Sometimes a report card doesn’t tell the whole story when it comes to how well your child is doing at school. In fact, many behaviors and interactions in class can tell you just as much or more about your child’s level of success in school than some standardized tests.

We recently asked the teachers at our enrichment academies about what skills they felt their students need to be at their best in class, and they came up with some pretty great suggestions!

Skills Students Need to Work On Most

Intangible Skills

While some skills, such as counting and writing, are obviously necessary to be successful in any learning environment, there are some intangible skills that A Grade Ahead teachers ranked pretty high up on the list.

• Being a good listener
• Being honest
• Being friendly

This is some pretty straightforward stuff, right? 67% of the A Grade Ahead teachers voted “good listening skills” as one of the most important intangible skills that many students have difficulty with at some point in their educational careers. If your child has had difficulty with listening and focusing in class, it’s a good idea to check in with your teacher about strategies that he or she is using to help your child become a better listener. That way, you can incorporate a few of those strategies into your routines at home.

Teachers at A Grade Ahead have a lot of strategies they can employ to refocus students’ attention, but here are some of their favorites.

• Remind students to listen and pay attention and show them what listening looks like
• Give students instructions a bit at a time and wait for 100% compliance
• Use visuals to engage students

Math and/or English Skills

Out of all the skills that students learn for math and English, there are plenty of things that our teachers felt students could use a little work on. Not too surprisingly, these skills are often important for learning both math and English, not just one or the other.

• Breaking the problem down
• Underlining the instructions
• Doing the homework

No matter what they’re working on, students should always, always complete the homework. Before they leave class for the day, they should read through the instructions to make sure they understand what they need to accomplish before homework is due.

When these strategies are used in class, students learn a thorough method for examining and understanding a wide variety of topics that they may otherwise struggle with.

How to Help: Our Teachers’ Suggestions

Many of the A Grade Ahead teachers have strategies they use to make learning fun and keep students focused. Of those, the top 3 strategies are…

• Getting to know the students
• Using humor to interact with students
• Using rewards for positive reinforcement

Using these methods can help teachers to relate to and interact with their students. The better relationship teachers have with their students, the easier it is for students to learn.

What are some things you feel that students need to work on?

Author: Nicole Acevedo, Teacher Manager at A Grade Ahead.