What is the read, write, read, write method for homework agendas or planners?
Not every student knows how to use an agenda or planner. Or how to use an agenda well. Time management and organization are life skills that are important to teach students. Before a student can understand how to plan out projects, they must first know how to do the basics.
Many of my tutoring clients tell me they do not need an agenda because they can just look at the list of assignments on a website, but this does not teach them time management skills, nor does it help them chunk large projects into manageable pieces.
Neither are most students capable of keeping all that info “in my head” as their main strategy for remembering all their homework assignments, but I do hear that option quite a bit!
I find that sometimes we expect students to automatically know how to use their agenda, and we mean more than just copying down the word “homework” in today’s calendar box.
To help students, I created a printable with 10 tips on how to use an agenda for beginners and the easy-to-remember “read, write, read, write” method.
For a simple agenda system, use a printable sheet or a weekly agenda book. Read the teacher’s homework board. Write down assignments, projects, tests, and incomplete classwork. Plan out study and project time ahead of due dates. Read the agenda after school. Write a check mark next to completed work.
10 Tips on how to use an agenda
- Write in your agenda daily. Read it and check off completed work.
- Read the teacher’s homework board or website. Each teacher has a certain system. Do they post the week’s worth of work on the website or at the start of each class or on the board? Learn the system. If all your teachers post on their websites on Mondays, take 5 minutes on Monday night to check their sites and add to your agenda.
- Start by having the agenda open during class. Write down the daily homework, upcoming tests/quizzes/projects, and any unfinished classwork. (Do not keep it all in your head and try to write it later.)
- …Get the complete free printable 10 tips on how to use an agenda here.
I usually have my students read through the list and put a mark by what they already do. Then I ask them to tell me which tip they think they could add next to their weekly agenda use.
Students can decide their method of how to write down their work, but check in after a week or two to see if their system is working. Brainstorm modifications if needed. If they want to use pretty pens, let them. If they want to list their work according to their schedule, encourage it.
Late Work
For those with habitual late work and missing assignments, suggest that they use all the steps daily for a month, and look to see that they are writing things down and checking them off.
Parents
Parents can easily glance at the agenda to see what still needs to be done and make suggestions for time use. I encourage parents to sit with their child once a week and go through the teacher’s websites, adding and updating upcoming work in the agenda. The student should be the one clicking the links and writing the work down. Additionally, going through the gradebook to add missing work or add more study sessions if previous test scores were low.
Advanced tips for how to use an agenda
For more advanced tips, check out my free digital agenda tips. These tips can be modified to help beginners learn to chunk their projects and time.
https://tailorjoy.com/10-tips-for-using-google-tasks-and-google-calendar-as-a-student-agenda/
Students can learn how to use an agenda through practicing the read, write, read, write method consistently, regardless of whether it’s a paper planner or a digital planner.
Get back to school tips here. https://www.tailorjoy.com/setting-up-school-year-expectations/
Read more about my free printable agenda pages here.
https://tailorjoy.com/free-printable-agenda-page/
Table Talk: What kind of agenda system did you use in middle school? How important is it to teach school kids time management skills?