Helpful Parent Information

Below please find an excerpt from an educational journal provided to the teachers by Mr. Marenchin.  It was suggested that teachers share this with parents, since all families are eager to support their children's education.  Enjoy!


Learning for Life
March 24, 2016 | Volume 11 | Issue 14

Coaching Parents to Communicate Lifelong Learning
Arina Bokas and Howard Andress
In a demanding global economy, kids need to know how to adapt, persevere, and think about a problem in multiple ways. To do so, they need to develop dispositions for self-motivated learning. Schools rely on parents to help support these habits at home, but the truth is, parents are often unsure what role to take in their child's education.
The evidence is solid: teachers' efforts to reach out to parents on academic matters improve student learning and nurture habits of minds that become a cornerstone of lifelong learning (Henderson and Mapp, 2002). Teachers can connect with students' families in many ways—weekly newsletters, e-mails, blogs, websites, class Facebook pages, and Twitter chats are just a few. Regardless of medium, however, a true school-to-home partnership requires two things: consistent and clear communication of the learning dispositions that parents should nurture at home and coaching on how to accomplish this.
Setting Learning Expectations
First, teachers must clearly define and communicate expectations for student learning and for parental support.
For parents, the school can provide preliminary coaching on how to respond to students' most frequent academic complaint—"I don't get it"—in a way that is consistent with the learning philosophy and expectations set for students. For example,
• The problem may be that your child misunderstood the assignment. Try this: "What do you think the question is asking?" You may want to read the item together.
• Help your child to "think the problem through." Ask "What do you think you are supposed to do?"
• Ask your child, "Using your notes (anchor charts), can you explain the problems that you did in class today?"
• Suggest, "Why don't you ask your friend _____ to explain how she solved the problem?" Group work, one of our common approaches in class, involves sharing strategies and answers.
• Many times, children understand MOST of the concept, but a small portion of it confuses them. Say to them, "Do the homework the best you can. Effort is important, and you need to show your teacher how you are trying to figure this out. When you don't try, your teacher will not be able to help you."
• Follow up the next day by asking, "How did you do on that assignment? What did you learn? What strategies can you use next time? Do you need to see your teacher for extra help?"
Redefining "Help"
Parents often want to provide background on subjects that their child is learning, especially if they are trying to be active partners. In reality, this kind of "information download" is not the most effective way to help at home. Regardless of background content knowledge, the goal is to help parents become experts in the learning process, not on a particular subject. Parents' recollection of the Pythagorean Theorem, for example, may be vague, but they can still trigger discovery in their child by using a certain line of questioning and prompts.
It is the teacher's job, then, to help parents understand specifically how they can best assist their child, including what language can initiate independent discovery and guidelines for effective coaching. Teachers can provide this information to parents via a broad weekly communication or as a targeted note sent home with a child, especially when a teacher anticipates issues with an assignment. Try the following suggestions:
• If your child struggles with the material, immediately providing the explanation is not the best first option. Engage your child in the learning process by using questioning and prompting tactics, such as "What do you know about this already?", or "Can you make a sketch of a problem that would involve this idea?"
• Please resist the temptation to do the work for your child; rather help her discover the concept. Getting the child to acknowledge and recognize that she already possesses aspects of the topic will open the door to better understanding.
Focusing on the Process
Consistent communication of expectations and learning dispositions, along with strategies that clearly direct parents to supportive language and behaviors, can help parents and children form partnerships that nurture lifelong learning. Understanding that their children are expected to struggle, that learning can be difficult at times, and that it's their responsibility to help their children persevere can empower parents to assume a supportive role in the learning process.
Reference
Henderson, A. T., & Mapp, K. L. (2002). A new wave of evidence: The impact of school, family, and community connections on student achievement. Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.
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[ javascript:mailCreate('arinabokas','aol.com') ]Arina Bokas is the Clarkston PTA Council president in Clarkston, Mich., and the host of the [ http://www.independencetelevision.com/future-of-learning.html ]Future of Learning television series on Independence TV. [ javascript:mailCreate('hjandress','clarkston.k12.mi.us') ]Howard Andress is a 20-year veteran math teacher in the Clarkston School District.

Friendly reminder:  Ten community service hours are due two months from today.  Please submit the completed form (found on the assignments page of our website) and one photograph.

Blog Math

Everyone except for two students submitted this week's blog math question on time.  No one arrived at the correct answer, however.  Some students arrived at an answer that was close.  Let me explain.

The cost of the balloons was 3/$2.  Many students divided to arrive at a unit rate. $2 divided by 3 = 0.666666666666666.  When rounded to the nearest hundredth, the quotient is $0.67.  Once a unit rate was decided on, students multiplied that by 26 balloons for a grand total of $17.42. Students that worked it out that way earned one good news ticket.

That is not the best answer, however.

If a store sells 3 balloons for $2, that means that every group of 3 balloons costs $2.  Since 26 balloons are needed, that means that 8 groups of 3 balloons are needed, plus 2 more.  8 x $2 = $16.  Twenty-four balloons cost $16.  Since 2 divided by 3 = $0.67, two balloons would cost $1.34.  The grand total for 26 balloons is $16 + 1.34 = $17.34.  Check your grocery receipt the next time you shop to see that this is the way the cost is calculated in these types of situations.

Here is this week's question.  Please copy it on a lined piece of binder paper, complete it using the steps of problem solving, and submit it on or before Tuesday April 5 at 8:10 AM.  Please place it in the IN BOX.

A box of cereal contains 8 servings and has a total of 36 grams of fat.  Find the unit rate of grams of fat per serving.  Justify your thinking.

Good News

Congratulations to the students who were last week's Good News ticket draw winners:  Joe, Alanna, and Evan.  Keep up the good work!

Thursday was a very rainy day, so as a result, we had every recess indoors.  Some students requested that I take a photograph of some of their indoor recess activities.  Check it out!

Happy Easter!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of my students, their families, and my loyal blog followers (hi Mom, Mr. Colautti, and Isaac) a very Holy and Happy Easter. 

 Don't forget:  Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

See you in church!

Corpus Christi Parish:  8 AM, 10 AM, or noon.

Have a Blessed Good Friday

I encourage all of you to attend a Good Friday mass and remember the stations of the cross that we studied in class.

Corpus Christi Parish:  11 AM or 3 PM

Coming To a Classroom Near You...

As promised in a blog post before the March Break, we have begun to work on a variety of persuasive texts.  We have analyzed a sample persuasive letter and will be working on writing a collaborative one for practice.  We have decided to submit a name to the Bank of Canada as a class, of a Canadian heroine, since a woman will be featured on Canadian currency in 2018.  Stay tuned for our progress and check out this link for more information.

In the meantime, I have asked the students to start to consider a topic that is important to them because in the future they will be asked to craft a persuasive letter independently that will actually be mailed.  This would be a great topic of conversation around the dinner table.  I will be supporting them in all aspects of the writing process, but families can assist with the idea generation.

On Tuesday students were sent home with lottery tickets that the SAC is requesting be sold as their annual fund raiser.  Please consider supporting this effort.  Our SAC is fantastic and supports many school initiatives with the money that is raised.  Please return all SOLD or UNSOLD tickets and money by April 11.  Stay tuned for announcements regarding incentives.

Blog Math, Family Life, and Aroma

Ellen, Jim, and Steve bought 3 helium-filled balloons and paid $2 for all 3 balloons. They decided to go back to the store and buy enough balloons for everyone in the class. How much did they pay for 26 balloons?

This math question is due on Tuesday March 29 at 8:10 AM.  Please copy the question on a piece of binder paper, then solve it using the steps of problem solving.  Don't forget that there is not school on Monday March 28, so in reality it is due immediately after the weekend.

Next month we will be working on a section of our Family Life curriculum that also coincides with a section of our Health curriculum:  Created Sexual.  Due to the sensitive nature of the material, I am requesting that parents review this material with their child in advance of our classroom activities.  This will provide you with the opportunity to see the material that your child is learning, play an important role in this education, and field questions from them that they may not feel comfortable asking in the classroom setting.  Feel free to use this as the daily home reading assignment.  As a result, they will be bringing the textbook resource to take home with them today.  I am asking that collaboratively parent and child read pages 57 - 86 inclusive.  When this reading is complete, please record "Family Life reading complete" in the April 4 area of the agenda and RETURN THE TEXT TO THE CLASSROOM.  This reading and the textbook is due April 4.  Thank you very much for your support and assistance in this manner.

I have noticed that our room is filled with various unpleasant odours that can be linked to some students in our room.  I am requesting that everyone follow basic hygiene, as show here (except the shaving part, of course).  We do not want to offend anyone with unpleasant odours, especially since we are in rather close proximity in our room.  Believe it or not , this is an all-day issue, not just an end-of-the-day or after gym issue.  Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

VIP

On Monday Inspector Mizuno visited us again to continue the theme on drug use that was started before the March Break.  She spoke about some drug busts and raids that she has participated in and warned us about the harmful effects of all types of drugs (both legal and illegal).  She shared lots of useful knowledge with us, through a Powerpoint presentation, about alcohol, caffeine (found in coffee, chocolate, and some colas and energy drinks), nicotine (the additive chemical found in tobacco), marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamines.  We were a little surprised by the brain scans of affected and non-affected brains as well as the before and after photographs of drug users. Let's hope that this information and these images help our students make the right choices when confronted with these ideas in the future.