DIY Math Word Problems

Here’s a way to bring math to life for reluctant learners.  Instead of presenting your student with a page of math problems, try turning the tables and challenging the child to create math problems for you to solve.  Many children will rise to the bait and quickly set to work making the most devious problems that their minds can devise, assuming that your math skills are at the same level as theirs.

When you set a child to this task, give them just a few parameters to help them focus their work.  You might want to assign an operation or a level of complexity to the math involved.  Perhaps you could suggest that at least one piece of irrelevant information be included, or that the problem require at least two math steps.  No matter what other restrictions or requirements that you implement, be sure that you have your student create an answer key for the problem set that includes an equation and a solution for each problem.  In this way, you will ensure that your child gets the most out of the exercise.  You’ll also be better able to isolate any misconceptions or inaccuracies that are included so that you can help the student improve skills.

Creating math word problems is an outstanding (and sneaky) way to get kids to practice their math skills.  It’s also a great opportunity to put neglected writing skills to work, as well.  Remind children to proofread their creations for spelling, grammar and punctuation, under threat of having to solve the problems themselves if you find writing mistakes.  There’s nothing like a bit of blackmail to motivate kids to do their very best!

Summer Reading: Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein can be an outstanding way to coax a reluctant reader into a summer project.  Many teens are drawn to book versions of popular movies, and this piece has many movie interpretations.  Some are more true to the book than others, and some don’t even go by the same title!  The reading level is 7.7, so it’s not too demanding for high school students.

In spite of its horror reputation, Frankenstein is a much deeper story than most people expect.  There are a lot of complex characters and relationships to explore, as well as monstrosity and society’s responses to things outside of the accepted norms.

This is a prime book to use for comparison projects, since there are so many versions and stories that have taken the same idea and gone a slightly different direction.  Use Venn Diagrams to explore similarities and differences, then have your student write a compare/contrast paper.  It’s also an excellent opportunity to discuss issues of morality and science, abortion, and social norms.

If you’d like to find further discussions of Frankenstein with study guides and questions, visit these sites:

• Sparknotes: Frankenstein
• Frankenstein Study Guide and Essays
• Frankenstein Study Guide
• Frankenstein Study Guide 2
• Read Frankenstein for free online

Enjoy!  Frankenstein is an outstanding novel that is referred to regularly in other literature and in society.  It’s important that a well-read person be familiar with the book.

Expectations are Key

I was reading status updates on a social media site that I frequent, and happened to see a post by a young friend of mine saying she was headed to the library to get a book to begin summer reading.  A mutual acquaintance (also a teen) responded, “Why are you doing that? Haven’t you heard that school is out???”  This tells me something very important about that young man’s family’s expectations of him.  My feeling is that he has not been expected to exercise his brain during the summer for many, many years. Not coincidentally, the young man also struggles in high school and is at risk for dropping out.

NOW is the time to make that expectation clear to your children.  Kids live up (or down) to the expectations that their parents and other important adults have for them.  This vacation, make it clear to your children that you expect more from them.  Bookmark this site and consider some of our classes to keep the brains active at your house!

Summer Reading: Holes

Upper elementary and middle school students will enjoy the novel Holes by Louis Sachar. With a reading level of 5.2, the book is accessible to upper elementary students and interesting to middle schoolers.  It’s a Newberry Award winner and has been made into a popular movie.

Holes is the story of a boy named Stanley who seems to have everything go wrong in his life.  He blames it on a family curse from four generations back, but the results seem very real to him.  He’s a social outcast, overweight, and now accused of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to a juvenile detention camp with a twist- the warden believes that boys’ characters can be changed by having them dig holes in the desert in the hot sun.  Is he secretly searching for buried treasure?

The book touches on themes of friendship, destiny, and even literacy.  The characters demonstrate determination and strong will.  It will appeal to girls as well as to boys, and is an outstanding choice for summer reading fun.

Online resources to use with Holes include:

SparkNotes: Holes

Free Holes Online Trivia Game

Activity Suggestions for Holes

Scholastic.com Activities for Holes

Book Wizard: Holes Literature Guide

Don’t forget that you can help your child learn to write an outstanding book report in the Book Report Workshop!

Summer Reading: To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird shows up on a LOT of high school reading lists, and with very good reason.  The book tackles racism, being a social outcast, and many other very deep subjects through the eyes of a child.  In between, there are themes of maturation and lost innocence.  The book will cause some deep thoughts about racism and issues of right and wrong both at the personal and at the community and societal levels.

The story is about a young girl growing up in the deep south in the 1930s, and is told through her eyes.   She and her brother ponder why some people are outcast from society, and look on as her attorney-father tackles the defense of an African-American man accused of rape.

Parents will want to be aware that there are some instances of bad language and references to rape, violence and racial injustice in the book, and might want to screen it before sharing the story with younger or more sensitive readers.

To Kill a Mockingbird is on classic reading lists for good reason.  Harper Lee was honored with a Pulitzer Prize in 1961.  The story boasts some outstanding depictions of life in the 1930s in the deep South.   The tone moves from childish joy and innocence to dark and almost frightening depictions of the town’s racism during the trial.  It’s truly a masterful work of art.

You can read To Kill a Mockingbird online for free at Goodreads.com.

You’ll find a few outstanding study guides and question sets for To Kill a Mockingbird at the following websites:

• SparkNotes: To Kill a Mockingbird
• Scholastic’s Book Wizard: To Kill a Mockingbird
• NovelGuide.com: To Kill a Mockingbird
• About.com: To Kill a Mockingbird Discussion Questions
• Quote Garden: Quotes from To Kill a Mockingbird

And as always, you’re welcome to sign up for the Book Report Workshop for $5.00.  This self-paced online class will guide your student through the process of writing an outstanding book report, and may be just the ticket to boost those English grades in middle school and high school.

Try Studying With Graphic Organizers

Need to organize information from class so you can learn it in a hurry?  Try a graphic organizer. This highly-visual method of studying works well for chapters that have subheadings and many smaller skills or sections.  It’s also a great way to show how information is interconnected.

Try a web organizer to go over material from a chapter in your text.  Put the chapter title or topic in the center, then make a branch outward for each subtopic or subheading.  Put details about each of those on branches, including names of important events, problems and solutions, formulas, and so forth.

Once you have created the web organizer, make another copy.  Cut it apart and try to reassemble it like a jigsaw puzzle.  Use a blank copy of the same organizer and try to recreate the web from memory.  Engage your brain in the learning process, and you will have more success on your exams this year!

Does Your Child’s Reading Measure Up?

How is your child’s reading?  Are you sure that he or she is reading as well as needed for grade placement?  Too many parents assume that reading skills are developing normally, only to find out that skills are far below grade level when the grades start to drop.  Now is a great time to make sure your student is reading as expected.  Here are some warning signs that shouldn’t be ignored:

• Reluctance to Read: Reading is generally a fun activity for children and youth.  If your student protests picking up books on a regular basis, this should set off your warning bells.
• Slow Silent Reading Pace: Silent reading should be faster than oral reading.  If your child seems to be lagging when reading silently, it’s time to check reading skills.  Think about how long it takes your student to read a book for a book report, or the length of time required to complete content reading assignments.
• Avoidance Behaviors: Does your child complain of headaches whenever asked to read?  How about putting required reading off until the last possible moment?  These can be signs of a reading problem.
• Poor Test Scores: Children with reading problems often do well on homework scores but fail tests miserably.  This can be due to having ready help with reading directions and problems on homework assignments that is not available in test situations.  Some children even convince their parents to study with them orally and families become very confused when the test scores don’t seem to match the effort put into studying.
• Difficulty with Written Expression: Reading and writing are so closely tied together that if your student is having trouble putting ideas into words on paper, chances are good that there are reading problems, as well.

Do any of those warning signs sound familiar?  If so, there are some simple ways you can find out if your child is reading at the level expected for his or her grade placement.

• The Five-Finger Test: Choose a book that is labeled to be at your child’s grade level.  Many newer fiction books have grade level designations listed.  Open the book to a page in the middle with lots of words and few or no pictures.  Have your child read aloud from that page.  Keep track of the words that are misread, stumbled over, or hesitant.  If you count five or more words on the page that are difficult, that grade level of text is likely too difficult for your reader, and you should have a teacher or reading specialist investigate further.
• Oral Reading Fluency: Choose a book at your child’s reading level.  Choose a passage from the middle of the book and count the words.  You’ll want a passage of around 250 words.  Have your child read the passage and time his or her reading.  Note how far he or she read in one minute.  Use the chart below to judge if your child’s reading rate matches other students of similar age and experience.

Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) Target Rate Norms

• Retelling Stories: Another sign of successful reading is the ability to retell and summarize the text.  Have your child read a story and tell you what happened.  See if he or she can get most of the main events in the retelling and in the right order.  There should be a beginning, middle and ending to the story.

If you see signs of trouble, try the quick assessments mentioned above.  If the quick assessments indicate problems, seek out a teacher, reading specialist or a tutor to do a more extensive and detailed evaluation.  Don’t let your child fall further and further behind!

Plan Now for Summer Learning

Only a few more weeks of school in many areas, so now is the time to plan for summer learning opportunities.  Teachers the world over know that the extended vacation over summer might be fun, but it’s downright damaging to many kids’ academic progress.  Don’t let your child lose ground this summer!  Keep learning alive by turning on the brain power for a little while each day.  Here’s how:

1. Take play to the next level. Most play activities are really learning activities in disguise.  Board games use a host of math and reading skills.  Cooking can lead to science experiments.  Even watching a movie can be paired with reading the book of the same name.  At least once each day this summer, help your child make academic connections and use reading, math, science and social studies skills related to recreational activities.
2. Set aside some daily work time. Each day, plan thirty to sixty minutes of review time.  You can use a commercial workbook or two that cover areas of weakness, or grab one of the titles that reviews the previous grade material or previews academics coming up next fall.  You also can design your own program.  The internet is filled with great educational activities that you can cobble together to keep your child entertained as well as academically fresh.
3. Read and respond to books. Make sure at least part of each day is spent with a good book.  If your school does not offer an age-appropriate reading list, check with your local librarian or bookstore worker for title suggestions.  Many libraries and bookstores also try to encourage reading by offering prizes or even free books in exchange for completed reading logs from kids and youth.  And don’t stop with simply reading the books!  At least half of the time, find a way for your child to respond to what has been read.  This can be a traditional book report, a multi-media presentation, a poster, a discussion, a book review, a diary that a character might’ve written, a play or skit, or any other method of having the student recall and analyze the text.
4. Build logic and planning skills. Very few families don’t take any trips or outings at all during the summer.  Your child will exercise brain power if you put him or her in charge of planning all or part of the excursion.  Young children can plan and pack for picnics.  Older kids can use maps to choose routes to destinations, calculate gas mileage and make a budget.  Not only will you be keeping the brain exercised and active, but you will be nurturing important life skills.
5. Take advantage of summer programming. You’re not alone in this endeavor.  Countless organizations around the country want to help you exercise your child’s brain.  Many programs are free or low-cost, and designed with parental convenience in mind.  Check libraries for summer reading program events.  The bookstores often offer programs for children.  Hobby stores generally host craft classes.  The local parks department, YM or YWCA, and other civic organizations run day camps.  Scouting programs abound.  Community colleges and museums host summer events.  Check your community calendar and local bulletin boards for more ideas.

This list just scratches the surface.  It’s really not hard to prevent your child from vegging in front of the television or computer for three months.  Just a few activities each day can make a world of difference when school rolls around again in the fall.

Study Tips for Final Exams

Whether it’s the end of the semester or the end of school, middle and high school students (and even college students!) need to be preparing for exams.  Probably the most common study strategy, cramming, is also the most ineffective one.  Cramming is the practice of leaving everything until the last minute or even the night before the test, and then putting in a marathon of study time.  I’ll say it one more time: THAT DOESN’T WORK!!

Instead, studying is actually a daily (or at least weekly) process.  Ideally, it should start when the class does, but don’t panic even if you’re just now realizing that the exams are looming in your future.  These tips will work if you allow even a few days or weeks to get ready for your tests, but they are best used throughout the time you’re in school.

–>Tip #1:

Engage your brain.  If you ask questions before lectures, read the assigned text ahead of time, and make a mental effort to remember the information, you will find that it’s easier to remember!

–>Tip #2:

Organize your notes.  Yes, you should be taking notes from lectures.  Yes, you should also be taking notes from the text that you are assigned to read.  Then, instead of relegating those notes to a file somewhere and trotting them out when you want to cram, take an extra step and combine them.  Write up a third set of notes that contains all of the information from both the reading and the lecture.  You’ll be processing the info in a new way and cementing it into your head.

–> Tip #3:

Make your own study guide.  Back in middle school, most students relied on the teacher to hand them a study guide.  This study guide generally showed them what was going to be on the test and what the teacher thought was important to learn.  Once students hit high school, they should learn to create their own study guides, writing down definitions, statistics, main ideas, important people and so forth.  Create the study guide as you go through the class, or in a pinch, go back over your notes and the readings and create the study guide as a means of preparing for the test.

–>Tip #4

Teach someone else.  Form a study group and discuss the information.  Verbalizing it and helping someone else learn is a great method of learning the information yourself.

–>Tip #5

Study in small doses.  Work for fifteen to thirty minutes at a time, then take a break.  Your mind will be more fresh for absorbing information and ready for a new round after doing something different for a while.  If you stare at the same information hour after hour, your brain will sort of shut down and it won’t do you any good.

–>Tip #6

Study in the format of the test you expect.  Many people make the mistake of simply reading information over and over again and expect to have the answers for the test.  Instead, spend most of your study time giving information out instead of taking it in over and over again.  This means setting up questions that you answer, matching games to play, and so forth.  Try to adjust the activities to the type of test you expect: write paragraphs about information if you think it will be an essay test.  Play matching games if the coming test will be multiple choice or matching.  Try questions to answer with a couple of words if you expect a short answer type test.

If you study effectively, you’ll have greater success with your academic pursuits, and your grades will increase!

Three Proven Ways to Teach Fractions

Fractions are high on the list of tricky math topics for upper elementary and middle school students.  Let’s face it– many adults have trouble with fractions!  Don’t let your child fall behind in math just because fractions are confusing.  Try these three great tips to tame the Fraction Monster so your child no longer dreads math class.

Tip # 1:

Get concrete!  Most difficulties with fractions begin because early on in the education process, your student didn’t quite ‘get it’ when the teacher explained how fractions ‘work.’  The class moved on, but your student did not.  It’s never too late to correct that problem.  Just take some time to back up and reteach the foundations of fractions in a way that your student can understand.  For most people, this involves using manipulative items that can represent fractional relationships.  Learning at this concrete level, where things can be seen and touched and moved around, must be firmly cemented in place before more abstract thinking about the concept (using numbers, papers, pencils and worksheets) can take place.

Here are some techniques:

Draw boxes on paper and divide them up into fractional parts.  Color the portion that represents the numerator (top number) and remember that the bottom number equals the total number of parts (colored and uncolored).  It’s called the denominator.  Show over and over again that 2/4 is the same amount of colored shape as 1/2.  Talk about the process of changing from 2/4 to 1/2 in terms of dividing numbers and in terms of combining boxes.  When your student has mastered the 2/4 to 1/2 conversion, work with other variants of 1/2, like 3/6, 4/8 and so forth.  Then start to work on other common fractions like 2/3, 1/4, and 3/4.

Make identical paper squares in many colors.  Leave one square whole, and cut the others into halves, thirds, fourths, and so on.  Manipulate the pieces to discover what parts will cover up other parts exactly to find equivalent fractions.

Tip #2:

Be sure your student has mastered basic addition, multiplication, division and subtraction facts.  It helps so much to be able to command these simple math problems without relying on a calculator for every single step of the process.  Memorizing the math facts will allow your student to see instantly that 16 and 24 are both multiples of 8, and eliminates guess work when trying to rename or simplify fractions.

Tip #3:

Make sure your student is paying attention to the vocabulary of math.  Terms associated with fraction work that should be on the tip of the tongue include

—> numerator: the top number of the fraction that represents parts of the whole being used or considered.

–> denominator: the bottom number of the fraction that represents all of the parts of the whole.

–> common denominator: matching numbers on the bottoms of fractions to be added or subtracted.

–> simplify: to combine fractional parts evenly to make larger pieces and still cover the same amount.  2/4 simplifies to 1/2.  Use division to do this.

–> rename: to change the name of a fraction by multiplying or dividing the denominator and numerator by the same number.

–> greatest common factor: the largest number that divides evenly into other numbers (like the top and bottom numbers of a fraction).

–> least common denominator: the smallest number that is a multiple of the denominators being considered.

–> improper fraction: fraction larger than 1, with the larger number on top as the numerator, as in 21/4.  It is equal to a corresponding mixed number.

–> mixed number: whole number with an added fraction, as in 5 1/4. It is equal to a corresponding improper fraction.