Effective Teaching Solutions - ETS Nevada

One of the more enjoyable activities I was assigned when I taught was that of supervising pre-kindergarteners and kindergarteners on the play ground. Now some people might find that strange. After all who wants to be out there on cold windy days or on hot stifling days with all those kids?
I found that I learned a lot about children and their development on the playground. This unstructured time was a golden opportunity to observe how well children could problem solve, be imaginative, be accepting of children who were different than they and how well they could handle the social emotional demands of being in a group of children.
To me, social emotional development is a key component to a child’s ability to succeed in the early years of school and beyond. While some people might believe it is their ability to learn to read or do math problem solving, I would strongly disagree.
Social emotional development is a strong indicator of a child’s ability to sustain attention and compete with his peers. A child should to be growing adequately in this area so they can succeed. Now what does social emotional development have to do with a child’s success? Plenty.
Social emotional development is the ability of a child to relate with his peers and the adults in his life. While this area is looked at as one domain of development, it is actually divided into two key parts – social and emotional development. A child who is able to express himself in an appropriate manner emotionally will be able to get his needs more fully met. Basic emotions of happiness, sadness, anger and fear and learning to express and regulate these emotions can determine how well a child is accepted by his peers and teachers. When children are not able to express themselves in an appropriate manner the consequences can be dire. If a child is working on a group project and someone does not let him have is way, the child might react adversely – sometimes with anger. Or the child who is not able to regulate emotions of excitement and happiness may have problems transitioning from the playground to classroom. When this happens, he is at risk for not being able to absorb key information the teacher may be presenting right after recess. This puts him behind his peers. So regulation of emotions, which develops with age, becomes a problem.
Socially, a child who is developing normally will be able to establish relationships with peers and teachers. These relationships will enable him to grow and learn. A child who can successfully interact with peers and adults feels comfortable asking questions, expressing opinions and getting information he needs to understand what is being taught. When observing children in kindergarten classrooms, the level of inquisitiveness is so exciting! But the child who is not socially able to keep up with his peers begins to lag behind in getting his needs met and learning important information.
Children of kindergarten age can be so open to others, showing empathy for companions and even strangers. When children are able to comprehend empathy and relationships, they are able to learn better in the classroom. Children who have developed these skills can relate to characters in books, to others during play time and characters in story problems with ease. After all, relating to a character’s emotions in a story helps us to understand what that character may be feeling or even how he will solve a problem.
The skills in the area of social emotional development are interdependent. Children who have difficulty with these, especially in the early years, are put at a disadvantage when competing with their peers. If they are not at the same level in this development, they run the threat of being isolated and developing behaviors that put them at risk in later years.
What can parents to do to help in this area of development? It is important for parents to recognize that this area is as critical as the academic areas. Too often the emphasis is placed on academics rather than looking at the child as a whole. Research has indicated that children develop in this area very rapidly through the preschool years. These social emotional skills are learned in good quality group programs such as preschool and pre-kindergarten programs. Observe your child in play situations. Look to see if he is ready to compete with others his age in this key area of development.

Recently I made a trip alone for the first time in months. As always, the drive was punctuated with stops to stretch my legs, get refreshments and to listen to my favorite CD’s in the car. I spent time having lunch with a family member in the city and did some visiting of others before heading out for the last leg of the trip. Now this is a city that I grew up in and I learned to drive there. You would think that I knew my way around, especially the freeway system. There is only one interchange and it certainly is not complicated. However, a major renovation was completed on it a couple of years ago – adding lanes to make life easier for drivers – or so it would seem. As I came to the interchange I was sure I was in the right lane when off the path I veered. I exited when I should have just made a gentle turn. I felt so silly. I could hear my 23 year old daughter telling me as she has the last five times I drove on this exchange, “No, Mom, stay in this lane!” But I didn’t so I had to find my way around several blocks to get back on the freeway to head out of town. Why couldn’t I remember which lane to stay in? I decided it boiled down to the fact that I hadn’t done it enough. Remember the saying “practice makes perfect”? This holds true for more than music lessons and sports. It is true for all the learning we do in our lives regardless if we are children or “mature” adults.

When I talked about RTI in the last article, I explained that it was a systematic approach to resolving student learning issues before they become a problem. In the first level of RTI, after identifying students who are not performing as their peers, the teacher implements strategies to try and close the gap so that students can move forward. But the question begs to be asked, how do students get behind their peers in academic subjects?

Just like my solo driving experience and getting lost, some students just haven’t done the practice enough to be able to negotiate the freeway of learning. Learning takes so many twists and turns but we know that in order to get to the end destination, we have to master the basic information. If, for some reason, the student hasn’t mastered the information then it is hard to take the interchange to move to the next level.

The next question to ask is why does this happen? There are many reasons- absences, changes in schools or others but for the most part there is really so much for students to learn in one year, they often don’t have time to practice enough during school. They must do that at home. While it is hard for parents to implement the strategies at home there are things they can do. However, with students involved in so many activities and families just trying to keep their heads above the water with all the demands placed on their time, it is hard to accomplish this.

That’s why it’s important for parents and teachers to take advantage of teachable moments. What is a teachable moment? It’s taking advantage of those times when you are with your child to reinforce the learning taking place at school. Watch any parent of a toddler in the grocery store and you will learn what this is. I observed one the other day asking her toddler if they should get the cookies in the red box or the green box. What a way to practice colors! Another example, after picking up your child from school you need to go to the bank. This time would be great to have your kids identify words in signs they see on the road or at the bank. If they are very young, just have them pick out letters they know. Stopping by the local fast food restaurant on the way home would be a great time to practice reading money amounts or doing addition or subtraction in their head. By capitalizing on this time, parents become partners with teachers in making sure that students have done enough practice. Teachers are naturals at capitalizing on time when students are in line or on the playground to give additional practice. I have seen many teachers infuse learning into everything that happens in a child’s day at school. Parents can do the same thing. It doesn’t have to be just about books and papers, learning takes place everywhere. At least for some of us! I am bound and determined to conquer that interchange yet!

At some point or another, most students experience times when they struggle with learning concepts in the core subjects- reading, math, and writing.  How much they struggle and whether it becomes a lifelong learning problem depends, for the most part, on how we as teachers and parents address it.

As parents and teachers, it is important that we act as soon as we suspect a problem is occurring.  We need to question the specifics of the problem.  What subject does the student seem to be struggling with?  Once that is identified, which can be done easily by looking at the student's performance, we need to determine what the problem might be and how to solve it.

One controversial component of No Child Left Behind is that of ongoing assessment.  The reason it is controversial is that teachers and parents feel it takes time away from learning.  But it is through this continued assessment that teachers find out if children are experiencing difficulty and are able to address problem areas.  For example, in the area of reading, a student may begin to struggle with understanding what he is reading.  Assessment should help determine if the student is understanding vocabulary at grade level or if he is able to read passages at that level.  Specific instruction in the area of vocabulary may be necessary so that he can understand what he is reading.  Determining if the breakdown is the result of instruction or if a learning problem exists is critical to helping the student.

Once teachers have specific information they will be able to implement strategies to improve student performance in the area of need.  Strategies are simply the way that teachers choose to teach the students.  For accountability purposes, teachers should be keeping a detailed record of what strategies have been implemented with the student and how successful that strategy has been.  This information should be shared with parents and administrators during conference times.  These notes will help all persons involved with the student be able to determine what the areas of need are, what works and what needs to be done to improve the student's performance.

For students who do not seem to respond to strategies implemented by the classroom teacher, each school should have in place a system of increasing levels of remediation for the student.  This system is currently being referred to as Response to Intervention or RTI.  RTI takes place in three stages.  The first being strategies that the teacher implements in the classroom.  The classroom teacher, using sound instructional and researched based practices, will try to close the gaps students are experiencing with a given subject.  These strategies will be tried for a period of time to see if the student responds to the instruction.  If notes and documentation kept by the teacher shows that the student is still struggling, the student can be placed in the next stage of intervention.  Typically this stage involves small group intensive instruction using strategies to address the area the student is struggling in.  The last step would be one to one instruction with the focus on the area of need.

All of these stages of remediation should be shared with the parents and documented by the teacher.  In this way, parents can act as partners with teachers.  For example, suppose a student is having difficulty with sight words.  Having enough sight words is critical to reading information and stories fluently.  Once the teacher determines what the student needs to know and how to teach that student the necessary sight words, parents can become partners in the process.  Parents can be responsible for drill and practice of the words at home or of making sure the student pre-reads the material to look for known and unknown sight words, practicing those words in isolation and then reading the story of material assigned to the student.  If parents are given the strategy the teacher is using to help remediate the problem, they can use that same strategy at home.  The more often a student receives instruction and reinforcement of the strategy, the greater chance there is of closing the learning gap.  This process works for all subjects, not just reading, but math and and writing also.  This way parents and teachers become partners in the learning process.