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What key skills do they need? Part 2
July 22, 2021
Focus on the fundamentals! Let's talk about those key skills.
In last week’s blog, I addressed the value you, as a parent, bring to your child’s education. Yes, you know your child best. Your commitment and awareness of your child, coupled with an ‘in-house’ view of school during the pandemic has given you some good information about what is necessary to build your child’s academic skills.
With all of the information available, you quickly realize there is a lot to know and not quite enough time. The danger we all encounter with information is having too much or not the right information. It can overload us! The question becomes, how do you know what matters most for a child’s academic success? Being clear on what fundamentals your child needs for their success is a powerful position to take as a parent. You, as a parent, can step in with oversight on the fundamental learning priorities and help your child work well with their teaching team to learn those key skills. This is something you CAN control
You can control things like
identifying the priorities
and
designing a plan to address those priorities.
Let me step back for a moment and look at the big picture overview of your child’s education. In my varied experience as a teacher and parent, I have been fascinated with and focused on understanding how people learn. I also understand how to help students meet course objectives that sometimes are harder to relate back to the core skills these requirements are producing.
With the above experiences, I emphasize the importance of academic fundamentals. What are these?
TOOLS IN THEIR TOOLKIT
The fundamentals are like the tools in your child’s tool kit. They are the tools they will have in their base knowledge that will allow them to solve problems, put together well-supported positions with well-researched reliable sources, and the skills to communicate those ideas with the people around them in a way that they can understand and move forward.
As a list these FUNDAMENTALS would include what we used to call, the 3 R’s:
- Reading
- R - Writing
- R - Arithmetic (Mathematics)
And
- Public Speaking-confidence in communicating ideas and ‘thinking on your feet’ communicating with little prep time.
- Thinking-Deciphering information, Learning how to think critically and problem solve-make decisions.
Yes, the other subjects are important too. The skills above, however, will enable students to unpack and work with those other subjects successfully. Let me give you more detail and examples.
Reading: They can read and comprehend complicated concepts because they have a strong vocabulary, they can decode, they can identify an analogy and an inference.
Writing: they can articulate an idea with a solid sentence, leading to a solid paragraph and eventually a well-formed essay. They can spell, handwrite legibly and address an issue in conversation by raising a point and supporting it with facts.
Arithmetic (Mathematics):
- Numeracy Understanding: They have a solid base of understanding in the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division so they can work with a family of facts and move in multiple directions.
- Memorization: They have memorized the number facts, specifically addition and multiplication tables which allow them to then reverse or look for the missing number in the family of facts to subtract and divide. Rote memorization of math facts gives them the speed in computation that allows them to solve problems faster with the facts at their fingertips.
As each new math concept is built upon this base: Order of operations BEDMAS, Algebra, asking deeper thinking questions will build their ability to unpack word problems even when they are phrased differently and come from a different approach than practiced. Thinking through these word problems out loud will allow your child to follow your thinking, learn that pattern and use it themselves over time to unpack a new problem posed.
THIS SUMMER, TAKE THE TIME
Take the time this summer to:
- Reflect on these key academic skills, the fundamentals of their success, and reflect realistically on where your child’s skills currently are.
- Consider how to focus more on these key priorities in the context of those everyday school assignments.
- Make daily homework a priority and prioritize your time to be nearby. You can then be asking the key skill questions in the midst of their daily assignments and tests that will link the knowledge being tested back to the bigger picture key skills you are ensuring are being built. See specific examples in What key skills do they need? Part 1
By identifying the priorities and designing a plan to address those priorities, you can be accessed regularly for support and focus your support on building your child’s key priorities, the fundamental skills, which will ensure that they are set up for success.
Welcome to Episode 1 of Their Best Parent!
I invite you to pause and reflect on a few key tips for prioritizing what matters most in your child’s academic success, so that we, as parents, can be our child’s best support.
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