I Already Know All About It: An Adult Sized Barrier to Learning

I Already Know All About It:

An Adult Sized Barrier to Learning

The consideration that a subject is already known about is a huge Barrier to Learning and mastery of any subject.

Folk who run this pretense of “already knowing about it”, routinely alter any new information they are given.  They mis-identify it as being “the same as” what they “already know”, when in truth it is not.

Because of this they fail to learn, and fail to gain full understanding and application of the new knowledge.

The new information is misunderstood and misaligned with what they think they already know.

The best way to remedy this Barrier to Learning is to have the student define the word(s) in their own words, then look up the word(s) in a dictionary.  Many misunderstandings and difficulties applying the new knowledge will suddenly fall away.

I help failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning

www.howtolearneasily.com

Apprenticeships Are Valuable Learning Vehicles

Internships Help Students Prepare for Workplace

Education Week, January 29, 2013

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/01/30/19internship_ep.h32.html?tkn=TSSFQTR6pGmpfoO3r8fcI5%2BpiWT9aiBgp9MD&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1

Apprenticeships are valuable learning vehicles that have been dropped out of our educational environment.

In the rush to push every student to go to college, we lost sight of the fact that not everyone needs to go to college to build a career.

Going through an apprenticeship, becoming a journeyman, a craftsman and finally a master is the proper gradient to ensure each master is built on a solid foundation of knowledge and experience.

Anytime you address a subject, skill or ability you want to learn or teach be sure to first break it down into the gradient steps that should be learned, and approach them in the right order. Equally important, be ever alert to the symptoms of the by-passed gradient when they manifest so you can backtrack and get it right.

Dr. Maria Montessori demonstrated this with her methods a hundred years ago.

Great masters of any activity do this. They achieve their mastery by having broken down the subject of their area of mastery into its parts and practice, practice, practice each of those parts until mastered. Then they combine the parts into the whole of the performance.

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning

www.howtolearneasily.com

Your Child Lags Behind in Reading Skills - What To Do

Your Child Lags Behind in Reading Skills – What To Do

I recently read a post from a concerned homeschooling parent.  They were concerned that their son, who is their fourth child, was not yet reading at age 7.  He/She was wondering if they needed to perform an intervention or wait for him to grow into it.

One response to this post was “What if your child is the same age as you other children were when they were eagerly reading, but is either not interested in learning to read, or is having great difficulty learning to read?  Do you panic?  Do you have this child tested? Do you wait?  Will the reading just ‘click’ at some point if you wait long enough?  How does a mother know if this is a ‘maturity issue’ or if this difficulty is a sign of a learning disability?”  This person then went on to recommend some curriculum.

I, on the other hand, have a different view on this.  Since the child has little interest in learning to read I would ask: what subject is the child greatly interested in?  Once that is known I would then show the child how learning to read can help them in learning more and doing more in the subject they really enjoy.

The child has not been shown the Purpose & Value of learning to read.  This is one of the prime Barriers to Learning and one that is tripped over continuously.

If this child were shown the value and relevance to them of learning to read, I would bet that child begins devouring books.

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning.

www.howtolearneasily.com

Drowned in Stream of Prescriptions

Drowned in Stream of Prescriptions

An addict's parents couldn't halt a flow of Attention Deficit Drug

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/us/concerns-about-adhd-practices-and-amphetamine-addiction.html?ref=todayspaper

Richard's death is horrendous and all too common.

He wanted ADHD drugs because it helped him to focus and get through his college classes.

That's because we don't teach good study habits.

We don't teach our kids how to learn.

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning.

www.howtolearneasily.com

Creatively Satisfying

Common Core Drives Interest in Open Education Resources

Education Week: October 15, 2012

“Spurred by the adoption of common-core standards by nearly every state the movement for open education resources is seeing a surge in interest as districts re-evaluate and realign their curricula.  Open Education Resources, which are free to use, remix and adapt, also engage teachers more fully in curricula, allowing them to more easily differentiate instructional materials for students,”

This engagement by teachers in creating, remixing and adapting curricula for their classrooms, and even individual students, reminds me of the Montessori Method.

All Montessori teachers are required to create and adapt all of their own learning materials.  This allows them to customize the learning materials for each student’s need and Personal Method of Learning.

Not only is this customization wonderful for the students, but I found making the materials creatively satisfying.  You have a principle(s) you want to convey and how you do that is completely up to you.  I had such fun making my classroom materials.

Teachers in public schools should revel in this opportunity to be creative.

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning

www.howtolearneasily.com

Powerfully Crippling Learning Barrier

Powerfully Crippling Learning Barrier

N.M. School Builds Bridge to Standards for ELL’s

Education Week, November 13, 2012

“The new English/language arts standards demand that students sharpen their skills at reading, understanding and analyzing a variety of complex texts.  For teachers of English-language learners like xxxx, using strategies and supports (such as clarifying unfamiliar words and expressions), have long been crucial tools in effectively teaching ELL’s,”

This is a PERFECT example of one of the Barriers to Learning – Non-Defined Words or Symbols.

Having properly and thoroughly defined words and symbols is essential for anyone learning something new, and I’m shocked and appalled that teachers are only now coming to realize that this is crucial!

This is such a powerfully crippling Learning Barrier that in the presence of a non-understood (absent definition) or an incompletely understood word, blankness and non-comprehension can be so damning that an individual is unable to act or perform.  He or she is at a complete loss, numb and immobile.

If you doubt the power of this Learning Barrier recall the last time you could not act or perform.  Locate what was the not understood word or symbol, define all that word or symbol involved — and then see how you do!

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning.

www.howtolearneasily.com

New Education Consumerism

Having a Consumer Mindset

Schools need to have a “customer service attitude” towards their “clients”, which are the parents and children.  Parents need to become informed “consumers” of the educational services being provided to their children, and not accept anything less than the best.

Access to information about their child’s school is crucial for parents if the system is to work to the benefit of the “consumer” (parents).  Remember when we first began changing to “consumer-driven” health insurance?  Information about the cost of care and the quality of doctors and hospitals was critical for employees to make informed decisions and being good consumers of healthcare.

Just as people have learned to become consumers of healthcare, parents need to become consumers of education.  Parents need to view education, even public education, as a service/product they are purchasing.  After all, public education is purchased through your tax dollars.

If the consumers (parents) don’t demand a quality product we will not have positive changes in our education system.  Change needs to come from consumers (parents) demanding something better.

Parents need to “kick the tires” to ensure they’re getting the quality of education their children deserve for the dollars they’re spending.

I rescue failing students by remedying the Barriers to Learning.

www.howtolearneasily.com