Reading Archives

Making Reading at Home Fun and Successful

November 4, 2021 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Very often your child is required to read and log as part of nightly homework. Often parents suggest their child read independently for the allotted amount of time and then they’ll sign the reading journal or reading log afterwards. When your child struggles with reading and is reluctant or resistant to engage, a parent may find themself prompting their child repeatedly to do this work and just get it over with. But your child may strongly dislike this ritual, thus isn’t benefitting from it or developing enhanced reading skills. And perhaps it’s making reading a dreadful or punitive experience.

Parents have the power to create an enriching reading experience for their child at home by incorporating some very simple strategies and routines, thus making the reading experience at home more fun!

First, don’t fret when your child asks you to read the same book night after night. Repeated readings actually improve fluency. Even if a you realize that your child is relying on memory to read the same book over and over, they are actually practicing their reading voice. You can model your reading voice, so that your child can learn to read with better expression and practice fluency at the very same time.

Another strategy for making reading at home fun and exciting is to use audio books, especially if you’re challenged to find the time to read with your child. You can easily purchase audio books or find them through your local library. While your child is listening to the story, they should follow along in the printed book. The audio book strategy helps your child to learn new words and hear fluent reading.

Quite often your child finds reading frustrating because they have difficulty reading many words on the page. Page previews help your child by browsing through the pictures in the book to identify unfamiliar words before they begin reading it from start to finish.

Making a private and comfortable space for your child to read, such as a reader’s den, will encourage your child to enjoy reading, too. A good idea is to put a nice and comfy beanbag chair, small lamp, and bookshelf in this den so that reading is considered a satisfying and relaxing experience. Perhaps, you can also paint or purchase a sticker decal that labels the area, such as “Sarah’s or Joe’s Reading Den.”

These simple strategies should definitely help with making reading at home more fun and successful!

By Brittany Cogan, Learning Specialist

Admissions Consulting and School Planning

October 11, 2021 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

At My Learning Springboard, we believe that admissions consulting and school planning is a complex and highly reflective practice designed to help children and families find schools and learning communities in which they’ll thrive as well as optimize their experience within any school or program. To this end, we help families navigate myriad school-related decisions each school year.

Varying Reasons For School Planning

When it comes to making school transitions, families pursue our support with admissions consulting for many different reasons — voluntary and involuntary. Common reasons include:

Their child is ready to start preschool or kindergarten.
Their child is at the edge of a birthday cutoff that creates some decision-making.
Their child attends a school that ends after 5th, 8th, or 9th grade.
Their child has simply outgrown a school setting and prefers to pursue other options.
Their child needs a school placement due to the family’s relocation or the family’s interest in pursuing a US boarding school or college.
Their child’s school has initiated a counseling out process.
Their child needs a specialized school program to address learning challenges.
Their child needs a therapeutic school program to address emotional challenges and, possibly, learning challenges, too.
Their child is ready for college planning, or alternative programming, such as a gap year or post-graduate high school experience.
Their young adult needs supportive programming, such as a therapeutic wilderness program or a therapeutic college program.

Our ultimate goal with admissions consulting and school planning is to help identify and facilitate excellent and appropriate opportunities for each child or young adult by closely partnering with and advocating for our families. Together we put on our “future glasses” and imagine the feelings, accomplishments, and community that will be experienced at each of the schools or programs we explore.

Deep Knowledge of Schools and Programs

The best educational consultants and school planners have deep knowledge of schools and programs, which extends far beyond the facilities, statistics, and exmissions detail. It means having a deep understanding of the curriculum and programmatic choices; being informed about the level of academic rigor relative to other schools and programs; knowing the communication and planning approaches; being familiar with the available support and advisory services; and appreciating the unique community and vibe of each school. This deep knowledge is achieved by repeatedly visiting and observing classes at a wide range of schools and colleges, developing relationships with faculty and school leadership, and regularly reviewing class work, teacher feedback, and school documentation across grade levels, school divisions, and over time. Successful admissions consulting also requires a flexible yet streamlined process, managed by educational experts with outstanding project management skills, integrity and efficacy. For all of these reasons, we’ve found that we are best able to serve families with our team approach, which includes two Board Certified Educational Planners and Learning Specialists as well as a retired School Principal and Reading Specialist.

Open and Honest Communication

A huge part of our successful team effort is having open and honest communication with our families. In order to select a school environment in which a student will ultimately thrive, we need to talk openly and honestly with parents and students about their desires and needs. For example, if specialized instruction or accommodations are needed, we need to be able to discuss this up front, and consequently, we advise openly sharing this information with schools at the appropriate time. Schools want to be successful, which means accepting the students they know they can serve well. We must be able to talk honestly about the academic rigor and expectations of each school as well as the available supports. Though a student may have the transcript, test scores, and application package to “get in,” that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best long-term fit for that student. Through ongoing discussion and debriefing after school tours and interviews, we arrive at an informed, prioritized list of schools or programs that reflect both the student’s and parents’ feedback as well as other key stakeholders who may be involved, such as a psychologist.

Strategic Planning For A Future School Move

When planning for a transition of any kind, it’s preferable to start early. Ideally planning should start well in advance, so that a 4th grade family is planning for a 6th grade transition; a 7th grade family is planning for a 9th grade transition; and a 10th grade family is planning for the transition to college. We typically start Kindergarten Readiness the spring before the application season. Whether the student is applying to kindergarten or college, we begin with a family meeting to discuss hopes, expectations, questions, and timing. This approach allows for a slow and steady preparation process, which is the best way to create the most options. It’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae, frustration, or anxiety surrounding admissions. At My Learning Springboard, we choose to reframe the “task” as an opportunity, one that has the potential to provide invaluable growth for the student, as well as for the family as a whole.

Please contact us to discuss admissions consulting and school planning for your family in more detail. We provide hourly or comprehensive consultation for families applying to preschool through high school as well as college and graduate school counseling, gap year planning, and supportive pathways for young adults. Our expertise spans day schools and boarding schools, including mainstream, specialized, and therapeutic school settings. We look forward to partnering with you and your family as you navigate an upcoming school transition or seek to optimize your child’s experience within a school or program.

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

Simple Advice for a Great School Year: Planning and Organizational Systems

September 28, 2021 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

If you ask students what it takes to get good grades, many would probably say “being smart” and “studying hard.” But after years of working with students of all ages, it is clear that the key to scholastic success really comes from developing a plan and working hard to stick to that plan. We often support this planning and persistence with executive function coaching in order to help our students develop strong organizational systems and systematic processes. Here is some simple advice for students to help start the school year off right.

Take Stock of Your Strengths and Areas for Growth

To start, it is important to take stock of your strengths and relative weaknesses as a learner. What do you already do well and where can you improve? What types of organizational systems do you already have in place? What were your pain points last school year? Be introspective. No one is perfect. We all have strengths and relative weaknesses, and identifying them early in the school year can be extremely helpful.

Take Responsibility for Yourself

Part of identifying room for improvement and then setting goals and developing organizational systems means taking responsibility for yourself, your decisions and your actions. While this means different things for students of different ages, it’s important to understand that while other people can support or distract you from this responsibility, it is essential to focus on how to improve yourself rather than only looking at others’ actions. Obstacles present opportunities, and you can’t let your plan be thwarted because you don’t like a particular teacher, or you find a particular text boring, or you can’t seem to ignore certain peer influences. You have to take control and acknowledge that you are making conscious choices.

Focusing on your own actions means, as the old saying goes, “honesty is the best policy.” This means both being honest with others and yourself about, for example, how much work you have and what your other responsibilities are. Be realistic when planning how much time to set for each assignment. Misleading yourself or others about how much homework you have will only create more stress in the long-run. You don’t want to be in a position where you are handing in late or incomplete work. Meeting deadlines is an important lifelong skill that takes practice. It’s almost always a bad idea to penalize yourself unnecessarily with reduced grades because of late work. To mitigate this sort of situation, it’s critical to have strong organizational systems in place.

Commit To Organizational Systems That Work For You

But how do you stay on top of everything? Commit to organizational systems that work for you. Whether you prefer a paper planner, keeping track of your assignments online, or a hybrid system, choose the method that works for you and stick with it. Make sure you update your planner every day and actually check it. While digital planning and calendaring works for many students, sometimes “old school,” more concrete methods are better, such as a wipe-off wall calendar using markers and/or post-it notes.

In order to avoid academic burnout, be sure to make time to do the things you love during the school year, whether it’s sports, music, video games, or just hanging out with friends. But also make sure that you aren’t using your favorite activities to procrastinate your school work too much. Moderation is key. On busy school nights, set timers for how long you are going to spend on breaks. Successful organizational systems include time for self care and recharging, though not every week may be equally well balanced.

Most importantly, remember that learning is a process, not simply checking things off of a list. This is particularly important on writing-based tasks where you should not be satisfied until you have edited, edited, and done more editing (and sought feedback from others!). In math, keep trying different ways to solve a problem until you have figured it out. The process in both subjects — or any subject — is more important than just getting the answer or completing the task.

And if you need help, don’t be afraid to ask! Organizational systems need continuous refinement at all stages of life as we incrementally take on more responsibility. Executive function coaching, content support, and test preparation can take on many shapes and sizes in order to best fit the situation. Ask your teachers, parents and/or academic coaches for help when you need it and take advantage of help when it’s offered.

For more information about academic tutoring, executive function coaching, and school planning, please contact Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman at My Learning Springboard.

By Brad Hoffman, Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist, and Laurie Gross, Educational Consultant and Reading Specialist.

5 Pillars of a Strong Reading Program

September 13, 2021 alla Leave a Comment

A strong reading program includes five components (or pillars) that are based on a systematic, explicit research-based approach to phonics instruction as well as addressing reading and writing. Successful implementation requires careful planning and explicit instruction that teaches concepts and skills in a systematic and logical manner as well as using a backward design model to ensure that teaching matches desired learning outcomes. The five pillars of a strong reading program include:

Phonemic awareness

Phonemic awareness is awareness of the sounds that make up spoken words. There are two levels of phonological awareness. Phonemic awareness is the more advanced level and is characterized by a sensitivity to large units of sound such as words, syllables, and syllable parts (onset and rime). According to the National Reading Panel and more current reading research, the two phonemic awareness skills that have the greatest impact on learning to read are segmenting and blending. Phonemic awareness helps students learn to read by forming a connection between visual information about the word as it appears in print and its meaning, pronunciation, and other information in the child’s vocabulary.

Phonics

Phonics is a way of teaching beginning reading and spelling that emphasizes the relationship between letters and sounds. Phonics instruction helps students use these relationships to read and spell rapidly.

Fluency and Expressiveness

Fluency and expressiveness is the ability to read orally with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. A more recent understanding of fluency includes using phrasing and emphasis in a way that makes what is being read sound like spoken language. There is a close relationship between fluency and comprehension. Students with fluency challenges often have challenges with comprehension. There are two instructional approaches usually used to practice reading: guided repeated oral reading and independent silent reading. The National Reading Panel determined that guided repeated oral reading has a significant and positive impact on word recognition, reading fluency, and comprehension for students of all ages.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary instruction and repeated contact with vocabulary words is important to the continued development of reading
comprehension and fluency. It is defined as words we need to know to communicate with others and plays an important part in comprehension. Vocabulary instruction can also serve as a springboard for meaningful word study.

Comprehension

Comprehension is the ability to make meaning from print using background knowledge, making predictions, making connections
(text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world), and making inferences. As students age up into the intermediate and upper elementary grades, written output becomes an important measure of comprehension.

Reading and writing are intertwined processes and both have their foundation in oral language development. As students learn about reading, their writing improves and vise versa. To become successful readers and writers, young children — even preschoolers — need to have lots of experience with oral language, phonological awareness, alphabetic principle, concepts about print, and comprehension. This video demonstrates a sample of a strong reading program in a primary classroom.

By Brad Hoffman, Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist, and Laurie Gross, Educational Consultant and Reading Specialist.

First Grade Reading Skills

September 7, 2021 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

The concepts that young readers learn in preschool, kindergarten and first grade will provide a strong foundation for them as they master more complicated texts in the school years to come. These most basic skills are vital to their future success as readers. Unfortunately, many students do not develop a robust toolbox of strategies when they are young, and they then can fall behind when texts become more sophisticated and content-heavy. In order to succeed in the upper elementary years and beyond, students need to learn critical reading skills and strategies when they are young. The older a student becomes, the more challenging it can be to close the gap and remediate reading instruction.

In first grade, students need to learn:

Comprehension and Metacognitive Strategies

The point of reading is understanding. Students need to notice when the text does not make sense so they can self-correct their mistakes. Students must learn to reread words and sentences and to use pictures and context clues to help understand difficult texts. Without self-correcting strategies, students often have no idea if what they just read is correct or makes sense.

Basic Story Structure (character, setting, problem, solution)

Students who understand the basic elements of a story have a much easier time understanding why and how events occur in the story, which will in turn help their comprehension of the story. Knowing story structure will also help develop students’ writing skills.

Decoding Skills

In order to tackle unfamiliar words students must have solid sound-letter correspondence and be able to blend sounds together. In addition, knowledge of spelling patterns, including silent or “magic” letters and vowel and consonant combinations (ea, th, ch etc.) will help students be able to decode text

Sight Words

Students who have memorized a large vocabulary of high-frequency sight words (i.e. that, are, one, the etc.) will usually be able to read much smoother and faster than those who have not worked on these words at length.

Students who have mastered these concepts by the end of first grade will be well on their way to becoming strong readers in the upper elementary grades. For students who are struggling with these skills, contact us to get started with an individualized plan for literacy development with one of our reading specialists or learning specialists.

By Joanna Brown and Laurie Gross, Reading Specialists

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