Strategies for Learning

"Having used Dr. Rooney′s learning strategies for many years, I can affirm their high-yield effectiveness. Best of all, students enjoy this ′take charge′ approach to their own learning."—Rebecca H. Aldred, Reading Consultant and Private Tutor
Ivy Creek School, Charlottesville, VA

"A gate barring success often needs but the right key. This book provides the keys to unlock the knowledge of how to learn for those who have always possessed the ability to learn."
—G. Emerson Dickman, Immediate Past President
The International Dyslexia Association

Give struggling students the study skills they need to achieve across the curriculum!

Knowing how to learn and study is an important part of the learning process and can make the difference between failure and success in school. This book offers specific techniques that are research-proven to result in significantly improved classroom grades for all struggling students, including those with attention problems, learning disabilities, and underachievement issues.

Strategies for Learning offers both general and special education secondary teachers a collection of field-tested learning strategies to help struggling students improve cross-curricular skills in areas that include vocabulary, reading, spelling, writing, math, word problems, grammar, foreign language, note taking, time management, and organization. Karen Rooney, Ph.D., draws on more than 25 years of practice to provide concrete, user-friendly strategies that help teachers to:

• Engage students in the learning process
• Teach a set of skills that are effective for all content areas
• Improve motivation, increase comprehension, and foster confidence
• Offer intense, explicit, and reiterative systems to help students "learn how to learn"
• Work with whole classes or individuals

Without the need for time-intensive lesson planning, these strategies can be implemented immediately to help struggling students become independent, motivated, lifelong learners.

Karen J. Rooney is director of Educational Enterprises, Inc. in Richmond, Virginia. She has taught in both private and public sectors and was the educational specialist in a multidisciplinary clinic before becoming director of The Learning Resource Center and founder of The Attention Disorders Clinic. She is a past member of the national board of the International Dyslexia Association and is the 2007 recipient of the Rebecca Brock Richardson award. Rooney was selected to present a white paper on the importance of clinical judgment at the Learning Disabilities Summit in 2001, was a representative on the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, served as the Children’s Action Network representative for the Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and participated in the Expert Work Group to develop CEC’s position regarding Response to Intervention. She currently is a past-president of the Division for Learning Disabilities of CEC and serves on the Steering Committee of the National Adolescent Literacy Coalition. Rooney provides direct services to children, adolescents, and adults who need to improve their performance. She conducts assessments, provides educational consultation, and teaches the program entitled Independent Strategies for Efficient Study. She also provides professional development on topics related to literacy skill development, learning disabilities, attention disorders, strategy training, and Response to Intervention. She has also published teaching materials such as Wordstorming: A Tutorial Program for Parents, Teachers and Tutors, Reverse Diagramming, and Independent Strategies for Efficient Study – Upper Elementary/Middle School Level and is currently developing a booklet to facilitate communication between parents and their young children. She earned her PhD in special education at the University of Virginia (major areas: special education, psychology, research) and holds licenses in English, Grades 7–12, in New York state and English, Grades 7–12, as well as Learning Disabilities, Grades K–12 in Virginia.