All Articles tagged high-school.

What is PAF?

February 4, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Preventing Academic Failure, or PAF, is a multisensory, Orton-Gillingham based reading intervention program that integrates reading, writing, and spelling. PAF was developed by Phyllis Bertin, Director of Reading at the Windward Teacher Training Institute, and Eileen Perlman, former Director of the Reading Initiative at The Churchill School and Center. The principles and practices of PAF are incredibly beneficial to students with dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities as well as younger students learning to read. The specific goals of the program, or intervention, are to give students the tools to read cohesively, write fluidly, and spell with ease. PAF was designed for classroom instruction but can be modified for private tutoring. While it is not a scripted program and strict set of rules, it is a carefully designed scope and sequence with specific methodologies and materials.

PAF explicitly and systematically teaches alphabetic principle, higher-level word analysis skills and comprehension strategies. The goal is to instruct with minimal frustration and maximum success for teachers and students alike, leading to mastery and enhanced self-esteem for each participating student. This multisensory approach is evidence-based practice and proven to support the struggling reader. There are explicit phonics lessons, an instructional scope and sequence, oral reading exercises, repeated readings, decoding, and integration of comprehension, writing, and spelling strategies. By taking each of these components into consideration and systematically planning instruction, struggling readers, writers, and spellers will begin to feel successful and excited about reading and writing. PAF includes an instructional approach to handwriting and encourages students to use Skywriting as a kinesthetic reinforcement.

A master teacher differentiates each lesson in his or her classroom or private tutoring sessions. The PAF program supports teachers in delivering differentiated lessons by incorporating multisensory practices. The multisensory approach is one that accesses the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic strengths of students within each lesson, providing them with three modalities to approach the literacy task at hand.

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

Summer Tutoring: It matters more than you think.

January 24, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

I taught High School and Middle School for nine and a half years and I can safely say that the hardest part of the school year for students and teachers are the first days. This is when all of the routines are set up, all expectations are made clear, and when kids get their chance to make first impressions. A student who kept up with schoolwork over the summer has more advantages than you would expect.

Elementary School, Middle School, High School—it’s always an endeavor of concentrating the most information delivered in the least amount of time.

Add to that college admissions, sports, and the inevitable friction caused by growing up, and your child’s experience in school is more similar to living in a pressure cooker. And, the pressure just goes up as college applications approach.

Because the school year (especially in New York) is difficult, many parents give their children the summer off to rest and relax to be more ready for the next year. While I have seen some students come back from a summer off and start the school year with their skills at the ready, most encounter a difficult adjustment that often comes at the cost of their grades. Usually the first month to month and a half of instruction in most classes is spent “catching up” to where students left off the previous year.

Now, consider the opposite.

What if your child spent the summer reading a moderate amount and receiving some additional instruction one or two days a week in mathematics, languages, reading, writing, test prep? A moderate schedule with a moderate amount of work would yield:

Confidence and reduced anxiety when returning to school
An opportunity to impress teachers early on
An advantage over peers who took the summer off and need to be reminded of their basic skills
A deeper understanding of the material and more progress as a lifelong learner

Good tutors specialize in making whatever their student is studying fun and interesting—the time spent can be a fun part of the summer, too.

Also, deep down, every young person wants to learn and wants to develop skills that they can use to succeed in life. No matter how much they would prefer to be lazy, there’s always a part of them that will want to be asked to do more. They want to make you proud, but they also want to achieve their goals—they want to have big, exciting lives full of success.

Somewhere in between year-round school and a summer off, there’s a program for your child that will make them happy during the summer as well as help them throughout the school year.

First impressions are lasting ones with teachers, but feeling confident in the classroom and feeling confident in oneself starts on the first days of school and influences the rest of the year. These first days of the new school year and first impressions will be helped immensely by some summer practice. Starting the school year off on the right foot will do more for your child’s well-being and confidence than any other gift you could buy them. Summer tutoring, reading, math, and enrichment are the path to great things.

By Grant Bergland, Private Tutor

Get Into that Body, and Get Ready to Learn!

January 14, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

As most teachers and parents have observed at some point, young children’s bodies can act in ways that are (drastically!) counter to what we think would be best for their learning. Young children are continually exploring and discovering ways that their bodies fit into space and how to feel at ease in their bodies- like trying on clothes that don’t fit right, but you can’t take them off. This process is part of a child’s development. The constantly tapping foot, the drumming pencil, the inability to sit on the meeting rug for any length of time, the consistent tripping and falling– this is far from an exhaustive list, but they are some common actions that are frequently observed in classrooms and at home.

Some adults are quick to dismiss these behaviors as typical childhood “energy,” particularly in young boys. But whether boys or girls, many children grow out of this physical behavior in time, proving that it is a natural, if challenging, period of childhood development. Other children for whom these challenges are more extreme may benefit from from additional support by working with an Occupational Therapist. But regardless of the level of disruption to a child’s learning, there are a number of practices that can be adopted by either teachers or parents to help any child’s body feel more grounded in space when they are particularly “wiggly”.

Create a “Push Place” on the wall at child’s height. Trace a pair of hands on a large piece of paper and post it on a wall in a part of a room where it isn’t distracting. The idea is that the student stands parallel to the wall, places their hands on the chart and pushes hard against the wall, literally doing standing push ups. The joint compression from this exercise can settle a body and make it feel more grounded. Ten to twenty are a good amount for any given visit to the Push Place. After modeling, the child begins to feel what it can do for their body and will self-regulate, recognizing on their own when they might benefit from it.
Give wiggly students something heavy (for them) to carry. It could be a pile of books, a cloth bag full of blocks or any number of other things. If there is a purpose – the objects actually have to be transported somewhere – all the better. If not, it can still be presented to the child simply as body work or exercise or even “getting your body ready to work.” Carrying weighted objects even short distances can, by promoting the exertion of large muscle groups, help a child’s body feel calmed and more ready to focus.
A quick and easy way to help an individual child or a group to warm up before sitting for a while is to do “Handcakes.” For this, the child puts their hands flat together in front of their chest and squash their hands together, squeezing as tight as possible, 10-12 times or about 1 minute. This can be done standing or sitting, and it doesn’t take any special space so can really be used anywhere. The benefits are similar to the Push Place, in which joint compressions stimulate a sense of groundedness that is particularly soothing for children who consistently feel ill at ease in their own bodies.
For sitting, be sure the child has a chair with the proper height. A child’s feet should be able to touch the ground and not swing wildly. Needless to say, and many adults can likewise attest to this, having feet planted firmly is a direct way of feeling grounded in space. When sitting on a rug or on the floor, we can’t assume that all children can sit “criss-cross applesauce” for an extended period of time. Particularly for children with low muscle tone, it is a challenge to hold their bodies upright in any kind of consistent way. One alternative can be to have the child sit half cross-legged, where one leg is stretched out semi-straight and the other leg is crossed. The position can switch legs as needed.

The most important thing when thinking about “body helpers” such as these is for us to remember, again, that young children are still trying on their skin, in a sense. Not only are they growing rapidly, a process during which every added inch and pound creates a real shift, but in addition, a child’s sensory system is still learning how to recognize, interpret and react appropriately to the countless environmental stimuli that we encounter every minute of every day. Supporting young children during this period of growth can happen most effectively when we begin to understand what is driving seemingly frustrating behaviors so that we can begin to address them.

By Kevin Wood, Private Tutor

3 Mistakes We Make in Positive Reinforcement

January 6, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

… but don’t worry they are easy to fix!

Ever have a student to whom you are giving positive reinforcement, who just seems to remain completely unmotivated? Have you ever considered whether your rewards just aren’t that rewarding? Highly rewarding and motivating reinforcement does not have to equal a lot of money spent or hours invested if you really know your student, not just as a learner but as a whole person. Here are three things we educators often overlook in trying to motivate our students:

We assume we know what is motivating for a student.

All small kids like bubbles, or candy, or stickers, right? An older student would do anything for a free movie trip, wouldn’t they? Well, that depends.

With younger children we often do find they like certain toys or social games, but we have to check in often to know what their preferences are because they quickly outgrow certain things and want new choices. How do we know? That’s easy, give them some choices! You can offer them different options and see which ones they choose and which they are the most excited about.

With an older child it gets trickier- we assume older students want breaks or trips or pizza lunches. I know when I was in middle school I wouldn’t have cared enough to work for any of those things, but I would have done almost anything to have someone sit and listen to me tell them about Napoleon for 5 minutes.

Now you may be wondering, how in the world would a teacher know that? None of mine did! That is where relationship-building and really knowing your older students is essential. You never know when your student has a quirky interest they are dying to share if someone just showed an interest – and listening is free! So don’t just assume you know what your student of ANY age actually wants – find out for sure!

We forget that people need both short-term and long-term motivators.

So maybe you find out that your student would indeed love a movie trip at the end of a successful semester; however, that is a big reward in terms of time and money, so obviously you can’t do that too often. Sometimes we as educators forget that while our students are working for a big reward that they are going to probably need shorter-term, smaller motivators along the way. The big reward can seem so far away, and the requirements so intense, that without extra incentives along the way it can be impossible to get there.

Adults can benefit the same way. Getting a paycheck may be a main motivator to work and not spend all day sunning on the beach; however, being told that you did a great job on a project helps anyone keep a positive attitude until payday comes. Don’t forget to think about how you can offer smaller rewards for positive behavior, even when students are trying for a bigger goal.

We forget that relationships play a key role in high-quality reinforcement.

If you try to reinforce your students with only items you are quickly going to get frustrated! As your students age, the “things” that will motivate them will likely have to grow in intensity. Let’s say, for example, that a student loves fire trucks. It may start that he or she is willing to work for pictures of trucks, but as they get older and gain skills maybe they will want to be driven to the station to see actual trucks. So then what?

This is where a positive relationship comes in. If you get to know your students well you will learn their interests and passions. If you share an interest with a student, that is hitting the JACKPOT because everyone wants to spend time with someone who shares their interests. The chance to hang out with a person who is legitimately interested in what they do is intensely valuable to a child, and makes doing other work that needs to get done, doable.

I had a student who loved a particular computer game. Turned out that, lucky me, I loved it too. While initially he would work to play the game together (or talk about it with someone who authentically enjoyed it) it turned out later he would complete state standardized tests just so I would listen to the music in his iPod. Because we already shared an interest, he wanted to share other things he loved too. Anyone can work on making sure time spent with students is valuable.

The best part of relationships as reinforcers is that you as a person are dynamic and changing. So while students will get bored with the same jigsaw puzzle, (and potentially need dozens of new ones to stay motivated for a few months) you are able to change and offer new ideas for interesting activities.

When our students are working for things or activities they truly want, and feel that the task is manageable to reach the reward, then there is much they can achieve. It may be a while until some of students are intrinsically motivated, but when they respect you and your opinions, they can get to respecting themselves a little faster. When you see the greatness in your students it helps them to see it too.

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

National Mentoring Month: Why Tutoring?

January 1, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives. ~Clay P. Bedford

Can you remember your favorite teacher? Tour guide? Facilitator? What made that experience so memorable? January is National Mentoring Month, and we believe that those memorable experiences always come down to relationships and connections.

Passionate, engaging teachers tend to have passionate, engaged students. A master teacher really makes a difference. A master teacher is invaluable at all stages of life. With the help of a great teacher, mentor or coach, we can push ourselves that much farther and realize our full potential.

It isn’t about competition with others; it’s about self-empowerment, self-motivation, curiosity, and a desire to achieve for one’s own gratification. Tutoring comes in all shapes and sizes. Beyond school consultation, we generally work with families for one of three reasons:

A student is struggling in a particular subject area and needs help to fill a learning gap or reinforce material.
A student is seeking additional challenge or wants to pursue a specific curiosity with an enrichment teacher or academic coach.
With busy schedules and stressful workloads, the homework and study front is sometimes best facilitated by a neutral 3rd party rather than a parent.

Ultimately, the goal is to help students develop effective studying strategies and confidence that will lead to self-empowerment and independence. Whether the focus is support or enrichment, tutoring may be short-term to jump-start the process or long-term to provide more ongoing instruction. In the case of short-term tutoring, students often need a teacher, mentor or coach to help them springboard into success.

A common question is “How long does it take to create a habit?” There are varying opinions ranging from 21-66 days. But the bottom line is that consistency and practice are needed for any habit or behavior change to stick. This idea applies to tutoring as well. If a student needs support to develop organizational systems, study habits, or new behaviors, then tutoring may be a short-term engagement to help get on the right path and take off.

Tutoring may also be short-term if the learning goal is narrow. For example, you may want to spend several sessions with a language tutor getting ready for an upcoming vacation, business trip or study abroad experience. Or you may want to meet with a museum educator to help bring a historical unit to life. Other students have sought out short-term support to prepare for a specific exam or to expedite progress in a particular area. Longer term tutoring may begin as specific academic support but then evolve into broader academic coaching.

Once the relationship is developed, my students often request that the tutor stay on as a resource for continued support, enrichment, motivation and structured practice. I’m so impressed with how much ownership our students assume. We have students as young as fifth and sixth graders that directly manage scheduling, send text messages when they have questions and prepare the agenda and work priorities for the upcoming session. As a teacher, you can choose to be the “Guide on the Side” or the “Sage on Stage.” Both have their time and place, but more often than not we look to be the “Guide on the Side” because that means our students are equal partners in the process.

As a classroom teacher, my colleagues and I used to say that an “A” has 3 points: 1) the student’s accountability, 2) the teacher’s accountability, and 3) the parent’s accountability. Another way of saying this is “my job, your job, our job.” When all 3 points are working together, a student’s achievement is unstoppable! Contact us to discuss tutoring as a springboard to achievement for your child.

Happy National Mentoring Month!

By Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed.
Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist
My Learning Springboard, Inc.

All Articles tagged high-school.

What is PAF?

Summer Tutoring: It matters more than you think.

Get Into that Body, and Get Ready to Learn!

3 Mistakes We Make in Positive Reinforcement

We assume we know what is motivating for a student.

We forget that people need both short-term and long-term motivators.

We forget that relationships play a key role in high-quality reinforcement.

National Mentoring Month: Why Tutoring?

Company Overview

School Planning

Private Tutoring

Test Preparation