Dear teacher,
My first grader has only been exposed to a total phonic-based reading program since kindergarten. She is no closer to reading now than she was last year. She just does not get phonics. Is there any way to help her?
Dear parent,
One thing that you can do to make learning phonics easier for your child is to introduce her to the word family approach. For example, pan, man, tan and van all share the “an” ending, so these words are all part of the “an” word family.
It will be much easier for your child to treat the “an” sound as a unit and to only sound out the initial consonant rather than trying to blend the sounds of several individual letters together. Plus, your daughter is probably familiar with rhymes, making word family stories easier and lots more fun to read. Think of how easy it would be for her to read: Nan ran. Nan ran and ran. Nan ran to Dan.
Online, you should be able to find many word family stories. Our website (dearteacher.com) has 42 word family stories in our Skinny Books series. We also have instructions about how to use our word family readers, as well as helpful worksheets.
In addition to trying word family readers with your child, be sure to talk to her teacher to get an appraisal of how your daughter is actually doing. Perhaps, she is not expected to read as much as you think at this point in the year.
Get more from meeting with your kid’s teacher
Dear teacher,
I really never get very much information from my children’s parent-teacher conference. The time is so short, and the teachers and I often get sidetracked. What specific questions should I ask to get the information that I need?
Dear parent,
Teachers generally control the agenda of a conference. They will typically give you answers to the following questions. If they don’t, you will want to ask them.
• What performance level is my child working at in the basic content areas?
• Is my child working to his full academic potential?
• What do you see as my child’s educational strengths and weaknesses?
• Does my child need any special help to succeed in the classroom, and can the school provide the needed help?
• Do you have any recent achievement, intelligence or aptitude test scores for my child?
• Is my child’s behavior in the classroom satisfactory? If not, what needs to be improved?
• What can I do at home to support my child’s learning?
• Do you see any academic or behavior problems that we need to discuss at another conference?
You definitely want to walk away knowing how your child is performing in the class and if there are any problems that need to be addressed. If there is a need for a more lengthy conference, you should try to schedule one at this time. You also need to know how the teacher wishes to be contacted when you have any future questions.
If there is time in the typical 15- to 20-minute conference, you may also find out about your child’s participation in class discussions, the standardized tests that will be given during the school year and the time that should be spent on homework.
To get the most from a conference you need to arrive on time or, better yet, at least five minutes before the scheduled time. You say that you and the teacher often get sidetracked so you don’t get the information that you need. If you mainly listen at the conference and don’t make too many comments, this should not happen.
Remember, you will be working with this teacher all year. Be supportive and appreciative of all the hard work that the teacher puts in daily and let the teacher know you want to do what is necessary to help your child succeed in school.
Teaching children how to respond to bullying
Dear teacher,
The teachers at our middle school do not often see children being bullied, but mine do, especially in the hallways and restrooms. How should they respond to the bullying?
Dear parent,
You should bring up at a parent-teacher meeting the need for the school to have more classroom discussions on how children should respond to seeing classmates being bullied. Here are some suggestions that you can share with your own children:
• Immediately find a teacher to intervene.
• Report the bullying to a teacher or principal.
• Refuse to support the bullying by laughing or joining in.
• Give support to the victim after the bullying incident.
• Attempt to stop the bullying alone or with friends, if this is a realistic action.
• Express disapproval of the bullying to the bully. (The more children who do this, the more effective this approach will be.)
• Prevent future bullying by having friends accompany the child who is being bullied in the hallways and restrooms.
Parents should send questions and comments to dearteacher@dearteacher.com or ask them on the columnists’ website at www.dearteacher.com. ©Compass Syndicate Corporation, 2014.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
