Learning How to Learn

 

It’s taken the second semester of grade 7 to feel like I’m finally understanding how to reinforce what J’s learning at school at home. I feel like we’re starting to get a good system going with J’s paras and teachers in how to modify assignments, tests, and practice assignments that will help J learn the best.

J’s strengths lie in memorization, and he does really well with flashcards (homemade ones or through Quizlet. Are you familiar with Quizlet? It’s a wonderful free little app that lets you practice through flashcards, matching, definitions, etc). He’s funny with the memorization though. You give him a map of Africa and he can fill out all 55 countries in 2 min or less, but you give him a human body and it’s a lot harder for him to label that “map.” One thing I’m learning with him is that all skills aren’t equal. If it’s a subject he’s interested in, then you’ve hit the memorization jackpot (think superhuman skills–I’m not exaggerating on this). If it’s something he’s not interested in, he can still memorize it, it takes more time and diligent practice. That’s one thing that we’ve been working with his teachers and paras. Trying to get notes and terms and concepts home ASAP so we can start working on them weeks before the test (not a few days before). I know it sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s a lot harder than it sounds. It takes a lot of coordination, and a lot of stuff being sent home and sent back to school. I’ve been really excited this last month, however. I feel like we’re getting into that back and forth groove.

J came home with some AWESOME practice sheets his para made for him to help him study the human body. BIG versions of the traditional 8 1/2 x 11 computer printouts and laminated so he can use a dry erase marker to do that repetitive practice (also to accommodate his handwriting issues!). He also has flash cards to practice the functions and definitions of certain things (mechanical digestion, chemical digestion, arteries, etc). His science teacher has modified the amount of content J has to know (he has to label 10/16 bones on the skeleton, 4/11 parts of the heart–right/left ventricle and right/left atrium, etc). Enough to give him an introduction of the human body and practice a way of learning and studying without overwhelming him.

Labeling the ventricles on the heart

Identifying bones

Practicing the definitions through handwriting and modified paper

J is also a nontraditional learner. His body language can fool you into thinking he’s not paying attention, tired, or checked out. This first video shows him practicing Latin numbers. With his head on the table, it looks like he’s checked out, but if you listen to him, you can tell he’s really concentrating (and trying not to look at the answers on the table). Don’t judge my Latin pronunciation–the only language I know besides English is French, and J has already corrected me a few times of my French-ish pronunciation of Latin terms. This is one of a million reasons why his paras are so important–they can undo any damage I do when I don’t teach him things exactly right.

J earns jellybeans for studying masses of words or definitions. Since he has to learn his colours in Latin, I make him tell me what the Latin colour is and the Latin number of jelly beans before he gets it. Whether we’re studying Latin or the heart. It’s good “not studying” studying.

Sometimes we use Quizlet, and sometimes I make a homemade version. Here’s J practicing his Latin colours through matching.

I also try to mix up the ways we practice things (like the jellybeans). Here’s J identifying body parts by just touching his body.

It’s taken a lot of coordination and a lot of organization (personally–I am not an organized person by nature). I try to get as much of my work and writing done before the kids come home so we can focus the rest of the night on studying. Sometimes I have to multitask and make dinner, but we make sure we do the daily practice DAILY. I admit there are some nights where I just don’t want to do it (and think his paras can do it during resource) but in order for J to really learn (and understand what he’s learning is important) we need to reinforce at home. Sometimes it’s a fight. Most times he’s willing to practice.

It’s not Pintrest worthy, but here are my binders for J’s practice sheets and studying. That way I don’t have piles of papers on our counters and I can keep copies of practice sheets and Ziplocs for flash cards and other study helps with each separate subject. This has made my life a million times easier.

The funny thing about this whole study experience, is that I’m learning all of this over again as I’m working with him. I don’t know exactly where my trachea or small intestine is, and I get along just fine. I always Google things when I need to. I have a basic idea of what an artery is, but I don’t remember the exact definition. I know that blood flows in and out of our heart in different directions, but I don’t remember how or where that happens until I start reading his textbook again. J’s teachers and I go back and forth a lot on what exactly will be helpful for J to learn and what won’t matter in the end. But the more I work with him I realize, that the content he learns now isn’t the only thing that matters. Most of us forget at least half of the content (or more) learned in middle school and high school by the time we graduate. It’s the practice and discipline and thinking skills that are the most important for J to learn, because those are the real life skills most of us develop in our public school experience. It’s those skills that take us into our post secondary education or job sites and it’s those skills we practice daily that get us the knowledge that’s most applicable for us.

So on the days I’m frustrated when J forgets where his gastrocnemius muscle is (ps, it’s not in your stomach like you’d think) when he absolutely knew where it was the day before I try not to get discouraged. Because in the end, learning to learn is a process. And that’s a whole lesson in itself.

Working With the Handwriting Enigma

Through the last few months of school, I’ve been itching to work on J’s handwriting problems. With school going on, I couldn’t squeeze in the time or afford another homework battle when we had so many other things to do. Ever since he was three years old, J’s worked with an OT on his fine and gross motor skills. At three years old, he had already started Handwriting Without Tears (http://www.hwtears.com/hwt). He loves handwriting. He’s the only kid his age that I know who actually chooses cursive over printing. In fact, when I have my college students write in-class assignments, every single assignment comes back to me printed. Printed. Apparently kids these days don’t use cursive anymore.

J wasn’t always terrible at handwriting and printing. In fact, he was amazing. He entered kindergarten already knowing upper and lower case letters. Because he could print, we could get into his mind in ways we couldn’t through his speech because he’s much better at expressing himself through writing than he is through speaking.

Here is a sample of J’s printing right when he started kindergarten.

(This is J expressing his anxiety over light switches, shortly after our move to Fargo. It looks big, but it’s actually on a note card)

Printing and writing are a way he can process the world around him. Here is a map he drew of our neighborhood, including circles for Christmas lights and flags.

(This is about grade one or 7-8 years old)

This is J’s writing today. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if he needed daily practice on his writing skills, or just trying to keep up with new concepts in class was too much combined with the fine motor skills required for printing/handwriting, but his writing just exploded–literally–all over the page. And I’ve noticed in the last year or two it’s gotten worse and worse:

Copying out one definition

Word on top of words

Teachers tell me over and over that handwriting doesn’t matter anymore. That kids type everything now, and that J will be just fine (he can type more wpm than me). But I don’t buy it. There is much more to writing than just writing words down. Handwriting plays a crucial role in our lives. It forces us to synthesize information when we write it down (because we can’t write nearly as fast as we can type), while we tend to type things verbatim on the computer. Studies are finding our brains retain information better when we write things down than when we type them. http://www.npr.org/2015/05/27/408794237/in-a-digital-chapter-paper-notebooks-are-as-relevant-as-ever

J’s not developmentally at the point he can synthesize information, but he needs to write. The last two months of this school year I realized it was the only way he could study and remember his social studies words (like Peloponnesian Wars, Delian League, Pericles, etc). It’s like his brain needed to feel the words through his pencil in order to retain them.

And then there’s math:

He doesn’t even have enough room to complete the next step

Handwriting requires visual spatial planning. J is really good at math, he knows every single step in answering an equation, but won’t get it right unless he dictates the steps and numbers to a para educator. In fact he’ll get it wrong every single time on his own because he can’t line things up.

So yeah, I’m going to say handwriting is pretty important to this kid.

Ever since school has been out, J and I practice handwriting every single day. He’s done it in the past, I know he can do it again. About a month before school was out, one of J’s paras ordered printing paper for him (like he had back in elementary school), he seemed to get the hang of it pretty quickly again. Math was still a problem. We’ve tried grid paper in the past, but it was just too visually overstimulating for him. There were too many boxes, and sometimes (like fractions) it was hard to organize it on the page. So I  decided to make my own paper. It was really crude, but I cut strips of construction paper, glued them on printer paper, and then took it to the UPS store and made $25.00 worth of copies. This is how it turned out:

And this is J using it for math:

Three completed problems

And this is J using it for handwriting:

I added bars in a different color so that he can see how he needs to account for spacing and how to plan the size of his letters

In fact, a few days ago, I couldn’t find a modified paper for him as we were studying geography so I pulled out a regular sheet of paper and it’s amazing!

(He still takes more than one line to write his letters, but HUGE improvement)

Anyone else struggle with handwriting? What kind of creative things have you come up with? What problems do you encounter?