All Articles tagged Testing

The Science of Scientific Studying

November 8, 2020 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

So, you are tutoring a student in science and they are having trouble with a particular concept- to be a successful teacher you have to have a variety of different approaches on hand for moments like this. If your student is having trouble getting a grasp on tough biology or chemistry topics, you have to figure out how to re-present the information in a new way that might work better for the way your student learns. Here are five simple tips to revamp the way you approach science concepts as an instructor- they will also help make the information stick long after the test:

1) Make a story out of it!

Science textbooks are full of jargon that can be not only incomprehensible but also uninteresting. Students can be turned off from learning about a topic that seems too complex or boring because of poor presentation. The solution? Encourage your student to devise stories with characters, settings and plots based on the material at hand. The more creative, detail-specific, and relevant to your child’s life and interests the story can be, the more likely he or she will ultimately grasp the information. As teacher and MIT Ph. D. candidate Tyler Dewitt points out in this TED Talk, crafting a narrative around a difficult topic can make it easier to understand as well as much more interesting for your student. The act of narrative generation pushes your child to process and understand the material to a higher level that simply reading a textbook does not achieve on its own.

2) Map it out

Another way to re-present challenging information to facilitate learning is via mind maps. Mind maps are one way to outline information in diagram form that emphasizes connections between topics. Although simple in concept, they can be a powerful way to reorganize information that may be otherwise tedious to remember. Check out this YouTube clip for more information and suggestions on how to begin, but as with study strategies in general, your student should experiment with different methods to find out what works best. A variety of free mind mapping software can also be found online.

3) Note your questions

Take note of how your student takes notes. Does he or she write text verbatim? Are there bullet points, stars, or drawings? While any number of styles might work, one helpful strategy might be to help your child create a structured way of recording questions during class or while studying. Highlighting what we don’t know can be as helpful later on as marking down what we do. Designate a portion of a notebook or select a specific font that stands out. The final and most important part? Look up the answers later on!

4) Why is it called that?

Writing down words that are unfamiliar and looking up their definition is always a good idea. Looking up the origins or roots of a new phrase can be equally powerful. For example, consider this information about the heart. The heart is effectively a muscular pump, and like every other muscle of the body, it needs the oxygen and nutrients found in oxygenated blood to function. It receives its supply of blood from the coronary arteries. Without any additional knowledge, making the arbitrary association between “coronary arteries” and “blood supply to the heart” might be a stretch on a tricky multiple choice question or a diagram of various arteries in the body. Thankfully, the word “coronary” is there to help out. The word coronary is derived from a Latin phrase that means wreath or crown, and the coronary arteries wrap around the top of the heart like their namesake. Having this extra piece of information makes the association between the arteries’ name and function less arbitrary by alluding to the location and path the coronary arteries follow. Taking a few seconds to look up the roots behind other difficult biological phrases will cut down on the amount of strict memorization and will aid in fact recall during assessments.

5) Bit by bit

While cramming for exams may be unavoidable at times, learning how to master challenging topics through frequent study is instrumental to success in the long run. Help your student generate a routine to work on the subject or topic they struggle with the most (the very one they may be avoiding) for a little bit each day. Set aside about thirty minutes each day to review the content of that day’s class and to map out how it fits into the broader scheme of the course – and then start on the associated homework. If possible, previewing material for the next day of class by looking ahead at class notes or relevant pages in the textbook can help your student get a jump on the material. The point is to avoid those cram sessions and empower your student to construct their own study routine – your student will thank you when they get to college!

Mix and match these strategies to see what works best for your student. Ultimately, the goal of these tips is to inculcate simple strategies for proactive learning that will assist with your science classes now and in the future!

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

7 Survival Skills for 21st Century Students

October 18, 2020 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Tony Wagner’s book, The Global Achievement Gap, explains the competencies high school and college graduates need in order to be successful young professionals and global citizens in today’s society. Wagner explains how much of the way we go about traditional schooling is truly obsolete, and he challenges educators to redefine what we mean by a rigorous curriculum and schooling experience. To help students become the “knowledge workers” we need for the 21st century, and to remain competitive as a nation, Wagner outlines these 7 survival skills below, which have been informed by interviews with business leaders and educators across the nation at every level.

So frequently, parents and teachers get caught up in short term education problem solving. Parents and teachers, naturally, become narrowly focused on an upcoming standardized test or the content demands of a particular course or grade level. In fact, we see this happen at every type of school–public, charter, and private. However, if we all take a step back, and spend some time in the helicopter rather than the blender, we can see what really matters. This reflection rarely happens for a teacher working in isolation. In order to effectively assess one’s teaching practice and raise the bar on teaching and learning, educators must work collaboratively and constructively, a model that happens much less frequently than you might imagine, even at the most elite schools.

Since learning is a lifelong journey, our goal as educators must be to help our students meet the demands of today’s world – with consideration for these 7 survival skills – while also helping students to remain engaged, motivated, and curious. Learning should be meaningful and applicable. Two of the most important skills we can help our children master is the ability to research and communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing. At all grade levels, we need to stretch our children’s ability to think critically, synthesize information, and present their findings. When we tutor students at My Learning Springboard, we consider the investment in lifelong skills and use each assignment as an opportunity to develop these competencies. We never lose sight of our role as mentors.

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

7 Survival Skills For 21st Century Students

From Tony Wagner’s website:

CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING

“The idea that a company’s senior leaders have all the answers and can solve problems by themselves has gone completely by the wayside…The person who’s close to the work has to have strong analytic skills. You have to be rigorous: test your assumptions, don’t take things at face value, don’t go in with preconceived ideas that you’re trying to prove.”
—Ellen Kumata, consultant to Fortune 200 companies

COLLABORATION ACROSS NETWORKS AND LEADING BY INFLUENCE

“The biggest problem we have in the company as a whole is finding people capable of exerting leadership across the board…Our mantra is that you lead by influence, rather than authority.”
—Mark Chandler, Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Cisco

AGILITY AND ADAPTABILITY

“I’ve been here four years, and we’ve done fundamental reorganization every year because of changes in the business…I can guarantee the job I hire someone to do will change or may not exist in the future, so this is why adaptability and learning skills are more important than technical skills.”
—Clay Parker, President of Chemical Management Division of BOC Edwards

INITIATIVE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

“For our production and crafts staff, the hourly workers, we need self-directed people…who can find creative solutions to some very tough, challenging problems.”
—Mark Maddox, Human Resources Manager at Unilever Foods North America

EFFECTIVE ORAL AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

“The biggest skill people are missing is the ability to communicate: both written and oral presentations. It’s a huge problem for us.”
—Annmarie Neal, Vice President for Talent Management at Cisco Systems

ACCESSING AND ANALYZING INFORMATION

“There is so much information available that it is almost too much, and if people aren’t prepared to process the information effectively, it almost freezes them in their steps.”
—Mike Summers, Vice President for Global Talent Management at Dell

CURIOSITY AND IMAGINATION

“Our old idea is that work is defined by employers and that employees have to do whatever the employer wants…but actually, you would like him to come up with an interpretation that you like—he’s adding something personal—a creative element.”
—Michael Jung, Senior Consultant at McKinsey and Company

Key Messages That Support The Learning Process

October 13, 2020 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

No matter their students’ location or grade level, there are a number of key messages that educators need to communicate to students in order to help them to be effective learners and to see their teacher(s) as an integral part of supporting them in the learning process. Key messages are the core concepts that a speaker wants their audience (in this case, students) to hear and remember and, most importantly, believe. Effective key messages both resonate in the moment and stay with the listeners long after they first hear the messages.

Maslow’s hierarchy reminds us as educators that students’ needs for safety, belonging, and self-confidence must be addressed in order for them to learn academic material effectively. With these considerations in mind, our key messages for students are based not in scholastic content but in social-emotional principles. These messages help students see that achievements that may feel unreachable to them now will be reachable soon. These messages encourage social-emotional learning transfer by helping students identify and activate positive attributes they already possess, as well as by helping them cultivate new ones. These messages encourage students to take intellectual risks — an essential aspect of being a fully actualized learner — by reassuring them that they have a safety net and that the teacher believes in the student and their ability. These messages help learners build stamina and give them the confidence to persist when learning is challenging — both when the educator is there beside them and when the student is working independently. These messages help students conceptualize their work with their teacher as something that helps them both in the immediate moment and in the long term.

The key messages below should be shared directly with your students as well as embedded implicitly in your communications with them during each interaction. Repeated use makes a critical difference.

My Learning Springboard believes in these key messages for our students:

Our work together is important.
You can do this.
I am here for you and won’t give up on you.
Learning new things can be hard, but remember you’ve done hard things before (remember when you…).
You may not be able to do this YET, but the key word is “yet.”
Effective effort + persistence = success.

Think back to a time when you struggled alone with something as a learner — perhaps when you floundered in isolation, felt misunderstood, or were hesitant to ask for assistance. Imagine how things could have been different if you had been able to work with a teacher who was consistently encouraging and who made it safe to ask for help. How could hearing these key messages have benefited you as you tried to master that concept or skill set? We believe that these messages could have let you know that you were not alone, that someone cared about you and believed in you, that some struggle is an integral part of learning, and that your efforts would be fruitful in the end. With that growth mindset and belief system, you would be more willing to take risks, which, as we note above, is really what learning is all about.

Encouraging messages are always important in education, but we find them to be even more vital in the current moment, when students, parents, and educators are navigating the new landscape of remote learning along with a set of larger uncertainties. For many students right now, learning feels less fun, harder, more abstract, perhaps less relevant to their daily lives. A teacher who works to connect with a student, who expresses confidence in them, and who is unwaveringly there for them helps the student understand that this too shall pass and that in the meanwhile, we are all working to move forward together.

By Laurie Gross, M.A.T. and Learning Specialist, and Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed. and Learning Specialist

ACT Essay Section: It’s Manageable!

June 1, 2020 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

In 2015, the ACT essay section was revised to include more challenging writing prompts. And yet, as a tutor for the ACT, I find the revised format provides more ways to simplify the writing process. Every essay that a student writes for the ACT requires taking a position on a topic, providing examples, and coming to a clear conclusion.

The most important strategy to impart is teaching students a format to write the argumentative essay in 5 paragraphs:

Introductory paragraph with a clear thesis
Example in support of one’s thesis
Example in support of one’s thesis
Example anticipating the opposition to one’s thesis
Clear and decisive conclusion.

The challenging part is getting students to invent excellent examples.

As a tutor, I ask my students to brainstorm examples from their own personal lives, and connect the point they argue to History, Philosophy, Politics, and Current Events. Some of these examples are great, others don’t make the connections necessary to support the thesis. Ah, but there’s hope!

The NEW ACT essay prompt provides the thesis and examples for the students. What’s great about this new format is that the guesswork of how to structure the essay and what kind of examples to give are now EMBEDDED INTO THE PROMPT. In other words, there is one less step for students to take.

Instead of inventing perspectives, students are given them and asked to respond to differing viewpoints.

Albeit while this may make the task of writing an ACT essay less organic and creative, the new essay format provides a framework simplifying the task of writing the argumentative essay considerably.

Just ask yourself, which task you’d rather respond to:

To argue both sides of a point and produce 3+ excellent examples including ones with which you do not agree.

To be given three opinions (perspectives), rewrite and examine these opinions, and choose one you support the most using the ideas for examples given by the prompt?

Prepping for this essay will be less arduous. With a strong outline and applied practice there’s no reason not to earn a strong score.

While there is more writing on the page, which perhaps makes the ACT essay task appear overwhelming, it’s really quite manageable. All of this information helps by laying the groundwork for the essay and outlining what is to come.

Want to practice?

By Grant Bergland, MFA and Private Tutor

Online Learning: Anxiety Management

April 8, 2020 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

As the coronavirus pandemic continues and we all settle into new routines, chances are that you and your family are experiencing some stress and anxiety around the state of the world and the uncertainty that comes with it. This situation can be especially challenging if your child is already dealing with high levels of anxiety and/or a diagnosed anxiety disorder. Plus, it can be tough to help kids stay calm when you’re not feeling so calm yourself!

But while online learning and guiding children’s education at home are certainly unfamiliar hurdles for many families, the good news is that they can also be great vehicles for practicing anxiety management. There are lots of helpful tools out there for helping manage children’s anxiety, but it can be hard to find ways to actually practice them in day-to-day life. By making the most of your child’s new at-home school day, you can build anxiety management into daily routines and help your child develop healthy habits that will be help them keep their cool for years to come.

Set Daily Intentions

Studies show that children tend to benefit when they have clear—and high!—expectations to live up to. That doesn’t mean that you need to hold your child to an unrealistically high standard, but it does mean that they should know what’s expected of them each and every day. This is especially true now, when the lack of commitments outside the home can make kids feel like the days are all the same and the stakes are low. In turn, that sense of not knowing what to expect can exacerbate kids’ anxiety.

Accordingly, one helpful anxiety management technique is to start each school day with a predictable ritual that makes it clear what the rest of the day will hold. This should include a few key components:

A quick review of what the day’s schedule will look like. What will your child do first? When will they take a break? What time is lunch?
A rundown of the tasks that will be completed. This might be a concrete goal (finish chapter 3, for instance) or a set amount of time devoted to a topic (read for 30 minutes).
An assessment of what supplies will be needed, and where your child can find them. Will they need a calculator, markers, or a timer? Work together to gather those supplies now so that your child doesn’t have to waste worry looking for them later.

Then, it’s also helpful to include a “bonus” in your child’s morning ritual, so that they—and you!—remember that the day can be as much about fun as anything else. Be creative here—what does your child enjoy and find exciting? This could be reading a bit of a favorite book, spending time playing with a pet, or checking on the plants growing on your terrace. Any quick activity that brings calm and focus to your child’s morning is a great way to start off the school day on the right foot.

Make the Most of Breaks

Having enough time to just breathe is a huge part of effective anxiety management. If your child feels pressured to focus and achieve every minute of the day, they’re likely to have higher levels of anxiety—especially now, when they might be scared about the pandemic and having difficulty processing their feelings.

That’s why it’s essential to take plenty of breaks during the remote school day. Depending on your child’s age and personality, you might schedule short breaks in between subjects, have one longer break in the middle of the day, or try a 50/50 model—for instance, 30 minutes of work followed by 30 minutes of play. Experiment with different break structures and see which one works best for your child. You can even use different structures on different days to break up the week; maybe one structure is for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while another is for Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Beyond just taking breaks, it’s also important to build anxiety management tools into your child’s breaks as much as you can. They might just want to reach for an iPad game—and sometimes, that’s completely okay! But you’ll also want to encourage them to use more focused stress-busting activities when you can. For example, this might include:

Having a quick dance party to a favorite song—music and physical activity can both help relieve anxiety!
Taking a walk outside or even just sitting by a window for some fresh air and sunshine.
Spending a bit of time on a creative project, whether that’s playing with clay for a few minutes or coloring in a drawing page.
“Meeting up” with a friend for a FaceTime snack break. Kids need to keep in touch with their loved ones just as much as you do!

By being purposeful about breaks and what your child does with them, you’ll make anxiety management a regular touchpoint throughout the day.

Celebrate Small Wins

During these unprecedented days of remote learning, it can be hard to know whether you and your family are “doing it right.” But rest assured—there’s no one right way to handle this situation! It’s important to emphasize this point to your children, whether they’re used to getting straight As or struggling with the new requirements of online learning. Just by getting through the days during this uncertain time, kids and families alike are reaching a meaningful goal that deserves to be celebrated, and marking achievements (even ones that might seem small) is another great way to practice anxiety management.

To do this, try closing out your child’s school day with a rundown of what went well that day. These might be academic milestones, like a good grade on an online quiz, but it’s also helpful to guide your child in celebrating other kinds of success. For instance, did your child demonstrate any of these positive behaviors today?

Sticking with a challenging task
Helping out around the house
Caring for a pet or sibling
Coming up with a creative idea
Being quiet or focused when asked

Any chance you have to compliment your child and focus on how they’re succeeding is a chance to support anxiety management, so make this a daily habit to round out the school day on a positive note.

It’s an overwhelming time for most of us, and anxiety management is really critical. If there are any ways our team can help to support your family with online learning, school planning, or parent coaching, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

By Hannah Sheldon-Dean, MSW and Private Tutor, Brad Hoffman, MS.Ed. and CEP, and Faya Hoffman, M.A. and CEP

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