The Family / Children of God

Home Educator #8               December 1995

Contents:

--I May Be a Teacher, but I'm Not an Educator

--Educational Findings Helpful to Home Schoolers

A Periodic Newsletter Supportive of Home-based Education

Family Education Services (The Home Educator) 1130 E. Broadway, #272, Glendale, California 91205, USA. Phone (181) 502-3516; Fax (181) 242-1155

==========#==========#==========#==========

                The Home Educator is a private non-profit educational information newsletter circulated without charge by Family Education Services.

                The material in this issue was obtained from Usenet posting and files archived on the Internet.

==========#==========#==========#==========

I May Be a Teacher, but I'm Not an Educator

By John Taylor Gatto

                [The following is reprinted from a speech by John Taylor Gatto. Mr. Gatto was New York State Teacher of the Year for 1991, a title conferred by the State Education Department. This essay originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Further dissemination of this article is permitted by the author.]

                I've taught public school for 26 years but I just can't do it anymore. For years I asked the local school board and superintendent to let me teach a curriculum that doesn't hurt kids, but they had other fish to fry. So I'm going to quit, I think.

                I've come slowly to understand what it is I really teach: a curriculum of confusion, class position, arbitrary justice, vulgarity, rudeness, disrespect for privacy, indifference to quality, and utter dependency. I teach how to fit into a world I don't want to live in.

                I just can't do it anymore. I can't train children to wait to be told what to do; I can't train people to drop what they are doing when a bell sounds; I can't persuade children to feel some justice in their class placement when there isn't any, and I can't persuade children to believe teachers have valuable secrets they can acquire by becoming our disciples. That isn't true.

                Government schooling is the most radical adventure in history. It kills the family by monopolizing the best times of childhood and by teaching disrespect for home and parents.

                An exaggeration? Hardly. Parents aren't meant to participate in our form of schooling, rhetoric to the contrary. My orders as schoolteacher are to make children fit an animal training system, not to help each find his or her personal path.

                The whole blueprint of school procedure is Egyptian, not Greek or Roman. It grows from the faith that human value is a scarce thing, represented symbolically by the narrow peak of a pyramid.

                That idea passed into American history through the Puritans. It found its "scientific" presentation in the bell curve, along which talent supposedly apportions itself by some Iron Law of biology.

                It's a religious idea and school is its church. New York City hires me to be a priest. I offer rituals to keep heresy at bay.

                Socrates foresaw that if teaching became a formal profession something like this would happen. Professional interest is best served by making what is easy to do seem hard; by subordinating laity to priesthood. School has become too vital a jobs project, contract-giver and protector of the social order to allow itself to be "re-formed." It has political allies to guard its marches.

                That's why reforms come and go--without ever changing much. Even reformers can't imagine school much different.

                David learns to read at age four; Rachel, at age nine. In normal development, when both are 13, you can't tell which one learned first--the five-year spread means nothing at all. But in school I will label Rachel "learning disabled" and slow David down a bit, too.

                For a paycheck, I adjust David to depend on me to tell him when to go and stop. He won't outgrow that dependency. I identify Rachel as discount merchandise, "special education." After a few months she'll be locked into her place forever.

                In 26 years of teaching rich kids and poor I almost never met a "learning disabled" child; hardly ever met a "gifted and talented" one either. Like all school categories, these are sacred myths, created by the human imagination. They derive from questionable values we never examine because they preserve the temple of schooling.

                That's the secret behind short-answer tests, bells, uniform time locks, age grading, standardization, and all the rest of the school religion punishing our nation.

                There isn't a right way to become educated; there are as many ways as fingerprints. We don't need state-certified teachers to make education happen--that probably guarantees it won't.

                How much more evidence is necessary? Good schools don't need more money or a longer year; they need real free-market choices, variety that speaks to every need and runs risks. We don't need a national curriculum, or national testing either. Both initiatives arise from ignorance of how people learn, or deliberate indifference to it.

                I can't teach this way any longer. If you hear of a job where I don't have to hurt kids to make a living, let me know. Come fall I'll be looking for work, I think.

Educational Findings Helpful to Home Schoolers

                Following is a summary of educational research findings prepared for the public by the US Department of Education then under the administration of William Bennett. Scores of experts and professionals in the field of child care and education contributed to these findings, however, for the sake of brevity we will not attempt to list their names here, nor the many bibliographic references they cite in support of these claims. Research findings are the bulleted item following each heading.

~

PARENTS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT TEACHERS

                Parents are their children's first and most influential teachers. What parents do to help their children learn is more important to success than how well-off the family is.

                American mothers on average spend less than half an hour a day talking, explaining, or reading with their children. Fathers spend less than 15 minutes. Parents can create a "curriculum of the home" that teaches their children what matters through their daily conversations, household routines, attention to school matters, and affectionate concern for their children's progress. Conversation is important. Children learn to read, reason, and understand things better when their parents: read, talk, and listen to them, tell them stories, play games, share hobbies, and provide books, supplies, and a special place for studying, observe routine for meals, bedtime, and homework, and monitor the amount of time spent watching TV and doing after-school jobs.

~

READING TO CHILDREN

                The best way for parents to help their children become better readers is to read to them--even when they are very young. Children benefit most from reading aloud when they discuss stories, learn to identify letters and words, and talk about the meaning of words.

                The conversation that goes with reading aloud to children is as important as the reading itself. When parents ask children only superficial questions about stories, or don't discuss the stories at all, their children do not achieve as well in reading as the children of parents who ask questions that require thinking and who relate the stories to everyday events. Kindergarten children who know a lot about written language usually have parents who believe that reading is important and who seize every opportunity to act on that conviction by reading to their children.

~

INDEPENDENT READING

                Children improve their reading ability by reading a lot. Reading achievement is directly related to the amount of reading children do in school and outside.

                In the average elementary school, children spend just 7 to 8 minutes a day reading silently. At home, half of all fifth graders spend only 4 minutes a day reading. These same children spend an average of 130 minutes a day watching television. Research shows that the amount of leisure time spent reading is directly related to children's reading comprehension, the size of their vocabularies, and the gains in their reading ability.

~

COUNTING

                A good way to teach children simple arithmetic is to build on their informal knowledge. This is why learning to count everyday objects is an effective basis for early arithmetic lessons.

                Young children are comfortable with numbers; "math anxiety" comes in later years. Children learn to do arithmetic by first mastering different counting strategies, beginning with rote counting (1,2,3,4), and progressing to memorized computations (2x2=4). As children learn the facts of arithmetic, they also learn to combine those facts by using more sophisticated strategies. As their skills grow, they rely less and less on counting.

~

EARLY WRITING

                Children who are encouraged to draw and scribble "stories" at an early age will later learn to compose more easily, more effectively, and with greater confidence than children who do not have this encouragement.

                Even toddlers, who can hardly hold a crayon or pencil, are eager to "write" long before they acquire the skills in kindergarten that formally prepare them to read and write.

                Studies of very young children show that their carefully formed scrawls have meaning to them, and that this writing actually helps them develop language skills. Research suggests that the best way to help children at this stage of their development as writers is to respond to the ideas they are trying to express.

                Very young children take the first steps toward writing by drawing and scribbling or, if they cannot use a pencil, they may use plastic or metal letters on a felt or magnetic board. Some preschoolers may write on toy typewriters; others may dictate stories into a tape recorder or to an adult, who writes them down and reads them back. For this reason, it is best to focus on the intended meaning of what very young children write, rather than on the appearance of the writing.

                Children become more effective writers when parents and teachers encourage them to choose the topics they write about, then leave them alone to exercise their own creativity. The industriousness of such children has prompted one researcher to comment that they "violate the child labor laws."

~

SPEAKING AND LISTENING

                A good foundation in speaking and listening helps children become better readers.

                When children learn to read, they are making a transition from spoken to written language. Reading instruction builds on conversational skills: the better children are at using spoken language, the more successfully they will learn to read written language. To succeed at reading, children need a basic vocabulary, some knowledge of the world around them, and the ability to talk about what they know. These skills enable children to understand written material more readily.

                Research shows a strong connection between reading and listening. A child who is listening well shows it by being able to retell stories and repeat instructions. Children who are good listeners in kindergarten and first grade are likely to become successful readers by the third grade. Good fifth-grade listeners are likely to do well on aptitude and achievement tests in high school.

                Parents and teachers need to engage children in thoughtful discussions on all subjects: current events, nature, sports, hobbies, machines, family life, and emotions--in short, on anything that interests children. Such discussions should not be limited to reading selections that are part of classwork.

                Conversing with children about the world around them will help them reflect on past experiences and on what they will see, do, and read about in the future.

~

DEVELOPING TALENT

                Many highly successful individuals have above-average but not extraordinary intelligence. Accomplishment in a particular activity is often more dependent upon hard work and self-discipline than on innate ability.

                Most highly successful individuals have above-average but not exceptional intelligence. A high IQ seems less important than specializing in one area of endeavor, persevering, and developing the social skills required to lead and get along well with others.

                Studies of accomplished musicians, athletes, and historical figures show that when they were children, they were competent, had good social and communication skills, and showed versatility as well as perseverance in practicing their skill over long periods. Most got along well with their peers and parents. They constantly nurtured their skills. And their efforts paid off.

                Developing talent takes effort and concentration. These, as much as nature, are the foundation for success.

~

IDEALS

                Belief in the value of hard work, the importance of personal responsibility, and the importance of education itself contributes to greater success in school.

                The ideals that students, their parents, and their peers hold are more important than a student's socio-economic and ethnic background in predicting academic success.

~

GETTING PARENTS INVOLVED

                Parental involvement helps children learn more effectively. Teachers who are successful at involving parents in their children's schoolwork are successful because they work at it.

                Most parents want to be involved with their children's schoolwork but are unsure of what to do or how to do it. Many say they would welcome more guidance and ideas from teachers. Teachers who are successful at promoting parent participation in the early grades use strategies like these:

                Some teachers ask parents to read aloud to the child, to listen to the child read, and to sign homework papers.

                Others encourage parents to drill students on math and spelling and to help with homework lessons.

                Teachers also encourage parents to discuss school activities with their children and suggest ways parents can help teach their children at home. For example, a simple home activity might be alphabetizing books; a more complex one would be using kitchen supplies in an elementary science experiment.

                Teachers also send home suggestions for games or group activities related to the child's schoolwork that parent and child can play together.

                Teachers meet parents' wishes for face-to-face contact by inviting them to the classroom to see how their children are being taught. This first-hand observation shows parents how the teacher teaches and gives parents ideas on what they can do at home.

~

PHONICS

                Children get a better start in reading if they are taught phonics. Learning phonics helps them to understand the relationship between letters and sounds and to "break the code" that links the words they hear with the words they see in print.

                Until the 1930s and 1940s, most American children learned to read by the phonics method, which stresses the relationships between spoken sounds and printed letters. Children learned the letters of the alphabet and the sounds those letters represent. For several decades thereafter, however, the "look-say" approach to reading was dominant: children were taught to identify whole words in the belief that they would make more rapid progress if they identified whole words at a glance, as adults seem to. Recent research indicates that, on the average, children who are taught phonics get off to a better start in learning to read than children who are not taught phonics.

                Identifying words quickly and accurately is one of the cornerstones of skilled reading. Phonics improves the ability of children both to identify words and to sound out new ones. Sounding out the letters in a word is like the first tentative steps of a toddler: it helps children gain a secure verbal footing and expand their vocabularies beyond the limits of basic readers.

                Because phonics is a reading tool, it is best taught in the context of reading instruction, not as a separate subject to be mastered. Good phonics strategies include teaching children the sounds of letters in isolation and in words (s/i/t), and how to blend the sounds together (s-s-i-i-t).

                Phonics should be taught early but not over-used. If phonics instruction extends for too many years, it can defeat the spirit and excitement of learning to read. Phonics helps children pronounce words approximately, a skill they can learn by the end of second grade (or earlier). In the meantime, children can learn to put their new phonics skills to work by reading good stories and poems.

                ~

READING COMPREHENSION

                Children get more out of a reading assignment when the teacher precedes the lesson with background information and follows it with discussion.

                Good teachers begin the day's reading lesson by preparing children for the story to be read--introducing the new words and concepts they will encounter. Many teachers develop their own introductions or adapt those offered in teachers' manuals.

                Such preparation is like a road map: children need it because they may meet new ideas in the story and because they need to be alerted to look for certain special details. Children who are well prepared remember a story's ideas better than those who are not.

                In the discussion after the reading lesson, good teachers ask questions that probe the major elements of the story's plot, characters, theme, or moral. ("Why did Pinocchio's nose grow? Why did he lie? What did his father think about his lying? Did their feelings for each other change?") Such questions achieve two purposes: they check students' understanding of what they have just read, and they highlight the kind of meanings and ideas students should look for in future reading selections. These questions also lay the groundwork for later appreciation of the elements of literature such as theme and style. When children take part in a thought-provoking discussion of a story, they understand more clearly that the purpose of reading is to get information and insight, not just to decode the words on a page.

                ~

SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS

                Children learn science best when they are able to do experiments, so they can witness "science in action."

                Reading about scientific principles or having a teacher explain them is frequently not enough. Cause and effect are not always obvious, and it may take an experiment to make that clear. Experiments help children actually see how the natural world works.

                Scientific explanations sometimes conflict with the way students may suppose that things happen or work. For example, most students would probably think that a basketball will fall faster than a ping-pong ball because the basketball is larger and heavier. Unless a teacher corrects this intuitive assumption by having the students perform an experiment and see the results, the students will continue to trust their intuition, even though the textbook or the teacher tells them the effect of gravity on both objects is exactly the same and that both will reach the floor at the same instant.

                Many students have misconceptions even after taking a science course because they have not had opportunities to test and witness the evidence that would change their minds. To clear up misconceptions, students need to be given the chance to predict the results they anticipate in an experiment. For example, the mistaken idea that the basketball will fall faster than the ping-pong ball can be tested experimentally. The teacher can then explain why the original hypothesis was faulty. In this way experiments help students use the scientific method to distinguish facts from opinions and misconceptions.

~

STORYTELLING

                Telling young children stories can motivate them to read. Story-telling also introduces them to cultural values and literature.

                Even students with low motivation and weak academic skills are more likely to listen, read, write, and work hard in the context of storytelling.

                Stories from the oral tradition celebrate heroes who struggle to overcome great obstacles that threaten to defeat them. With the help of skillful questioning, they can also learn to reflect on the deeper meanings of these stories.

                Children also benefit from reading stories aloud and from acting out dramatic narrations, whether at home or at school. Parents can begin reading to their children as infants and continue for years to come.

~

TEACHING WRITING

                The most effective way to teach writing is to teach it as a process of brainstorming, composing, revising, and editing.

                Students learn to write well through frequent practice. A well-structured assignment has a meaningful topic, a clear sense of purpose, and a real audience. Good writing assignments are often an extension of class reading, discussion, and activities; not isolated exercises.

~

==========#==========#==========#==========

Teaching Writing

An effective writing lesson contains these elements:

Brainstorming: Students think and talk about their topics. They collect information and ideas, frequently much more than they will finally use. They sort through their ideas to organize and clarify what they want to say.

Composing: Students compose a first draft. This part is typically time-consuming and hard, even for very good writers.

Revising: Students re-read what they have written, sometimes collecting responses from teachers, classmates, parents, and others. The most useful teacher response to an early draft focuses on what students are trying to say, not the mechanics of writing. Teachers can help most by asking for clarification, commenting on vivid expressions or fresh ideas, and suggesting ways to support the main thrust of the writing. Students can then consider the feedback and decide how to use it to improve the next draft.

Editing: Students then need to check their final version for spelling, grammar, punctuation, other writing mechanics, and legibility.

Prompt feedback from teachers (or parents) on written assignments is important. Students are most likely to write competently when they are routinely required writing in all subject areas, not just in English class.

==========#==========#==========#==========

~

LEARNING MATHEMATICS

                Children in early grades learn mathematics more effectively when they use physical objects in their lessons.

                Numerous studies of mathematics achievement at different grade and ability levels show that children benefit when real objects are used as aids in learning mathematics. Teachers call these objects "manipulatives."

                Objects that students can look at and hold are particularly important in the early stages of learning a math concept because they help the student understand by visualizing. Students can tie later work to these concrete activities.

                The type or design of the objects used is not particularly important; they can be blocks, marbles, poker chips, cardboard cutouts--almost anything. Students do as well with inexpensive or homemade materials as with costly, commercial versions.

                The cognitive development of children and their ability to understand ordinarily move from the concrete to the abstract. Learning from real objects takes advantage of this fact and provides a firm foundation for the later development of skills and concepts.

~

ESTIMATING

                Although students need to learn how to find exact answers to arithmetic problems, good math students also learn the helpful skill of estimating answers. This skill can be taught.

                Many people can tell almost immediately when a total seems right or wrong. They may not realize it, but they are using a math skill called estimating.

                Estimating can also be valuable to children learning math. When students can make good estimates of the answer to an arithmetic problem, it shows they understand the problem. This skill leads them to reject unreasonable answers and to know whether they are "in the ballpark."

                Research has identified three key steps used by good estimators; these can be taught to all students:

                Good estimators begin by altering numbers to more manageable forms--by rounding, for example.

                They change parts of a problem into forms they can handle more easily. In a problem with several steps, they may rearrange the steps to make estimation easier.

                They also adjust two numbers at a time when making their estimates. Rounding one number higher and one number lower is an example of this technique.

                Before students can become good at estimating, they need to have quick, accurate recall of basic facts. They also need a good grasp of the place value system (ones, tens, hundreds, etc.).

                Estimating is a practical skill; for example, it comes in very handy when shopping. It can also help students in many areas of mathematics and science that they will study in the future.

~

TEACHER EXPECTATIONS

                Teachers who set and communicate high expectations to all their students obtain greater academic performance from those students than teachers who set low expectations.

                The expectations teachers have about what students can and cannot learn may become self-fulfilling prophecies. Students tend to learn as little--or as much--as their teachers expect. Students from whom teachers expect less are treated differently. Such students typically:

                are seated farther away from the teacher,

                receive less direct instruction,

                have fewer opportunities to learn new material, and are asked to do less work.

                Teachers also call on these students less often and the questions they ask are more likely to be simple and basic than thought-provoking.

                Typically, such students are given less time to respond and less help when their answers are wrong.

                But when teachers give these same students the chance to answer more challenging questions, the students contribute more ideas and opinions to class discussions.

~

STUDENT ABILITY AND EFFORT

                Children's understanding of the relationship between being smart and hard work changes as they grow.

                When children start school, they think that ability and effort are the same thing; in other words, they believe that if they work hard they will become smart. Thus, younger children who fail believe this is because they didn't try hard enough, not because they have less ability.

                Because teachers tend to reward effort in earlier grades, children frequently concentrate on working hard rather than on the quality of their work. As a result, they may not learn how to judge how well they are performing.

                In later elementary grades, students slowly learn that ability and effort are not the same. They come to believe that lower ability requires harder work to keep up and that students with higher ability need not work so hard. At this stage, speed at completing tasks replaces effort as the sign of ability; high levels of effort may even carry the stigma of low ability.

                Consequently, many secondary school students, despite their ability, will not expend the effort needed to achieve their potential. Underachievement can become a way of life. Once students begin believing they have failed because they lack ability, they tend to lose hope for future success. They develop a pattern of academic hopelessness and stop trying. They see academic obstacles as insurmountable and devote less effort to learning.

                Teachers who are alert to these beliefs in youngsters will keep their students motivated and on task. They will also slowly nudge their students toward the realism of judging themselves by performance. For example, teachers will set high expectations and insist that students put forth the effort required to meet the school's academic standards. They will make sure slower learners are rewarded for their progress and abler students are challenged according to their abilities.

~

MANAGING CLASSROOM TIME

                How much time students are actively engaged in learning contributes strongly to their achievement. The amount of time available for learning is determined by the instructional and management skills of the teacher and the priorities set by those in charge of schools.

                Teachers must not only know the subjects they teach, they must also be effective classroom managers. Studies of elementary school teachers have found that the amount of time the teachers actually used for instruction varied between 50 and 90 percent of the total school time available to them. Effective time managers in the classroom do not waste valuable minutes on unimportant activities; they keep their students continuously and actively engaged.

                Good managers perform the following time-conserving functions:

                Planning Class Work: choosing the content to be studied, scheduling time for presentation and study, and choosing those instructional activities (such as grouping, seatwork, or recitation) best suited to learning the material at hand;

                Communicating Goals: setting and conveying expectations so students know what they are to do, what it will take to get a passing grade, and what the consequences of failure will be;

                Regulating Learning Activities: sequencing course content so knowledge builds on itself, pacing instruction so students are prepared for the next step, monitoring success rates so all students stay productively engaged regardless of how quickly they learn, and running an orderly, academically focused class- room that keeps wasted time and misbehavior to a minimum.

                When teachers carry out these functions successfully and supplement them with a well-designed and well-managed program of homework, they can achieve three important goals:

                They capture students' attention.

                They make the best use of available learning time.

                They encourage achievement.

~

DIRECT INSTRUCTION

                When teachers explain exactly what students are expected to learn, and demonstrate the steps needed to accomplish a particular academic task, students learn more.

                This is called "direct instruction." It is based on the assumption that knowing how to learn may not come naturally to all students, especially to beginning and low-ability learners. Direct instruction takes children through learning steps systematically, helping them see both the purpose and the result of each step. In this way, children learn not only a lesson's content but also a method for learning that content. The basic components of direct instruction are:

                Setting clear goals for students and making sure they understand those goals;

                Presenting a sequence of well-organized assignments;

                Giving students clear, concise explanations and illustrations of the subject matter;

                Asking frequent questions to see if children understand the work; and

                Giving students frequent opportunities to practice what they have learned.

                Direct instruction does not mean repetition. It does mean leading students through a process and teaching them to use that process as a skill to master other academic tasks. Direct instruction has been particularly effective in teaching basic skills to young and disadvantaged children, as well as in helping older and higher ability students to master more complex materials and to develop independent study skills.

~

TUTORING

                Students tutoring other students can lead to improved academic achievement for both student and tutor, and to positive attitudes toward study and coursework.

                Tutoring programs consistently raise the achievements of both the students receiving instruction and those providing it. Peer tutoring, when used as a supplement to regular classroom teaching, helps all students--both those tutoring and those underachieving--to master their lessons and succeed in school. Preparing and giving the lessons also benefits the tutors themselves because they learn more about the material they are teaching.

                Tutoring should be for a relatively short duration of instruction (a few weeks or months). Students being tutored not only learned more than they did without tutoring, they also developed a more positive attitude about what they were studying. Their tutors also learned more than students who did not tutor.

~

MEMORIZATION

                Memorizing can help students absorb and retain the factual information on which understanding and critical thought are based.

                Young students, slow students, and students who lack background knowledge can benefit from such instruction.

                In addition, teachers can teach "mnemonics," that is, devices and techniques for improving memory. For example, the mnemonic "Every Good Boy Does Fine" has reminded generations of music students that E, G, B, D, and F are the notes to which the lines on a treble staff correspond. The study of Mnemonics helps students remember more information faster and retain it longer. Comprehension and retention are even greater when teachers and students connect the new information being memorized with previous knowledge.

~

QUESTIONING

                Student achievement rises when teachers ask questions that require students to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information in addition to simply recalling facts.

                Even before Socrates, questioning was one of teaching's most common and most effective techniques. Some teachers ask hundreds of questions, especially when teaching science, geography, history, or literature.

                But questions take different forms and place different demands on students. Some questions require only factual recall and do not provoke analysis. For example, of more than 61,000 questions found in the teacher guides, student workbooks, and tests for 9 history textbooks, more than 95 percent were devoted to factual recall. This is not to say that questions meant to elicit facts are unimportant. Students need basic information to engage in higher level thinking processes and discussions. Such questions also promote class participation and provide a high success rate in answering questions correctly.

                The difference between factual and thought-provoking questions is the difference between asking: "When did Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address?" and asking: "Why was Lincoln's Gettysburg Address an important speech?" Each kind of question has its place, but the second one intends that the student analyze the speech in terms of the issues of the Civil War. Although both kinds of questions are important, students achieve more when teachers ask thought-provoking questions and insist on thoughtful answers. Students' answers may also improve if teachers wait longer for a response, giving students more time to think.

~

STUDY SKILLS

                The ways in which children study influence strongly how much they learn.

                Research has identified several study skills used by good students that can be taught to other students. Average students can learn how to use these skills. Low-ability students may need to be taught when, as well as how, to use them.

                Here are some examples of sound study practices.

                Good students adjust the way they study according to several factors:

                --the demand of the material,

                --the time available for studying,

                --what they already know about the topic,

                --the purpose and importance of the assignment, and

                --the standards they must meet.

                Good students space learning sessions on a topic over time and do not cram or study the same topic continuously.

                Good students identify the main idea in new information, connect new material to what they already know, and draw inferences about its significance.

                Good students make sure their study methods are working properly by frequently appraising their own progress. When low-ability and inexperienced students use these skills, they can learn more information and study more efficiently.

~

HOMEWORK: QUALITY

                Well-designed homework assignments relate directly to classwork and extend students' learning beyond the classroom. Homework is most useful when teachers carefully prepare the assignment, thoroughly explain it, and give prompt comments and criticism when the work is completed.

                Students are more willing to do homework when they believe it is useful, when teachers treat it as an integral part of instruction, when it is evaluated by the teacher, and when it counts as a part of the grade.

                Assignments that require students to think, and are therefore more interesting, foster their desire to learn both in and out of school. Such activities include explaining what is seen or read in class; comparing, relating, and experimenting with ideas; and analyzing principles.

                Effective homework assignments do not just supplement the classroom lesson; they also teach students to be independent learners. Homework gives students experience in following directions, making judgments and comparisons, raising additional questions for study, and developing responsibility and self-discipline.

~

EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS

                The most important characteristics of effective schools are strong instructional leadership, a safe and orderly climate, school-wide emphasis on basic skills, high teacher expectations for student achievement, and continuous assessment of pupil progress.

                Schools with high student achievement and morale show certain characteristics:

                --vigorous instructional leadership,

                --a principal who makes clear, consistent, and fair decisions,

                --an emphasis on discipline and a safe and orderly environment,

                --instructional practices that focus on basic skills and achievement,

                --collegiality among teachers in support of student achievement,

                --teachers with high expectations that all their students can and will learn, and

                --frequent review of student progress.

~

DISCIPLINE

                Schools contribute to their students' achievement by establishing, communicating, and enforcing fair and consistent discipline policies.

                Discipline policies are aimed at actual problems, not rumors.

                All members of the school community are involved in creating a policy that reflects community values and is adapted to the needs of the school.

                Misbehavior is defined. Because not everyone agrees on what behavior is undesirable, defining problems is the first step in solving them.

                Students must know what kinds of behavior are acceptable and what kinds are not.

                Discipline policies are consistently enforced. Students must know the consequences of misbehavior, and they must believe they will be treated fairly.

~

COLLEGIALITY

                Students benefit academically when their teachers share ideas, cooperate in activities, and assist one another.

                Effective schools have a climate of staff collegiality and use mutual support as a means of improving pupil achievement. School leaders in such schools set aside time for faculty interaction and provide specific opportunities for teachers and administrators to work together on such tasks as setting school policies, improving instructional practice, selecting textbooks, and strengthening discipline.

~

HISTORY & CULTURAL LITERACY

                Students read more fluently and with greater understanding if they have background knowledge of the past and present. Such knowledge and understanding is called cultural literacy.

                The decline in the study of history may hinder students from gaining an historical perspective on contemporary life.

~

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

                Students are most likely to become fluent in a foreign language if they begin studying it in elementary school and continue studying it for 6 to 8 years.

~

ACCELERATION

                Advancing gifted students at a faster pace results in their achieving more than similarly gifted students who are taught at a normal rate.

                When abler students are moved ahead in school, they typically learn more in less time than students of the same age and ability who are taught at the conventional rate. Accelerated students score a full grade level or more higher on achievement tests than their conventionally placed schoolmates. Some may score several years ahead of their schoolmates.

~

POSITIVE ATTITUDES BRING SUCCESS

                Surveys have indicated that students with solid basic skills and positive work attitudes are more likely to succeed at their work than students with vocational skills alone.

                The logical conclusion, therefore, is that the school curriculum should emphasize literacy, mathematics, and problem-solving skills, and such personal qualities as self-discipline, reliability, perseverance, teamwork, accepting responsibility, and respect for the rights of others. These characteristics will serve all students well.

(End)