Grammar, Independent Learners, Math, Reading, Writing
Yes, Yes, and Yes. I could not agree more!
In this article from TIME, an English teacher describes her negativity towards being required to have her students memorize word roots only to discover how beneficial it was. And that they didn’t hate it! Fancy that!
In an account of her experience in English Journal, she wrote, “asking students to do rote memorization was the antithesis of what I believed in most.” Still, her department head insisted on it, so Kail went forward with the attitude, “I’ll do it, but I won’t like it.” She was sure her students wouldn’t like it, either.
Suzanne Kail’s experience is instructive. As soon as she began teaching her students the Greek and Latin origins of many English terms — that the root sta means “put in place or stand,” for example, and that cess means “to move or withdraw” — they eagerly began identifying familiar words that incorporated the roots, like “statue” and “recess.”
Kail’s students started using these terms in their writing, and many of them told her that their study of word roots helped them answer questions on the SAT and on Ohio’s state graduation exam. (Research
confirms that instruction in word roots allows students to learn new vocabulary and figure out the meaning of words in context more easily.) For her part, Kail reports that she no longer sees rote memorization as “inherently evil.” Although committing the word roots to memory was a necessary first step, she notes, “the key was taking that old-school method and encouraging students to use their knowledge to practice higher-level thinking skills.”
Why memorization has gotten such a bad rap, I’ll never know as we all hear about how Michael Jordan got to legendary status doing thousands of free throws (muscle memorization). Your brain is no different. Want to get better? Practice, practice, practice. You don’t need to analyze the logic behind why 5 x 6 = 30 each and every time. After learning the concept initially, you need to just know it. 30. No finger counting. 30.
The articles continues with how memorization of math facts is crucial to higher math.
That’s also true of another old-fashioned method: drilling math facts, like the multiplication table. Although many progressive educators decry what they call “drill and kill” (kill students’ love of learning, that is), rapid mental retrieval of basic facts is a prerequisite for doing more complex, and more interesting, kinds of math. The only way to achieve this “automaticity,” so far as anyone has been able to determine, is to practice. And practice. Indeed, many experts who have observed the wide gap between the math scores of American and Chinese students on international tests attribute the Asian students’ advantage to their schools‘ relentless focus on memorizing math facts. Failure to do so can effectively close off the higher realms of mathematics: A study published in the journal Math Cognition found that most errors made by students working on complex math problems were due to a lack of automaticity in basic math facts.
If you want to see an example all the skills needed to solve complex fractions and algebra equations, click HERE to download Gideon’s:
Why Master Lower Levels.
Also for more articles like this, check out
joannejacobs.com who lead me to it initially.
Reading, Young Learners
From WashingtonTimescommunities:
By Brighid Moret
Silver Spring, Md, June 28, 2012 –
The tradition of reading a bedtime story has been around for generations. Sitting on the bed with a parent reading a brightly colored picture book before being tucked into bed is a memory that many adults carry with them. Reading to your child is critically important for language development and is also a great bonding experience for parent and child. Choosing a to read as part of your child’s bedtime routine also helps set a pattern and makes bedtime a more enjoyable prospect to your little one.
Here are 10 of the best bedtime stories: those that focus on sleep or what happens at night. Some are classics, some are newer titles; some are for babies, some are for preschoolers, but you’re sure to find 1 or 2 to fit the bill.
Pajama Time! by Sandra Boyton
(ISBN 9780761119753, Workman Publishing Company, Inc.) “It’s Pajama Time! Jamma, Jamma, Jamma Jamma, PJ!” Sandra Boyton’s books are favorites of many children. This is a fun board book for little kids. It makes putting on pajamas a game or a party. With it’s fun mantra, “It’s pajama time,” and the little pajama dance called the “pajammy,” kids have fun with this book.
Little Owl’s Night by Divya Srinivasan
(9780670012954 Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated) Little Owl spends the night visiting his nighttime animal friends throughout the forest. The artwork is fantastic, and this is a good choice to introduce new animals to your child, like the possum, the raccoon, moths, and crickets. Little owls asks his mother how the night ends, but as she tells him, day breaks and he has fallen asleep.
The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson & Beth Krommes
(9780547577692 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) This is the 2009 Caldecott Winner. It takes you through the house and the things found within a house, to a little sleeping boy who flys out into the nighttime on the back of an owl. After seeing what happens at night, he is returned to the house. The short sentences are good for younger children with shorter attention spans, and the detail in the pictures give children plenty to explore.
I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll & Howard McWilliam
(9780979974625 Flashlight Press) This is a great book for older children, especially those that might be struggling with fear of the dark. In this story, a little boy gets a note from the monster under his bed saying that the monster is going on vacation. The little boy realizes he can’t sleep without his monster. So, he interviews other monsters for the position, but there is a problem with each one that makes them funny rather than scary. In the end, his monster returns and he can fall asleep.
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
(9780694003617 HarperCollins Children’s Books) This classic children’s book is a bedside staple in many homes. In this simple story, a little bunny says goodnight to all the things he sees on his way to bed. Don’t be surprised if your child starts saying goodnight to the objects in your house on his way to bed after reading this book for several nights. The book is so loved by children, that there is even a plush bunny in striped pajamas that you can buy for your child.
Time for Bed by Mem Fox & Jane Dyer
(9780152881832 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) This is a classic bedtime story and is a favorite of many children. It is bedtime, and the animals are putting their babies to sleep. Each set of pages features a different parent and baby animal in their respective environments. The soft watercolor pictures appeal to young children. It’s written in lulling rhythmic manner that is soothing, which is perfect for calming little ones before bed.
Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann
(9780698116498 Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated) This a traditional picture book where the story is told more through the pictures than through the words on the page. The story itself is about a zookeeper that says goodnight to the animal. The gorilla has stolen his keys, and as they make through the zoo, the gorilla lets all the animals out of their cages and they follow the zoo keeper back to his house. This is a good book for young children, as parents can describe what’s going on in the pictures, or you can ask your child what they think is happening.
How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague
(9780590316811 Scholastic, Inc.) Part of the popular “How Do Dinosaurs…” series, Yolen and Teague have created a fun book to address temper tantrums before bed. Each page asks if a dinosaur misbehaves in different ways while saying goodnight. The answer to the question is, no, dinosaurs go to bed just like every parent dreams their child will, peacefully with a big kiss as they turn out the light. Children can relate to the behaviors of the dinosaurs and get the message that bedtime is for quiet. This book is also great for any child who is going through a dinosaur phase, as the name of each dinosaur is labeled somewhere in the picture, so parents aren’t at a loss when a curious child asks what type of dinosaurs is jumping on the bed.
Just Go to Bed by Mercer Meyer
(9780307119407 Random House Children’s Books) This is a book in Mercer Meyer’s popular “Little Critter” series. It’s time for bed, by the little critter wants to play, so every step of the way he uses his imagination to turn the different steps of getting ready for bed, until he pretends himself into bed. This is great for active kids who want to play all night long, showing them that it’s alright to get into bed and go to sleep. It might also give parents a few ideas of how to steer your child’s play towards bed.
The Sleep Book by Dr. Seuss
(9780394800912 Random House Children’s Books) It seems that there is a Dr. Seuss book for every occasion, and bedtime is no exception. In his classic, The Sleep Book, Seuss talks about contagious yawns, snoring, dreaming, sleep talking and sleep walking using his famous rhyme and meter and tongue twisting alliteration. Seuss’s imagination has dominated the children’s picture book market for decades, and this book is no different with it’s fantastic and funny imaginary creatures like the Collapable Fink, the Ofts from the District of Doft, and the Foona-Lagoona Baboona which are all going to sleep in their own weird wacky way. The Sleep Book is quite long, so it is best saved for an older child with a longer attention span.
Reading, Young Learners
By Alex Smith
updated
6/14/2012 4:40:09 PM ETBecause I’m a working father of two kids still in their single digits, my days are pretty full. Since my workday starts relatively late in the morning, I’m able to give my wife a break and drop my children off at school myself. And while I do have those mornings with my kids, those fleeting hours are usually spent getting them dressed, retrieving misplaced bits of clothing and/or homework, and basically playing beat the clock. Quality time it is not. By the time I get them to the door of their school, I’m swiftly pivoting on my heel and sprinting to work, and I don’t get back home until well into the evening.
After a full day in the trenches, I generally get back just in time for the kids’ bedtime. Many nights I may walk in the door weary, worried or with a head full of work-related minutiae, but as soon as my pajama-clad little ones come sprinting out of their room to greet me (and, honestly, is there a better way to start an evening?), all of that goes away. And so begins a nightly ritual I wouldn’t trade for the world.
I cannot overstate how significant reading to my children has been. It’s one of the most enjoyable and cherished parts of my day. I’ve been doing it since my eldest was barely a year old, and it’s served as a bonding time like precious few others. Whether I’m exploring the singsong rhyme scheme of Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault’s “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” or trying to properly capture the ferocious voice of one of Maurice Sendak’s beloved Wild Things, I cannot describe how rewarding it is to peer over at my wide-eyed tykes hanging on every syllable.
Below are a few of the perennial favorites in our home.
‘Go, Dog Go’
By P.D. Eastman
(Random House Books for Young Readers)
A playful exploration of color, proportion and verb conjugation involving whimsical vignettes of dogs playing, working, driving and scrutinizing each other’s hats (“Do you like my hat?” “No, I do not like it!”), P.D. Eastman’s “Go, Dog Go” is an exercise in joyful simplicity, yet replete with enough subtle silliness to make repeated readings compelling.
‘One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish’
By Dr. Seuss
(Random House Books for Young Readers)
Though there are many favorites from the storied Seuss canon in our household — from the “The Sneetches and Other Stories” (an early cautionary tale about intolerance) to “Oh, The Places You’ll Go” (essentially a colorful commencement speech) — “One Fish, Two Fish” remains the rock-solid standby. Seamlessly lending itself to animated readings aloud rife with silly voices and myriad opportunities for call and response, this classic assembles a bizarre bestiary of singularly Seussian creatures like the Zanz, the Gox, the Yink and the Gack, all tailored to prompting fits of gleeful giggles from the footie-pajamas set. As the master himself writes, from there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere.
‘In the Night Kitchen’
By Maurice Sendak
(HarperCollins)
Not quite as celebrated as the aforesaid “Where the Wild Things Are,” the late Maurice Sendak’s “In the Night Kitchen” tells the tale of one little boy’s exploration of a trippy nocturnal realm inhabited by a trio of bakers who inexplicably look like clones of Oliver Hardy. Sendak’s lovingly rendered depiction of the New York skyline reimagined as a pantry full of groceries (with a dash of full frontal nudity) never fails to elicit a response from my children.
‘The Runaway Bunny’
By Margaret Wise Brown
(HarperCollins)
Written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd, the same duo responsible for the timeless classic “Goodnight Moon,” 1942’s “Runaway Bunny” is a rumination on the futility of resisting unconditional love. In a moment of defiance, a young bunny declares his intention to run away. Over the next 48 pages, the mother bunny calmly thwarts each of her offspring’s elaborate escape schemes in an affectionate chess game until the little bunny finally abandons the plan.
‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’
By Beatrix Potter
(Pavilion Press)
What is it with young rabbits? Why are they repeatedly depicted as the juvenile delinquents of the animal kingdom? Regardless, Potter’s 1901 classic foreshadows Brown’s bunny in cotton-tailed disobedience with the sad story of young Peter, a heedless young forest creature who strays from his mother’s clearly stated directives by wreaking havoc in the vegetable garden of the fearsome Mr. McGregor. Punctuated by Potter’s distinctly British prose and lush illustrations of verdant gardens and placid woods, “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” is an enchanting read for parent and child alike.
‘The BFG’
By Roald Dahl
(Puffin)
As my kids have grown older, we’ve started to branch out into more sophisticated fare, like this selection from Roald Dahl. Slightly less Dadaist than the author’s more famous books like “James and The Giant Peach,” “The BFG” (an acronym for “Big Friendly Giant”) remains no less surreal, spinning the yarn of a little girl named Sophie who gets whisked away from a London orphanage by said giant to a land populated by his pointedly unfriendly brethren (vicious man-eaters with names like the Fleshlumpeater and the Childchewer). While disarmingly steeped in some frankly visceral imagery, Dahl’s storytelling narrowly skirts nightmare territory and keeps the proceedings charming.
Dads, what children’s books do you read to your kids?
Independent Learners, Reading
In the age of Googling on your phone for a quick answer or 24-hour news channels giving you two minute stories, are we really thinking deeply anymore? While I enjoy both quick fixes, we ought to spend time regularly analyzing complex subjects if for no other reason than to exercise the brain! Also, students need to practice this skill to be able to think independently.
Graeme Paton from The Telegraph writes
Pupils are so used to receiving information in fast, bite-sized chunks that many struggle to study more complex issues in proper depth, says Helen Fraser, chief executive of the Girls’ Day School Trust.
She says that children should be told to “switch off the computer, the radio, the smartphone, the TV and other distractions” and taught the importance of reading whole books from beginning to end.
She adds: “It’s only by learning deeply about and around a subject that you can truly hope to master it.”
Read the rest of the article here.
Rather than have short paragraph excerpts in our Gideon higher level reading comprehension, we have included entire chapters as the day’s reading. Most of one classic novel is read over a two week period. Our goal is to engage them with the characters and the story which will hopefully entice them to read the rest of the novel. Here’s a day’s reading below.
Dr. Dolittle – Chapter 3
Reading, Young Learners
Great tip to boost your child’s skills while reading stories together!
I love how simple this is to do. This would be great for any child. While we know that most 4 year olds are capable of starting to learn their letter names and sounds or beyond, this is a great start for any 2 or 3 year old child.
From theAtlantic.com, Neil Wagner wrote, “An Easy Trick That Helps Preschoolers Learn to Read: Point to the Words.
“When reading to children, simply reference the fact that the words coming out of your mouth are connected to those on the page.
The earlier children become familiar with the printed word, the better readers they become. And a study from Ohio State University found that preschool is a good time to start. Not reading, exactly, but letting children know that what is being read to them is contained on a printed page.
Preschool teachers who made occasional references to the printed page during storybook reading gave a boost to children’s reading, spelling and comprehension that still lingered two years later.
It starts small: pointing out letters and words on the pages, showing capital letters and showing that you read from left to right and top to bottom. At first, printed words are just squiggles to children. This is their first step at cracking the code and learning how to read. And it only takes a small change for preschool teachers to start children on this road since storybook reading is already part of most preschool classes.”
Read more about the study done with the rest of the article here.
