Author Archives: Julie Meyers Pron

About Julie Meyers Pron

Julie Meyers Pron is a parenting and education writer, who relies on her experiences as a teacher and parent for inspiration. A mother of three children (ages two, six, and eight), PTO Director, former MOMS Club President and Vice President, and a (non-practicing) elementary school teacher, Julie has both experience and knowledge about parental involvement in education. Blogging at a variety of Websites since 2005, including her personal blog, the Julieverse at Just Precious, Julie is a founding partner of Vlogmom and a Principal at Splash Creative Media.

7 Journal Prompts to Inspire Writing with Details

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Earlier this month, we discussed helping your child learn to use describing words and details in conversation as a key to improving writing skills. Below are writing prompts to help inspire children to write with details.

As you prompt children to write, it’s important to use the same techniques that we suggested for conversation: ask questions, discuss feelings and give them time. Children should be encouraged to go back and reread what they’ve written, adding, deleting and making changes. It also helps to put it down for a little while and come back to writing later.

7 writing prompts to inspire writing with details

Your school or neighborhood is going to host a carnival and you’re going to be in charge of one of the games. Describe your game. What supplies will you need? How will you decorate the area? What will participants need to do? How will you challenge them?

It’s Create a Monster Day! Write about a monster that no one has ever seen before using describing words that will scare anyone who reads it. Don’t forget to include how the monster affects all 5 senses.

Describe today through the eyes of your pet (or the pet you wish you had.) Think about how things are different from where your pet is. Does he call your mom “Mom”? Would does he smell the same things you smell? What does the world look like to him and what does he do all day? How does he feel?

You just found a large brown box with a big red bow wrapped around it. You opened it and inside was another box and bow. Then another… and another. Describe all the boxes shapes, sizes, colors, and wrappings as they get smaller and smaller until you finally open the last box. Then describe what was inside as you open the last one.

Go back to the box activity and describe your feelings as you open the boxes. Is it fun? Do your feelings and anticipation change as you open more? Are some more difficult to open than others? Don’t forget to explore your senses, too.

What’s your favorite movie? Describe the ending of the movie. Tell about the setting, the feelings and the characters’ feelings.

What was the last thing you ate? Write a description of it as if you’re telling someone who has never tasted it before. What did it look like? How did you eat it? How did it feel in your mouth and belly? Remember to include all of your senses.

Enter your bike in the annual Decorate Your Bike Parade. Write detailed plans of how you will decorate your bike.

How to help your child learn to describe

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how to teach kids to use details

As children learn to become writers, one of the most difficult concepts for them to learn is to describe and add details. To help them develop this concept, it’s important for parents, teachers and friends to prompt kids in discussion to use more describing words.

The next time your child points to something and says, “What’s that?”, tell him you’re not sure what he’s referring to, even if you are. Likely, he’ll point again and say, “That! That thing… what is it?” Here’s the hard part: don’t tell him what it is. Tell him you still aren’t sure (perhaps your eyes are closed or there are a lot of things he could be pointing at, or you have incredible sun glare..) and that you need him to describe it using detailed words.

You might receive silence as a response. “Describe?” He’ll question. “But can’t you see it?” Perhaps he’ll have no problem telling you it’s large, greenish brownish and ugly.

Urge him on asking, “Ugly, what kind of ugly?”

“Well,” he might say, “it has brownish bumps all over it. And the brown bumps are kind of like circles, and then he has this skin that’s brown and white and green and tan. And it’s skin is kind of bumpy, too, but not big bumps like the brown bumps.”

Keep him going and say “really?” or just stay quiet and wait for more.

“Yeah. And he has two big eyes that are golden and green and almost glowing and he’s just staring at me with them. He’s barely moving but maybe his belly is moving in and out a little bit.”

“Interesting…,” you’ll reply. “You said he’s large? Large how? Like as big as our house?”

“No! He just seems big. Like… bigger than the ant that just crawled by. Maybe bigger than my hand. Oh! And his hands have 4 skinny fingers.”

Wait longer to make sure he’s done describing — both kids and adults tend to talk more when there’s no response. Then, when you’re sure he’s done, congratulate him, “That sounds like a frog to me. You did such a great job describing it I would have been able to figure that out even with my eyes closed!”

5 tips for prompting your child to describe

Use describing words in your conversations

Don’t just say “Over there, to your right, see it?” As an adult, you’ll need to model the desired behavior, so make sure you’re describing with more than the basic words.

Give kids time

Try not to jump in and give an answer, but count to ten after your child finishes his thoughts to make sure he’s really finished. Often times, when given quiet time to think about what he’s just said, he’ll think of more to add to the conversation.

Listen and question

Pay close attention to the way he is describing something, so that you have questions to ask for further discussion. Perhaps he uses the word “huge.” We know that “huge” is a relative term, so ask him what he means by the word or to compare the size to something else.

Discuss feelings

Sometimes the looks of an object give a child a feeling–the feeling is very much a part of the describing process. In fact, describing feelings is often more difficult that describing an object because feelings aren’t tangible. As children grow to be stronger writers, they’ll learn to tie together feelings and objects as they describe.

Practice describing words as a game

This is an easy game for waiting in line or in the car. Select an object and take turns describing it together without saying what it is. It’s even more fun to do this with a friend who can guess what you’re describing.

The Handwriting Dilemma–Should Keyboarding Push Cursive Out of Schools?

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is handwriting necessary in school?

 

Is looking at your son’s homework making you dizzy? Are you trying to detect how a second grader, in the spring, still isn’t spacing his words correctly? Are you wondering why your child’s teacher keeps marking things wrong when your child swears they’re right?

Chances are pretty good that the problem is handwriting. With computers taking over so much of education, handwriting is taking a backseat, often far, far back on the big yellow school bus. In fact, in 2011, Slatest reported that Indiana became the first state to drop the cursive writing requirement. Other states, including Hawaii followed suit.  How many other states will also remove the requirement for students to learn cursive? That’s unknown. But with Common Core standards taking over adopted public school curricula, teachers are finding less time and space in their day to teach basic handwriting skills.

Which leaves some students, and their parents, in a scribble. Without an emphasis on somewhat neat handwriting, students aren’t being taught to take pride in the work they show. Today, as my son completed a school project, we discussed taking pride in work and making a poster attractive (as well as legible.) “It’s not just there for you to read,” I explained. “It’s there for your friends and teachers to read. If it’s messy, what does that say about you?”

My son is in third grade. He’s a strong student and enjoys focusing on reading, writing, science and social studies. He has state tests next week and, midway through the school year, it was announced that they would not be offered on the computer as the state was not ready to implement the keyboard test.

Uh-oh, I thought. How will the test reader, who doesn’t know him, decipher his chicken scratch on his essays?

I asked his teacher for advice–how is the school helping kids to improve their handwriting and writing skills? And how can I work with the school to help in this area?

Well… they aren’t. Not really. Each child has a handwriting book, but it’s rarely used. At the same time I learned this, my son admitted to me that not only can he not write cursive, but he has a hard time reading cursive. It takes him longer to decipher, especially when it’s not perfectly written.

That made sense. He never actually learned to write in cursive, not really. Not on a regular basis that’s integrated into his daily expectations. So how should he be expected to read quick cursive?

I spend the majority of my working hours running my fingers along a keyboard. My handwriting’s importance has waned in favor of faster keyboarding skills because I use the keyboard far more than the pencil. But I took note, today, how often I still pick up a pen or pencil. I write babysitter instructions, grocery lists, things to do lists, phone messages, my daily work-related goals … and all of these lists usually need to be read by someone else. Most of my notes are written in a mix of cursive and script that has become my “signature style.”

Where would I be if my schools didn’t stress the importance of handwriting skills? Where will our kids be in 10 years? Sure, there will always be the children who see handwriting as an art, but if we stress that everyone will use the keyboard, will the majority of our children and grandchildren know how to read our cursive? Will they respond to our handwritten notes?

Should keyboarding push cursive out of the curriculum? The Common Core Standards don’t list handwriting (cursive or print) at all, however they do state that in grades K and 1 basic legible print should be expected. But after that? It’s up to the state or the school system’s adoption and adaptation of the standards to determine handwriting expectations. Universal Publishing tells us that Massachusetts includes cursive in their standards and lists legible handwriting as a requirement in fourth grade. California includes manuscript in second grade and the teaching of cursive in grades three and four.

What do you think? Should legible, clear handwriting be an expectation for Generation Z (or M or M2) or can that be tossed out with Home Ec and Industrial Arts?

Journal and discussion topics incorporating higher-level thinking

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Children as young as kindergarten are now being encouraged to journal on a regular basis. Some teachers have students journal for morning work while others use it as a transition. No matter when they do it, when children learn that writing is a normal part of their day, they become strong writers.

The same goes for discussions. When children have more opportunities to discuss topics by offering ideas and opinions, they learn not just more about themselves but more about their surroundings.

But, sometimes, whether in writing or in speaking, it’s easy to fall on the same topic:

  • Write (or tell me about) your day.
  • What happened today?
  • Did you have a good weekend? What did you do?

While questions like these are great in small doses and can help kids to strengthen list-making and recall skills, they aren’t forcing their thoughts beyond the normal.

How to create higher-level thinking journal and discussion prompts

  • Never ask questions that require a one-word answer. But if you must, then extend the question by asking why or how.
  • Ask for an opinion of a reading or event, rather than a summary. Summarizing is  not higher level thinking. Instead, ask what would you have done in this situation? How could the outcome have been different? What do you think should happen next? What do you think happened before this situation? 
  • Give extra time. Don’t always expect an answer right away. Previewing a topic will often offer an opportunity for children’s minds to wander. Or advise kids to read the topic and then sit quietly for a minute before writing.
  • Offer an opportunity to create through words. Great creation questions often include words like create, make, change and build.
  • Refer back to previous work by asking students to go back to a previous entry and change an element.

 Sample higher-level thinking journal and discussion topics

  • Read this article. How would it have been different if you were there. Would you have made a difference in the story? What would you have done? (Distribute with an article from a magazine or newspaper)
  • “Paint the town red” means to like run wild and have fun. If you could paint the town, what color would it be and what would everyone do?
  • My friend told me she hates the snow. Why do you think she hates snow? How could you change her opinion?
  • Tomorrow we’re going to talk about building a new shopping center. Think about all the areas of a shopping center that are important. What would you put in your shopping center? Share what it would look like and how it would be built.
  • Last week, you created a story about a bird and an ant. Reread your story. Now rewrite your story changing the ending (or the main character or the setting.)

Image courtesy of Witthaya Phonsawat / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Calming crazed kids from wild to calm on indoor days

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wild to calm

After a busy day at school, the kids love to come home and play. And I’m so okay with that. In fact, when the weather allows, I’ll kick them outside even if it’s 30 degrees. Schools offer less running and playing time, making it so valuable to offer it at home after a busy day of work work work.

But on days that it’s too cold or wet, the kids come home and, well, things can get a little crazy. We try lots of activities–cooking, games on the wii, building with LEGOs… but after a while without a lot of physical activity, my kids tend to go wild.

Recently, we talked about appropriate behavior inside versus outside of the house. To help my visual learners clue in, I created a simple chart with only a scale and the words WILD and calm on it. Together, we placed the smaller words “outside,” “inside,” “dinner,” and “bed” along the scale, and then I gave each of the kids a clip and asked them to each place their clip where their behavior would have been when I called them all together. Next, we brainstormed ways we could all get to calm before bed.

How to calm down a house of crazed kids

The visual helped a lot with this step, as they talked about what they enjoy doing at each stage. For example, building with LEGOs is a two or three, but playing with dolls is a three or four. The kids even looked at their board game collection and determined which games are higher on the wild scale (games like Jake and the Never Land Pirates Never Land Challenge require a lot of movement and excitement where as Sequence for Kids or HedBanz Game may factor a mid-range score on the wild scale. Reading a book was listed as almost as calm as bedtime.

One of the kids mentioned yoga and breathing exercises as a way to calm down and another said that drawing was one of her favorite ways to calm herself.

Since I hung up this sign and we discussed it together, I’ve only had to refer to it a few times. In the beginning, the kids enjoyed moving their clips to show their energy but they haven’t moved for a few weeks. However, I can still say to the kids “you’re at about an 8 right now… is that calm enough for inside behavior?” and they understand what they need to do to calm down.

How do you calm your crazed kids? 

Teaching Kids About the Economy

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teaching economics

While teaching community to my second grade students, I introduced them to Dorptown and the children worked on creating their own community. Our currency was based on the Dorp, which was designed by one of the students. All the children became contributing members of the community–taking on jobs such as realtor, banker and shop owner (they made their own product line.)

The most popular shop in Dorptown was the pizza shop–one student brought a toaster oven to school, as well as supplies like English muffins, spaghetti sauce and cheese. He was well on his way to being the Dorpenairre, the richest person in town because everyone always wanted pizza. He also quickly learned the concept of supply and demand as day after day, he ran short on English muffins. After a few days, he had to change his operating hours–no longer could Michael sell pizza five days a week, his restaurant was only open three days a week, due, of course, to limited supplies.

It wasn’t long into the second week when Michael’s Pizza Shoppe had competition. Haleigh opened up shop, just across the town by the windows. She offered pizza four days a week and while her pizzas were smaller (on a Ritz Cracker) they were also priced lower.

It may have only been elementary school, but my students learned economics, the art of doing business and competition. They also learned how to earn money… and how to spend.

As spring approaches, so do the days of those wonderful lemonade stands. Around our neighborhood, kids create their own economics class as they stake out the corner, where they can get the best traffic. They go door to door announcing their stand, make and hang posters, and offer specials–”Lemonade is $1 per cup, but if you give us $10, we’ll give you an 11th cup free!” It always surprises me how many passersby just drop the $10 and leave with one or two cups.

My kids also look forward to the community garage sale, where they’ll compete with neighbors to have the most compelling driveway of toys to sell–and at the best prices. They’ve learned how to value income over toys (or the other way around) and, often, how to work a bargain.

Or, they’re learning. A few years ago, our garage sale was shaded (in my eyes) by the actions of a selfish customer.

In these early lessons of business my kids have learned, as my students did, that the business world is a hard yet extremely rewarding place where the strongest will survive. They’ve learned concepts of competition, innovation and value. They’ve learned to fend for themselves and make decisions.

Already, the kids are already collecting a box of sale items for our garage sale that is still months away. They’ve spoken of signs to make for the lemonade sale they plan on the first nice day–they tried to host one last week, but I convinced them not to stand outside in the 38 degree weather.

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The value in wordless books

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My mom and I ventured to the library at least once a week. It was a tiny, two story building with the children’s books and story hour hidden upstairs. These were the days before people set up workstations at small libraries. Little research was done at this one. It was, simply, a lending library.

I recall the moms shushing their children. I’d like to think that I was as difficult to settle into quietness at this tiny library as my kids are at our much larger one.

When I think back to my time at the library, I remember only one book. A book I borrowed repeatedly. A book with pictures so splendid and engaging. A book so tiny it fit in my little hand and I could proudly carry it. I knew every word.

The book, mind you, was wordless. It’s likely now out of print, but oh! The story. It was about two little mice. I believe they were having a tea party, all dressed up. Or, perhaps they were on an adventure.

A wordless book? you wonder. What’s the point? How will children ever learn the value in reading if they’re holding and cherishing a book without words?

I was reminded of this a few days ago, when my 3-year-old picked up my first grader’s copy of Captain Underwear–a story told in comics. She couldn’t read a word on the page, but she sat for at least 15 minutes reading the story aloud. Her eyes followed the panels from left to right. She turned pages correctly. She added drama, vocabulary and meaning to each image. She created a story very different from the one my son reads the words to, but loved the story just as much. Maybe more.

Wordless picture books offer opportunity to help children learn through context. They learn to look closely at the images, deciphering the illustrator’s meaning. They learn tracking cues (where the eyes search and follow through a story). They learn about character development, plot, suspense. They become summarizers. Even better, they become storytellers.

Each year when I was teaching I’d hand my students a large packet. The top of each page was images of Tomie dePaola’s Pancakes for Breakfast. The bottom half of the page was blank lines. I asked the children to put their pencils away, find a comfortable spot in the room, and read the story. Many of the kids questioned me. How could they read? Why? But after 15 minutes, they were excited about the story they read.

Next, each child brainstormed the plot, the beginning, middle and end. They created a character description. They thought of alternative endings.

Finally, they wrote their stories. Only after everyone was finished did they share with each other.

Oh, how amazed they were at the differences! They had the same pictures, but such different ideas on each page!

Through wordless books, children learn the art of storytelling and unique thoughts.

7 great wordless picture books for your home library

Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola

Tuesday by David Wiesner

The Red Book by Barbara Lehman

Chalk by Bill Thomson

Home by Jeannie Baker

Sector 7 by David Weisner

The Chicken Thief (Stories Without Words) by Beatrice Rodriguez

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“The word ‘nice’ is not permitted in this classroom.”

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The very first day of seventh grade, Mr. Bogdan outlawed the word “nice.” While I’m sure that my English teacher wasn’t single-handedly responsible for influencing the use of “awesome” and “cool” in this world, I’m fairly certain he influenced users to adapt the term more frequently in our zip code. Had this been two decades later, I’m sure “sweet” would have been outlawed as well.

In banning such a simple word, Mr. Bogdan created an opportunity for his students to think and speak outside our realm of comfort. It’s not that nice is a bad word, it’s that nice doesn’t mean anything. It’s not a compliment. It’s not an insult. It’s just… blah. And it doesn’t tell you anything.

“Why is someone nice? What makes him nice? Don’t tell me she looked “nice” at the party, tell me what she wore. Blegh. Nice.” I recall his big puffy cheeks waving as he shuddered each time he said the dreadful word.

We learned to substitute ”nice” for more descriptive words. We learned to identify what made someone nice, and we found that there were so many words better suited to describe someone or something.

It wasn’t until seventh grade that I learned to place value in considering my word choice as I added details to things I said and wrote. But when I was helping my nine-year-old with homework the other day, and he had described a book character as “cool, super cool and awesome,” I imagined Mr. Bogdan shuddering once again. True, he didn’t use the dreadful word nice, but words similar enough with no apparent meaning.

I found myself asking Mr. Bogdan’s questions: What makes him super cool? Why is he awesome?

I don’t think I’ve ever realized how influential Mr. Bogdan’s teachings would be on my life. But I haven’t stopped thinking of his lesson since last week’s homework assignment. Mr. Bogdan taught me to think, speak, and write beyond the easy words.

I hope all teachers leave their students with something so important.

How Children Can Volunteer in the Community

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Helping in the garden

We all want to teach our children to give back to others and the importance of being a helpful part of our community, but finding service projects that young children can participate in is often a stumbling block.

Volunteer activities for kids

Visit a Senior Center

Senior centers invite children and children’s groups to visit for happy smiles, playful visits and entertainment. Parent groups can sign up their children to sing or visit and play simple board games, cards and, for older children, read stories.

Help a neighbor

Children with older neighbors simply need to ask how they can help. Perhaps the neighbor needs help taking the trash out each week, or could use a hand weeding or gardening in the spring and summer. It may be as simple as collecting the mail for a neighbor who struggles to get outside.

Create a garden at school, your community center or your place of worship

Gardens bring smiles, warmth and life to a variety of areas, but, sadly, they’re easily overlooked and frequently cut from budgets. Families can contact building directors to learn how they can establish, plan, create and keep-up community gardens—this is a great group activity.

Help stock soup kitchens

While some soup kitchens may have rules about the minimum ages of volunteers who may interact within the actual kitchens, they often accept help behind the scenes. Bring your child in to help sort and organize foods, or work with your child to run a collection through a your neighborhood or school.

National Day of Service

Traditionally held on Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Day (Monday), in 2013 President Obama is celebrating the Day of Service on Saturday, January 19 (likely because the parade and Inauguration on Monday will distract from doing good for others.)

Families can: 

Visit Volunteer Match or the official day of service website to be matched with local activities that are of interest and in need of volunteers.

If you’re in Washington, DC, visit the National Mall where President Obama is “hosting a service fair with nearly 100 non-profit organizations.” Read the President’s National Day of Service letter at Yahoo.

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Thank a Teacher Day

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thank-a-teacher

 

Dropping off my kids at school wasn’t easy today, I’m sure it wasn’t for you, either. After a weekend of love and hugs, it’s so hard to separate yourself from your little ones. The ones you’ve watched grow. The ones who look to you for support. The ones you plan to hold hands with for years to come.

As I watched my older boys walk through the big glass doors into school this morning, it was reassuring to know that they felt safe. They were surrounded by teachers who give countless hours and love to their growth and their safety.

In memory and honor of the teachers who give of themselves everyday, today, December 17, 2012, has been declared Thank a Teacher Day. Parents, students and former students are being asked to send emails, notes, cookies, flowers or just love to teachers that make (or made) a difference in their lives. It’s time to recognize those that would take a stand for our children.

Please join me in sharing appreciation. You can share your thanks on Facebook, on Twitter, by ink or anyway you feel appropriate. 

I’m so very fortunate I was able to watch my children as they walked through those doors today. My thanks is to the teachers. My heart is with those who lost loved ones. We’re all affected by the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary.

With love.