Vocabulary work for the reluctant reader

I've posted before on the fact that many of our students have small vocabularies and that this hampers their reading comprehension.  (You can read that post here.)  By far the best way to increase your vocabulary is to read a wide variety of materials - particularly books or articles at a challenging reading level.  I have also posted on the fact that it is difficult to get students to actually do this.

Vocabulary building needs to begin - well, from birth really.  However, college bound students should consciously work on their vocabularies beginning no later than middle school.  How can you get a reluctant reader to work on his or her vocabulary without reducing it to rote memorization?  Comic books can be a great method.  Calvin and Hobbes is a great comic series with some terrific vocabulary words in it.  It appeals to everyone age 10 and up.  The artist, Bill Watterson, has retired, but compilations of the strips are still in print.  You can also find them online.

I recently discovered another great vocabulary-building book series.  Stephan Pastis, who draws the nationally syndicated comic strip "Pearls Before Swine", has also written a series of books about an elementary school character, Timmy Failure.  The series is aimed at students in late elementary school, but I have enjoyed them, and I'm 53.  These chapter books are in the style made popular by the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. "Pearls" doesn't tend to be filled with SAT-level words, so imagine my surprise and delight when I encountered the following in the first Timmy Failure book, Mistakes Were Made:  rigorously, depiction, alleviated, stipulations, assent, prudent.  And that was just the first 50 pages!  Each book in the series is entertaining - a quick, easy read.  Unlike Calvin and Hobbes, which some children would need to read with a dictionary, many of the words in the Timmy Failure books are defined by the characters as you go, although in both series you could get the basic gist of many words from their context.

These books make great holiday gifts!  

Use the summer for reading!

I tell my students that it is most time-consuming to raise their scores on the reading sections of the college entrance examinations because they need to read.  A LOT.  Then I tell them that summer is the perfect time to work on this.

This is my annual post to encourage reading.  I was inspired to get off my duff and write this year's edition by this article.

The article looks at what students are reading.  There is good news and bad news.  The good news:  reading is not dead.  Quite a few kids are reading and some of them read quite a bit.  The bad news:  too many kids read hardly anything, and when they do read, they choose books that are written at an easy reading level.

The article includes a plea for students to read the classics and includes an argument for a students reading list to include both fiction and non-fiction.  It points out that raising your reading level requires work - which is probably why kids are avoiding it - but that when students make the effort they enjoy the more difficult books.

Here's the thing.  Students who read regularly and who can comprehend material at a 11th grade level or higher will have a tremendous advantage on their college entrance exams, in college and later in life.  For a quick-and-dirty estimate of the reading level of a piece of writing, see this previous post.

I'll say it again: Top SAT scores begin in the sandbox!

I've written about this topic before here:  Top SAT scores begin in the Sandbox.  However, it bears repeating:  When I work with high school students who are studying for their college entrance exams, I sometimes see evidence of what I have come to refer to as a Sandbox Deficit.  Children who don't spend enough time in unstructured play fail to develop the foundation for basic math, reading and science.  To compensate, they memorize steps, algorithms and strategies, but that only takes them so far.

Unfortunately, academics are getting pushed to earlier and earlier ages.  The good news is that more people are waking up to the problem.  Spread the news!  Share the studies!  And make time for children to play!

The most recent article I have run across regarding this subject can be found here:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/06/a-really-scary-headline-about-kindergarteners/

And here is what Matt Walsh had to say about the same headline referred to in the above article:
http://themattwalshblog.com/2014/02/10/your-5-year-old-failed-a-standardized-test-therefore-he-is-stupid-insane-and-doomed-to-a-life-of-failure/

"Young people today can't make change" just took on a whole new meaning

About 20 years ago, I was standing in the checkout line at a cafeteria-style restaurant.  Everyone in line was over the age of 30 because that style restaurant mainly appealed to the older generation.  The checkout clerk, who was probably in her early twenties, rang up the man in front of me, and he handed her a 20 dollar bill.  She punched in the 20.00 and hit return.  Just at that instant, the electricity flickered.  The cash register momentarily went dead and then came back on, but the transaction was lost.  The clerk didn't know what to do.  At first the people in line thought she wasn't sure if the transaction had been recorded or if she needed to repeat it, but that wasn't the problem.  She didn't know how much change to give him.  She remembered the price of his meal.  She knew he had handed her $20.  She couldn't tell what the change should be unless the cash register told her.  Everyone in line knew exactly what the change should be, but she couldn't risk taking our word for it.  A succession of managers was called to the scene until they found someone old enough to know how to make change for a twenty without electronic aid.  Until yesterday that was my "young people don't know how to make change" story.

Yesterday, I was at the cash register paying for an item that cost $7.42.  I reached into my purse, grabbed a ten-dollar bill and then poked around in my change pocket.  I pulled out a quarter, a nickel, a dime and two pennies.  I dropped the change into the palm of the checkout girl and then handed over the bill.  She set the bill aside, spread the coins across her palm and stared at them for 20 seconds or so.  She stared for so long, I began to worry:  Had I grabbed a third penny instead of the dime I was aiming for?  Is she trying to find a tactful way to tell me I've given her the wrong amount?  Finally she looked up, held out the coins and asked, "Is this 42 cents?"

My first thought was:  what in the world would have happened if she had needed to give ME 42 cents in change?  If she can't count out 42 cents, what would she have done?  Grabbed random coins, and if I complained add more random coins?  Call a manager? I wondered how she had been handling this problem up to now, but then I realized:  I may have been the very first customer she has ever had that paid for something in cash.

We are rapidly becoming a cash-less society and as we do, the ability to count change is becoming obsolete. Money-counting lessons will eventually be dropped from the school curriculum, and my question is:  Will this have unintended repercussions?

I frequently have this exchange with my students:

Student:  (staring at 75 ÷ 25)
Me:  How many quarters are in 75 cents?
Student:  Oh. Right.  Duh. (writes 3)

Coinage is an excellent medium for practicing all sorts of math skills that have applications in other places, but how many of those applications will continue to be relevant?  Do we need to be able to do things like divide 75 by 25 in our heads?  Much of the math in the current high school curriculum is unnecessary for the vast majority of adults.  We teach it anyway because we want to leave the door open for our students to choose those careers that need math.  However, there are other things going on when we study math.  What we learn shapes our brains.  For a long time we justified teaching geometry proofs by telling students that proof by deduction teaches us "how to think."  Geometry proofs have largely been dropped from the Common Core curriculum.  (You can read my elegy here.)
Will we see changes for the worse in students' overall cognitive functioning?  Will becoming a cash-less society have an adverse effect on our brains?

You want the 700, but you don't have number sense: try this!

This post is a follow up to yesterday's post which describes the difference between a student who scores in the 700's on the math section of the SAT and a student who scores in the 500's.

So I've told my 500's student that getting a 700 on the SAT will be "a lot of work."  But what should that work consist of?  I have some activities we could do and some problems we could work, but we need to do the activities and work the problems over a long period of time so that she can actually internalize the lessons.  Unfortunately, working one-on-one with me for that period of time would be prohibitively expensive for a lot of people.  Is there a cheaper alternative?  Can someone do it on her own?

I have been using materials from Art of Problem Solving with a handful of elementary school students, and I am struck with the fact that they place more emphasis on the number sense than they do the algorithms.  They walk students through steps toward comprehension that focus on the meaning and assume that the algorithm will come on its own.  That process works best for the advanced kids, but that is their target market.  Still, I thought they might have something useful for the high school student who has learned the algorithms, but would like to retro-actively work on the number sense.

Introducing Alcumus.  Alcumus is a free online problem bank.  Once you register, it will give you a math problem.  Get that right, and you will get a more difficult problem. Complete enough problems in a row, and you will move on to the next topic. It is somewhat similar to the practice modules on Khan academy with a couple of notable differences:  First, you will be given an explained solution even if your answer was correct!  In fact, to get anything out of this exercise, you need to carefully read every explanation to see if there was a different, more intuitive (as opposed to algorithmic) method of solving the problem.  There are a few videos to watch for more instruction, but Art of Problem Solving believes in a problem-first approach.  There are also references to chapters in Art of Problem Solving math text books. (The books can be a bit pricey.  If you have the means, buy a couple of copies and donate one to your school library.)

Try to see if these methods lead to being able to solve complicated-looking problems in your head.  (It goes without saying that you should NOT be using a calculator.)  You will be led through addition, subtraction, the distributive property - simple stuff, but there are lessons here for how to think about these problems differently.  How to use your head instead of that hand-held machine you have been using as a crutch.

Try it!  I'd love to hear how it works out!

The Cost of Calculators

Before calculators, if we spotted a zero as one of the multipliers, we thought something along the lines of: “Woohoo! Less work for me!”  With today’s students a multiplier of zero barely registers. I swear I have had this exact conversation with multiple students:

Student:  (busily using a calculator to multiply a long string of numbers)

Me:  Sweetie, STOP.

Student:  (looks up)

Me:  There’s a zero in there.

Student:  Huh?

Me:  All of those numbers you are multiplying.  One of them is a zero.

Student:  Ok.  (goes back to multiplying)

Me:  STOP.

Student:  (looks up)

Me:  If you multiply something by zero what do you get?

Student:  (long pause)  Zero?

Me:  Exactly!

Student (gives me a look that says plainly, “And that applies to my life, how?”)

Me:  So you are going to multiply along and get some number. You are going to multiply that number by this zero. You will get zero.  You will multiply that zero by this number and get zero, and so on.  What will you have at the end?

Student:  Zero?

Me:  So write it down, and MOVE ON!

Vocabulary is a stumbling block in reading comprehension

A limited vocabulary is frequently a stumbling block for my students when it comes to reading comprehension.

Both the SAT the ACT include "vocabulary in context" questions:  "In the context of this passage, what does fill-in-the-word mean?" These questions often stump my students.  However, even questions that are not explicitly about vocabulary can present problems.  Consider one question which had as possible answers:  a.  stunned amazement,  b.  silent contempt,  c.  mild concern, and d.  feigned interest.   Imagine trying to answer the question without knowing the meanings of "contempt" or "feigned."  Worse, a student will occasionally miss the entire point of a passage because such a large percentage of the words are unfamiliar that he or she can't work out the gist of the article through the context.

Am I just being a curmudgeon, or have student vocabularies really declined since I was young?  According to an article in today's Huffington Post, it's the latter.  Exam scores recently released by the National Assessment of Educational Progress reveal that the students at the top - those most likely to apply to college - are performing less well than their predecessors.  Furthermore, vocabulary was (as predicted) closely linked to reading comprehension.

If you are the parent of a young child, you will want to take note.  There are vast differences in the rate at which young children are exposed to language.  These differences are usually described as existing between higher and lower socioeconomic groups, but if you are looking at child-care or preschool options, you should pay close attention to the language proficiency of teachers and child-care providers.  Differences in language acquisition in early childhood persist into adulthood.

If you are the parent of a slightly older child, you should continue reading to your child, even if he or she has already learned to read.  Your child should read on his or her own, of course, but by reading aloud, you can introduce your child to literature that is on a more challenging level.  Don't put your child in a position of trying to make up for years of neglect by attempting to learn 2,000 vocabulary words in the month before the college entrance exam.

Study Materials Review: The Critical Reader

I’ve been skimming an advance copy of The Critical Reader by Erica Meltzer, and I have concluded that if you want an 800 on the critical reading section of the SAT, this is the book to buy.  It is intended to be a companion volume to The Official SAT Study Guide.  Given that, and the purchase price, it may be the most expensive option out there. 

The book isn’t a quick read, either; it’s 334 dense pages of material and exercises.  You won’t work your way through this book in a week. It will lead you through hours of intense study.

Now, if you’ve read some of my previous blog posts, you might have noticed that I have recommended against spending hundreds of hours preparing for one test.  Have I changed my mind?  Not at all!  Here’s the difference:  while some study guides focus on the test itself with tunnel vision, this book is designed to help you raise your test scores by becoming a more critical reader. The author recognizes that your motivation is to do better on a test; however, she takes the time to explain why the skills measured on the test are important skills for a college student.  Then she teaches you those skills.  Once you have worked your way through this book, you can reap the benefits of being a better reader for the rest of your life! Isn’t that worth a good bit of your time?

If you plan to go to college, get this book.  You will want to work through it before your college entrance exam, so if you are planning to take the test during the next school year, buy the book now and work through it over the summer. This book is also a must-have for test prep coaches.

Another critical period in early childhood development: Movement

Each Monday I will review a different study guide or study tool. On Tuesdays and Thursdays check in for test-taking advice, tips and reminders. On Wednesdays you may find a post about standardized testing or education in general, and on Fridays articles geared to the parents of children age 0 to 13. Experience has taught me that there are many parents of young children who are already worried about SAT scores and college admissions. Some of you may find you way to this blog. This post is for you. I’m sorry it is late.

In my last Friday post I wrote about the critical period for language development in children.  Another window of opportunity that is open in early childhood is associated with movement.  Young children were designed to move!  They are wiggly for a reason. Neural pathways associated with large muscle movement are being developed from the prenatal period to about age 5. During this time you want to give your child the opportunity to move in as many different ways as possible. Crawl, climb, hop, skip, dance, balance on things, roll a ball, stretch. A toddler tumbling class might be fun, but none of this needs to be formal.

When pediatricians call for less “screen time” for preschool children, we sometimes stop to ask if sitting in front of the TV is harmful.  What if the child is watching something educational? You should consider that the problem might not be what your child is doing as he sits in front of the TV; it might be what he’s not doing.

You can read more about this here.

David Coleman calls for updating the SAT

David Coleman, president of ETS since October of 2012 has sent out a letter calling on colleagues to participate in a revision of the SAT in order to

• better meet the needs of college admissions offices
• better reflect excellence in instruction of the common core curriculum so that schools can use results to  improve curriculum and instruction
• reinforce the practice of school work to ensure a smooth transition to post-secondary education while ensuring fairness and equity

This will apparently be a process that involves a lot of different stakeholders.  If you were to make changes to the SAT, what would they be?

Helping your child to be more resilient under stress

 Experience has taught me that there are many parents of young children who are already worried about SAT scores and college admissions. Some of you may find you way to this blog. This post is for you

I coach students for the ACT and SAT.  One of the things I have done with each student is talk about how to manage their stress.  It's a lesson on what to do if things are going badly and you begin to panic.  We practice breathing exercises and relaxation techniques.  One student reported back, "It really works! I tried it at the DMV, and I passed!"  From now on, I will expand this lesson to include some recently reported research.

You may have heard of this article in the New York Times. Researchers in Taiwan have identified a gene that affects how we handle stressful situations.  Children with one form of the gene perform less well under pressure, while children with a different form of the gene actually perform better.  The article discusses how this works, and I won't repeat it all here. I'll let you read it for yourself - just click on the link above.

When you read the article, I do want you to notice two points:  First is that children with both forms of the genes can perform well in stressful situations - including standardized tests - for which they have practiced.  I know we often feel like practicing for a high-stakes test is wasted instructional time, but it can help students to manage their anxiety.

A more interesting point, however, is this:  children and adults who re-label their anxiety can perform better under stress.  A little bit of stress is beneficial to performance. It keeps us sharp and focused.  If you remind yourself of this when you begin to feel the physical symptoms of anxiety, you can experience your stress differently and improve your performance.  Even young children can be taught this technique.

Read the article. If you have kids, try to figure out which gene variant they have.  No matter which type it is, teach them to recognize when they are beginning to feel anxious and help them re-define that stress.

Study Material Review: SAT 2400 in Just 7 Steps

"A Perfect-Score Student Reveals How to Ace the Test" is emblazoned across the cover of this book by Shaan Patel.  Apparently the author achieved a perfect SAT score and is now sharing his secrets. I haven't finished the book (454 pages) so I don't have much to say about the test-taking tips. I'll have to revisit this book in a future post to comment on those.  This post is about a remark Mr. Patel makes in the first few pages. He is commenting on the fact that improving your SAT score involves a lot of work. There is no silver bullet. Even with help from a book, a course, or a tutor it will require some time and effort on the part of the student.  But, he says, it is all worth it. "When I secluded myself in a library study room four days a week during a hot summer, did I ever think my effort would lead me to a 2400; admission to schools like Brown, Johns Hopkins and UC-Berkeley; more than $230,000 in college scholarships; and the opportunity to write a book about all of it one day?"

Wait.....what??  Four days a week all summer spent studying for the SAT? Seriously?  I make money coaching kids for the SAT. When my students spend more time studying that can mean more money for me.  And, yet, I'm still going to tell you not to do it. Think about what could be done with that kind of time.  All of the volunteer work, the learning opportunities, the jobs, the creative endeavors one could undertake with a summer's worth of effort.  If I were a college admissions officer, I would rather see a student spend a summer on any of those things than spend it studying for the SAT.

If you need to raise your score in order to be able to attend college AT ALL, then four days a week during the summer would be worth it.  Especially since, at that level, any work you do will help you be successful in college after you get there. But if it's just a matter of getting into a particular school, I think you would be better off just spending a few hours a week on the SAT. Devote the rest of your time to something more constructive.

Is there a good math website for a 3-year-old?

 Experience has taught me that there are many parents of young children who are already worried about SAT scores and college admissions. Some of you may find you way to this blog. This post is for you. I originally wrote it in response to a question on Quora. I decided to be lazy and let it do double duty. :)

A parent recently asked, “What is the best online math site for an advanced 3-year-old?”

This is my response:

Please don't put your 3-year-old in front of a computer to learn math. Even the best websites are heavily computation oriented and an advanced student will pick that up naturally without a website.

Ideally you would be able to find a math circle that includes young children, but if not, play games! Work puzzles!  If you don't have time to do this with your child, hire an advanced high school or college student to come over a couple of times per week.

Some great games and puzzles:

Chess

Towers of Hanoi

Set

Tangrams

Parcheesi

Mastermind

Rummikub

Labyrinth

Yahtzee

the chips game (which you can read about here)

When you are playing together, think out loud during your turns. Model the problem solving you want her to learn. Handicap yourself so that the games are about even and praise effort, progress and creative thinking.

While an online math site may teach your child to add and subtract earlier than her peers, this will not give her an advantage in the long run.  Furthermore, expecting a website to fill in for hands-on experience could lead to a Sandbox Deficit. Experiencing the world and interacting with intelligent, articulate adults will have a far more lasting impact in the long run. 

Study Material Review: Gruber's SAT Word Master

This book could be useful for anyone who wants to build his or her vocabulary.  The book includes the obligatory vocabulary list (2300 words) but this can safely be ignored. The real value is found in the first half of the book.  There is an extensive section on prefixes, suffixes and roots, followed by lists of "the most frequent SAT words."  These are lists of SAT words that all have roughly the same meaning followed by another list of words that all have roughly the opposite meaning.  For example: The first pair of lists are words that mean "to praise" and words that mean "to belittle."  Rather than learn these approximately 280 words in alphabetical order, you can learn words together that all have a similar meaning.

This is not a book you can pick up the day before the exam for an immediate difference.  You will need to work on learning these words and roots for a month or more, so make sure you get started well before test time.

Book review: Math From 3 to 7

I am thoroughly enjoying Math From 3 to 7 by Alexander Zvonkin.  From the back cover:

"This book is a captivating account of a professional mathematician's experiences conducting a math circle for preschoolers in his apartment in Moscow in the 1980's."

The author kept a journal in which he described the activities he did with the children and the results - both success and failures. At the request of friends and colleagues, he edited the journal for publication. This volume is the English translation of the edited work.

I find this book fascinating on a number of levels.  First, the Forward to the American Edition describes ways in which Eastern Europeans approach math education and describes the concept of a "math circle." Apparently there are a few math circles here in the US, particularly in university towns, but it is definitely phenomenon that needs to spread.

Next, I enjoy reading about the puzzles and activities he does with the children.  The activities look like a lot of fun, and I would like to try them out. Since I no longer have young children of my own, I am considering kidnapping other people's children so I can do these activities with them.  (I would only kidnap them temporarily.  Their parents can have them back when they get tired and fussy.  :)) Many of the activities could even be extended to be appropriate for older children - even teenagers.  I would recommend this book to elementary and middle school math club advisors.

Last, I am very interested to see which concepts the students grasped and which they struggled with. In several instances you can see Piaget stages illustrated. In editing his journal, the author added some thoughts on cognitive psychology which I have enjoyed.

I wish I had read this book before I had kids.  I recommend it for anyone who lives or works with children under the age of 12.

Study material review: Barron's ACT flashcards

Save your money.  Pass up Barron's ACT flashcards.

It looks impressive from the outside.  There are 400 cards in a sturdy box "to help you achieve a higher score."  Your first clue that this may not be worth the $17 is the statement, "A great study aid when used in tandem with Barron's ACT test pep guide,..." It reminds me of reading the cereal box and seeing, "healthy as part of a complete breakfast" and then a photo showing an enormous breakfast that would be even healthier if you left out the cereal.

The problem is that they didn't make very good decisions regarding what to put on the cards. Typically one would want to have flashcards of definitions or formulas. There are plenty of candidates for ACT study. However, the vast majority of these cards are either "strategies" or multiple choice questions with the correct answer on the other side.

For example, the math section comprises about 1/3 of the deck. First, it's hard to imagine what one would put on over 100 flashcards (the deck I've made for my students has about 40). Still, the ACT expects you to know quite a number of algebra and geometry formulas. Unfortunately, there are no "formulas" cards. There are a few formulas included in the "strategies" cards, but the formula is given on the front of the card along with a specific problem that uses the formula. It is the answer to the problem that appears on the reverse of the card.

In short, the only really nice thing about this flashcard deck is the box it came in.

My favorite math game for young children

My favorite math activity for young children

 Experience has taught me that there are many parents of young children who are already worried about SAT scores and college admissions. Some of you may find you way to this blog. This post is for you. I originally wrote it in response to a question on Quora. I decided to be lazy and let it do double duty. :)

My favorite math activity is “The Chips Game”.  I didn’t invent it; I read about it somewhere – I wish I could remember where - and have since adapted it to suit many purposes.

To play the chips game you need 3 colors of poker chips and dice.  One color of chip is worth one point, a second color is worth ten points and the third color is worth one hundred points. Roll the dice. The number you roll is the number of chips you earn. You earn one-point chips. Once you have 10 you can trade them for a ten-point chip. The goal is to trade in 10 ten-point chips for a hundred-point chip. Notice that place value and “regrouping” are intrinsic to the game.

It sounds too simple to be either fun or educational, but the game is highly adaptable and the real value lies in the modeling and conversation that happen when you play. For example, when you play with your three-year-old (which I’ve done) you can emphasize the counting. If you roll a 12, then at first you would count out 12 chips and then trade 10 of them, but eventually you should model taking a ten-point chip and two one-point chips. Allow your child to do what feels comfortable, but when it’s your turn model the next step up. When you play with a fourth grade student (which I’ve also done) you can multiply the dice and talk about probability: “What must I roll to catch up with you? Am I likely to roll at least that?”

You can start with one six-sided die and then add another six-sided die so that the child must add the numbers on the dice. You can use dice with more than six sides. You can have a die that represents the number of chips you earn and a second or third die that represents the number of chips you LOSE, which introduces subtraction with regrouping and negative numbers as well as making probability conversations more interesting.

Note that whether or not you win is completely based on luck. There is no skill involved. Very young children may not understand that and they find games that they win more often than not to be more fun, so when you play with your three-year-old for the first time, cheat so that s/he wins. Also if you feel his or her attention start to wane before anyone earns a hundred-point chip, then either quit while your child is ahead, or add more dice to get there faster.