Dear Teachers,
It’s the same story at home and at school: our child in kindergarten needs to be encouraged and praised to get her to do daily tasks. This does not upset me, but her teacher is concerned.
Dear Parents,
There is a difference between praise and encouragement. To praise is to make an expression of approval, while to encourage is to inspire or to urge on. Both are important to children and can build their self-confidence. To be meaningful, praise needs to be given for results. It has no value if children do not deserve it. The more praise given for things not worthy of it, the less effective it will be. When it comes to praise, more isn’t better, as it may put too much pressure on children to earn it. On the other hand, encouragement focuses more on effort and can be given whether or not children are successful.
Try to cut back on the praise and to encourage in a low-key way to make it easier for your child to become a self-starter. For example, just a smile or eye contact could do it.
How to help a struggling child
Dear Teachers,
At back-to-school night, the teacher asked me to schedule a conference with her, because she described my daughter as a struggling student. Is the teacher trying to tell me my child is now going to be placed in the special-education program?
Dear Parents,
You definitely need to schedule a conference to find out what is going on. Struggling at the start of the school year certainly does not mean your child needs to be in special education. It sounds like the teacher is being proactive and wants to address any problems before they become more severe.
Before the conference, take the time to write down a few questions such as the following:
• What academic subject or subjects are causing my child to struggle?
• What are your suggestions for ways that things can be turned around?
• Can we look over some of my child’s academic work and see her specific difficulties?
• Does my child need a tutor?
• Do you offer before- or after-school help that my child can attend?
• What are some ways that I can help the child?
• Can we schedule a meeting in a few weeks to see how my child is making progress?
What are the Common Core State Standards?
Dear Teachers,
Our state has adopted something called the Common Core State Standards. What is the purpose of these standards? Who created them? What subjects are included in these standards? How will they affect what is taught in the classroom? Will there be tests based on the Common Standards?
Dear Parents,
The purpose of the standards is to get every child in grades kindergarten through 12 ready for college and the workforce. The standards tell exactly what essential knowledge and skills students should have acquired at the end of each grade level no matter where they live. Don’t think of them, however, as a statement of all that can and should be taught. States, districts, and schools are free to add more content. Furthermore, the standards do not dictate how teachers are to teach, but they are going to require new teaching styles.
It is important to understand that these standards were a multi-state effort that was coordinated by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. It is not mandatory for states to adopt these standards; however, most have done so since they were developed in 2010 by teachers, school administrators, and experts.
The Common Core State Standards are for math and English-language arts. You can definitely expect them to be part of new textbooks and standardized assessment tests in the coming years. These standards are likely to affect how many things will be taught in the classroom. It is expected that spelling will receive a lot less emphasis, cursive handwriting is likely to disappear, and less time will be spent on drills in math and memorizing facts. The emphasis is going to be on critical thinking, rather than repetition and rote learning. Plus, your children are probably going to spend more time working on projects and in teams to solve problems.
The states are currently collaborating to develop common assessments that are aligned to the standards to replace today’s end-of-year state assessments. These new assessments will first be used in 2014–2015 school year.
There are no efforts at the present time to develop standards in other academic subjects by the developers of the Common Core State Standards. However, separate organizations have developed or are now revising standards for science, foreign languages, and arts education.
You can find out even more about the Common Core State Standards online at corestandards.org.
Parents should send questions and comments to dearteacher@dearteacher.com or ask them on the columnists’ website at www.dearteacher.com.
© Compass Syndicate Corporation, 2013
Distributed by King Features Syndicate
