ASSETScope October 2013

The Monthly Newsletter

SCOPE ISSUE NO 97

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OCTOBER 2013

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www.ei-india.com

This Month’s Issue Helping struggling........ 01 Origin of the Talent.......02 EI’s ASSET................... 03 Role of short...................04 How have you............... 05 ESSAY WRITER............. 06 Teacher’s Bite............... 07 Mindspark Poster......... 08

Helping Struggling Readers Many teachers are concerned about the number of elementary children who struggle with reading.

Such concerns are warranted. Studies indicate that when students get off to a poor start in reading, they rarely catch up. Struggling readers encounter negative consequences: grade retention, assignment to special education classrooms, or participation in long-term remedial services.

Why Do Some Students Struggle with Reading?

Unfortunately, there are several causes of underachievement in reading. The four most common ones we found include 1) reading role models and life experiences, 2) the acquisition of reading skills, specifically phonics and comprehension, 3) visual processing, and 4) learning disabilities. When teachers proactively address these underdeveloped skills in the classroom, struggling readers can make progress.

The following is a list of ways you can help your struggling reader. These teaching strategies may be implemented in a school, a home or a homeschool setting.

Reading the words from left-to-right can be a difficult task for struggling readers.

Often, the words appear to move around, or the space between words is unclear. It helps to use a finger or a card underneath the words to help your eyes "track" and focus on each word and letter you are sounding out. This will train your eyes to focus on the word you are reading instead of skipping around, looking for other clues to simply guess at the word.

Reading Strategies for the Struggling Reader - Struggling readers often have many amazing strengths, such as building things; putting puzzles together; abilities in art, drama, and music; and they are very creative. Make sure to focus on those strengths and allow them experiences and success in those areas.

In order for someone to improve fluency, reading must become automatic. This happens when the struggling reader is able to see the word and quickly identify the patterns and sounds.

This can be accomplished by teaching the person the patterns of English (the Five Phonetic Skills) and how these patterns affect the vowels; the more they work with these patterns, the more they will develop this automatic orthographic reading ability, and their fluency will increase.

One of the best reading comprehension strategies is to make connections with what you are reading. Can you relate to any of the characters or to the story? If you make a connection to yourself, it is called a text-to-self connection; if you make a connection from the story you are reading to another story you have read, it is called a text-to-text connection; and, if you make a connection to something you have seen on the news or to an experience someone you know has had, it is called a text-to-world connection. Helping a struggling reader involves encouraging them to make as many connections as they can. The more connections they make, they better they will remember and comprehend the story.

Asking questions is another great reading comprehension strategy. If you ask questions about what is happening in the story, a character's feelings, or wonder what will happen next, you will be engaged in your reading, and that will help you understand on a deeper level.

Origin of the Talent Search Model In the summer of 1968, Julian Stanley, a professor at Johns Hopkins University learned about a 12-year-old boy named Joe. Joe was an excellent student for his age. In fact, he could be found helping graduate students in computer science with some of their projects. To test Joe’s intelligence, Dr. Stanley arranged for Joe to take the SAT, the college admissions test in the United States, the following fall when he was in the eighth grade. It turned out that Joe scored better than most Johns Hopkins students, even though he hadn’t even started high school. Despite his high scores, Joe’s school did not offer a curriculum that matched his educational needs. Thus, after searching for and failing to find an appropriate high school curriculum, Joe enrolled as an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins at the age of 13.

Joe was soon followed by other students, and Dr. Stanley began to formally investigate ways to identify students who reasoned exceptionally well mathematically and also to accelerate mathematics curricula to match the needs of these talented students. Thus, the modern academic talent search was born. Since then, talent searches have expanded to include verbal and other academic talents as well.

The talent search model seeks to: identify students who perform well above age-level in one or more academic areas; and fully develop those talents through academically appropriate challenging programs. Following the model founded by Dr. Stanley, talent search programs continue to rely on above-level tests. Using above-level tests helps differentiate a student who has mastered material far beyond what has been covered in class from the student who has mastered the on-level material.

In addition to above-level testing, talent searches also offer programs designed to serve students who score exceptionally high on above-level tests. In India last year, more than 1,700 students participating in the Duke TIP Talent Search took an above-level ASSET test, and the top scorers qualified for a three-week summer studies program. These programs provide accelerative and enriching opportunities to supplement the regular school curriculum while making sure they also avoid teaching students what they already know.

According to Stanley, the talent search model is based on three psychological principles: (a) learning is sequential and developmental, (b) children learn at varying rates, and (c) matching the content presented to a child’s needs is necessary for effective teaching.

Talent search programs should provide the brightest students the “educational opportunities they sorely need and, in my opinion, richly deserve for their own optimal development and the good of society” (Stanley, 2005, p. 9). Stanley (2002) also stated that having “intellectually talented youth live together, study a single subject intensively, and socialize together… has enormously enhanced value as compared with the mainly academic facilitation of the commuter courses.”

Today, many educators refer their top students to participate in talent searches. Understanding the goals of talent searches and their programs should help parents in their decision-making process about whether talent search participation is right for their child or not.

By Dr. Matthew Makel, Gifted Education Research Specialist www.tip.duke.edu

EI’s ASSET : A True ASSET for every school Our journey with EI’s ASSET began way back in 2002. With our mission to make children life-long learners and our aim to ensure that they are well-equipped with skills for the future, we felt ASSET was a possible solution to the myriad questions that were emerging at a time of tumultuous change in educational perspectives – relevance of the bookish method of learning; marks –oriented assessments; the dying skill of deeper understanding in the face of competition and rote memory; a quick-fix superficial flow of mediocre graduates v/s a truly educated and potentially contributory work force.

It was difficult in the beginning, when many parents weren’t convinced of its possible value. However, our faith in EI and what it stands for, coupled with the emerging advantages and successes in the student results have more than stood the test of time and conviction. In the many years that we have conducted ASSET at St Kabir, we have found a remarkable improvement in learning standards with active participation by all the three stakeholders - the students, teachers and the parents.

ASSET has facilitated us to: Implement the new order of the day i.e. ‘Understanding by Design’; wherein the concepts and questions are posed with relevance to real-life application and critical thinking skills.

Shift the focus from the WHAT to the WHY of learning and from the competitive memory-based judgmental dead-ended tests, to a more childfriendly, skill-based diagnostic assessment, with suggested pathways for improvement.

Benchmark ourselves with schools across the country to provide our children with a national and international rating perspective.

Use the scientifically formulated data analysis to helps us in identifying the areas for overall improvement (for the student, for the teachers in the classroom and for the parents in a supportive role).

Initiate the techniques of ‘scaffolding’; wherein our teachers are able to adjust the level of assistance in response to the students’ performance.

Increase the level of positive and encouraging guidance for improvement leading to independence in learning and spirit of inquiry.

Our faith in the endeavors by EI continues and we are appreciative of all the accolades and honors that the core EI team has been receiving on the national and international stages, especially the recent one in Finland.

Recently, we have initiated Mindspark as an integral element in the curriculum in St. Kabir Indian International School, Vadodara, and the children are now enjoying Mathematics in a manner never dreamt off.

Our felicitations to the entire EI team, and we look forward to many more exciting services that help to keep the innate spirit of creativity, curiosity and inquiry intact and vibrant in our young minds.

We wish EI all the best in their new initiatives.

Ms. Radhika Tandon, Managing Trustee St. Kabir School, Vadodara

1.Use

picture books as a tool for exploring emotions - Choose books that illustrate the facial expressions of the characters in the story. For older students, choose picture books with themes appropriate to young, as well as adult, readers. Read the book to students, noting facial expressions, emotions, conflicts, actions, and reactions to the characters and outcomes. Then, teach students the vocabulary for the characters' emotions.

3.Teach

2.Play

4.Help students connect their emotions and their

emotional charades! - Write many different emotions down on slips of paper and put them in a bag or hat.

Have students take turns picking an emotion to portray and acting out that feeling, without speaking, in front of the class.

The rest of the class must then guess which emotion is being portrayed.

empathy - When students are involved in a conflict, help them to understand how the other person feels.

Ask them how they would feel if they were in the other's shoes. By helping students to identify and understand not only their own emotions, but also the emotions of others, teachers and parents can help young people to more successfully label and understand emotions in general.

body language - Ask them to recall a situation that made them feel happy, sad, angry, or any other emotion. Have students draw a picture of a facial expression to match the given emotion and then share the pictures with the class.

Seeing how students' pictures differ will help to determine how each student views each emotion.

5.To help students understand situations that cause them to experience a specific emotion, ask students to think about which

emotions they most commonly feel and what makes them feel that way. If students realize that the same situation always make them feel sad or hurt, they will most likely avoid that situation or learn a new way to deal with it. This will help students develop better ways to deal with conflicts and emotions.

Role of Short Online Quizzes in Exam Preparation

We’ve heard a lot about the conventional methods - classroom learning, practice exams, simulation-based testing - that have

been employed to assist students in preparing for these key exams. Long tests and practice exams are often appropriate preparation methods however sometimes they may be too broad-based or inflexible to fit a student’s need to work on specific weak areas.

Short, material-targeted practice quizzes have proven to be effective in helping students strengthen specific weak areas. Students who have used short quizzes in conjunction with traditional, practice exam preparation methods have reported strikingly positive results.

What

makes short quizzes so effective in preparing for exams? A major factor is the ability of a short quiz to test a specific area of knowledge rather than all of the required material. For example, the SAT Critical Reading test contains two major sections of questions "Reading Comprehension" and "Vocabulary in Context" and even within these questions, different types appear. For example, a student may be very bad at summarizing a passage’s main focus, which in turn results in him getting a lower score every time on a major practice test. With shorter quizzes on only the main focus questions, the student will be able to quickly see how much room he has for improvement.

Pinpointing weaknesses, however, is only one part of the equation. With shorter quizzes, students can also receive customized feedback. Online practice quizzes in particular offer students the chance to receive instant feedback, which can be very helpful if a student is trying to "cram" for a big exam. Most students who take online practice quizzes agree that instant feedback is a major reason why they take the quizzes instead of simply reading preparation material or “cram sheets.” Candidates for IT certification, for example, will often need to read explanations for the answers to questions as many of the questions will test each candidate’s ability to analyze rather than to simply recall knowledge.

Online quizzes also offer the ability to include special media

in questions that may appear on actual exams. For example, GED exams sometimes feature specialized images or pictures in order to assist the test-taker on a particular problem. Some IT or professional certification exams may even require a video demonstration of a particular problem to troubleshoot.

All of this media and more can be included on an online practice quiz, which can significantly improve the testing experience and offer a great deal of realism to the test-taker.

The shorter length of the online quizzes combined with the customized feedback makes for an incredibly personalized and flexible exam preparation experience. Students note that while these large exams are useful to take as gauges or diagnostics, short quizzes are useful to improve on a specific weakness. In response, these same students have turned to a preparation regimen that includes both full-length exams and frequent quizzing.

It’s

not by chance that so many students are using short, targeted online quizzes to quickly enhance their exam scores.

The flexibility of these quizzes, coupled with their customizable feedback, offers to the test-taker the chance to improve on the areas that they need the most help with. In conjunction with classroom learning, everyday studying, and practice examinations, short quizzes can offer students the ability to significantly improve their performance on even the toughest exams.

How Have You Contributed to Your Students’ Ability to Retain Material?

In your role as a teacher, you are focused not only on delivering important information to your students, but also on demonstrating why that information is meaningful and how they will use it. Mastery and comprehension are, of course, critical to learning, since lessons build upon one another. How do you help your students understand and retain their lessons?

It has been suggested in studies that students may only retain between 20%-40% of major points in a lesson. However, there are definitely positive things that teachers can introduce in their lessons that will help students retain more material. One important point to keep in mind, although it may be difficult to put into effect, is to try to avoid introducing too many new concepts and information all at once. Although there are strict deadlines that teachers have to stick to concerning the curriculum, it can be overwhelming for students to be subjected to too much information.

By presenting small amounts of new information in a lesson, you will have the opportunity to provide students with more time, more examples, more repetition, and more reflection on the topics you cover. When you do introduce a new topic, a great method is to relate an anecdote or discuss a relevant current event to illustrate key concepts. Students are very receptive to this technique, and you will typically have no trouble holding their interest when you move smoothly into the lesson, thus increasing the likelihood that they will remember and retain the material.

Don't simply lecture to your students; engage them in an interactive learning session. Having students experience the lesson concepts in hands-on activities will help them to retain the material. Find out what they think about the subject, and let them lead the discussion. By relating the material to concepts that students can relate to, they will be better able to understand the material being presented.

Have students brainstorm their own examples of the concept, and help them develop analytical skills to break down the material into “bite-sized” pieces they can master one piece at a time.

For younger grade levels, songs and music can be used to improve retention through fun and interactive repetition. For the higher grade levels, group problem-solving activities are effective in engaging students in the material. Group collaboration also teaches them skills for working together as a team.

For younger grade levels, songs and music can be used to improve retention through fun and interactive repetition. For the higher grade levels, group problem-solving activities are effective in engaging students in the material. Group collaboration also teaches them skills for working together as a team.

Your prospective employer will be very interested in learning about the tools and techniques you use to help your students comprehend and retain the material you are teaching them. If you use some particularly unique visual aids, hands-on activities, or other tools, create a portfolio you can share during the interview. Even better, have a colleague videotape you leading your class in a lesson, then create a DVD presentation you can leave behind at the conclusion of the interview. It will leave a lasting impression!

By: Candace Davies

Teachers’ Day Celebrated At Birla School, Kalyan The Teachers’ Day was celebrated at Birla School in a very innovative way by inviting the Grandparents to become teachers for the day.

The preparations for the same began by inviting all the grandparents who expressed their wish to participate and briefing them about the day and finding out the subject and class to which they would like to teach.

A systematic timetable for the day was prepared and the grandparents were given the timetable. Finally on the Teachers’ Day the enthusiastic grandparents were welcomed at the entrance in a traditional manner with aarti and tilak. They were then led to attend the school assembly and were greeted generously by the students with large round of applause and presenting them with cards and flowers as a token of love and respect for them.

They were then led to the library where they assembled for the day with prefects and teachers helping them and guiding

them to their respective classes. It was heart rendering to see the zest and energy pumping in them to teach their grandchildren.

After the classes they came together for refreshment. The principal and all the teachers interacted with them. It was a very emotional moment when the grandparents expressed their experiences. They unanimously said that it was a moment they would cherish for the rest of their life. The grandparents gave standing ovation to the principal and teachers of Birla School for organizing such an eventful programme, respecting the grandparents to once again enjoy their life. They were reminded of their childhood and literally the tears were noted rolling down their cheeks a symbol of ecstasy.

We all know that good writing skills are an invaluable asset in all fields, be it the workplace or academia. A well-written essay can make all the difference between a good paper and a great one!

Mindspark Essay Writer is a new tool from the makers of ASSET and Mindspark to help students develop their writing skills. It has been built to provide students with quality feedback on their writing, which many of us are often unable to receive in our immediate environment. Our team of expert evaluators gives detailed and productive feedback, on writing parameters ranging from basic syntax and grammar to the tone and style of writing. We update our site with new features for students regularly. Students of all ages can use the Essay Writer.

Improving one's writing is a matter of consistent effort and hard work. Mindspark Essay Writer provides students with specific, detailed and prompt feedback and guidelines that channelize their effort and help them become great writers. So, students, write essays regularly, try to incorporate the feedback from our experts - then watch your writing improve week after week!

If your objective is to gain academic excellence, or even simply to become a better writer, Mindspark Essay Writer is the place to start.

For more details for students and evaluators, please visit http://mindspark.in/essaywriting

India – My Country A Platform to Cultivate Appreciation for India's Cultural Diversity Jammu and Kashmir – The Paradise on Earth Brokpa Community of Ladakh – The Purest Descendents of the Ancient Indo-Europeans The Brokpas are a small community of Dard People in Ladakh.

The community inhabits the Dha – Hanu Valley about 163 km southwest of Leh in Ladakh.

According to some scholars, they are the purest descendents of the ancient Indo-Europeans.

The Brokpa mostly live in Dha and Hanu Villages. They speak in an archaic form of Shina language. They are Buddhist, however, animist and Bon rituals still survive.

While Brokpa folklore says that the community arrived from Gilgit in Pakistan just across the LOC, there is a view that they are actually descendents of Alexander the Great’s army. They have lived isolated lives for centuries in such an inaccessibly harsh terrain that they seem to have kept their DNA unattained by outsiders.

The Brokpa people are known for their exotic look. The women are marked for their elaborate floral head-dresses, which they wear even when they work in the fields. The headdress includes rows of coins stitched together for ornamentation and bright ribbons.

Even men sport a flower or two. Brokpas not only look and dress ‘exotic’, they also behave differently. The local deity worshipped abhors cows and chicken, hence both are considered taboo.

More information on : www.facebook.com/indiadiversity

Q: Q:

Who has most influenced you to become an educator, and how did they influence you?

My extraordinary teachers, right from school through college and university, have been my inspiration. Learning was made an exciting and interesting experience and the spirit of enquiry has stayed with me.

Q:

What is your approach to classroom management and student discipline?

To manage a class you must know your students. The teacher should be aware of the interests and attitudes of the students.

If every student participates without inhibition discipline is ensured automatically.

What are your views regarding the Importance of Teacher Training and Development in educating students?

I feel teachers should have regular courses to enhance their knowledge of the subject, short term courses to acquaint themselves with technology, and training on handling children’s emotional demands.

Q:

What is your view regarding the ASSET Test?

ASSET tests are very comprehensive and scientific. The feedback on class performance certainly helps a teacher understand the challenges of the class better and work towards developing strategies to face them.

One of the most significant events in post-medieval history of the world is the Industrial Rrevolution. Which took place in Great Britain in the 19th century.

Prof Jeremy Black explains Industrial Revolution in British history through the BBC documentary ‘Why the Industrial Revolution Happened Here’. In the documentary, which is one-hour long, Prof Black explains the unique economic, social and political conditions that by the 19th century had triggered Great Britain as the richest and most influential nation on earth. It was a time that transformed the way people think, work and play forever.

The documentary traces the unprecedented explosion of new ideas and technological inventions that transformed Britain’s agricultural society into an increasingly industrious and urbanised one.

The documentary explored two fundamental questions – when did the industrial revolution happen and why did it happen in England.

Prof Black discussed the reasons behind this transformation, from Britain’s coal reserves which gave it a seemingly inexhaustible source of power, to the ascendency of political liberation, with engineers and industrialists able to meet and share ideas of inventions.

The documentary is uploaded on YouTube and is a MUST for high school students and teachers.

By: Jitu Mishra Educational Specialist

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