What is the Best Way to Take Advantage of a Child’s Learning Style?
Children’s learning style (the way a child’s brain takes in information) also affects their ability to concentrate. Some children are kinesthetic; they learn better when their body is moving. For example, they may read better with their finger on words.
Children who are auditory learn primarily through their ears. If they can hear something, they remember it. Visual learners learn best when they see a picture in their mind. For example, visual learners may have an easier time remembering state capitals if a map of the United States are put on the wall.
An auditory or a visual parent may find it difficult to understand why his/her kinesthetic child cannot sit still long enough to read a page. Parents should strive to identify and respect their child’s individual learning style, and then incorporate activities that make the best use of that style.
Deciding where a child should do homework is as important as deciding when it should be done. Children need a quiet place in which to study. A designated study area that is well lit, comfortable and kept off-limits to brothers and sisters during homework time lets the child know that homework is a priority.
Provide a private personal space at a desk in the child’s room or a quiet place in the home, rather than the kitchen table or wherever the majority of the family congregates. This conveys the message that homework is the child’s responsibility and not a family affair. Also, the child is less likely to ask for help if he or she is separated from other family members.
Everything needed to do homework should be available to the child at the place of study. Critical supplies may include pens, pencils, crayons, erasers, highlighters, markers, notebooks, paper, pencil sharpener, stapler, scissors, hole puncher, paper clips, ruler, glue, tape, compass, protractor, correction fluid, bookmarks, index cards, etc., depending on the grade levels. Supplies can be stored in a shoebox, a plastic container or a crate for easy access.
A bulletin board can be used to post calendars, important notices and directions for special projects.
Reference materials, such as a dictionary, a thesaurus, and an atlas and / or globe, would be extremely helpful.
What Homework Routines Can Be Helpful?
Establish a fixed homework routine that helps children regroup, refocus, relax and prepare for studying. Many children need:
1. Verbal reminders of upcoming homework time. A five-minute advance notice is helpful.
2. A reminder to end current activities and put things away.
3. Humor or cheerful silence to diffuse any tension or friction.
Turn off or unplug TV, radio or stereo. Encourage children to re-read the directions and study the examples.
Guide children into the habit of putting homework into their school bag immediately upon completion. A child with this habit will not forget to take the completed homework to school.
Possible Homework-Related Problems
Forgetting or claiming to forget to write down assignments.
Forgetting to bring home books, assignments or other materials related to homework.
Losing or misplacing homework papers and books.
What Kind of Organization Can be Helpful?
Organization is a skill that can be taught and takes practice to learn. Help children create a filing system.
Provide children with a homework notebook or folder to keep track of assignments for each day, in case one is not required by the school. They should write the subject name, date and assignment on a separate sheet each day.
Children can write long-term assignments on a three-hole-punched school calendar, which can
help them keep in mind a big picture of what is expected in weeks ahead, and enable them to
break up a project into smaller, easier-to-accomplish tasks.
REMEMBER THAT Homework is the child’s responsibility. Parents do play an important role in helping children get into the homework habit. Sometimes making small changes in household rules and routines is all that is needed. Many children develop the homework habit after learning basic time management skills, developing a simple organizational system, and establishing routines such as doing homework at the same time and same place every day.
Additional Homework Tips for Parents
· Communicate trust in your children’s ability to manage their homework by not becoming overly involved. Follow the general policy of noninterference, unless absolutely necessary.
· Respond to reasonable requests for assistance; however, such intervention should be brief.
· Refrain from doing homework for your children or participating in getting homework done. This encourages dependency and dishonesty.
· Communicate the attitude that homework should be automatic and routine. Do not let it become the highlight of the family evening.
· Avoid rushing children into doing homework. This can trigger rebellion.
· Check with the teacher before giving your child permission to do writing assignments on the computer.
· Teach children to take the responsibility for letting teachers know if further explanation or clarification is needed. A shy child may write a brief note to the teacher, which can be co-signed by the parent or guardian.
Homework and Latchkey Children
Latchkey children who can study without supervision can use homework assignments to
perfect their time management skills. For children who are unable to study without supervision, clear directions and structure from the start are helpful.
Post a cooperatively developed detailed schedule on a refrigerator or chalkboard that tells children exactly what to do, so that each item can be checked off as it is completed.
Set an alarm to signal at the start of homework time.
Call from work after children come home to ask about their day. This can ease their transition into studying.
Keep, in a convenient place, the number of the local homework hot line (if one exists) or of a willing tutor.
Avoid helping children with homework from your work place.
Why Homework is Important?
Homework has some obvious and some not so obvious benefits for children. Through guidance from teachers and parents, homework can help children develop not only academic skills, and thereby improve their grades, but also some essential emotional and behavioral attributes they will need to succeed in life. Homework provides children with opportunities to:
· Practice and strengthen academic skills learned in the classroom.
· Improve academic achievement.
· Practice following directions and planning ahead.
· Develop the ability to organize time in an effective, productive manner and to complete tasks on schedule.
· Develop organizational skills.
· Develop independence and self-reliance as they become accountable outside the family.
· Become resourceful, as they have to find, adapt or invent creative means for solving homework problems.
· Develop individual respectability.
· Develop personal pride and self-confidence that comes from a successful homework completion habit.
The Reading Teacher, Vol. 62, No. 2
Tips for Parents, Primary Caregivers, and Educators.
Initial Book Activities
One of the easiest ways to begin telling the story of a book is through the use of illustrations. Most books for young children are illustrated in great detail, and noting
important details related to the characters, plot, and setting will provide a wholesome first literacy activity.
o Set aside a regular time and place for books so that reading books becomes as natural as eating and sleeping.
o Browse through books to help the child become familiar with books and how they are handled.
o Read the story while the child points to the pictures. Adult and child can repeat interesting sounds, repetitive word patterns, and distinctive word features to the delight of both.
o Have the child tell the story using the illustrations, while the adult reinforces the telling. The two can predict outcomes, discuss how the characters feel, and relate the events to their own experiences.
o Read the book to the child and enjoy it together. Retell the story together and talk about the characters, setting, plot, and life experiences.
o Compare the similarities and differences of children’s books available as video productions.
o Have children make responses to the books read through art reproductions such as drawings or by using clay, papier-mâché, dioramas, or fingerpaints.
o Make regular trips to the library and attend storytelling sessions. Visit bookstores together to begin a personal library for a child.
Beginning Reading-Level Activities
Children at this level should be encouraged to browse through books and pretend to read the story, an initial step toward becoming an independent reader. Children may tell the story to themselves or attempt to read frequently highlighted words.
o Read the story as the child points to the pictures on each page.
o Let the child pretend to read the story as the adult points to the pictures.
o Read alternate pages, ask each other questions, and discuss the story. The adult models what he or she thinks of when reading the page so the child gets a variety of perspectives on the ways words have different meanings.
o Use computer programs to expand a child’s interest in specific topics and to provide valuable information for later curriculum study.
o Compare and contrast video adaptations of children’s books for this and more advance literacy levels.
Primary-Grad Book Activities
o Continue to spend time reading with the child; set aside a specific time and place.
o Be familiar with Children’s Choices books and other high-quality children’s literature.
o Become aware of the interest of your children and of books that extend life experiences so they know what happens in the world around them.
o Encourage children to share books read in school with parents and caregivers at home. Parents and caregivers should encourage children to share books they’ve read at home with their teachers and schoolmates.
o Continue to extend the information and knowledge bases through computer programs and other technology that capitalize on topics initiated through reading.
Independent Reader Activities
o Challenge readers to compare and contrast books.
o Encourage children to develop an interest in a variety of genres, such as biography, historical fiction and poetry.
o Encourage children to read books related to beginning career and vocational choices.
o Seek a balance between school book activities; home and school literature activities’ and familiarity with newspapers, magazines and other text media that address contemporary social, cultural and civic issues.
Develop the Desire to Be a Lifelong Reader
o Have students bring what is read to bear on what is viewed on film, television, and computer and other media technologies.
o View technology in the reflection of the literature.
o Keep in mind that the most memorable conversations are often filled with anecdotes from literature.
o Relate what has been read to the solution of problems. By internalizing what has been read, we use knowledge and wisdom to solve personal problems, to make significant decisions related to career choices, to find solution to community and social problems, and to develop healthy attitudes toward a positive world environment.