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Organization Part I

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Getting organized is one thing—staying organized is an entirely different story for some people. Many “type-B” folks, myself included, focus more on the whole picture, but fail to give much time or energy to the finite details to get to that end goal. The lack of these skills can prove to be a real hinderance to productivity and success; however, there are many ways to improve organization during this busy time of year.

  • For regularly-occurring tasks, like picking out outfits, showering, doing homework, or packing lunch,
    complete the tasks at the same time, in the same order every day to avoid getting distracted or missing a step. For instance, when a teen packs his gym bag, he should follow the same process every time, putting socks with sneakers, T-shirts or necessary uniforms, etc. You are less likely to forget an essential item if you’ve developed a routine for packing.
  • To maintain even more organization, decide which tasks can be accomplished in the morning versus those that should be done the night before. For example, picking outfits out the night before will avoid the last-minute manic search for “that one particular shirt” that may still be in the dirty clothes pile.
  • For those of us that are especially forgetful, it could be beneficial to use a checklist or personal reminder of necessary items for the day. With many children and teens carrying smartphones, one advantage of being dialed in at all times is that calendar apps and push notifications can help keep everyone abreast of the day’s activities. Parents can even help by setting recurring reminders of important things that occur daily or weekly on their child’s phone. Then, syncing everyone’s Google calendars makes everything that much more organized.
  • Placing essential things for school by the door the night before will reduce think-time and anxiety in the morning. It also helps to ensure that the item makes it to school by having to physically step over it or pass it on the way out the door in the morning. This is especially helpful when items are not the usual day-to-day necessities. For example, a talent show costume or lacrosse stick has a way better chance of making it to school if it’s hung by the front door than if it’s stashed upstairs in the closet.
  • Plan for and maintain an organized work space. For some, the kitchen table is best, while others do better studying on the Whatever the preference, establish an environment that is easy to access, free from distractions, has a flat surface for working, has space for books/materials, allows for charging a computer if necessary, and has ample light.
  • When working on homework or projects, an organizational technique that many overlook is to arrange all necessary materials up front before starting to study. This not only acts as a visual reminder of what needs to be accomplished, but it also ensures that focus is not broken by having to dig through a book bag or desk to find something.
  • Parents can assist with keeping students organized by making sure all necessary materials are in the workspace. All school materials should be in the room and out of the book bag. All homework should be taken out and organized on a flat surface by priority and due date. Additionally, for nights when many assignments are to be completed, an agenda is highly recommended and should be placed within eyesight.

Phones and other technology devices should be out of reach and out of sight to avoid any unnecessary distractions. The calculator app on a computer should be used instead of the phone to avoid the temptation of reaching for the phone and getting sidetracked.

Tips for Time Management

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Regardless of a student’s eventual career path, time management skills are bound to be a necessity. The ability to manage one’s time is sometimes a skill acquired from trial and error, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Students don’t need to miss a deadline in order to learn better time management skills for next time—it is all about proactivity and planning.

Track your time

We typically experience the stress that accompanies a time crunch when we have allowed necessary tasks to pile up. Instead of continuing the cramming and crashing cycle, bad habits involving procrastination can be broken by familiarizing ourselves with our own pace of work and following a schedule based on those timeframes. Therefore, being aware of and proactive about your workload is the best defense against procrastination.

  • Identify your weekly or regularly occurring tasks; any long term project or ongoing task should be listed.
  • For a week, track the exact amount of time that each task requires on a daily basis, including a 10-minute buffer for miscellaneous interruptions.
  • After tracking for the week, identify a rough average for the amount of time each task takes per night. Include a 20 to 40-minute cushion for nights that you know a task might require more time.
  • Use this as a guide for planning the week’s homework time, including time for studying and/or reading.
  • Establish an approximate dinner time and set bedtime, especially for younger children, which can help families manage the schedule and stick to allotted times for weekly tasks.
  • When extracurricular activities, family events, doctors appointments, etc., come into the picture, the approximate allotted time for homework and projects helps to configure the rest of the week’s schedule, almost like a jigsaw puzzle.

Rules of Thumb

  • Encourage children not to spend more than 30 minutes on an assignment—if an assignment takes more time, parents should document how long it took to complete and what made it time consuming.
  • Extended time spent on homework may be something worth discussing with the teacher, especially for children with an IEP or 504 plan.
  • Take short breaks every 20-30 minutes while working to maintain motivation.
  • Identify an incentive that will occupy you for a limited time (no more than 5 minutes, such as a short video clip, song, timed game).
  • Break frequency and length may vary depending on frustration level, time on task, and work
  • A short walk to get some water, use the bathroom, or take a stretch may be necessary and more beneficial for those who struggle with resetting their focus after a break; keep the breaks short to maintain a level
    of focus.
  • Avoid skipping around from assignment to assignment until you’ve fully completed something or have come to a reasonable stopping point.

Phonemic Awareness Pt. III

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Vowel Phonemes

The English alphabet contains the following five vowels: A, E, I, O, U. The letter Y is also considered a vowel when it represents a vowel sound, like “fly” or “lonely.” Vowels make up a small percentage of the letters in the English alphabet; however, the list of vowel sounds that these letters can produce is much longer!  Because there are so many different ways of spelling certain vowel phonemes, learning the appropriate patterns for reading and writing require much more instruction than the “sound it out” method.

For instance, take the diphthong (combination of two vowel phonemes) /aɪ/. This sound can be made using multiple different letter patterns:

  • eye
  • by
  • die
  • bright
  • mite
  • Thailand
  • kayaks

So how do we begin to teach these phonological skills when there are so many letter combinations to create these sounds? 

As discussed in part II, vowel sounds are a whole new ball game when it comes to reading instruction. For beginning readers, as previously explained, it’s all about initially hearing the difference between short and long vowels. Parents and educators can solidify foundational knowledge about how to distinguish short vowel sounds from long vowel sounds by incorporating repetition and movement. 

To introduce short vowel sounds, students will want to practice using familiar one-syllable words with corresponding actions. Parents and/or teachers will recite and model the phrase and motion. Then adults should ask children to recite/perform it back in unison:

  • “i as in itch” (scratch shoulder)
  • “eh as in elephant” (pretend your arm/wrist is the elephant’s trunk)
  • “ah as in apple” (motion as though you’re holding and biting into an apple)
  • “uh as in up” (jump or point upwards)
  • “o (aw) as in octopus” (motion with fingers as though you’re an octopus crawling on the seafloor)

In order to introduce long vowel sounds, repeat the phrase, “Long (fill in with vowel) says its name.” This way, children will begin to equate the words that they are hearing to either long or short sounds. This differentiation prepares them for the spelling patterns/rules that correspond to short and long vowel sounds, which they will learn shortly. Examples include:

  • “The word be is a long vowel sound because long E says its name.”
  • “The word tape is a long vowel sound because long A says its name.”
  • “The word oval is a long vowel sound because long O says its name.” 

After children grasp the concept of how these vowel phonemes sound in different words, they are ready to start looking at the letter/sound combinations (diphthongs) in order to correctly read the various vowel patterns. 

Digraphs

Another key concept regarding phonemic awareness is the digraph. A digraph is a combination of two letters that make up one sound. Common digraphs include sh, ch, th, and wh. When introducing these sounds, provide visuals or photo cards to accompany the examples of words with digraphs—the more familiar, the better. 

Here, you can return to tapping, finger stretching, etc., but instead of tapping syllables within a word, you’ll ask students to tap for the phonemes that they hear in each word. For example, cat and that are both one syllable words; however, students will notice how that has an additional letter. But instead of students tapping out the “t” and “h” sounds separately, the two are combined to form the one sound, the digraph “th.” So while 3-letter word cat is tapped c-a-t (3 phonemes, 1 syllable), 4-letter word that is also tapped using 3 phonemes: th-a-t. 

Phonemic Awareness Pt. II

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Phonemic awareness, which many experts say should be mastered before first grade, is just the first layer when introducing a child to reading. While the terms sound very similar, moving from phonemic awareness to phonics instruction is actually a rather involved leap. A child who has mastered phonemic awareness is able to understand that sounds are represented by letters in the alphabet, whereas phonics is more complex. It requires the reader’s knowledge of blending those sounds together to form syllables within words.

Closed Syllables

Closed syllables are the most common form of English syllables—over 50% of all syllables in the English language are closed. But what does this mean? A closed syllable is a syllable with one vowel—typically a short vowel sound—followed by one or more consonants. Examples of one-syllable words that fall into this category include:

  • Cup
  • Cat
  • Bet
  • Dot
  • Sin
  • Log 

This is by no means an extensive list; however, the point of starting with examples of closed syllables is to familiarize children with short vowel sounds and the patterns of letters that consistently create those sounds. When children move on to look at multisyllabic words, the same rules apply for those syllables. Take the word napkin. It is comprised of two syllables, nap and kin, both of which include a single, short-vowel, followed by a consonant.  Other examples to introduce multisyllabic words with short vowel sounds include:

  • Magnet
  • Submit
  • Content
  • Epic
  • Picnic 
  • Sandwich 

Non-examples, where the syllable is open, meaning that the vowel phoneme is not “closed in” by a consonant, include:

  • Ta ble (table)
  • Ba by (baby)
  • Fro zen (frozen)
  • Pro test (protest)
  • Ho tel (hotel)

Syllable Segmentation

In order for children to identify how words are made up of different sounds (or phonemes), we must help them to explicitly hear the different components or syllables within those words. We are likely familiar with the “clapping” method, in which educators model how to “chunk” words into their separate sounds (syllables) by clapping for each syllable. For example, clapping out the syllables for people’s names would look like this:

  • Sarah = Sa-rah (2 claps)
  • Bethenny = Be-then-ny (3 claps)
  • Jake = (1 clap)
  • Felicity = Fel-i-ci-ty (4 claps)

Another option for syllable segmentation involves the use of an abacus, a tool that is typically used for counting and other math skills. Children will slide a bead to the other side for every syllable they hear in the word. Some reading programs suggest a strategy similar to clapping, in which students “tap” or “finger stretch” the syllables in a word. Either way, the process should begin as an auditory practice—no written words or word cards are necessary in this stage. You really are asking children to simply hear the phonemes before they delve into written words. 

Hear the difference: Vowel Phonemes

Short vowel phonemes are introduced organically when children learn about closed syllables. However, the long vowel phonemes are another story altogether; they follow a myriad of different rules when combined with other letters. This is partly what makes the English language so complex! Stay tuned for part III!

National Physical Therapy Month

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October is National Physical Therapy Month, which recognizes those who support individuals with physical, occupational, and speech impairments. The American Physical Therapy Association, APTA, devotes the month of October to recognizing the impact that physical therapy can have through their initiative, #ChoosePT. The goal of #ChoosePT is to shed light on physical therapy as an alternative to pain medication, particularly opioids. APTA’s aim is to raise awareness about the benefits of physical therapy for certain injuries rather than resorting to prescribed pain medication. Of course, the use of pain medication is sometimes unavoidable, especially after a major surgery. However, as the opioid epidemic continues to expand, the ages of opioid overdose victims continues to fall into the early 20s and even teens. Now that the opioid epidemic has officially been declared a public health emergency, families must be prepared to identify and combat opioid overuse.

Fast Facts

  • According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, over 30% of teenagers consider the typically-abused medications, such as Vicodin and Oxycontin, to be “easily accessible” to teens.
  • Surveys indicate that 1 in every 5 high school seniors admits to having taken a prescription drug to get high.
  • Shockingly, about half of adolescent users claim to have obtained the prescription drugs illegally from a friend or family member.
  • While efforts to combat opioid addictions have increased across the country, the number of adolescent deaths related to overdoses has grown significantly over the last five years.
  • While negative peer influence has a major impact on impressionable teens, adolescents with close familial ties, whose parents are more involved and vocal about their disapproval of prescription drugs, are far less likely to engage in their misuse.
    Similarly, teens who prioritize their academics are also less likely to abuse opioids.
  • Because the average adolescent brain is still developing, and doesn’t fully mature until age 25, teens are especially susceptible to risk-taking, impulsivity, peer pressure, and addiction—it is almost as though their brains are primed for seeking the instant gratification that opioids seem to provide.
  • Because of the “euphoric” effects, teens with depression, anxiety, or other mood disorders are more likely to engage in prescription drug misuse.
  • Adolescents often believe that, because these opioids are prescribed by doctors, they are much safer than the typical “street drugs.” However, the truth is that the addictive properties are the same—making prescribed opioids just as, if not more, dangerous than heroin, fentanyl, etc.

Stay Safe: Strategies for Parents

  • When doctors prescribe a post-procedure pain killer for your child, ask about the possibility of an alternative to the typically prescribed opioid. Will a higher dose of ibuprofen or acetaminophen manage the pain?
  • If prescription opioids are necessary, follow the dosage instructions carefully; do not exceed the daily dose prescribed by the doctor.
  • Monitor the number of pills carefully and secure the prescription yourself; do not leave it up to your teen to administer his/her own doses.
  • When pain has been adequately managed, your teen should not continue taking the medication. It is not like an antibiotic where you should finish the full prescription.
  • Many doctors recommend flushing leftover pills to avoid their misuse.
  • Talk openly with your teen about the dangers of abusing prescription drugs. Remind them that even one instance of abusing a prescribed opioid could contribute to an addiction and/or overdose.
  • Stay keen on any mention of a “pharm party,” as these are growing more popular among high school students. At a pharm party, teens bring prescription drugs and other pills to trade or sell. Sometimes pills are tossed into a bowl and passed around like candy, which is why parents must carefully monitor how and where their prescription drugs are stored.

LE Does It Best: How to Make the Most of Tutoring Sessions

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Learning is not accompanied by a one-size fits all instruction manual. There are countless roadmaps to lead a young learner towards academic success. An essential starting point is for parents, educators, and the students themselves to identify academic strengths, utilize these skills, and accommodate any learning difficulties to establish grit and perseverance.

Basically, we need to know what we’re good at, what we’re not so great at, and how to use the former skills to compensate or balance out the struggles. This all seems well and fine, but often students struggle to reach this precarious balance of strengths and weaknesses, especially when the pressure for grades, scores, benchmarks, and admittance looms.

However, at Learning Essentials (LE), we know how to help families bridge the gaps to ensure academic achievement. Below are the best methods to make the most of your tutoring and study sessions, followed by ways in which LE helps to establish these routines for students of all abilities and needs.

– Establish and maintain a regular and consistent tutoring schedule. Depending on a child’s needs, tutoring may need to take place several times a week, once a week, or on an as-needed basis for major projects, exams, papers, etc. The key is to lay out a tutoring schedule that incorporates definitive learning goals aligned with the families realistic schedule.

– Treat tutoring sessions as a priority. Tutoring time needs to be taken seriously, but keep the conversation positive, since a student’s effort and motivation have a huge part in how successful the sessions will be. Provide reassurance that tutoring is not a sign of failure or incapability, but an extra measure to simplify learning and to help your child reach success.

– Build in flexibility. While consistency is key, we all know that daily life can become hectic, especially in the throes of the school year. Therefore, flexibility on the tutor’s part is essential. Talk about scheduling and a plan for last-minute cancellations up front.

– Remove distractions. When planning to keep tutoring sessions productive and get the most out of each meeting, discuss how to maintain a focused learning space. If tutoring at home, ask your child to hand over the phone, or other device for the duration of the session. Stress that this is not a punishment, but that uninterrupted instruction is key for success.

– Decide on a tutoring location that promotes concentration. Perhaps the neighborhood library or child’s school would be best. If working at home, set up an area that accommodates quiet productivity, away from screens, visitors, phone calls, and siblings. If the work space looks out into the backyard where siblings or neighborhood friends might play, consider closing blinds or relocating—your child shouldn’t have to watch others play while he’s working on school work.

– Set up a functional workspace. Make sure it is spacious enough for all necessary learning materials and consider flexible seating options. Especially for students with attention difficulties or tendencies toward hyperactivity or restlessness, a yoga ball, beanbag, cube, or stool can promote concentration and focus through muscle engagement.

– Discuss the length and frequency of brain breaks with your child and his tutor. These brief breaks in instruction and learning allow for little minds and bodies to take a much needed hiatus to recoup and refocus during a tutoring session.

– Set goals for tutoring sessions, both short term and long term. Be sure to discuss steps and methods for attaining these goals. It is important that parents know the trajectory of their child’s tutoring plan—what skills each session will address, how they’ll be measured, and what the plan might be for struggles or difficulties ahead. Transparency and communication are crucial components to establish a successful tutoring plan.

Rainy Day Fine Motor Work

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When a summer day is not so summery, parents are often left with minimal options for entertaining younger children until the rain lets up. While technology is the obvious default go-to, it’s still a good idea to have some tricks up your sleeve. Anytime that you can disguise learning as an engaging indoor game or activity, children thrive with that challenge.

 

Activities to build fine motor skills:

  • Two simple items from a craft store can help to boost your child’s fine motor skills. Packs of multicolored beads and thread, yarn, or jewelry strands are all you need to encourage dexterity and creativity. This is also an opportunity to take a hands-on approach to patterns. You can extend the activity by beading alongside your child and asking him or her to identify which color comes next in your pattern. You can also use this activity as a conversation starter about your own favorite colors, birthstones, your alma mater colors, the order of the colors in the rainbow, etc.
  • Challenge your children to an ice cube tray race in which you sort small items into the different cubes using tweezers. You can use spare coins/change, beads, different types of dried beans, multicolored confetti, M&Ms, old buttons, etc. Using tweezers adds to the challenge and helps to build the smaller muscles in the hand and fingers that are used for writing.
  • Chinese checkers is another great game that helps to build fine motor skills. In fact, anything that requires children to pick up and place marbles in a specific area builds those motor skills.
  • Stickers and sticker books that ask children to arrange the stickers into specific scenes on the page are great for dexterity as well. This not only strengthens the tiny muscles in their fingers, but it also promotes logical and ordered thinking. For instance, a scene in the sticker book might require them to put the police officer in the correct car, match the hair stylist with the proper tools, put domesticated animals in the house while the others go in the barn, place the flowers in the empty flower pot, etc.  
  • Keep busy hands moving by making a paperclip chain. You can also use different colored or different patterned paper clips to create a chain with an alternating pattern.
  • Use clay or playdough to roll, knead, twist, and cut shapes or “ingredients” to make playdough pizza. Just remember, no eating!
  • Create your own kiddie putting green using large styrofoam sheets, golf tees, and plastic golf balls. The tees stick straight down into the foam sheets, which allow kids to practice placing and balancing the plastic golf balls gently. As children practice swinging and hitting the plastic golf balls, they are getting practice with hand-eye coordination as well.
  • Use eye droppers and food coloring to turn cups of water into color-changing liquid art. The eye dropper builds fine motor skills, but the activity also teaches children about primary and secondary colors. You can also extend the activity by asking your child to predict what color would result from dropping a blue dot of food coloring into red water, yellow water, etc.

Games such as Jenga, Lincoln Logs, Legos, and Operation help children with motor skills while keeping the fun and competition in the forefront. Jenga requires children to practice precision, balance, strategy, and patience, all while keeping a steady hand. As always, you can also use games to teach accountability and good sportsmanship by requiring the “loser” to clean up the fallen blocks—but remind them that it’s all in fun!     

Vacation Learning

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Summer vacation offers students an opportunity to unwind and relax after what was likely a rigorous school year of learning. While of course they have earned their leisure time, students can intuitively engage in countless learning opportunities over the summer, especially when families are enjoying vacations or day trips. These visits, whether weeks long or merely a day, countries away or in our own backyards, offer different modes of learning than what students see in school. The lessons might not necessarily be rooted in academics, but the various exposure to new things that children have while on vacation offers life lessons spun into new experiences–they also help to cultivate an appreciation for learning through intrinsic motivation.

 

Middle/High School Ages

An accessible trip to a place that is practically in our own backyards, the nation’s capital is the obvious choice for a day trip or weekend excursion with adolescents.  

    • With numerous museums, and many of them free to the public, DC can keep intrigued history buffs busy for days on end. Allow your child to choose his favorite topic or era and help him explore the vast exhibits, speakers, collections, artifacts, and stories. Whether you end up browsing our nation’s most prized historical documents at the National Archives, or checking out the history of aviation at air and space, the point is to allow children to immerse themselves in new experiences and expand their knowledge of their favorite topics or fields.
    • The National Zoo is another nearby option for animal-lovers looking for a day trip. The zoo offers several student-centered camps and special exhibits throughout the summer as well for those learners who would like to get up close and personal.
    • A little further north, families can explore the historic battlefield of Gettysburg, where Civil War enthusiasts can tour on horseback, watch reenactments, participate in ranger camps, and take a ghost tour.  
    • Heading to the beach? Check out a new outdoor game or water sport. Bocce, badminton, shuffleboard, mini golf, paddle boarding, and kayaking—the list is endless when it comes to physical activities and games for the beach. These activities teach adolescents about crucial life skills, such as patience, teamwork, endurance, eye hand coordination, game strategy, etc.
    • Beach vacations offer plenty of opportunities for kids to interact with marine life and the surrounding natural environment as well. Even a leisurely activity such as flying a kite or collecting seashells and sea glass can spur a conversation about ocean tides, mollusks, sea life conservation efforts, and lift/drag and aerodynamics.
    • Encourage a new hobby or interest that coincides with the vacation. Traveling to a notoriously great food city or hotspot for cultural cuisine? Try looking for a cooking class for the family. Try out different methods or styles of photography; then make a scrapbook of vacation memories. Spending time in the mountains? Consider looking into wilderness training or a survival skills course. Kids can learn about how to use a compass, identify edible vs. harmful plants, practice geotagging, how to successfully build and start a campfire, how to spot and identify animal tracks—again, the list goes on and on!
    • If you are going to be in the car or taking a long flight, stock up on literature for the kids, but make sure it’s something that they would actually want to read. Even a sports or fashion magazine beats no reading at all. If your child is more into puzzles or brain games, pick up a book of crosswords, word searches, Sudoku, Rebus puzzles, or trivia questions. Almost all of these items are available digitally through a smartphone app as well.
    • If you’re visiting a new city or region that is rich in music or art, create a playlist that represents that genre of music. Again, the idea is to expose adolescents to new cultures, ideas, and experiences.

Tone in Writing

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This topic was inspired by a recent email that I received from a student. Essentially, the student was concerned about a missing homework grade after an absence, which is a completely valid concern. However, the issue was not with her inquiry, but with her tone in the email. In literature, tone is defined as the author, narrator, or speaker’s attitude toward a subject or person. When we write, we establish tone using diction (word choice) and syntax (sentence structure, including punctuation). Unlike one’s tone of voice, which is fairly distinguishable, someone’s tone in writing, or even via text message, can be vastly misinterpreted. It is this miscommunication that can turn an email into an issue.

Things for students to consider regarding tone:

  • Keep the subject line clear and specific. Your recipient should ideally understand the general point of your message from seeing the subject line. For example, the subject line for an email to your teacher about a homework assignment should include the specific class period and name/date of the homework assignment if possible—“AP Chemistry 3/12 homework”
  • Consider the purpose of your email. If you are emailing to ask a quick question or to get clarification on something, be direct. Once you have addressed the recipient, get straight to the point and ask your specific question. A succinct email is much more likely to get a swift response than an email that is long and drawn out.
  • Know the difference between phrasing a question, a request, or a demand. A question should obviously have the appropriate “?” punctuation. A request should ideally include polite phrases such as could you, please, and thank you, etc. To demand something in an email, however, is rarely a good idea, unless the circumstance warrants a more severe or urgent tone.
  • Read the message or email aloud to yourself with a neutral tone before sending it. If it sounds harsh, demanding, or accusatory you should rephrase the message so that it is received in a more positive manner.
  • Avoid overuse of punctuation, especially exclamation points and question marks. These can inadvertently come off to the recipient as overly dramatic, aggressive, harsh, etc.
  • Do not include emoji’s or abbreviations or slang when corresponding with your teacher, professor, superior, or boss. An overly casual approach could be mistaken as disrespectful, careless, or immature.
  • Draft a message first and send later if your email is provoked by anger, disappointment, or frustration. Often times, in an emotional moment, our words, even when written, can be impulsive or emotionally charged. If you feel that you might be furiously dictating while you type your message, it is probably best to save that email as a draft and return to it a few hours later. Once emotions have settled, your wording will have softened.

Specific “DON’Ts”

  • Don’t assume that your teacher, or whomever the email is intended for, will recognize your personal email address. If your email address does not include your full name, be sure to add a signature or salutation that includes your first and last name.
  • Consider the actual content of your email address, especially when completing college applications and job applications. If the email address doesn’t sound professional, consider creating a new address for professional correspondence that includes your name.
  • Be careful with the “reply all” button, especially if you do not know some of the cc’d recipients. Consider responding just to the sender and then circling back to the rest of the email chain.
  • Know that “deleted” doesn’t mean erased forever. Deleting an email, whether is is one that you have sent or received, does not mean that it no longer exists. As we have seen all too often, texts and emails can come back to haunt us down the road, so it is very important to think carefully about what you are trying to say and how you should say it.

 

Reading Better

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For elementary and middle school-aged students, reading better, in their minds, often means simply reading faster. While reading fluency and words per minute (wpm) are crucial indicators of a strong reader, a student whose primary goal is to read quickly is not necessarily reading properly. To curb this “faster is always better” mentality while still promoting fluency growth, parents and educators can help shift the focus to a more broad definition of a strong reader.

  • Strong readers do much more than absorb and store the information that they have read in their minds. Recall is important, but application is more important. This means that, after students read, an immediate process or task to apply that information or combine details from the text with another skill is critical.
    • After reading about ancient civilizations, for example, ask students to participate in a discussion in which they compare ancient tools and building methods to today’s modern tools and structures.
    • While reading a “how-to” text, ask children to restate each step in order using the text. Then ask them to consider why certain steps must be completed before others.
    • When reading a novel or story, encourage students to make connections to the text with questions and considerations, such as:
      • Why do you think the character responded in that way?
      • How do you think he/she is feeling at this point in the story, why?
      • Have you ever felt that way or experienced something similar?
      • What would you do if you were in this same situation?
      • What kind of relationship do these two characters have? How do you know?
      • Do you think the character is making good decisions?
      • What do you think might happen next based on what we have read?
      • Have you read anything like this before?
      • How was that story similar or different?
      • Does this story, setting, conflict, or character remind you of anything you have heard or watched before?
    • If students are asked to complete a multi-step assignment or required to read complex or lengthy directions, encourage them to break the steps or directions down into smaller, manageable procedures. Prompting students to rephrase instructions or directions is also a good practice for applying what they have just read.
  • Teach young readers how to consider their intent for reading whatever it is that they are reading. When reading for pleasure, their reading strategies might include making predictions, visualizing the details of the story, or discussing the section or page with a friend who is reading the same novel.  However, if a student is reading something for school, the strategies are likely different because of his or her intent.
    • Ask students to consider their goals for reading prior to diving into the text. Do they want to memorize certain information? If so, rereading is going to be a necessary process for that text. If a student is reading something to learn a new skill or strategy, they may want to summarize or simplify the text as they work through each page or chapter.
    • Similarly to goal-setting before reading, teachers should encourage readers to consider one thing that they hope to gain from the text. Are you seeking another’s perspective? Absorbing new vocabulary? Looking for clues to a math word problem? Comparing/contrasting information? Summarizing a process? Investigating a problem and potential solutions? Following a sequence?
    • Ask students to then identify if their goal or intention was accomplished or met by reading the text. If not, ask them to question why they may have missed the mark while reading.

Discuss what active reading looks like. For many students, especially reluctant readers, reading simply means getting to the end—each page or paragraph is just one step closer to being finished. When completion is the goal, students tends to daze, daydream, and lose focus of the text. Remind students that, if they get to the bottom of a page and realize that they had been thinking about something completely different from the actual text, they were not actually absorbing the information. This is similar to the difference between seeing something and looking at something—sounds like the same thing, but looking at something means to examine it; seeing it means to just come across something without actual consideration.