Are you interested in learning more about how the brain impacts your child’s behavior at home?  Are you looking for methods to assist you in guiding your child to become a hard working and responsible adult? The Dyslexia Network of Forsyth County is holding a workshop lead by Mary Hynes Danielak, Psy.D.  This workshop offers parents a 5-step parenting program for enhancing their child's behavior in the home based on brain research.  Further information can be obtained by visiting www.dyslexiaforsyth.com.

      Many meaningful report card comments have been lost once this report has been read.  This can be attributed to students difficulty with connecting these comments to work completed daily.  While the teacher’s relationships with the student does have an impact on the likelihood that these comments will shape the child’s performance, often this is alone is not sufficient.  In these cases, a simple post-it can make all the difference!

      As I mentioned in a previous post, a student that I work with on writing recently received his report card.  We discussed the comments recorded on this report.  Using this conversation as a catalyst, we drafted a checklist of 5 areas to be edited upon his completion of a piece.  He was excited and motivated by this idea.  Through this conversation and tool, he was able to implement the daily directive given by his teacher to edit his writing.  He heard and understood the importance of this request however he struggled to implement a plan for completing editing.  As Paula Moraine states in her text, he could see the big picture, needing to edit his writing, but struggled to pinpoint specific traits to check.  Therefore, this tool provided him a method for doing so. 

      This tool is not simply limited in its use to editing writing pieces.  For example, while reading, a post-it can be created featuring a specific type of comprehension question, including main idea and details.  This post-it can be placed on each page read.  After reading a given page, the child needs to answer a main idea and details question given by the adult.  Some students struggle to recall the steps in a math problem.  A post-it featuring the steps in order can be placed at the top of a page of math homework to assist with ease of completion.  Once the child gains confidence and ease in completing the problem, the post-it can then be removed. 

      Beyond the vast array of experiences this tool can enhance, the discussion and active involvement of the student in the learning process is essential.  The better a child understands him/herself as a learner, the better equipped they will be to use this tool and others like it to assist their learning.  Empowering students to take ownership for their own learning is the key to the successful implementation of any new tool or strategy.