The Book Trend

Books have been the core of how we receive knowledge for hundreds of years.  As young children, parents read aloud.  As they reach school age, many struggle learning how to read, while others pick it up very easily.  This can make those struggling students even more frustrated.  Reading becomes a chore and not fun for those kids who struggle.  They are given remedial books that have boring subject matter. Recently series have come out that has gotten children who refuse to read or struggle, reading for 12 hours straight.  The HarryPotter series seems to have started it all (although many series have come out before).  Now, Rick Riordan with his multiple series (The Lightning Thief, The Kane Chronicles, and The Lost Hero), as well as the 39 Clues Series is keeping children longing to find out what is going to happen next.  But what happens to those kids who don’t find those books or find books that interest them.  Some find their way later in life to books.  Others avoid books like the plague.  Both parents and teachers should take the time to find books that relate to that child’s interest and start to read it aloud.  Over time, students may start picking the book up on their own to learn what happens.    

Mixing it Up!

Over the past two decades technology has become essential to the teaching and learning process.  Many classes are being taught according to Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.  Not every student learns well just by hearing or reading.  So teachers are forced to be more creative in their teaching approaches. For example, the History Teachers, a group of real teachers, have been creating music videos about history and putting them to pop music.  A good friend of mine took an exam in a college-level class and remembered the lyrics to the History Teachers' video about the bubonic plague, which was written to the song Hollaback Girl.  She admitted to me that she learned more from that song than from a few lectures in her class.  This is just one example of how teachers can reach different learners in the classroom.  An example of one of their video's is attached below. 

Math: Why do students fail?

When students learn math it tends to be by rote memorization not conceptualization.  There is a disconnect when teaching counting.  New math learners can tell you how many pennies are on the table, but when you ask them how much 7 + 4 pennies equals, they falter.  There is something missing when going from manipulatives to worksheets.  What is missing? When students don’t grasp the basics, they can’t succeed later in math because they don't have the foundations.   I recently watched a training video on Touch Math.  Touch Math is a multisensory system of teaching Mathematics. I was amazed how addition, subtraction, multiplication and division were made so easy in just an hour.  Numbers 1-9 are touched the amount of times they are worth.  For example, the number 1 is touched 1 time, the number 9 is touched 9 times, etc.  So when you add 4 + 7, students touch seven because it is the bigger number and touch the 4, 4 times, saying 8, 9, 10, 11.  7 + 4 = 11.   I wish I had learned math this way. This system takes away the missing step between rote memorization and conceptualization.  I believe this program can help struggling students and give them higher self-esteem in math. 

Whole Language Approach?

The trend in the United States is to follow the whole language approach to teach writing. In whole language, students are urged to express themselves before learning spelling or grammar.  Many teachers believe that this allows students to enjoy learning and encourages imagination rather than starting with memorization. Children taught with this approach have a problem when spelling and grammar aren't taught or are taught much later. They then have difficulty spelling and do not know grammar rules.  A balance can be struck between phonics and whole language. Teachers could spend small periods of time with phonics while still encouraging students to write and read based on the whole language approach. Check out a great article to learn more about whole language and phonics at Education World.

Forgetting Learning Disabled Students in Universities

Universities are required by law to give students with disabilities access to support so they can succeed. Now that more and more students with learning disabilities are going to college,colleges are creating programs to help them succeed.  There is a problem with those programs - they are geared to the moderately functioning special needs student. Often, these programs are not set up to help high functioning students with learning disabilities. University disability services usually look at students' GPA's to determine how much extra support they will get. Since high functioning students do well, these programs do not tend to address their needs even though they require certain support and accommodations too. These students fall through the cracks and end up supremely frustrated.  If the goal is to even the playing field for students with special needs and help them achieve all that they can, why are these students getting so little support?

Imagination and Self Esteem

Play is important.  These days, we spend more and more time pushing technology earlier and earlier.  I was out for dinner the other night, and a little girl was trying to tell her mom about a story she had made up while the mom was trying to speak to other parents.  Rather then explain to the child that she must wait to tell her story, she handed the little girl an iphone to play games.  Electronic baby-sitting!  I just watched a clip of Vivian Gussin Paley describing the importance of imagination.  From imagination comes stories, which are pre-cursers to literacy.  From imagination comes numbers, which are pre-cursers to mathematics.  When you listen to a child and join her imaginary play, you are telling the child that she is important and her thoughts are important.  Try to keep this in mind next time you hand over technology when you are trying to have a conversation. Hand over a piece of paper and a pen instead so the child can share her world.  

American Sign Language as a Foreign Language

Schools are finally accepting American Sign Language (ASL) as a foreign language.  Offering ASL is one of the best things schools can do for kids with learning differences.  A learning difference or disability is characterized by difficulty with spoken, written, or understanding language.  Many kids who have a learning disability tend to fail when they take foreign languages such as French or Spanish (and ones with a different alphabet like Hebrew or Chinese are even more difficult!). One of the reasons these students fail is that understanding their primary language takes up so much processing time.  ASL is a visual language communicated through hand and facial gestures so it is processed differently. I have seen with my own eyes students who were exempted from taking a foreign language succeed in ASL. 

            Most schools now accept ASL as a foreign language.  But only a small number of high schools and colleges presently offer it.  Those of us who advocate for students with disabilities need to urge schools to offer ASL.  For more information about ASL go to aslpro.com or PBS "Sound and Fury".