Private Tutoring Archives

Do You Know Your GRIT Score?

December 5, 2012 Brad Hoffman

Before she was a psychology professor, Angela Duckworth taught math in middle school and high school. She spent a lot of time thinking about something that might seem obvious: The students who tried hardest did the best, and the students who didn’t try very hard didn’t do very well. Duckworth wanted to know: What is the role of effort in a person’s success? How do you measure persistence and tenacity? Can you determine a student’s grit score?

Now Duckworth is an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and her research focuses on a personality trait she calls “grit.” She defines grit as “sticking with things over the very long term until you master them.” In a paper, she writes that “the gritty individual approaches achievement as a marathon; his or her advantage is stamina.” [more from PublicRadio.org…]

Find your grit score:

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

Valuing and Encouraging Student Participation

December 4, 2012 Brad Hoffman

In his book, Teach Like a Champion, Doug Lemov highlights that all effective teachers use a variety of strategies that keep their students highly engaged in the learning process. In those highly effective classrooms, no student has the opportunity to opt out of learning. Valuing and encouraging student participation is something that these skillful teachers do consistently. Some of the strategies highlighted in his book include:

Using Wait Time – it’s critical to develop a culture in your classroom that values waiting for a student to formulate his or her response, not just moving on.

Revoicing what a student says – it’s not just enough for the answer to be said once…”so you’re saying that….”

Asking students to restate someone else’s reasoning – checking for understanding by asking students what someone else said using their own words.

No Opt Out – a student who at first says that he/she doesn’t know the answer to a question should be asked to answer that same question after it has been answered correctly by someone else.

Both parents and teachers can change the interactions with their students by using the above strategies as well as the many others that are shared in text and demonstrated on DVD in Teach Like a Champion. Teach Like a Champion can change the culture in the classroom as well as change the life of our students. Valuing and encouraging student participation is a critical part of this classroom success.

Effectively Praising Your Child: Part II

September 11, 2012 Brad Hoffman

Here we will continue the discussion that we began in “Effectively Praising Your Child: Part I.”

Avoid Praise Devaluation

Make sure that your praise, while coming often, does not lose its value. Praise loses its value when you praise actions that don’t merit praise.
Example: “Wow Tim, you kicked that rock in the street really well.”

Praise Small Progress

This principle seems to be in contradiction to the above mentioned one, but there is an important difference. Kicking rocks has no value. Finishing a chore ten minutes earlier than the previous day, while still taking 30 minutes too long, is valuable because it is one step closer to reaching the goal of getting the task done on time. Praising small steps leads to more small steps being taken. Slow steady progress is frustrating but is the way improvement occurs.

Drudge Up The Past

Holding on to past insults and injuries can be incredibly harmful to any relationship. However, holding onto and reminding your child of past successes is a very positive tool. Showing your children that you remember what they did confirms how valuable their successes are to you. A good time to bring up past successes is when your child is doing the wrong thing in a similar situation.
Example: “Rachel, I see that you’re not cleaning up your room like I asked you to. Do you remember last Wednesday when I asked you to clean up your room and you did it right away and did a really great job at it, too? That was wonderful.”

Label Your Child

The common wisdom of never labeling a child must be qualified: One should never label a child negatively. However, labeling your child positively can have drastically constructive effects. Our sense of self is heavily influenced by what others think about us. As parents we hold the most power in this respect for a good part of our child’s growth, (pre-pubescent/middle school years will see this power shift to their peer group). If we give our children specific positive labels they will form a self-image that includes those perceptions about themselves.
Example: “You did that chore without being reminded. You are responsible.”
Administering effective praise will help you develop a more meaningful relationship with your child. The more you focus on the positive, the more you will see your child in a positive light, and most importantly, the more they will see themselves in a positive light.

Please contact us for more information.

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

Experiences of a Professional Student: Standardized Tests

September 10, 2012 Brad Hoffman

When fall rolls around, I always feel like I should be working on applications for college, whether I am actually going to be applying or not. In the past nine years, I have gone through the application process three times. This year, as a Ph.D. student, I realize that I am done with applications (at least for awhile). I cannot help but feel empathy, however, for high school and college students around the nation getting ready for the application process, as well as the expensive and challenging standardized tests that come with them.

I have a love-hate relationship with standardized tests. Since my junior year of high school, I have taken a slew of standardized tests. For entry as an undergraduate, I took the SAT twice. To prepare for my masters applications, I took the GRE (Graduate Record Examination—a more challenging version of the SAT for those looking for admittance into graduate schools) twice. To prepare for my doctoral applications, I took the GRE, again, as well as the GRE subject test in Literature. At this stage in my academic career, I hope to be finished with standardized tests. As a tutor for high school students, I want to share my experiences so that those who are just beginning their relationship with the ETS (Educational Testing Services—the company behind all of these tests) can learn from my successes and my failures. Below is my advice for students facing these exams.

Read: The more you read, the better your vocabulary and writing skills will be. If you have young children, encourage them to read. If you are a high school student, start getting in the habit of reading books, newspapers, magazines, cereal boxes (read everything you can!) beyond your classroom assignments. Building a strong foundation of reading skills is priceless.
Write: The more you write, the better you will become as a writer. You will also become a better reader (bringing me back to point #1). The more you write, t he less anxious you will feel about writing, which will also pay off on test day.
Practice, Practice, Practice: The first time I took the SATs, I memorized around 500 vocabulary words. Although this hard work may have helped me, I do remember seeing only about ten of those words appear on my test. Although I received a slightly-above-average score, I decided to retake the test to see if I could raise my score. Deciding to forgo the memorization, I spent the time between my tests completing practice problems and tests. My score increased about 250 points (this was ‘back in the day’ before the addition of the writing section). I had a very competitive score then, which helped me attain scholarships. Not only were practice problems less work than memorizing vocabulary, but I got much more reward for less preparation time. (I tried this same strategy for my third go at the GRE, and I moved from the 68^th to the 95^th vocabulary percentile.)
Stay Calm: Students have varying levels of test anxiety, and I know that for some, this advice may be easier said than done. If you follow my first three points, you will feel much more comfortable using the skills involved in taking these exams, so for low to moderate anxiety, preparation and practice should help. If you have high text anxiety, do not write it off as hopeless. Talk to a teacher, tutor, or your school guidance counselor for tips and exercises to help manage anxiety. Establish a test-day routine and practice it. Do whatever you have to do to keep anxiety as low as possible. And finally, remember that this test will not make or break your future. You will not end up unemployed forever because of your SAT scores. Take a deep breath, and keep in mind that it will all work out.

I realize that you have heard some of this advice again and again, but there is a reason for it. As someone who has become quite skilled in taking standardized tests, I can attest to the success of these methods. I do realize, however, that all students learn and test differently. This is another reason why practice is so important. The more you practice, the more you realize what works for you and what does not. Maybe none of my advice will work for you, but without practice, you will find out all too late.

By Elise Auvil, Private Tutor

Effectively Praising Your Child: Part I

September 5, 2012 Brad Hoffman

As parents we all know the importance of praising our children. Nevertheless, praise can be useless, or at worst harmful, if administered poorly. There are several key components needed to make praise work for your child:

Get Rid of Negative Clauses

Praise needs to be offered without a hint of criticism. While it is important to inform your child when they have done something wrong, that time is not during your praise. Slipping a rebuke on to the end of a praise makes it seem as if you are using the good that your child has done as a tool to criticize them. This delegitimizes future praise as well.

Negative Clause: “Johnny, that was great how you finished your homework so well. I really wish you’d always put that kind of effort into it.”
Notice in particular that the criticism isn’t explicit; It is merely an implication of poor homework habits. Subtle or implied criticisms attached to praise also have a negative impact.

Drive-by Praising

This is a concept especially relevant to praising your adolescent. Parents often make the mistake of praising their children and waiting to hear how appreciative their children are. They are disappointed when they don’t receive that feedback, which leads to frustration and resentment. By praising a child and walking away, you show that your statement was really about them and was not a request for appreciation and praise for yourself. Walking away also gives your child the chance to process your statement for themselves, something that will allow them to internalize it more effectively than if they were forced to think of a reaction and a response for you.

Be Specific

When your child does something well, specify what they have done well. Verbally acknowledging the details of what they have done shows your child that you really paid attention to what they did and are actually aware of what they did.
Specific Praise: “That boy was standing in the corner and you went over to him and included him in your game. That was really nice.”
“I love how you used lots of colors in this picture. There’s a horse and it looks like it’s jumping over a car. And there are bright yellow flowers, too. This is so creative!”
In the next post we will continue our discussion of effective methods of praise.

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