You suggested remind.com. Many of my 6th graders do not have their own phones. Using the remind.com service with parents is spotty, as many of their phone numbers have changed or been shut off. Any help you could give would be appreciated. Thank you! – Krysten Smith

Dear Krysten: Sometimes, connecting student and parent, and getting parents to respond, can be difficult. And I agree, punishing the student for something the parent failed to do just doesn’t seem right. So, I brought the question to teachers who follow my Facebook page. I received some great answers, and they may help in this situation.

One teacher had students from an economically distressed area. Some parents worked two or three jobs and were so strapped for time that they couldn’t remember to sign papers from the school. Other parents didn’t seem to care. “We were able to find a lawyer who worked with our social worker. The kids were being punished for not getting papers signed. The lawyer drew up power of attorney for specific signing privileges between the parent and after school director, who was the one anyway watching over the kids homework, making sure kids were aware of the needs the next day.”

Another person suggested getting the parent-teacher organization to become more proactive. “PTO could be more flexible to work with these families or go to them! Some of our Esps go to them at a meeting place at night mainly for the kids but the parents too. They can’t just drop [the kids off] and go. The high risk kids in turn are doing much better at school.”

And a third noted that their school’s guidance counselors will often call to get verbal permission or agreement from parents if the parent is home during school hours.

Finally, multiple people wondered if the school could send the necessary forms via email or text, and accept a digital signature or confirmation reply. This would offer a multipronged approach—both paper and electronic versions of the documents that need to be signed—and give parents more convenient options to reply. Automated reminders could also be sent out to email addresses or phone numbers.

My thanks to everyone who replied! I sent all of the responses on to Krysten. We know that connecting student and parent is sometimes difficult to manage and I hope teachers who are dealing with a similar solution will be able to use some of the above suggestions, too!

CLICK HERE to discover a wealth of teaching strategies and resources for maximizing student success!.

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Featured seminar – Differentiation Strategies to Reach ALL Learners in the Inclusive Classroom

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1. Try to get a complete picture of the child’s “homework scene” Encourage parents to discuss the details of working with their child at home such as where the homework is done, where the child is sitting, and where the parents are during homework time.

2. Encourage parents to establish one space, preferably quiet, in the home for doing homework.

3. Try to get parents/partners to work together with children on homework. On a given night, one parent may be able to get results that the other can’t.

4. Encourage the use of props, especially for counting. These could include toys, objects such as clothespins, or favorite foods.

5. Encourage parents to ask questions about the homework and education of their child. Remember, this could be unfamiliar territory to them, and they may feel intimidated. When possible, make sure that both parents hear your answers.

6. Start a notebook for parents and include your professional e-mail address. Communicate frequently.

7. If your homework doesn’t seem age/grade appropriate, send short explanations home telling why you’re assigning it. This will motivate parents to help complete the homework.

8. Convey as many tips and tricks from the classroom as possible to parents. For instance, my son’s teachers had him using little pencils, like those from a miniature golf course, to improve his grip when writing.

9. In conferences, the parents may be in front of you, but sometimes the whole family is attending the conference, even if the siblings or grandparents aren’t there. If you have the right relationship with the parent, ask about the siblings.

10. Help make it clear which routines and educational tools for children with special needs should be similar and which should be different between home and school.

11. Try to not lecture parents on matters outside your expertise.

12. Your parents are going to be trying their own tactics. Communicate and learn from them.

Jill Cornfield and Jeff Stimpson’s son Alex is 11 and diagnosed with autism (PDD-NOS). Stimpson is the author of Alex: The Fathering of a Preemie, and Alex the Boy: Episodes From a Family’s Life With Autism.

CLICK HERE to discover a wealth of teaching strategies and resources for maximizing student success!.

Bring Susan to your campus!

Featured seminar – Differentiation Strategies to Reach ALL Learners in the Inclusive Classroom

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Homework is controversial. There’s research that says it’s not beneficial. There’s research that indicates that it increases achievement. Which is it? Because I know that I need to do some “homework” no matter whether it’s school work or practicing my Kung Fu, I believe there is value on what I call “do-able” homework. The goal of homework is to take something learned earlier in the day and bring it back into working memory before bedtime. Research shows that practice increases recall the next day. It’s not about quantity, or the amount of time spent on the homework. Rather, it’s about forcing your brain to remember what was learned several hours ago and thereby building those neural connections.

As parents, we can use homework strategies to adapt assignments to our child’s learning preferences so that they retain what they learned in school earlier in the day. How? Here is a list of seven strategies that you can use at home to help your child increase their academic performance and make the homework experience more enjoyable, rewarding, and productive.

How to remember the sequence of events

1. To help your child remember the sequence of events in a story or history lesson, have them create a cognitive map with words and pictures. Using visual images to represent facts or a series of events helps to enhance recall and learning. By using colored pencils, crayons, or even colored fonts on a computer, your child can create a step-by-step map of the story – complete with descriptions of events and drawings or clip art to help them remember what happened, in sequence.
2. Another way to help your child remember a sequence of events in a story or history lesson is to have them create a sequence chart. Think of this as a time line or story line that shows events drawn out and written in chronological order. Although this can be done on any type of paper, long adding machine tape works well. Don’t forget to use color and visuals to increase memory.

How to Study Vocabulary Words

3. Increase vocabulary retention by creating visual flash cards. This strategy uses visual images to enhance recall and learning. Have your child write their vocabulary word on an index card and then place a border around it. The border will help them memorize what the word looks like. Then have them draw, print from the internet, or cut out from magazines pictures that help define the word. Attach the visual to the front of the card. On the back of the index card, have your child write the definition and a silly sentence using the word to help them remember the definition.

Foldable Note-Taking

4. Create a “fold-able.” A fold-able is a small book made out of folded pieces of paper that can become a study guide for various things. For example, your child can make a fold-able for a series of vocabulary words, historical figures, or even the cell cycle. Each page of the mini book would display, through words and drawings or pictures, one vocabulary word, a historic figure and related fact, a stage in the cycle of a cell, etc. http://foldables.wikispaces.com/

Have your Child Teach You!

5. It has been shown that we learn and retain the most when we teach someone else – so be your child’s student! Divide up their vocabulary list into manageable chunks (start with two to three words per night), then have them learn to finger spell or sign the words on their list and teach them to you.

Mnemonic Strategies

6. Increase their ability to remember by teaching your child to use various memory devices such as mnemonics, associations, rhyming, chunking, acronyms, and acrostics. These devices help us to remember the order of things as well as facts and concepts. What works for one child may not work for another, so test each device and see what works best. Some examples:

A mnemonic: I Am A Person – The four oceans (Indian, Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific),

An acrostic: Mallory Valerie Emily Meetzahs Just Served Us Nachos – The order of the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune).

A rhyme: 30 days has September; April, June, and November.

Famous Figure Wanted Poster

7. A fun way to help your child remember facts and concepts about famous figures is to have them create “wanted posters.” Have your child either use the computer or hand draw a wanted sign, complete with a picture of the famous figure. Then have them write the name of the person, their date of birth, and a list the “crimes” (facts) the person is “wanted” (famous) for – these will be facts about the person’s life and accomplishments. For example, Susan B. Anthony would be wanted for helping women gain equal rights.
http://mrslampkinsandmrsshawsclass.blogspot.com/2012/09/wanted-dead-or-alive.html

Remember, no one strategy will work for every child. Talk to your child and give them some options. Help them choose strategies that they are comfortable with and that they think will help them to retain the most information.

Have you, or your student, used any of these homework strategies? If so, how did they work for you? Have you adapted any of these homework strategies to make them your own? Tell us about that.

For more information about study strategies for your student, see Susan Fitzell’s book, Please Help Me With My Homework. Available in both print and electronic versions!

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1) He’d just exercise. Yeah, right. My kid gets more exercise just getting up in the morning and jumping the five feet down from the top bunk of his bunk bed than most kids do before lunchtime. He has always been incredibly active… so much so that at the end of a very long day at daycare, one of his teachers asked my husband, “Do we wear him out at all for you?” to which he answered, “No, but thanks for trying!” At the age of three, he might spend nearly an entire summer day in the backyard with me, swimming (I mean swimming under water, on the water, jumping, diving, and so on) until he was cold, and then getting out and running around the backyard in sweats until he was warm enough to swim again. Rinse, repeat. He can ski all day and not want to stop. He can out walk, bike, and skate the grown-ups. He is now older and plays soccer at recess and likes to take laps around our block on roller skates or his bike for fun. Yes, more exercise does help his ADHD, but we haven’t reached the level of exercise yet that controls it. I read an interesting article titled “Riding is my Ritalin” (1) where the young man in question was able to stop taking Ritalin when he reached 25 hours of exercise per week. That’s a lot of exercise. If we were all still hunter-gatherers, my son would not only get that much exercise and more, but I bet he’d also be elected chief of the tribe. He’s fearless; in fact he loves danger and finds it easier to think the more exercise he gets. Mastodon, beware. But we are city dwellers now. (Can’t I just stay at the cave?)

2) If schools didn’t make students sit. My son would need a jungle gym, an obstacle course, and a death-defying thrill ride integrated with his classroom to have his ADHD work for him rather than against him with his school work. It isn’t particularly hard for him to sit, but if you make him sit he’ll never stop talking. Or popping his mouth, cracking knuckles, or making sound effects. He loves to make jokes and will blurt out anything that makes him laugh in the hopes that other people will laugh, too. The kid has a great sense of humor, but can be a real distraction in the classroom.

3) If you didn’t just want him to get better grades. Yes, he is getting better grades taking a stimulant. No surprise there. I do better when I’m full of coffee, too. But the behavior that made us look at drugs as a possibility had nothing to do with grades at school. His teachers have told us consistently that he is a smart kid, and he was getting mostly B’s or “at grade level” on his report card (and my husband and I were both OK with that kind of performance). The behavior that made me think “We have to do something NOW!” is that he is impulsive. His little brother was suffering as a result – the impulsive tap that was too hard, the impulsive words that were too hurtful, and the impulsive contact with no-touch areas on other people’s bodies – just as I had suffered with my own older brother and his (undiagnosed) ADHD, I was now watching my younger son suffer. A great quote that describes this is “Kids can be naturally impulsive, inattentive and overactive, but those with ADHD are more so, all the time.“ [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][1, emphasis mine] And you cannot effectively correct impulsive behavior. It is inherently uncontrollable as its name indicates – someone with ADHD has an impulse and they do it. The part of their brain that says, “I have been punished for that 37 times, and this time mom’s really gonna kill me” is asleep, and so they do it for the 38th time. Try to parent that without losing your mind. Try to parent that without help, because I assure you if my kid did any of this stuff to your kid, you would be insisting we did something to FIX IT.

4) No, really, you just want him to get better grades… I’m not at that point yet. But I know people who have been there. If your child was described by his teachers as smart and did well in school up through junior high and then started getting all Ds in high school, would you do something? What if Sylvan Learning Centers didn’t help either? What if your tutoring had no effect? Or grounding him, and every other thing you could think of? What if your poor kid cried about it? If you walked in those shoes, would you think a medication that let him do his homework at night in one hour instead of five hours was a good thing? We aren’t talking about getting an extra percentage point to make the Dean’s list or be valedictorian, we are talking about your child’s self-esteem, their ability to get into college at all, and their ability to learn. Really, please stop complaining about this one until you’ve had to parent it.

5) Didn’t feed him junk food. Yeah, that’s funny too. My child tried a soda for the first time at a party when he was 6. We eat organic, whole wheat, Earth-mother food and he is still bouncing off the walls. It may affect other kids and make them hyper, but I do not see the effect of sugary, salty, processed, or fatty foods on this one even when he does consume them.

6) If you would just make him behave. I believed this one for a long time myself when my only child was my firstborn, a daughter. Once I had my son with ADHD, I redefined the word “behave.” If he is simply a distraction and is not hurting anyone –running around being a danger to others, saying the latest curse word he heard on the playground, or making too much noise– then his behavior is acceptable. If he is trying and succeeding to make his brother laugh without too many potty words, then he’s golden. Flexibility has become the key to sanity for me. Put it another way, I can’t make him behave, and he can’t make himself behave either. I try to avoid putting him in situations where he can’t behave. I especially plan ahead for situations that are too boring, because being bored to someone with ADHD is like a power vacuum. Boring works for about 12.3 seconds until we have an implosion or an explosion of his style, humor and excitement. Providing constant distraction and keeping the mess to a minimum, that’s the best I can do.

7) If teachers were <fill in the blank>. Are there really people who believe that teachers want the children medicated, so they’ll sit in tidy little rows and do their work? Evidently, there are people who think that. The teachers I have met have bent over backwards to accommodate my son’s differences in the classroom, and none of them has ever once suggested he’d be fine if we medicated him. Truly, as far as I am concerned, his teachers walk on water. They have done an amazing job teaching him despite his constant distractions. For example, one called him her “sound effects kid.” She didn’t try to correct this behavior constantly, because she said that she figured a child’s personality was fairly well formed by third grade. She felt that her choices for children at that age were to work with or around personality quirks, reasoning that constantly disciplining him would just make both of them nuts. How can you not love her? His teachers have been fabulous; he learned in spite of his ADHD and they managed to teach a class full of kids with one of them bent on disruption. Please don’t bad-mouth the teachers.

8) If he weren’t your only child, you would know this is just what kids are like. I have two other children, neither of whom is even close to having ADHD. One is grown and I’d like to think I did a pretty good job raising her, but she’s the kind who practically raised herself. And the other non-ADHDer is in kindergarten; he’s a handful but is definitely not going to be diagnosed with ADHD. So if my sad parenting skills or lack of experience were causing me to need to medicate my child for ADHD, I’d be hard pressed to tell you why the other two are fine.

9) If you weren’t such a bad, permissive, inattentive, <fill in the adjective> parent. Please see number 8. I think I’ve had equal opportunity to screw them all up.
You know what? There are exceptions to everything. I’m sure there are parents who push doctors for ADHD drugs for Johnny so he can go to the Ivy League school. I’m sure there are teachers who might push parents to do something to control their kids. And I’m sure there are kids who would benefit from less junk food, less TV, and more exercise. But I’m equally sure that unless you have parented a kid with ADHD you don’t know what you are talking about. The behavior is relentless. You don’t just get a day to slide and neither does your kid. You are beyond vigilant in an attempt to keep your kid from hurting themselves or someone else with one impulsive action. You rest when they sleep, and you know what? They sleep less than other kids, too.

But they also love animals. I read that in a book on ADHD and said to myself “You have to be flippin’ kidding me! Other kids with ADHD love animals as much as mine?” And they are typically creative. He is artistic and funny. He is great company if you want to do something athletic or busy. He’s a great conversationalist and is often a joy to be with. But the rest of it you can have. It is relentless. It makes him unhappy too, to never be able to behave. So we have a compromise. He takes a stimulant and gets to feel successful at school and at home. And we sometimes get labeled “bad parents” because we can’t do this without drugs right now. But my sons are both winning from this, and that’s what counts.

1.  Barcott, Bruce; accessed 1/15/2013; Bicycling Magazine website (www.bicycling.com); http://www.bicycling.com/news/featured-stories/riding-my-ritalin?page=0,8.

Jamie Reifsnyder is the mother of three fabulous kids. She lives with her husband, two sons, and four cats in New England. She hopes that some day we’ll understand ADHD, autism, and other neurological differences well enough to enable all kids to blossom.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

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One surefire way to help students remember more important details when taking tests is to first make sure they are taking good notes!  The following are some good note-taking strategies to make studying (and remembering!) a little easier:

• Print information to be memorized.
• Use two different colored markers or pens when working, alternating the color of each fact in your notes. Color makes facts stand out as unique. If your notes are all in one color, nothing stands out as unique and everything is harder to remember.
• Highlight (Just not the whole paragraph!)
• Alternate color gel pens, markers, crayons, etc.
• Border key vocabulary words, people, places, etc. (Draw a box around key words)

From Umm, Studying?  What’s That? by Susan Gingras Fitzell

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As I complete this series of articles about Non-verbal Learning Disorder (NLD), it occurred to me that I forgot to mention that I was actually pretty GOOD at homework as a student! In fact I’ve brought this homework skill into my adulthood. As a newspaper reporter in the past, and now as a freelance copywriter, my professional life is basically one homework assignment after another and I love it! I am a very self motivated person, in fact I’d rather push myself than let someone else push me to get my work done. I prefer to manage my own time than to be told when I have to do what because I enjoy working when my mind wants to work in my own time. I thrive when I can create something that wasn’t there before me, something that would not be what it is without my unique style. I’m using my NLD symptoms in my favor!

Homework can become a very uncomfortable term in any household, especially a household where one of the children in the family has a learning disability or is in the autism spectrum. As a person with NLD, I did have different homework needs than most of my classmates. I described these needs in previous articles. I touched upon math and literacy and the importance of having an adult available to ask, and answer, frequent questions about my assignments. I talked about how important is was to have parents who talked with my teachers about modifying and shortening homework assignments so that I would be able to learn from homework assignments rather than become overwhelmed by them. I feel these things are the keys to a less stressful homework experience that results in more learning. These ideas can be modified and applied to the needs of many other bright children with academic difficulties. I focused on NLD and Dyscalculia because those have been the learning disabilities that have directly affected my life, but they can be reworked and applied to the needs of children with other diagnoses.

Now that I am writing my last article in this series, I want to share something with you, the parent of a child struggling with homework. Your child can have success! You and your child just have to get there in a different way than other children. We also have to look at our goals a little differently. For example, I can not take on any available job no matter how hard I work. I have tried to be an administrative assistant, a classroom teacher (I am talented at instructing and public speaking with children and adults, but the structure of formal teaching never clicked with me), and even a cashier, but I failed at all those jobs. However, there are many things at which I excel.

When I was a newspaper reporter I received letters, phone calls, and was even stopped on the street to be complimented by readers and sources who enjoyed my stories. I’m only less than six months into starting a freelance copywriting business and already I have clients telling me they are very happy with my work, saying they will write testimonials about my work for them on Google or Linkedin. I modified my career goals to fit my abilities, and luckily for me, those goals were what I secretly wanted all along, to be a freelance, self employed, writer!

Yes, a student who struggled to learn is now finding success by being self-employed! I look back in amazement at the days when I couldn’t yet tie my shoes at seven, and couldn’t yet read at 10. Your child can have the same sort of success. His or her learning disability will not leave them, but focusing on strengths, compensating for weaknesses and, in some cases, working hard in childhood to learn through some of those weaknesses will result in an adult that can live up to your child’s full potential.

I read a lot of articles on education. I’ve noticed much of what I read focuses on educating children from low income situations, and how reaching these children will positively affect our country. I agree with these articles strongly, but one thing I rarely see is a story about better educating our country’s Dyslexic, ADD/ADHD, NLD, Aspergers, Dyscalculic, and high functioning autism populations. There is a positive difference in the minds of each of us with these labels, and tapping into our amazing talents will benefit many. In myself and my friends with NLD, I call it the NLD Genius: the way my mind works differently than that of the typical person benefits me, those around me, and the work I do. It is hard to tap into a learning disability genius when your personal energy is being sucked up by inappropriate homework assignments that are not teaching what they should be anyway.

There are good examples of different-mind success. You can’t argue with the success of someone like entrepreneur Richard Branson, whose Dyslexic way of thinking can be thanked for creating The Virgin group of over 400 companies. And where would the world be if John Lennon, diagnosed near the end of his life with Dyslexia, whose differently-wired mind complimented Paul McCartney’s abilities in the creation in so many of our favorite Beatles songs?

Richard and John were lucky enough to have driven personalities and maybe a lucky turn of events along the way in life. I, personally, do not think I will achieve an income as a writer that matches either Richard’s nor John’s, but I think that we can all benefit greatly from educating the learning disabled population in a way that works best for each child, similarly to the ways I have written about in this series. Think about what all of us different-minded people could accomplish if we could put our amazing energy into our talents. So many of us spent our school years feeling dumb, or struggling instead of learning. We, meaning those of us with learning disabilities, and our parents, will all be able to look towards a stronger future when modified doable homework is commonplace in ever school for the learning disabled student population.

I feel that, with more awareness and early intervention in the classroom, and at home, children who are now struggling with their assignments will find themselves in careers where they are using their talents to best give back to society. That’s a country and world I am excited to be a part of! I encourage each of you; parents, teachers, and students, to join me and create a less stressful, more beneficial educational environment for these children!

In the words of a different-minded individual I spoke of early in this article, “If you want to be a hero well just follow me.”
John Lennon, Working Class Hero

Anna is a freelance writer, taking on projects as varied as stories about her ups and downs with NLD and Dyscalculia to copywriting projects that help businesses and organizations connect their products and services to their customers. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in journalism from Keene State College and was a staff reporter at the former newspapers The Connecticut Valley Spectator and the Argus Champion. Through her writing, Anna hopes to bring more awareness to learning disabilities, especially the little known ones she has, and help others with learning disabilities succeed in their lives. Anna can be reached at Anna.Super01@gmail.com.

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For students to be successful in school, especially older students with more homework and paperwork, it is important for them to have good organizational skills.  One of the ways to help your student be more organized and have all of their schoolwork in one place is by using a notebook management system.

The organizing tips in this notebook management system are designed to help keep papers, assignments, handouts, etc. organized and in a location where you can find them should you need to refer to them again.  Like any system, it requires practice and discipline until it becomes a habit.

You will need:

• One 2″ binder.  You can usually put two subjects or classes in one binder.  The key here is the binder size.  One inch is too small and three inches is too big.
• Portable three-hole punch
• 4 section dividers per subject or class
• One three-hole divider pocket per subject or class
• Assignment calendar/notebook
• Two highlighters of different colors
• Post-it® notes
• Small package of skinny colored markers or gel pens
• Highlighter tape (optional)
• Pens, pencils and colored gel pens to color-code notes
• Three hole reinforcers
• Zippered pouch with holes to fit in binder (if required by the class or to hold other supplies)
• A ruler with 3 holes (if required by the class)
• One accordion file folder for each subject – color code if possible by subject

On color-coding: Some students find it helpful to chose a color for each subject. The book cover, binder color (if single subject) and sometimes paper color all match to help stay organized.

Set up the binder this way, by working from the front and putting in pieces in the following order:

• Three hole punch
• Ruler
• Zippered pouch with highlighters, writing utensils, tape, reinforcers, etc.
• Assignment calendar (this can be a photocopied monthly calendar page to reduce bulk)
• Divider labeled HOMEWORK
• Divider labeled NOTES
• Divider labeled TESTS/QUIZZES
• Divider labeled HANDOUTS
• Pocket divider
• Repeat dividers for second subject, if used

Use sections for homework, notes, tests/quizzes, handouts for one lesson chapter or unit.  How you determine what to keep in the binder will depend on the class, but you only want to have what you’re working on at the moment in the binder

When the chapter/unit is finished, move ALL the papers to your accordion file for that subject and label that section with the chapter/unit name.

Save the accordion file at home for midterms and final exams.  Do not throw away study materials away!

Learning Strategies for the Overwhelmed and Confused College and High School Student Get this Book Now! Practical, research-based, study and test-taking strategies! Get Susan Fitzell’s book now. Don’t waste any time Ummm, Studying? What’s That? Bring Susan to your campus! Featured seminar – Umm Studying? What’s That? Learning Strategies for the Overwhelmed and Confused College and Secondary Education Student

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One way for students to study together is to take turns teaching the information to each other:

• Have students find a partner to study with.
• Set a timer for 1-2 minutes
• Tell one student to teach the other one thing from the homework, what they learned in lecture today, etc.
• Reset the timer for 1-2 minutes.
• The next student then teaches one thing from the homework, class work, etc. (Something different from what the first student taught.)
• Repeat.

Teaching someone else is an excellent way of reviewing material. Since two people don’t always understand information in the same way, teaching each other requires students to rephrase or use creative examples in order to explain a conflict.  This forces the brain to rework and rethink what it already knows, therefore reinforcing it.

For more great tips see “Please Help Me With My Homework: Strategies for Parents and Caregivers”

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Does anyone have an idea as to how I might ‘get the word out’ about this valuable resource for Spanish speaking parents and caregivers? I’d appreciate suggestions.

Thanks,

Susan Fitzell

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