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STUDY SKILLS GUIDE

Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel Study Skills Guide

Planning your homework timetable

6th grade (6ème) students should be working at home around nine hours each week. Ideally, these nine hours should be spread over six days – with the students working about one and a half hours each day.

However, most students have extra curricular activities that prevent an even distribution of homework time. The school believes that these extra curricular activities to be extremely important to the students. It is necessary, therefore, that each student makes his or her personal homework timetable. Each student must:

  • Distribute the nine hours as equally as possible over the week

  • Work for one hour minimum or two hours maximum each day

  • Work for two hours on Saturday or Sunday morning, making sure to leave one day during the week-end free from school work.

There are six rules that each student must follow in order to have a successful year:

  • Keep to your timetable.

  • Do your homework in a quiet room, your bedroom for example.

  • There should be a desk or a table in this room for you to work at.

  • On the wall above your desk, attach clear and tidy copies of your school timetable and your homework timetable.

  • On the wall next to these timetables, place the Homework Work Procedure List, which you will find below.

  • Use your full, allotted homework time each day. There is always enough work to keep you busy.

Note to parents:

Many students believe that, when they have completed all the written work required for the next day, they have finished their homework. This is not the case! Each lesson needs to be revised and learnt, even though this is not always noted down in their Cahier de Texte. Language lessons are particularly important to learn before the next lesson. Some students try to complete their written homework in school so that they have “nothing to do” at home. It is essential that they realise that they must use all of their homework period. There is always something they can be doing. The Homework Procedure List will help with good organisation and work methods.

It is also important that students are supervised while they are working. This means that there should be an adult present to keep an eye on their progress but not to do the work for them! If parents cannot be at home when their children are doing homework, it is strongly advised that these parents arrange for someone to be present to supervise their children’s work. The school keeps a list of ex-EABJM students who are available for this type of work. Parents who are interested should contact Mme Fauré or Mme Koncewicz.