part of the process that really helps students see that the strategies are there to support them, not become another rigid procedure they have to repeat.

Help Your Students Put These Study Skills Into Practice

Our students do not automatically know how to prepare for a test, and we can't assume that someone else taught them.  That's why teaching study skills can be one of the important lessons you teach all year. Students need clear examples, time to practice, and chances to reflect. My Social Studies Study Skills Doodle Notes set brings those pieces together. It helps you teach preparation as a process instead of another vague direction. Whether you use this as a beginning-of-the-year lesson or before a unit test, your students will walk away with a new skill that goes far beyond your classroom.

Explore my Social Studies Study Skills Doodle Notes to help your students practice strategies with structured notes and hands-on activities. Most importantly, your students learn what studying can actually look like.

Save for Later

Save this post when your students need a clearer approach to test preparation. These study skills for students can help you turn "Go study" into practical steps they understand.