Coming Changes

Since most states have adopted Common Core Standards, associated changes in the way students will be tested are on the way. The new tests will rely heavily on hand written responses. Their responses will have to demonstrate understanding of the subject matter. Since people will be reading these answers for scoring, the writing will have to be legible.

Over the last few years as a substitute, I have witnessed a decreased emphasis legibility of students' writing. There are, I'm sure, a number of factors leading to this outcome. None less important than a lack of emphasis on writing at home. Teachers don't help by learning to interpret poor writing, rather than correcting it. In most instances this is due to a lack of time to spend on this skill. The increased use of technology in communication, play, and entertainment also adds to the problem by reducing opportunities to write.

Many students start writing their numbers and letters from the bottom (this may not seem important, but it does have a big impact on the formation of text and standardization of writing. Students are in a hurry to get writing out of the way, not caring about legibility or the importance of writing. No real consequences for poor penmanship only adds to the problem. Grades are not affected for the most part, and there is much less emphasis on writing for meaning in classrooms in too many classes.

Writing by hand is very important for fine motor skills. Writing by hand forces students to organize their thinking before putting pencil to paper. Any writing for meaning requires students to understand the material, or subject, they are writing about, organizing thoughts, and supporting their ideas with examples.

One of the best ways to acclimate children to writing is to have them keep some kind of journal, private or not. Writing daily is best; at least 2-3 times a week is helpful. Have them write about story ideas, activities during the day, retell a story (book or movie), plan a trip, plan a meal, write about something learned. The possibilities are endless. Writing by hand in a journal on a regular basis, provides necessary practice forming letters, framing thoughts, and putting those thoughts into another medium. One more important aspect of keeping a journal is to review it on a regular basis. How often one reviews will depend on how often one writes; reviewing about every 4 to 6 is a good idea. Reviewing provides feedback for how well thoughts were framed, how well ideas are communicated, and how easy it is to read the writing, and reviewing thoughts and ideas for future use or reinforcing memories.

Journals don't have to be expensive. Journals can be as simple as some binder paper stapled together, an inexpensive notebook from an office supply store, or as fancy as a leather bound diary. Whatever works for your budget is great, the important thing is that children learn to put thoughts onto paper and develop good, legible writing.

The main point is to get children in the habit of writing, writing legibly, and framing thoughts in a coherent manner for others to read.

Origins of Measurements — FactMonster.com

Origins of Measurements

Subbing in a fourth grade classroom, I was reviewing measurements on a ruler along with fractions of an inch. I thought it would be interesting to add a little history to the lesson. And the lesson went well.

The history of measurements is very instructing. Just check the sites listed below. . .

[ Origins of Measurements — FactMonster.com]

In all traditional measuring systems, short distance units are based on the dimensions of the human body. The inch represents the width of a thumb; in fact, in many languages, the word for "inch" is also the word for "thumb." The foot (12 inches) was originally the length of a human foot, although it has evolved to be longer than most people's feet. The yard (3 feet) seems to have gotten its start in England as the name of a 3-foot measuring stick, but it is also understood to be the distance from the tip of the nose to the end of the middle finger of the outstretched hand. Finally, if you stretch your arms out to the sides as far as possible, your total "arm span," from one fingertip to the other, is a fathom (6 feet).

[From Units: Customary Units]

Imperial Measures of Length

[From Imperial Measures of Length]

For students: Have some fun measuring things around your home, measure how far it is to your neighbor's, measure how tall you are. Use different units of measure, try inches, feet, yards, maybe even use something you make up yourself. Have fun with it.

Learning Requires Investment

Look around at what children are learning. Look at those things you learn easily, or stick with until you succeed. A vested or intrinsic interest is involved. A desire to succeed at something, either to satisfy a personal goal or to meet milestone. Even a desire to please can be a great motivator. All of these things inspire one to put aside discouragement, fear of failure, even initial disinterest, and put in the energy and effort required to succeed. Put a calculous book in front of a child, or a dry history book, and their eyes will glaze over. Talk most people about statistics and you will likely find yourself suddenly alone, or wish you hadn't brought up the subject. Talk about baseball stats, however, and you'll find interested, even enthusiastic people who can work the numbers like knitters work needles in a knitting clatch. Finding a way to make learning fun or at least relevant will more likely grab a student's interest. What is interesting? What is fun? I find just about every child I work with loves (or at least likes) pizza,M&Ms, or Reeses Pieces. All of these are great for fractions. Colored candies, or Legos, or any other colored thing of small size and interest can be useful in teaching ratios, probabilities. Cooking is also really useful for fractions and ratios. Recipes are full of them. Who doesn't love a good dessert, or a fun meal. They're also great for learning to follow directions. Gimmicks are not required to make learning fun, it just needs to be interesting; relevant. There are teachers who feel like they have to be entertaining because they think that's what is expected of them, like a comedian working an audience. Some teachers are naturally entertaining, and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not saying entertainment is bad, it just isn't required. Too many programs and initiatives are constantly being thrown at districts, principles, and teachers, all for the sake of improving education. And who doesn't want it to be successful, for the children's sake? We are letting fear of failure drive our decisions, while we should be looking at what has been done well. We are so worried about being left behind that we're racing ahead in pouring rain without functional wipers! We need to narrow our focus, slow down, and reverse the current trend of centralization. Districts and teachers are so busy trying to integrate all of the standards and prescriptive measures, learning is actually being squeezed out. Students and teachers are being burned out.

Balance Between Success and Failure

Learning to deal with failure is important for every student. Successfully dealing with failure requires a sense of confidence in one's self. Most children need to be supported in their failure, and taught how to learn from failure. I have personally come across too many children who freeze up because they are afraid of doing something wrong (whether it be math, writing, or art.) Children need to be encouraged to take risks in their creativity and thinking (academically speaking.) At the same time time, students need have successes so they don't come to believe they are failures. Especially for struggling students, finding success is critical. If you have a struggling student work with their teacher to find ways for them to find, experience, and feel successful. Find ways to tie writing, math, or any other area of struggle to things they are interested or passionate about. The more successful they feel, they more confident in what they know, the more successfully they will deal with mistakes and failures. Failure is a part of life. We have to get away from stigmatizing failure and mistakes. Aside from leaving sponges in patients, driving on the wrong side of they road, running the fuel tanks dry on an airplane, or pranking 911.

Making Mistakes is Part of Learning

I guest teach in a lot of classrooms. One of the most disheartening things I see is the fear of making mistakes. Some students freeze, especially when it comes time to be creative, but also in trying to problem solve. Too many students who don't know the answer right off, are afraid to use trial and error to find an answer. The concept that more than one possible right answer could exist seems to put some in a panic. Do you encourage, or discourage, your child in the are of taking risks/mistakes? Do they have the ability (with your blessing) to make larger decisions for themselves as they get older? Are they afraid to make decisions, or solve problems through trial and error, because they are afraid of what will happen? As a parent myself, I constantly struggle with wanting to save my child the pain of making mistakes and wanting them to learn how to deal with mistakes as a result of having freedom. In this area I want to eat my cake and have it too. I've learned the only real problems are the mistakes not learned from. When one of my children makes the same mistake over and over, that tells me they are not learning. I would encourage you, if you don't already, find a safe way for your child to fail. Let them learn from their mistakes, their own choices. Help them learn that "failure" in one thing can lead to success in something else. This country was built on failure. Or least the success which followed failure. A person is not a failure because they have a failure. The only failure is not learning from setbacks. Ask your child how failure is dealt with in the classroom. If you sense they don't feel safe taking risks or answering questions in class, talk to their teacher about how you can help them encourage your child to take risks in the classroom. Remember to assume that the teacher has all students best interests in mind when approaching them. Wait for them to prove otherwise before taking other measures. Ask them how you can help in the classroom.

Reading and Writing

Of the most basic skills required to be successful in education, and life, are the ability to read and write effectively. What does it mean to read and write effectively? Good question. Synthesis of reading material; different sources, subjects, ideas, and more into coherent thoughts used to inform or persuade. Without the ability to write effectively, synthesis of information cannot reach fruition – it dies on the vine so to speak. A lot of people writing about students' ability to focus on long texts tend to think we should adapt teaching to shorter texts; since students have shorter attention spans and bore easily, why not make it easy on them by exposing them only to shorter texts which will not tax their abilities? This does nothing but lower expectations of students, leading to lower standards, and leaves them ill prepared for higher education. What can be done? Make sure your child is exposed to news articles, editorial pieces, or other sources of current news and have them write a response to it. It doesn't have to be long. If they can do it on a computer, have them clip the article and write their response in the same file. Have them review their writing once a week. If they change their opinion about something, have them add that to their file and explain what lead them to change their mind. Attach any pertinent articles. This will help tremendously over time in their ability to put their thoughts into words. If they can share their writing with family members so much the better. Remember the focus should be on forming cogent thoughts, don't worry about spelling, punctuation, or grammar at this point. The point is to become comfortable forming logical responses and putting them into words. Have fun with it!

Alice in Wonderland and Math(?!)

I came across a book called "The Universe in a Handkerchief" the other day. This book is about the works of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, whom it turns out was a math instructor and loved math puzzles including logic paradoxes and word play among other things. (Where have I been?) I am fascinated so far at all the layers of humor and complexity included in the Alice in Wonderland books. There is much more there than the casual reader may realize. Many teachers have used the Alice stories to teach language arts, but it appears there's plenty there to teach some critical thinking, logic, and possibly even some math. Can't wait to read some more.

Memorizing Stuff

With all of the talk about getting away from rote learning, one might get the idea it's bad for students, though it does have its place. Rote is boring, does not engage, and doesn't teach students how to use the information or why they need to know it. That's just part of the story. Knowing one's multiplication tables (math facts, automaticity, . . .) is very important to getting basic math problems solved quickly. In checkout lines at stores I ask my children to figure out how much change we should get before it comes up on the cash register. I may be dating myself but I remember when cashiers were expected to figure out correct change in their heads. Just because a computer figures out your change, doesn't mean it will be counted correctly or was even entered correctly in the register (one reason I only use bills when paying cash). How does one learn math facts without dying of boredom? Play games that require mental math. Time yourself when using flash cards, maybe make it a competition between friends or family, try to best your previous times – this way you're only using the cards for a few minutes at a time. Use play, or real, money to practice making change, experimenting with the relationship between percentages and fractions (why is a quarter called a quarter?). Spelling, one of my least favorite things when I was in school became less burdensome when I started pronouncing words phonetically. For example I had the hardest time remembering how to spell friend until I started saying fry-end in my head. It's can be fun for some people to make up poems or songs to remember things. If you have any poems or songs that have helped you remember something, let me know.