Return-Path: <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id f57EeKf00870; Thu, 7 Jun 2001 10:40:20 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 10:40:20 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3B1F9174.CAF5CD86@ellijay.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Art LaChance <arthur@ellijay.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-LD:3486] Re: FW: Humiliating Awards Ceremony at Sc X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; I) Status: O Content-Length: 3176 Lines: 55 Andrea, When you see both sides of the equation it becomes easier to see the connecting factors. How common elements fit together to produce a product. You and I have talked on other list(s) about the effects of negative emotion on the response systems of the brain and how that affects integration of environmental information. I have seen children who did not absorb, for whatever reason, the clues to long division (for example). They begin to generate negative self concept as a direct result of not being able to keep up with the Joneses. After two or three years (grades) of this they are so far gone skill-wise the impetus to "go to school" is just gone. By now they are very possibly behavior problems in an effort to avoid learning situations at all costs, which is survival skills coming to the surface. The obvious sign that something is wrong academically at this point is that the child "can't learn to do basic algebra" at his/her grade level. While the real problem is that the child doesn't "understand", and I wish to emphasize "understand", long division processes (or multiplication, or fractions, or decimals, or any of the prerequisites that lead into a complete understanding of algebraic reasoning). Why else would it be that when we fix the problem in helping the child to understand long division, the behavior problems go away and the child is OK with school, and math, again? Is this just in math? Nope. Quite frequently, I find adults and children who can read one word at a time, sometimes really fast too, yet can't put those words into context. They can read words but not be able to combine them into a concept. They may know what punctuation is and not be able to "read it" or write it. When we teach them to read a single sentence as a complete thought, no matter how simple a sentence it is, it's like a giant light comes on and their eyes get real big and the problem is over. And I wonder deeply, how did they get here. Word lists maybe? My first experience with this was several years ago when I worked with the "best reader" in the third grade class. "He can read very well, just has no comprehension". (quotes from his teacher with lots of teaching experience). We fixed the reading for concept problem as noted above and he went on to bigger and better things without the emotional hangups related to reading. They just spontaneously disappeared. You tell me why that happens. Nowadays we see that particular problem,and the math problem, almost every week in the adults we work with. Art AWilder106@aol.com wrote: > Art, > > What you say is really interesting , because you work the other side of the > street in two ways, thorugh adult education and through working with children > who are "in trouble" with reading in school. Yo usuggest, because you've > done it, that children in trouble can be taught the needed skills and then > they can become part of a regular school population and not be "counseled > out" at a later date...at which point you see them also! Muc hof the > "problem" does not reside IN THE CHILDREN but in the interaction between > teachers and students IN THE SCHOOL. > > Andrea
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