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Elementary School
How to add reading to your child's artistic creativity
July 24, 2007 12:00 PM
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Dear Dr. Fournier: I
recently read your article about bright kids
with strengths in various areas, and I wanted to
ask your opinion about my 7-year-old
daughter who is entering the second grade. She
struggles with reading and spent first grade in a
special program to help her in this subject.
Although she has a difficult time reading, my
daughter’s "bright spot" is her art.
She spends her time drawing and creating things,
and her art is totally incredible – she can
imagine things that most
people wouldn't see.
One of her favorite ways to express herself is through “writing” books. She thinks about a topic, draws a succession of pictures, staples them in order, and then writes the story. Unfortunately, she cannot spell very well, and has problems with phonics, but she gets her point across using her art. I always support her creativity, but I sometimes feel like she uses her art as a crutch to avoid “traditional” reading and writing. What can I do to help her? |
The Assessment: How incredibly awesome that your child at the age of seven has realized something many adults never understand. Writing a story is like producing a movie – it creates a world within one’s mind. As that story is created, one important rule must be followed. The central plot must be “seen” clearly as the reader progresses through the story. The writer determines how much detail will be put into the “movie,” but also decides how much will be left to the reader’s imagination. Consider this example:
“She ran down the path. Her secret was compromised. Shadows seemed like tentacles of monsters she had dreamt of before. Soon she saw two characters coming toward her. Could they be the ones that called? Could they have known where she was all the time?”
Writing is the vehicle for expressing a picture or scene in one’s mind. Reading is about looking through the invisible cloth called “words” and seeing a movie that someone else has created. In my previous example, I included enough information so the reader can follow the storyline. Yet many details are left to the reader’s imagination. Was it daytime, noon or night? Is she is in a forest outside of town or in Central Park? Why tentacles?
Reading for pleasure begins with what the writer conveys, but true enjoyment comes from all that is left to the reader’s creativity. Readers can add, create and let their imagination overflow without limitations. Have you ever read a book, and then found yourself disappointed by the movie? That’s because our imaginations create a movie that is perfect in our mind’s eye.
What To Do: Your daughter loves to write and create her own “home movies,” yet doesn’t realize that reading is experiencing someone else’s movie. Of course, ditto sheets and other materials used to teach reading in schools are as engaging as poison ivy, but reading stories on her own gives your daughter the opportunity to be the movie critic. As she reads, she must follow the story, but she must also see what details the story has left out. It can be a time to use her incredible imagination.
To harness her creativity, every time that she reads a portion of a story or book, she should draw the scene, illustrating with details only she sees. New ideas will emerge as she explores other’s writing.
As for her reading skills, if your daughter only needs to increase fluency, then reading to create “movies” will help. More syllabication at school will help as well. I hope I am writing to the mom of the next generation’s J.K. Rowling. Your daughter’s imagination and desire to write is a treasure to her right now – and it could be a treasure the world awaits.
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Make a homework checklist
April 05, 2007 12:00 PM
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Dear Dr. Fournier: My
daughter has a problem handing in her homework.
Her teacher and I got together and set up a plan
to help her. The teacher agreed to give my
daughter a daily calendar with homework
assignments written on it. Every day I sign the
homework sheet and the homework. Believe it or
not, my daughter still does not get her homework
in every day. When she doesn’t, she gets a zero
and all the work we have done is for nothing.
My daughter will soon be in middle school where she will have too many teachers to do all of this. What else can I do? |
The Assessment: In helping our children turn failure into success, we have two choices: to offer a strategy that helps them to be in control of their success, or to give them a crutch that furthers their dependence.
Even the best intentions can go awry when we do not establish a strategy that answers one basic question: "What does my childnot know how to do that she is expected to know how to do?"
In this case, you assumed that your daughter needed to know her homework assignments, but the problem was not doing the homework, but handing in the homework. If you had examined the steps involved in the homework process, you could have developed a more specific strategy, and one that would put your child in control, not you and the teacher.
What To Do: Write down a detailed, step-by-step homework checklist that includes all the tasks involved from the time your child writes down the assignment until she turns it in.
As part of this checklist system, you should designate a "Homework Place" for your child to leave all finished work so that you can check it by a certain time each night. As soon as you have checked to make sure the assignments are complete, your child should put her homework in her bookbag to have it ready for school the next morning. This procedure reduces the familiar confrontation of "Have you finished your homework yet?" It also puts your child in charge of setting a timetable for achievement.
Once you have completed a homework checklist, make enough copies to have a different list for each night. Your daughter is responsible for checking off each step as she completes it. For a child who doesn’t hand in homework, a checklist might read:
In School
Write down the assignment.
Write the action required (such as reading a chapter, writing answers to questions, computing math problems or copying spelling words).
Write what I will need to take home (such as textbooks, notebooks or worksheets).
Check off each item as I put it in my bookbag.
Show my teacher I have completed the "in school" part of my checklist.
At Home
Recheck that I have everything I need to complete my assignments.
Decide the order I will do each assignment.
Decide exactly what time I will do each one.
Develop a daily completion plan for homework and other at-home responsibilities.
Put together all materials I will need for my homework.
Follow my completion plan to finish my work on time.
Leave my work in the special "Homework Place."
Have my parents check the "Homework Place" to make sure I have not forgotten anything.
Put everything in my bookbag and leave my bookbag at the door.
Forget about homework until tomorrow and have fun!
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Tricks to help your child develop spelling skills
March 22, 2007 12:00 PM
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Dear Dr. Fournier: I work with my son each week on his spelling lists. He knows them when I call them out to him, but then misses half of them on the test. Does he have a memory problem? |
The Assessment: The scene is a familiar one for many households: the child’s weekly spelling test at school has become a weekly chore at home.
The child’s primary technique for learning how to spell is asking his parents to call out the words. Although many parents feel this is the least they can do, spelling can initiate an inappropriate teaching role at home that only intensifies later on. The child who feels it is great to study with mom and dad in many cases means it feels secure to study with mom or dad – until the pressure of adding other subjects leads to a homework hassle.
Spelling is one of the first independent learning tasks that a child is assigned. But students often are not taught the strategies for independent learning, and the default mechanism can be attachment to mom or dad.
The good news is that just as spelling is a typical subject for a child to develop dependence on his or her parents, so too is it the perfect place for the parents to help their child to develop independence.
Many parents go through the frustrating experience of drilling their children on spelling words. Despite their efforts, children often do not make the expected 100 on the spelling test. These children do not have memory problems – they have learning-strategy problems.
Asking a child to study his spelling words and then immediately drilling on the words tests only the child’s short-term memory. Learning how to spell should instead be for long-term recall.
What To Do: To foster independent study, have your child use a tape recorder with two blank tapes.
On one tape write "Study Tape" and on the other write "Test Tape." Have your child first say each word and then spell it on the Study Tape. On the Test Tape, your child should say each spelling word, pausing afterward long enough to write out the word.
Next, have your child create a Test Sheet with six columns. The first column contains the correct spelling of the words. The next five columns are labeled with the days of the week until the spelling test.
Each day your child should listen to the Study Tape as part of homework. However, he should not attempt to take a practice test right away. Have him wait an hour or so after he listens to the Study Tape.
To take the practice test, your son should listen to the Test Tape and write the words on a sheet of paper as the tape dictates them. When the test is complete, he should compare this paper to the correctly spelled words on the Test Sheet.
If he misspells a word on his practice test, he should write the incorrect spelling on the Test Sheet in the column for that day. For example, if the child misspells the word "house" on Monday’s practice test, he writes the incorrect spelling in Monday’s column next to the correct spelling of the word.
By the time your child has followed this procedure three days in a row, he will know exactly which words he knows and which ones give him trouble. After this initial study work is done, you can help him develop memory tricks to remember the words he continues to miss.
This learning technique allows appropriate parental support while developing your son’s independence.
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Academic achievers' problemstoo often overlooked
February 15, 2007 12:00 PM
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Dear Dr. Fournier: My son is
9 years old and in fourth grade. He has attended
private school since kindergarten and has done
well academically, but recently has begun to
demonstrate what his pediatrician calls
"stress-related symptoms." These include having
trouble breathing and stomach aches during
school.
I do not know how to handle this. Naturally, I want him to do well in school, but I do not want him to become so stressed out about it that he has physical symptoms! |
The Assessment: When we hear about "problems in school," we invariably think about the low-achieving student. When it comes to academic achievers, too often their problems are overlooked by those who assume that a student who does well in school "has it all together."
Just as low-achieving students might find themselves coping with the demands by giving up and taking an "I don’t care" attitude, high-achieving students might find themselves trapped in defense mode against what can hurt them: the fear of failure.
Children often cannot express this powerful feeling in words, so they send other signals. A child who "does well academically" but has been diagnosed by a physician with physical signs of stress is already saying a lot. Consider the possible messages:
I accept the importance of doing well in school, and I fulfill my responsibilities. I am learning and achieving – my grades prove it.
Even though I am doing well, someone might think there is something wrong with me. What if I am not smart? What if I cannot keep up and others find out?
I know more is coming, and I need to continue to do well in class. When the teacher gets upset in class, that includes me. What if I can’t do the work and start making bad grades?
What To Do: Speak with your child and let him know that his physical wellness comes before anything he is learning in school. Let him know that you will help him in decreasing his stress.
Ask your son to keep a diary of when he begins to feel sick at school. Have him write what has happened, what he is thinking or what he fears could happen. Next, work with your child’s teacher, physician or even a counselor to analyze the diary. Do symptoms occur during a certain subject or task? Is there a specific time of day during which symptoms are worse? Just be sure that the meetings with these professionals do not increase your son’s stress by embarrassing him.
Be open to any answers. For example, your son might be stressed out about going to the library because he does not like to be silent. He might be afraid of not being able to finish board work, or that the teacher might get upset with the class.
Once you identify potential causes, help your child develop defense strategies. For example, if your son is afraid of going to the library, get a timer and practice at home. Help him understand that what seems like an eternity at school is actually half as long as his favorite TV show and that he can cope with the expectation.
Physical illness is a sign of stress turned into distress. As parents, we need to listen to those messages and deliver an appropriate response.
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