Ron Shumsky - Survival Guide for School Success. Use Your Brains Built-In Apps to Sharpen Attention, Battle Boredom, and Build...

Text copyright 2014 by Ron Shumsky, Susan M. Islascox, and Rob Bell
Illustrations 2014 by Free Spirit Publishing Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shumsky, Ron.

The survival guide for school success : use your brains built-in apps to sharpen attention, battle boredom, and build mental muscle / Ron Shumsky, Susan Islascox, Rob Bell.

pages cm

Summary: Provides ten tools to help students improve executive functions such as focus, motivation, organization, self-monitoring, and more Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-57542-482-8 (paperback) ISBN 1-57542-482-7 () 1. AttentionStudy and teachingJuvenile literature. 2. ListeningStudy and teachingJuvenile literature. 3. Learning, Psychology ofJuvenile literature. 4. BrainJuvenile literature. 5. CognitionJuvenile literature. 6. Study skillsJuvenile literature. I. Islascox, Susan. II. Bell, Rob. III. Title.

LB1065.S537 2014

ePub ISBN: 978-1-63198-003-9

Free Spirit Publishing does not have control over or assume responsibility for author or third-party websites and their content. At the time of this books publication, all facts and figures cited within are the most current available. All telephone numbers, addresses, and website URLs are accurate and active; all publications, organizations, websites, and other resources exist as described in this book; and all have been verified as of June 2014. If you find an error or believe that a resource listed here is not as described, please contact Free Spirit Publishing. Parents, teachers, and other adults: We strongly urge you to monitor childrens use of the Internet.

The study cited The study cited in Want to Know More?, App 5, is from Lehrer, Jonah. DONT! New Yorker 85, no. 14 (May 18, 2009): 26.

Reading Level Grade 5; Interest Level Ages 1014;
Fountas & Pinnell Guided Reading Level V

Edited by Eric Braun
Cover and interior design by Tasha Kenyon
Illustrations by Lane Raichert and Raichert Media

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To all the kids whove taught us what attention is really about.

And to our families for supporting us in writing that up: Hi-chan, Mi-kun, and Naho; Isaac and David; Max and Maya and Christina.

Paying attention when bored to tears

Slicing work down to size

Picturing yourself atop Mt. Work

Psyching up & getting pumped (for school!)

Choosing work over play (and what a marshmallow has to do with it)

Cease C s and attain As

Just what was I supposed to do next?

Going 80 down the highway and 8 down the alley (not vice versa)

Linking what to do with when to do it, without double-booking

How not to act clueless

At a lot of schools, people have this idea that successful students are intelligent, and students who struggle are not. This idea is wrong. Theres a lot more to school success than being intelligent, and theres a lot more to school struggles than being... not.

Take math homework, for example. Maybe youre a math genius, even the greatest genius of all time. Thats great, but if you dont do the assignment, youll get a zero. And doing it requires much more than knowing math. You have to plan ahead and make time. You have to turn off your screens, get to work, stay focused, not space out, work at the right speed, and more.

It takes certain skills to do these things. We call them attention skills. Others call them executive functions, self-directing, or self-regulation. It doesnt really matter what you call them. What matters is that you use them.

Plenty of evidence shows that attention skills have more influence on school success and life success than intelligence does. That means that if you want to do well in school and beyond (and who doesnt?), controlling your attention is essential.

Even more evidence shows that not controlling attention is the number one cause of poor school performance. So if youre doing poorly in school, or if youre just not doing as well as youd like, it doesnt mean youre not smart. Much more likely is that youre not applying attention well.

Think of attention this way: It is how you App ly yourself and use your intelligence. This book teaches you 10 tools to help you do that. We call them Attention Apps.

*Your Brain and Your Mind

The Apps in this book are for your mind, the part of you that thinks, imagines, and remembers. All that activity happens in your brain. In this book, we use both words mind and brain to mean the same thing.

Your brain* is like a powerful computer, sort of like a smartphone, but much smarter and more powerful. The Attention Apps enable you to use your brain in ways you might not have known about before or havent been very good at. With the Apps you can target and solve typical problemslike finishing math projects, staying awake in science class, and taking on work you have little interest in doing.

Better yet, you dont have to buy these Apps. Theyre already downloaded into your mind, for free. You just have to access them and practice them. This book shows you how.

Using your Apps greatly increases your chance of doing better at school. Not using them is a gigantic waste.

This table helps show what we mean. Is it worth using your built-in Attention Apps? You make the call.

Even more, Attention Apps dont just end when school ends. Like it or not, many of the same skills you need in school are also needed in your future. Heres a short list: