2 The Value of . . .

Your time is valuable. We are not asking you to be the teacher, but instead to partner with us in very strategic ways so we can get a return on our investment in your child’s learning. The research already tells us much about what works in education. It leads us back, time and again, to tried and true methods, and points us to solid, foundational ideas we can tap into that have a high likelihood of impacting your child’s learning in a positive way.

In this section:

• □ Reading Volume
• □ Reading Widely
• □ Reading Aloud
• □ Vocabulary Games
• □ Oral Language Development
• □ Foundational Reading Skills: Phonemic Awareness
• □ Foundational Reading Skills: Alphabetics and Phonics
• □ Foundational Reading Skills: Fluency
• □ Writing Across the Day
• □ Scaffolded Writing Experiences
• □ Mathematics Across the Day
• □ Supplemental Mathematics Instruction
• □ Arts and Music
• □ Guiding, Not Telling
• □ Wait Time
• □ Practice

We present these ideas, the low-hanging fruit of what we already know will influence your child’s learning for the better, so that you can immediately hit the ground running and extend the learning your child does at home. Don’t feel that you have to do them all! Maybe this analogy will help: This is not a plated dinner; it’s a buffet. Choose the things that you like and that you can do. Talk with your child so that they can talk to the teacher and ask which of these things will be most complimentary to the learning your child is doing with them. And above all, don’t stress. The goal is simply to have your child engaged in learning as much as possible. Here’s a comparison of the roles:

Teacher	Parent/Family
• Rigorous • Intensive • Standards-based instruction • Developmentally progressive • Productive struggle • Growth-producing relationship	• LOVE • Bonding and connectedness • Fun and games • Supportive of the instruction • Doesn’t feel like school • Brings the family together in warm, positive ways

DON’T FEEL THAT YOU HAVE TO DO THEM ALL! CHOOSE THE THINGS THAT YOU LIKE AND THAT YOU CAN DO.

The Value of Reading Volume

What is it?

The number of minutes that eyes are on texts adds up to the total volume of reading that someone does. Lots of reading, referred to as reading volume, builds general knowledge and reading proficiency. In terms of effect sizes, reading volume has a respectable impact on student learning. Unfortunately, there is evidence that reading volume was decreasing even before the pandemic. In 2016, 16 percent of students reported reading a book or magazine for pleasure compared with 60 percent in 1976. It’s just gotten worse during the most recent crisis.

Why is it important?

Children learn about the world in many different ways. The experiences they have and the conversations they have with you are important. Much of the academic knowledge needed for school success comes through reading. The number of rare words, which are words uncommon in speech but present in reading, include many of the academic concepts that are taught in school. A great study on the use of rare words in books and in adult speech found something pretty amazing. The researchers found that children’s books contained an average of 30.9 rare words per thousand, and comic books were even higher—53.5 per thousand. In conversations between college graduates, the number was much lower at 17.3 rare words per thousand. That’s because our spoken language is different from our written language. Your child’s independent reading provides them with exposure to richer vocabulary and knowledge.

Here’s another reason why the amount of reading matters: Students who read more outside of school score better on standardized reading tests. There is a correlation, or relationship, between the amount of reading they do and their achievement. A large study of the reading habits of elementary students found that those who read for 15 minutes a day beyond their schoolwork read an average of 1,168,000 words a year and reliably scored at the 70th percentile on reading assessments. The numbers increase with every minute of outside reading: Those who read for 65 minutes a day read an additional 4,733,000 words a year and scored at the 98th percentile! Here’s the very best news of all: Reading anything counts! Comic books, joke books, graphic novels, narrative stories, books about video games and sports, and informational texts—it all counts (see Figure 1).

THE RESEARCHERS FOUND THAT CHILDREN’S BOOKS CONTAINED AN AVERAGE OF 30.9 RARE WORDS PER THOUSAND, AND COMIC BOOKS WERE EVEN HIGHER—53.5 PER THOUSAND.

1 Relationship Between Reading Volume and Achievement

1 Relationship Between Reading Volume and Achievement

	Minutes of Reading per Day			Words Read per Year
Percentile Ranka	Books	Textb	All Readingc	Books	Textb
98	65.0	67.3	90.7	4,358,000	4,733,000
90	21.1	33.4	40.4	1,823,000	2,357,000
80	14.2	24.6	31.1	1,146,000	1,697,000
70	9.6	16.9	21.7	622,000	1,168,000
60	6.5	13.1	18.I	432,000	722,000
50	4.6	9.2	12.9	282,000	601,000
40	3.2	6.2	8.6	200,000	421,000
30	1.8	4.3	5.8	106,000	251,000
20	0.7	2.4	3.1	21,000	134,000
10	0.1	1.0	1.6	8,000	51,000
2	0.0	0.0	0.2	0	8,000

^a Percentile rank on each measure separately.

^b Books, magazines, and newspapers.

^c Books, magazines, newspapers, comic books, and mail.

Source: Anderson, R. C., Wilson, P. T., & Fielding, L. G. (1988). Growth in reading and how children spend their time outside of school. Reading Research Quarterly, 23(3), 285–303. Used with permission.

Keep in mind that those studies focused on extra reading that was occurring in addition to the time spent reading at school. Studies comparing exemplary classrooms to less effective ones found that students in the exemplary classrooms spent 90 minutes across the school day reading. In science, in social studies, math, art, and music, as well as in moments of reading for pleasure, students in these schools had eyes on print for lots of minutes. That’s a volume of reading! If you add it up, children should be reading over 100 minutes per day.

Why is it important in distance learning?

One concern is that in a distance learning environment, students aren’t getting regular opportunities to read both for learning and for enjoyment. With live virtual sessions focused on active teaching, teachers can only hope that children are reading on their own. They may assign readings, but it is difficult for teachers to manage that when students aren’t reading in front of them. If learners are not engaged in subject-related reading, their volume goes down, and their reading skills and general knowledge about the world suffers.

Reading for pleasure is another purpose for reading. In traditional face-to-face classrooms, many teachers set aside 15 or 20 minutes a day so that children can read what they choose. In some elementary schools, it may be called DEAR (Drop Everything and Read). In secondary schools, it might be called SSR (Sustained Silent Reading). In a face-to-face classroom, that works. But again, teaching at a distance makes encouraging that kind of reading a bit trickier. A daily habit of reading a lot (volume) and reading widely will move your child forward.

A DAILY HABIT OF READING A LOT (VOLUME) AND READING WIDELY WILL MOVE YOUR CHILD FORWARD.

Take action

One of the very best things you can do is to encourage daily reading. Don’t make it a chore, but rather something to look forward to. Let your child read anything they are interested in (with your approval, of course). And follow up on the assigned readings your child’s teacher has designed for them. Your child doesn’t need to engage in one long marathon of reading. Break up the reading throughout the day and evening into shorter periods of time to build reading stamina. Here are additional ideas to increase children’s daily reading volume:

• ➔ Talk with a teacher or librarian to identify “just right” reading materials for your child. If the texts are too complex, they will require instruction. For reading volume, the texts children read independently should be comfortable.
• ➔ There are some sites that offer free electronic versions of texts for children. A quick internet search will reveal several such as the following:
  • Oxford Owl
  • Storyline Online
  • International Children’s Digital Library
  • Open Library
  • Amazon’s Free Kids eBooks
  • Barnes & Noble Free Nook Books for Kids
  • Mrs. P’s Magic Library
• ➔ Read with your children. Older children may want to read the same book as you so that they can have a shared experience with you.
• ➔ Talk with your children about what they are reading for fun. Ask them questions about what they’re reading. Don’t quiz them but ask whether they are enjoying it, who they might recommend it to, or why they decided to abandon a book. (That’s okay, too. Just ask them why it wasn’t a good match for them.) You can also ask some generic questions, such as “What was the selection about?” Or “What has happened so far?”
• ➔ Invite your child to browse and select things to read. Many public libraries offer digital versions of books to check out, just as you do with physical books. Look at your public library’s selections and recommendations for children and adolescents. In addition, you can browse on a commercial website or on one of many useful free sites you may wish to explore, including those listed on the facing page. Choice can impact the willingness to read. Of course, there are some things that your child will need to read for school. And there will be other things that will help with the overall volume of reading. Remember, reading materials in print will also reduce your child’s screen time.
• ➔ Talk to your children about what they are reading for school. Ask questions about what they’re learning and what kind of reading they’re doing. If they are struggling with a reading assignment, ask them what is difficult and encourage them to communicate with the teacher. (If your child is in the primary grades, you may need to do this with them.)
• ➔ Make sure they see you reading and talking about your reading. Parents are the very best model when it comes to building habits and dispositions about reading. Again, it can be anything, but talk about how you read every day to get information and for your own pleasure.

CHOICE CAN IMPACT THE WILLINGNESS TO READ.

 Key Messages

Reading volume is an important consideration and something that you can do to support your child’s learning. Remember:

• ➔ Provide your child with a range of reading materials to choose from.
• ➔ Plan time for reading throughout the day, including school-assigned and choice materials.
• ➔ Talk with your child about what you are reading and about reading for your own enjoyment.
• ➔ Model reading as a family.

The Value of Reading Widely

What is it?

Just like a balanced diet is important for good nutrition, so is a balanced diet of types of reading. Children go through a phase where they only want to read one kind of book, and for the most part that’s fine. Early readers often get hooked on a series such as Captain Underpants, Jada Jones, Judy Moody, or Dog Man and then read the entire sequence. But building knowledge also requires reading different kinds of genres. A genre is a text type, and while there are a number of ways to organize genres, the takeaway here is that knowledge-building is supported by a varied diet of books.

Why is it important?

Wide reading builds knowledge about the social, physical, and biological worlds. Each of these are important for children and adolescents. Narrative texts about the lives of real and fictional characters build imagination. Stories allow young people to encounter problems at a safe distance as they vicariously experience how a character fails and triumphs. They get to rehearse how they might confront a scary situation without having to learn by experience alone. This deepens their social and emotional development, which is so essential for growing up.

NARRATIVE TEXTS BUILD IMAGINATION AND ENCOURAGE THE SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT SO ESSENTIAL TO GROWING UP.

Informational texts provide children with knowledge about events and phenomena. Even in a face-to-face classroom, much of what children learn is abstract. You can’t haul a volcano into a school, but informational texts about volcanos make it possible for students to learn all about them. They also foster new interests about things your child didn’t even know about. We’ve seen kids become experts on the sinking of the Titanic, on deadly spiders and snakes in Australia, and about ancient African empires because they encountered an idea in a book and got hooked. Interests can become aspirations as children and adolescents learn about careers that spark their interests. And perhaps the best reason of all is one offered by the Knowledge Matters Campaign: Knowledge is like an interest-bearing savings account: The more you know, the faster you learn (https://knowledgematterscampaign.org/). The greater the existing knowledge, the more accelerated new learning becomes.

A challenge is that a reader may not be aware of other genres that can appeal to their interests. The genre wheel in Figure 2 is a visual map for thinking about different genres, whether digital or print.

Why is it important in distance learning?

Highly effective schools ensure that their students learn about the world of information and imagination. This is crucial for reading comprehension and vocabulary, as a person’s knowledge is a great predictor of how readily they’re able to understand what they’re reading. Equity issues also come into play here, as students who do not have access and exposure to diverse text types have a harder time developing deep levels of knowledge and therefore do not perform at grade-level standards. With much to be worried about in equitable distance learning, the gap is at risk of growing larger. Lots of reading, and reading widely, builds background knowledge and propels learning forward.

Description

2 Genre Wheel

Source: Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2009). Background knowledge: The missing piece of the comprehension puzzle. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

KNOWLEDGE IS LIKE AN INTEREST-BEARING SAVINGS ACCOUNT: THE MORE YOU KNOW, THE FASTER YOU LEARN.

Take action

You’re a great observer of what your child or adolescent is interested in. Foster her interests by pairing her up with books that align with her interests and extend them further by bridging to other genres. The good news is that you don’t need to be an expert on children’s and young adult literature. There are a number of organizations that develop wonderful suggested reading lists for different audiences. One well-known source is the International Library Association, which honors books each year with the Caldecott Award for illustration and the Newbery Award for writing. But there are lots of other sources you or your child can use. Here are a few of our favorites:

• ➔ The International Literacy Association publishes a list each year of the Children’s Choices Reading List and the Young Adults’ Choices Reading List, which are developed by children themselves, who read and vote on the nominees. Both lists can be found on the companion website at resources.corwin.com/DLparents.
• ➔ Guys Read was developed by children’s author Jon Scieszka, the first National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature, and includes what it describes as “boy-friendly literature” across all genres. This resource can be found on the companion website at resources.corwin.com/DLparents.
• ➔ Common Sense Media provides several book list recommendations for children and young adults, including those that are topic- or genre-specific (e.g., books about coding, anti-racist books for kids chosen by Ibram X. Kendi, memoirs, digital life, poetry, fantasy, healthy body image). Their lists provide useful information written by educators, parents, and children about the presence of sensitive topics in given texts, such as sex, drugs, violence, language, and consumerism. The lists can be found on the companion website at resources.corwin.com/DLparents.

 Key Messages

Both reading volume and reading widely are important considerations that will prevent gaps in your child’s knowledge and skills. Remember:

• ➔ Check out your child’s reading diet. Offer books on other subjects and genres that may be missing. Don’t force it but rather notice it. You might even keep a log of the types of reading your child does and talk with the teacher about recommendations.
• ➔ Talk with your child about both fiction and nonfiction selections. Both are important and serve different purposes.
• ➔ Provide time and space for reading throughout the day.

The Value of Reading Aloud

What is it?

Young children, of course, love the laptime they get with you as you share a book. But older children also respond to read-alouds from you, and siblings who read to one another reap benefits in terms of strengthening their relationships with each other. Use read-alouds to build your child’s knowledge and develop their social and emotional skills.

Why is it important?

The benefits of a family member reading aloud to a child are numerous. The academic benefits include development of vocabulary, improved listening comprehension, and achievement on reading tests. Young children get a major boost in their literacy development as they learn how stories evolve and come to understand that the print on the page carries meaning. They also learn important book handling skills such as locating the title and turning the pages. Most caregivers have been through the experience of reading to a young child who wants to hear a favorite story again and again and demands that you start over because you skipped a section! Young children often like the same story read to them before sleeping, but don’t limit your read-alouds to bedtime.

The benefits of reading aloud extend to a child’s social and emotional development. Young children learn about cooperation as they share a book with another person. They develop early self-regulation skills such as sitting quietly and participating in conversations. Perhaps most importantly, joint reading promotes the warmth, bonding, and close relationships that are vital in a family.

JOINT READING PROMOTES THE WARMTH, BONDING, AND CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS THAT ARE VITAL IN A FAMILY.

Don’t underestimate the value of read-alouds for adolescents, which occur regularly in middle and high school classrooms. There is an enjoyment factor for both strong readers and those not yet making expected progress. Read-alouds can provide exposure to texts that a reluctant reader might not otherwise take on alone. As with younger readers, read-alouds can offer adolescents support in the critical areas of reading comprehension and vocabulary development.

Why is it important in distance learning?

Learning to read and reading to learn requires practice not just in instruction. Getting enough practice can be more challenging in distance learning. Importantly, anyone can be the reader when it comes to read-alouds, including your child. Given that 75 percent of children in North America grow up with at least one sibling, you may have a built-in cast ready to help. Emergent and early readers in kindergarten through third grade can practice their own developing skills by reading to a younger sibling. This has been shown to be especially effective for children who are learning the alphabet and vocabulary. Reading to younger siblings also promotes the listener’s phonological awareness, which are the sounds of a language, rhyming words, and syllables. Reading specialists have been known to encourage reluctant young readers to read to the family pet because the audience is accepting.

Read-alouds are another channel for bringing books into a home routine. Older children and adolescents know how to read but benefit from shared opportunities with you. Academically, it can provide you with a way to introduce other genres to your child, including favorites from your own youth they might not otherwise pick up. Common Sense Media reminds us that read-alouds can break down barriers or bridge communication gaps between parents and their children around difficult issues they may confront such as racism, implicit biases, discrimination based on gender or religion, and violence. While they might otherwise be reluctant to talk about these directly, a book you’re both reading together can create a safe space for doing so. Give one copy to your tween or teen while you read from your own copy for 15 or 20 minutes. This can be a nice wind-down ritual at the end of a busy day for both of you.

Take action

You don’t need to be a professional storyteller to read aloud to your child or teen. Here are a few tips for ensuring success:

• ➔ Share your personality. Your enthusiasm and willingness to display your feelings and talk about them are a great model for children. Use funny voices if it makes them laugh (even when they roll their eyes). Make sound effects, use gestures, and change your rate of reading to match what’s happening in the story. All of these contribute to their growing reading comprehension.
• ➔ Ask questions. Pause occasionally to ask questions about the print (e.g., “Can you show me where the word roar is on this page with the lion?”), about the story (e.g., “Wait! What do you think he’s going to do next now that the Captain said that?”), and about the character’s emotions (“What do you see in the illustration and hear in the words that tells you how she is feeling?”).
• ➔ Preview the text. It’s helpful to read ahead in chapter books so you know what is coming next. It prepares you for the dramatic moments when there might need to be a pause for children to process what has occurred. Reading aloud can be a short, shared activity and does not need to be done for hours.

 Key Messages

Reading aloud should be an enjoyable part of your day. It’s an opportunity to share an experience with your child and strengthen bonds. Remember:

• ➔ Try to read aloud every day.
• ➔ Try to read aloud about the same time each day and build this as one of your routines—but do not limit this to a bedtime routine.
• ➔ Vary the texts you choose to read aloud so that you introduce your child to different types of texts as well as ideas.
• ➔ Consider reading aloud texts that your child might otherwise be reluctant to try.

The Value of Vocabulary Games

What is it?

Vocabulary is the words of a language and their associated meanings. The more words you know, the more likely you will be to understand conversations and texts. However, simply memorizing long lists of words is not especially helpful. Use word games to increase your child’s vocabulary (and perhaps your own!).

Why is it important?

Vocabulary develops across a lifetime. You know more words today than you did five years ago. And the vocabulary demand on school-age children is breathtaking. Estimates are that by the time a student enters high school, he will need to know 88,500 word families. As an example, a word family for inform includes informed, information, disinformation, uninformed, and informant. Many words are not a part of everyday speech (If you aren’t a journalist, when was the last time you used disinformation?). Instead, these words are encountered primarily in written text. There’s a reason why college readiness exams test vocabulary knowledge—it is a good indicator of the amount of reading applicants have done.

SIMPLY MEMORIZING LONG LISTS OF WORDS IS NOT ESPECIALLY HELPFUL.

One way we know words is by their definition. However, knowing a definition doesn’t mean you “own” a word. Knowing a word requires deepening levels of knowledge. One model describes five dimensions of vocabulary knowledge:

1. I can define the word.
2. I can use it correctly.
3. I know multiple meanings of the word.
4. I can use the word with accuracy and precision (the “just right” word).
5. I can use it in conversation and in writing.

A child’s vocabulary knowledge is a solid predictor of her reading comprehension and reading achievement. And vocabulary represents a schema, or web of knowledge, that a learner possesses. The more extensive the web is, the more likely new ideas will stick. Knowing the concepts behind the word productivity, for instance, makes it easier to learn new ideas about economic growth productivity in your high schooler’s economics class. In other words, vocabulary learned in one subject often shows up with slightly different meanings in other subjects. Memorizing definitions without context actually gets in the way of schema development. And college readiness exams today test vocabulary knowledge in context, not in the form of random lists of obscure words.

Word games can make vocabulary development fun while relieving some of the tedium your child might associate with the task of learning new words. There are a number of digital word games available, but you may want to reduce the amount of screen time and promote off-screen word games instead.

Why is it important in distance learning?

We all make assumptions about what and how much students know. In physical school, teachers have tools to check in with students to determine if they have the conceptual knowledge and the labels (vocabulary) for those concepts. Some of these tools will translate to distance learning, but others will not. Students may have less time in an academic setting, and thus are at risk for learning fewer words. And if they are also reading less, their vocabularies may suffer.

Take action

Vocabulary is one of the predictors of reading comprehension and a skill that continues to develop across the lifespan. Word acquisition and vocabulary development games can be an entertaining and low-cost way to build your child’s vocabulary without her even knowing it.

• ➔ Play board games that rely on word knowledge. Turn family game night into a learning night. Scrabble and Scrabble Junior lead the way in this type of board game. Others that provide lots of opportunities include Balderdash, Upwords, Dabble, and Pictionary. Your child’s social and emotional learning is fostered and they learn about taking turns, being a good sport, and solving problems as well.
• ➔ Anagrams. Use letter tiles to form a long word, then have each child see how many different words they can construct using only those letters.
• ➔ Guess the covered word. Write a word your child is learning on paper and cover it with a notecard. Reveal one letter at a time from left to right to see how long it takes him to figure it out. Be sure to provide a category (“It’s a kind of building.”) so that he is using his schema, too.
• ➔ 20 Questions. The classic version of this verbal word game is to declare a category of animal, vegetable, or mineral and then allow the players to ask up to twenty yes/no questions about the word you’re thinking of. Another variation uses the categories of a person, place, or thing (which will always yield a noun). There’s a lot of deductive reasoning needed to ask the right questions to get at the answer.

MEMORIZING DEFINITIONS WITHOUT CONTEXT ACTUALLY GETS IN THE WAY OF SCHEMA DEVELOPMENT.

 Key Messages

Words are everywhere and learning them is an important life skill. Remember:

• ➔ Your child’s vocabulary represents her own web of knowledge. The bigger the web is, the more likely new ideas will stick.
• ➔ Make vocabulary learning fun. The whole family can get involved.
• ➔ Know the words that the teacher would like your child to learn. Include those in the games but add others.
• ➔ Be sure to take turns with your child so that you they have lots of chances to develop word puzzles to stump you!

The Value of Oral Language Development

What is it?

Speaking with children is essential for their psychological development and is a marker for their academic development. You’ll notice that we said “speaking with,” not “speaking to” children. Throughout the day, we give our children directions about what to do. But we also need to engage them regularly in conversations about ideas and the world around them. These kinds of exchanges spark their mental acuity and build their vocabulary and reasoning skills, which comprise oral language development.

Why is it important?

From the moment they are born, babies soak in the language spoken around them. Long before they can speak themselves, they can detect the unique sounds, or phonemes, of their home, or native, language. By the time they are six months old, they can discern the difference between native and nonnative speech. Toddlers who are exposed to lots of language, especially the kinds of language that include asking questions and making observations about what is happening (e.g., “Your sister is helping me empty the trash. That’s so helpful!”) are well-prepared for early schooling. It’s not so much the speech they overhear in the environment, such as when you are speaking to another adult, or from a television playing in the background, but rather speech that is directed at the child.

These benefits continue throughout childhood and adolescence. Sometimes as parents we wonder whether what we say to older children and teenagers is making a difference. Let us assure you—it makes all the difference. Your conversations with them about their interests and their worries are invaluable in helping them to form schemas for how they make decisions and address problems. When you share how you approach a problem, you are modeling the kind of reasoning that is invaluable to them in their academic studies and in life.

Why is it important in distance learning?

Household routines have become a lot more complicated during the pandemic. Adults may be working from inside the home or working outside the home using far more elaborate routines than usual to stay safe and healthy. Your children are engaged in various distance learning schedules that may require the skills of a professional juggler to arrange physical spaces and allot devices. In the face of these demands, it is understandable that time for quality conversation suffers.

In face-to-face classrooms, students are accustomed to conversations with teachers, friends, and classmates throughout the day. But in distance learning, the opportunities to engage in these conversations is more limited. Yet the need for young people to be active participants in conversations continues, and your household becomes an even more important hub for communication that matters.

Take action

In addition to the conversations you have throughout the day with your child, consider adding a conversational routine that meets the social and emotional needs of your child. Here are a few to consider:

• ➔ Apples and onions. Each person in the family names something they saw or experienced that was a positive (apple) and one thing that was more challenging (onion). Checking in like this helps all the members of the household stay abreast of each other’s lives and provide a springboard for solving problems together.
• ➔ Pose a question of the day. Post a thought-provoking question on the refrigerator or family bulletin board each morning and tell your child you’ll check in later in the day. Here are ten questions to get you started:
  1. What do people like about you?
  2. What is something you would like for me to do more often?
  3. What is your favorite day of the week?
  4. What is your first memory as a little kid?
  5. If you could only eat four things for the rest of your life, what would they be?
  6. If you were a professional wrestler, what would your entrance song be?
  7. If you could relive one day of your life, which day would you choose?
  8. What would you wait in a long line for?
  9. What is your favorite saying or poem?
  10. When you’re an adult, what stories do you think children will ask you to tell?
• ➔ Song of the day. Each member of the family takes turns choosing a song of the day to be played and explains why they chose the song.
• ➔ Family photo of the week. Post a photograph of a family event that occurred in the past and ask your child what he remembers from that day, or about the people in the photograph. Old family photograph albums are another great source for starting conversations about memories.

 Key Messages

For most children, their listening comprehension cannot exceed their reading comprehension. Building oral language skills will pay dividends in reading as well. Remember:

• ➔ Engage in conversations with your child. Ask them about their experiences and ideas.
• ➔ Create a language rich environment in your home filled with talk.
• ➔ Provide your child opportunities to talk with others. Screen time for this has actually been shown to be effective in developing literacy skills.

The Value of Foundational Reading Skills: Phonemic Awareness

What is it?

Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in a language. They allow you, for instance, to hear the difference between cup and cups, because your brain can discern the /s/ sound. Young children who are learning to read use their phonemic awareness skills to figure out the letters and words in print. Typically, older students have developed phonemic awareness so depending on the age of your child and their current reading performance, this may or may not be a priority.

Why is it important?

Have you had the experience of attempting to speak in a language you were not conversant in? You may have tried to replicate a word or phrase a native speaker told you, but when you repeated it, they said, “No, that’s not quite right” and said it again more slowly. Despite your attempts, you didn’t get the hang of it, even as you swore you were pronouncing the words exactly the same way. You may have confronted your own lack of phonemic awareness in that language.

Each human language has a range of sounds, or phonemes, that make speech understandable to other speakers. English has 44 phonemes, Spanish has 24, and !Xóõ (pronounced /kō/ in English), a Botswanan language, has 112 phonemes. Infants learn the phonemes of a language and continue to develop this throughout the first years of school. Primary teachers promote the development of phonemic awareness with their students because it is critical in their reading development.

A child’s growing phonemic awareness makes it possible for them to hear the pauses between words, to detect rhyming words, and to hear the difference between similar sounding words like weather and wetter. (When Nancy’s daughter was small, she would call a canopy bed a panicky bed.) Teachers play games that involve clapping to the sounds in a word and using chants, songs, and poems. Later stages of phonemic awareness include the following:

• ➔ Blending sounds and splitting syllables, such as being able to listen to the sounds of /m/ and /āl/ to say mail; recognizing that mailbox consists of two syllable sounds
• ➔ Segmenting sounds, which is the opposite of blending sounds; a child at this stage can take apart the sounds in a spoken word (e.g., flew has two phonemes: /fl/ and /oo/).
• ➔ Manipulating sounds by deleting, substituting, adding, and reversing phonemes; an example of reversing phonemes is to hear the word let and saying it backward as tell.

Measurement of a child’s phonemic awareness skills can be more challenging in a distance learning environment. Talk with your child’s teacher about how he or she is assessing phonemic awareness. Some schools are experiencing success in assessing these skills by asking the parent, if so inclined, to record themselves assessing their child and then submitting it to the teacher for analysis and to design instruction. One of the most widely used tools is called the Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation. It is administered orally and takes less than ten minutes to complete. We have included it in Figure 3 if you are interested in using it. We have included the answer key in Figure 4.

TALK WITH YOUR CHILD’S TEACHER ABOUT HOW HE OR SHE IS ASSESSING PHONEMIC AWARENESS.

It is important to note that if your child is older and has mastered phonemic awareness, there is no reason to continue to promote it from an educational sense. However, if your child is learning a subsequent language to complement his native language(s), then he is also moving through similar stages of development of his phonemic awareness of the new language.

Why is it important in distance learning?

Emergent readers need lots of opportunities to play with the sounds of language. Primary grade teachers will prioritize these opportunities in a distance learning environment. If you overhear your child’s teacher singing songs, using poems for rhyming, and playing other word games, recognize that this is exactly why they are doing so. Ask your child’s teacher to provide examples of songs and word games you can use at home to reinforce learning of phonemic awareness.

Take action

Child developmental psychologist Jean Piaget famously said that play is the work of children, and word games that promote the sounds of language are well worth the investment of time for your young reader. Here are ideas for how to promote phonemic awareness, depending on your child’s developmental stage:

• ➔ Clap the words or syllables. Challenge your child to make a sentence with a fixed number of words. For instance, you might ask, “Can you call everyone to dinner and say it in four words?” Rehearse her sentence and clap it with her before she calls everyone. “Dinner’s ready! Please come!”
• ➔ Sing songs and chants that capitalize on word play. Nursery rhymes like “1, 2, Buckle My Shoe,” songs like “Apples and Bananas,” and jump rope chants such as “Miss Mary Mack” are just a few of many examples you might use. Undoubtedly you have your own favorites, so please use them.
• ➔ Read picture books that encourage word play interactions. There are many, of course, but a few of our favorites include Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Sims Tayback, Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle, A Crash of Rhinos by Greg Danylyshyn, and The Book with No Pictures by B. J. Novak.

IF YOUR CHILD IS OLDER AND HAS MASTERED PHONEMIC AWARENESS, THERE IS NO REASON TO CONTINUE TO PROMOTE IT.

3 YOPP-SINGER TEST OF PHONEME SEGMENTATION

Name: _____________________________________________________ Date: _________

Score (number correct): ______________________________________________________

Directions: Today we’re going to play a word game. I’m going to say a word and I want you to break the word apart. You are going to tell me each sound in the word in order. For example, if I say “old,” you should say “/o/ - /l/ - /d/.”

(Administrator: Be sure to say the sounds, not the letters, in the word.) Let’s try a few together.

Practice items: (Assist the child in segmenting these items as necessary.) ride, go, man

Test items: (Circle those items that the student correctly segments; incorrect responses may be recorded on the blank line following the item.)

1.	dog	______________________	12.	lay	______________________
2.	keep	______________________	13.	race	______________________
3.	fine	______________________	14.	zoo	______________________
4.	no	______________________	15.	three	______________________
5.	she	______________________	16.	job	______________________
6.	wave	______________________	17.	in	______________________
7.	grew	______________________	18.	ice	______________________
8.	that	______________________	19.	at	______________________
9.	red	______________________	20.	top	______________________
10.	me	______________________	21.	by	______________________
11.	sat	______________________	22.	do	______________________

Source: Yopp, H. K. (1995). A test for assessing phonemic awareness in young children. The Reading Teacher, 49, 20–29. Used with permission.

4 ANSWER KEY FOR YOPP-SINGER TEST OF PHONEME SEGMENTATION

Name: _____________________________________________________ Date: _________

Score (number correct): _____________________________________________________

Directions: Today we’re going to play a word game. I’m going to say a word and I want you to break the word apart. You are going to tell me each sound in the word in order. For example, if I say “old,” you should say “/o/ - /l/ - /d/.”

(Administrator: Be sure to say the sounds, not the letters, in the word.) Let’s try a few together.

Practice items: (Assist the child in segmenting these items as necessary.) ride, go, man

Test items: (Circle those items that the student correctly segments; incorrect responses may be recorded on the blank line following the item.)

1.	dog	/d/ - /o/ - /g/	12.	lay	/l/ - /a/
2.	keep	/k/ - /e/ - /p/	13.	race	/r/ - /a/ - /s/
3.	fine	/f/ - /i/ - /n/	14.	zoo	/z/ - /oo/
4.	no	/n/ - /o/	15.	three	/th/ - /r/ - /e/
5.	she	/sh/ - /e/	16.	job	/j/ - /o/ - /b/
6.	wave	/w/ - /a/ - /v/	17.	in	/i/ - /n/
7.	grew	/g/- /r/ - /oo/	18.	ice	/i/ - /s/
8.	that	/th/- /a/ - /t/	19.	at	/a/ - /t/
9.	red	/r/- /e/ - /d/	20.	top	/t/- /o/ - /p/
10.	me	/m/- /e/	21.	by	/b/ - /i/
11.	sat	/s/ - /a/- /t/	22.	do	/d/- /oo/

Source: Yopp, H. K. (1995). A test for assessing phonemic awareness in young children. The Reading Teacher, 49, 20–29. Used with permission.

 Key Messages

Children need to learn the sounds used in a language to develop both speaking and reading skills. Remember:

• ➔ Understanding the sounds of the language starts as soon as babies are born.
• ➔ Play with the sounds of language often.
• ➔ Singing and rhyming help develop phonemic awareness.
• ➔ There are games for blending, substituting, and deleting sounds in spoken words that provide practice.

The Value of Foundational Reading Skills: Alphabetics and Phonics

What is it?

Many languages, including English, use an alphabet system to represent the sounds of the language. Young children master the alphabet as a part of their journey to reading. Alphabetics include the names of the letters and their associated sounds, which serves as the foundation for phonics (combining sounds and letters into words). Alphabetic knowledge aids readers in word recognition and decoding.

Why is it important?

Many children begin to learn letters before they have entered school. Early letter recognition often begins with recognizing the letters in their first names. But keep in mind that there aren’t twenty-six letters in the English alphabet, but rather fifty-two when you count both uppercase and lowercase representations. Now add a few more, as depending on the font, lowercase letters might be represented as a or a and g or g. To a young child, these look like random squiggles on a page. Over time and with practice, both the letter shapes and the letter sounds converge. Decoding, which is pronouncing words accurately, is dependent in part on a child’s easy recognition of letters and sounds. Teachers teach phonics, or breaking the code, to accomplish this.

You might recall from your own schooling that there was a “letter of the week” and that your class progressed from the letter A in the first week to the letter Z in the twenty-sixth week. That formula is not used anymore, as there is greater understanding that some letters are easier than others to learn. For example, the uppercase letters A, B, X, and O are known by most four-year-olds. Letter sounds that sound like their name (s, m, and z) are among the first mastered by four-year-olds. Among the last to be mastered in terms of naming the letter and its corresponding sounds are y, w, c, i, o, and e. Keep in mind that these letters have more than one sound. Therefore, teaching alphabetic principles means that more time is dedicated to those harder-to-learn skills.

We’ve included an alphabet knowledge sheet to use with your child if you would like to assess what they know and don’t know in Figure 5. We have also included a recording sheet so you can track their growing alphabetics knowledge. It is in Figure 6, and a downloadable copy is also available at resources.corwin.com/DLparents. Young children also like to write letters and words they know, especially their names. Every primary teacher is grateful if you have taught your child how to write their name using the correct combination of upper and lowercase letters.

Why is it important in distance learning?

Learning the letters and sounds takes lots of instruction, practice, and exposure, and as we have said previously, time is a precious commodity in distance learning. Undoubtedly, teachers in the primary grades and those who teach students with disabilities will provide direct and systematic instruction in alphabetics and phonics. But, some of your child’s asynchronous learning needs to be dedicated to practicing these skills. We hope that in addition to worksheets, there are fun activities provided that engage your child.

Take action

Mastering the alphabet and its sounds is an essential skill for emergent readers and writers. In addition to activities promoted by your child’s teacher, consider using some of these approaches:

• ➔ Find out which letters and sound combinations the teacher is teaching. Practice those with your child. You may print off decodable texts from a site such as The Text Project for practice. You can also create flashcards with the patterns the teacher is teaching. For example, if your child is learning the -op ending, you can have a card with op written on it and then several options for letters that could start a word (e.g., h, l, st, t, and fl). The link to The Text Project can be found on the companion website at resources.corwin.com/DLparents.
• ➔ Make whole-body letter shapes. Remember the dance routine that accompanied the chorus of the Village People song, “YMCA”? Join your child in making body shapes into letters. It is fun, but it is also a great way to help them internalize the letter shapes. Unlike the dance routine, you don’t need to confine yourself to only using arms. These gross-motor movements are exercise for your child and can aid in burning off some extra energy.
• ➔ Use creative materials to write and rehearse letters. Make letters from pipe cleaners, write them in chalk on the sidewalk, and paint with water on paper (no need for paint—the water alone will leave a visible shape). Another novel way is to fill a cake pan with sand or rice and let the child trace letters in the material. Be sure to reinforce the sounds of the letters and corresponding representative words (e.g., “L is for love and makes the /l/ sound.”).
• ➔ Make the most of alphabet books. There are countless alphabet books available in for every imaginable theme. Use your child’s interests to guide alphabet book choices. Whether the theme is construction vehicles, dinosaurs, or hip-hop, there’s an alphabet book for him or her. A bonus is that themed alphabet books expand your child’s vocabulary and schema about a concept.

5 STUDENT FORM FOR LETTER IDENTIFICATION

5 STUDENT FORM FOR LETTER IDENTIFICATION

O	W	E	X
S	A	G	D
H	K	P	J
C	N	U	V
Y	R	B	I
Q	L	F	M
Z	T

o	w	e	x
s	a	g	d
h	k	p	j
c	n	u	v
y	r	b	i
q	l	f	m
z	t	a	g

6 Recording Form for Letter Identification

Name: _____________________________________________________ Date: _________

Teacher: _________________________________________________________________

Letter	Correct	Incorrect	Letter	Correct	Incorrect
O			o
W			w
E			e
X			x
S			s
A			a
G			g
D			d
H			h
K			k
P			p
J			j
C			c
N			n
U			u
V			v
Y			y
R			r
B			b
I			i
Q			q
L			l
F			f
M			m
Z			z
T			t
			a
			g
Total uppercase	/26	/26	Total lowercase	/28	/28

Code of scoring: Correct = ✓
Incorrect = record student response

Source: Fisher, D., Frey, N., & Hattie, J. (2017). Teaching literacy in the visible learning classroom, grades K–5. Corwin.

Available for download at resources.corwin.com/DLparents

 Key Messages

Developing an understanding of relationship between sounds and symbols takes time, and both instruction and practice are necessary. Remember:

• ➔ Practice makes learning permanent.
• ➔ Know what the teacher is teaching and reinforce that.
• ➔ Make learning alphabetics and phonics fun.

The Value of Foundational Reading Skills: Fluency

What is it?

Oral reading fluency is the ability to read accurately and smoothly aloud. Fluency is a foundational skill; readers with oral reading fluency are able to devote more attention to meaning because they are accurately decoding and recognizing words. Readers in Grades 1 through 8 are working toward improving their fluency using grade-level text. Fluency is more than the rate, or speed that you read. It’s also the way it is read, called prosody, which includes tone, emphasis, pauses, and inflections.

FLUENCY IS MORE THAN THE RATE, OR SPEED THAT YOU READ. IT’S ALSO THE WAY IT IS READ, WHICH IS CALLED PROSODY.

Why is it important?

During elementary school, readers are braiding together their ability to recognize words and to comprehend what they read. For early readers, these two skills are somewhat separate from one another and both take quite a bit of effort. But as they get better at recognizing words, some of that attention can go “underground” so to speak. As their decoding becomes more subconscious, readers can use more of their attention to concentrate on the meaning of what they are reading. This process, called automaticity, contributes to a child’s ability to read for understanding. Reading fluency, which is a measure of accuracy and rate, continues to evolve through sixth grade for readers making expected progress.

Measures of reading fluency are designed in such a way that they continually challenge students. As the rate of fluency increases, so too does the complexity of the text your child is expected to be able to read. It would be expected that a fourth grader could read a first-grade text accurately and at an acceptable rate, but that doesn’t actually tell you if the child can read fourth-grade texts fluently. It would be like continuing to ride a bicycle with training wheels long after that support was no longer needed. Thus, the goal is for children to read grade-level texts with good fluency. If you are interested in knowing about your child’s fluency, we have included a chart of grade-level expectations at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year. Oral reading fluency in first grade is not measured until the middle of the school year.

Why is it important in distance learning?

Reading fluency is fostered by doing lots of reading, not just doing fluency exercises. Maintaining a volume of reading is necessary for students to make continual progress. The assigned reading your child completes asynchronously contributes to his subject knowledge and in the process makes him an increasingly fluent reader. Your child might also be engaged in reading activities with peers designed to boost fluency. For instance, she might be doing paired reading. This strategy requires each child to read the same passage silently to familiarize themselves with the text, and to then take turns reading it aloud to one another. Your child’s teacher may construct some lessons so that repeated reading occurs, as when he asks questions about a short piece of text that requires the reader to return to the text and look for evidence (e.g., “What does the author say about the mood of the character?”). In addition to building comprehension, techniques like this build reading fluency.

READING FLUENCY IS FOSTERED BY DOING LOTS OF READING, NOT JUST DOING FLUENCY EXERCISES.

Take action

Fluent reading is foundational for reading growth. Children need lots of opportunities to read, and to read things more than one time. It isn’t uncommon for a child to lament, “But I read that already!” Help your child build fluency by engaging in repeated reading that is fun and purposeful. Here are a few ideas:

• ➔ Read-alongs. The research world calls this the neurologic impress method. You read aloud as your child reads aloud, but you try to read at a slightly faster pace than your child so that this impresses in their minds. You also vary the speed, based on the text, and use natural pauses and inflections appropriate for the text. Your child will begin to speed up to keep pace with you. And your child will notice the ways that you use your voice to make it sound more like talking and less like a robot. After the reading, you talk about what the text said to ensure that they understood the text.
• ➔ Dialogue drama. When reading aloud with your child, take advantage of sections of dialogue between characters to do some repeated reading. Each of you assumes the identity of one of the characters and uses expression to make them come to life. You can remind your child to “make it sound like talking” by using the correct tone and inflection. The goal is not to memorize the dialogue, but to build more fluent reading. In fact, your child should be keeping an eye on the text. See if you can’t encourage them to read it again, which promotes further repeated reading.
• ➔ Radio plays. There are lots of scripts of old radio plays available on the internet, and they lend themselves beautifully to a technique called readers theater. These radio plays do not require props, costumes, or staging. Instead, each performer reads directly from the script. There are numerous readers theater scripts for children ages 8 to 15 online, and some can be found on the companion website at resources.corwin.com/DLparents. Older children might like to perform 5 Minute Mysteries, a radio show from the 1940s where the goal is to figure out who committed the crime during the commercial break. Organize family members and cast roles for each. Make sure they have rehearsal time (repeated reading) and remind them that they will always read from the script. No memorizing! Episodes of 5 Minute Mysteries can be found on the companion website at resources.corwin.com/DLparents.
• ➔ Encourage rereading favorite books. Fluency doesn’t come from constantly reading new material—children need opportunities to read familiar ones, too. Talk about favorite books that you return to even though you have read them before. If there are younger siblings in the house, encourage your child to read old favorites to the younger ones.

 Key Messages

Fluency is another predictor of reading comprehension. When a child reads too slowly and focuses on sounding out each word, he is not likely to retain what he read. Remember:

• ➔ Fluency is more than speed; it’s also the way reading sounds.
• ➔ Practice fluency aloud and know that the inner voice will develop as children read silently.
• ➔ Look at the norms, or averages, from research to know if you need to spend more time on this (see Figure 7). If your child is well below these norms, you may want to talk with the teacher about additional ways to increase fluency.

7 Oral Reading Fluency Norms

7 Oral Reading Fluency Norms

Grade	Fall WCPM*	Winter WCPM*	Spring WCPM*
1		29	60
2	50	84	100
3	83	97	112
4	94	120	133
5	121	133	146
6	132	145	146

^* WCPM = Words Correct Per Minute

Source: Adapted from Hasbrouck, J., & Tindal, G. (2017). An update to compiled ORF norms (Technical Report No. 1702). Eugene: Behavioral Research and Teaching, University of Oregon.

The Value of Writing Across the Day

What is it?

In addition to the writing that students are required to do during their school day, there are many writing tasks that arise organically over the course of your everyday life with your children. Your household offers an endless array of writing opportunities. When you notice those opportunities, pause, and take advantage of them. Your child will reap the benefits. After all, the best kind of writing is fueled by authentic purposes and a clear intended audience.

Why is it important?

People compose for three main purposes: to convey real or imagined experiences, to provide information, and to share opinions and arguments about an issue. But getting these ideas down requires handwriting or typing skills, spelling, grammar, and conventions such as using capital letters and punctuation in the right places. And that’s before we even consider forming and organizing ideas, understanding what the purpose is for your writing, and knowing who your audience is. In other words, children and adolescents have to coordinate a lot of different skills in order to compose a meaningful message.

THE BEST KIND OF WRITING IS FUELED BY AUTHENTIC PURPOSES AND A CLEAR INTENDED AUDIENCE.

Before we go any further, it is important to know that we are not encouraging you to assign your child a research paper or an essay. Those are school-based writing tasks that should come from your child’s teacher. But writing and composition can happen in authentic and naturalistic ways. First, note how often you write throughout the day. In addition to your professional obligations, you make lists, send text messages to friends, jot down notes to yourself (often labeled “Do not forget!”), write a quick math calculation to figure out the sales tax on an item, and send thank-you notes. Perhaps you even journal, or you keep a sleep, exercise, or food diary to track a habit you’d like to improve. No one is insisting that you write; you do so because it is functional and efficient. Consider this thought—humans are the only species that can store information outside of their bodies. Writing is what makes this possible.

Why does it matter in distance learning?

Just like pretty much anything that we want to get better at, writing requires practice. There is growing evidence that writing by hand benefits young children in terms of their reading. If your child is learning from a distance, this is something you’ll want to ensure is happening at home. If your child is young, keep lots of thick pencils, crayons, and scissors around so she can develop the fine motor skills she needs to write legibly, and encourage her to read you what she wrote. Older children should be encouraged to write things down on paper and not just on their smartphone to maintain their handwriting skills.

Fluent writing is aided by the ability to spell correctly. Very young children move through stages of early writing that include a lot of transitional and temporary spellings. You don’t need to (and you actually shouldn’t try to) “fix” everything, especially when it is not yet useful from a developmental perspective. In other words, if the teacher hasn’t taught it yet, try not to worry about it. Composing provides writers with the practice needed to apply grammar rules correctly. You might recall some dreary grammar exercises in your own schooling. Writing lifts those experiences into more practical applications. When you spot a grammatical error with an older writer, rather than correct it, simply ask him to read the sentences aloud and ask whether that sounds right to him. Often that is enough to get him moving again.

Take action

Notice the authentic purposes for writing that naturally and spontaneously occur in your household and harness those as opportunities for your children to practice. None of these writing suggestions are meant to be onerous to either your children or you. Talk about how their writing is helping the family and reinforce the aspect of pleasure that writing can bring. Here are some ways to bring writing into your home:

• ➔ Set up a post office for young children. Set up a cardboard mail sorter that has cubbies in it (available at most office supply stores) and stock it with paper, envelopes, writing instruments, and stamps (not real ones—adhesive stickers do the trick). You might even have an ink stamper to “cancel” the stamp. Label some of the cubbies with the names of each family member and encourage everyone to leave “mail” in the form of notes for one another.
• ➔ Enlist list makers. Whether they are related to groceries, errands, or general to-dos, households run on lists to catalog the many things needed to keep everyone organized. Rather than make the lists yourself, ask your child to make the list for you. You can dictate what needs to go on the list but have her write it for you. Food preparation time is a great time of the day to dictate a list while you cook.
• ➔ Buy a diary or journal for each child. Without question, this period of time will be something your children will talk about for the rest of their lives. Encourage them to write and draw daily in a journal about current events, their hopes and fears, and anything else that inspires them. Remind them to date the entry so they have a record of their younger selves. They don’t need to share this with anyone if they don’t want to. However, you may discover that the cathartic act of writing encourages them to talk with you about their lives and concerns, which is crucial for their mental well-being.
• ➔ Keep a growing list of gratitudes. Post a scroll, large piece of paper, or a family chalkboard with the heading, “What are you grateful for?” Each day ask each member of the household to add one thing they are grateful for. When the list is full, take a photograph of it and start over. You might continue with this question or add a different one. Let them see how the list grows while reminding them about the positives they are experiencing.
• ➔ Bring back thank-you notes. Hall of Fame football quarterback Peyton Manning is famous for writing thank-you notes to colleagues, friends, and acquaintances, and YouTube is filled with videos of those who have received them. Manning states that he learned this from his mother, who required her children to write thank-you notes. It’s a habit that stuck for Manning, and the research on writing notes of gratitude demonstrates that the greatest benefit is the writer’s mental health and well-being. The art of handwritten correspondence was nearly gone, but with physical distancing has come the desire to connect with those we don’t get to see regularly. Ask each of your children to write one thank-you note a week to a family member, friend, first responder, or anyone who is deserving of thanks.

WE ARE NOT ENCOURAGING YOU TO ASSIGN YOUR CHILD A RESEARCH PAPER OR AN ESSAY.

 Key Messages

Humans write for many reasons. Nearly every writer can read but not all readers can write. And writing can become a natural part of the day for children. Remember:

• ➔ Provide materials for your child to write: a notebook and writing tools at least.
• ➔ Talk with your child about writing. Ask them to share their writing. Perhaps you even create an “author’s chair” and dedicate time for people sitting in the chair to share their writing.
• ➔ Model writing in a variety of ways for your children to see that it is natural and useful.

The Value of Scaffolded Writing Experiences

What is it?

If you are looking for ways to take a more active role in supporting your child’s writing, scaffolded writing activities are for you. These are techniques for fostering your child’s use of grammar, conventions, and composition in writing. These routines are designed to boost the daily output of writing and contribute to increased writing fluency.

Why is it important?

A common criticism of writing instruction is that the emphasis is often on causing writing to occur, rather than on providing instruction on writing skills. Writing instruction requires more than just providing a prompt to “write about a time when you . . .” In fact, many teachers will tell you that when faced with a prompt, a reluctant writer often has trouble getting started and instead says “I’m thinking.” However, in truth there’s no action and the writer has trouble leaving the starting line. Scaffolded writing offers a way to focus on different aspects of writing and in some cases to get the child started. These routines don’t take a lot of time and can easily complement instruction your child’s teacher is providing.

Scaffolding is a common instructional technique designed to bridge what a learner knows with what a learner does not know yet. Think of the scaffolding on the outside of a building as a metaphor for this technique. A scaffolding structure extends the reach of the worker, and it is taken down when the work is completed. Scaffolded instruction is also temporary and is intended to extend the learning of students by reaching for something that they might not otherwise be able to get to on their own.

And once they have mastered a concept or a skill, they don’t need the scaffolding any longer. Scaffolding is a teaching tool used in every subject area from pre-K to graduate programs.

Why is it important in distance learning?

Elementary and secondary students who are finding writing to be challenging can benefit from additional opportunities to compose. As with reading, the volume of writing produced matters. Some of the writing skills taught in school, such as editing and revising, can’t even happen unless there is something to work with. These scaffolded writing techniques are intended to boost the volume of writing while building vocabulary skills and idea formation.

Take action

Here are four scaffolded writing techniques that build writing skills and can spark children’s imaginations when a writing assignment seems too daunting to begin:

• ➔ Language experience approach. This technique was developed decades ago for a literacy project for indigenous women in South America. The idea is to take some dictation down as a person tells a story, then use what has been written as a source for reading practice. It has been widely adapted for young children, who draw a picture and then tell a story to an adult who writes down their words for them. You can use this approach with your child to get them started on a writing assignment. Discuss the prompt with them and write down key ideas they verbalize. Take a look at these two or three sentences together to hone them and have your child use these sentences in their writing.
• ➔ Interactive writing. Similarly, discuss the topic of the writing assignment, this time agreeing on what an opening paragraph might include. Once the message has been jointly composed orally, have your child write it out. Your job is to repeat the agreed message (you might want to jot this down on note paper). As she writes, ask her to consider in advance letters that should be capitalized, what punctuation is needed, and how each word is spelled.
• ➔ Generative sentences. Most school writing assignments involve a specific topic of study. Take the vocabulary assigned for the unit and use these words as a way to scaffold short writing passages. The generative sentences technique requires that you place limits on the sentence, both in the length of the sentence and the position of the word. As an example, perhaps a vocabulary word associated with a unit on space is planet. Give your child conditions for both: “Write a sentence that uses the word planet in the third position in a sentence that is at least seven words long.” Now they are thinking simultaneously about the definition of the word and the grammar that they have to use in order to create a sentence that makes sense. They might write, “The closest planet to the Sun is Mercury.” Repeat this exercise with four or five other vocabulary terms that they will probably use in the writing assignment, varying the position of the word each time and the length of the sentence. In a matter of a few minutes, they have already written several sentences. Now ask them to choose one of the sentences as a topic sentence for a paragraph. They can select others that are useful, too. What they have accomplished is pretty impressive, as they went from the word level, to the sentence level, to the paragraph level in a matter of minutes.
• ➔ Power writing. This last technique is about building writing fluency and it works well with elementary as well as secondary students. It is a timed writing exercise and takes less than five minutes to complete. The goal here is to achieve your personal best each day by writing as much as you can, as well as you can, for one minute. It can help to give them a word for inspiration, although it is not necessary for them to use the word or even stick to that topic. Then start the clock.

  Repeat this for a total of three times, counting the number of words written each time (1 minute). Typically, the number will increase by the third time because their writing fluency is increasing. Ask them to graph their personal best results for the day in order to keep a record of how their writing fluency is increasing over time. Then ask your child or teen to review what they have written. They don’t need to correct errors, just circle where they have occurred. This gives you a sense of what they are noticing and what they have missed. It can be helpful to keep all the power writing your child accomplishes in a single notebook, as it can be a source for later inspiration when they say that they are not sure what they want to write about for an assignment.

 Key Messages

This topic is more instructional. As such, it’s more invitational. If you have the time, or your child has the need, you may want to engage in scaffolded writing lessons. Remember:

• ➔ Scaffolding is temporary and should be removed as the child experiences success.
• ➔ It’s about approximations of success, not perfect writing.
• ➔ Power writing can be useful in building stamina and can provide you with ideas about the strengths and needs in terms of your child’s writing.

The Value of Mathematics Across the Day

What is it?

As with reading and writing, there are chances throughout the day for your child to use mathematics skills for authentic purposes. Take advantage of opportunities to get your child practicing these skills to keep them fresh. With your influence, they can gain a new appreciation for the importance of math in everyday life.

Why is it important?

REL Northwest, an educational laboratory operated by the U.S. Department of Education, offers two pieces of advice for families about mathematics:

1. Help your child develop a positive mindset about mathematics. Don’t tell them, “I’m not a math person” or “I hated math class in school,” as it can reinforce a false belief that they can’t do math either.
2. Teach children how mathematics is visible in the world. You can view their short video for families titled “Two Strategies to Help Your Child Learn to Love Math” on the companion website at resources.corwin.com/DLparents.

Why is it important in distance learning?

We work with a mathematics teacher who likes to remind his students that “mastery requires maintenance.” We couldn’t agree more. Mathematics skills can get stale pretty quickly when there isn’t much call for practicing. Worksheets and online games can provide some practice, but the mathematics used by your family every day provides a whole new level of relevance. In answer to the question, “Why do I have to learn this?” (usually said with a whiny voice) you can amplify the relevance by showing them just how useful it is.

Relevance makes learning happen more quickly. When a learner understands why she is learning a concept or skill, the pace of learning accelerates. In other words, the child learns faster because she sees the value in it. We know that when learning is made more responsive and culturally relevant, the learning quickens. And this is exactly the place where families are so strong because you have the insight and wisdom to see how mathematics is utilized in your household and community. You have tremendous influence on your child’s perceptions of what is valued. When you talk about the everyday mathematics you use, your child gains a deeper appreciation of the subject.

RELEVANCE MAKES LEARNING HAPPEN MORE QUICKLY.

Take action

Mathematics is sometimes incorrectly perceived as something they only use during a designated time during the school day. When you discuss math from a family perspective, you help them see its practical benefits and its relevance to their lives. With this in mind, here are some ideas for how you can do so.

• ➔ Make up word problems on your walks. If your child is young, point out places at home or in the neighborhood where you see numerals, such as on mailboxes and street signs. Older children can keep track of how many items they see on the walk (e.g., dogs, houses of worship, lampposts, or neon signs). Children who are learning shapes can play a version of I Spy by naming and counting the number of triangles they see, or cubes, or octagons (think stop signs). Children in the upper grades can formulate words problems based on what they see. For example, a store with posted hours becomes a word problem: How many hours will they be open this week?
• ➔ Reinforce telling time and elapsed time. We are continually surprised at how many teens don’t know how to tell time on analog dial clocks. They have become so accustomed to looking at digital time on phones, appliances, and cars that they don’t recognize how a dial clock face represents 12:15. This may seem like a small thing but that also means that they don’t understand when we say, “It’s a quarter past 12.” Seriously, blank looks. If you have an analog clock or watch, get it out and see if your teen can tell the time. If he can, it’s all good. But if he can’t, ask him questions about the time as it relates to family events. It only takes a bit of practice before he’ll get the hang of it. Elapsed time can be challenging for younger children, especially those who do not regularly use public transportation and don’t have experience with reading timetables. Follow up time questions they ask with a question of your own about how much time will need to go by before the next event occurs (e.g., “It’s 6:18 now and dinner will be about 7:00. So how much time will you need to wait?”).
• ➔ Show your children how you use mathematics in your life. Whether you are refilling the gas tank of your car, calculating a bill, or planning when to leave the house so you can arrive at work on time, you’re using math. Simply drawing attention to presence of math in your life can reinforce its relevance.
• ➔ Expose your child to the unique contributions of various cultures to mathematics. The concept of zero was independently devised thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia and by the Mayans. India spread the concept of zero in the 5th century and expanded it to Cambodia and Vietnam. Islamic cultures were using zero by the 8th century. Western Europe was late to the game—zero did not appear until the 12th century. Ask your child to investigate mathematicians and math contributions. Introduce them to
  • Mayan math
  • Math from China
  • Islamic math and science contributions

Links to resources on these math contributions can be found on the companion website at resources.corwin.com/DLparents.

 Key Messages

Mathematics is sometimes incorrectly perceived as something they only use during a designated time during the school day. When you discuss math from a family perspective, you help them see its practical benefits and its relevance to their lives. Remember:

• ➔ Reinforce math concepts your child is learning by pointing out how you use the same skills.
• ➔ Look for opportunities to get your child thinking mathematically at home and in the community.
• ➔ Foster cultural relevance by asking your child to investigate contributions to mathematics in your heritage culture and others.

The Value of Supplemental Mathematics Instruction

What is it?

Perhaps you are interested in having your child participate in supplemental mathematics instruction. It may be due to their interest in the subject, or because you would like them to have more practice beyond regular school instruction. Free online mathematics lessons through the Khan Academy can be a useful site for your child.

Why is it important?

We rarely profile a specific organization at length, but we must admit that we have been fans and users of Khan Academy for many years. Khan Academy was the brainchild of Salman Khan, who created the nonprofit in 2009 after he started posting videos of tutorials he devised for his cousins on YouTube. Teachers and students responded to the engaging style of the videos, and soon his short videos were being used to complement face-to-face instruction. The advantage of video tutorials is that learners can watch them as many times as they like until they have mastered a topic.

Since its inception over a decade ago, Khan Academy has expanded its offerings considerably (Did we mention that it is free?). Mathematics is still its calling card and the lessons range from preschool to precalculus, including Advanced Placement courses. In addition to mathematics, other subjects are represented. Science subjects include biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, and astronomy. But as they say on late night TV commercials, “Wait! There’s more!” They offer lessons in history, computer coding, reading, as well as life skills like personal finance and college admissions. In addition to English, Khan Academy features lessons in up to 24 different languages. We could go on and on, but instead we hope you will explore them with your child.

Why is it important in distance learning?

Both time on task and relevance come to mind when we think about Khan Academy. Your child needs to have “minds-on” tasks to complete. And these tasks should be interesting and supplemental to the instruction that they receive from the teacher. Your child also needs to spend significant numbers of minutes engaged in learning. The amount of time your child has directly with the teacher will vary depending on the model used by the school system. And you can use this resource to ensure that learning continues beyond those times.

Take action

Khan Academy provides free lessons. These experiences can provide your child with enrichment to accelerate learning or to close knowledge gaps that are holding them back. Here are a few ways to use Khan Academy resources, and links to these resources can be found on the companion website at resources.corwin.com/DLparents:

• ➔ Daily schedules. Suggested daily schedules for children from preschool to twelfth grade include suggested times for getting up, schoolwork, movement and exercise breaks, downtime, and bedtime.
• ➔ Khan Academy YouTube channel for your youngest children. Toddlers from age 2 and up can participate in a daily circle activity and use free downloadable activity sheets.
• ➔ Resources for parents. Khan Academy offers a library of recorded webinars on topics such as motivating children and balancing multiple children and their schedules.
• ➔ SAT and PSAT practice. Middle and high school students can take a diagnostic test and receive a customized set of lessons specific to their areas of need.

 Key Messages

Learning from home can prove to be a bonus for your child when it comes to accelerating their learning or circling back to review a concept or skill they aren’t yet confident in. Remember:

• ➔ Check out Khan Academy resources to see what catches your eye.
• ➔ Explore Khan Academy with your child to find out about learning they are interested in exploring.
• ➔ If they aren’t interested at the moment, revisit it again in a few weeks to see if they have changed their minds.
• ➔ If you are concerned that your child is in need of more practice in a subject, consult with the teacher about this and other intervention options.

The Value of Arts and Music

What is it?

Education is more than just subjects such as reading, mathematics, history, and science. Young people’s lives are enriched and informed by the visual and performing arts. They fuel creativity, provide outlets for expression, and contextualize the human experience. Bring the arts into your home to give your child another way to learn.

Why is it important?

The arts foster curiosity in young people that in turn fuels their intellectual growth. In particular, the arts create a platform for them to expand their literacy. Oral language is the most obvious area in which this growth might emerge, as children engage with an image or sculpture and begin to ask questions and make observations. There’s lots of opportunity to develop vocabulary skills here, whether through asking a very young child about colors and shapes or through asking older children about the ideas an artist may have had when creating a work of art. Drama is another one of the arts, and plays can provide children with the means to engage in repeated reading to build their fluency, all the while helping them to learn something about the world. Music can serve as a vehicle for helping children practice the very same rhythm and sounds that young readers need to develop for their phonemic awareness skills. Finally, the movement art of dance provides children with practice in both fine- and gross-motor skills and in cross-lateral coordination, which is the ability to synchronize movement on both sides of the body. All of these skills gained through creative movement and dance are also linked to skills for reading, handwriting, and reasoning.

Why is it important in distance learning?

Many of the outlets we’ve become accustomed to, such as public performances, museums, and such, are closed or significantly restricted due to community spread of the coronavirus. In addition, the amount of time that a teacher or school system devotes to the arts may be limited due to other instructional priorities. The arts are important for individuals and society, and this is a place that you can really supplement the experiences your children have. Here are a few quotes to consider:

• “I am my own muse, the subject I know best.” –Frida Kahlo
• “All art is self-portraiture.” –Kehinde Wiley
• “There are two distinct languages. There is the verbal, which separates people . . . and there is the visual that is understood by everybody.” –Yaacov Agam
• “A simple line painted with the brush can lead to freedom and happiness.” –Joan Miró
• “Great art picks up where nature ends.” –Marc Chagall
• “A picture is worth a thousand words.” –Unknown

Take action

Art and music build knowledge and foster creativity. However, in a distance learning environment these subjects might be shortchanged. There are still lots of ways to view and experience art in your home and online.

• ➔ Tour museums virtually. Over 2,500 museums worldwide offer virtual tours of their holdings and many of these are free. If you have a favorite local museum, check out their website to see if they offer virtual tours. Other prominent museums that offer free virtual tours include the British Museum in London; the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, South Korea; and the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.
• ➔ Take advantage of interactive virtual music and art experiences. Let your child explore percussion in hip-hop and make her own beats at Virtual Drumming. The link to this resource can be found on the companion website at resources.corwin.com/DLparents. The New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony have kid zone games and activities for young listeners. The Columbus Museum of Art is celebrating textual artist Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson’s 70th birthday with digital art building materials for your child to create his own work of art. Links to these resources can be found on the companion website at resources.corwin.com/DLparents.
• ➔ Make simple art supplies available. You don’t need elaborate art supplies or expensive kits to bring art expression into your home. Gather up supplies that are already in your house (e.g., crayons, glue, paper, stickers) and put them together in a plastic tub or other container. You may find that a collection of supplies is all that is needed to get your child going. Parent Sylvia Porras, a reviewer for this book, reminded us of her children’s re-creations of favorite books as well as new ones they made together, using pictures cut from magazines and mailed advertisements as illustrations.
• ➔ Find out about your child’s musical tastes and share your own. A recent report found that 85 percent of young people between the ages of 7 and 17 said that music makes them happy, and they rated this pastime equal to gaming and ahead of sport, drama, dancing, and arts and crafts. Your tween or teen may be listening to contemporary music that you don’t really understand, but put your own tastes aside and let them educate you on what they like and why. You can also share music you were listening to when you were their age and why it held meaning for you. You might both gain a new appreciation for a broader range of music.

 Key Messages

Art and music build knowledge and foster creativity. However, in a distance learning environment these subjects might be shortchanged. Remember:

• ➔ Bring the arts into your home using free and low-cost items.
• ➔ Bring the arts home virtually. There are so many museums and other art institutions that have made their collections accessible via the internet.
• ➔ Gather supplies around the house and put them together to foster impromptu creative expression.
• ➔ Talk with your child about music so you can learn something about one another.

The Value of Guiding, Not Telling

What is it?

In the course of assisting your child with a school assignment, you might find her stumped. You could give her the answer, but somehow that doesn’t sit quite right with you. But what should you do? Use a guided approach to instruction to get her to do the thinking.

OVER TIME, TELLING YOUR CHILDREN THE ANSWER WHEN THEY’RE STUCK CAN CONTRIBUTE TO INTELLECTUAL LEARNED HELPLESSNESS.

Why is it important?

Most of us have witnessed our children laboring over a school assignment. They’re stuck, and we’re not sure how to get them unstuck. There’s the temptation of telling them the answer. After all, that addresses the immediate problem of completing the task. But providing the answer doesn’t help them in terms of learning. In fact, over time it can contribute to an intellectual learned helplessness, in which they doubt their own ability and instead believe that help from someone else is the only solution. We are also not suggesting that the only alternative is to leave them feeling defeated and frustrated. Rather, a guided approach to instruction can be a bridge between what they know but may have temporarily forgotten, and what is new.

Any learner of any age requires practice with new skills and concepts. But the repetition and rehearsal of new skills is imperfect. In particular, what can happen is that in concentrating on the new they might overlook what they already know. As one nonacademic example, a budding basketball player working on a new passing technique may miss the rebound he needed to successfully execute in order to get the ball in the first place. In other words, a lot of learning is about being able to string together many ideas or techniques, not just about mastering one in isolation. That’s the temporary forgetting—in an effort to address one problem he overlooked something else that could have led to success.

Why is it important in distance learning?

When it comes to homework and projects students complete outside of the school day, there is always a risk that they get “help” from others and don’t actually do the thinking themselves. When students are in school, their teachers guide their thinking and provide prompts as they struggle. In distance learning, there is a potential for parents to inadvertently increase the amount of telling that their children experience. Well-meaning adults in their lives might think that they are helping when in fact they are reducing the learning opportunities that come from struggle.

Take action

When confronted with a problem that has stymied your child, move through a series of questions, prompts, and cues that can spark their thinking. This shouldn’t be a long and drawn out process. However, a few minutes of guiding their thinking may be just what they need to jumpstart their learning.

• ➔ Start with noticing what they know and don’t know. When your child provides an answer that is incorrect, know that it came from somewhere. Children rarely give an incorrect answer that makes no sense whatsoever. More often than not, your child’s answer reflects a partial understanding of something. There’s a gap between the things they know and the things they don’t know. What’s in that gap? Ask some questions to find out. Can you tell me more about that? Can you show me where you found that information? Why did you choose that answer?
• ➔ Ask questions to get them to notice their own thinking. Ask them what they do know about the problem they are trying to solve. These questions are mostly in the form of the 5 Ws: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? The purpose is to check on their factual knowledge and see if they have any misconceptions. It can be helpful to make note of what they are telling you. Sometimes you’ll find that simply asking them some questions is all they need to get going again.
• ➔ Prompt thinking by asking about background knowledge. When your initial questions aren’t sufficient, move to prompts that are a bit more specific. Prompts are reminders of overlooked sub-skills they need to complete the task. Often there are processes or procedures that they were taught previously but aren’t using in the moment. A writing assignment, for example, probably has a checklist or rubric that the teacher has used before. It may be enough to say, “Let’s look at the rubric to see what you might be missing.” A mathematics problem may require using an overlooked procedure. “Are you using the order of operations correctly?” Again, the prompt may be enough for them to regain momentum.
• ➔ Use cues to shift attention. While questions and prompts are often sufficient, there are times when they still aren’t quite there yet. Use cues, which are more overt, to shift their attention to the information they need to complete the task. You might repeat a statement they made back to them with some emphasis on the error: “Do some insects have six legs, or do all insects have six legs?” You might suggest, “Can you reread that second paragraph? I think you’ll find your answer there” or ask them to look back at a diagram or a glossary in their textbook.
• ➔ Provide an explanation of the answer. If your questions, prompts, and cues aren’t enough to bridge their understanding, you might choose to provide the answer. However, don’t just say “The answer is 24.” Tell them how you know that is the correct answer by explaining your thinking. This gives you the opportunity to reveal your own thinking processes. And if you don’t know the answer yourself, don’t be afraid to say so. Instead, ask them what they might do the next time they talk with the teacher. Children who can identify what they still need are learners who possess a great deal of insight about their own learning.

IN DISTANCE LEARNING, THERE IS THE POTENTIAL FOR PARENTS TO INADVERTENTLY INCREASE THE AMOUNT OF TELLING THAT THEIR CHILDREN EXPERIENCE.

 Key Messages

Use a guided approach when your child gets stuck on an assignment or task. By the way, this same approach works just as well when your child is trying to solve a problem at home (e.g., looking for her soccer cleats, completing chores, and running an errand). Remember:

• ➔ When you child is stuck, begin by noticing what they know and don’t know. Their incorrect answer might have a lot correct inside of it.
• ➔ Ask 5W questions to spark their thinking.
• ➔ If that isn’t sufficient, move to prompts that remind them of other skills or concepts they temporarily forgot to use.
• ➔ If they are still stuck, use cues, which are more obvious clues that shift their attention to where they might locate the answer or the information they need to complete the task.
• ➔ If they still don’t know, explain your thinking as you provide them with the correct answer. Encourage them to think about what they still need to learn so that when they talk to their teacher they can advocate well for themselves.

CHILDREN WHO CAN IDENTIFY WHAT THEY STILL NEED ARE LEARNERS WHO POSSESS A GREAT DEAL OF INSIGHT ABOUT THEIR OWN LEARNING.

The Value of Wait Time

What is it?

Wait time is the pause you provide your child after you ask an open-ended question, and again after they answer. The pauses allow your child some thinking time to contemplate and extend the answer. Wait time is a basic principle of teaching, but you’ll find it is also useful in nonacademic conversations, too.

Why is it important?

Consider how valuable it is when someone asks you a question that requires some thinking before you respond, and then actually gives you that time. That’s wait time. Typically 3 to 10 seconds in length, wait time is useful for children to gather their thoughts. Children in classrooms where the teacher is intentional about wait time have a lot fewer “I don’t know” replies. These pauses foster the kind of language growth young children need, especially in developing their vocabulary. Young people who are learning in a new language also benefit because it gives them the space they need to switch between languages. Older students in classrooms that use lots of wait time produce longer and more detailed answers.

When we are talking, we are filling up children’s brain bandwidth as they listen and try to understand what is being said. It’s only after we stop talking that the thinking can begin. Of course, you don’t need to provide wait time after every question asked, but it is worth doing so when the question is open ended, meaning that there is more than one possible answer. A close-ended question sounds like this: “What time is bedtime?” or “What is in a water molecule?” An open-ended question can be answered a number of ways: “What do you think is a good bedtime for a person your age and why do you think so?” or “What might happen if you took hydrogen out of water?” Providing a pause after asking an open-ended question gives your child time to think. Pausing after asking an open-ended question is called wait time 1. But there’s also wait time 2, which is another pause after the reply. Children who have provided an answer and then enjoy a few more seconds of quiet will often add on to their answer. They use more words, form longer sentences, and give additional ideas. It’s great for language development, but also for generating ideas.

PROVIDING A PAUSE AFTER ASKING AN OPEN-ENDED QUESTION GIVES YOUR CHILD TIME TO THINK.

Why is it important in distance learning?

Let’s face it, we’re all in a rush. There is so much to do in any given day, especially now that we are either working from home, looking for work, or leaving home as an essential worker. When your child was physically in school, teachers were taught to use wait time to encourage thinking. They will still do so in the sessions that they have with your children. And you can help by providing similar wait time experiences during the opportunities you have to engage with your child’s learning.

Take action

Wait time is useful in conversations that require deeper thinking. Asking comprehension questions during a bedtime story or helping your child work through an assignment requires more contemplation. Add wait time to your repertoire to encourage reflection. Some of the questions you ask of your child, whether academic or nonacademic, require some additional wait time to let them do some more thinking. Your questions might be during a story you are reading together, or as part of a school assignment they are completing. Consider using these techniques when wait time is of value, adapted from advice by educators Barbara Wasik and Annemarie Hindman:

• ➔ Model waiting and thinking. When your child asks you a question that requires some thinking on your part, make mention of the fact that you are thinking. “I’m thinking about what you just asked me. I have better answers when I take a few seconds to think.”
• ➔ Teach active listening. Active listeners focus their attention on the speaker, look at them, and listen quietly for the person to finish. Show your child the value of this in your conversations and encourage them when they do so.
• ➔ Do some silent counting. Notice the natural pauses you take in discussions with your child. You may be surprised to notice that it is as short as 1 second. Count silently to three or four to help you remember to pause when you’re asking an important question.
• ➔ Encourage your child to add words and ideas. Sometimes young people will answer in one word when you were really hoping for more. Asking them to “Say more about your idea” can encourage a bit more thinking.

 Key Messages

Add wait time to your repertoire to encourage reflection and to support your child’s language and thinking. Remember:

• ➔ Wait time is the practice of using short pauses of 3 to 10 seconds after asking an open-ended question.
• ➔ A second pause after they answer can encourage longer additional sentences and new ideas.
• ➔ Model how you give yourself wait time when answering big questions.

The Value of Practice

What is it?

Practice is how people learn a skill or concept. In schooling, practice is key to ensuring that a learner goes from acquiring new information to really owning it. Not all practice is useful, so knowing the difference between useful practice and unproductive practice can save you and your child some frustration and tears. Without practice, the instruction that the teacher provides is not likely to stick. And practice applies to more than just academics. As we will see in the next section, we also need to practice well-being.

KNOWING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN USEFUL PRACTICE AND UNPRODUCTIVE PRACTICE CAN SAVE YOU AND YOUR CHILD SOME FRUSTRATION AND TEARS.

Why is it important?

Think of the ways practice has figured into your life. Do you play a musical instrument? Does everyone come to you when they need something fixed? Have you taught your kids to throw a football with a tight spiral because you do it so well? Whatever your expertise, you undoubtedly gained it due to practice. You didn’t just wake up one morning suddenly knowing how to play the keyboards, fix electronics, or throw a ball accurately. You took advantage of practice opportunities to hone your skills. Practice is essential for academic skills, too. Whether it is learning to read, utilizing math skills, or understanding how chemical compounds respond, practice is how your child deepens skills.

But not all practice is created equally. Practice should be spaced and deliberate. We’ll use studying as an example because it is one form of practice. Most adults have had the unfortunate experience of cramming for a test the night before the exam. You stayed up late, read through your notes until your eyes were bleary, and then collapsed into bed. The next morning you took the test and probably didn’t do as well as you could have. All that cramming is called massed practice because you pulled one 5-hour session. But the brain doesn’t work like that. You would have been better off doing five 1-hour study sessions during the week before the exam. Same amount of time invested, but much better results because your brain would have had lots of chances to make connections. Improving any skill means that there needs to be some challenge. Effective practice is deliberate, meaning that some of it is devoted to the things that are harder to do. Someone who is practicing something that is hard isn’t going to be able to sustain the effort for long, but having regular short intervals is going to get better more quickly than a person who tries to do something hard once for a long time. The gym analogy works here: Short frequent intervals of a heavy exercise like lifting weights or running is going to deliver better results than working out once a month for a longer period of time.

PRACTICE SHOULD BE SPACED AND DELIBERATE.

Why is it important in distance learning?

It’s possible that you might be puzzled by the worksheets, practice quizzes, video tutorials, mathematics exercises, or reading responses your child is doing as part of his distance learning. Recognize that this may be a part of the practice he needs to do in order to truly master a skill or concept. If you are unsure of its worth, talk with your child’s teacher to find out more. Because practice work isn’t occurring in a space where the teacher can observe, it is more difficult to gauge the right dosage and level of challenge. The teacher may not be aware that your child is either racing through the assigned work, or laboring for far longer than seems reasonable because he needs more instruction. There is a list of apps that are helpful for students with disabilities that allow for practice (see Figure 8).

8 Apps Useful for Students With Disabilities

Apps for learners with dyslexia

• Sound Literacy—Sound Literacy provides a teacher, tutor, speech therapist, or parent a tool for enhancing literacy lessons. It emphasizes phonemic awareness, phonological processing, or morphemic word building. The app uses the Orton-Gillingham method to help students recognize the spellings of English phonemes.

• Phonics with Phonograms—Phonics with Phonograms is a fun, effective phonics recognition game that provides a complete picture of the phonograms needed to read and spell, eliminating thousands of “exceptions!” Students HEAR the sound, SEE the phonogram, and TOUCH the matching card.

• Epic—Epic is the leading digital library for kids, where kids can explore their interests and learn with instant, unlimited access to 40,000 high-quality ebooks, audiobooks, learning videos, and quizzes for kids 12 and under.

Apps for learners with autism

• Sight Words & Phonics Reading—Sight Words & Phonics Reading is a wonderfully comprehensive reading program for beginning readers (ages 2–8). It is a perfect way to learn phonics, sight words, tracing, and more.

• Choiceworks Calendar—The Choiceworks Calendar is a powerful picture-based learning tool that helps children learn what is happening day to day throughout each month. By presenting the abstract concept of time in a structured, visual format, Choiceworks Calendar helps children organize their lives as well as understand sequence and time.

• Verbal Me—This easy-to-use AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) and choice board app that allows users to tap a button and the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch speaks the button text aloud. Screen choices include yes/no, alphabet, numbers, interactive speaking clock, skip counting, opposites, world map, U.S. coins, bullying, getting dressed, using the bathroom, seasons, emotions, BINGO, body parts, life cycle of a butterfly, and custom screens with editable text and pictures.

• Autism iHelp—Autism iHelp is a vocabulary teaching aid developed by a speech-language pathologist and parents of a child with autism. Autism iHelp was inspired by the need for specific language intervention tools for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder focusing on their unique strengths and difficulty with expressive vocabulary.

Apps for learners with vision-related disabilities

• Dragon Dictation—Dragon Dictation makes it possible to transform voice to text and put your thoughts down anywhere, anytime. All you need is the app installed on Windows, Mac, iPhone, or Android phone, and your voice.

• TapTapSee—TapTapSee is a mobile camera application designed specifically for blind and visually impaired users, powered by the CloudSight Image Recognition API. TapTapSee utilizes your device’s camera and VoiceOver functions to take a picture or video of anything and identify it out loud for you.

• Talking Calculator—A comprehensive featured calculator that has large colorful buttons, optional high contrast, full VoiceOver support, and unique to this calculator: the option to use speech for answers, button names, and formulas!

Apps for learners with writing difficulties

• The Writing Machine—The Writing Machine is designed to start introducing your child to these preliteracy concepts of print, text, reading, and writing. The Writing Machine starts this process by introducing how one picture and one word go together. From this foundation, your child will begin to understand additional preliteracy concepts including how to read text from left to right and to tell words from letters.

• Letter School—The number-one alphabet tracing and words spelling app for toddlers and preschoolers. Recommended and used by parents, teachers, and occupational therapists!

• Word Magic—Word Magic is a literacy-based app that is aimed at helping children who are taking their first steps in learning how to read and write. It is an excellent application for children to have fun with words and their spellings and learn them. A picture is shown and the children should select the missing letter for the picture. The picture for the word will be read out. Based on the child’s level, you can choose the missing letter(s) at the beginning or in the middle or in the last.

Apps for learners who are Deaf or hard of hearing

• Sorenson BuzzCards—BuzzCards is an app designed to help the Deaf communicate easily with people who don’t sign. The app works like a deck of flash cards. You can create some cards ahead of time that you might need to use more often, such as “Where is the restroom?” or “Where is the nearest bus stop?” Your cards are kept organized by category to make them easy to find.

• ASL Kids–Sign Language—The ASL experts in this app are between the ages of 1 and 12, and they teach you common signs from the ASL dictionary and baby sign language. All hand signs, furthermore, are accompanied by a large image and an audio button designed to stimulate speech and hearing.

• Signed Stories—Best-selling children’s stories performed in American Sign Language with a free book, vocabulary builder, and fun learning games. There are awesome high-definition books from as little as 99¢/79pp selected to support Common Core State Standards and National Curriculum. Optional captions and subtitles can be customized and it is accessible for all children with narration, music, and sound effects.

Take action

Practice is an essential part of learning, although your child may not yet have a full understanding of why it is important. Here are some ideas to develop the habits and dispositions needed to make practice worthwhile:

• ➔ Help your child develop good habits for practice. Share what you know about spaced practice and the benefits of short regular intervals over one long (and often fruitless) cram session. Whether it is homework or studying, this is a habit that pays off over a lifetime.
• ➔ Speak positively about the practice work they are assigned. We recognize that there is a difference between busy work and practice. It’s busy work when your child already thoroughly knows the skill or concept and is just dashing through them to get it done. But if they are making some errors and having to struggle a bit, then it is useful practice. Learning isn’t error free and should be seen as something that is a natural part of the process. Your attitude toward practice gives your child insight about how he should perceive his schoolwork.
• ➔ Help him see that there is a difference between knowing something and doing something. Children can often confuse recognition of something with actually being able to do something with the information. Being familiar with a movie doesn’t mean you can make a movie. If he protests that “I read this once already!” or “She told us about this yesterday!” you might respond by digging a bit deeper about what he knows and how he is applying it.

 Key Messages

Spaced and deliberate practice moves learners forward on the path to mastery. Remember:

• ➔ Spaced practice of regular shorter intervals is far more effective than massed practice. Don’t tell your child to do all of the practice work at the same time.
• ➔ Some of the practice should be deliberate, which means focusing on the more challenging parts of a set of skills or concepts.
• ➔ Your beliefs about practice set the stage for your child to understand the value of practice.
• ➔ Check in with your child’s teacher if the practice work assigned is consistently too easy to too difficult.

Descriptions of Images and Figures

Back to Figure

The center of the wheel is labeled, Read to learn about. The different literary elements and the corresponding genres to learn about them are as follows.

Lived Lives:

• Biography
• Autobiography
• Memoir

New Forms:

• Graphic novels
• Sequential arts
• E-zines
• Blogs
• Wikis
• Fan fiction

Character and Plot:

• Historical fiction
• Realistic fiction
• Mystery

Alternative Universes:

• Science fiction
• Fantasy

Rhetoric and Opinion:

• Comparative essays
• Editorial
• Position piece
• Advertisements
• Propaganda

The World Around You:

• Informational
• News magazines
• News websites
• Technical

Spoken Word:

• Lyrical poetry
• Song lyrics
• Podcast
• Poetry
• Haiku
• Epics
• Plays

Archetypes:

• Fables
• Folktales
• Myths
• Legends