Bonnie Terry, currently a Board Certified Educational Therapist and Learning Disabilities Specialist in private practice, has served as a special education teacher since 1973. She received her B.S. in Elementary Education and Special Education from Illinois State University, Normal, IL, and a M.Ed. in Special Education from California State University, Sacramento, CA. Bonnie Terry is internationally recognized as an expert in Educational Therapy and Learning Disabilities.
We were looking forward to reviewing a Bonnie Terry product for the TOS Homeschool Crew, as J has dyslexia and struggles especially with reading speed and spelling. I have to be honest and say I was a little surprised when we received the ‘writing’ product rather than the reading or spelling product. But no matter – we are blessed to have received this to review at all! What I found interesting is that Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills shares similar methods of writing and note-taking as our current writing program.
Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills is a guide-book that is intended to help students improve writing, note taking, and studying skills. The book has four sections and include the following:
1) Getting Started: instructions, planning
2) The Nitty Gritty: reproducible worksheets and note-taking aids (e.g., book report forms, compare/contrast, outlines)
3) Study & Writing Tips: tips on note taking, test taking, and writing
4) Easy Reference: spelling patterns and grammar rules
An instruction sheet was added separately and gives basic instructions of how to use the book:
1) Make copies of some of the worksheet pages
2) Have the student read aloud (selection from any book, length of selection can vary depending on the student’s reading ability or attention span)
3) Decide if the selection was narrative or expository
4) Student writes notes using appropriate worksheet.
The idea is to give students short exercises to help them examine and capture on paper the things they read, whether it’s fiction/non-fiction literature, science, or any subject matter. The worksheet pages are great tools, especially for students who are visual learners. Using a worksheet from Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills, they can take a reading selection and break it down into something where they can see the structure of a narrative or topic. We have used a few of these writing methods for about one year from our current curriculum and have noticed significant improvement in our boys’ writing skills.
Disclosure: This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are our own.