Brad Hoffman, Author at My Learning Springboard

Step Up to Writing: A Tool for the Reluctant Writer

August 27, 2012 Brad Hoffman

Some kids are naturally great writers – but some aren’t. Although there are a number of cool strategies for teaching writing (Six Traits, Writers’ Workshop, The Writing Process) the holistic approach to writing isn’t always effective for the student who just doesn’t have a knack for written communication. The struggling writer needs something simple, effective and reliable that they can apply in every writing situation. As a teacher and private tutor, I find the Step Up to Writing approach offers a valuable tool that is simple, easy to use, and equally applicable in the classroom and in one-on-one learning situations.

The Step Up to Writing model is easy. Think of a traffic light cycle – green, yellow, red, green. The green light is the first sentence in a piece of writing. It means GO! Just say your idea, or answer the prompt in one simple sentence. I am really looking forward to going back to school.

The yellow light is the second sentence. It says SLOW DOWN – tell us more about that idea. Write a sentence that gives a reason or detail about your first sentence. I have lots of friends at school and I can’t wait to see them all.

The red light means STOP. In the next sentence, give a supporting detail or an example. My best friend, Jessica, went to the beach this summer so I haven’t seen her for a long time.

Finally, a green light again – GO. Say your first sentence again, but use different words. It will be fun to see all my friends at school on Monday!

The end result is a clear, four sentence paragraph that includes well developed ideas and supporting details. Best of all, the model can be applied to just about any writing situation – a mathematical explanation, a journal entry, a reading response log, or a thank you letter to Grandma.

I always introduce this writing model using a picture of a blank traffic light. I invite my students to color the lights green, yellow, red and green, while we discuss and model what each light represents. Then, I give my students colored pens or colored pencils to write each of the four sentences to build a paragraph. Later, I use colored bullets at the beginning of each sentence to reinforce the structure and provide an ongoing visual and kinesthetic model of the paragraph structure.

Using the Step Up to Writing model, constructing a basic, four-sentence paragraph is easily accessible to even the most reluctant writer. The model can also be extended to incorporate more complex written responses. An extended response can be created by alternating yellow and red sentences, between the green sentences to express more than one idea on a given topic. Multiple four-sentence paragraphs can be combined to form a complete essay.

When students are comfortable with the use of green, red and yellow sentences, I extend further by introducing transition words. I always color these blue, and I introduce them to students on jigsaw puzzle pieces – transition words link ideas together, like pieces in a puzzle. I particularly like using transition words at the beginning of the red sentence. For example,.. and In the text … are two of my favorites.

I love this approach to teaching writing – it is concrete, visually stimulating, tactile, easy to use, and widely applicable. And my students love it too because it helps them experience success in an area that was previously full of frustration.

By Sandra Cornell, Private Tutor

How to Use Real World Examples to Make Math Interesting and Applicable

August 22, 2012 Brad Hoffman

$Math in the Real World$ Why do so many students lack interest when it comes to learning math? One student told me that she might have a more intense passion for learning subjects like pre-algebra and geometry if she thought that she would actually need to use what she learned later in life. When asked, “When will I ever need to know this?” it is important to be armed with a motivating response backed by valid examples. Different approaches include referring to specific cases that are tailored to career goals or bringing up more general math scenarios. It is also helpful to make connections to a student’s personal hobbies and interests, and to allow them to explore those using math projects.

Whether a student dreams of becoming a lawyer, an actor, or a veterinarian, some form of math skills will be required. The simplest example is for managing finances. You need to be able to figure out how much is in your monthly budget and compare it to how much you are paid. How many extra hours should you work this week to cover the road trip you want to take? Another essential example is unit conversions. How many miles is it to drive to Georgia and back? How many gallons of gas would that take, and how much would that cost?

There have been some very costly errors due to making blunders in unit conversions. In 1999, NASA’s $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft was sent 60 miles off course after a 286-day journey to Mars. The miscalculations occurred because English units (pounds-seconds) were used on the ground, while the navigation team calculated the thruster force in metric Newtons-seconds. The space craft disintegrated upon entering Mars’s atmosphere due improper conditions. Other examples of costly unit conversion errors include a derailed roller coaster in Disneyland Tokyo and a flight in Canada that ran out of fuel.

For any new topic that you introduce, it helps to make some kind of linkage to a real world application. Sometimes a Google search can aid in your brainstorming process. For example, looking up the phrase “real world application of rational functions,” brings up relevant videos and links that illustrate instances of rational functions in the fields of thermodynamics and electrical engineering. Be sure to avoid websites that lack reputable sources.

It is also important to ask questions about a student’s interests and find ways that relate them to math. If a student is interested in sports, you can relate football to player statistics and leaderboards. This is where it would be helpful to bring in some project-based learning. Instead of just going through tedious example problems with a student, you can focus on his/her topic of interest and provide some research data to be manipulated. I study Geographic Information Science and am mapping socioeconomic vulnerabilities to sea level rise. I have lots of data on elevation, census statistics, and land use. If a student was interested in travel, I would have him/her choose a city to assess. I would provide demographic data and have the student create population graphs and proportions.

When students see how creative they can be using math, they will get much more excited about it!

By Keren Bolter, Private Tutor

Developing Autonomy for Your Child with ADHD

August 21, 2012 Brad Hoffman

In the field of parenting children with ADHD, the topic of developing children’s autonomy is too often neglected. Experts as diverse as parenting specialist Jim Fay and New York Times bestselling author and motivation expert Daniel Pink recognize the extreme importance of this trait. Effectively developing autonomy has tremendous benefits ranging from increased compliance with rules, higher self esteem and development of good decision making skills.

But how does one implement this? Given complete autonomy wouldn’t children choose to not go to school, eat cookies for every meal and stay up until 2 A.M.? Simply put, yes they would. Therefore what needs to take place is what I refer to as PICA: Parents Implementing Controlled Autonomy (Copyright, Jeffrey Kranzler, 2012).

The concept behind PICA is simple. A parent gives autonomy to their children within limits that they set. They provide a set range of options, all of which would be acceptable to them, and allow their child to choose within that range of options.

Consider the following situation: A parent demands that their child finish their chores immediately. The child delays, gets distracted, argues with the parent, and a conflict ensues. And when there is conflict, regardless of whether a parent wins, they still lose. They have expended energy and become irritated. Most often they have taken a negative tone, and either explicitly given or implied negative messages to their child.

Let’s try that situation again, this time using PICA. Here, the parent will sit down with their child and provide a range of options regarding the chores. What kind of options? That depends on what you think might be the most effective for you and your child in your particular situation. One could ask the child to choose which chores they would like to do. One could allow them to choose the time in which the chore is to be done (and having a set time when chores are to be done itself greatly increases compliance). A child could choose the reward for completing the task on time and consequences for failing to accomplish it during the appointed time. The more a child’s input is involved, the more ownership of the action they will have.

This method complements another key concept in child rearing. Children crave rules and consistency. While children may not like your rules, or at least express this sentiment, they are much more unhappy when there are no boundaries, or when boundaries and rules are unclear or frequently change. By adding the element of autonomy they not only receive the rules they crave, they internalize the rule and feel a sense of control. This combination is incredibly powerful.

Despite the power that PICA has, there is an important caveat. Unless it is implemented effectively, in concert with other cornerstones of parenting such as clear communication, positive feedback, pre-planning, consistency and organizational help, it will not be effective. PICA is but one key concept in the rubric of effective parenting for children with ADHD.

Please contact us for more information.

Jeffrey Kranzler, LCSW specializing in teaching parenting skills and treating children and adolescents with ADHD, Anxiety, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Depression.

Physics Is as Fun as Playing in the Sand

August 20, 2012 Brad Hoffman

While students often see the summer as a time to leave the classroom behind and head for the beach, lake, or pool with their friends, I always like to remind them of all the scientific principles they’re unknowingly learning about while cooling off. Whether its simple ideas like the “every action has an equal and opposite reaction” that propels them forward as they push water back, or more complicated concepts like buoyancy that keep us afloat, what they learn in class can inform their understanding of the active world around them.

Now, as the New York Times Science Section recently reported, a group of scientists at the University of Amsterdam have turned this flow of information on its head. Taking inspiration from large sand castles, Physicist Daniel Bonn and his colleagues have discovered the ideal ratio of water to sand in order to make strong structures. Surprisingly, it’s much lower than the usual gloppy stuff we concoct on the beach to fuel our visions of castles, forts, and dream houses, with the best mix found to be about 99 parts sand to 1 part water. In this mixture, the water acts like a weak but sufficient glue holding individual sand grains together from intermolecular forces (an example of these forces is surface tension). Any less water, and there is not enough glue, the sand grains simply slide past each other. Any more, and the mixture gets a soupy consistency which flows easily, the sand effectively drowned.

It’s projects like these that make me love tutoring physics. A simple observation and some lazy summer pondering led a curious scientist to yearn to understand something so present in our everyday lives, yet complex in its workings. And from these investigations we come out with both a new conceptual understanding of the physics at play, and a practical knowledge to do something we actually enjoy and care about. This is the serendipity from which physicists, engineers, biologists, or simply curious and engaged youth are formed. Teachers always hope their students stay engaged over these long summer months, and teaching them how to approach the world in this inquisitive way is the best way to ensure they do.

By Erik Lessac-Chenen, Private Tutor

Splitting up Boys and Girls: Can Single Sex Classes Become Another Public School Option?

August 16, 2012 Brad Hoffman

While attending a human development class this summer, I came across two articles that left me wondering about the significance of same sex schools. Prior to reading these articles, I would have considered myself strongly in favor of coed schools, but now I am not so sure.

The first article was titled “The Gender Divide,” published in American Baby and written by Peg Rosen in 2003. It discusses how the human brain develops in both males and females and why girls and boys display different aptitudes early in life that play out as strengths and preferences as new skills develop. Even though the research is 10 years old, and by most standards considered out of date material, I found validity in Rosen’s findings based on my own experiences as a first grade teacher. On a daily basis, I observe and acknowledge these gender differences in my classroom. It is easy to see that boys and girls respond differently to educational strategies, learning modalities, and instructional methodologies. Young boys and girls often demonstrate differences with sustaining attention.

The second article was titled “Single Sex Classes Popular as More Public Schools Split Up Boys and Girls,” published in the Huffington Post on July 9, 2012. It highlights the controversial issue of how and why these differences in males and females must be considered in our public schools. Supporters of this movement explain that the separation allows for targeted and tailored instruction while helping to remove gender driven distractions and obstacles among boys and girls. In single sex classrooms, you might see boys taking a run before a test, but girls might be involved in calming activities such as yoga.

As an accomplished teacher, I always consider what is best for my students as it relates to higher academic achievement. Accommodating and differentiating instruction is a daily practice for me as I plan for my students. The idea of single sex classrooms seems to be yet another effective technique that would help some students to improve or enhance their learning process, thus leading to greater student success. I clearly understand and see why single sex classrooms are a controversial issue—equity and equality being at the top of the list of concerns—but, since public schools are in the market for reform that leads to higher achievement for all students, this may be another area where public school choice has long lasting benefits.

Written by: Editorial Team, My Learning Springboard, Inc.

Step Up to Writing: A Tool for the Reluctant Writer

How to Use Real World Examples to Make Math Interesting and Applicable

Developing Autonomy for Your Child with ADHD

Physics Is as Fun as Playing in the Sand

Splitting up Boys and Girls: Can Single Sex Classes Become Another Public School Option?

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