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Comment by Jon Madian on March 8, 2012 at 12:32pm

3.  Let's do a "mashup" of Dawn's suggestions for engaging the family and Duane's clever idea for helping students develop their reading fluency by turning off the TV's sound. What would we have? Well, a very old new idea--let's make each day new by reading together. Read the shopping list together; read street signs together; read a poem or story together. And don't forget to read part of a stanza, paragraph, or sentence and then stop and ask the child to guess the word, phrase, or sentence that comes next. Nothing increases fluency like anticipating what could come next--what might make sense. In this context there are no right answers--just fun ideas that tickle the brain and allow parents and older siblings to share with younger people. BTW: this emphasis on possible next thoughts--that may be based more on thinking than on decoding skills--is a key skill for reading comprehension. What we can imagine in our minds is every bit as important as what we see on the page.

Comment by Duane Crowe, Ed.D. on February 22, 2012 at 1:57pm

2.  Use the television to improve your student’s fluency level

Students across the global vegetate in front of the TV for hours a day. Use this captive audience to improve their reading skills.  Locate your student’s favorite cartoon, you know the one they have watched several times, and simply turn off the sound. Set the TV to scroll the subtitles and encourage your student to read the text.  The dialog text with engage and challenge the student.  The student may be a little reluctant to try this at first but make a deal…one without sound, one with.  Make sure you start with something familiar so they have prior knowledge to draw from.  The reward is when the student laughs at what they’re reading!  Priceless!

Comment by Dawn Crawford, M. Ed. on February 10, 2012 at 10:28am

1.   Function of Family

When you talk about personalized learning or making learning personal for a student, there is a lot more than just their school experience to consider, right?  There is a lot of room for the function of the family there.  So, why don't we include family in that equation?  Not just an individual education plan, but a family education plan.  Many parents want so much to help with their child's education, but just don't know how.  Or, they themselves need help.   How can families and parents be included in the instructional planning, delivery and even remediation/enrichment for their student?

• Include the family in the planning stages. 
  Even before the school year started, I printed out the standards in all subjects that the school district said my daughter needed to cover before the end of the year.  Families can get to know what will be covered and what role they will play at home helping their student accomplish those goals.  Be specific....for example, as a part of a writing objective for Kindergarten, my daughter's teacher said that I should have her helping me write the grocery list every week with simple words.
• Add family assessments to student records
  I don't mean test the family <grin> - I mean give the family reflection and self-assessment pieces to help them see where they are making progress with their student's learning goals and where they could add more effort or get help.  Having that in a student record helps everyone see educational growth over the school year. 
• Use parent teacher conference night to do more detailed planning, instruction and assessment activities with families and students together. 
  Think of it as co-planning time, family 'seat' time or a way to assess how that interaction works for your students.  Don't waste the time you have with families on those nights with an information dump that they could get on the report card - make it meaningful.

These are just a few thoughts about how the function of family can help educators achieve a more balanced equation in overloaded and short on time classrooms.  Who's next?