Articles

We live in a knowledge based economy and literacy skills are our basic currency.  That fact alone should make parents sit up and take notice.  We live in times where job availability is based on what you know, how fast you can learn new skills and the knowledge train is picking up speed.

What are the fundamental skills parents should focus on before, during and after their children enter school?

1. We know that children who enter kindergarten with a basic knowledge of letters, the letter names and the corresponding sounds become better readers and thus face fewer academic challenges.  Reading is a foundational skill that makes all other learning possible.  Yup, it just that important!
2. Critical thinking skills are paramount and will often separate average students from those who excel.  Taking an active roll in helping kids to “connect the dots” will further assist in developing critical thinking skills.  This is not as difficult to do as parents might think.  Children are naturally inquisitive and constantly ask questions.  When children ask questions they are typically exploring their surroundings and environment and trying to figure out how things relate to one another.  So, instead of getting frustrated by the questions use them as teachable moments.  For example if they ask, “Why a tree is green?”, return the question to them and ask them why they think it is green.  Make sure you guide them through the answer and only give them as much detail as they want.  (No sense giving them a chemistry lesson at age three, unless of course, they want one.)  Often we can encourage this type of thinking if we remember to ask them, “What else to you know about trees or things that are green?”   Well developed thinking skills leads to being able to think outside of the box.  This is definitely a skill that will become increasingly necessary.
3. Effective communication skills will serve them well throughout their lives so help them develop good ones.  Teaching children how to speak    properly as well as how to listen effectively are skills that are also fundamental to learning.  Teaching them how to form thoughts, ask questions and summarize information will be invaluable to them as they go through school and on into their future careers.

Your child’s school years can be incredibly rewarding provided you have done some ground work and continue to take an active role in their education.  Just because they are not in school doesn’t mean they are not learning.  You can use a trip to the gas station or the grocery store and an incredible learning environment if you put some thought into it.

Some words of advice:  Make sure you know what your child’s reading ability is and do not delay if they show signs of a reading/learning difficulty.  There is nothing worse than having to watch your child’s self-esteem decrease to a level where they stop believing in themselves!

At Engaged Educators, we offer a no cost, no obligation reading assessment for all children. (Victoria, BC or Calgary, AB) service.

Summer is unofficially here and that means it’s time (at least for some of us) to consider what we want to read over the next few months.

To help with some suggestions, Scholastic, a global children’s publishing, education and media company, is conducting an ongoing on-line survey on its www.YouAreWhatYouRead.com Web site. With some 15,000 responses to date, it has assembled lists of the most influential books, as reported by adults and kids.

Participants were asked this question: Which five books shaped your life??

Below are the top 10 lists for kids and adults and the Web site has a lot of information about each book (including who picked what). There also are other lists of favorite books by people from various walks of life (some of which I’ll publish in the coming weeks) and opportunities for you to participate.

The Web site launched last October (2010). You may be surprised at some of the responses, which are not in the least bit scientific. Which list do you think Charlotte’s Web made?

The 10 most influential books picked by adults:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Holy Bible

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

The 10 most influential books picked by kids:

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone by J.K. Rowling

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney

The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

Happy reading!

Follow The Answer Sheet every day by bookmarking http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet.
By Valerie Strauss; journalist at The Washington Post.

The following article is a 5th grader’s essay … Eventhough it is written about the education system in the US, it certainly applies to the Canadian education system as well. The intro is written by Valerie Strauss.  Valerie is a journalist for the Washington Post. Click on the link to follow her.

One voice given short shrift in the loud (and unfortunately increasingly shrill) education debate is that of kids. You know, the people who actually have to take all the standardized tests that are (again, unfortunately) at the center of modern school reform.

With the blogosphere screaming with claims by adults that standardized test-based reform is improving student achievement, here is the work of a child who tells a different story. It’s important to listen.

This was written by Julia Skinner-Grant, 11, a fifth grader at Chevy Chase Elementary School in Montgomery County. Julia, a special education student in the highly gifted center, wrote this persuasive essay for a school assignment.

She’s far more persuasive than a lot of adults on the subject.

By Julia Skinner-Grant

A good education is the key that opens the door to success in life. When children learn early on and discover their passions then their world, our world, just keeps getting better. Yet, how will we get better if all we teach our students is what has already been discovered? How will our future get better if we educate kids about how to remember random facts? How will “No Child Left Behind” help America’s future?

In 2002 President George W. Bush signed the “No Child Left Behind” Act. The purpose of this law was to narrow achievement gaps between students, since many lower income students were not performing well on standardized tests and didn’t have basic reading or writing skills. So “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) is a system where testing is emphasized throughout the public school system in the United States. Now the nation’s teachers are given so much focus on testing requirements that classrooms hardly manage time for intellectual discussions, where students actually learn how to become lawyers, doctors and scientists. Why schools focused on the test is because NCLB will fire teachers if students don’t attain a certain score on the test. Principals are judged by how the students do on tests that test their ability to memorize random facts. If their students do well their school and they get more money; if their students do poorly they get fired.

I believe that NCLB must be revised to fit the ideal education system of students, teachers, parents and principals. In order to do well in the 21st Century, America must teach its children how to problem solve. That is why we need an education system that:

a) enables creativity and encourages students to think

b) creates less stress for everyone and

c) a system for the future, which gives students a voice, and tests the necessary skills to be successful in life.

Though learning and expanding your knowledge may seem like the right thing to do, expanding your ability to think and problem solve independently and understand instead of memorize word for word is one of the traits that gives people the ability to be successful in life. Yet America has created an education system (NCLB) that focuses on memorization of what has already been discovered and forgets all about creativity and innovation and the future. Take Benjamin Franklin for example. He left school at the age of ten. And he managed to go on to be a brilliant inventor, writer, businessman and politician. Since standardized testing was not around back then he had more time and freedom to use his own imagination to come up with technology for the future. He invented the lightning rod, which we still use today to protect our houses and our lives from Mother Nature’s destructive powers. Would standardized testing have provided him with the information to save lives, or would experimenting, predicting and discovering enable him to create something that we still use today?

Stress, stress, stress. Back in the 18th century life may have seemed pretty stressful. Yet, today’s society contains far more stress for everyone, including children. Stress is typically caused by anxiety due to an overload of tasks to be completed or an important upcoming event. Testing creates significant stress for students, teachers and parents. “No Child Left Behind” takes the stress of testing and assumes that the more students are prepared for testing the less anxious they will be. But what this actually does is lead students to believe that this test is far more important to their future than it actually is, since teachers, principals and parents are all busy trying to help a student for a test that will judge them. Now the student feels as if they will let all these people down if they don’t do well on the test and eventually this stress for everybody leads to the student becoming so emotional and anxious that they don’t even have the ability to function properly for the test that they have been worrying about. Eliminating high stakes testing will reduce stress for everybody: students, teachers, principals and parents. I am not opposed entirely to testing though. It is critical to record students’ growth, yet I believe it must be recorded in a different way. A way that gets everyone excited. Tests need to be more creative and they need to test the creativity that is essential for an individual to be successful in the 21st century.

Education is our life and it’s your future too. Then why not preserve it, conserve it and make it the best it can be. The one person who knows a student’s needs the best is the student. But “No Child Left Behind” was not created by a student. It was written by a bunch of politicians. NCLB requires absolutely no funding for gifted education so all students are only being taught to a basic minimum requirement. Federal funding for gifted education has gone down by a third during the first five years since NCLB was passed. The politicians who wrote NCLB should have at least consulted a few students before putting the law into effect. I believe that if written by students, NCLB would guarantee an education fit for all students above, below and at grade level and that actually taught in an exciting way for all students.

A good education is the key to success in life. If we want to give all children a chance at success we need to give them a chance to learn in meaningful ways. That means reducing stress, especially stress caused by testing that places enormous pressure on students and teachers and forces teachers to teach to tests rather than focus on student skills and needs. Learning and school should be fun and engaging, memorizing facts and filling out worksheets don’t teach students any necessary skills for success. Let students help design their education and don’t forcefully impose standardized testing. We can’t open the door for students but we can at least give them the key.