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". 

Children and Migraines

    1 in 10 school-age children get migraine headaches! And most of those children are undiagnosed. Most parents and teachers do not take children seriously when they complain of a migraine because they think of it as just a bad headache. This saddens me because I have suffered from terrible migraines since the age of three.  Some teachers are wonderful and very supportive of students in pain.  They understand that kids can’t focus and don't give them a hard time when they need to go to the nurse.  

    Kids must take their migraine medications before the migraine reaches "full force," or they won't work. Other teachers don’t believe the students and don’t allow them to go to the nurse or take their medications.  For some of these teachers, it's eye opening when they learn that a student ended up in the hospital because her migraine couldn't be controlled. 

     Migraines are an epidemic, and children with them feel alone and misunderstood. They need to know that you as a parent or teacher believe and support them. Please support these students. Treat them as you would any other child with a medical problem (like asthma or diabetes). Don’t make them feel alone when they want to do well in school. And let them go to the nurse or take their medications!

    To learn more about migraine and migraine in children, go to www.migraineresearchfoundation.org. The Migraine Research Foundation is a nonprofit that raises money to fund migraine research. They have an initiative called For Our Children, which specifically relates to migraine in children. They also have lists of specialty doctors and clinics who will see kids. 

No Word Picture Books

No word picture books do not get the credit they deserve.  No word picture books are books with no words and just pictures.  They have pictures that tell their own story.  Picture books are books that have both pictures and words.  Teachers and parents overlook how useful no word picture books can be.  These books are the beginning blocks for literacy.  If a child can follow a story with pictures, she has begun learning to read.  Some may even say she is actually reading because understanding images is as important as understanding the words.  There are many different types of no word picture books like Full Moon Soup, where the child can make up a story around the pictures.  There are other stories, like Tuesday or Flotsam, where there are intricate details a child or adult must find.  In Tuesday, there are clocks hidden throughout the book, it is up to the reader to figure out what it means.  In other words, don’t always push children to read books with words because pictures are important too!

About this Blog

Interested in education?  This new blog will be a clearinghouse for book and website reviews, as well as musings about educational issues.  I hope to inform, challenge and inspire teachers and anybody interested in educating children to think about the topics presented.