Have you been worried about preparing your child for the Gifted and Talented exam? If so, you’re not alone. Taking the Gifted and Talented exam could lead to your child entering the extremely competitive Gifted and Talent New York City school program! It would only be natural that it would cause some anxiety. But fear not because students can prepare for this test and achieve greatness in just a couple of months!

Now, the first question I always hear is “What exactly is on this test? Will my child be solving math problems and answering reading questions?” To give you some insider info, I will tell you that the test has two parts: the NNAT test and the OLSAT test. The NNAT test is a nonverbal test, meaning students will not need to speak, they will simply need to point to the correct answer. The test assesses students on pattern completion, reasoning by analogy, serial reasoning, and spatial visualization. The OLSAT is a verbal test, assessing verbal comprehension and reasoning, as well as nonverbal assessing pictorial reasoning, figural reasoning, and quantitative reasoning. Both tests are multiple choice. But what does that really mean? English please!

In terms you can understand, the pattern completion section requires your child to identify missing portions of a design to complete a figure. On the test, these figures are blue and gold in color. When practicing for this portion of the exam, it is best for students to practice with blue and gold colored figures so they will be familiar with what the test will look like. This is easy to design on your own using Microsoft Word. Commonly seen figures on the test are circles, squares, triangles, diamonds, hexagons, trapezoids, and arrows.

In the reasoning by analogy section, students will have to understand relationships between shapes and figures. For example, there will be different boxes filled with different shapes and the students must determine how the geometric figure changes in the row or column and thus, what picture should fill the final box. Next, in the serial reasoning section, students will need to complete different patterns in a matrix by choosing the missing element. Lastly, the spatial visualization section asks students to mentally manipulate 2-dimensional, 3-dimensional, and 4-dimensional figures.

Now that you know what your child has to do, how can you ensure that your child can successfully complete these tasks? In my experience, test preparation is most effective when you provide an authentic, hands-on experience. If you set up the environment to mirror the testing environment, students know what is expected and are less concerned with the stress of the unknown and more focused on correctly completing the questions.

When prepping a 5-year old and an 8-year old for this exam, I sat opposite them at a table and prepared a board where the students would see one question at a time. I then flipped the page by removing the previous question from view. I presented my students with the idea that they were Indiana Jones with the task of solving exciting puzzles. (This could work with any puzzle solving superhero!) Both of my students began getting antsy, fidgeting in their chairs, as sitting up straight in a chair is difficult for long periods of time. Continuous breaks work well. I would have the five year old answer five questions and then receive a two minute break. For the eight year-old, I had her complete ten questions and receive a two minute break. Find what break works best for your child! When the students were still having trouble focusing, I changed my method of teaching and utilized manipulatives such as blocks, dice, Legos, and other small toys and developed patterns with them for students to solve. This technique worked well because students were interested in the toys and manipulating them to create a correct pattern.

The OLSAT is a more straightforward exam, with questions the students might have seen before. In my experience, the NNAT requires more focus. For instance, a question may read: “these items go together in a certain way. One does not belong. Which one does not belong?” The test makers use particular phrases repeatedly on this exam such as the one I just provided for you. When prepping your child, it is important to use the particular phrases seen on the test, like “in a certain way” to again mirror the true test experience.

There are many resources out there for your child to get ready for the test so don’t fret, just prep!

To learn about our Gifted and Talented Test Prep Tutoring, please click here.

Over the years, we have helped a number of families homeschool their children and so we have had to learn the NYC homeschooling procedures for families.Amazingly, shockingly, unbelievably, we are actually totally flabbergasted to report that they are quite simple and straightforward and easy to navigate. I am just going to go over them here.
In summary, a homeschooling family has to do four rather simple things:

Send a letter to the NYC Homeschooling office to tell them you plan to homeschool your child.
Fill out a curriculum plan that the Homeschooling office will send to you.
File a quarterly report every quarter that assures the office that you are still homeschooling your child and working through your plan.
File a narrative or quantative assessment at the end of the year that explains to the Homeschooling office that made satisfactory steps towards your educational goals.
This is all explained rather clearly at the NYC homeschooling website here.

I will go over these in greater detail.

1. The letter of intent. This is really simple. You simply send this within two weeks of beginning your homeschooling. If you have moved into the city and are beginning in the middle of the year that’s fine. All it has to say is your name and address and the below.

We are sending this letter of intent as required of Section 100.10 of the Regulations of the New York State Commissioner of Education. We intend to homeschool our son/daughter, ___________________, who will be entering grade ___, for the 20__-20__ school year.

Then this is sent to NYC Central Office of Homeschooling, 333 7th Avenue 7th Fl., New York, NY 10001

2. The curriculum plan. The curriculum plan is called the IHIP, aka the “Individualized Home Instruction Plan.” The IHIP goes over what subjects you plan on covering with your child and what materials you plan to use to cover them. The key ingredient to filling out an IHIP appropriately is making sure that you have listed on it all of the required subjects that are mandated by NY State law. These subjects can be found by grade level one the NYC Homeschooling Office website here: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/part100/pages/10010.html#d. For example, here is the heart of the elementary school guidance

“For grades one through six: arithmetic, reading, spelling, writing, the English language, geography, United States history, science, health education, music, visual arts, physical education, bilingual education and/or English as a second language where the need is indicated.”

In our experience, so long as a goal for each subject is listed and some materials are listed, there really shouldn’t be any difficulties. The only thing to watch out for here is not to set goals too loftily Better, for example, to say that the goal in math is “to increase fluency with long division” than it is to say the goal is for a student to be able “to do long division problems in 30 seconds,” as the final narrative will have to answer the question: did my child meet his or her goals.

3. Quarterly Reports. These are, again, very simple and simply need to include the following:

the number of hours of instruction during said quarter;
a description of the material covered in each subject listed in the IHIP;
either a grade for the child in each subject or a written narrative evaluating the child’s progress; and
a written explanation in the event that less than 80 percent of the amount of the course materials as set forth in the IHIP planned for that quarter has been covered in any subject.
A few key things to point out here:

the total number of hours for the year is listed on the website and has been 9 units of 6480 minutes each for the full year. Accordingly, it should be divided into quarters for the purposes of the quarterly report.
do note that the main red flag for the DOE is whether or not the student progressed towards his or her goals. Thus, it’s important to write goals on the IHIP in such a way as to be something that can be confidently aquired through time – again “increasing fluency” is a better goal than x,y,z results…
4. The narrative or quantitative explanation. For students in elementary school (until 4th grade) a simple narrative will suffice. Once in 4th grade, students need to take a “commercially published norm-referenced achievement test” at least every other year. Again, the DOE Homeschooling office explains this in detail here: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/part100/pages/10010.html#h

If a student is taking an achievement test for their final results, they simply need to achieve either of the below results:

the student has a composite score above the 33rd percentile on national norms; or
the student’s score reflects one academic year of growth as compared to a test administered during or subsequent to the prior school year.
If a narrative is being written instead of an achievement test being given, the Homeschooling Office requires the below:

the person who prepares the written narrative shall be a New York State-certified teacher, a home instruction peer group review panel, or other person, who has interviewed the child and reviewed a portfolio of the child’s work. Such person shall certify either that the child has made adequate academic progress or that the child has failed to make adequate progress. In the event that such child has failed to make adequate progress, the home instruction program shall be placed on probation pursuant to subdivision (i) of this section. The certified teacher, peer review panel or other person shall be chosen by the parent with the consent of the superintendent. Any resulting cost shall be borne by the parent.

And that’s it in terms of regulations and red tape.

Of course, there are a million other things to think about, from educational philosophy to who the teacher(s) will be, to discovering what really makes your child tick, and we love love love working through all of this with parents . The good news is that from a administrative perspective, the steps are quite straightforward.

Children can imagine, role-play, and build whole worlds inside their head without any effort, as if day-dreaming is a natural course of day to day activity. Some children, the extroverts, might be vocal about this fact, while others might not be. I can vouch for this particular fact from my own personal experience. Being an introvert, writing was never a solitary or lonely experience but an act which made me belong somewhere, an act which made me realize that I could indeed communicate with the larger society around me.

To bring out the hidden potentialities of imagination for your child, as a parent, one of the oldest tricks is to encourage your child to become a writer. A writer’s trade deals with words and language, hence if your child expresses a desire to become a writer, the first few things you should encourage in your child to develop is an interest in reading, writing, and listening. These disciplinary tasks shall go a long way towards strengthening one of the core skills of your child, that of using language to express one’s own desire, one of the key skills of our adult social lives. I learnt this the hard way in my life. Being a loner, I never really made many friends, writing blogs on the internet, having good old-fashioned pen-pals albeit through emails, they all contributed to a deeper understanding of myself, other human beings, and the human nature itself.

Why not start off by teaching your child to be quick at flipping through the dictionary and the thesaurus? Though the internet has reduced the need of those old bulky books, you can develop games around the dictionary and the thesaurus and play them with your child sometimes. Timing the speed of finding a word and its meaning would certainly ingrain a certain reflexive memory in your child about how to deal with dictionaries. Teaching them the difference between a dictionary and a thesaurus is also a very wise thing to do. Though dictionary comes in handy when one encounters an unknown word. While writing, it is the thesaurus which usually comes in for the rescue when you are looking for a word with similar meaning, and the alternative word simply doesn’t strike the memory.

Encouraging your child to edit and create Wikipedia pages can be an extremely adventurous activity. Children today acquire the basic skills required to navigate on the internet at a very early age that’s why they will be bound to use the internet for their day to day activities and school assignments. But, instead of spending countless hours on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter or the countless other social media services out there it would be incredible wise to nurture the skill of reading Wikipedia every day. It is just like reading encyclopedias in the yesteryears, but in this case one can actually become a part of a worldwide community of people whose goal is to distribute knowledge for free. By writing for Wikipedia even if it’s a miniscule amount, your child can develop the academic writing skills which need to be backed up by reference. After all, who knows, your child might one day grow up to wish to write one of those huge academic tomes which lay in the corner of the library unapproached by most students. Reading an encyclopedia can actually be fun after slogging through the comparatively rather drier dictionary and thesaurus. It isn’t for no reason that the academic discipline of Digital Humanities has suddenly cropped up in the universities. The old education system of the university is slowly fading away, to give way to new communicative environments on the internet where people share and learn together. I have been a keen contributor and reader of Wikipedia articles while growing up, but what it helped me learn the most was the fact that academic references and citations are actually one of the primary features of academic research. And learning it at such an early age can harm no body.

The most tried and tested practice that exists to develop children’s writing skills is to motivate them to maintain a journal. Journal writing can be one of the most enriching experience for children. It helps them grasp the power and intimacy of language without the risk of any gaze of judgment and risks of failure that school essay assignments for example might bring with them. Journal writing also helps teenagers cope with their emotions in private in a much more fruitful manner. It helps them channel all the positive or negative emotions onto the paper in the process increasing their ability to communicate better.

To write better, one ought to read voraciously. This is a point every pedagogue shall agree on. It is important to know what exists out there, outside one’s immediate social network. Reading, newspapers, books, magazines, pretty much anything helps one acquire the tricks of trade. Encourage your child to spend more time in the public library. The mystical quality of the dusty hardbound books, and the aura of the old manuscripts, they all come together to form an extremely enriching experience, which today’s generation is more and more losing a touch with. Once they find books whose digital copies simply don’t exist, the adventure of book hunting will not be a far-fetched fantasy for your child anymore. Remember the pleasure of finding that book you had been looking for, for ages and the excitement with which you read it when you finally laid your hands on it?

Introduce them to some of the young adult books, whether some new book series or some classics. If they have been asking you for some particular book series, why not buy them the hard copies of some of those books? Starting with young adult books can be extremely easy because of their simple language and engrossing narratives. At the same time the series are always long enough, meaning that there is enough reading material to cover. Young adult books are certainly a stepping stone towards reading more complex narratives and books. I remember during my own teens how, I could never go through the large tomes of classics but reading series of young adult books was a cakewalk even if they exceeded 50 books in the series sometimes.Though at the same time do not shy away from introducing your child to some of the old classics, like Mark Twain, Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens and the likes.

If your child demonstrates a keen interest for the visual medium too, for example if she/he can paint and/or draw, then it would certainly be advisable to introduce them to some graphic novels or Japanese mangas. The visual medium has seen a great resurgence in the past few decades and there always is enough to choose from in the bookstores.

Another nice to way to introduce them to the grand scope of the written word and encourage them further to achieve their dream of being a writer, would certainly be to introduce them to certain movies and TV series which have been adapted from books. At the outset it might seem like a sheer waste of time, but witnessing the written word on screen shall certainly motivate any child to actually consider writing as a viable profession. Writers who achieve cross-over success can certainly be good role models for young children to dream larger than their mundane lives might allow them to. Simply dreaming is not enough after all. Hence introduce them to one of the classics that every upcoming writer always reads, Stephen King’s On Writing. The book argues for incredible discipline and brings down everyone who dreams to be a writer down back to the earthly world. King’s words can and do always act as a kind reminder that it is always hard work and dedication that pays off, and not mere desiring and envisioning.

It is always advisable to introduce your child to poetry early in their lives. Some writers can be extremely good poets but terrible prose writers. This isn’t particularly surprising. If they at all demonstrate a knack for poetry, introduce them to some poetry. Poetry after all is the quintessential art of the words, where grammar, syntax and lines as we know them, breakdown. It is the place for imagination and reverie, the quality that is the most childlike as we mentioned early on.

Far away from the pages of books, take them to watch some stage-plays someday. Who knows, your child might actually be a writer who loves to write and present his work to people in a different manner, unlike the lonely imagination of a writer at hard-work on his desk through days and nights. While in troducing them to theatre it would certainly be advisable to show them the fact that cinema’s spine too is that of the screenplay.

Far away from the usual image of novelist, thespian and the poet, do let them know that every word that they see or hear around them, is a work of a writer, even if it’s the everyday billboard on the road, the advertisement in the subway, the commercials on the internet, on TV and on radio. All words are written by some writer or the other. Some spend their time in extreme spotlight while many do not, just like every other profession. But this would certainly remind them that, what they like to do the most, and are good at, i.e. writing is actually a very sought after skill in today’s world. This would make them feel accepted in this world which is forever competitive. After all, isn’t this blog post itself written? Aren’t you reading countless words everyday on the internet and various other places? These words don’t just appear out of the vacuum but are the result of hard labor of a person.

You love your kids. You want them to have all the benefits of homeschooling – a more flexible approach to learning (tailored to their particular learning style, of course), their parents’ attention, safety from bullies and negative peer pressure – but you’re not seeing those results right now. You’re burned out, the kids would rather eat overcooked brussel sprouts than “do school”, and your friends whose kids are in school seem so…calm and happy. But you don’t think that’s the right path for your family right now.

Well, I was homeschooled K-12, starting in the early 90’s when homeschooling was still a relatively new idea. I am the oldest of an entirely homeschooled family that spans over a decade, with a wide variety of experiences. Some of them worked; some of them didn’t, and I’m going to share both with you.

One of the primary things I learned watching my mom homeschool me and my younger siblings was the importance of self-care for the primary teaching parent. Many homeschool parents, precisely because of their drive to give their children the best, push themselves to the edge. Burnout is the most common reason parents and kids don’t enjoy homeschooling, so don’t underestimate the importance of physical and emotional self-care. After all, your main goal in homeschooling is to teach your kids to be happy, healthy adults, not just how to solve the quadratic equation, so show them how to do that. The easiest way is to take breaks when you need them!

[Editor’s note: of course, you don’t have to homeschool yourself as a parent. Many parents use us as a resource for homeschooling, where we will have a teacher do the homeschooling for them, or some portion of it. This has ranged from our teachers running the entire homeschooling experience for families to our simply teaching a class on a single subject like biology. That being said, we feel Melissa’s advice on keeping calm and creating healthy space for yourself is wise no matter what your approach!]

Here’s an idea: when I was in elementary and middle school, we had “quiet time” for an hour every afternoon, usually right after lunch. My mom would turn off the phone ringer and set an egg timer where we could all hear it when it went off. The youngest child usually had a nap, while school-age children were placed in different rooms with special “quiet time” toys. We knew we weren’t allowed to knock on Mom’s door until the timer went off unless there was an emergency. My mom would nap or just have some time to herself; we kids got a break from each other and learned how to amuse ourselves. (Remember that for most of my school years, iPads and smartphones didn’t exist. I suspect that my family’s emphasis on learning to play or read alone quietly is actually more important in today’s world because of the rarity of these skills and because the brain development they encourage.) I have many fond memories of “quiet time.” I got a welcome respite from my brother’s company and a chance to do something fun – when I was younger, I’d build with Lincoln Logs or Legos, and when I got older, I often drew or made things out of modeling clay, when I wasn’t absorbed in my latest favorite book (often historical fiction).

As my family got older, I saw a shift happen. My mom no longer had small children in the house who need naptime, and “quiet time” quietly fell by the wayside – and my mom’s exhaustion and stress levels increased. Just as the frog doesn’t notice his pot of cool water heating up until it’s too late (a gruesome metaphor, but perhaps not too extreme as a comparison), it’s easy to ignore the symptoms of burnout until they become overwhelming. Doing whatever you need to recharge on a regular basis is absolutely essential to enjoying your homeschool experience, and lays the foundation for your kids to enjoy theirs. As the old Southern saying goes, “When Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”

My next suggestion is to look for easy ways to make “book work” more interesting. My family listened to dozens of cassette tapes (boy, do I feel old now!) – historical songs that made my social studies and American history lessons come alive, as well as geography and grammar set to catchy tunes. Once I learned to read, we went to the library constantly (now, my younger siblings have Kindles), where we rarely checked out books written by contemporary authors; this meant I got to see first-hand what the world looked like in days gone by. My parents also read aloud to us on an almost daily basis, which had a myriad of positive effects. It introduced younger kids to books they might not be able or willing to read on their own (Mom started reading me Little House when I was about four and a half, Anne of Green Gables at 7); it showed us that reading is important; it gave us reading comprehension by giving us the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the story with our parents or older siblings; and it sparked our imaginations in countless ways. Reading “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle showed me that science and math were interesting; reading the American Girl historical books helped spark a lifelong fascination with history and an appreciation for technological advances. I can’t say enough about how much more enjoyable my school work was as a result of my extracurricular reading of everything from Nancy Drew to Narnia, to say nothing of the vocabulary, reading comprehension, and spelling I learned without even trying.

Another way to make homeschooling enjoyable is to shake up your routine. Many kids love spontaneity, especially when it involves getting out of “work.” This doesn’t mean you have to ditch schoolwork; just look around for creative ways of achieving your learning. NYC has dozens of museums, including hands-on children’s museums in Brooklyn and Manhattan; the Sony Wonder Technology Lab; the Children’s Museum of the Arts; and the Intrepid Air, Sea, and Space Museum. A day trip to Philadelphia or Boston gives you dozens of historical sites, while close to home is the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Rainy day and you know everything will be packed? There are dozens of videos from all over the internet – ask your kids what they’re interested in, and help them learn to navigate the internet safely to find out more about it! (Bonus book recommendations for field trip prep: All-of-a-Kind Family, set in NYC at the turn of the twentieth century; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for more mature readers, set in a similar time period; Johnny Tremain for Revolutionary-era Boston, or American Girl’s Addy series for Philadelphia. Find many more in the New York Public Library list at http://www.nypl.org/childrens100 )

While we’re on the subject, a balanced approach to technology is a great way to make your homeschool experience more enjoyable. There will be days when keeping your home sane and yourself healthy will mean using educational videos to give yourself some breathing room, but we’ve all read and heard the statistics around children’s technology use and the impact it has on them. Teach them how to set limits for themselves (something best taught by example, and by providing interesting alternative occupations) and how to keep themselves safe online. For a long time, the only internet-enabled computers in my family’s house were in the living room and the “school room” (once we were fortunate enough to have a dedicated school room). This instantly provided visibility to our parents of our online activities and the time we spent on the computer. My parents also chose to install strict monitoring and blocking software on our family’s computers, something which I feel had mixed consequences; my adult siblings often struggle to set appropriate screen time limits, and strict blocking software can stunt your ability to navigate safely. (My seventeen-year-old sister had no idea why her Google image search of “Russian woman costume” was blocked, and didn’t know how to find the historical information she was looking for safely.) Teaching your children screen and Internet responsibility both enhances their learning skills and makes your home a more peaceful place.

To return to the idea of “shaking up your routine” – what if you feel overwhelmed by your activities and your “school time” is constant chaos? What if your child finds spontaneity threatening, rather than exciting? (I was one such child – fortunately my mom was very good about breaking up our routine in a structured way, such as scheduling field trips at least a week in advance.) While some families thrive on a very flexible schedule, all our human tendencies push us toward baseline routines. We eat three times a day – at relatively similar times across cultures – because most of us need to. We sleep at night for similar time spans because our bodies require it. If you’re the spontaneous type, it doesn’t hurt take some time to step back and ask yourself, “Is my household characterized by spontaneity – or chaos? Would I or my family benefit from making some part of our life more regular?” I think of our next-door neighbors when I was young, who were also homeschoolers. Their mom was always having them go out and change a tire, or analyze why they liked spaghetti so much (starch), or they’d have macaroni and cheese for breakfast; but eventually, she got burned out and discouraged by their slow progress. Eventually the family decided that the more regular education routine of the local public school was necessary simply to get through essential education topics. While this may be the best course for some families, those who want to continue long term may find it best to have a plan to keep things moving forward smoothly.

You don’t have to have a strict schedule of “rise at 7, breakfast 7:25, school from 8-12, lunch at 12:15, school from 1-3, bed at 8:30” if that doesn’t work for you! But maybe – just maybe – a bit of structure would benefit you or your family as a whole, and it doesn’t even need to be directly school-related. One very simple routine that my family found helpful was a weekday breakfast schedule. That way there was no thought required for making breakfast (beyond “what day of the week is it again??”). If your life feels chaotic, take a moment and think about your typical day. At what moment does making a decision feel overwhelming? Maybe that’s where a routine would help you. I know some parents who find it very helpful just to drink a cup of coffee before the kids get up, while others set a family wake-up time. Try different things and see what works!

Another thing that often takes the enjoyment out of homeschooling is isolation. I hate to bring up the oft-repeated question of “socialization,” but I can tell you from experience that while it can be a problem, it doesn’t have to be. I’m the oldest child in my family, and when I was in elementary and middle school, my social life consisted of weekly church attendance, bi-monthly or monthly homeschool group activities, and the occasional get-together with friends met through one of those avenues. In high school as I realized that I felt isolated and lonely, I used online homeschool forums to make friends, joined my church choir (though I was the youngest member for a long time), and sought out old-fashioned pen pals. This situation was not ideal; my circle of acquaintance was badly limited and I was lonely, despite being an introvert.

My siblings, on the other hand, have had a drastically different experience due in large part to the development of a homeschool co-op in their area. Their participation has given them the chance to make friends under more ‘real-world’ conditions, where they can collaborate on classwork or just sit around and talk on a regular basis. Co-ops are a great resource for making homeschool enjoyable, both for the socialization and for giving kids a chance to learn from a different perspective. Other common social/school activities enjoyed by today’s homeschoolers are debate clubs, robotics teams, after-school sports teams…the possibilities are endless. The New York City Home Educators’ Association, NYCHEA, is a large non-sectarian group that offers many resources, but is by no means the only such group in the area. Check out www.mommypoppins.com for intros to many other groups and activities in the area.

Finally – enjoy your kids! There is no better way to ensure that the homeschool experience is all-around pleasant than to take joy in learning in each other’s company.

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Discussing the benefits of Individualized Homeschool Education and Public Education from a Certified Teacher’s perspective

Introduction
After making the shift from Public School Educator to Private Homeschool Teacher, I have noticed the impact that each type of education can have on student learning. I remember the awe that overcame me as I looked at my homeschool student, and realized that with this time, attention, and personalized feedback, we were going to create an extremely strong foundation for life-long learning. I had similar revelations in the school district while I watched students work together in ways that made me believe that even if I was no longer their teacher, they would have the skills to collaborate with others to seek the knowledge they need; they could also be life-long learners.

Parents are looking into homeschool education now more than ever. Some sources claim that the number of families choosing homeschool for their students has increased by 75% since 1999. When parents go to research information on homeschool versus public education they are inundated with articles and opinions validating superiority of one type of education. If families are given an opportunity to discover the benefits of both, they can make educated decisions on what’s best for their child. Parents can use this understanding to cultivate life-long learners.

The Benefits of Public Education
#1 Peer Collaboration
Connecting with and learning from other students is one of the highlights of public education. The number of students in a classroom makes it possible for teachers to create opportunities for students to work together and deepen their learning. When students are participating alongside each other, there is a interweaving of ideas, thoughts, and challenges that transpires. I remember the learning that could occur when my students would discuss their justifications, help each other, or participate in activities together. While some homeschooling programs include online platforms or other forms of socialization with peers, it is quite different than the collaboration that happens in a public classroom. Classroom students have daily chances to practice connecting with others, trying on different roles of leadership, and exploring problems with a broader perspective. Public education allows students to build cooperative learning skills for their future. They see their peers as a source to learn from and learn to process peer feedback. Students build confidence in knowing how interact, question, play, and learn with their peers. Learning to do this with peers is an adopted skill that transcends the classroom.

#2 Resources
Schools have several resources to for students to become successful learners. Teachers often have curriculum books, specialized classroom materials, and support staff. Oftentimes, these resources are paid for by the school district. The time it takes to gather resources and determine if those resources are quality ways to teach concepts can be daunting; especially if a parent or tutor is taking on several subjects each day in homeschool. Luckily, most of the curriculum that has been implemented in a public education system has been evaluated, reviewed, and justified with the students and grade level in mind. Students are more likely to be learning in ways that are supported by educational research. Specialized support is also available to students from the district. At times, students would leave my classroom so that they could receive special services like speech therapy, occupational therapy, and assistance with English Language acquisition. I saw students receiving aide in areas that they would not be able to afford if it was needed privately. Schools can provide a public platform for assisting a student with special learning needs regardless of economic background.

# 3 Diverse Populations
Public schools are filled with all types of students. I have had students who are hyper, sweet, gifted, funny, foreign, and mute. The list goes on. Classrooms are a place where students must often shift their view of the world to include and respect other’s existence and thinking. Students get opportunities in a classroom to learn tolerance of others’ ideas- creating a foundation for compassion with others. If I were teaching any subject, I had students of varying levels, learning disabilities, cultures, and backgrounds. Students would add to the discussion and their diverse set of skills or perspectives would lead to a more intricate learning experience. In homeschool, I see times when my student has limited perspective without opportunities to hear others’ ideas or approaches to probles. Students in public education are exposed to varying strengths, weaknesses, personal interests, and backgrounds and their education is expanded with broader perspectives because of it.

The Benefits of Homeschool Education
#1 Individualized Education
The most exciting part of homeschooling for me has been the ability to work one-on-one with my student. In public education, I would worry over how I was going to address every student’s needs. I would question whether or not they understood the content during the time I had scheduled for the lesson. I would sometimes feel discouraged that I couldn’t venture into their curiosities because I was limited by state standards. Now, each thing that I do with my student is completely tailored to her learning needs. This is a benefit of homeschool- the individual child is the center of the classroom. Parents and tutors can address specific needs, explore topics of interest, and explore facets of learning that are not available for every student in a public education setting.

#2 Personalized feedback
I have noticed that an individualized education increases motivation and allows my student to understand information in less time. Although each student learns at their own pace, it is certain that students can progress through learning at a more rapid pace with a one-to-one ratio than if they were in a regular classroom. Teachers understand that when they can give meaningful feedback, that their students can make adjustments to their learning, resulting in progress. The personalized feedback and the focused attention given in a homeschool setting is a benefit that cannot be matched in a regular classroom. I am able to give my student, who normally shied away from participation in a classroom for fear of being wrong, the individual support to persevere through her learning. Struggles are no longer barriers she takes on silently but instead, become talking points for feedback and growth.

#3 Modeling Life-Long Learning
Homeschooling creates opportunities to model what life-long learning is to a child. When I dive deeper into my student’s interests, I often learn with her and she clearly sees me learning alongside her. Educators hope to ignite a love of learning within students. A lifelong learner has an ability to take on the world and its ever-changing demands. In a public classroom, teachers have requirements by law to adhere to standards. These standards have been dissected and have curriculums to address them; I had scripts, practice problems, and reading programs. This didn’t take much learning on my part once I’d spent a year in one grade. My students never had the opportunity to see me struggle through learning new information. When I began homeschooling, my student’s interests and skills guided my teaching. Some of the interests that she wanted to explore, I did not have a background in; I had to learn the information alongside her. Homeschooling allows a shift from the teacher being omniscient, to the teacher exemplifying what she teaches: that if you want to understand something, you follow your curiosity, skills and connections until you acquire the knowledge you seek.

Final Remarks
As a teacher who has the opportunity to experience both public and homeschool education, I can whole-heartedly say that the discussion should not forcibly be for one or the other. There are distinct educational gains for students within each approach. Respecting the benefit of both types of education could lead to parents making the most of public education and homeschooling. Parents who choose homeschooling can make efforts to create opportunities for peer collaboration. Parents who choose public education can find methods for educating their students in an individualized manner. This can be through exploring a students’ topic of interest, learning alongside the student, or employing tutors to address their individual needs. Essentially, if parents take the time to educate their students in the topics that interest and find ways for students to excel in areas- even if parents lack the knowledge- they can find a way to get the best of both worlds.

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When I began teaching, math was the subject I dreaded. I thought that kids hated math, and that would make it not fun to teach. In reality, young students love math. It is very concrete in elementary school and there are many hands on materials that teachers use to keep students engaged in learning. As I changed grade levels, I noticed at some point, my students fell out of love with math. It was “too hard,” “boring,” or “never going to be used.” It was important to me to rekindle my students’ love for math. Yet because I didn’t love math myself, I felt challenged by this task. As I began to teach math and find new resources, I developed a better understanding for the topic and my love for math grew. Now it is one of my favorite subjects to teach!

It may seem like it is harder to find inspiration for encouraging students to love math than reading or other subjects, but there are actually great math resources out there to delve into just as there are great books for kids. One trick that I have used to great success in my classroom is games. My students loved to play games, especially against me. Even simple dice games multiplying or adding the two numbers to see whose roll was the highest are exciting to students. The math in life can be a game as well. Have your kids figure out the tip at a restaurant, or tell you how much you will pay if an item is 20% off. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that the discovery of how to do this yourself is actually quite exciting for students. And in that vein – encouraging that excitement is helpful as well. Math language can be so important – I never let myself say that a math concept is hard, or that I can’t do it- even to myself anymore. Instead, I say this is a problem that takes a lot of thinking, or a problem that is really interesting. If it’s a real stumper, I say it is a problem I will have to come back to.

Meanwhile, the following short list of resources can be used to inspire an affection for math in your students at home.

Web Resources:

A Family’s Guide: Fostering Your Child’s Success in School Mathematics – Developed by The National Council for Teachers of Mathematics, A Family’s Guide is a great handbook for parents and guardians that begins with preschool and continues through grade 12. This resource explains what your student needs to know at each grade level. The guide also gives you some ideas on how to encourage your child to embrace their inner mathematician.

MathMovesU – Parent Resources – The Parent Resource section of MathMovesU is a treasure trove of math education research, a dictionary of math terms, math games, and practice pages. The games and practice pages link math to real world topics that are interesting to students, like sports and fashion. The Mathionary is very helpful when you can’t remember some of those 7th Grade math terms. Sponsored by Raytheon, information about scholarships can also be found on this website.

Math.com – Math.com is an awesome site for both students and parents. You can get homework help, math lessons, or learn about online math courses for your student. Your child can also use this site to practice math concepts from basic operations through calculus and statistics.

Books:

The Number Devil – Young Robert’s dreams turn towards math, as he and the Number Devil solve problems related to numeration. This humorous novel is sure to be a hit with your middle school student. This book is in the same vein as The Phantom Tollbooth and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The Man Who Counted: A Collection of Mathematical Adventures – First published in 1938, The Man Who Counted is full of real life mathematics. The hero uses math to solve problems and settle conflicts. While appropriate for upper elementary students, middle school students will enjoy seeing how math can be applied to solve real problems.

I Hate Mathematics Book – The opposite of a math textbook, I Hate Mathematics book is filled with math games and puzzles. This book includes lots of ways to trick family members and friends using math, including how to cut a cake into 11 pieces with just four cuts.

Toys:

4M Math Magic Puzzles and Games – A set of more than 15 math tricks and puzzles, this kit will get your student thinking about math in a fun way. Do one or two yourself to amaze your child, and then let him or her amaze you! Challenge your child to explain how the tricks work.

Prime Club – Prime Club is a beautiful, award-winning math game that will charm your whole family. The color-coded board game helps make learning multiplication and division easy. Ask you student how they solved problems to check for mathematical understanding.

Three Sticks – A board game that focuses on the mathematical concept of geometry. Practice geometric concepts without using terms, or as an added challenge, discuss the geometric ideas they use. An additional challenge would be to find the area and perimeter of the shapes.

Apps:

Algebra Touch – A great review app for pre-algebra and algebra, this app has both an explanation for a concept followed by a practice session. Students can practice simple to complex algebra topics using this app. It is available for $1.99

Math 42 – This app is great resource for your middle or high school student. With step by step guides, in app graphing calculators, and test modes, your student can practice for in class assessments or the SATs. This app is available by monthly subscription.

Number Line – An award-winning app, Number Line focuses on fractions, decimals, and percentages. These concepts can be very abstract for some students, but this app makes practicing them fun and engaging. Number Line is a free app.

Keeping your child’s love of math alive as it begins to get more abstract is key to ensuring future math success. Make math fun, relatable, and a part of your daily routine. These recommendations can be used to encourage and engage your student in math outside the classroom. Inside the classroom, hopefully teachers who have rediscovered their own love for math can keep that love going. I know it’s become a pleasure for me!

By Laura Rowe – A certified elementary and middle school teacher who came in loving reading and writing, and now loves math and science too!

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One of the biggest reasons students and families call us is that they have been struggling with bad grades and are unsure how to turn it around. Often bad grades then create an academic mindset that ends up contributing to the problem, or, frankly, causing it – so we have given a lot of thought to how to think about grades and, more abstractly, to deal with challenges in school and in life.

In that vein, some of the most interesting research we have come across is from a researcher at Stanford University named Carol Dweck. Dweck is now rather famous (in small circles) for having written a fantastic book called “Mindsets.” Her theory was to divide students into two groups – those who consider intelligence a natural or native aspect of who they are, and those who consider intelligence something that is worked at, that can grown and change. Her research unequivocally shows that those who consider intelligence a trait which is earned and worked at fare far better in school and when meeting challenges than those who consider it something they are simply born with or without.

“I asked, ‘What makes a really capable child give up in the face of failure, where other children may be motivated by the failure?”

The answer, says Dweck, was in how they viewed their ability. Here is how The Stanford Alumni Magazine explains it:

“Dweck posited that the difference between the helpless response and its opposite—the determination to master new things and surmount challenges—lay in people’s beliefs about why they had failed. People who attributed their failures to lack of ability, Dweck thought, would become discouraged even in areas where they were capable. Those who thought they simply hadn’t tried hard enough, on the other hand, would be fueled by setbacks. This became the topic of her PhD dissertation.

Dweck and her assistants ran an experiment on elementary school children whom school personnel had identified as helpless. These kids fit the definition perfectly: if they came across a few math problems they couldn’t solve, for example, they no longer could do problems they had solved before—and some didn’t recover that ability for days.

Through a series of exercises, the experimenters trained half the students to chalk up their errors to insufficient effort, and encouraged them to keep going. Those children learned to persist in the face of failure—and to succeed. The control group showed no improvement at all, continuing to fall apart quickly and to recover slowly. These findings, says Dweck, “really supported the idea that the attributions were a key ingredient driving the helpless and mastery-oriented patterns.” Her 1975 article on the topic has become one of the most widely cited in contemporary psychology.”

A really interesting point here is that this goes in the face of decades of self-congratulatory so-called self-esteem guidance that has encouraged parents and educators to constantly praise students for their intelligence no matter what. The other disruptive idea in her research is that students who consider themselves naturally “smart” are often simply one tough challenge away from losing that sense of identity, since it is not built on a true foundation – and such a challenge can often become a traumatic event.

Instead, Dweck cautions parents and educators from praising “smartness” without linking it to effort.

I am reminded of the great book by William James “The Varieties of Religious Experience” – one of my favorite books from my early twenties. In it he speaks of those whose religion is essentially “healthy-mindedness” and the dangers of what he sees as that most American of traits – general positivity. The problem explained James, was thus:

“healthy-mindedness is inadequate as a philosophical doctrine, because the evil facts which it refuses positively to account for are a genuine portion of reality; and they may after all be the best key to life’s significance, and possibly the only openers of our eyes to the deepest levels of truth.”

We are going to come back to these ideas in future journal posts, but for now, it’s worth it to remember the ideas of these past and present thoughtful commentators. Sometimes life is going to be hard, but those who meet that challenge through hard work and a renewed determination are far more likely to overcome challenges in general than those who feel that the difficulties of life are a reflection on their own faults. In the long run, the only fault that truly keeps us from succeeding is believing that effort isn’t important or effectual.

We try to keep that lesson in the back of our mind when we teach. Yes, bad grades may happen here and there at some point in life. Yet, with every difficulty comes an opportunity to grow. In the end, those who have faced the most difficult challenges and carried on are the ones who will grow the most. So while we don’t recommend aiming for bad grades, they are, in fact, wonderful reminders that we have a chance and an area in which we can become even more determined, even more skilled people than we are today.

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As children get older, the focus of English education shifts from learning how to read to learning how to understand and work through more and more difficult texts. For many there are moments when this shift challenges them and reading becomes “boring” and they check out. Yet this is just the time when the act of reading itself is actually most interesting – it is a puzzle again. And learning how to tackle tough texts is a feeling of enormous empowerment.

In my experience, students usually have a good instinct for what something means. “You know, it’s just there,” they usually say. Helping them identify how the meaning they sense exists not only on the page, but also in their minds, is the challenge of learning how to read complex passages and texts. The fact is that many adults aren’t sure how they read either, or what helps them read better sometimes and not others.

Fortunately, reading well is a simple list of practices that anyone can implement. The effort takes time in the beginning. Like any habit, reading attentively requires training. I can promise, however, that surprisingly quickly, the practice becomes natural.

Most good reading takes at least two passes through the text. The first is a perusal in which the mind gets the most superficial information available. Only the second reading starts to grasp what is really going on and why it is important. Most teachers expect that students will read texts thoroughly, which means twice, at least initially– the first time thoroughly and the second time to review and gather the information. As reading improves, students get better at tracking information during the first reading.

Overall, every one knows to look up unfamiliar words and get the overall argument of the text. Most people need to read some sections more than once, either because they are tired and distracted or because the argument is dense and complicated. It’s totally normal and expected. The suggestions below for reading non-fiction and fiction are guides to reading attentively, to becoming a reader.

Reading non-fiction
The title should tell you about the general topic and possibly a particular aspect of it. State what you expect of the text based on the title.
Do some “pre-reading” by checking out the information on the back cover, in the table of contents, and from reviews. Scan the opening and closing paragraphs of whatever section you have to read to get some sense of what it’s going to discuss.
How is the text organized? Understanding the organization before beginning can help navigate the information. Is the information provided through a narrative or an argument? Chronologically? Thematically? By steps?
Are there key words that appear? Words in bold, italicized, or that repeat need to be understood, even more than unfamiliar words. Try to define them.
Key words are often in important sentences that are explaining major steps in the text’s development. Can you identify these sentences? Do they offer the logic of the text?
Can you summarize each paragraph in one sentence? That should be possible, especially with textbooks, and confirms your understanding of that passage. If you can’t, it’s worth it to stop and go back and take the time to digest the paragraph. Go through it slowly and try to pinpoint where you “tuned out’ or found it confusing. Now go slowly through this part? What is it exactly that is confusing here? Is it the grammar of the sentence? Is it the vocabulary? Give yourself the time to understand the little pieces, and the big picture will take care of itself.
If analogies are being used, try to connect the parts to see how the analogy works (or doesn’t).
Does the author recognize alternate points of view? Can you think of one for some aspect of the text?
Does the author seem to have a point of view about the subject? What words or sentences suggest that? Are there sentences that seem to be joking, disdainful, shocked? How can you tell? Ask about those sentences in class and the teacher can help explain how the language is influencing your perception.
At the end of reading, take some time to write notes about what the book is about to you. Do you think the information is true? Why does it matter? To whom does it matter? What changes through knowing this information? Reading a chapter on the Battle of Waterloo in a history textbook or cell division in a biology textbook can still provide answers to these questions. What about the Battle of Waterloo seems to relate to recent situations that would make it a relevant event to know about, two centuries later? What impact does cell division have on human life? Do a quick online search if you can’t think of anything. The current relevance of “boring school topics” is often surprising.
Reading fiction
With fiction, reading is understanding something beyond the plot. It’s about capturing some subtlety of the characters’ feelings/motivations, and learning why something is funny, sarcastic, foreshadowing, etc.

Take a minute to ask what the title means and implies. Later, revisit the title of the work and try to understand how it represents the work you have read.
Are there quotes, epigrams, or forewords (not editor’s or author’s introductions) before the story begins? What do they say? Do they introduce a theme (love, war, family, death) or a character or a narrator’s point of view? Try to write a sentence about these early moments as they will probably be relevant to the rest of the story.
Observe the story’s organization, its divisions, transitions, ellipses…How are connections made between sections?
At some point while reading, ask yourself what you expect to have happen next. Try to write it down. Later, check back and see if the reading offered a surprise. When did the surprise occur? If no surprise, why might the author remove that element?
Try to sketch a description of at least one character. Consider not only the way s/he looks, but also how s/he speaks, where s/he lives or is found in the story, what s/he desires or despises, how others treat the character, and if the character is meant to be liked by the reader or not. Make a list of all the pages where you gather this information.
Track characters, places, thematic statements. I recommend that students write in pencil on the inside back cover of their novel. List a name and then all the pages where that character occurs, or if two characters fight a lot then all the pages where that happens, or whenever a book/film/favorite something is mentioned, or every time there is a rainstorm or fire or ladder or other such potential symbols. Locations are useful to track because they often present new scenes.
Locations do a lot of work. Inside/outside, city/country, street/forest, home/school/shop, bedroom/living room are all packed with meaning. A play that was set on a NYC street corner where a character asks the other for directions was about two cultures intersecting; they were literally at a crossroads. Keep track of scenes that seem to recur in certain settings. Something is being implied there.
Can you identify a symbol? What does it stand for? What does it do in the scenes where it occurs?
Look up references within the text that you may not know, or don’t know much about, such as places, names, events, or dates. They are often important clues to understanding the work.
At the end of reading a section for homework, what seems like the most important scene? When done with the whole book, what do you think the climax is? Is it resolved?
At the end of a text, fiction or non-fiction, consider why it was an important text for you to read, from the teacher’s point of view, as a part of the class overall, and how it might influence your thoughts about life going forward. Flipping back into the text is normal at this point, because you are realizing what wasn’t clear, or finding the passage that was really important.

Again, some things will simply be confusing. That’s okay! Make a note of those passages. Try to identify specifically where the text stopped making sense, what step did not follow from the previous, or where you did not understand the sequence of action. Taking the time to study the most confusing moments instead of feeling dejected by them or trying to skip them is where the heart of learning takes place. It’s where growth happens.

If you can’t figure out the tough parts on your own, ask about those places in class and the teacher will be delighted. Working with concrete places of confusion leads to the best class conversations. It will also help you pay attention because the discussion is about something you want to know. There’s a misapprehension that not understanding the text suggests you are a bad reader. That’s not true. When you can present specific places that you don’t understand, you show what a careful reader you are. Asking for further information makes you a better student. After all, if you already understood it, you wouldn’t need to be in school.

Good reading!

Charlotte Kent, PhD. lives and works in New York City, where she helps people of all ages improve their writing.

It was a little after 9 a.m. when first grader Veronica bounced into the classroom with her big bright smile and charming personality. “What are we going to be doing today,” she asked as she took her seat. It is important to know that Veronica was one very smart little girl and she was accustomed to things just coming naturally to her. She was the type of child who would be reading words at three, riding a bike after just being shown how and communicating with friends as if she was a natural born leader. As she took her seat at my table and I quickly explained that we would be reading words from a list to determine which reading level we should begin testing her on. She smiled up at me with her half crooked smile and said, “easy peasy!” I listened as she read word after word and not stumbling until she reached the fourth grade level. I slid the first book over to her which was at a fourth grade reading level and she watched as I checked off each word that she read correctly, which evidently was every word. After reading the story I asked her some questions about the story that she read and when she couldn’t answer them I just pushed it out of the way and moved her down a level. After all this was a fourth grade book and that would be a lot to expect from any first grader. I kept moving down one book level after another with Veronica reading perfectly and scoring 100 percent but never answering the questions. I decided to take the first grade reader questions with a different approach. After reading the book I simply asked her, “can you tell me what the book was about?” She looked at me with her big oval eyes and said very matter of factly, “it’s supposed to be about something?”

The very next morning I met with Veronica and asked her some simple questions about some of her favorite things. She always seemed to answer in very short sentences or even one word replies which was very unusual for her. It was at this moment that I realized I wasn’t the only one who was worried about yesterday. Veronica was beginning to question how good of a reader she was and losing confidence was not something that she could afford to do at this young age. I made sure to boost her confidence by telling her how well she did on the test yesterday and how impressed I was with the difficult words she was reading. This seemed to calm her anxieties and she quickly started telling me that she just loved everything about Disney World, from the rides to the characters to the movies. This was like music to my ears because not only was I a big Disney fan myself but it was definitely an easy topic to find reading material about. Over the next several days I pulled Veronica to the back table during reading centers and we started making a list of everything that she knew about Disney and she filled me in on the times that her family went there and the rides they went on. I also told her about some of my trips to the Disney parks and once I felt that we had built up a bond and were comfortably speaking about the topic I showed her some books that I had just happened to pick up at the library. She began looking through the books which ranged in grade level material as well as genre. Finally when she picked up a book all about the Magic Kingdom she smiled and asked, “can we read this together?”

Over the next several days I did read that and several other Disney books with her. I always made sure to be asking her questions as we went. Since she already knew so much about the topic she answered mainly from her own experiences so I began to ask very specific questions that she could only find in the pages of the story we had just read. At first she seemed hesitant and unsure how to answer so I began to model for her how I would find the answers. Sometimes when we got to a particular ride that she really enjoyed I asked her to close her eyes as I read and see if she could tell me about the part the author was describing. I also asked her to draw pictures about the part of the story that I was reading so that I could see what she thought it looked like. At times when the author had a different outlook on something than she did I would add my own drawing based on the author’s picture and we would discuss how they were alike and different. I also explained that she had so many wonderful ideas but that sometimes it’s interesting to see how an author wants you to look at something. We discussed at length about how the rides were all described as being fun and great but that some people don’t always agree. I think that was the moment that the door to comprehension began to open for Veronica because she looked up at me and said, “so even though I don’t like the ride the author may like it a lot and want to tell people how fun it can be even though it’s not.” I couldn’t hold back a small laugh as I said, “exactly!” After that Veronica read many more books and during group time with other students she would begin to explain to them how the author is telling you a story and that you may not always agree with an author but you have to look at what they are trying to tell you. I sat back and thought to myself Walt Disney used to say, “it all started with a mouse…but for Veronica it all started with an interest in a book about a mouse.”

As I reflect on my experience with Veronica I realize that the most important thing I did for her was teach her to love reading and to read with a purpose. At first, I did this by finding a topic that she was truly interested in and had background information to bring to the reading. In effective teaching, we use a three tier system: I do, we do, you do. First, you as the teacher model a desired effect, then the teacher and student do a task together which leads towards independence, and finally the child will be able to complete the task independently. I used this approach with Veronica by modeling for her what reading for understanding looked like, then working with her to discuss the different parts of the text, and finally having her be able to do it by herself and ultimately putting her into situations where she felt like she could share what she had learned with others. Perhaps the most important thing I did with Veronica was teach her to use illustrations to remember key parts of the text. These pictures became not only a reference point for her but also a springboard towards retaining information and making meaning from it. The most important thing I realized is that Veronica was not the only student that day. In her own way she taught me the power of a great teacher and provided me with the opportunity to reflect on my own teaching.

-Suzanne Chiorando has her Master’s Degree in Elementary Education, Special Education, Literacy, and English as a Second Language. She is a teacher and author of the published short story, “Mateo’s Tale,” which is a modernized version of the story, “Aladdin.”

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In our business, which is so focused on the process of teaching and learning, we, as teachers, often forget the importance of reminding our students that standardized exams are as much about strategy as they are about knowledge. In the case of an exam like the SHSAT, often it is even more essential to understand the types of questions and formulas the test uses than it is to have a knowledge base of the subjects tested.

This fall I tutored five students on the SHSAT exam, a test that, if mastered, allows eighth graders into the exam high schools of their choosing. Each of these students was unique and had very specific strengths and weaknesses. Every individual was exceptionally bright, but in a myriad different ways, which made it incredibly difficult to assess their intellect, or their capacity to function at a specific exam high school, through a single, standardized exam.

The student who struggled the most with the math portion of the exam, for instance, was a kid who had skipped a year of math based on her extraordinary ability to comprehend mathematical concepts (as decided by her sixth grade teacher). This student (let’s call her Rose) performed terribly on her first diagnostic SHSAT on the math portion of the exam, not because she couldn’t grasp the subject as a whole, but because the concepts tested on the exam relied heavily on a student’s comprehensive knowledge of seventh grade math. Rose never learned seventh grade mathematical concepts, because she was deemed so advanced that she skipped right to the eighth grade, and then ninth grade work. Mathematically, she was advanced, but on this particular exam, she was at a disadvantage. We worked together during our study sessions on key concepts and formulas that she missed by skipping that year of math. Because she had a bright, mathematical mind, she picked up concepts and strategies quickly, and was able to increase her math score from the diagnostic to the actual exam by twenty five percent.

Another student, also highly intellectual, struggled with slight Asperger’s syndrome. He had the misfortune of being placed at the start of the year in a class with a math teacher who did not understand him, nor his style of learning. Because of a lack of attention on the teacher’s part, my student was convinced that many of the questions on the exam were placed on there just to stump him. He had a great deal of anger, and frustration when it came to the math on the SHSAT, and he allowed that frustration to get in the way of his progress. He would give up before honestly assessing the problem. After really listening to the student, and working together on his personal learning style, he was able to figure out a process that worked for him. For this student, it was less the content, which he actually understood quite well, when he was able to tackle it head on, and more the emotional block, which prevented him from objectively trying to solve the problem.

All students have their individual strengths and weaknesses when it comes to academic learning. It is unrealistic to think that one, standardized exam can work to assess thousands of students’ academic abilities, or potential for learning. Our job as tutors, teachers, or parents is to teach kids that they have all the tools they need; they are enough, just as they are. They just need to figure out the strategies that work best for them in order to understand the concepts, and the tricks of the exam, as well as to overcome the fear and anxiety associated with an exam that they feel can heavily affect their futures.

By Emily Tuckman

Teacher and Tutor

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