%)
%)
%)
%)
%)
%)
%)
%)
%)
%)
High School
How to bring sanity to the world of final exams
December 11, 2007 12:00 PM
 |
Dear Dr. Fournier: Final exams are always a battle at my home. My eighth grade daughter studies every night past midnight, and I worry that she doesn’t get enough rest. My sixth grade son says he can’t study because the teacher has not told him what is on the test. My ninth grade son doesn’t think his finals should disrupt his life and studies only when his social calendar allows time. How can I bring sanity back into my house? |
The Assessment: One of my yearly rituals is to write a column this time of year, answering questions from parents who want to know how to best help their children prepare for final exams. Unlike other holiday traditions, this is one ritual I would like to do away with – or at least move to the beginning of the semester. Parents could avoid these questions by working with their children from first day of school.
Because of procrastination, this last-minute madness continues as each semester winds down. Parenting is a full-time job, and as our children get older, it becomes harder for a parent to help each child. On top of that, we have obligations to our employers, elderly parents or disabled children (I could list a hundred more) that fill our daily routines. Add to all of that the shopping, parties and decorating that come with December, and it’s not surprising that I receive so many letters this time of year. I sympathize with the struggles parents endure, but we must make a decision regarding what is important in our children’s lives.
While your children manifest different symptoms, they actually face a similar issue – final exam preparation – and resolve it in their own unique ways. Your children may demonstrate excessiveness, passiveness or avoidance in their exam preparation, but the real problem begins with their perspective of learning. This is one of the most prevalent issues facing our educational institutions.
There is a major misconception held by teachers, parents and students alike, that the goal of school is simple memorization and regurgitation. An education like this doesn’t teach students to think creatively. A degree from this learning system isn’t worth the paper it is written on in today’s global workplace.
What To Do: Like most students, your children don’t understand the difference between “studying” and “learning.” Can you solve your dilemma this semester? No, but you can make a decision for next semester that will change the rest of their lives. The solution is so simple, but I can’t get parents to take me up on it. There should be one rule in your home that must be obeyed without exception – Studying is not allowed!
Here are the rules:
When your children come home from school each day, they are not to do their homework – they are to learn it. This radical change of perspective allows them to understand and “own” knowledge, as opposed to merely memorizing it.
Homework is not complete until students prove that they would be able to make a good grade on a surprise quiz the next day. They can do this by giving you a lecture (without notes) or writing a mock test to be taken two hours after they finish.
Every test, quiz or homework grade should be on the refrigerator, next to a list of what they missed. They will learn this material later in the week or on the weekend.
This is very simple, yet too many parents will not make their children understand that studying is for those that want to be passively schooled. Learning is the first step toward receiving an education – a requirement for someone who wants to have an independent, significant life and who wants to become a leader.
<<Previous page
How to help your child improve on standardized tests
December 04, 2007 12:00 PM
 |
Dear Dr. Fournier: My son is
a high school junior who is taking the ACT for
the first time next week. He sometimes has
difficulty on tests, but he compensates for this
in other ways. For instance, he never misses a
homework assignment because a very good homework
average keeps his grades in an A to B+ range –
even if he slips on a test. Because my son wants
early acceptance into his No. 1 college choice,
he must make at least a 34 on the ACT. Is there
anything he should do this week that could help
him?
|
The Assessment: My office receives more phone calls during the weeks before the ACT or SAT tests than any other time of the year. Students want to prepare for a college entrance exam as if they were taking a test in school, and unfortunately, many students are in the habit of cramming for those weekly or monthly exams. Cramming is always a poor learning technique, relegated only to times when absolutely necessary to memorize small pieces of information. This won’t work for the ACT for two reasons. First, the ACT is too comprehensive and covers too many different modules. Secondly, preparing for the ACT is very different from studying for a typical test which relies heavily on memorization. Instead, the ACT measures a student’s critical thinking and analytical skills, two things that cannot be developed in a week.
Even though I receive these calls, I can help only those students who have taken the test before or those to which I am able to give a mock test. Analysis of these results, result in areas in extreme need, moderate re-teaching and review. Only with this information may a plan that be designed for your child. For example, a student may need to raise his math score from a 23 to a 27, and he may have scored poorly on the geometry section yet a few extra points in algebra one could make a great difference. This is where we could focus for a few days. The rest of the math part just needs a review.
Yet if the student needs to improve overall, there is nothing that is realistically doable in a couple days. I could take the parent’s money and say, “I’ll do the best I can,” but it is impossible to cram years of knowledge and thinking skills into a one or two day session. Standardized tests assess if your basic skills are intact and if you can think critically and synthesize information. These tests are not about memory; they are about reasoning.
What To Do: Your son may take the ACT and get the results he desires on the first test. If he doesn’t make the scores he desires, remember that he is a junior and there is still time to take the test again. He may be focused on early acceptance, but explain to him that he should not be discouraged. After all, Abraham Lincoln lost many elections before becoming President of the United States.
If your son needs to retake this test, I would highly recommend a program that will help HIM prepare for the second test, in which the program’s focus and individual help are strategically designed for his success. Many parents are willing to pay anything for ACT/SAT preparation program, but be careful how you choose. Group courses are herd courses. Do you want your child to be part of the pack, or do you want him to stand out? Unless teachers or tutors are willing to demonstrate that they precisely know your child’ unique priorities then keep looking.
If parents are willing to pay the tuition of an exceptional university, then they shouldn’t train their children to deal with the admission process together with a herd. A solid foundation through a well-planned, advanced test preparation course could be the extra boost that your child needs.
<<Previous page
When a 16-year-old starts to drive
October 11, 2007 12:00 PM
 |
Dear Dr. Fournier: The day
has finally arrived – my 16-year-old daughter is
driving. Talking with other parents, I hear mixed
comments ranging from “What a relief” to “I trust
my child” to “How do I know everything will be
alright?” My daughter is a good kid, a mostly
A-and-B student, but this time in her life
concerns me.
My husband and I are involved parents. We go to school meetings and her extra-curricular activities, and we know her friends and their parents. We also taught her our moral values and beliefs. Now we feel it is time to start letting go and to trust her in making some decisions on her own. But we also wonder if this is the time for us to expand our rules and our vigilance? We truly have a good daughter, and we have weathered problems such as turning homework in on time. What do you think we should do? Please give us something to hold on to. |
The Assessment: “How did this get here so fast?” is the thought that repeated itself over and over again when we handed our only son the keys to his new car on his 16th birthday. All I could think was that this moment came too soon. When he was a small child, I remembered holding him in my arms the moment I came home from work, only to hurry dinner to make sure we had time to play. I remembered reading his favorite book to him, enjoying every minute even if it seemed like a million times. Sixteen years had passed in an instant, and there we were with my son as he joyously reached for the keys to his first car. Even though this was an important milestone in my son’s life, I told myself something very important – I had much more work to do. Regardless of what I had taught him until then, the journey was not over and neither was my job. This is a gripping realization if there ever was one.
What To Do: This is the time when parents must help their children fully comprehend the golden rule of relationships. This idea is embodied in a Spanish proverb I learned as a child: "Dime con quién andas, y te diré quién eres" (Tell me whom you walk with, and I will tell you who you are). Growing up in New York City, where I walked to school, my parents taught it to me early in life. Those words of wisdom still resonate with me to this day.
If you walk with kids that take drugs, cheat, lie and go to unseemly places, then you walk with people who probably will not rewrite history to benefit mankind. But if you walk with someone who wants to go to a movie instead of a party with drinking and drugs, then you may find the next movie director who you will be proud to call a friend. If you walk with someone who is interested in excelling at school projects, you may be walking with the person who will make a significant contribution to end cancer.
Allowing our children to drive is giving them the privilege to make choices. It means that you must become much more vigilant of whom your child is, not just where she goes. If she understands the importance of good character and relationships, then you will have little to worry about. This challenge is a great one, and it is part of the new journey. Your job is not over – you are needed now more than ever.
<<Previous page
Success in learning is keyed to long-term recall
April 26, 2007 12:00 PM
 |
Dear Dr. Fournier: Whenever I
ask my daughter about her final exams, she says,
"Don’t worry – I have it under control." She
always feels like she is ready for exams. She
does OK on tests but final exams are often a
disaster.
The school has said she might have memory problems and that I should have her tested. But she can remember everything else – even things from when she was a baby. It doesn’t make sense. |
The Assessment: Learning for long-term recall requires more than just a good memory. It also requires learning with context and meaning for our lives. Think of the clues your daughter uses for her long-term memory. She might remember a trip to the zoo because her little sister got lost; she might remember a distant relative because of a different accent or funny expressions. When children recall seemingly minute details from early in their lives, invariable there is a special meaning to them.
Unfortunately, that is not how children learn in school. Children read information in books, take notes from lectures, and listen to facts in videos. Many children take this knowledge in the order it is given without knowing how to personalize it and make it meaningful in their lives. This type of recall with no personal attachment will work for little bits of information needed for tomorrow’s test. However, once students write the information on the test paper, they often place it out of their minds, and therefore lose the long-term attachment they need for final exams – and for life.
The children who do well on chapter tests but "freeze" on final exams might not have memory problems at all. These children do not fail exams because of a lack of ability to recall, but because of the quantity required for recall. In preparing for final exams, they must abandon their short-term recall techniques and learn the information all over again because the first time lacked any context or meaning.
What To Do: A parent’s job is not to teach schoolwork but to monitor. Monitoring means that you check to make sure your child is carrying out her responsibility as she should.
When your daughter says she has exams "under control," she believes that is an honest answer. But she loses control because she does not know how to learn differently than she did for the individual tests. No one has taught her techniques to help her take ownership of knowledge – that is, to take the dry facts from school and make them meaningful for her life. She simply falls back on short-term recall, waiting until the week before finals to begin to memorize instead of starting sooner so she can learn.
Do not expect your child, on her own, to change study habits before finals. Outline a
new process with her to help with long-term recall. As you monitor, insist on seeing her efforts.
Get your child a calendar for May and have her prepare a Ready-For-Exams Program. Insist on having the plan completed before taking action. Have your child decide and record the following:
The dates and times for each exam.
A date to ask each teacher what material will be covered and what format will be used for the exam. (Your child must show you a written list and should keep the information for reference.)
A date to show you all notes, old tests, quizzes and other materials needed to study for each exam. (You might want your child to set up file folders for each subject to keep the material handy for review.)
A date to have a mock exam ready for each subject. (This puts your child truly in control of the exams by personalizing use of the knowledge she must learn.)
A date to show the mock exams to each teacher and ask them to make sure the questions are on target. Have each teacher initial these mock exams.
A date to take each mock exam and correct it from notes.
Time to learn what she missed on the mock exams. She should plan to complete learning two days before each exam. She can only review material the night before each exam.
A date to celebrate the end of exams and to do – not buy – something special with the family.
Each time we ask our children, "are you ready for exams?" we assume they know how to analyze the task ahead. It is in this assumption that many children find failure for lack of being taught the life skill of planning.
<<Previous page
Childhood and its many definitions
April 19, 2007 12:00 PM
 |
Dear Dr. Fournier: I am
retired, but keep on the volunteer list at our
local school board. I am keenly interested in
education, and have to say that it is hard to
ignore the problems in our country in the
education sector.
One thing that has always bothered me is the increasing tendency to refer to a child or children as "kid" or "kids." I grew up on a farm and we had many kids in the pasture...please help us get on the right track. |
The Assessment: Seeking an umbrella term for children of all ages, I acknowledge using the word "kid" to excess.
It is easy to use a word that has an immediate identity ranging from a tiny preschooler to a strapping high-school athlete.
I do not believe we can get on the right track with our terminology until we answer one basic question: What do we mean by the term, "childhood?"
Our country has become ambivalent about childhood, as if no one knows who a child is anymore.
I am amazed at how many daughters dress like their mothers and how many boys look as if they were interns at their fathers’ law firms. On the other extreme, some girls dress as if they have forgotten to take off their pajamas, and boys are cloaked like tramps.
I have come to realize that children in the second group are being given the "opportunity" to assert their "individuality" with the freedom to "express their inner selves."
Either way, through rigid dress code or experimentation, children are allowed to experience the freedom of adulthood without the responsibility that goes with such freedom.
And there are other signals. I remember calling one school to inquire about placement for a child and asking about any special difficulties the administration had witnessed among the students.
"Only with dating," I was told. "When some of the girls don’t get asked out, they get hurt."
Quickly apologizing for not making myself clear, I specified that I was talking about a fourth-grader. So was the school representative!
While speaking to parents at a local high school years ago, I introduced a concept I call the "Swiss Cheese Kid."
During the question and answer period that followed, a father asked me, "Why do you use the term ‘kid’?" My answer: "If I referred to your high-school son or daughter as a child, you might not think I was talking to you."
Unfortunately, I have adopted the use of the term "kid" because too many adults today refuse to see children as children – and I use that term to include preschools through older teens.
Many adults have bought into the notion that our little ones must be treated as if they were older, and our older ones must be given privileges without responsibility as if they were younger.
What To Do: As a society, we must decide who are the children – and who are the parents. When a father of a third-grader asks me, "Just when will he take full responsibility for himself?" I always answer, "When he pays his own rent!"
It is the parents’ role to give each child guidance, and to give each child a childhood.
<<Previous page
Teach child difference between learning, grades
March 29, 2007 12:00 PM
 |
Dear Dr. Fournier: I am frustrated with the amount of emphasis placed on grades in my daughter’s school. I know grades are important for getting into college, but my daughter gets so stressed out by a C that it almost paralyzes her. How can I help her understand that there is more to education than grades? |
The Assessment: Our children’s grades can be motivators or they can be curses. Imagine, for a moment, that you are graded on your job the way your child is graded in school. Your boss gives you a daily grade on job performance – perhaps a 68 on your last memo and a 76 on your project presentation. Most employees dread even an annual evaluation by their supervisors; how would we react to this daily roller coaster, wondering how the boss will grade each move or decision?
As adults, we do not have to react to daily criticism from these pigeon-holing measures. Instead, we can be proactive as we ask ourselves, "where do I go from here?" and attempt to self-evaluate and continue our development.
For our children, fear of being in the wrong pigeonhole many times devastate all possibility of seeing grades for what they are – instruments that pinpoint challenges and direct energy. They might react to a 65 on a test by saying, "I’m stupid," even though more than half of the material is correct.
If we want our children to become proactive, we must help them see grades not as the end of learning but as the beginning. This turns the curse into a motivator.
What To Do: Talk to your daughter and clearly define what a grade is – a measure of what a student is able to give back in a teacher-determined format over which the student has no control. To do well on a test, and student must learn the material and must be able to give back the information in the accepted format, regardless of the strategy the teacher uses (true or false, multiple choice, essay or class participation).
A lower-than-expected grade can be the result of not knowing the material tested, not being test-savvy, or a combination of both. Also, remember that the goal is not just for your child to do well in school, but to do well in life. The process of learning might be more important than what is being learned.
For example, a student who successfully completes a science project has learned the process of planning for a long-term project, creating a hypothesis, testing it, and analyzing the results. This process will help a child succeed in life. Understanding the subject matter of a fourth-grade science project will only ensure success in school.
Used proactively, grades are directives for the future rather than regrets of the past. But in order to help your child chart the future, you must review together all tests, quizzes, homework and other graded papers. A test that goes unanalyzed is a worthless effort.
When your child brings home graded papers, have her assess all the points made on the test. Then for each point that was lost, have your child determine if it was a learning loss or a test-savvy loss, and then develop strategies to avoid similar mistakes in the future. As patterns emerge, set up a teacher conference before your child’s long-term learning begins to suffer. In other words, rather than having a parent conference reactively, have one proactively as soon as you can identify trends that need to be turned around.
Teachers can help parents assume this proactive stance by making sure that all graded materials are returned to students and parents. There is no way to improve unless parents and students know where to aim.
It is time we see grades as a motivator – a measure of our children’s potential for success. If failure is what we continue to measure, is it any wonder that our children fail?
<<Previous page
Teach child new concept of 'career choice'
March 08, 2007 12:00 PM
 |
Dear Dr. Fournier: My high-school son is sure he is going to be a journalist. He is taking geometry right now and is doing poorly. He says it does not relate to journalism and he will never need it in real life. He has had the same attitude about other courses that he does not see as relevant to his chosen career path. I am glad he is interested in journalism, but how can I get him to take his "blinders" off? |
The Assessment: Geometry is a subject in which students learn to think, yet for some students it is no more than a necessary nuisance – a course they must take to get into college.
The more I think about these two views of geometry, the more I am inclined to believe that its "nuisance" reputation is based on the isolation with which the subject is taught rather than the merits of geometry itself.
High school should be a time for students to develop knowledge, not just parrot it back to teachers on tests. However, high school has dichotomized learning by dividing subject matter into credits that must be earned for college.
Students go from class to class to be exposed to different credits, with each class led by a teacher who specializes in that particular subject. The history teacher only teaches history and the foreign language teacher skips the demographic implications of the populations whose language takes precedence.
Instead of developing knowledge, students begin to equate their future with dedicating themselves to one subject: "I’ll never be an architect because I hate geometry," or "The only class I like is history, so I guess I will be a history teacher." Perhaps the worst statement is, "I don’t know what I want to be. I don’t like anything."
As parents, we must help our children develop a new concept of "career choice" based on a future that will require diversity of thinking. Our children must overcome the pigeonholing of specialized niches in education and begin to see how these subjects come together, each essential to a career path development.
What To Do: Career planning once meant choosing one career for long-term development. The concept might have held true for our parents’ careers, but not for our children’s future. Today’s parents and teachers must become aware of changes in the U.S. workplace so that we can prepare today’s children for their future.
Starting as early as ninth grade, students must begin to research multiple activities they could carry out in life and study their "niche" courses with a wider view. Here is one example:
"I will major in English with a double minor in biology and Japanese. During my summers, I will focus on a third language. In English, I will stress journalism and take electives in graphic design or marketing and sociology. So what can I do? I can work with a multinational pharmaceutical company, hospital or scientific journal directed to national or international business people or health professionals. I can work in internal communications, media relations, research and development or marketing, given my understanding of market demands and social research."
Instead of narrowing our children’s view of the world, we need to let high school broaden their vision for the future.
<<Previous page
