10 reading questions to ask your child
How can parents ask good questions without reading the book? Every parent wants to ask good questions to help their child stretch their reading comprehension but who has time to pre read all the books and come up with good questions? This list of 10 reading questions will help you support your child’s literacy development and start critical thinking discussions. Whenever I ask critical thinking reading comprehension questions of students, I always expect them to tell why they think that. Teach your child to answer the question and tell why. I reassure students that there may be more than one right answer and telling why or giving proof from the text will help their answer to be understood better. Here are 10 reading questions you can personalize and use to ask your child about what they are reading regardless of the book or their school grade level. Ask one or two of these at a time and give plenty of thinking time if needed. What made you select this book? What character are you most/least like? Would you be friends with the main character if they lived next door? What is the crisis in the story and how…
Back to School for you – for free
What do you wish you could go back to school to learn? Everyone can teach or tutor something. What skill or hobby are you good at? What academic subject do you enjoy talking about? What do your kids or neighbors ask you for advice about? Being a subject expert will help you grow your confidence in tutoring, but honestly, tutoring is just coming alongside someone to help with their academic or skill learning. Almost anyone can do that, especially with a free tutoring workshop. Here’s a little free vocabulary lesson. Teaching is a subject matter expert giving instruction. Tutoring is helping students with academic learning and study skills. It is remediating or enriching a particular subject or school year. Coaching is helping students with problem-solving strategies to improve productivity or effectiveness both now and in the future. Now is the perfect time to get set up to start tutoring this fall. My short free workshop Tutor Toolkit will give you the tools needed to design tutoring sessions no matter what you want to tutor. It’s perfect for anyone who wants to tutor, teach lessons, or coach clients. What’s in the FREE workshop Tutor Toolkit? In this workshop, I lay…
Free easy way to improve reading achievement
What is one free and easy way to improve student reading achievement? Many parents want a quick fix and seek tutoring for students who are below reading level. While tutoring is a great option and I can remediate phonic, teach syllable patterns, practice oral reading fluency, and evaluate comprehension, what students also need is daily reading practice to improve student reading achievement. It’s free and easy and yet many parents do not see the value of it. Daily reading of 15-30 minutes can help improve reading achievement significantly. Check out this report for some shocking statistics. According to studies by Renaissance Learning on K-12 reading, “the majority of students spend fewer than 15 minutes per day reading, but increasing their daily reading time to 30 minutes can improve comprehension and boost student achievement.” Summer is a good time to set aside daily reading time where families read a variety of material and model good reading habits. Do not miss out on the benefits of daily reading to improve student reading achievement. Reading should not be confined to fiction! Read an instruction booklet with your child or a travel guide. Read online reviews for a restaurant or a menu. Read…
Backyard Book Clubs
Want to encourage reading, practice speaking and listening skills, and have fun with your kids? Host a Backyard Book Club! My brand new Backyard Book Club Kit has all you need – just add books and kids! Don’t worry! There isn’t one right way to run a book club and you don’t need a backyard. All you need is some enthusiasm, a kid, a book, and this kit. Book clubs and reading help kids develop empathy, relate to characters, practice speaking and listening skills, and learn about the world around them. This 16-page customizable book club kit makes it easy to get started. You know your kids and their reading levels the best so the books here are just a recommendation to get you started. The suggested plans are aimed at grades 3-8 but are easily customizable for other ages. This kit is great for parents, teachers, tutors, grandparents, camps, backyards or Zoom meetings, and club leaders. The kit is an instant download upon purchase once your order goes through. I’ve been so excited to take my classroom experiences and turn it into an easy to use product that families can use at home this summer, whether they have reluctant…
Summer Tutoring Openings 2023
How can you help fill in the gaps in academic development that have widened over the past few years? Summer is a great time to work on basic skills of reading, writing, math, problem-solving, and critical thinking. Summer tutoring clients will participate virtually in real-world project-based learning activities, complete summer reading, or practice for standardized tests. Tutoring is virtual via Zoom so no need to live locally! Below are the summer tutoring options for 2023. National Park ELA Project (Reading/Writing/Research/Problem Solving for grades 4-9) No homework, once a week sessions Mini Golf Course Math Project (Math/Problem Solving with some ELA for grades 4-6) No homework, once a week sessions Preread next year’s reading texts or required summer school reading (grades 4-12) Parents provide the book lists and books. Reading homework, once a week session ACT/SAT Test Prep – mainly Reading, Language, Writing and test taking tips (grades 10-12) Take practice tests as homework, once a week sessions Virtual private tutoring sessions will be on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays June 12 – August 24. Registration is open and only a few spots are left. Feel free to pass along my website or this email if you have friends or relatives…
10 Test Taking Tips
How can you help a student confidently take a test? Fear tends to grip students when teachers, parents or tutors talk about testing or preparing for tests. My 10 free Test Taking Tips will help students so that they can focus confidently on the test, not on their worries. Students and parents can smile more and sigh less! Well prepared students will work to the best of their abilities. Read everything! Read everything on the page including the directions, the passage, the questions, and every answer choice. If time allows, rereading the passage, too. Read the question twice. Sometimes you misread or your brain tricks you into thinking something different than what it’s really asking. Rereading will help you understand what the question is really asking. Underline important words or numbers in the questions. These clues might help determine the answer or eliminate wrong answers. Think about what the answer is. Before reading the multiple choice answers or before writing your answer, think about what the right answer is. Eliminate wrong answers. Cross out wrong answers before selecting the correct one. Even if you can only eliminate one or two answers, you will have a better choice of picking the…
Strategies to Master Multiplication
How old were you when you learned your multiplication facts? Knowing basic math facts and skills is the foundation of strong math progress, yet multiplication seems daunting to many children and parents. I often tell students that if they do not know their math facts they can still get the right answer, but their classmates who know their math facts will get the answer faster. In elementary school the time gap is not as apparent as it is in middle school and beyond. Start with conceptualizing the facts, add some counting and reasoning strategies, and then work on fact mastery. Mastering multiplication facts does not have to be a painful experience. Most schools try to have students be fluent in the one by one digit multiplication facts by memory by the end of grade 3 as they conceptualize multiplication and division. Fluency is as important in math as in reading no matter the access to calculators and audio books. However, straight memorization of math facts without a concept of multiplication is like memorizing the alphabet without understanding that the letters represent sounds that blend together to make words. How can parents and tutors help children learn to master the multiplication…
10 Read Aloud Books for the Younger Years
What is your favorite picture book from your childhood? Reading aloud is so important in the younger years. It teaches a love of reading, models fluency, introduces vocabulary, builds curiosity, and opens the door for great discussions. These picture books I like for the writing and the illustrations, especially the colored pencil art in Albert and the watercolors and postcards in Toot and Puddle. Several stories are about overcoming fears, making friends, travel adventures, and family. Some have sensitive topics that will take careful discussion, but what better place to have these conversations than in your own living room. I took a walk down memory lane and pulled these off my bookshelf. Some I read to my own kids and some were from my classroom. Below are 10 of my favorites for read aloud books for the younger years (or actually for any age!). Just pulling these favorite books off my shelf has brought me joy and a flood of memories from my classroom and my own children in their younger years. I am looking forward to reading these to my grandchildren! A Pig Parade is a Terrible Idea by Michael Ian Black and Kevin Hawkes “Like most…
7 Easy Steps to Cornell Notes
What makes a note taking system effective? The Cornell System is a highly effective note taking strategy. It saves time and helps students better comprehend the lecture or material. Originally developed by Cornell education professor Walter Pauk as a note taking method for schools, many people easily adapt this method to take notes while researching material, during client interactions, or even during business meetings. Below are 7 easy steps to Cornell Notes. Research also shows that handwritten Cornell Notes are the best for recall. Students who learn early on to take Cornell Notes are better prepared to take useful notes during class than those who merely copy the powerpoint. Using a consistent note taking system helps students use their notes for reference and study as the format is clear and effective. While there are many note taking techniques, the Cornell System outshines them all. Here is how you can try it out for yourself. Here are 7 easy steps to Cornell Notes Divide your paper into 2 columns with a row across the bottom. Some people like to write a giant capital I on the page, slightly offset to the left to divide the paper. Write the course/meeting name at…
5 Note Taking Tips
Why is note taking a lost art? Teaching kids to take good notes and use them seems to be a lost lesson plan these days. So many of my tutoring clients think note taking is copying a slide or worse yet, taking a photo of a slide. While there is not anything wrong with doing either of these things, it is not really note taking. Here are 5 Note Taking Tips to help you teach a child or yourself to take good notes from a lecture or a textbook. Use a consistent system, such as Cornell Notes Write down main terms and key questions from text or lecture Leave space to add to notes later Watch for things that are repeated or emphasized Use notes to review and study, adding additional notes as needed Good note taking requires practice. Learning and using a system will help you take better notes. If the teacher requires a particular system be sure to use that, but if not, try Cornell Notes. In the next blog post, I will introduce you to Cornell Notes if you need a system to try. I have successfully taught students as young as 4th grade to take notes…