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Study skills are those abilities that students are just expected to know. When you say “Take notes on this” or “Study for this test,” middle schoolers should have an understanding of what you mean. As important as study skills are for middle school, they’re often not specifically taught in class. While some students may know what you mean by “note-taking” or “studying,” others may not have the experience or executive functioning to actually do it. That’s where you come in!

Discover the best way to teach study skills in any subject with a guide to study skills for middle school. From time management to notetaking to ending procrastination (a middle school favorite!), we’ve collected teacher tips, classroom strategies, and instructional resources that prepare middle schoolers for the challenges of high school, college, and beyond.

1. Setting up a Study Plan

The first thing middle schoolers need to know about study skills is that they need a plan. Whether they love to study and do homework or they avoid it until necessary, a study plan helps every student succeed.

• Help students develop a study routine. They should decide on a specific time of day to study and do homework, based on their extracurriculars and after-school availability. 
• Emphasize the importance of a study space. Part of middle schoolers’ study plan should include the place where they’re going to study or work on homework. Go over the importance of quiet, clean areas where students have all the supplies they’ll need without getting up.
• Build breaks into their routine. No one can study for hours straight without a break! Remind students to program short breaks into their study routine to avoid burnout and exhaustion.
• Reflect on the study plan. Add a reflection question into a class assessment or homework assignment that asks students to think back on their study practice. What worked well in their study plan? What would they do differently next time?

Assess students’ study habits and challenges

How much do middle schoolers already know about their study habits? Encourage them to assess their own study skills and address areas of need with self-assessments and solutions.

Study Skills Journal For Middle School Students
By Kiddie Matters
Grades: 5th-8th

Take middle schoolers through the preliminary steps of setting up a study plan with a thorough and helpful resource. From a study skills self-assessment to a list of members in their “study squad,” these worksheets and handouts set students on the right path toward high executive functioning.

2. Staying on Schedule

Time management is a vital study skill for middle school. If students can learn the importance of managing their time before they graduate junior high, they’ll be able to work through any challenging high school class or college course (or even career projects in their adulthood)!

• Model time management in the classroom. Keep a timed schedule on the board and allow groups or individuals to pace themselves based on the assigned timeline.
• Set goals at the beginning of the week. Can your middle schoolers meet time-focused goals from Monday to Friday? Take them through the process of setting study goals in anticipation of an upcoming exam or project.
• Create study groups for accountability. It’s easier to keep on schedule when you’ve got support. Form study groups in your middle school class that change from project to project, so they can discover what types of study partners help them the most. 
• Assign study-focused homework. Assign regular long-term projects over several days with the goal of finishing one part per night. Remind them that the goal isn’t a final finished project on Friday — it’s sticking to the schedule every day.

Make social-emotional needs part of a successful study schedule

No two students learn the same way, and that goes for studying, too! Find out more about your middle schoolers’ individual learning and social-emotional needs with a study schedule that addresses each one.

Unit 1 Lesson 2: Study Strategies for Different Learners Google Slides/Activity
By Life and Study Skills SEL Series
Grades: 5th-8th

What do nutrition, managing anger, and time management have to do with studying? They’re all linked to middle schoolers’ emotional well-being, which enables (or prevents) successful study habits from kicking in. Use a comprehensive SEL resource to address student needs in school and their daily lives, ensuring that they’re emotionally ready to adopt new study habits.

3. Organizing Work

Nothing’s worse than knowing you finished your work but you can’t find it. Emphasize the importance of “Cleaner, not clutter” with lessons focused on keeping their work straight, whether it’s in their backpack, desk, or study space at home.

• Conduct regular backpack checks. Set the standard for an organized backpack (no old or crumpled papers, no food, enough supplies) and award grades or extra credit points for students who can keep their backpacks in order.
• Give out binder checklists. Binders are your middle schoolers’ best organization buddy! Hand out checklists for what they should have in each section of their binder and encourage them to regularly maintain them.
• Give projects with manageable components. Start off by assigning projects with just two or three parts to turn in, then start adding additional components for students to track. They’ll learn the value of staying organized when the higher grades start rolling in!
• Teach digital organization and visual tools. If most of your work is digital, have a lesson on how students can keep their documents and homework submissions organized on their computer. You can also incorporate visual tools like shared calendars and digital gradebooks for students to maintain up-to-date perspectives on their schoolwork.

Make organization a focus of your curriculum

Staying organized is easier for some students than others. For those who find organization a challenge, lessons on getting organized in both their work and learning environment could make a huge difference in how well they do in every subject in their schedule.

Study Skills-Middle School-Nine Week Curriculum
By In The Middle Curriculum
Grades: 6th-8th

Teach study skills like any other subject when you integrate lessons from this nine-week curriculum. With planner templates, informational articles, pacing guides, and skills practice sheets, the resource includes everything you need to enhance students’ knowledge and mastery of common study skills for junior high.

4. Taking Helpful Notes

Taking notes is one thing, but are the notes your middle schoolers take actually helpful? Turn these study skills for middle school into a tool students will actually use with these instructional techniques.

• Model taking notes. Using a document camera or projector, show students what you mean when you say “Take notes on this.” Show them the difference between summarizing versus copying verbatim, and how to tell what information is actually important enough to include.
• Assign note-taking assignments. Incorporate note-taking into your homework assignments by collecting notes for reading assignments.
• Make open-note tests. Nothing makes note-taking more important than an open-note test! Help students find the value of notes by letting them refer to prior notes during an upcoming quiz or exam.
• Go over different note techniques. Show students how to take different kinds of notes, including lecture notes, Cornell notes, and mapping methods.

Take the mystery out of note-taking

If your middle schoolers have a difficult time taking organized, understandable notes, make the process easier with graphic organizers and guides. Project worksheets onto the board to complete as a class, or assign them along with reading homework and group research activities.

Note Taking Templates | Study Skills Activities
By Ford’s Board
Grades: 3rd-10th

Mind maps, color-coded notes, Cornell notes — no matter how your students process information, this resource has the template to help them do it. Use a variety of note-taking templates for any subject to encourage students to improve their note-taking abilities, leaving time to focus on the actual subject matter.

5. Reading Informational Text

You’ve probably already got lessons aligned to the CCSS for reading informational text, but middle schoolers may need to take a few steps back to achieve literacy in this area. Make sure that the students in your class really know how to read informational text before you assign independent reading or ask them to study their textbooks.

• Review parts of the text. Can your middle schoolers identify key text features like headings, captions, and glossaries? Practice gleaning information from these sections with whole-class review and group reading activities.
• Focus on literacy skills. Middle schoolers may need more reading practice in general, even if they’re testing at grade level. Fold literacy skills into each of your reading activities, even if you’re teaching a non-ELA subject like science, social studies, or math.
• Find the “golden line.” Pass out a paper copy of an informational article and have students highlight the line they find the most important. Write these lines on the board and decide with your class which ones summarize the article’s main point or argument.
• Use graphic organizers to break down complex ideas. Scaffold informational reading activities with guided materials like graphic organizers and brainstorming templates. Have students jot down information that they find significant

6. Improving Writing Skills

What looks like student laziness or refusal to work might be an insecurity with basic writing skills. Increase middle schoolers’ confidence in their writing with activities focused on strengthening middle school study skills and writing ability.

• Make writing part of the routine. Establish a middle school writing skills daily schedule that gets students more comfortable with writing. Journal prompts, bell ringers, and short written answers are great ways to build writing skills.
• Make sure that middle schoolers can write an essay. Many middle schoolers get through ELA class by writing “good enough” essays that let them slip through the cracks. Reinforce the importance of a structured essay in any class with modeling, direct instruction, and lots of one-on-one support.
• Incorporate lots of peer editing. Sometimes, seeing peer writing can be the best lesson of all! Let middle schoolers practice their proofreading skills and learn from peer examples when you add peer editing steps into your writing assignments. 
• Form student writing groups. Whether students want to share the latest chapter from their fantasy novel or a paragraph from their most recent journal writing, there’s always room for improvement. Help them work together to move toward writing goals and turn in the most polished work they can.

7. Avoiding Procrastination

Imagine eliminating procrastination long before your students enter high school! You’ll be the hero of every high school teacher (and high school student) when you help your class master this all-too-common middle school study skill.

• Identify when it’s happening. Encourage students to examine when they’re most likely to put off an assignment until the last minute. Does it happen when they’re overwhelmed by the work or when they’re feeling bored in the studying process?
• Set up staggered deadlines. Procrastinators love zeroing in on a final deadline, so take that option away from them with deadlines that stretch out over a period of time.
• Remove distractions. Make your classroom a distraction-free zone with straightforward bulletin boards and decorations, and encourage them to do the same at home.
• Improve all-around focus. Work on students’ focus and anxiety before procrastination has a chance to become a habit. Assignments with short workspans and multiple deadlines are a good way to keep middle schoolers focused on their goals.

Identify procrastination challenges before they begin

Procrastination is something most middle schoolers do from time to time, but do they really know they’re doing it? Teach students how to avoid this common pitfall by explaining what procrastination is, how it shows up in their daily lives, and how they can avoid it by facing their distractions.

Procrastination Stations Middle High School Avid Study Skills Elective EDITABLE
By Key Jackie J
Grades: 6th-11th

An out-of-your-seat experience takes middle schoolers through 10 “procrastination stations” that present real-life scenarios that challenge their understanding of study skills. Students must answer each question and complete each task before moving on to the next station — the ultimate test of pacing and self-direction!

Study solutions for common student challenges with TPT

Every middle school teacher wants their students to leave the classroom ready to face the day (and high school!). Mastering these study skills for middle school allows students to take charge of their own learning and to keep bad habits from making school into a negative experience. Explore more middle school study skills resources to help students avoid unpredictable issues in their future (and work on study skills for high school students when they’ve graduated!).