Homework needs to be part of the daily routine

Homework is an important part of your child’s daily routine. Good habits, established early in school, help children consolidate what they have learned at school.

Here are a few tips for parents to help with homework:

Develop a homework routine and schedule

• Together with your child, establish a specific time and place for homework. Set a specific time allocation each day for homework and stick to the routine.
• Ensure that all extracurricular activities, medical appointments, chores and responsibilities, meal times and bedtimes are accounted for in the schedule.
• Be aware that some children prefer to start their homework immediately after school, however other children need to play and relax before settling into their homework. Experiment with different times to see what works best.
• Keep an eye on things to ensure that homework is actually being done during the agreed time.

Create a better work environment:

• Make sure your child’s study is free from distractions and is easy for you to monitor.
• Limit distractions in the home during homework hours, such as noise or interruptions from other siblings.
• Turn off TV and radio.
• Remove phone and if working on the computer, close email and the various chat and social networking sites.
• Be sure all books, pens and homework resources are within easy reach.
• Consider placing a couple of motivational posters on the walls in the study area.

Help with preparation and structure:

• Expect your child to have all assignments and homework recorded.
• Review each task with your child.
• Encourage your child to review tasks each night and make a plan before beginning.
• Write a to-do list with estimated time to spend on each task.
• Encourage your child to check off tasks once they have been accomplished.

Increase motivation:

• Use a timer to challenge your child to stay on task.
• A “beat the clock” system is often effective – motivating children to complete the task before the buzzer goes off!
• Remind your child to complete homework and offer incentives: “When you finish, you can play computer games.”
• Praise work well done.
• Withhold privileges until a certain amount of homework has been completed.

I hope these tips help to make homework time run more smoothly at your house!

Learn the sounds of the a..b..c

We have compiled a collection of spelling strategies that can assist individuals to spell better.

Tips include:

• Learning a variety of spelling strategies.
• Making up your own strategies to help with difficult words.
• Using a glossary for new and unusual words in various academic subjects.
• Learning to conquer your own personal “spelling demons”… and a whole lot more!

To download a tip sheet on spelling strategies click here.
Spelling is something we can all work on – let us all be the best spellers we can be!

Why conduct assessment?

Assessment is useful to identify an individual’s learning ability.  More information on Psychological Assessments for students can be found here.

Usually I recommended both a WISC ( Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) or WPPSI-III (Wechsler Preschool & Primary Scale of Intelligence) and a WIAT ( Wechsler Individual Achievement Test) as these two tests give the best indication of a student’s cognitive ability and academic achievement levels.

The scoring of these two tests is done in such a way that when used in combination can predict any discrepancies between intelligence and achievement. Assessment may also be helpful to identify learning disabilities (such as dyslexia), giftedness or under achievement.

The most common is when a child has an average or above average intelligence and is below average in achievement. This is usually due to a specific learning disability in reading or maths.

However, the most important reason for conducting assessment is to develop an individual learning plan for each individual. Everyone learns differently, however, once you know strengths and weaknesses, learning programs can be tailored to an individual’s needs.

For example, if a student struggles with decoding words, then they need to work on a phonics based program. If they are having problems with reading comprehension, then a learning program should target comprehension.

Dyslexia is a learning disability, where it manifests itself as a difficulty with reading and written language.  It is believed to be a brain –based condition.

Basically people with dyslexia are processing language differently to others.
Some have referred to dyslexia as a “gift” because often these people need to find creative ways to solve problems. Despite their difficulties in decoding written language, they can find ways around this and end up solving problems in different ways.  However, for a young person learning to read – it can be frustrating!

Assessment can also identify issues with auditory processing.  Auditory processing is the ability to encode auditory information. Problems in auditory processing may lead to problems in auditory working memory and auditory sequencing. Many dyslexics have auditory processing problems including history of auditory reversals. Auditory processing disorder is recognised as one of the major causes of dyslexia.

Assessment is also useful to detect any difficulties as early as possible. If you detect a problem in learning early, then early intervention is essential.

A qualified Educational Psychologist is the best person to conduct these assessments. They can then provide details recommendations for each individual.

Students with learning problems often suffer from a low self esteem.  Counselling is often recommended to help individuals understand that they are not “dumb” or “stupid” – they simply learn differently!

This post will outline reasons for getting organised, some tips for getting organised and  it will define what studying actually is! It will also gives students some study tips.

Reasons for getting organised:

• You can easily find the books you need to study.
• You know what needs to be studied.
• You have a complete set of notes of the work completed in class.
• You can learn more effectively.
• You don’t waste valuable time looking for things!
• You are able to break tasks down into manageable study blocks.
• You are able to achieve better result!

Study Space

1. Clean up your desk area.
2. Have pens and paper within easy access. The equipment you need will include: pens, pencils, highlighters, blank paper (A4 & A3 sizes), lined paper and flash cards. You may even like to include coloured paper.
3. Remove any distractions and replace these with positive affirmations and quotes.
4. If you are using a computer – turn off instant messaging and social network sites (you need to reward yourself with these activities!)

Study V’s Homework

Study is more than just doing the set work. Doing the set work, assignments, essays, and maths questions are all homework tasks. Study if different, it is reviewing and consolidating what you have learnt. Even if you don’t have homework, you always have study to do. Most students don’t understand this concept.

What is Study?

Study is reviewing what was taught during the class, it is also revising the text books and committing to memory the content of the course so it can be easily retrieved during an exam. Study is also predicting the types of questions you might be assessed. Often it is writing summary notes, flash cards, mind maps and summary diagrams. It is also do practice exams and questions to help you understand the core material.

Why study?

We forget what we have learned very quickly unless it is encoded into long term memory.  If we don’t think about the material we were taught or read it again we have lost somewhere between 50 to 80% of what was initially taught. Seven days later we can recall even less and a month later we can recall around 2 – 3 % of what was originally taught! That means if you don’t revise, you won’t remember what you have learnt!

Key points:

• If you don’t use it, you lose it!
• You need to constantly be reviewing what you have been taught.
• You need to revise, revisit and rehearse what you have learned!
• You will remember something much better if you revise it immediately after it was taught.

Study Tip: Spend 5 minutes after every class you have reviewing what you did in that class. Then a week later, review it again. This will reactive your knowledge on the topic.

Ask yourself these three questions:

1. What did I learn today?
2. What else do I need to find out?
3. What do I need to do next?

You might like to review how you study in each subject and create an action plan!

You can download a worksheet: How to study?

Other posts will include:

• Goal setting
• Listening skills
• Reading skills
• Note taking skills
• Time management skills

It is important to be organised

Being organised and concentrating during class time are essential elements for academic success at school and at university.

During Class

• Just hearing what your teachers say is not the same as listening to what they say. Listening is a cognitive act that requires you to pay attention, think and mentally process what you hear.
• Make an effort to concentrate during every class.
• Be attentive and concentrate on what the teacher is saying.
• Try to make links between what you are learning and what you already know.
• Sit near the front or middle of the class room.
• Identify what the teacher hopes to teach you during the lesson.
• Make an effort to sit away from friends who distract you during class.
• Participate in class – ask at least one question per class.
• Write notes – jot down a few points about what the teacher is saying.
• Wear an elastic band around wrist and flick it to remind you to concentrate!
• Use Diary – after each lesson write down homework (if nothing is set write this down).

Each night

• Look at diary and check what home work needs to be done.
• Write a “To Do List” and work through the list, crossing off each task as it is completed.
• Prioritise homework and complete what needs to be done for the following day first.
• Break home work and assignments into small manageable chunks.
• Think about each lesson during the day and write a brief summary of each class.
• Pack bag with books and gear for the following day.
• Reward yourself after homework is completed.
• If you have no homework for that night – sit at your desk and complete a puzzle or reading task.
• Make sure you get enough sleep.

Study Space

• Ensure that study space is clean and organised.
• Minimise distraction (i.e. computers, mobile phones, photos) in study space.
• Place some positive or motivational quotes on the wall.

Folders

• Ensure you have a folder for every subject.
• You may like to colour code your subjects!
• When you have a worksheet or handout, ensure it is filed into the subject folder.

Learning to grow

There was a recent article about raising smart kids in Scientific American Mind (Vol 18, No.6). The main idea conveyed was the need to foster a ‘growth’ mind set in learners.

Apparently, the key to success at school is not so much intelligence as it is effort.

Research suggests that while our society values superior intelligence and ability, an over-emphasis on intellect or innate talent can leave students vulnerable to failure, fearful of change or unmotivated to learn.

Teachers, parents and educators need to teach people a growth mindset which encourages individuals to focus on effort rather in intelligence or talent.

Effort is what produces high achievers in both life and at school. This can be done by emphasising hard work, the love of learning, but most importantly teaching students about the brain as a learning machine!

When we teach kids the importance of trying and overcoming obstacles we create in them a mindset of growth. When we reward them for effort rather than their intelligence they are more able to bounce back from failure and try harder to achieve positive results.

In some ways children praised for their intelligence rather than their effort are more likely to not try when faced with a challenge. I recall one student who was told from an early age that he was gifted. There was no doubt he was — I did the WISC myself and his IQ score was over 130! But what happened when he was faced with writing a story in grade 5 that he found difficult? He simply gave up, didn’t try, cried and ran out of the room.

You see, when we tell kids something, they tend to believe it!

If we constantly tell them how good they are, sure we boost their self esteem; even foster a superior sense of self, but what happens when adversity strikes? They fear not being good enough, kids often fear failure so much that often they will not even try. They don’t want to disappoint, they don’t want to fail!

Unfortunately when a teenager gets a test or an assignment back, they look at the grade, compare it to their friends and make a simple judgement that they went well or not so well. Teachers might write next to the mark, “great effort, you tried really hard”, but they are programmed to look only at the grade. If it is an A or a B they are usually happy (although many are unhappy with a B!) anything below this is not so good.

By the very act of giving a grade to a student, we are pre-determining their ability to try, experience success or failure or develop a growth mindset.

Why not try to teach young people how to learn from mistakes and enjoy the processes of learning and discovering rather than trying to tell them how smart they are? That way we teach students how to be life-long learners, not just how to pass tests.