As vaccines roll out and schools head back for at least part-time in-person learning, many families will be thinking carefully about whether homeschooling will be the best choice for them in the coming year. NOTHING WILL BE PERFECT First off, it's best to be...
Reversing COVID Slide In MATH
]"Early testing data from this fall seem to bear out that the pandemic has hit students harder in math than reading." With increasing numbers of the population getting vaccinated, there's hope for more normalcy, but chances are with all of the disruptions and stress,...
Talking Through Math [Premium]
As the pandemic continues, more and more parents and tutors may find themselves supervising students’ math. For dyslexic students, the talking process can be especially valuable, but it may be difficult. If you are a parent or tutor helping explain a lesson or homework, it’s good to help your student talk through the steps of math; this may be especially difficult for some students. If a student has trouble finding words or has a limited working memory, talking through math may be difficult for a while until either or both of these functions develop. Such students may especially benefit when YOU talk through math, slowly and precisely. There are also ways to make the talking process easier – like having a list of math vocabulary […]
How to Avoid the Pandemic Wrecking Ball
The Boston Globe recently published an article saying that COVID-19 has been a wrecking ball for students struggling to read: "Instead of reading, we got websites and circle time.” "Daniel’s progress came to an abrupt halt after Medford Schools closed down in...
Not Falling Behind in MATH
"The studies vary in how severe they gauge the so-called “COVID slide” to be, but all of them found on average, students would lose more ground in math than in reading. Three studies based on NWEA data predicted students could learn half or up to a full year less math...
Crisis Schooling: The Dyslexia Edition [Premium]
Are you going to be homeschooling or perhaps willing to give traditional school a try under the new rules? Teacher mom blogger Heather Ann said this: “You are NOT homeschooling. You are CRISIS schooling. There is a huge difference. You may choose to homeschool after this, but this is not what homeschooling looks like, not even remotely.” I completely agree. If you are schooling, no matter what form, you are crisis schooling and not homeschooling or traditional schooling. Even with all of the protections in place, something is likely to go wrong, whether its activities that can’t be done, or unexpected quarantines because of someone at school or a co-working getting sick. And yet, with all the uncertainties on the horizon, it is possible for […]
COMMUNITY: Can I Homeschool My Child If I Am Dyslexic ?
Q: We would like to homeschool our son for the coming school year, but I would have to be the teaching parent and I'm dyslexic. Is this unrealistic or a bad idea? What advice do you have? A. Yes, it's still possible to homeschool, but as you might have...
COVID SCHOOLING: Should we be worried?
Short answer: NO. As at least half of the schools across the country closed for health reasons, students from the earliest ages to post-graduates find themselves schooling from home, usually through online programs. In the best situations, students have smoothly or...
Math Education During Pandemic
With many states ordering schools to remain shut for the remainder of the school year AND the prospect fall quarter may also be waived, there are certainly going to be gaps in math education. Parents and teachers must try to make as intelligent decisions as they can...
CLUES FOR UNRECOGNIZED DYSLEXIA (Middle School and High School)
Based on what we know about the incidence of dyslexia and the number of students that are formally identified, for every 1 person who is told of their dyslexia, there are 3 who are missed. Recent legislation is focused on the early years of education...K-2 especially....
Project-Based Learning for Dyslexic Students [Premium]
Related to the issue of digital portfolios is project-based learning. On the opposite page, there are quick reviews between learning through projects and true project-based learning or PBL. With PBL, the students assume a central role in the direction of the project and the end goal is to publish the project to the real world and not fill in checklists and answer to questions designed by a teacher. As it turns out, project-based learning is often a great fit for developing dyslexic MIND strengths (Material Reasoning, Interconnected Reasoning, Narrative Reasoning, Dynamic Reasoning) and as Kyle mentioned is a good fit for deep big picture thinkers who have the potential to ask good questions and see problems from multiple perspectives. Project-based learning also puts the focus […]
Sneaky Ways to Help with the Dyslexia-Related Long Word Challenges [Premium]
It’s not your imagination – it’s much harder for most children and adults with dyslexia to learn long words – and it has nothing to do with intelligence. The sneaky reason is that for most dyslexic people, learning a random sequence of sounds puts more demands on those phonological processing pathways in the brain that once made it hard to learn to read. It’s good to be aware of this difficulty and also know that it has no relationship to things like creative insight or problem solving ability, which might be sky high. It does mean that for certain subjects – like science vocabulary, geography place names, long people and place names in literature, and foreign languages, extra care and time may be necessary to […]