Academic New Year’s Resolutions

 

                2012 has arrived! Happy New Year to you and yours! This is the time of year for new beginnings and fresh starts. What New Year’s resolutions have you made for yourself? Most common resolutions reflect commitments to fitness or commitments for self improvement. Why not include your schooling in your resolution efforts? How can you resolve yourself to be a more dedicated learner? What can you do to better organize yourself? What are the areas for growth that you can work on this year?

 

                Here are some examples of New Year’s resolutions that you can try on for size. Maybe one of them will inspire you as we move into the New Year.

• I will not procrastinate this year.
  This is a great time management resolution. A tangible way to achieve this goal is to use your agenda and set milestones, working backwards from a deadline. Look at your calendar and set objectives for yourself like, “I will start researching on this date”, “I will have a first draft completed by this date”, and “I will give my assignment to my mom to proof read by this date”. With this series of milestones in place, you’ll avoid the stress of starting and completing an assignment the night before it’s due.
• I will spend more time studying this year.
  This resolution is a fantastic academic goal. Make reasonable commitments to review your notes daily and schedule time for yourself to review before quizzes, tests and exams. With a greater investment in study time, you will reap the benefits of time well spent.
• I will work on staying organized this year.
  It is a good idea to make a commitment to personal organization. If you struggle with keeping your room, your desk, your backpack or your binders organized, set a weekly time to sort through your belongings and put everything back in its place.

 

As the year wears on and you polish these skills, find ways to progressively improve them. Try to perfect your agenda use, increase the time you spend reviewing or find ways to stay organized without a weekly set time.

 

For more information regarding academic support and organizational support, contact Ruth Rumack’s Learning Space 416.925.1225 or visit www.ruthrumack.com.

How to Model Reading Comprehension Strategies

In our previous blog, we discussed the importance of working on reading comprehension with your child at home. To read last week’s blog, click here http://wp.me/pT6KW-7d

                In brief, it is important to remember that we learn to make meaning of the text that we read. Comprehension is not a natural process. The best way we can help our children develop reading comprehension skills is by modeling our own comprehension skills at home. The reading comprehension strategies that we exercise include making predictions, visualizing, questioning, drawing inferences, identifying main ideas, and summarizing text.

Here are some examples of what you can say when modelling reading comprehension strategies. Focus on a few at a time. Don’t try to demonstrate all of these skills in one sitting.

• Making Predictions: This is something we do intuitively when we read with young children, but as our children grow up, we may forget to keep asking questions like “What do you think will happen next?”. Asking these types of questions prompt children to engage with the text they’ve read. To model this, simply pause and say, “I think I know what will come next…” Show your child how you connect with different details in the text to make your prediction.
• Visualizing: Pause periodically to describe the scene that you see in your mind. Help your child understand that words can paint a picture in your mind. Be as descriptive and vivid as possible.
• Questioning: Take a break from your reading to ask questions like, “I wonder why she said that?” or “If I were in this character’s position, how would I have responded?” etc.  
• Drawing Inferences: Show your child how you can draw conclusions by reading between the lines. Show your child how you can infer meaning based on the characters’ dialogue and interactions.
• Identifying Main Ideas & Summarizing: After you read together, take time to identify the main ideas for your child.  Then, re-read and make references to the text as you do. Similarly, pause to summarize what you have read, using your own words.

 

Once your child is familiar with the reading comprehension skills you demonstrate, begin to ask him or her to exercise some of these skills autonomously. Pause as you read together and prompt your child to summarize the text, predict what will happen, or describe what they see in their minds as you read together. In time, your child will be able to demonstrate these skills without your prompting – leading to more independent reading comprehension skills.
For more information regarding literacy support, contact Ruth Rumack’s Learning Space 416.925.1225 or visit www.ruthrumack.com.

Reading Comprehension at Home

                Reading comprehension refers to the process of making meaning of the text we read. Reading is much more than merely deciphering the words written on a page. Reading is a process that forces us to actively engage in making sense of the words we read. When we read, the words should paint a picture in our minds and invite us into an imaginative world. Be aware that this is not a natural process. Reading comprehension is a skill we acquire with practice, and parents can help their children develop these abilities by modeling these cognitive skills.

                To model reading comprehension is to demonstrate how you make sense of the words you read. To model is to make visible the invisible process that occurs in your mind. The reading comprehension strategies that we use daily include making predictions, visualizing, questioning, drawing inferences, identifying main ideas, and summarizing text. When we teach our children how to do each of these things, we equip them with the skills to exercise critical and creative thinking skills to achieve a deeper understanding of the material they read.

Here are some suggestions to help you model reading comprehension strategies at home:

• First of all, make sure that you read with your child on a regular basis. You may consider making reading a part of the bed time routine, or pick another time of day to sit down and read together.
• When you read together, take turns reading out loud. It’s important to demonstrate your reading and provide opportunities for your child to practice reading aloud.
• When you read, be sure to pause periodically and model reading comprehension strategies like summarizing the story you’ve read in your own words or explaining the picture you are visualizing in your mind as you read.

 

Stay tuned for our next blog to read specific examples of how you can model reading comprehension at home.

For more information regarding literacy support, contact Ruth Rumack’s Learning Space 416.925.1225 or visit www.ruthrumack.com.

Homework That Helps: Review for Math

As mentioned in the previous blog, there are a variety of review strategies that can be applied to different school subjects and tasks. Whether you’re reviewing for the sake of review, completing assigned homework, preparing for future lessons, or studying for a test or exam, there are different ways to review the material. Similarly, there are different approaches to tackling certain subject areas – you won’t necessarily review or study for an English exam in the same way that you would a math exam. Given that the previous blog provided some strategies for review of social studies and English coursework, the following will discuss some effective tactics for reviewing and studying mathematics.

 

One of the most effective ways to review for math is to re-do questions that you’ve already worked on. Use your textbook to re-visit the questions provided and work through them again to reinforce your understanding of the steps and formulas applied to achieve the correct answer. The more practice the better, so try to find additional questions to work through – visit your local library for other grade appropriate textbooks with similar material or look online for more practice questions. By repetitively solving similar problems, you’ll come to better understand the concepts involved.

 

Math skills are like building blocks – you need to fully understand the concepts and skills before you move on to the next learning step. If you’re having difficulty with a particular concept, go back and re-learn the material. Perhaps the teacher’s notes aren’t sufficient to provide the full picture, if this is the case, work with a fellow classmate or ask a parent or guardian to re-teach the material to you. If you’re an auditory learner, you may want to record your teacher’s lectures and listen to them later as a means of review. If you find an alternative textbook, you might discover that a different approach or explanation is helpful for your understanding.

 

When reviewing for a math test or exam, it is always beneficial to complete the chapter review tests in your textbook. Approach these review tests as though you are in a testing scenario – set a timer, minimize distractions and complete the review as you would an actual test. This strategy will also help reduce test-anxiety when it comes time for the exam.

Homework That Helps: Review!

Whether you’re an elementary or secondary school student, establishing an effective homework routine will bode well for future studies. Secondary school students in particular should set aside some time each day to complete assigned homework, review coursework, organize notes and plan for upcoming tests and assignments. Although you may not have ‘homework’ every night, it is still good practice to schedule time to work in a quiet space with minimal distractions and use the time to get on top of your schoolwork.

 

Reviewing your coursework and class notes is an excellent way to garner a fuller understanding of the material that you’re studying, and it’s a study skill that will be especially valuable in college and university. Depending on the subject and the assignment that you’re working on, there are various review strategies that you can put into place. For social science and English courses for example, you might want to review the literature – re-read a chapter of the novel or textbook and make a note of important points, topics or characters. Since the task of reviewing is intended to help you develop a broader understanding of the topic, it is helpful to know the material in context and appreciate how it relates to other terms and facts.

 

One of the most effective ways of reinforcing your learning is to regurgitate your knowledge – once you’ve reviewed the material, explain it to a peer or family member. In discussing, or ‘re-teaching’ the topic to someone else, you’ll consider other opinions, develop a more sophisticated understanding of context and question what you already know. Another means of solidifying your knowledge is to write about it. When you finish reviewing a chapter or class notes, take the time to write down everything you know about it – you can do this through a point-form list of important details, or through informal or formal essay writing.

 

These review strategies help to keep you on top of your studies and also prepare you for future lessons and learning. Stay tuned for a follow up blog on review strategies for math coursework, tests and exams.

 

Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers

The following article is based on Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers, edited by Eric Gutstein and Bob Peterson

                Math matters! Many students believe that math is irrelevant and often ask their math teachers why they need to learn math. Students resistant to math have never been able to see how mathematics is relevant in their lives. We use math daily, and we need to show our students that math knowledge equips them with a toolset for functioning in day-to-day life. Two educators, Eric Gutstein and Bob Peterson, propose a new vision for math education. They suggest that math instruction is often divorced from the real world. They advocate  that the key is to “teach math in a way that helps students more clearly understand their lives in relation to their surroundings, and to see math as a tool to help make the world more equal and just.”

                These educators are dedicated to changing current modes of math instruction and invite us to shift our thinking about the math classroom to weave social justice into the math curriculum. One suggestion they make is to teach math across the curriculum. This allows students to meaningfully link math to their lives as opposed to viewing it as a subject reserved for the period from 9:00am to 10:00am. To practically achieve this, we would have to desegregate our subjects and integrate math, language and art together in meaningful ways.

                An interesting recommendation they make is to teach children to read the world with math. This requires what they call “criticalmathematical literacy.” This is a process of understanding the mathematics, understanding the mathematics of political knowledge, understanding the politics of mathematical knowledge and understanding the politics of knowledge. This process helps students develop analytical skills, which are so necessary for their academic careers and beyond. A detailed discussion of this process is beyond the scope of this article, so for more information check out the Rethinking Schools Website. 
For more information regarding math instruction and academic support, contact Ruth Rumack’s Learning Space 416.925.1225 or visit www.ruthrumack.com.

Packing Lunch for School

The backpacks are packed. Homework’s complete. What about the lunch bag? What are you sending the kids to school with? Packing lunch can be tricky. For some it’s a struggle to find the time, for others it may be a fight with the kids. Here are a few helpful tips to get lunch together: 

 

1. Prepare Lunch the Night Before: If you struggle with getting started in the morning, give yourself a break and get organized the night before. Do as much as you can in advance to make assembly easy in the morning. Take some time to chop up some veggie sticks or put fruit in little containers. Make this part of your evening routine after dinner every night.
2. Ask the Kids What They Like: Involving your kids gives them a shared responsibility for their diets and lets them know that you care about their ever changing tastes. Try posting a whiteboard in the kitchen and inviting your kids to write a list of their favourite foods under their name. You may be surprised to learn what they like. The deal is that they have to eat everything in the bag so long as one favourite item makes the cut.
3. Let them Choose: Giving your kids choice empowers them to make decisions that influence them every day. Try letting you kids choose one fruit, one vegetable and one treat to accompany their lunch each day. You still get to control the main, but they get to be involved.
4. Label Your Containers: Reusable containers seem to be attracted to the black hole of no return. Label each container with your child’s name to limit the loss. There are loads of programs to help you design and print your own labels. Involve your kids, so they can personalize their labels with their own personal flare!
5. Be Eco-Friendly: Many schools are making great green efforts, limiting the amount of waste we produce. Some schools have no trash policies or are involved in the “Boomerang Lunch” initiative, where everything brought in a student’s lunch, boomerangs or comes back home. You can help your child participate in these efforts by packing lunch with reusable containers and bottles instead of plastic baggies and disposable bottles.

For more information on getting organized for school contact Ruth Rumack’s Learning Space 416.925.1225 or visit www.ruthrumack.com.