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May 2007
How to give your child some summer structure
May 31, 2007 12:00 PM Filed in: All Levels
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Dear Dr. Fournier: When I talk to other parents about their summer plans, reactions range from mild apprehension to near panic. Some of us are working parents, some are stay-at-home, but all of us are at least a little anxious about what summer will bring. Any advice? |
The Assessment: Few other phrases carry such a double meaning. For students, it is a time for fun and freedom; for parents it is a time to respond nervously, "What are we going to do for the next couple of months?"
Most working parents anticipated that question months ago, making advance summer arrangemens for child care. But at-home parents might be hit full-force trying to schedule a summer full of fun during the first week of June.
All parents face the same dilemma – the transition from kids in school to kids on vacation. Children have been under strict controls for seven hours a day during the school year, but now we must apply the controls just when our children want their freedom. Is it any wonder that they "fight back" and make the first few weeks of summer vacation more like World War III? As parents, we must provide control in the form of a structured schedule. We must also give our children choices, which can reduce parental guilt when we impose the consequences.
What To Do: WHAT WORKING PARENTS CAN DO
The roughest transition for your child to make is from day care (be it day camp, nursery or at a friend’s home) to evenings at home. When you come to pick him up, your child might say, "Go away – I just started to play!" The situation is made worse when you have to pull or push that screaming kid into the car. By the time you get home, no one feels like a peaceful supper or family time together.
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"Study skills" go the way of the dinosaur
May 24, 2007 12:00 PM Filed in: Skill Sets
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Dear Dr. Fournier: All year long, my child’s teacher has written notes saying my child could do better, needs to prepare more for tests, needs to show more effort. His school and other places are offering study-skills courses in the summer. Do you think this will help my child do better in school? |
The Assessment: Stated bluntly, I believe the concept of study skills is as obsolete as the dinosaur. It is a term I buried years ago and refuse to consider today.
The notion of "study skills" has its roots in a previous generation who went to school to prepare for a work world that required sameness of thinking – many people carrying out the same job description with the same level of productivity. Our children, however, must prepare for a work world in which uniqueness of thinking will be rewarded. The focus will not be "Can you do the same task eight hours a day?" but instead, "Can you find a better way to do it?"
Previous generations focused on studying what their teacher (or supervisor or manager) gave them. But now our children must learn what teachers put on the table by redeveloping it with personal thought and creativity. This allows our children to take ownership of knowledge; anything less will mold our children into the very workforce dinosaurs that corporations can no longer use.
If a course is called "study skills," the very message is inappropriate today. A child should no longer go to school to accomplish studying. Instead, studying should be viewed as only one of the means for learning, and our children must use their uniqueness in developing a complete learning process.
"Study skills" preach uniformity of study habits – sit at a desk, have good light, avoid distractions. Unless you live on the moon, it is unlikely that you can function in such a rigid, sterile way.
I believe that our children must develop strategies to confront changing circumstances; you cannot learn that with a system that ignores change and diversity.
I once worked with a child who had a study-skills course as a separate class in which there were tests on study skills. This child went to class to study how to study, then studied at home to be tested on whether he knew the process of studying. Cute, but ridiculous.
Telling children how to study is like telling them what size clothes they have to wear. Some kids will fit that size, but all the rest end up looking silly.
What To Do: Before deciding whether your child needs a course in study skills, consider these points:
Your child needs to learn how to learn, not just how to study.
Your child must learn to develop strategies to confront new, diverse situations. He cannot do this with a one-size-fits-all set of skills.
In order to learn how to learn, your child must actually be learning. A sense of purpose is essential for children to enter into self-exploration.
This summer, help your child explore his unique interests. During vacation, he might find some of the best processes for learning, whether it is keeping up with his favorite baseball team or figuring out how to build a tree-house.
At the beginning of the school year, help your son set up a notebook that will contain a diary of learning strategies. In this notebook, your child should keep track of the strategies that worked best and those that did not work. Take time once a week to review this with your son and help him learn how to set new strategies to adapt to changing situations at school.
For example, writing his spelling words three times as the teacher requires might not be enough to learn the words. Maybe he needs to record the spelling words on a tape recorder so that he can take his own practice test.
Help your child use his imagination and creativity to learn and to become someone capable of facing change by changing himself. Your child cannot get this from a study-skills course.
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The difference between learning and remembering
May 17, 2007 12:00 PM Filed in: Skill Sets
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Dear Dr. Fournier: I have drilled and drilled my child on her multiplication tables. I think she finally has them. We have done flash cards almost every day. I am sick of it and I know my daughter is. I met with her teacher yesterday and, of all things, she told me to keep doing flash cards this summer so my daughter will not forget her multiplication tables! Is there anything else we can do? We are both so tired of flashing. |
The Assessment: Learning math facts is a two-step process. The first step is learning the facts with accurate recall; the second step is recall with speed. In the beginning, your child must learn the math facts accurately without being concerned about the time. It is not until she can consistently demonstrate accuracy that you then move to the second step – recall with speed.
Unfortunately, many children are assigned to learn math facts at home because of a lack of time in the classroom. As a result, parents become responsible for their child’s learning math facts with accurate recall, and the schools have little measure of the student’s basic accuracy – only the student’s speed of recall.
Consider the student who makes 100 on a timed math test. Teachers – and parents – assume that the student has learned, but what the test shows is that the student has remembered the facts one time, not that she has learned with consistent accuracy. When a child does not learn math facts with accuracy every time, the result is often the directive, "keep doing the flash cards so she doesn’t forget."
Remembering and learning are two different tasks. We forget much of what we commit to "remembering," but learning lasts a lifetime.
What To Do: Recognize that your child – not you – must learn the math facts with accuracy first and then with speed. Your child has the responsibility of learning; you have the responsibility of monitoring her work.
Write out 75 math facts in a horizontal formula, such as 7x7=?. Leave out the ones table, but repeat traditionally more difficult facts such as the 6, 7, 8 and 9 tables. Make copies of this page and put them in a loose-leaf binder to serve as an answer sheet. Also, have your child set up a page of charts called Challenges for Progress, divided into three columns that are labeled with the headings: Errors; Tabulation; I Know You.
Set aside five minutes every day for your child to take her own "challenge" math sheet. (Mornings are better than later in the day; for example, always set aside 10 minutes after breakfast.) Set the timer and have your child do as many math facts as she can complete with accuracy in five minutes. Have your child correct her own sheets up to the last item computed. On her Challenges for Progress sheet, she should record any incorrect facts under "Errors."
Whenever she misses the same problem again, she records it on the same Challenges for Progress sheet under "Tabulation."
Once your child has taken her challenge for 10 days, she will discover the facts she misses most. These are the ones she should spend time learning. She should attempt learning only one at a time.
When she begins to consistently answer these problems correctly on her challenges, she can place them in the "I Know You" column of her Challenges for Progress sheet.
Let your child use her own creativity to learn her math facts. She can make index cards and put them around the house and talk to them as she passes by:
"Hi, 7x3, you’re still 21!" She can put them on her mirror or closet door. She might discover ways to apply math facts to other activities she enjoys.
This way of "flashing" gives your child the responsibility for learning and frees you from rote drilling. At the end of two weeks, multiply the time you have saved and use it to enjoy your time together.
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Keeping a child's focus on finals as summer beckons
May 10, 2007 12:00 PM Filed in: Skill Sets
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Dear Dr. Fournier: My son
knows we expect him to do his homework in the
afternoon so that we do not have late nights.
This has worked, but now he wants to go out and
play after school. As the days have gotten longer
his attention span has gotten shorter. This
happened last year, and we ended up fighting.
This year he will have final exams for the first time and I do not want to be fighting. We have planned many activities for him this summer, so he knows he is going to have fun. He just needs to work a little harder until school is out. How can I get this across to him without yelling? |
The Assessment: At this time every year, the irresistible force – the expectation of summer fun – meets the immovable object – final exams – and the result is that "something’s gotta give." What we often give up is what we desire most – a calm family atmosphere.
Just when school is most demanding, the days grow longer, giving children more daylight for fun. Add to that the desire to participate in outdoor activities and the special springtime events, and preparing for final exams can become the last thing on a child’s mind.
Although parents want their children to anticipate the fun of vacation, children often cannot stop with mere anticipation – they often want it now, and summer hysteria sets in.
What To Do: At this time every year, the irresistible force – the expectation of summer fun – meets the immovable object – final exams – and the result is that "something’s gotta give." What we often give up is what we desire most – a calm family atmosphere.
Just when school is most demanding, the days grow longer, giving children more daylight for fun. Add to that the desire to participate in outdoor activities and the special springtime events, and preparing for final exams can become the last thing on a child’s mind.
Although parents want their children to anticipate the fun of vacation, children often cannot stop with mere anticipation – they often want it now, and summer hysteria sets in.
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How to teach your child to finish assignments
May 03, 2007 12:00 PM Filed in: Diagnoses
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Dear Dr. Fournier: My child
is constantly bringing work home that he did not
finish in class. I have been called in to school
for conferences with teachers. All I hear is that
he is not completing his work. Last week, I found
a stack of incomplete papers in his room. He has
zeroes for each of these. His teachers are saying
he is going to fail and that I should have him
tested for attention problems.
I am not with my child at school, but I am being told to solve the problem. What can I do? |
The Assessment: "Does not complete assignments" is the symptom. Failure in school is the chronic disease.
The symptom at other times is "does not attend to task," which might lead us to leap to certain conclusions: the student is "daydreaming" or has "attention deficit disorder."
Unless an accurate assessment is made, your child’s repeated failures might turn into a vicious cycle. The student who "does not complete assignments" will find a string of low grades or zeroes bringing down his average. When parents receive report cards, they might interpret the failing grades as a sign their child has not learned the material and needs tutorial help.
But there is another, much simpler reason why many children do not complete their work. It has nothing to do with the quality of learning or the ability to learn but the quantity being demanded. It is called "working capacity."
Working capacity is a student’s self-recognition of how much quality work he can achieve in a certain amount of time.
Teachers might assume all children can do the work assigned within the time allotted, but this one-size-fits-all notion oversimplifies a child’s developmental process.
A child who has not developed a sense of his working capacity is easily overwhelmed. He tires easily and escapes through daydreaming.
What To Do: Assess whether your child has a problem with the quantity of work rather than the subject matter. Get a stack of graded papers and regrade them based on what your child has completed.
For example, if your child completed half of the 20 problems on a math test but got nine out of 10 correct, the regraded paper would have a score of 90 instead of 45.
If your child’s grade increases dramatically after regrading, knowledge of the material is likely not the problem; getting a tutor is likely not your solution. Your child probably needs help learning to assess and develop his working capacity.
Have your child set a timer for five minutes. During that time, he should see how much of an assignment he can complete with quality work.
Then have your child do the entire assignment in five-minute segments and add the total time taken.
As your child learns how much quality work he can complete in a certain quantity of time, he develops an awareness of his working capacity.
Be sure to start with small amounts of time. Allow your child to set goals to achieve more work within that time as long as he does not give up quality.
As the child recognizes how much he can do in a certain amount of time, he can then set goals to increase efficiency without giving up effectiveness.
Like the other "occupational skills" of being a student, working capacity must be developed, not just expected. The payoff is more than better school performance; it is a knowledge of self to be used for a lifetime.
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