University of Northern Iowa UNI ScholarWorks Malcolm Price Laboratory School Newsletter Malcolm Price Laboratory School Newsletters 2-1993 PLS Newsletter, v3n5, February 1993 University of Northern Iowa. Malcolm Price Laboratory School Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy Copyright ©1993 Malcolm Price Laboratory School, University of Northern Iowa Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/mplsnews Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation University of Northern Iowa. Malcolm Price Laboratory School, "PLS Newsletter, v3n5, February 1993" (1993). Malcolm Price Laboratory School Newsletter. 83. https://scholarworks.uni.edu/mplsnews/83 This Newsletter is brought to you for free and open access by the Malcolm Price Laboratory School Newsletters at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Malcolm Price Laboratory School Newsletter by an authorized administrator of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Volume III, Issue V University of Northern Iowa February 1993 Helping Children Learn How You Can llelp Have you ever wondered why one child can study with Here are some ways that you can help a child with an the stereo blasting and still get A's, while another one gets identified learning style: distracted even by the rustling of a turning newspaper page? • Discuss your child's learning style with the teacher. Have you noticed that one child can take verbal directions Share ideas and strategies that work best in school and in an instant and follow them exactly, while another needs to at home. have everything written down or explained in detail? • Experiment with different types of study techniques to Differences like these in children have nothing to do with see which ones are most effective with your child. For intelligence. They have everything to do with learning styles. example, to help your child memorize multiplication Discovering and understanding your child's personal learning facts, you might try these suggestions: style can help you structure a home environment that will Quiz your child verbally (auditory learning) maximize your child's abilities. Make up worksheets (visual learning) Once, it was assumed that everyone learned the same Make up songs, rhymes, chants, or dances (kines­ way. But now researchers and educators are beginning to thetic/tactile learning) approach learning from the student's viewpoint. They have • Recognize that you and your child may have entirely defined learning style as the way in which an individual different learning styles. If you're going to help with student learns most efficiently, and they have shown that homework, be sensitive to his or her unique learning when lesson presentation and study skills are geared to a style. Don't let battles over homework divide your student's learning style, more learning takes place in a shorter family. time. • Help your child understand and capitalize on a given learning sty le. If a child needs to visualize ideas in llow Does Your Child Learn order to learn, help the child learn to diagram and draw pictures. If the need is to experience things in a hands­ Best? on way, try writing spelling words in sand-or in the air. If your child has always loved to sit still and listen to If the need is to hear spoken material, try tape-record­ stories, chances are he or she is an auditory learner, who can ing textbook assignments. probably understand and remember material better if it is • If a child thrives on hands-on activity and creative verbalized. The auditory learner doesn't get impatient when projects, try to build suitable learning opportunities the teacher talks for long periods of time, can remember into the family schedule. Buy puzzles, games, models, complicated verbal instructions, and enjoys listening to sto­ and kits that make learning meaningful for that child. ries read aloud. If your child is an auditory learner, you can • Celebrate your children's strengths. Get them in­ help with homework by repeating multiplication facts or volved in hobbies and outside activities that use their spelling words aloud. learning styles, talents, and abilities to the best advan­ The visual learner, on the other hand, needs to see tage. something written down or illustrated in order to remember it. The visual learner often makes pictures, charts, or illustrations to help organize and remember material. If your child has to touch everything in sight, take it apart, and see how it works, then chances are he or she is a kinesthetic/tactile learner, a hands-on learner who needs to personally experience things, and not just read or hear about them from others. This child will usually enjoy doing group work and sharing learning with others. Most successful learners are not restricted to a particular learning style. They use all of their senses, often compensat­ ing for weaknesses in some areas with strengths in others. But many children, especially those with learning difficulties, may be able to learn effectively in only one style. Non-Grading in the would have predicted. Data suggests that beliefs about intelligence are related not only to mastery-oriented or help­ Middle·School less behaviors, but also to achievement in adolescence. by Dr. N. E. Teig The research and my own experience show that grades themselves are not motivators for all students and they should The Price Laboratory School Middle School Study Com­ not be used in attempts to enforce discipline. I would sooner mittee endorsed the concept of non-grading as part of its work subscribe to the concept that every student is an individual during the 1991-92 school year. capable of learning and growing intellectually. A student I also want to be on record as supporting the concept of should not be made to feel inadequate simply because they are non-grading in the middle school. Assessment is an integral operating at a lower cognitive level than others. Remember part of the learning process. It fosters the academic and that the process of "right thinking" is often more important personal development of each student by enabling the peri­ than "getting the right answer." Listen to the thought pro­ odic assessment of progress and the diagnosis of specific cesses of children and assess each student according to their problems. Parent/pupil/advisor conferences are an essential own individual growth. part of the assessment process and are scheduled on a regular basis. Student assessment is best when we utilize a system based on each student's mastery of learning, rather than one based on comparison of classmates' achievement. Letter grades also have the characteristic of labeling the student. In order to feel successful, everyone must have experienced \ success. Many students, because they feel they have never done anything successful, do not need to be further depressed Good Sportsmanship by being labeled with a letter grade. The tendency is to see the Good sportsmanship is a value the faculty and adminis­ label (grade) and experience great difficulty achieving be­ tration of the Laboratory School seek to instill into the minds yond the label. of students as they move from the earliest grades through high According to research results reported by Henderson and school graduation. Because we consider this effort a partner­ Dweck, the way individual adolescents adapt to the middle ship between parents and the school, it is of utmost importance school is determined, in part, by their orientation to perceived that we join together to model good sportsmanship at school intelligence and to challenge. activities. It is commonly believed that academic achievement is Recent events at basketball games have suggested that we largely the result of students' intelligence, but studies reveal need to reaffirm our commitment to good sportsmanship. this is not the case. A student who is less bright but who has Whether our girls or boys are participating at home or away, an "adaptive motivational pattern," who is persistent and is we need your support in modeling positive spectator behavior able to maintain effective learning strategies and a positive and in casting the school in a positive light to parents, faculty attitude toward academic tasks, is likely to become a high and students of the other conference schools. achiever, whereas a bright student who has "maladaptive" The following ideals, endorsed by the Iowa High School motivational patterns, who gives up easily, who does not use Athletic Association, embody the spirit of good sportsman­ good learning strategies, and does not enjoy academics, may ship: well fall considerably behind. * Respect the decisions of an official and admire their Henderson and Dweck's studies show that, as adolescents willingness to publicly officiate student-athletes in the move into a more demanding academic environment, the way best interests of interscholastic sports. they think about intelligence and achievement is a powerful * Realize that a ticket is a privilege to observe the predictor of their academic achievement and adjustment. A contest, not a license to verbally assault others or be group of students were followed over the first few months of generally obnoxious. the seventh grade, their first year of middle school. The results * Compliment student-athletes in their attempts to im- showed that those who believed intelligence was fixed earned prove and learn. significantly lower grades than did students who believed they * Respect both players and fans of opposing teams. could become more intelligent. This was true regardless of * Know and understand the rules of the game. how intelligent the students believed themselves to be or how * Cheer good performances, regardless of uniform color. well they had done in the sixth grade. * Recognize and compliment the efforts to coaches, On the other hand, those who believed that intelligence officials, league and school administrators for their was malleable, and that through effort they could become interest in expanding education.