Fog City Tutoring's Education Blog

Inquiry Based Learning

2011-11-22T12:51:00.000-08:00

Many great teachers, from the ancient Greek Socrates to UCSF professor Bruce Alberts, believe that learning through discovery is the best possible way. Inquiry-based learning has been around for a long time, but our current educational system, with it's focus on outcomes measured by standardized testing, does not often promote this type of learning.

We were glad to read a recent interview with Professor Alberts in which he discusses his thoughts on inquiry-based learning. You can read the article here. Perhaps you went to one of the many Science Festival events that were recently held in the Bay Area as a result of Professor Alberts' work to promote inquiry-based science learning.

Science, of course, began and remains a subject which should be taught through the process of discovery. Experiments and hypotheses make up much of the scientific curriculum. However, science is not the only area where inquiry-based learning can (and should) be implemented. You can help your student learn via inquiry-based methods at home in every subject. For example, math is another area where inquiry based learning is not only more fun and interactive, but helps to instill core concepts in a more concrete manner.

Say you have to find the area of a parallelogram, not the easiest shape to measure, as it's sides are uneven. However, if we can make the parallelogram into an easily measureable shape, such as a rectangle, this task might not be so difficult. Have your student look for other shapes within the parallelogram. How could we reconstruct the shape, if we cut it into pieces like a puzzle, to make it into a rectangle with the same area. (Remember when cutting up your parallelogram, you don't want to lose any of it's original area to form the end result rectangle--no pieces can be discarded.) Using a cut-out of a parallelogram, draw lines through it, sectioning off other shapes within the larger shape. Encourage your student to trace the shape or draw on a separate sheet of paper to help visualize how the parallelogram could be reconstructed.

Here's how our parallelogram cut up:

We found a triangle...

It's a rectangle!

There are ways to incorporate inquiry-based learning into other subjects, such as Language Arts and Social Studies. Check back here for more ideas...or share your inquiry-based strategies with us as a comment!

New Book for Young Readers

2011-10-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

We're always on the look-out for great reads. Last month, a new release from an established author caught our eye. The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse is the latest book from Eric Carle, author and illustrator of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Carle has written more than 70 children's books, many of which have been used in classrooms and read as bedtime stories for several decades. His brilliantly colorful illustrations and candid storylines continue in this newest release.

The story is about a young artist who draws all sorts of animals in unusual colors, culminating with the stunning polka-dotted donkey. Like Carle's previous books, The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse is a feast for the eyes. The storyline, though seemingly simple, invites young readers to focus on the vivid images and to think about creativity. After reading this story you and your child will want to get out the crayons or markers or finger paints and go to work on your own masterpiece. Why not?

Coupling reading with other activities is a great way to keep children interested in books. First, ask questions about the story and illustrations as you read. This will encourage young readers to ask questions themselves as they begin to read independently. Afterwards, create artwork with your child that's related to the book. The best readers are those who engage with a text; they are willing to look deeply into what they read and think about the story after reading is over. Carle's books are perfect for preschool and early elementary learners. His stories entertain and his illustrations inspire.

Check out Carle's latest book to enjoy with your young reader. Copies are now available at SF Public Library. Search online to find books at your local branch: http://sflib1.sfpl.org/search. This title is the perfect addition to any child's home library too. See reviews and great prices at Powell's Books.

To learn about the story behind the book, listen to NPR's Weekend Edition interview with the author/illustrator Eric Carle.

Hundreds Charts

2011-09-18T12:56:00.000-07:00

A hundred chart allows for the discovery of patterns and relationships between numbers and can be a valuable reinforcement tool for many math concepts. Below are some ideas for the application of a hundred chart.

1. Place transparent counters on numbers that share similar features and have your child verbalize the pattern that is formed. For example, counters could be placed on all numbers ending in '0' or all numbers beginning with '6'. Discovering that numbers are grouped by tens is a great precursor for formal place value work.

2. Use counters to discover odd & even numbers.

3. Practice adding and subtracting on the hundred chart. Place a counter on the initial number and either add or subtract by moving the counter in the appropriate direction. For more advanced work, see if your child can recognize that to subtract 12, they can simply move their counter up one row to subtract 10 and then to the left 2 places. This will strengthen their mental math and estimation abilities.

4. Play the "I am thinking of a number..." game. This game is a great reinforcement of algebraic language and logical thinking. Begin by thinking of a number, then provide clues to help your child guess the correct number. For example you could say, "I am thinking of an even number that is four more than 8 minus 2."

5. Practice skip counting by placing counters on all factors of a number. For instance, counters could be placed on 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 etc. This activity will help prepare students for multiplication.

6. Find the missing numbers. Copy a hundreds chart that is missing 20-50 numbers (depending on level of child). Have your child apply their knowledge of the number system to fill in the missing boxes.

7. Play the 'Get to 100' game. Start your counters at 0. Roll 2 dice and move your counter the sum of the dice. The first person to get to 100 wins.

A variation of this game is to choose any number on the chart that both people need to get to. Start the counters at 0 and when the dice are rolled, the person can move the sum, difference, product or quotient. The goal is to be the first person to get their counter to the specified number.

There are endless games and activities that can be done with a hundreds chart. Feel free to post other ideas in the comment section.

Organization for Academic Success

2011-08-25T14:14:00.000-07:00

Well it's that time of year again when, seemingly overnight, the unnatural summer fog begins to lift and students no longer can be found milling about the city. Over 200 San Francisco schools are officially back in session.

The beginning of school initially elicits a combination of wistfulness for the summer and excitement for the new year. Eventually reality sets in, and the workload, which started like a slow dripping faucet, becomes more reminiscent of an unlatched fire hydrant.

As the workload increases, parents and students alike, become frantic, trying to successfully juggle academics with extracurricular activities. A lack of solid study skills can make managing an academic schedule incredibly difficult.

A new year, a fresh start, now is a great time to start the year off in a strong and organized manner. Here are some tips that I use to help students stay in control of their academics and take ownership of their grades.

** Create a homework assignment sheet that is customized to the student's needs. A printable assignment sheet can be made in just a few minutes through Excel.

To help with time management, create columns that track the estimated verse actual time taken to complete assignments. This helps students better guesstimate the length of time needed to complete specific tasks and, in turn, schedule homework time appropriately.

Here is an example of a homework planner that I have found to be very successful:

** Implement the use of a monthly calendar in combination with the daily homework assignment sheet. This helps students to visually see and plan for large, upcoming assignments.

** Binder organization is essential. Misplacing homework assignments can be a major factor in a suffering grade. Every subject should have its own section, with assignments chronologically oredered. To further separate work, use 2 dividers for each subject and place study materials, such as old tests and study guides, behind the second divider.

Place a 2 pocket folder in the front of the binder to keep track of all paperwork. Label one side of the folder 'To Do' and the other side 'Completed'. The 'To Do' side will hold everything that needs to be completed and turned in the next day, while the 'Completed' side will hold all work that has been handed back to the student and is ready to be appropriately filed. Each night, students should take 5 minutes to file any paper work sitting in the 'Completed' section.

** Create a master class schedule that includes the books, materials and other supplies needed on each day of the week. Place this schedule in the front of the binder to help students show up for class prepared.

** Identify an area of the home to be used for studying. Keep this area free from distractions.

** Every night, have your child read over their class notes. Encourage them to make additional notes or drawings in the margins to help clarify confusing concepts.

There are endless ideas that can be used to help organize students but, ultimately, each student should develop a system that is sustainable for themselves. Organization is a skill that is often not explicitly taught and, for many students, especially those with learning disabilities, having a well established system can make the difference between passing and failing a course.

**If you would like a copy of the homework planner, please email me at johanna@fogcitytutoring.com.

Phonological Awareness: A Predictor of Strong Reading Skills

2011-07-22T20:37:00.000-07:00

Multiple studies have shown a strong correlation between phonological awareness and the development of strong, lifelong reading skills. This type of training differs from phonics training in that phonological awareness activities surpass the goal of rote memorization of letter/sound relationships and instead focus on the understanding that all words are made up of a blended series of phonemes which, when segmented and reblended, form distinct words with distinct meanings.

This idea that words are made up of individual sounds that, when strung together, form distinct words can be a hard concept to grasp because, to the untrained ear, words are heard as a single, individual sound and not as the product of multiple blended sounds. In this way, phonological awareness tasks bridge the gap between oral and written language.

Not only will individuals who understand the internal structure of words achieve greater lifelong reading abilities, but it has also been shown that the benefits of phonological awareness training are greater than other types of reading instruction and last even after formal training ends.

Phonological awareness tasks asks students to manipulate the phonemes of a word.

For example:

* Split the word fish into its individual sounds (f/i/sh)
* Change the middle sound of 'ham' to /i/ (him)
* Take out the first sound in 'look,' what is left? ('ook')

Explicitly teaching phonological awareness will help your child to become a strong, lifelong reader. Reading comprehension also increases with this type of training because it becomes easier for the student to focus on content and not on sounding out each individual word.

Here are some fun ideas that help teach phonological awareness.

** Rhyming games, songs and books.

** Clapping syllables in a word.

** I spy for phonemes.

For example, I spy an object in the room that begins with /b/ and rhymes with 'look' (book). To make it more challenging, I spy an object in the room that has 3 sounds, the first is /b/ and the last is /k/ (book).

** Sound matching games.

For example, Can you think of a word with the same middle sound as 'chair'?

** Blending words & tapping them apart.

Playing this game with a 'magic wand' to tap the words apart is a hit. More information on the game can be found here: http://www.aability.com/pagames/pablendsegment.htm

Phonological awareness activities will help your child to become a more fluid and confident reader. It is important to stay aware of your child's progress and alter the difficulty of the games so that they stay challenging.

Sources for this blog include the article, The Alphabetic Principle and Learning to Read by Isabelle Y. Liberman, Donald Shankweiler & Alvin M. Liberman

Vocabulary Acquisition

2011-06-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

Richard Anderson, the author of Research Foundations to Support Wide Reading, along with his colleagues William Nagy and Patricia Herman, were interested in determining how children most effectively learn new vocabulary words. To begin their research they strove to establish the average number of words students learn each year and the total number of words students will know by twelfth grade. Due to the varying definitions of what a “new word” encompasses and the differing methods of testing students’ vocabulary size, the exact number of new words children learn each year and command by 12th grade has never been reliability ascertained. Nagy, Herman & Anderson employed innovative research techniques to find a more accurate estimate of a students’ vocabulary learning statistics. From their research, they were able to estimate that there are 180,000 distinct vocabulary words used in school, that a twelfth grader’s vocabulary size averages about 80,000 words and that students learn 4,000-6,000 new terms each year.

With this new data in hand, Nagy, Herman and Anderson conducted various studies and experiments to discover how students most effectively learn new vocabulary words. They found that students absorb new word terms slowly through reading, however, due to the mass quantity of words that a student reads each year, reading is the most effective method for increasing vocabulary size. A student will only learn 1 out of every 20 new words they come across while reading, but each year, an average student will read 1 million words, of which 20,000 will be unfamiliar to them. This results in a 1,000 word increase in vocabulary size. Students who read more frequently will increase their vocabulary more rapidly, due not only to the increased number of words read, but also because the absorption rate increase to 1 out of every 10 new words when a student is reading less difficult text or reading for pleasure. In contrast, vocabulary instruction in school has been found to be intermittent and less intensive. Most students learn 300 new words each year in school, of those only 100 words are retained. Improved instruction can increase the retention rate to 67%, but even so, this would only result in 200 new words acquired each year.

To most effectively support your child's vocabulary acquisition, encourage him or her to read books of interest. It is important to help your child choose books that are appropriate for their reading level. They should be able to successfully read and understand 95% of the words contained in the book. Choosing books at an appropriate level will help your child feel successful and get enjoyment from reading.

Happy reading!

Erin Brokovich - Celebrating LD!

2011-05-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

Too often, learning disabilities are surrounded by negative tones, while success stories are not properly celebrated. Following is the first of many pieces which recognize individuals who have prospered in spite of, and in many cases, because of their learning difference. It is tantamount that everyone, especially children who struggle to learn in the same manner as their peers, understand that learning disabilities can and should be synonymous with success.

~ Erin Brokovich ~

Many people know Erin Brokovich as the outspoken woman depicted by Julia Roberts in the blockbuster movie. The movie portrays Erin as the driving force behind an investigation into water contamination in Hinkley, CA. In this respect, the movie is accurate. While working as an assistant in a lawyer's office, Erin uncovered documents that showed a high rate of chronic, debilitating and often fatal illnesses in the residents of Hinkley, Ca, a town whose water had been contaminated by PG & E.

What the movie neglects to show is that as a child, Erin Brokovich was often regarded by her teachers as stupid and hopeless. She frequently brought home report cards littered with F's and constantly battled the stigma of being dumb. By all mainstream standards of success, Erin's low grade point average did not equate with a prosperous future. Many of her teachers wrote her off as a failure and in high school, one teacher told Erin that she probably wouldn't make it to college. It wasn't until later in her life that Erin received a diagnosis that explained her learning difficulties, she was dyslexic.

Dyslexia is a learning disability which primarily affects language skills such as reading, spelling, writing and pronunciation. The symptoms of dyslexia vary depending on its severity and the amount, if any, of early intervention work. Its most prominent manifestation is through extreme difficulties with reading. Often dyslexic individuals will have difficulty sounding out words, misorder letters when reading or writing and find it hard to comprehend written and oral information. Although not as prevalent, Dyslexia can also interfere with math skills, something that Erin continues to struggle with today.

In school Erin learned to use memorization to help her retain concepts. While researching the water contamination case, she again found herself relying on this skill to compensate for the difficulties she faced when working with words and numbers. Erin was able to memorize the relevant information of all 634 plaintiffs in the case, as well as much of the technical research uncovered throughout the investigation. Throughout the case, Erin read thousands of pages of legal documents, medical records and scientific evidence on the toxic substance Chromium 6, something that her teachers never would have believed possible.

Erin's hard work, determination and tenacity paid off. In 1996, Pacific Gas & Electric settled the case for $333 million dollars, the largest direct action lawsuit in the United States to date. Through determination and unwavering self-confidence, Erin was able to redefine herself as a highly intelligent and successful woman. Her success, in spite of living with dyslexia, not only shows that standardized measures of intelligence can be misleading, but that students facing learning differences have endless potential and should not face criticism or labels to the contrary.

Borders Books Reading Challenge!

2010-05-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

This summer Borders Books is challenging all children, 12 years of age and under, to read 10 books! Any child who reads ten books will receive a free book of their choosing from any Borders Bookstore.

The form, posted below, needs to be filled out and signed by a parent or guardian. The reading challenge ends on August 26th so start your reading early.

Happy Reading!

** Johanna

www.fogcitytutoring.com

Welcome!

2010-04-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

"Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and diligence." Abigail Adams

Educating oneself is not a passive act but requires motivation and strong support systems. This blog is intended to be a reliable source of information on everything related to education. Just as Fog City Tutoring offers one-on-one tutoring services to help students academically prosper, this blog will offer online content and discussions aimed at helping parents and students successfully navigate through grades K-12. Topics will include:

* How to cultivate strong, life-long readers
* Tips for applying to college
* Organizing oneself for academic success
* Tips for structuring a formal essay
* Fun ways that parents can reinforce academic concepts at home
* Educational policies and their effects on CA students

The purpose of our educational system is to give students the tools they need to succeed on their own. Amid constant budget cuts and changes to our educational policy, teachers often become burdened with an increasing student to teacher ratio and decreasing funds. Students don't always receive the individual attention that they need and struggling students find it harder to keep their heads above water. By keeping an open dialogue and working together, we can help every student succeed.

Please feel free to share your comments and suggest topics that you would like to see covered.