Elementary » Carol J. Carter

Get Smart

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Is IQ hereditary or environmental? Is there any correlation between intelligence and creativity or genius? As the article below suggests, if IQ differences are indeed largely environmental, what might eliminate group disparities? IQ tests which traditionally measure â€œfluidâ€ intelligence(the ability to abstractly reason) and â€œcrystallizedâ€ intelligence (knowledge) donâ€™t always correlate to skills, abilities and outcomes. What role do habits of success like conscientiousness and perseverance play in raising intelligence and the ability to actually accomplish thingsâ€”in the words of Howard Gardner, â€œ to make things happenâ€? What programs can schools put in place to level the playing field and help all kids learn more and do more, regardless of their economic background?

As Title 1 programs strive to be more effective at helping at-risk populations, these questions are crucial to figure out the best programs to propel kids forward with the global skills needed to be successful in our interdependent world. Measurements which can provide hard data will be essential in evaluating progress and determining next steps.

ARTICLE:

By JIM HOLT
Published: March 27, 2009

Success in life depends on intelligence, which is measured by I.Q. tests. Intelligence is mostly a matter of heredity, as we know from studies of identical twins reared apart. Since I.Q. differences between individuals are mainly genetic, the same must be true for I.Q. differences between groups. So the I.Q. ranking of racial/ethnic groups â€” Ashkenazi Jews on top, followed by East Asians, whites in general, and then blacks â€” is fixed by nature, not culture. Social programs that seek to raise I.Q. are bound to be futile. Cognitive inequalities, being written in the genes, are here to stay, and so are the social inequalities that arise from them.

To view this entire article visit www.nytimes.com

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Our Students Need More Practice in Actual Thinking

CAROL’S SUMMARY: To be ready for the challenges of the global world, students need to have highly developed critical and creative thinking skills, problem-solving and decision-making to name a few. The trouble is, the standardized testing pattern rarely promotes critical and creative thinking.

How can you as a parent promote critical and creative thinking skills at
home?
* Ask questions of your child. Question-asking is one of the most prized
skills and helps you as a parent to be a coach for your child as they grow
older and need more complex thinking skills at their disposal.
* Do creative and different things together as a family. Spend time asking your
kids what they would do in the world if they could do anything–get them to
think big. Whatever they share, ask them to come up with small steps that could move them closer to their big dream. As much as possible, spend time at home imagining, creating and sharing your vision.
* Ask what else. If your child suffers a disappointment or a setback, ask what other good can come from that door closing. What will this setback
do to provide a stepping stone to a new experience?

The more you demonstrate thoughtful, probing and interesting behaviors with
your child, the more they will see critical and creative thinking first-hand
from you.

ARTICLE:

By ROB JENKINS

During a recent meeting of a committee charged with reviewing my state’s higher-education core curriculum, a committee member asked, “Do students really need two math courses?”

In a word, yes.

Admittedly, as an undergraduate English major, I may have asked the same question myself a time or two. And certainly it’s true that, in the nearly three decades since I sweated through pre-calculus, I’ve never once had to factor an equation â€” nor, frankly, do I remember how. (Just ask my teenagers, who’ve occasionally been misguided enough to ask me for help with their algebra homework.)

To view this entire article you must subscribe to www.chronicle.com

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Guiding Hands Find New Ways

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Counselors these days are re-inventing themselves, stepping up to the challenges they face as are their counterparts in the world of business. One of the ways counselors are multiplying their efforts and expanding their leadership is through taking full responsibility for the advisory classes, grades 5-12. These advisory classes are becoming the backbone of academic, emotional and social intelligence for students. Counselors can make themselves indispensable to their principal, the teaching team and the district as a whole by taking the lead on the advisory courses, measuring data and providing the passion and the purpose behind full school compliance. Counselors are setting the standard by helping their management team to analyze these success factors:

1) Attendance

2) Critical and creative thinking skills

3) Grades

4) School involvement

5) Use of resources, including tutors and others who can help in learning

6) Planning and strategy for the future.

The more that counselors become strong leaders and coaches, the more they will lead their schools and districts to new, measurable outcomes of achievement. Thatâ€™s job security.

ARTICLE

Washington PostÂ

By Michael Birnbaum

Washington Post Staff Writer

They don’t just wait for students to come to their offices in search of college brochures, health pamphlets or other help. These days, counselors are scouring schools for at-risk kids to prevent personal or academic troubles before they arise. In tough economic times, students and families need the guidance more than ever.Â Â

To view entire article visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/22/AR2009032201899.html?referrer=emailarticle

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Helping Students Find a Sense of Purpose

Motivated by the increased coverage of student misbehavior, the school-reform movement is working to bring back moral education to the intellectual learning students do today. Bringing moral, or character education, back will help students see the purpose to their studies. Even lack of purpose has a deep impact on the character education of youths, showing just how important these are.

Questions to consider:

1. Do you know the importance of what is taught in each of your classes?
2. Does this or would this help you become more invested in your education?
3. What are the pros of character educationâ€”academic, emotional and social intelligence? What are the best ways to promote these issues in and out of class?
4. What are the potential costs short term and long term to avoiding the character education piece of learning?

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ARTICLE:

A Q&A With William Damon

By SUSANNAH TULLY
March 13, 2009

William Damon, a professor of education at Stanford University, has long advocated “character education” as a key component of school reform. The author of several books on the subject, his latest is The Path to Purpose: Helping Our Children Find Their Calling in Life (Free Press, 2008). The Chronicle Review asked him to discuss the role of schools in moral development and how they can encourage students to define their goals and aspirations.

To view this entire article you must subscribe to www.chronicle.com

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Boys and Girls Together, Taught Separately in Public School

As the youngest of five with four older brothers who taught me a lot about the real world and how to live in it, I was skeptical about single-sex education. However, after looking at the data and comparing it to programs that struggle, I suspend my initial judgment. Additionally, brain research shows that boys and girls learn differently. If principals think they can get further instructing boys in specific ways that involve challenging, bodily-kinesthetic and experiential methods, while girls are taught more specifically to how they learn, I am all for it with a few caveats:

1) Both boys and girls need to learn the qualities traditionally associated with each gender. For example, boys need to learn to slow down, ask questions, and be considerate. Girls need to learn to assert themselves, speak up for the ideas and opinions and have the strength to say â€œNoâ€ when needed.

2) Teachers will need to teach to gender strengths while developing gender weaknesses so that being in same sex
classes doesnâ€™t prove to be a long term liability.

3) Outside of school, students need many extra-curricular and social opportunities with the opposite sex. Otherwise, each gender will feel â€œdeprivedâ€ and that can cause other obvious problems.

4) Parents need to support the school in these initiatives and be involved in both same sex learning goals and activities where both sexes get to learn, grow and contribute outside of class.

With as many struggling students as our nation has now in K-12, we owe ourselves looking at the same problem in different ways, conducting longitudinal studies through middle school, high school and college.

ARTICLE

Michael Napolitano speaks to his fifth-grade class in the Morrisania section of the Bronx like a basketball coach. â€œYou â€” let me see you trying!â€ he insisted the other day during a math lesson. â€œCome on, faster!â€

Across the hall, Larita Hudsonâ€™s scolding is more like a therapistâ€™s. â€œThis is so sloppy, honey,â€ she prodded as she reviewed problems in a workbook. â€œRemember what I spoke to you about? About being the bright shining star that you are?â€

To view the entire article visit www.nytimes.com

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Great Depression a Timely Class Topic

CAROL’S SUMMARY: The current economic crisis has students more interested in history, because of parallels with topics like the Great Depression. There is an opportunity for students to reinvent themselves in much the same way the men and women did after World War II. The current generation of students has much to learn from the determination, spirit, perseverance and innovation the â€œGreatest Generationâ€ had to offer.

Questions to consider:
1. Do you find yourself more interested in topics of study that apply to you today?
2. How could teachers make more lessons applicable to the lives of their students?
3. How can students come up with their own solutions for some of our national and world problems?
4.What contributions can students make in the next few years that will equal the Works Progress Act, the vision behind the National Parks, and other programs hatched during the Great Depression?

ARTICLE:

By Mary Ann Zehr
March 9, 2009

Margo M. Loflin teaches sophomores in Oklahoma, a state that was once part of the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression era. But most school years, her high school students donâ€™t find the struggles of Oklahoma farmers to combat drought and financial hardship in the 1930s relevant to their lives. That’s not true this year.

“I’ve taught [the Great Depression] for a long time. Usually, kids are not interested at all. They were very interested this year,” she said recently.

Ms. Loflin, who teaches U.S. history at Norman High School in Norman, Okla., is among a number of history and social studies teachers who have found that because of the parallels they’re able to draw between the current economic crisis and the Depression, their students are seeing that history is relevant. Theyâ€™re engaging more deeply in history lessons than they have in previous years.

Visit www.edweek.org for the entire article

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Hispanics one-fifth of K-12 students

CAROL’S SUMMARY: By 2050, the United States will be a majority Hispanic country. Right now, Hispanic students make up one fifth of k-12 students. Here are some questions to think through as we prepare to be the most educated country in the world by 2020:

Â· How many k-12 teachers are able to speak Spanish?

Â· How much will non-Hispanic children benefit long term from learning Spanish?

Â· In what ways do our schools and teachers need to work effectively with the
Spanish native population, their families and their parents?

Â· How will the US as a whole benefit from this rich cultural opportunity?

Â· What specific learning characteristics do k-12 educators need to know to maximize opportunities for Hispanic students and all other students as we march forward to set a world standard for education?

ARTICLE:

By Hope Yen, Associated Press

WASHINGTON â€” Roughly one-fourth of the nation’s kindergartners are Hispanic, evidence of an accelerating trend that now will see minority children become the majority by 2023.
Census data released Thursday also showed that Hispanics make up about one-fifth of all K-12 students. Hispanics’ growth and changes in the youth population are certain to influence political debate, from jobs and immigration to the No Child Left Behind education, for years.

Visit www.usatoday.com for the entire article

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The 3 Râ€™s? A Fourth Is Crucial, Too: Recess

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Research shows that recess, or play time, has a direct impact on the academic success of students. It gives the brain a rest and helps improve behavioral, attention, and concentration problems. Creativity, imagination and stress-reduction are central to recreating and playing.

Questions to consider:
1. How much recess time does your childâ€™s school allow?
2. Can you apply this method to homework and chores?
3. How much fun is in your life? In your childâ€™s?

ARTICLE:

By TARA PARKER-POPE,

Posted February 24, 2009 at www.nytimes.com

The best way to improve childrenâ€™s performance in the classroom may be to take them out of it.

New research suggests that play and down time may be as important to a childâ€™s academic experience as reading, science and math, and that regular recess, fitness or nature time can influence behavior, concentration and even grades.

A study published this month in the journal Pediatrics studied the links between recess and classroom behavior among about 11,000 children age 8 and 9. Those who had more than 15 minutes of recess a day showed better behavior in class than those who had little or none. Although disadvantaged children were more likely to be denied recess, the association between better behavior and recess time held up even after researchers controlled for a number of variables, including sex, ethnicity, public or private school and class size.

Visit www.nytimes.com for the entire article

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Adolescents Involved With Music Do Better In School

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Studies show that participation in music, such as music lessons or attending concerts, has a positive effect on academic performance in reading and mathematics.

Questions to consider:
1. Why do you think this is?
2. Is your child involved with music?

ARTICLE:

From Science Daily, February 11, 2009

ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2009) â€” A new study in the journal Social Science Quarterly reveals that music participation, defined as music lessons taken in or out of school and parents attending concerts with their children, has a positive effect on reading and mathematic achievement in early childhood and adolescence. Additionally, socioeconomic status and ethnicity affect music participation.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Study: College success starts early

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Study shows that how a student progresses in elementary and middle school is a major factor on college preparation. High school can not be solely responsible for preparing students for college. Preparations need to be made early on by raising the level of rigor at each educational level.

Questions to consider:
1. What can you do to help your student prepare at an early age?

ARTICLE:

College preparation begins in elementary and middle school, too, authors say
By Tara Malone
Tribune reporter
December 11, 2008

Fewer than 2 in 10 of the nation’s 8th graders are on track to be academically prepared for college, and high school may be too late to bring them up to speed, according to a study released Wednesday.

The report found that how students fare in middle school is a leading predictor of their ability to succeed in college or the workplace after high school. Research by Iowa City-based ACT suggests that students who are not academically prepared going into high school are unlikely to make up ground even with rigorous schooling and academic help. The trend cut across demographic and economic lines.

Visit www.chicagotribune.com for the entire article

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