Kindergarten Archives

Teaching Critical Thinking Through Science

June 15, 2015 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

The goal of science education is much more than teaching students specific science content, it’s teaching students how to think with an emphasis on hypothesizing, planning, testing, reasoning from data, and drawing conclusions. Many of us are familiar with the scientific method, but science teaching, particularly at the elementary level, should focus on process skills. Process skills are the behaviors we want students to develop as young scientists. Regardless of the particular content or science kits used in schools (i.e. SCIS, Foss, STC), all students should have hands-on experience with scientific investigations that provide myriad opportunities to develop these process skills. Students who have regular access to real science work and investigations sharpen their critical thinking and develop both creative and analytical problem solving skills. Kids also LOVE “doing” science, and this subject matter becomes a major motivator for student engagement.

The National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) highlights basic science process skills as well as integrated science process skills.

Basic science process skills include:

Observing – using the senses to gather information about an object or event. Example: Describing a pencil as yellow.
Inferring – making an “educated guess” about an object or event based on previously gathered data or information. Example: Saying that the person who used a pencil made a lot of mistakes because the eraser was well worn.
Measuring – using both standard and nonstandard measures or estimates to describe the dimensions of an object or event. Example: Using a meter stick to measure the length of a table in centimeters.
Communicating – using words or graphic symbols to describe an action, object or event. Example: Describing the change in height of a plant over time in writing or through a graph.
Classifying – grouping or ordering objects or events into categories based on properties or criteria. Example: Placing all rocks having certain grain size or hardness into one group.
Predicting – stating the outcome of a future event based on a pattern of evidence. Example: Predicting the height of a plant in two weeks time based on a graph of its growth during the previous four weeks.

Integrated Science Process Skills include:

Controlling variables – being able to identify variables that can affect an experimental outcome, keeping most constant while manipulating only the independent variable. Example: Realizing through past experiences that amount of light and water need to be controlled when testing to see how the addition of organic matter affects the growth of beans.
Defining operationally – stating how to measure a variable in an experiment. Example: Stating that bean growth will be measured in centimeters per week.
Formulating hypotheses – stating the expected outcome of an experiment. Example: The greater the amount of organic matter added to the soil, the greater the bean growth.
Interpreting data – organizing data and drawing conclusions from it. Example: Recording data from the experiment on bean growth in a data table and forming a conclusion which relates trends in the data to variables.
Experimenting – being able to conduct an experiment, including asking an appropriate question, stating a hypothesis, identifying and controlling variables, operationally defining those variables, designing a “fair” experiment, conducting the experiment, and interpreting the results of the experiment. Example: The entire process of conducting the experiment on the affect of organic matter on the growth of bean plants.
Formulating models – creating a mental or physical model of a process or event. Examples: The model of how the processes of evaporation and condensation interrelate in the water cycle.

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

5 Ways to Motivate Young Writers and Readers

June 5, 2015 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Research supports what successful parents and teachers do.
By J. Richard Gentry, PhD, and Steve Peha
Original Source: Psychology Today

Story-Time Writing

Most parents read stories to their kids. But how many parents write them? It’s not hard. Invite your child to write with you. Grab some paper and something to write with. And then make up a little story, writing it down, page by page as you go. Keep the stories simple. Make a sketch to illustrate each page or have your child do the illustration. Try to make stories that look like the ones you read with your child in easy books. Kids love Mom-or-Dad-When-They-Were-Kids stories or When-You-Were-A-Baby stories.

Another way to engage your child is in shared story creation where both of you contribute simultaneously. As you create the story together you serve as a model of how exactly to go about it. Over time in this gradual release learning model—I do it; we do it; you do it—your child will be writing stories on his or her own.

Listomania

Our lives are full of lists: “to do” lists, shopping lists, lists of people, list of favorite things, etc. Many of these lists are things we write down. List writing is pretty easy. So it’s often one of the first forms of writing kids can be involved in.

The next time you make a grocery list, ask your child to help you with it. Even if you do all the writing, they’ll feel included in the process. Gradually, they’ll want to do it, too. Don’t be surprised when one day they present you with their own list of things they’d like you pick up at the store.

Revive a Long Lost Tradition

Kids love to get gifts. But the tradition of “Thank You” notes seems to have fallen by the wayside. Whether you are a parent, a grandparent, an uncle or an aunt, a child’s thank you note—dictated or written in their own hand—is a treasure.

Three reasons for using this technique as a motivator for writing and reading are that it teaches kids cultural values, social interaction, and it’s a wonderful way for kids to write to a real audience. From a teaching and cognitive perspective there’s the added value of repetition: many of the notes use the same words (like “thank you” or “I like the _______ you sent me,” and so on).

Map It Out

Draw—Label—Captionwriting is a simple form that can be used by preschoolers. In the following variation taken from a case study in Raising Confident Readers: How to Teach Your Child to Read and Write: From Baby to Age 7, Danielle, (four years, eight months of age) drew a map of the aisles in the Publix grocery store and put in labels to show where here favorite foods could be found.

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

Repetition is not a single activity, but a reminder that you should write and read with your child every day. Your child is often motivated to mimic and repeat what you do even without any prompting. Repetition is its own built-in motivator. When you do fun and engaging side-by-side writing and reading activities over time your beginner reorganizes and integrates new information such as higher-order print concepts and piles on new knowledge about sounds, letters, and literacy. Reading aloud is crucial. But don’t forget that among 3- to 6-year-olds, pencil and paper kids are often the first readers.

Posted October 10, 2013

Framework for Literacy Instruction: 3 Perspectives

June 3, 2015 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Amy Shapiro and I took a graduate course for professional development on teaching beginning readers. During the course, we studied The Framework for Literacy Instruction which presents three perspectives for effective teaching—the interactive perspective, the critical perspective, and the response perspective. Across each perspective, the teacher must be cognizant of planning for the learners, the texts, and the instructional practices. It is critically important to address all three perspectives in literacy planning. If our goal is to develop critical thinkers, then focusing their attention on the content, the craft, and the big ideas is imperative. Through exposure to both fiction and non-fiction genres, students can develop a repertoire of comprehension strategies that can be applied appropriately depending on the reading task.

Learners: Affective and cognitive aspects of literacy learning.

Texts: Text structures, types, genres, and difficulty levels matched to literacy learners and literacy goals and objectives.

Instructional Practices: Developmentally appropriate research-based practices used with appropriate texts to facilitate affective and cognitive aspects of literacy development in all learners.

1. Interactive Perspective

Reading and writing accurately, fluently, and with comprehension.
Being strategic and metacognitive readers and writers.
Use a variety of informal and formal assessments to determine areas of strength and need in literacy development.
Determine texts of the appropriate types and levels of difficulty to meet literacy goals and objectives for students.
Use instructional methods that address the cognitive and affective needs of students and the demands of the particular text.
Promote students’ independent use of reading strategies and skills.

2. Critical Perspective

Judging, evaluating, and thinking critically about text.
Find out about ideas, issues, and problems that matter to students.
Understand the learner as a unique individual.
Select texts that provide opportunities for students to judge, evaluate, and think critically.
Foster a critical stance by teaching students how to judge, evaluate, and think critically about texts.

3. Response Perspective

Reading, reacting, and responding to text in a variety of meaningful ways.Find out about students’ interests and identities.
Understand what matters to students and who they are as individuals.
Select texts that connect to students’ identities and/or interests and that have the potential to evoke an emotional or personal response.
Provide opportunities for students to read, react, and formulate a personal response to text.© Laureate Education, Inc.

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

Learning Concierge ®

June 1, 2015 Leave a Comment

Growing With Families Over Time

It has always been our mission to grow with families over time and to flexibly respond to the various needs of family members along their educational journeys. Our Learning Concierge ® service is intended to make getting started as simple as possible for families. We’re here to help with any of your educational needs.

Because we grow with families over time, we bring a unique perspective to integrated and effective educational problem solving and decision making. Over the course of a school year, we help families to navigate myriad decisions and scenarios, including but not limited to:

Getting to know students over time and sharing in their many successes motivates us everyday. That we can grow with students from preschool to lower school to middle school to upper school to college is truly differentiating, and having expertise within each of these divisions and schooling chapters informs our planning work with families regardless of when they come forward. Brad and Faya have truly redefined educational consulting.

A Boutique Multidisciplinary Educational Consulting Firm

When we conceptualized My Learning Springboard in 2009, we envisioned a boutique multidisciplinary educational consulting firm unlike anything of its kind in NYC or beyond. We imagined a truly holistic, integrated practice that would partner closely with families, schools, and professional colleagues in ways we only wish that every industry would embrace for more effective problem solving among stakeholders. “It takes a village” is a commonly understood phrase, and we walk the walk everyday.

This week you need a biology tutor. Next week you need a Latin tutor. This term you need a writing coach. Next term you need a math specialist. Your youngest child is a struggling reader. Your oldest child wants to pursue independent study surrounding computer science. Last year was an amazing school experience, but this year is shaping up differently. Maybe you want to pursue a school exploration. Years ago we worked on the kindergarten admissions process together, and now it’s time to launch a college process.

You have 2 or 3 or 4 children and each needs a different school environment. One attends all boys, one attends all girls, one needs a specialized setting, and the youngest is in nursery school. Each student approaches work differently, and their ages require different expertise. From advanced subject areas to scaffolded and targeted remediation, we have you covered!

As a Learning Concierge ® service, our faculty includes professors, upper school teachers, lower school teachers, middle school teachers, learning specialists, special educators, subject matter experts, and early childhood educators available for in-person and/or remote instruction. We skew toward highly experienced, highly qualified teachers with advanced degrees and 5+ years of teaching experience. Many teachers have been with us for 10+ years, and this continuity speaks to our highly effective collaborative approach.

Our close working relationships with related service professionals across every field is a huge benefit to our families, too, and we’re able to VIP introductions and fast-track appointments with neuropsychologists, therapists, psychiatrists, special education attorneys, occupational therapists, speech therapists, and a variety of other professionals.

An Unexpected Turn

Sometimes the journey takes an unexpected turn, and that’s one way that we’re able to flex our unique expertise as Learning Concierges. Though families often set out to be in one school environment from grades K-12, it often plays out differently for any number of reasons. Perhaps a student who started in a single-sex school is ready to try coed, or a student who started in a religious setting is ready to try a secular school experience, or a student who started in a mainstream setting presents with a need for a transition to a specialized or therapeutic school setting. Or maybe you’re faced with an involuntary search because of disciplinary action.

It’s our creativity, tenacity, attention to detail, shared values, cross training, and collective expertise – among other qualities – that sets us apart.

Your Learning Concierge ® Team

We don’t know any Educational Consultants with expertise to move in all of these directions or a myriad of others. That Brad and Faya are the only Board Certified Educational Planners in NYC at the K-12 level, both Learning Specialists, both College Counselors, and both triple designated by the most stringent association groups – AICEP and IECA – for mainstream, specialized, and therapeutic school planning is highly unusual. From strategic planning to crisis management, Brad and Faya bring tremendous efficacy, empathy, and patience to their partnerships with families and schools. Their 16 school years in private practice and long-term relationships with families and colleagues is a testament to their success, work ethic, and dedication to lifelong learning.

Brad and Faya are your Learning Concierge ® team, and working with My Learning Springboard provides an unparalleled experience for school planning, private tutoring, and test preparation. Every recommendation is specifically tailored to your family’s needs and your student’s profile. Everything is a choice. Everything is organized at will. Everything is modular.

Instruction and consulting efforts are curated to specifically meet your particular needs and parameters, and your privacy is of the utmost importance. We’re intentionally boutique so that every family has the opportunity to work directly with the Co-Founders, and any teaching effort has the benefit of a small teaching team to support planning and implementation. Collaboration with school professionals or other related service professionals with whom your family is working is always an option.

Admissions Consulting (PreK-12) and School Planning:

College Counseling:

Tutoring and Executive Function Coaching:

Test Preparation:

Scheduling A Planning Meeting

Whatever your educational need or wonder may be, please don’t hesitate to contact us. An initial school planning meeting is usually the best way to get started. These meetings can be 30, 45, or 60 minutes by Zoom, by phone, or in person per a family’s preference. A single planning meeting allows us to talk more substantively about your family’s specific needs, priorities, and goals so that we can determine possible next steps. We’re committed to developing unique solutions for unique learners!

We look forward to hearing from you!

Warm regards,
Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman,
Co-Founders and Learning Concierges, My Learning Springboard

Why Teaching Both Estimation and Accuracy is Important

May 28, 2015 Brad Hoffman 3 Comments

When I work with elementary students, they are often confused when they reach the estimation unit, and so are their parents. They get hung up on the skill rather than understanding why the concept is even relevant. Students prefer to find the exact answer because estimating seems like extra work and, developmentally, estimating is a challenging task for young children. According to John A. Van de Walle, a math education researcher, estimation is a higher-level skill that requires students to be able to conceptualize and mentally manipulate numbers. Instead of just adding or subtracting columns, they actually have to analyze each number in the problem and make a determination as to round up or down depending on that “magic number” [which is 5]. Then the extra challenge is whether to round to the nearest one, ten, hundred or thousand. Or maybe it’s supposed to be front end estimation. What’s the difference? Who cares? Why would anyone other than a math teacher need to understand this anyway?

The Common Core Standards include estimation skills for every grade level. We’re interested in using language with children that includes such words and phrases as about, close, just about, a little more (or less) than, and between. From a 10,000 foot view, we want our students to be able to do the following mathematically:

Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Model with mathematics.
Use appropriate tools strategically.
Attend to precision.
Look for and make use of structure.
Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

In real life, estimation is part of our everyday experience. When you’re shopping in the grocery store and trying to stay within a budget, for example, you estimate the cost of the items you put in your cart to keep a running total in your head. When you’re purchasing tickets for a group of people or splitting the cost of dinner between 8 friends, we estimate for ease. Contractors or consultants often work in a world of estimates. Rarely do we know all the facts up front and there could be many variables at play. Therefore, a ballpark number is perfectly sufficient. Annie Murphy Paul addresses this particular issue in her TIME magazine article called “Why Guessing is Undervalued”.

For students, estimating is an important skill. First and foremost, we want students to be able to determine the reasonableness of their answer. Without estimation skills, students aren’t able to determine if their answer is within a reasonable range. This inability to reason causes them to make computational errors without it even being on their radar. For example, if a student is asked to multiply 523 x 34 and they arrive at a product of 177,820, we want students to independently recognize that 177,820 couldn’t possibly be a reasonable answer. If they use the estimation of 500 x 30 to arrive at 15,000, they quickly realize that their place value is way off and that their work needs to be redone.

Second, we want students to be able to use mental math to more quickly arrive at a reasonable ballpark solution. When I worked as a talent development and learning specialist at Time Warner, I remember sitting in meetings with marketers and finance executives as they kicked around cost estimates for various projects. The leaders in the room could compute estimates quickly and mentally. They didn’t need calculators to find reasonable percentages or cost ranges. They could look at the data and mentally compute estimates that were sufficient for moving the agenda forward. It was only afterwards that they would build their Excel models and determine exact costs and time lines. If we want to teach our children to be successful in business, we need to promote strong estimation skills.

Third, we want students to use estimation beyond adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. We also want students to be able to reasonably estimate time and distances. About how long does it take for us to get from Point A to Point B?

Approximately what time will it be when you finish all of your homework? About how many miles is a walk from The Guggenheim Museum to the Sony Building if 20 blocks is about a mile. Time estimation skills are an important part of executive functioning, and we want students to develop a sense of estimating reasonable time for both short and long range planning.

When teaching computational estimation to elementary and middle school students, there are at least five different strategies to consider depending on the context. It’s important to teach all five so that students develop a repertoire of strategies for various situations. But most importantly, we want students to understand why estimating is valuable before getting caught up in the minutiae of the skill, and we certainly want students to understand that estimation does not replace the need to come up with accurate answers. What we’re really talking about is teaching students to be critical thinkers and to understand what’s being asked of them.

Rounding whole numbers
Estimating a sum
Front end estimation
Compatible numbers
Cluster estimation

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

Teaching Critical Thinking Through Science

Basic science process skills include:

Integrated Science Process Skills include:

5 Ways to Motivate Young Writers and Readers

Story-Time Writing

Listomania

Revive a Long Lost Tradition

Map It Out

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

Framework for Literacy Instruction: 3 Perspectives

1. Interactive Perspective

2. Critical Perspective

3. Response Perspective

Learning Concierge ®

Growing With Families Over Time

A Boutique Multidisciplinary Educational Consulting Firm

An Unexpected Turn

Your Learning Concierge ® Team

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Scheduling A Planning Meeting

Why Teaching Both Estimation and Accuracy is Important

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School Planning

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Test Preparation