Creative Writing-- Poetry Writing

Holidays can be a good time to have children write poems. Halloween is an especially good time to engage young boys in writing poetry since they are writing scary images. It gets away from the stereotype of poetry being "girly" or "flowery".

Creative Writing-- Question how to you get kids to edit their work?

So, question. How much time are you spending with their conventions like periods, capitalization, spelling, quotation marks, etc on a writing project? This year I am turning it more over to them since we don't have Assistant Teachers in the classroom, and I am wondering if that is a good idea. Some are catching on, and others are not. I have a folder where they do the re light green light, and spelling, but I know they are missing a ton. What do you do?
3rd Grade Teacher Janet L

Helping Your Struggling Student - Questionnaire

Helping Your Struggling Student
What is your child like?

Does your child have trouble in school? Do they hate math, spelling, reading, and writing?

Can he add up the same math problem and come up with a different answer each time?

Is her spelling “creative” and unfathomable?

Does his handwriting look like a dizzy chicken wandered across his page?

When he reads aloud does he often skip or substitute words?

Does he have trouble following oral directions?

Helping Your Struggling Student - Characteristics of a Visual-Spatial Learner

Characteristics of a Visual Spatial Learner

This is a style of learning.

Often visual spatial learners use the right side of their brain to gather and process information.

Though people use both hands, they prefer to use one hand over the other. This is their dominate hand. It is the same with our brain. We use both sides of our brain, but usually we have a dominant side we prefer to use to deal with life.

Helping Your Struggling Student - Visual Spatial Learning Approach

Visual-Spatial Learners Approach to Learning

A visual-spatial learner is a person who predominate uses sight as their preferred way to learn. They learn by seeing things. It can involve sight only, or they can “see” and understand a concept through their experiences.

Helping Your Struggling Student - General Helpful Ideas

Specific Ideas on How to Help Your Struggling Learner

Think positive and appreciate their gifts.

Help the child realize and develop their gifts.

Do not try to change your child to make them like other children.

Focus on their gifts, but help them to cope with their areas of weakness.

Realize that people are different and we have been given unique gifts.

Accept that there is no one way all people should be. Your child is “normal” for a visual-spatial person.

Helping Your Struggling Student - Positive View

Positive View of Visual-Spatial People

Keep in mind that in reality probably only 2% to 3% of children actually have a physical problem with their brain. The rest of the “problems” are actually visual-spatial learners or emotional problems. Often the stress visual-spatial learners are under in a school environment causes them to experience emotional problems. When these children are given adequate support

Helping Your Struggling Student - Basic Ideas for Teaching

Specific Ideas to Teach a Visual-Spatial Learner

Remember that the visual-spatial learner learns visually. Anything that helps them visualize what they are learning will help them to understand and remember it. Multi-sensory (things they can see, touch, hear) experiences are great. Since visualizing is a right brain function (in most people) humor, color, rhythm and music will also aid the child’s learning.

Helping Your Struggling Student - Lectures

Coping with Lectures

They will not be able to learn easily from lectures, but if the lectures use pictures and charts etc. it will help the child visualize the material.

It will also help if

Helping Your Struggling Student - Reading

Phonetic reading requires the ability to sequence small sound groups to form a whole word, then words into sentences. Visual-spatial people learn best when they learn works in context (in sentences).

It is crucial to have

Helping Your Struggling Student - Math

Visual-spacial learners need to experience math. They need to be able to visualize what each number means. They need to “see” the story problem. Drawing pictures, using manipulate (things to count etc), charts, graphs, and pictures can help them learn.

Helping Your Struggling Student - Spelling

If their visual memory is strong enough, have them visualize the word in their mind, then write what they see. Others may need more help such as:

Helping Your Struggling Student - Test Taking

Visual-spatial children may have considerable difficulty with tests in school since most are designed to evaluate auditory-sequential strengths.

Visual-spatial students can improve in their test taking results if they

Helping Your Struggling Student - Reports

Some may be able to do written reports, but may need help in writing down their information and organizing it. Here are other ways to help them with a report:

Helping Your Struggling Student - Handwriting

Often the visual-spatial child’s handwriting is poor. Sometimes they “hook” their hand around when writing. This is not a matter of physical coordination

Helping Your Struggling Student - Creative Writing

Almost all creative writers are visual-spatial people. They have the ability to “see” a story, idea, place, or character in their mind and use words to enable others to become a part of that world. They can become adept at sharing their experiences through words.

Since creative writers are visual-spatial people they need

Helping Your Struggling Student- Books to Read

Books for Parents to Read to Help Your Struggling Student

Though I don’t agree with everything in each book, on the whole I found their ideas very helpful.

Right - Brained Children in a Left - Brained World
Unlocking the Potential of Your ADD Child
by Jeffrey Freed, M.A.T. and Laurie Parsons

Helping Children Write Creative Stories

Helping Children Write Creatively

A few days ago a mother asked me for ideas on how to help her child write creative stories. This is the approach I have used with third grade students for the last seven years. I’ve learned that children love to write. I’ve even had many children beg to remain in during recess so they could finish writing their story! I feel these principles could be adapted to any age.
The most important thing

Books to use to Motivate Children to write Creative Stories

Suggestions of Some Picture Books to Use
in Motivating Children to Write

It usually is easiest for children to start writing by sharing their own experiences, but some children enjoy writing poetry, fantasy stories, or even reports. Allow the child to start with

Basic Ideas for Helping Children Become Creative Writers

Basic Ideas for Helping Children Become Creative Writers

● Read, Read, Read
to your child and with your child

Helping "Active" Children Learn

“Active”
If you have this last basic type of student, you probably get to visit with his teacher often.
You also have probably heard enough about how he doesn’t hold still, concentrate, finish his work, and is disruptive. Trying to fit these people into a quiet, orderly life is like

Helping Scientist type of Children Learn

“Scientist”
If your child is an endless series of “Whys?”, then you have a budding “Scientist”. These independent, logical souls may take apart anything to see “how it works”. After they understand the underlining principles of something, they are done with it. They are impatient with

Helping "Communicator" Children Learn

“Communicator”
If your child loves to talk, thrives on personal attention, wants to be appreciated, makes up their own stories, daydreams, loves fantasy, and always wants harmony both at home and at school, they may be a “Communicator”. They seek not to set the world in order, but to understand it. Since they are most interested in

Helping "Orderly" Children Learn

“Orderly”
The first type is what I call “Orderly Souls”. According to learning styles research, these make up about 38% of the average classroom. As adults, they dominate the business world. As children, these are the “ideal” students. They crave security, routine, and the approval of adults. They actually enjoy

Helping Children Learn intro

Helping Children Learn

Often parents are counseled that the best way they can help their child in school is to share their interests with their children, and to take them on educational outings. While these are valuable enriching activities, parents’ involvement in their child’s education should not be limited to these areas.
For a child to feel adequate in school, he must

Helping Children Learn

I am including a series of articles which were published in our local newspaper. This is the introduction to the series. These are practical ideas on how parents can help their children learn and do well in school. Hope it helps.

Why I started this blog.

A few weeks ago I was feeling a little overwhelmed with trying to manage my life. I always had a nagging feeling that I was forgetting something, but just couldn’t remember what, and all the details I had to handle gave me a headache. Knowing that I am a very right brain dominate person, I thought this was most likely the source of my stress. Since right brainers,