(06-29-2015 04:02 PM)The Beast1 Wrote: If I want to read a book with my children, I'll get a book that I want to read with them not some busy work assigned by their teacher.
We seem to be more or less in agreement. When parents tell me that they read with their child regularly but are concerned that there could be something more they could do, assuming that the child is making steady progress at school, I tell them to simply continue what they are doing. There is no need to make it any more complicated than that. I do send home books every day that the parents have an option to use, since many families simply don't own books or make trips to the library, but if the parents and children are choosing books themselves then that is even better. When I have a new class, I am able to tell within a week those students whose parents read with them regularly - parental involvement makes that much of a difference.
Perhaps I shouldn't even use the word homework as that seems to cause confusion. When we think of "homework," we recall the long, boring set of tasks - (essentially busy work as Beast puts it) - that had to be completed before we were allowed to go outside to play. It's been demonstrated time and time again that not only is this useless in consolidating a child's learning, but also kills a student's natural love of learning.
I consider time spent reading with a child to be a basic responsibility of any parent. If it feels like a chore, if it's stressful or not enjoyable, then there is something wrong. It could take the form of sharing a story before bed or after dinner. It could be flipping through the child's favourite book on dinosaurs and discussing the content. It could be consulting a recipe book before cooking a meal together and asking him to help you with directions while you're cooking. It doesn't matter how you do it - as long as there are books and quality time involved, it will undoubtedly have a huge positive impact on his literacy abilities.
One misconception regarding the teaching of literacy is that reading is simply the act of pointing at a series of words, saying the words you recognise, sounding out the words you don't, and getting to the end of the story. However, once children have acquired sound phonics skills and can recognise high-frequency words, this is no longer the case. In fact, I rarely have students read a text out loud. These decoding skills are merely a means towards developing comprehension, inference and higher level thinking skills.
For example, let's say that I am a student and I am reading the GALNUC section from Roosh's "Day Bang." These are the skills I will need to fully access the text in a meaningful way while reading independently.
- Decoding - I recognise most of the words. I use phonics skills to sound out the words I don't recognise. When I can't sound out the words, I can make a good guess based on the context of the sentence. By doing this, I can access at least 95% of the text
- Basic comprehension - When asked what the acronym GALNUC stands for, I am able to answer accurately. This displays that I understand the literal meaning of what I have read, and I can answer questions using information from a single section of the text. This is the point at which most teachers are satisfied that their students have fully accessed the reading material - A+ for everyone.
- Higher level comprehension - I can answer the question "Why is GALNUC so effective?" There is a clear, literal explanation in the text which I can use to answer this, but I may have to draw on several relevant sections in order to effectively answer this question.
- Inference - "Your main goal is to get a girl into a night venue, preferably one that serves alcohol." Even though it's not explicitly mentioned in the sentence, I am able to "read between the lines." From this sentence, I can infer that Roosh means that girls will be more relaxed and open inside a night venue and with a few drinks under their belt.
- Questioning - I fully understand what Roosh has written. However, I have further relevant questions which I feel he didn't adequately cover.
- Making connections - I can discuss how GALNUC relates to my own personal experience. Perhaps I recall a time when, even though I didn't specifically use the GALNUC process, a girl eventually warmed up to me and asked me questions after five minutes of little response. From what I have read, I will consider refining my conversation techniques based on the advice of the text.
- Synthesising - I am able to combine my own knowledge and experience with Roosh's knowledge and experience in order to form my own opinions and perspective. I may be heavily critical of Roosh's ideas and provide evidence for this. I may accept some of his ideas, but reject others, again using evidence based on my own experiences. I may completely embrace everything he says.
The above list would seem incredibly complex for the average parent wishing to help their child. My advice would be to completely forget about this list - I am merely pointing out that the main purpose of reading is not reading in itself, but the resulting knowledge, critical thinking skills and enjoyment. The ability to read is merely a tool. My point is that it is the discussions that arise from reading are hugely beneficial. Most guys here are of above average intelligence, and even if they weren't thinking of the list of skills above while reading with their children, discussions would naturally flow towards areas which would enhance these skills. Ideally, these skills would be taught in the classroom. In reality, most teachers are barely aware of the existence of these skills. At best, a competent teacher will be able to coax out some of these skills, but even in small groups it's impossible to achieve the quality of discussions that occur between children and parents on a one to one basis.
(06-29-2015 04:02 PM)The Beast1 Wrote: My involvement with my child's education is when they don't perform well on their subjects and an intervention is needed. They're struggling? Send the teacher an email and meet in person if necessary.
Do you really want to solely entrust a teacher with your child's literacy and numeracy skills? How would you know that they're struggling if you don't have some involvement? Standardised testing is a very poor indicator of a student's true ability. Are you sure that the all teachers will proactively communicate with you if they feel the child is falling behind?
You must realise that, in most Western countries, the stereotype of teachers is generally true. There is a large amount of teachers that are, at best, mediocre, and at worst, dangerously incompetent. That's not even taking into account the teachers who actually care about your child's development. Nobody will ever have more interest in a child's academic progress that his/her parents, but to find a teacher that is both competent and genuinely cares about their students is rare. If you were to place a secret microphone inside any staff room at a school, you would be disgusted at the way many teachers talk about their students.
It also baffles me why parents are only concerned when their child is falling behind. Falling behind what exactly? The arbitrary list of skills an education board has deemed to be appropriate for children of a certain age? We refer to "underachieving" students as having "special needs." However,
all students have special needs. For example, a child of above average ability is wasting his time and talent if he is learning the same material that the average children are learning. He will coast and become bored, while achieving high grades with little effort. If you don't live in an area where differentiated learning appropriate to a student's individual needs is standard, then it's up to you as a parent to provide him with the extra intellectual stimulus which will enable him to reach his true potential.
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