How do you spell....

Taken from @letmeknowhowitgoes (follow Meghan Hargrave on Instagram for more awesome tips)

One of your kids is asking (ok whining) for a snack, another kid is asking you to put on her princess's shoe, you are trying to compose a work email, and your E-Learner asks you how to spell a word. It is tempting to just spell the word for your child, so tempting that I've done it often. Often enough that I started to notice my 2nd grader asking more and more often - creating a dependence on me to spell her words for her. So when I saw this post by Meghan Hargraves (see image above), I quickly reflected and knew that I needed to shift some of my own "crisis teaching" practices. 

I needed to remember that the only way that Chloe will learn to spell is by working and thinking about sounds while attempting to phonetically spell. Accuracy is not the goal for beginner spellers, instead it's about encouraging my child to try and try again while staying reflective and thinking about what she is doing. My CHILD needs to do the hard work if I want her to learn to spell, I have to stop doing the work for her.

Here are the steps I took:

I pulled out 2 post-its and told Chloe, "Today I'm going to teach you what to do when you get stuck and you are not sure how to spell a word. Then when you don't know how to spell a word you will go to these strategies and not have to ask someone else to spell the word for you. These post-its will be like your spelling super-power."

I told her I was going to show her how to use these strategies, then we'd try together (this is the "I do" stage or model stage of guided practice). I talked about how yesterday I was writing in my blog and I needed to write the word ferocious. I explained that I was going to use an easier word, but I decided to be brave. So I...

• Said the word out loud slowly and listened to the parts.
• I wrote down the beginning and the end f          s
• I chunked the word up part-by part - Fer- o - cious (I showed her how I started with tious, but it didn't look right- so I changed it to cious).
• NOTE: I'm doing the work at this part - not asking questions- so Chloe can see the steps

Next we tried a word together (this is the "we do" part of guided practice). We talked about a character in Winn Dixie, the book we are reading together. We decided to spell friendly. So we went through our steps:

• We said the word out loud slowly and listened to the parts.
• We wrote down the beginning and the end
• We chunked the word up part-by part

Finally, I had her write her E-Learning assignment (this is the "you do" part of guided practice). I told her to get my attention when she is being brave and spelling a word so she could talk about what her brain is doing and how she's using the strategies.

Chloe has not shifted to a spelling master overnight with this instruction, but she has moved ever so slightly towards independence. She's doing the work of thinking about sounds, therefore learning and reflecting each time she writes. She's closer to not letting the unknown get in the way of what she's trying to say. Did she ask me how to spell a word again - yes (insert eye roll here). However, when she asked I pointed to the post-its and nudged her towards spelling independently without having to hold her hand.

  

Parenting and Teaching (???) in Challenging Times

Click here to find Kari Gough's (Forest Hills Social Worker and D101 parent) thoughts on parenting and teaching in challenging times. 

Covid-19 Hierarchy of Needs for Schools

I came across this image on twitter (thanks @jaydostal) and I feel it absolutely represents where our D101 families should be placing priorities right now. For those of you unfamiliar with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, here is a little overview of the psychological theory. In short, it's a theory that states people have needs that need to be satisfied before we move up on the pyramid and can begin filling other needs. As teachers, this is why we know we prioritize community and belonging before learning can take place. It's the reason why students struggle when they don't have enough to eat  or are not sleeping enough. It's why we prioritize socio-emotional wellness and continually work to create a culture that meets our students needs in this area.

In this current context of shelter in place, our D101 teachers know that you and your family might have battles that you are fighting. You might have a healthcare workers in the family, jobs might be at risk, two parents might be working demanding jobs while balancing E-Learning, multiple children with various needs in the family might be E-learning, and more. Please know that your teachers and administrators are here to support you and are have our hearts and minds in the right place. Take care of your family first, and realize school is SECOND.

Your D101 teachers miss their students, care for your students, and are doing their best to try to find the "just right" amount of tasks and assignments. Please be patient with us as we figure out E-learning, communicate early with your teacher if you are experiencing issues, and know your family needs come first. Skip a task if you need to, reduce the amount of problems your child does, or switch up the reading assignment - it's OK! You know what your kid needs more than anyone else right now.

Now is the Perfect Time to Lower that Parenting Bar

I will be stealing heavily from this article written in New York Cut's magazine because it is just so darn spot on. Thank you Kimberly Harrington for your words of affirmation. Read the article if you can!

"For those of us who find ourselves in this fortunate (and yet still potentially hellish) position [working from home while home-schooling], this is what I can tell you: I know panic, I know what it’s like to try to figure out your universe from scratch, and here’s another thing I know — you can do this. You just aren’t going to do it well. But that’s okay, none of us are."

I love this re-alignment of expectations. Acknowledge that this home-schooling and working from home combo is going to be very hard, and start laughing at yourself when you start to get grandiose ideas of how awesome a parent you COULD be at this time.... now is NOT the time! 


"Base it on when your kid typically has good focus or energy versus when they’re typically exhausted or riled up. Gang up hard-to-focus-on subjects during times when they’re at their best. Don’t disrupt those golden stretches with physical activity or screen time. You need those in your back pocket for when things get difficult."

Harrington suggests keeping a simple schedule and basing it off when your kids have the most energy. My schedule started off a bit more complicated (and WAY too packed), and now is much simpler which benefits both my kids and me.


"eat when they eat, drink when they drink, open the windows and inhale fresh air when they do. Eating can be a snack, a drink can be water, outside time can be walking the dog (as long as you stay far away from others when you venture out). You might think you can’t afford the time to do those three things, but I’m here to tell you, you can’t afford not to."

I've personally been struggling with letting go of the idea that each and every minute of my day needs to be efficient and focused on either work or keeping up with the systems that keep my house running. In "real life" this is how my mind works - 100% pushing towards efficiency. However, as these socially distant days continue on, I've noticed that it's not healthy to be 100% focused on efficiency because it's just not sustainable in this context. More to come in a future blog post about how I'm attempting to chill out a bit - a work in progress for me. 


"Bottom line: You are not a real school. No one expects you to be a real school. The best you can aim for is your kid having something somewhat educational or interesting to do on the days you work. My homeschool “days” were more like a few hours. I repeat: This is not real school. You can’t replicate a real school. Stop trying."

THIS.

Number Talks

As parent-educators we have a unique opportunity to listen to our children during this quarantine. Teachers often have ratios of 27:1, so the luxury of sitting down and asking a student to explain their thinking about numbers while probing with open-ended questions for a significant chunk of time is pretty elusive. You however, have a much smaller ratio of students so give this a shot. Number talks allow students to value understanding over procedure, value mistakes, learn to persevere, and see math as making connections (not a torturous answer-getting process). Excuse the close up of the apple slice in my 7 year old's hand in the picture- lots going on in our house!


The best part is... number talks can mean writing a problem or two down and asking your kid what they are thinking! 


Find a unique"fun" surface - Whiteboards can be great for this, but if you don't have a whiteboard try taping a bunch of paper (or open cardboard box) on the wall or spread it out on the ground. A different material to write on will signify that this is more than just "do a worksheet" time.

Set up expectations - Explain to your child that you are not really that interested if they get the right answer, instead what you really want to see is the insides of their math brain. You want to see how and why they think what they think about numbers. You REALLY hope they make some mistakes so you can hear how they think about it (make this dramatic with crossed fingers).

Give the right problems -This is the trickiest part, so take your time. Start on the simpler side and give 1-2 that you know your student can get correct but explain their thinking. Try to avoid problems they "just know" - maybe even outlaw the "I just know" from number talks. Give lots of positive reinforcement as you get going. Consider:

• Use open boxes in your problems. For example - 4 x ___ = 24.  or _____ + 45 = _____ + 13
• Pull in fractions if possible
• Use IXL to take a peek at the grade level ahead of your child and give problems that they really need to think about. 
• Use one fo the 20 different AWESOME ideas from this site, my favorite is SPLAT! and SPLAT! with fractions
• Pull from Open Middle for other great open ended problems.

Build it into what you are already doing These don't actually have to be something SEPARATE from the math your child's teacher is asking them to do. Steal a problem from what they are already doing and ask them to explain their thinking (with a fun marker? On a whiteboard or huge piece of paper? On an ipad app draw screen?).

Ask Questions

• How did you think about this problem?
• What pattern do you notice? 
• How does this connect to that problem? 
• If we think about efficiency, how do these strategies compare? 
• Will this approach always work? 

Have Fun with it- This is the time to model that thinking and talking about math CAN be fun. Show your own thinking. Ask your student to compare your thinking to theirs. Be in awe of what their math brains can do, and be transparent about your awe. Don't over do it - stick to 5-10 minutes. If you make your child cry (see previous post), own up to it and ask if they'll let you try again with a different problem tomorrow.

Here is what research says about all this 

• Letting Students Do the Thinking - Sue O'Connell
• Brain Science behind Number Sense and Fact Fluency - Jo Boaler

Frustration

Today I found Chloe's frustration point. I love open middle problems, check them out - they really are awesome, but I chose a problem that was too difficult for Chloe. It was out of her Zone of Proximal Development, which meant tears, screaming, and eventually might mean lose of self esteem/desire to try problems. I too felt close to tears! A big piece of the art of teaching is finding the thin line between what students can do on their own without any support, and what is going to push them to grow and be challenged without hitting frustration. 

As parents, we are not over familiar with where the frustration line is with our children. Teachers have been watching and taking data on our children's needs all year, but we have not been there to do that! So have some grace with yourself when you push your child to tears. Now you know where their zone of proximal development is! If your child's teacher has assigned something that pushes them to frustration, know that YOU have the option to modify on the spot because you are the one who can see in person where your child is at and what kind of challenge they need.

Click here to learn more about scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development

E-Learning Tips

My daughter's district did not offer any learning options for the first two weeks, so I put together my own plans each day. Click below to see what I learned after my first week of juggling a 7 year old and 4 year old twins. It wasn't always pretty, but some strategy (and being clear with my husband about when I needed to go and work and HE is on with the kids) helped out.

General E-Learning Tips