Reflections on 2015

I told myself I would post on this blog for a year. The year is almost over and so is this blog.

My experiences tutoring this year have reinforced some of my old ideas and opened my eyes to some current problems in education. 

• Parents often feel they have no place to turn for guidance when their child has a learning difference. Tutoring may help a student if the parent finds one who is experienced teaching students with LDs. The goal should be remediation, not just helping with homework. Remediation requires time and commitment from the child and the family. Once a week after school is not enough to remediate a reading or math learning difference. Remediation in school also takes time and consistency.
• Schools often expect all children to follow the same timetable of development. Unfortunately, not all children have been given the same memo. Some children need more time, more practice, or more challenges. Too often adults, despite the profuse amount of current brain research, see children as short, young people with grown-up brains. These adults, unfortunately, may be found in curriculum development, education administration, or politics.
• School's reactions to LDs vary. Some schools do a great job with remediation. Some schools do a great job with appearing to remediate. Some schools don't even seem to be trying. 
• Just as children differ in the rate of their development, each LD is  unique in each child. Leaning differences reside in children who have their own specific mix of intelligence, personality, strengths, culture, and family.
• In 2001 David Elkind wrote the book The Hurried Child. It bemoaned a culture that rushes children to adulthood. Fifteen years later it appears that many schools have joined this mad scramble to some unknown finish line. Some children, bored with the pace of school, need the push. Others need time and smaller steps to be successful. Unfortunately, the pace required of many children allows them little time to savor childhood or the joy of learning.

So I plan to tutor less, create more, try some new journeys, and slow down my own

Taken on one of my journeys

pace. 

1+1 = ? Remember to Explain Your Answer

I am meeting more and more children who are having difficulty with basic arithmetic. Many of them are finding 1st and 2nd grade math difficult, if not impossible. Their parents are dealing with crying, frustrated, bewildered children. Parents, not sure of what the problem is, are turning to tutors for help. Often I find the child is struggling not with math but with language requirements. Many of these children can do simple arithmetic, but they can't explain how they do it. They also cannot explain how gravity takes them down a slide or explain the difference between the words a and the in a sentence. Children manage, however, to play on a slide and to use correct articles when speaking.

The new standards for math demand explanations. The mantra is, "We want students to understand math." One would hope that those who create tests reported to measure a child's "understanding" of a subject would themselves have an understanding of child development. 

There are many things in life a child does before being able to explain them. There are many things an adult does that he may have difficulty explaining. How many drivers can explain in detail what happen mechanically in a car when they hit the brakes? How many can explain the physics involved as the car stops?

A recent Atlantic article about the push for students to explain math was one of the few articles I have seen that discusses the problems some students have with this process. Although this article referred to middle school I have found that the push to explain one's answer starts in elementary school. Students on the autism spectrum, students with language problems, and students with delayed speech are put at a disadvantage when asked to explain, even with they can quickly and accurately find the answer to several of the same types of math problems.

Many younger children may not have yet developed the thought process which gives them the ability to explain the abstract. Some young students have problems with the eye hand coordination needed to circle or created the tiny lines and blocks needed to show regrouping in addition and subtraction. It is important to allow children to use concrete items when learning arithmetic. The fact that many children need these items makes one question their ability to then verbalize let alone write about an abstract algorithm. The other reality is that sometimes it is very difficult to explain in words something very simple. Some ideas are so simple that it takes a philosopher to make it convoluted through an explanation. 

Too often teachers are asked to encourage math discussions with children who get confused by the various suggested methods. While middle schoolers may have an aha moment when a peer discusses a math shortcut, a 7 year old may tune out because they haven't mastered the method, and don't have a true foundation to understand shortcuts.

Some students hit a math wall when introduced to fractions. Others hit a wall when introduced to algebra. I would be interested to see how many are hitting the wall when learning addition and subtraction today compared to a few decades ago.

There are many adults who claim to be "bad at math." Because of demands placed on them to "understand the math," some children who may get the process, and later with practice and maturity might understand the underlying concepts, decide early on that math is too hard. What good does it do to work one's way through a math problem, get the correct answer, and then be deemed ignorant because you can't give an adult explanation of how you got that answer?

We are not even going to touch the problem of children who can explain what they did in math (perhaps through memorization) and get credit for that explanation; but who seldom get the correct answer to a basic arithmetic problem. While it is true they will be using calculators someday, one wonders at the ability to explain without the ability to produce.

Teaching vs. Paperwork

Many years ago I went back to school to get certified to teach special education. In the U.S. teaching certification credentials are given by each state, but much of special education consists of following ....  federal laws! So a majority of the class time was focused on learning the national laws that apply to this field. What I received for my time and money was a brief overview of the various teaching methods one might use in the various types of special education, and an in-depth study of the federal laws that apply to special education students.

When I completed the course of study and satisfied the other requirements, I decided to look for a job. After checking out several public schools I decided to teach in a private school. Why? Because at that time I wasn't not impressed at the working conditions for special education in public schools. Most of the resource rooms I checked out consisted of many children going in and out while the resource teacher (also expected to deal with behavior problems that might arise in other classrooms) helped them with modified work. There was very little time for remediation and interruptions were more common than those in the regular classroom. I am sure there were some excellent resource rooms out there, but obviously the teachers in those situations decided to stay put. I spend almost ten years in a private school for children with learning differences. My classes never exceeded eleven students. When I started working at that private school the focus was on the children's needs, and the school had a successful record of remediation as well as modifications.

Special education in the public school still seems to have its problems. This article attributes the difficulty in finding and keeping special education teachers to  the large amount of paperwork required.  People who love to teach seldom make enough money to hire an admin assistant. That causes the reams of paperwork that accompany teaching a child under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to fall into the teacher's workload. It also means that the teacher realizes that if anyone may be sued, due to a parent's dissatisfaction on how their child is being or not being taught, it usually includes the teacher. This is one reason certification for special education focuses on how to fill out paperwork rather than how to teach. Finally large amounts of paperwork and meetings are two reasons that many qualified teachers (teachers who may have been excellent at working with children with special needs) leave the field fairly quickly. Thus schools find themselves unable to comply with the federal mandate requiring certified special educators.

Because of the establishment of  IDEA there are many children receiving an education in public school who would have been sent home 50 years ago. There is a now place in schools for children with physical, mental, emotional, and learning differences. There is an expectation that these children can learn.  But in an effort to be all things to all children the in-the-trenches art of teaching is being watered down. I understand the need for paperwork in an attempt to insure that the intent of the law is followed - although many a parent with an excellent Individual Education Plan (IEP) in their file cabinet will tell you that they doubt that the plan is really being followed. But an over abundance of paperwork, schedules, and due dates means that less attention can be giving to the act of teaching. Good teachers lose the joy of teaching, good schools find themselves unable to meet federal mandates for certified special education teachers, and students . . . well, too many students find themselves unable to read the paperwork that assures them their individual needs will be met.

Still Learning

Recently I signed up for an Internet Spanish course.  It seemed a bit like buying a lottery ticket, although I probably have a greater chance at winning the lottery than learning another language. Having sat through numerous college classes, viewed foreign TV marathons, taken adult ed, made friends who speak no English, I still do not know another language. When I lived outside the U.S. my new friends and neighbors, seemingly through their acquaintance with me, learn enough English to discuss Plato. Despite all my efforts, when I left their country I could say yes, no, and order a glass of wine.

For my next attempt to learn a new language I selected a self-paced course through fluencia.  The first few lessons are free but then I have to pay. I hesitated, decided I needed a challenge, and spent the money. What did I learn? Well, yes I am learning that while I am still terrible at languages I can pick up a bit of Spanish. But this endeavor is reminding me of some teaching truths:

1. It helps when materials are presented in more than one way. The method fluencia uses is basically: hear it, see it, try it, repeat it.  Too often we do not give children several ways to learn a topic. Just listen! we tell them. "Are you listening?" we ask when they don't quite get it.  Well, I listen but it sure helps me to see it, too. 
2. Speaking of listening. I am amazed at the simple things I forget that I just heard and saw. I find myself forgetting something that I supposedly learned two minutes ago. When children are learning new information, even when they are paying attention, sometimes they forget. As adults we tend to forgo things that are difficult. We then forget how the brain reacts to learning difficult new material.
3. Old knowledge helps. The fact that I know what an article or infinitive is helps me recognize some of my mistakes. Past knowledge often helps children learn new material.
4. Old knowledge hinders. I tend to want to type the Spanish word cuánto with a qu. The kw sound is wired into my typing fingers as a qu.  The child who learns something incorrectly such as writing "sed" for "said" has to work doubly hard at losing the habit.
5. Learning strengths are deceptive. I think that I have a good auditory memory. Actually I have a great memory for conversations. When I was a journalist I seldom took detailed notes because I could remember exact words spoken. I realize when attempting to learn Spanish that my auditory memory depends on context. Just because a child can memorize a poem, Pokemon cards, or name 50 dinosaurs does not mean he can easily remember all the vowel sounds.
6. Small steps also help. So do hints. When given a word bank (a set of words) I can arrange then into a coherent answer to a question given in Spanish. Ask me to just answer the question without giving me some words to use and the results are not nearly as coherent. Having the word bank  is a good step in the right direction. It helps me realize that I am learning. It does not mean, however, the material has been learned.  I will not always have a word bank and must venture out on my own. Yes, word banks can be a helpful modification for children with LDs, but they need to be weaned away from them.  Life seldom provides modifications. 
7. Rewards help. Just seeing that I am on a 7-day learning streak makes me determined not to break it. This is not a major reward for children so stickers, checks, etc. do have a place in education. Having skin in the game also helps. I paid for a year long course and remind myself not to waste money. This helps me force myself to try the exercises every day. Children are sent to school. Despite what we tell them most really haven't invested anything to be there. So remember the rewards.
8. Repetition is essential. When I am learning something difficult I need to have the ability to go back and review constantly. As a adult I select the areas I need to repeat. For some children the chance to decide what to review would delight them, giving them the opportunity to be in charge of their learning. Most children, however, don't know what they forgot so ongoing review of everything is essential. Often children are rushed through a skill. They may say "Got it," but without repetition and practice the new skill is never really learned. It is essential that children who need time to learn material have that time. 
9. Long breaks don't help. A short trip out of town interrupted my learning. Getting back in the habit was difficult. Children with LDs often show regression after a four-day weekend. The summer break can be devastating to their learning.

I believe adults benefit from the experience of learning something difficult every now and then. It can be a physical or mental challenge, but it needs to be outside of the circle of things that are easy. The lessons learned help our interactions with children and get us out of any self-imposed ruts. It is a great gift to our children and to ourselves.

Educational Industrial Complex

Interesting web site about which companies influence public education.

Education's Paradox: All or Nothing?

When a child is having difficulty in school parents are faced with a paradox. Most people in the U.S. agree that all children are entitled to a "good" education. All children currently add up to almost 50 million public school students taught by over 3 million teachers. Because our population is so diverse it is becoming more difficult for teachers to give special attention to all who need it.   

All parents want their child (who is one in 50 million) to have a great teacher. This would mean of the three million teachers working we hope they are all experienced, intelligent, loving, knowledgeable, excellent teachers. Oh, and these excellent people should ignore better paying jobs. And ignore anyone questioning better pay for teachers because they get so much time off. This, of course, is from people who declare they would go crazy staying home all day with their own children. 

These excellent teachers should forgo jobs with better working conditions and dedicate themselves to students who may be hungry, angry, tired, noisy, or perhaps even . . . creating discipline problems. It has been reported that in a single year 145,100 public school teachers have been physically attacked by students and another 276,700 had been threatened with injury by a student.

Classrooms may include students who don't speak English, have emotional, physical, or learning differences, or who simply don't want to be at school. And it is not just the teacher's efforts and attention that has to be divided among these students. Your child may be distracted in a classroom by students working diligently at getting attention: negative or positive.

So worried that your child isn't on grade level, or may have a Learning Difference, or is just really unhappy at school, you may decide to check out private schools. This of course requires money, availability, and often the realization that while private schools claim to be selective - dollars hold sway here, too. And while some great teachers may love the idea of smaller more disciplined classes, others cannot or will not take the pay cut. Of course, some private school have larger, or less disciplined classes than some public schools.

If you find yourself staying awake nights wondering what to do about your child's K-5 education there are a few things to ponder:

1. If you had one or two days of problems but most of the year things have been going well -- relax. Everyone has good and bad days -- in childhood and adulthood.
2. If there is a physical danger to your child or he is consistently beaten down emotionally put all your efforts in finding another place: private, home or another public school. It can be done.
3. If you are worried about the academic content, but feel that overall school is OK, supplement. Get a tutor,  find supplemental material for your child to work on during the summer or on a few weekends a month. Remember museums, zoos and libraries have classes for children. Do research before and during vacation trips to teach your child history and geography.  Show her how to make change or measure a room for a rug. Cook with your child.  Talk about important ideas with other adults in front of your child. Read, read, read to your child.
4. If you are worried that your child is has a learning problem talk to her teacher about getting your child tested. Join a group that will walk you through the process of getting help in a public school. Find a tutor with experience teaching children with learning problems. Research the Internet to see what is available. Check this Pinboard for ideas on how you can help your child.

Remember there is no perfect school for your child. There is not a perfect school for any child. We all learn to live with imperfections. Acknowledge any big problems, take care of them, and don't sweat the small stuff.

Reflections on Closure

Lately, I have been seeing a number of children who appear to have difficulty with closure. I am not referring to the popular idea of getting closure after some tremendous, or not so tremendous, trauma; but rather the inability to fill in the gaps of a visual or auditory experience. Visual closure is "the ability to recognize an object as a whole when only parts are shown."   Auditory closure is the ability to understand a word or sentence when hearing only a part of it.  A child who has difficulty with one or both of these abilities often has difficulty in school.

Sight words are difficult to learn for a child who finds it problematic to recognize a word without taking conscious note of each individual letter. Many of these children dutifully sound out words such as cat, and, and in while their peers are blithely reading quickly and fluently. Problems with auditory closure may make it difficult for a young child to obey directions, or to follow a story that is being read to a group.  A child with auditory and visual closure problems may find school expectations overwhelming.

If your child is having difficulty in school and testing for a learning difference has been suggested, visual and auditory closure  problems may be diagnosed.  While there are children for whom this is a major problem and require professional help, some children just have to be shown what is expected.

Children can be pretty concrete when it comes to academics. When learning to write, a child may question what number a non-perfectly written 2 is.  Adults then sigh and correct their writing but often just asking a child "what number do you think it is?" helps the child realize that slight differences don't change the reality of numbers or letters.

Although some children have extreme problems with closure, many just need some explanations and practice on these skills. Books with rhyming words, (nursery rhymes, Dr. Seuss, etc.) have a pattern that most children pick up from repeated hearing. Pointing out the obvious helps the child who doesn't seem to be able to predict that fish might rhyme with wish.  Adding why to a short question requires your child to expand her answer.  Modeling expected answers also helps some children.  The talkative child may learn to hold back a bit and the shy child may learn to answer in more than one word. 

Visual closure may be helped by copying a picture, a word or a sentence. Pointing out which letters go above or below a line is useful to some children. Boxing a word to emphasize the shape of the letters may help.  

There are electronic games that help a child learn about closure, but more important is the act of playing.  Running, jumping, playing outdoors, making up games with one's friends, settling arguments without adult help, all these activities help a child understand the world.  Taking a child to a museum, pointing out new things, using vocabulary, reading to a child, and demanding that a child at times calm down, watch, listen and learn helps children to understand how they learn.  Experience helps with closure. 

Remember school is a place where children are taught to think in a specific manner.  All stories must have a beginning, middle and end.  Most of today's children's stories have predictable happy endings. Math problems require that all work be shown even if we can do the easy stuff in our heads. We ask children "what do you think the author meant," but a child may hesitate answering because they think, "I am not the author so I really don't know what he meant." We expect children to give exact answers in a specific manner but not until they get older do we explain to them that there is more than one answer. Some children just need to be told that there is a specific way to do things in school and it isn't worth the effort to argue about it.  There will come a time when they will have more choices and more power.

"Blessed are the weird people:

poets, misfits, writers,

mystics, painters, troubadours

for they teach us to see the world 

through different eyes"

Jacob Nordby

I have a feeling most of us originally saw the world through different eyes -- but the group activity of school narrowed our vision.

Quiet Please

Recently I went whale watching. On the deck of the small boat I observed a young mother who was obviously enchanted with her baby. Now, the best thing for humanity is having mothers enchanted with their offspring, but the game these two were playing didn't bode well for the future likability of this child. The baby would scream at the top of his lungs, mom would laugh and reply with a softer scream, and the baby would scream again. I always wondered why so many children seem to love to hear themselves scream. I had no idea they were encouraged to do this. 

One might think that children enjoy noise; after all they often are pretty noisy. Many adults don't enjoy the loudness of a large group of children but few people think that perhaps there are children who don't enjoy the constant activity and noise created by their peers. Most of us forget that there are children who hate noise. There are children who have a difficult time concentrating in a noisy environment. These children are highly stressed by noise. Some of those stressed children are the ones making the noise. However, most children who dislike noise are the quiet ones.

In this world where children are not only seen but heard and heard and heard, it is getting more and more difficult to find an oasis of silence. Libraries have become interactive community centers, full of the sounds of video games, talking, and arguments. Schools encourage cooperative learning where every one works in groups and discusses what to do. More and more parents of young children complain of how loud their child's classroom has become. Some children have difficulty hearing the teacher over the pandemonium let alone concentrating on learning new skills. 

Leaving the school grounds doesn't make it better. Has anybody tested the decibel level on a school bus full of children? After school many children spend a few hours in a cacophony of children's voices at daycare. Some children's evenings are spent playing sports while hearing the roar of a crowd. Others go home to the constant background noise of siblings squabbling or TV. We have a difficult time providing a moment of silence in many children's lives.

I am not saying we should expect complete silence from or for children.  But .... today there seems to be fewer and fewer quiet places for children. Children sometimes need to hear their own thoughts. Some children are extremely sensitive to their environment. They easily become overwhelmed by odors, sights, or sound. They need a quiet place to unwind. Others have the type of personality that needs time to work alone with only their own ideas for company. This article about introverts explored not only the need for silence for the introvert but also the need for quiet in the life of an active extroverted child.  The hyperactive child's frantic behavior  is often exacerbated by the noise and activities of our everyday life.  

Parents should be their children's advocate. If possible put your child in a school that has a balance of quiet and noisy activities. Have a quiet hour in the house when no machines are running (washer, dryer, TV, computer).  Go for a quiet walk with your child outside. If it is obvious that your child needs some down time, limit after school activities or select activities that take place in a quiet environment. Stillness is a welcomed gift in this busy world.

Math Education Rant - Part 2

What Can be Done 

The previous post Math Education Rant - Part 1 divided young math students into three groups: the top students for whom math makes sense and is generally pretty easy, the middle students, usually the majority of a class, and the poor students who find math extremely difficult. My opinions about math education in elementary school take into account all three groups.

1. Maria Montessori based her educational methods on child development. She understood the prerequisites for a child to be ready for math (and other subjects) in a classroom. Her prerequisites were "First a child has established internal order, Second the child has developed precise movement. Third, the child has established the work habit. Fourth, the child is able to follow and complete a work cycle. Fifth, the child has the ability to concentrate. Sixth, the child has learned to follow a process. Seventh, the child has used symbols." Once a child reached this maturity of mind and a readiness to work, it was time for them to work with concrete math materials. There are far too many students who start kindergarten without these prerequisites. These children need to be given time and a curriculum to make sure they have "a readiness to work." 
2. Speaking of time, there is a continuous pushing down of the curriculum. When five-year-olds are expected to do first grade work we are pushing them to learn concepts they may not be developmentally ready to learn. There are complaints about the number of students who require remedial math classes when they start college. Perhaps if children were given time to learn at the beginning of their academic careers, they wouldn't need as much at the end. I have seen first graders who were having difficulty with double-digit addition. When tutoring these children it was apparent that they were still having trouble identifying written numbers such as 11 or 12!
3. Most children in elementary grades need concrete materials to help them understand abstract ideas. Using Unifix blocks, Cuisenaire rods or other math materials needs to be a continuous activity. One day of demonstrating a concept doesn't give children enough time to work through the process on their own. Many teachers stop the use of concrete items in the upper elementary grades, but most children still need concrete items to understand fractions and decimals.
4. Teachers need to understand that manipulating concrete items like beads, while necessary for young children, doesn't mean the children transfer that knowledge to the abstract symbols of numbers. The symbols need to be taught with the items, but that still does not mean a child will totally understand an abstract concept. 
5. In a effort to insure that children "understand" the underpinnings of math we overwhelm them with explanation. Some children who might be good at math are hindered by this overuse of words. An explanation of how to do a complicated process, even with a demonstration, is very difficult for some young children to understand. Requiring students, themselves, to explain the process is even more difficult if they have poor language and/or writing skills.
6. While in theory teaching a child more than one method to do basic arithmetic sounds good, that approach adds a layer of confusion to some children. They may decide to combine the methods, and do so incorrectly, or never thoroughly learn any one method. Adults may readily see how the methods are related, but an eight-year-old may not have the language, or cognitive ability to see this.
7. The visually busier the page (lines, boxes, circles) the more difficult it is for some children to comprehend what they are suppose to do. Lattice multiplication is an example of this. I have tutored children frustrated by required lattice multiplication because the spaces were too small for their large handwriting. A child with visual perception problems can even be confused by graph paper!
8. Some children need more time to learn than others. We have no problem understanding a young child wanting to hear the same book read again and again. We need to give the children who need it time for repetition, or a break to do something else, and then come back to the concept. I worked with classes of children who had difficulty with math (as you can see in the example I gave in Part 1) Parents raved at the progress their children made in my class. I often felt it was just lucky that I taught a child the year he or she was finally able to understand the lessons. When I tutor I meet young children who obviously can't understand something (glazed eyes, a look of panic and complete confusion, etc.) who three months or even three weeks later find it suddenly makes sense. Educators have to be aware if something is beyond a student's ability at a given time. If we can't give an elementary school age child the necessary time, there is something extremely wrong with our education system.

The above eight points concern the need to look at children's ability to learn rather than what is being taught. Too often curriculum ignores the learning differences in children, the various developmental stages of the young student, and the variation of abilities in the new student. The next paragraphs concerns how to implement teaching a curriculum to groups of young children. 

I had the privilege to do student teaching in a school with an excellent math program. The entire school (k-5) had math the first period. The math curriculum had been divided into weekly modules. Each module had a pre- and post test. This allowed a child to test out of a module. The school had specific teachers who worked with children who had to repeat a module. Repeat modules tended to include more hands-on materials and more individual attention. Because everyone had math at the same time, the student who tested out of a module could move up right away. Math classes might consist of children in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. A child who found math easy was not held back, but still could repeat a module when she came to material that gave her difficulty. A student who might have difficulty in subtraction could still move up if he found it easy to measure perimeter. Some modules were reviews of pre-requisite skills for new concepts. 

The children seemed to love math. The math-adept second graders got to go to class with fourth graders. All children knew that if they didn't "get something" they would have a chance to try it again. No one seemed to feel bad about having to repeat a skill because everyone had to repeat now and then, and you got a different teacher when you repeated a module. Worksheets tended to have large print, simple instructions, and plenty of white space since there was a limited amount of material and it was understood that there might be very young children in a class with subject matter often taught only to older children.

The U.S. tends to have a math curriculum that is very broad (many topics) and fairly shallow (not much depth to each topic.) Modules allowed students to get the depth they needed.  I am not suggesting that all schools use this method but I believe elementary schools should have math programs based on the idea that children need to be able to work at different speeds and move up or down at their own pace. The emphasis should be on children and how they learn, rather than on speeding through a curriculum, holding children back who could readily move ahead under the guise of saying, "Why those children learn while they are helping others," and refusing to recognize that individuals might find some areas of math easier than others.  Such a program would give all children a change to get a firm foundation to build on, rather than a shaky platform to start middle school. 

Reflections: Teacher or Tutor?

I have been a teacher and a tutor. What is the difference between those two jobs? Teachers have to cater to parents, school boards, and administrators. A good teacher has to be a genius at group management. Teachers have to prioritize a great many activities that have very little to do with children learning. Teachers have to work with someone else's idea of a curriculum. Teachers have to attempt to teach whoever ends up in their classroom. And today, public school teachers have to deal with testing, testing, and more testing. In exchange for this a public school teacher, who hangs in there, gets a decent (but certainly not a fantastic) salary, a great retirement, and pretty good benefits. If she is lucky she has some wonderful students, great parents, and a supportive administrators. Private school teaching is similar, but often has smaller classroom size, less testing,  smaller salaries, and a much smaller (if any) retirement. 

A tutor has autonomy, no administration, the right to turn away a student or parent, and the freedom to choose what to teach and how to teach it. The student has one-to-one attention of an adult who can change the curriculum or method immediately if need be. Of course, there are many types of tutors, but I am writing about independent, private tutors.

After many years of teaching in private schools I retired. Now I tutor a small select number of children. Being a teacher improved my ability to tutor and being a tutor has improved my ability to teach. Being a teacher introduced me to various curriculums and paradigms about special education. I was sent to numerous workshops. I watched presentations on brain research and saw sales pitches on various programs based on "current" research.  I saw computer programs, and all inclusive boxed programs (which included teacher manuals, workbooks, flashcards, games and access to a website). I met teachers who for years varied nary a micron from rote instruction, and I saw creative teachers who, in the creative process, somehow lost the goal of what was to be taught. 

But, most importantly, I saw children succeed and I saw children fail. I knew children attending expensive private schools that specialized in teaching children with LDs; children exposed for several years to researched computer programs, small classrooms, and focused reading programs, who somehow never quite learned to read or calculate. Many of these children had been pulled from good public schools that had, despite wonderful IEPs, failed to teach them to read or comprehend basic arithmetic. I met parents desperately trying their best to find something to help their children who, despite average or high IQs, were not learning basic skills. 

So now that I am a few years away from school and a few years into tutoring what have I learned?  I've now concluded some children are pushed too hard at too young an age to read and write. I believe that children have to be challenged, not coddled, if they have an LD; but the challenges don't negate the need for remediation. A child can memorize poetry, understand literature, learn history, explore science, and still need to be in a beginning reading program. We must remember, especially in the lower grades, that we teach children, not curriculum. I now have the time to back track if something is obviously too difficult for a child. 

You don't let children give up, but you don't push them beyond their abilities. Time and time again I have seen the importance of TIME. A child who wants to quit because he can't get the letter q oriented in the right direction is (after a two weeks of just writing it on paper with his finger) begging to try it again with a pencil. That child is delighted that he can now write a great q! A child who can't remember a single sight word at age six, flies through 10 words a week at age seven. 

In a perfect world we would have no more than five children in beginning reading and math classes. Those who needed more time would get it. Those who didn't need constant repetition would move on. There would be individualized help for a child who was having a difficult time learning to read. We would have patient, intelligent teachers who would focus on the goal while having a plethora of methods and time to reach that goal. These teachers would receive the same praise and salary as the high school coach. Think of it in cost benefit terms: If everyone could read and understood basic math by the time they reached high school, tax dollars for remediation wouldn't be needed and graduation rates would go up.   In addition all school athletes would be able read.

Reflections on Boredom

Back in the "old" days children seldom said they were bored. Why? Well, if you said you were bored your mom or dad would find something for you to do such as mow the lawn, wash the car, mop the floors. clean the garage, or some other fun-filled activity that would keep you busy. Today, however, boredom has become the mantra of many children.

So what do you do when your child says they are bored? First, figure out what bored means to your child.

Bored can mean this is too difficult. A child may not really know how to do something, whether it is long division, writing a book report, or fixing a zipper. Not wanting to look stupid they say they are bored. There is an easy fix. Show them what to do. If they really can't do it, maybe developmentally they aren't ready for it.

Being bored can also mean a task is too easy. Five math problems can be done. Twenty of the same type of problems every night for a month really are boring to a child who can easily figure out the answers. If your child is finding all of his classwork too easy, perhaps you should look carefully at his school placement.

Being bored may mean you child really doesn't know how to entertain herself.  This is when you encourage your child to explore the library, painting, cooking, dog grooming, anything to help your child find a passion. A child (or an adult) with a passion should not be bored.

But sometimes being bored is saying, "This isn't fun. I don't want to finish this," which means, "I am not being entertained." Now is the time you should decide what kind of adult you hope to send out into the world. Staying up with a sick child isn't entertaining, visiting a loved one in a hospital or a nursing home isn't entertaining, walking the dog everyday (especially in the cold or rain) isn't entertaining.  A doctor seeing the tenth sore throat of the day, a pharmacist counting pills at the end of the day, an engineer checking the numbers for the third time, a cook making sure the chicken is safe -- there are many tasks in life that are not entertaining. Do you want to send your child into a world where nobody takes responsibility for anything that isn't fun?

So, who's bored?  I have a kitchen that needs to be cleaned.

Reflections on Memory

I wanted to write something about memory before posting Executive Functions II.  I am not a memory expert, psychologist, or neurologist. I am writing about memory because of its importance for success in school.

Memory can be divided into three large categories: long term, short term, and working. Short term memory is really short. It refers to items we remember for about 30 seconds.  Most of us can hold five to nine items in short term memory, although some things we place in short term memory ultimately end up in long term memory.

Long term memory has a broader definition. It can be something remembered for a Friday test and forgotten by Saturday. It can cover the memories of the birth of our child, or our childhood home. It is why we know our name and address and the day of our favorite TV show. "Long term memories duration might be a few minutes or a lifetime."

Working memory is probably the closest we come to trying to multi-task. It requires the use of short term memory, while retrieving information from our long term memory.  It has been defined as "the ability to store and manage information in the mind for a short period of time." Doing a math problem requires working memory. We know how to add and write numbers, and we are keeping the numbers we are working on in our short term memory while calculating the answer. Reading also requires working memory.

The next aspect of memory is what we are remembering.  We have the ability to remember sounds and speech (auditory memory) and to remember what we see or picture(visual). Our other senses also have the ability to evoke memories, especially the sense of smell. 

Other than remembering where you put the baby, what does this have to do with children? Children develop better working memory with age. But research is showing that people with learning differences often have poorer working memories. Some research shows that children with dyslexia  score lower on verbal memory tasks and children with dyscalculia score lower on memory of counting tasks. 

Children with a poor working memory (with or without a learning difference) have problems with academics. Over 80% of children whose working memory is in the bottom 10% of the population fail to thrive academically in school. Other current research is looking at ways to improve working memory through training and medication.  

What should a parent take away from this post? 

1. Children's working memory develops as they age, so set realistic expectations for your young child.
2. Poor working memory is often a component of a learning difference. 
3. Because working memory is jumping between short term and long term memory it is important that a child memorize math facts and phonics rules.  
4. Because of difficulty in visual or spatial memory, it will take extended time and practice for a child to learn these facts and rules.

Memory also impacts executive functions. Future posts will include activities to help a child improve his memory.

Beyond Academics - Executive Functions 1

Controlling Actions and Emotions

Parents worry how their child is doing in school. How is his reading compared to the rest of the class? Is she being challenged in math?  Do we need to worry about achievement test results?  But school is more than academics. Your child's happiness and success in school will always be enhanced by strong executive functions.

Executive functions? We are talking about a child, not a CEO! Executive  functions aren't just for executives. Executive functions include

• the ability to control actions and emotions, and 
• the ability to plan, organize, and prioritize.

Anyone who has cared for a toddler knows that we aren't born with these abilities. Parents, school, and experience teach us these skills. The ease of acquiring good executive functions depends a great deal on personality and environment. Children, no matter how bright, who do not develop these skills will find school more and more difficult as they move through the grades.

Controlling emotions and actions: Many adults have difficulty with emotional control so learning to roll with the punches is not easy for some children. Anger control is important, but the super sensitive child also needs to learn control. The ten-year old who always crying or looking miserable may have as many problems as the ten-year old who is always mad.

Dr. Kenneth Barish writes, "We want children to have their feelings, but not be overwhelmed by them -- to feel discouraged but not give up; to feel anxious but not stay home; and to be excited but not get so carried away in their enthusiasm that they use poor judgement."

How do we help a child learn this? Recommendations include:

• Teaching a child to recognize and name feelings, (Example: Anger may be a reaction to feeling hurt) It is important to help a child realize not only his own feelings but the feelings of others.
• Listening and acknowledging a child's feelings and concerns. Give a child one-to-one time to talk about concerns and feelings. 
• Modeling appropriate behavior ourselves and apologizing if our emotions get away from us. 
• Discussing with a child how she can appropriately express a feeling. Help them realize feelings are different from actions.
• Rewarding appropriate behavior.  
• Be aware of what type of behavior is being rewarded. The child who gets what she wants by whining or throwing a tantrum is learning that there is no need to regulate one's emotions, and there is a reward for acting out. A child who always gets cuddles and is given excuses whenever she is crying or looking hurt may be learning that she is sensitive and no one should upset her.

Hunger, tiredness, illness, and trauma influence everyone's emotions. Most parents recognize a tired, hungry toddler. Parents also need to be aware of these forces on the elementary age child. Just as importantly parents need to be aware how their own reactions are affected by being stressed, tired, or hungry.

Know when a reaction is age appropriate behavior.  Two-year-olds have temper tantrums and elementary school age children worry and may cry about things that seldom cross our minds. Children are sensitive to many things we have learned to ignore. Recognize and accommodate a child who is sensitive to noise or bright lights or other sensory input. As a child gets older help them learn how to handle the sensitivities themselves. A 2nd grader may need quiet when learning a new task. A 4th grader needs to learn that there may not always be complete silence whenever she wants it. Do not expect a child to react like an adult. It is important that your child trust you enough to bring you any adult problems they may encounter. There are times when a parent has to take charge of a problem.

On the other hand there are times when adults need to be direct with a child. A good parent will tell a young child, "I know you are angry but you can't hurt yourself," and remove a child from a situation. There is nothing wrong with telling a school age child that they don't need to have hysterics and go to the nurse for every minor injury. Sometimes an adult needs to point out to a child how her actions helped create a bad situation which resulted in hurt feelings on both sides. For example saying mean things to someone may result in not getting an invitation to her party. 

Parents don't need to run in and fix everything. Natural consequences, such a something getting lost or broken due to constant irresponsible behavior, are learning tools. A child may not need a lecture, but they also do not need an immediate replacement.

Select when to discuss behavior with a child. A child in the middle of a tantrum or crying jag is not able to listen. Wait until the child has calmed down to discuss a more appropriate reaction. Work with your child to come up with ways they can stop behavior before it escalates.

The best time to discuss how to act is when the child succeeds through his own effort. We need to point out good results when they are happening. For example when a child succeeds at something academically or  athletically it is a good time to point out how his hard work got him to this point. When you see your child start to act angry, but take a deep breath and stops, recognize it and give your approval. 

As parents we want to fix things for our child. Sometimes, though, things can't be fixed. All children need to learn that some bad things happen through no fault of their own. This is one reason children's books and movies often include hardships. Bambi's mother got shot; Old Yeller died; but the movie didn't end there. Life goes on.

FOR THE QUIET CHILD

The spotlight dances upon

The wild child

Streaking across the room

Talking,  fidgeting,  forgetting

Homework, rules, consideration

Like an attention-seeking missile

Demanding 

All eyes on me!

The eyes, minds, and voices of the teachers comply

As hordes of quiet students

Huddle

Lost in the background

Invisible in their cloaks of obedience

While

Trying to learn

Reflections on Dyslexia

An Introduction

The diagnosis of dyslexia is often the beginning a long journey, starting with the question of what exactly is dyslexia?

The International Dyslexia Association' s definition is "Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge."

I almost felt dyslexic reading the above definition. I think of dyslexia as difficulty reading because of the way an individual's brain processes print. The reading difficulty is not due to lack of intellectual ability, vision, hearing, English as a second language, or poor teaching.

People with dyslexia usually have difficulty interpreting the sounds (phonological components) of the language. Most people hear and process the sounds in a word so rapidly that they don't even realize they have done it. We hear the sound each letter makes in the word p-i-g and read it without dividing the sounds. People with dyslexia need structured, sequential, reading instruction that retrains the brain to decode letters into a word. People who have dyslexia also may have trouble with spelling, writing, or learning a foreign language. 

As a former teacher I have seen several issues with the diagnosis of dyslexia.  They include;

• Difficulty for parents and some teachers to understand how much effort a dyslexic person needs to make to learn to read 
• Acknowledging that the  diagnosis of dyslexia does not take away the individual characteristics of a child. A mildly, dyslexic child with an IQ around 85, ADHD, and little concern about learning may need a different approach to remediation than a severely dyslexic, focused child, with a 140 IQ,  and high anxiety about learning.  
• Unrealistic expectations of the amount of time needed to remediate a poor reader. Even the best instruction will require a long-term commitment. 
• Lack of awareness of all the other things a child is learning while trying to improve reading skills. Children are expected to learn sports, social skills, math, history, science, music, and art while they are working at learning (for them) the very difficult skills of reading and spelling. Most adults would not like to tackle that many subjects at one time.
• Severity of the dyslexia. Some children are mildly dyslexic and with good instruction fairly quickly become better than adequate readers. Some children are severely dyslexic and need many years of instruction along with modifications in their other work so they do not fall behind.
• Problems with terminology.  Parents often feel that they are listening to a foreign language when professionals discuss dyslexia: Phonemic awareness, orthographic processing, auditory processing, aphasia, executive function . . .  and then there are the acronyms: ARD, IEP,LD, ADHD, FBA ...! Never be afraid to stop a person and ask  the meaning of a word.
• The specificity of definitions of dyslexia.  For some testers the term dyslexia covers just about any reading problems. In fact,  parents may be told dyslexia can include problems in math, organization, or handwriting. Other testers give problems with math or handwriting  their own term (dyscalculia or dysgraphia). Some believe dyslexia only refers to the problem of phonological (sounds) awareness. They insist that other reading problems should not be labeled dyslexia. And some testers use more specific terms such as auditory discrimination problem, orthographic deficit, phonemic awareness deficit, short or long term memory deficit or visual motor integration disorder.  
• The reasons why a child can't read. Although most people with dyslexia are helped with a structured, phonemic based, multi-sensory approach to reading, the reality is there may be many factors making learning to read difficult for them. A person may have short or long term memory problems, attention deficit, spatial problems, motor problems, or a number of other issues that make learning to read difficult. Some children need more than the standard program given for remediation.

So if your child is having difficulty learning to read, get him tested. The schools are required to test on request. Find an organization that can help guild you through the process. Don't be afraid to ask questions. You are your child's best advocate, not just because you know your child, but because you are the only adult your child has who is in it for the long haul.  

Look for future posts of what can be done, and where to find help for the poor reader.

Map It!

While planning a short trip this weekend, I started thinking about maps. Having recently acquired a great camera, I wanted to drive along back roads in the hopes of finding something picturesque. Plotting my trip on Google maps was a nightmare. Google wants me to take the Interstate (which we all know is scenic wonderland) and had a fit when I attempted to pull the shortest route in a different direction.  It was so annoying having to make the map smaller and larger as I plotted my route that I finally pulled out my trusty atlas of "The Roads of Texas." 

Some of us are old enough to remember road trips of our youth filled with license plate viewing games, stops at Stuckeys, and watching seemingly endless landscapes change while our parents argued about how to refold a map. We got a first hand view of the vastness of the southwest, the height of the Rockies, and the differences in regional restaurants and speech. Children of today will remember road trips filled with electronic games, cell phones, fast food, and selfies taken in the back seat as a robotic voice from the front says turn left. 

Several years ago I asked 4th graders about their spring break ski vacations and discovered that many of them had no idea what state they visited. Sometimes if a I listed a few ski places: Taos? Aspen? Breckenridge? it might ring a bell. One child's family even had a condo that they visited several times a year, yet the child looked blank when I asked where it was. Obviously, if a family has enough money for a ski vacation the lack of location awareness can't be put down to economic deprivation. But in this world of cell phone maps and GPS is learning to read a paper map, locating a country on a globe, or remembering how to get to a new friend's house worthwhile skills? What is acquired from reading paper maps and navigating without GPS ?

•  "Spatial navigation skills can cause the hippocampus and the brain to grow, forming more neural pathways as the number of mental maps increase. Neuroscientist Veroniques Bohbot said, 'The results of studies suggest using spatial memory regularly may improve the function of the hippocampus and could help ward off cognitive impairment as we age." 
• People learn by creating paradigms.  Knowledge of a location helps a child remember what happened there. It is more difficult to learn and memorize history or current events if you don't have a mental image of where it happened. 
• Understanding a region's climate and environment makes travel more fun.  A study from the Applied Research in Quality of Life found that vacationers felt the happiest before a trip! It is difficult to enjoy the anticipation of travel if one has no idea where one is going. 
• People dutifully following a GPS have been known to drive off bridges, go the wrong way, or get totally lost. Walking head down following a phone with GPS limits a person's perception of what is around them, and how they got from here to there. Orientation and navigation skills help a person feel more in control. "The more humans uses GPS, the more cut off from the real world they might become," writes Rebecca Maxwell. 
• Getting a perspective of the size of states, countries, or towns is easier on a globe or large map. While we may appreciate the ease of a map on a phone, a child may not yet have an image to relate size and direction. 

School children are still asked to make maps of their classrooms and taught to read a map. Like any skill, practice adds to the mastery. I urge parents to make maps and a globe available to a child. Plan a trip with your child. Use a map to locate where you are going and how you are getting there. Discuss what you might see and what else is in the area. Ask your child to give you directions to the local grocery store. Play a few observation games on a road trip. Give your child skills that give her confidence to notice and question an obviously incorrect robotic voice's direction.

Tykes and Technology

Many, many years ago I taught computer classes to grade school children.  This was a time when computers were new to the classroom. Most students were enchanted with computers,  and parents were bedazzled by a classroom filled with Apple IIc's. Fast forward to the present and parents are still enamored -- students not so much.

Yet our schools put more and more money into technology. It is estimated that over 2 billion  dollars is spent a year in K-5 public schools for technology. Having worked in private schools I know most parents love it if a school has smart boards, smart phones, computerized instruction, and a couple of computer/laptop labs. The reasons given for this enchantment include:

1. My child is being prepared for the future.
2. My child has access to this at home, so he will get bored if he doesn't get it at school
3. It looks so cool.
4. It can be individualized and she can learn at her own pace!
5. He can go to places and see things through that computer that he couldn't do with just a teacher and books.

Let's consider these reasons:

1. Preparing for the future? The technology will change before your kindergartner reaches middle school.

2. Has it at home? Why yes, and your nine-year-old  is no longer fascinated by it at school. In fact she may be bored and annoyed that school doesn't let her play the neat games she has on her personal tablet.

3. It looks cool. You are right, it does! Just as cool as a butterfly coming out of a chrysalis, or the new wooden castle on the playground, or many of the other delights a child might find in a school.

4. It can be individualized. Maybe. It depends on the program, the teacher, and the school. Remember an individualized program isn't synonymous for an interesting program. The percent of completion by adults of online courses is reported at less than 7%.

5. Virtual field trips are fun! That can be great if a class takes a trip to Antarctica or Mozambique.  But a younger child might get more from a trip to a local site than an interactive TV show. 

Computer educators rave about the use of technology to help children create, control, and collaborate. Many schools, however, use technology to control, placate, and give the teachers a break. Does this mean technology is useless? Of course not.

Technology allows some children to bloom. It gives schools opportunities to open far away worlds to their students. Technology allows and encourages collaboration which may help students become interested in a project or responsible to a group. (The ones who don't, however, tend to bring down the group and create  kids who hate group work.) Technology never gets tired or bored and so can deliver structured, repetitive practice better than humans. (We won't talk about what repetitive movements do to a child's hands.) There are many pluses for using technology in schools.

For young children, however, technology isn't a substitute for good teachers and tactile materials. Children still like a human telling them they are doing something correctly. They still need someone who notices they are having trouble understanding or are having a bad day. Children need to touch, and move, and make messes. They need to focus up close at an ant and look far to the distant clouds. Too much screen time can upset a sleep cycle, or take time from playing with others, or make one a couch potato.

Technology is not going anywhere, but parents and teachers need to communicate how much time a child spends in front of a bright screen at home as well as school. We shouldn't be beguiled by the hype presented by companies that are becoming rich through selling their newest technology to our schools. Those who worry about the physical, emotional, and intellectual development of children know that children should have more than the virtual worlds presented by technology.

Random Reflections - Testing

According to The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)  only 32% of males and 38% of females in 4th grade scored proficient in reading on their 2013 test.  http://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading_math_2013/#/ My first thought was who decides what is proficient at the 4th grade? Are our students really non-proficient or are the standards unrealistic? Someone, or a group of someones, had to decide what a 4th grader should be able to do.

Think about it: 4th graders probably range in age between 8 years 11 months to 10 years 9 months, depending on the state’s age requirements and a child’s birthday. This age grouping doesn’t take into account the child who was held back or who skipped a grade. The slow maturing 8-year-old is a far cry from the fast maturing 10-year-old. Published test results includes scores by race and poverty and (surprise!) that makes a difference in scores.

So I checked on the validity of this test. In other words, is it measuring what it says it measures?  A  2011 Washington post article quoted two experts associated with NAEP’s National Assessment Governing Board as saying, “The proficient achievement level does not refer to “at grade” performance. Nor is performance at the Proficient level synonymous with ‘proficiency’ in the subject. That is, students who may be considered proficient in a subject, given the common usage of the term, might not satisfy the requirements for performance at the NAEP achievement level.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/naep-a-flawed-benchmark-producing-the-same-old-story/2011/11/03/gIQAbnonmM_blog.html

According to Fair Test http://fairtest.org/naep-fair-and-valid-benchmark  “The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) oversaw setting of NAEP levels. A set of experts hired to evaluate the results were fired after sharply criticized the levels-setting process. Subsequently, the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Education, General Accounting Office and many independent researchers all reached the same conclusion: the levels-setting process was flawed.”

My personal opinion is our school children are exchanging valuable learning time for testing prep and test taking. This in only one test (for which our government has spent billions on in the last 20 years), but how many other state and national tests have proficiency levels determined by some faceless group, many of whom have never worked in a classroom or even meet a 4th grader?

The sad thing is I believe many children are not getting the education they need. However, to   build on the quote “Quality cannot not be tested into a product,” I would say it also can’t be tested into a child.