OUR KIDS
LINDA WACYK
7 Ways to Help Kids Learn More
(and one way to guarantee they won’t!)
We are approaching the half-way mark through another school year. Across Michigan, parents are hoping for good news about their children’s progress so far. When the news is not so good, extra homework and tutoring sessions often loom in the future. And, fortunately, those solutions are just the thing many kids need. Yet raising a good student takes more than head smarts and study skills. A host of experts say that other factors, such as confidence, motivation, effort, responsibility, initiative, perseverance, caring, teamwork, common sense, problem-solving and focus can improve learning. They also believe these traits can be taught at home, without making a dent in your budget. Education author and consultant Elaine McEwan describes “seven habits” that characterize kids who do well in school no matter what their age. Why not work on a few learning “soft skills” this year to see if they make a difference for your learner.
1. Encourage Curiosity
Good students are curious, according to McEwan, author of “When Kids Say No To School” and “The ABC’s of School Success.”
“They ask questions; they look for answers and explanations; they want to learn,” McEwan says. She suggest parents encourage curiosity with trips to interesting places.
Even simpler: start asking questions your-self, and involve your kids in discovering the answers.
2. Get Organized
This is harder for some kids (and parents) than for others. But without organizational skills, it’s hard to get by in today’s school setting. Assignment notebooks, systems for keeping track of things, and having a regular place to work can all help. The earlier you start the habit of being organized, the more time your child will have to learn.
3. Practice Common Sense
To be a good student, you need some common sense and problem solving skills. Talk your way through everyday problems so children can watch how you come up with solutions.
“Common sense doesn’t emerge full-blown in children,” McEwan says. “It needs to be taught and practiced.”
4. Make It Okay To Fail
We all learn as much – maybe more from our failures as we do from our successes. Good students have enough resilience to survive failure, figure out what went wrong, and prevent the same failure again. Accept failures calmly, but refuse to accept excuses or blame for other people. Rather, make it safe for your child to accept responsibility for setbacks and move on.
5. Push Persistence
Let’s face it. We all want our children to succeed and feel competent. We want it so much that we sometimes look for short-cuts for our kids. When we do and we focus too much on the grade—we can undermine the learning it takes to get there. Good students don’t give up when the work is difficult. They set goals and keep trying. “At some point in your child’s life he or she will hit a wall that you won’t be able to help them climb,” writes McEwan. That’s when learning persistence will pay off.
6. Instill Confidence
With rare exception, every good student has at least one cheerleader. They have someone who gives advice, encourages them to keep trying, and expects them to succeed.
In fact, new research from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) indicates that the self-confidence instilled by parents and teachers is more important for young girls learning math and science than their initial interest. The researchers discovered the relationship between confidence and interest is close. “If they feel they can do it, it feeds their interest,” says UWM Distinguished Professor Nadya Fouad.
7. Learn How To Learn
Well, okay…you do have to crack the books sometime. So, help your child learn to make every study minute count. “Knowing how to read, write, and study for test and complete assignments is essential to being an effective student,” McEwan says. “If your child is having difficulty with these important skills, get help for him or her immediately.”
One Last Thing
So what’s the one mistake parents make that can limit the achievements of even a gifted child? “When parents act like learning doesn’t matter, they allow their kids to give up before they’ve given themselves a chance,” says teacher and math consultant Jamie Wernet of Lansing. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard parents tell their child, “I never was good at math, so it’s okay if you don’t get it,” or “Don’t work too hard in that subject; you’ll never use it later.” That kind of talk kills confidence and closes doors.”
Today’s students will someday hold jobs that don’t even exist yet, which is only of the reasons they need to become enthusiastic “life-long” learners. Are your kids watching the adults they love taking risks and exploring new interest? If so, they are more likely to develop a love of learning themselves and be better prepared for 21st century careers.
RESOURCES
Elaine K. McEwan offers an extensive library of easy-to-read books for parent and educators, plus some practical answers to common questions parents ask about learning, at elainemcewan.com.
MegaSkills® are described as the attitudes, behaviors and habits that determine achievement in school and beyond. The MegaSkills Education Center has practical ideas and resources for parents and teachers at megaskillshsi.org/.
Build Your Own Personal Network
Get Started
Here are five ideas that will help you begin building your own personal learning network.
2. Participate. If you find bloggers out there who are writing interesting and relevant post, share your reflections and experiences by commenting on their posts.
3. Use your real name. It’s a requisite step to be Googled well. Be prudent, of course, about divulging any personal information that puts you at risk, and guide students in how they can do the same.
4. Start a Facebook page. Educators need to understand the potential of social networking for them selves.
5. Explore Twitter (http://twitter.com), a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to exchange short updates of 140 character or fewer. It may not look like much at first glance, but with Twitter, the network can be at your fingertips.
A TIDBIT OF INFORMATION
☺
A professor of education at Harvard, Daniel Korety feels the U.S. education policy relies too heavily on test scores. He feels we need accountability in education. Test don’t measure things like complex problem-solving, ability, creativity and persistence. Also, improved test scores don’t show real progress. A good teacher keeps students engaged, fosters curiosity and help students learn from their mistakes. Test scores alone can’t measure that.
Another study by the California Department of Education found that children’s fitness levels may affect their performance in school. They found that increased amounts of physical fitness translated into higher academic achievements at each of the three grade levels measured. The benefits were most evident in math scores. Previous research has led doctors to surmise that exercise may encourage new brain-cell growth.
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CATCH KIDS BEFORE THEY FAIL
Early Identification to Prevent Reading Failure
By Avner Stern, Ph.D.
Having reading problems affects children profoundly. Those who can’t read will have difficulty learning, so they don’t acquire the knowledge and interests they need to succeed
in school. They also tend to dislike school and reading. Many drop out. Of those who graduate high school, less than two percent attend college, despite having average intelligence or above.
Recent reading research offers compelling evidence that children at risk of being poor
readers can be identified as early as kindergarten. The identification process is easy and inexpensive. The longer it takes to identify reading problems, the harder it is to correct them. Reading experts warn that those who read poorly in first grade almost always continue to read poorly unless their reading problem is caught and corrected early. The best solution is for schools to allocate resources for early identification and prevention. Third grade is too late. A series of studies conducted by the National Institutes of Health found that:
Ten million or 17.6 percent of children having significant reading difficulties, girls are just as likely to have reading difficulties as boys, but they’re less likely to be identified.
Reading difficulties aren’t developmental lags. Most kids who struggle with reading don’t spontaneously improve with maturity, and they don’t catch up without help.
There’s a misconception that letter reversals and visual processing problems are the basis of reading disabilities (sometimes called dyslexia). In reality, poor readers have trouble recognizing, manipulating and learning speech sounds (called phonemes) in words, a skill called phonological processing. Most children and adults with reading disabilities struggle with making rapid and accurate associations between speech sounds and letters.
By assessing kindergartners’ phonological processing skills, it’s possible to identify with 92 percent accuracy those who will have difficulty with reading. The sooner the problem is identified, the easier and less expensive it is to remediate.
For more than 90 percent of poor readers, prevention and early intervention programs that combine phonemic awareness (the ability to identify and manipulate the individual sounds in words), phonics, and reading comprehension strategies provided by well-trained teachers can bring their reading skills to average levels. However, about 75 percent of children whose problems aren’t identified until the age of 9 continue to have reading difficulties throughout high school.
Although ideally, every child should be assessed for reading disability at age 5, there
are early warning signs of reading problems. If two or more of the following indicators are present, the child should be assessed, especially if there is dyslexia in the family:
© Delayed speech
© Mixing up sounds in multi-syllabic words
© Trouble rhyming words
© Difficulty learning the alphabet and the names of numbers
© Difficulty learning to associate sounds with letters.
Screening for future reading difficulties should be required for kindergartners. Waiting for a child, even a first-grader, to catch up is asking for trouble. Children with early reading problems can become good readers, but not without help.
Happy Valentines Day
Martin Luther King dreamed of equality for all people regardless of their race. He used words and actions to achieve his goal.
Abraham Lincoln was the great emancipator. He was brought up in a log cabin and became one of the greatest men that the world has ever known.
George Washington was our first leader in the United States. He chose the area that became Washington D. C. and even though his presidency was over, it was named after him.
It's In Your Hands