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Nov 2008
Improve Reading Comp (Pt.2)
November 25, 2008 12:00 PM Filed in: High School
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Dear Dr. Fournier: I am a
high school counselor working with a student that
is highly capable but exhibits some deficiencies
in reading comprehension. He has recently
completed psychological testing that revealed no
significant problems. However, previous
standardized test scores show a difference in
areas specifically covering reading as compared
to other areas tested. I am helping his
parents find some resources that may identify
some specific skills he may lack and can improve
upon if given the appropriate
instruction. Is this an area that your
program may benefit him?
NOTE TO READERS: You may remember that this question’s answer was to be spread across two columns. Part 1 was answered in my November 18 column. Here’s part 2 regarding reading comprehension for the ACT: |
What To Do:
Students should also practice the scientific reasoning section, which I consider to be the easiest part of this test. Scientific Reasoning tests your ability to analyze and reason with data presented in multiple formats and whether you know how to separate useful data from useless data.
Reading comprehension is about the reader knowing the purpose for the reading. The strategy to determine in one sentence what the author wants you to remember forever is different to the purpose of reading for a quiz of matching dates to events. Textbook reading is basically a game in which you must cull from your reading the original outline that the writer started with. If you know what you are searching for then reading is simply an exercise in building strategic thinking skills. Enjoy!
Correction to my October 21, 2008 column on the PSAT: Students who take the PSAT as juniors and not sophomores are eligible for the National Merit Scholarship Competition.
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Improve Reading Comp (Pt.1)
November 18, 2008 12:00 PM Filed in: High School
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Dear Dr. Fournier: I am a
high school counselor working with a student that
is highly capable but exhibits some deficiencies
in reading comprehension. He has recently
completed psychological testing that revealed no
significant problems. However, previous
standardized test scores show a difference in
areas specifically covering reading as compared
to other areas tested. I am helping his
parents find some resources that may identify
some specific skills he may lack and can improve
upon if given the appropriate
instruction. Is this an area that your
program may benefit him?
NOTE TO READERS: The response to this question had to be spread across two columns so please stay tuned and read next week’s column for part two so that you have a full, complete answer to this question. |
The Assessment: The answer to this question requires some assumptions on my part, so please take these into account as you read the recommendations.
Assumptions:
What To Do: The only achievement test that matters for him at this point is his ACT. By the way, I strongly advise it over the SAT.
Not knowing what grade he is in, I am hoping he knows that learning to answer reading comprehension for the ACT is not the same as knowing how to answer reading comprehension questions for high school and college classes. If not, start by explaining this to him and why his focus in reading comprehension should on this section of the ACT.
Students preparing to go to college should begin to practice for the verbal parts of the ACT starting in the ninth grade. Taking ACT practice tests generally identify specific skills students lack in the reading comprehension section. This gives them time to take several practices tests so that they can improve reading comprehension with the appropriate instruction.
Listed below are the essential rules for any student regarding the reading comprehension portion of the ACT:
(Conclusion in next week’s column.)
Correction to my October 21, 2008 column on the PSAT: Students who take the PSAT as juniors and not sophomores are eligible for the National Merit Scholarship Competition.
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Less can be more
November 11, 2008 12:00 PM Filed in: All Levels
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Dear Dr. Fournier: Now that you have told us about not doing homework and being respectful toward the teacher, please tell teachers that more than 60 minutes of homework a night is more than any child should have to do. This is what I would call respect for my family, who is involved in many other activities. Your article didn’t say how much homework the child not completing his homework was doing every night, but what if it was hours and not just 60 minutes several nights a week? I think, I hope your response would have been different. |
The Assessment: In a recent column, I did answer a question regarding children using school as a casino. They choose and pick what they will do. Of course the easiest chip to gamble with is homework. You can say to your parents you did it then tell your teacher you lost or left it at home or in your locker or many other stories I have heard from kids. Many students think a zero for homework can be made up with a good test grade.
There is a terrible problem attached to this casino game. Students can actually come out winners even if it is with a D – but they will find as adults that the majority of their work life will be made of tasks that will be like homework. Yet once hired, playing at the casino game is your way of saying to whoever writes your check that you have the belief – developed during your education years – that you can be unreliable, disrespectful and cheat and still expect to be employed and paid.
What To Do: For any child to be given more than one hour of homework when it is not worth an hour of their life is to totally disrespect the reality that parents’ jobs today have been expanded because schools refuse to teach our children the skills they will need to be successful in 2020 and beyond – a world neither you, myself, nor any of your grandchildren’s teachers can imagine. Instead, they keep teaching more of the old industrial era information calling it “better” education simply because it’s “more” education. Making our children learn more of what our generation knows is obsolete, with the exception of the basic skills of reading, writing, arithmetic, speaking and listening, is pointless and a waste of yours and your child’s precious time.
Teachers however are not the culprits! We must all take blame. Once we can do that, we possibly can get on with realizing that reforming our schools will no longer work. Once we can collectively face politicians and policy-makers and demand a new school system, we may be able to stop excessive homework and our children can actually start learning in school. Only in a new school system can we correct the fact that more than 50 percent of high school graduates have to learn their basic skills in high school and college because they didn’t get them in elementary and junior high.
The Treasurer of a County School Corporation sent in this letter. As treasurer, you know that money is always tight and expense has an exponential growth gene of its own.
I ask your patience. I plan to use your letter again to directly attack the subject of just how much homework is enough. In the meantime, how much would society and your school system save if teachers were paid for how much children actually learned in school instead of how much homework and outside projects they are assigned that too many times end up destroying the fabric of family life? Could we line item that as “Priceless!”
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Simple Disrespect
November 04, 2008 12:00 PM Filed in: All Levels
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Dear Dr. Fournier: I read
with interest a recent opinion you gave on a
“straight A eleven-year-old being disrespectful
of her mother” because she didn’t want her mother
looking at her homework. I think there is more
than disrespect involved (assuming these are real
people).
I am the mom of three sons (ages 14, 17, 20). All of them are very capable students but all have very different feelings about my involvement in their school responsibilities from wanting my input to absolutely not wanting any input. I learned to adjust my approach so that even the most independent does not have a problem with my looking at his work when I’d like. I have found that effective communication is essential in some of the stickier parenting issues. |
The Assessment: Let me address a couple of your comments first.
“Assuming these are real people” – I can assure you these letters are from real people. After 30 years of practice and more than 20 years writing this column, I am still flooded with letters, calls and e-mails from real people who seek my advice on painful issues with their children. Her question was not uncommon. I have received it many times in some form or another from all over the country.
“I have found that effective communication is essential in some of the stickier parenting issues” – The only sticky issue here is the misguided idea that a parent should acquiesce when a child attempts to parent the parent into obeying the child’s rules.
What To Do: A parent is the major caretaker and stakeholder of a child’s complete education. Each year teachers teach the portion they are assigned. It is the parent – and only the parent – that is capable of seeing the whole picture. And the whole picture is that A’s in school are only a small part of this child’s education and what she will need to achieve success as an adult. The one thing I do know from dealing with my own son and working with thousands of children during my career is that this child does not know who her boss is. It is not her teachers, it not her friends, and it is not herself.
This child is preparing to be at the beginning of her work life in the year 2022. By then technology, information and communication will force her to work cooperatively and collaboratively with people of all nations. If she is unable to do this with caring for her coworkers concerns, they are not going to put up with her. If this child is making A’s in school but won’t cooperate with her mother at home, she is lucky she doesn’t live with me. It would take me one second to tear up her homework and tell her to start again; and this time she’d better understand Mom is the major stakeholder in her life and is the boss in charge of her education, and that includes reviewing homework assignments as desired.
We have enough hateful, arrogant and “better than thou” people in the world. I certainly refuse to endorse a mother bringing up one more up.
This child doesn’t need to learn any more math, English, science or anything else until she learns one thing: “The world does not remember us by our style or by our wit; it does not remember us by our knowledge or our words; no, the world remembers only one thing: The world remembers love.” (Author unknown – but the author’s love is remembered because he knew that disrespect is never simple – yet it is what wars are made of).
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