"Raising IQs in Toddlers with Autism" Well Blog/The New York Times 12/22/09
This interview with Sally Rogers of UC Davis and the MIND Institute, as well as one of the people behind an apparently successful intervention called the Early Start Denver Model, really interested me. The key to the intervention is play, something that all kids need, and that I just read about in Elena Bodrova and Deborah Leong's great Tools of the Mind, and am currently reading about in Stuart Brown's Play.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
WORLD OF LEARNING: WHAT AND WHEN ARE WE READY TO LEARN?
"Studying Young Minds, and How to Teach Them" The New York Times 12/20/09
Great article from the Times' great Benedict Carey, with the focus on the provocative idea that kids can handle simple multiplication and division concepts before first grade, and a provocative aside, "the brain’s ability to link letter combinations with sounds may not be fully developed until age 11 — much later than many have assumed."
Great article from the Times' great Benedict Carey, with the focus on the provocative idea that kids can handle simple multiplication and division concepts before first grade, and a provocative aside, "the brain’s ability to link letter combinations with sounds may not be fully developed until age 11 — much later than many have assumed."
Friday, December 18, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
LARS'S LIBRARY: LITERARY LINKS
More kids' books Christmas gift ideas and some nice preview pictures from those books at PRI's The World's "Children’s Holiday Books 2009".
The story includes two books I just have happily purchased and read—Kate DiCamillo's The Magician's Elephant and Shaun Tan's Tales from Suburbia—so I have evidence that Carol Zall's recommendations here are excellent. She also highlights a new edition of Alice in Wonderland with voluptuously colorful illlustrations by Rodney Matthews, a new edition of Han Christian Andersen's Thumbelina with illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline, who did such a wonderful job on DiCamillo's previous The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, a pop-up version of The Little Prince, and a picture book, Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser.
Another new, or in this case re-issued, children's book that I'm ordering right now is Alastair Reid's Ounce, Dice, Trice, enthusiastically reviewed here by Daniel Pinkwater. It was illustrated by Ben Shahn!
The story includes two books I just have happily purchased and read—Kate DiCamillo's The Magician's Elephant and Shaun Tan's Tales from Suburbia—so I have evidence that Carol Zall's recommendations here are excellent. She also highlights a new edition of Alice in Wonderland with voluptuously colorful illlustrations by Rodney Matthews, a new edition of Han Christian Andersen's Thumbelina with illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline, who did such a wonderful job on DiCamillo's previous The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, a pop-up version of The Little Prince, and a picture book, Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser.
Another new, or in this case re-issued, children's book that I'm ordering right now is Alastair Reid's Ounce, Dice, Trice, enthusiastically reviewed here by Daniel Pinkwater. It was illustrated by Ben Shahn!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
WORLD OF LEARNING
"When Teaching the Right Answers Is the Wrong Direction" Rebecca Alber Blog/Edutopia 11/12/09
"Getting It Wrong: Surprising Tips on How to Learn" Scientific American 10/20/09
"Decision Making Becomes the Newest Life Science" Edutopia 12/09
Some great stuff by way of Edutopia. My sister has recently been telling me about motivational programs used in Washington state that appear to be about telling kids what they need to do to change their lives. But perhaps a better approach is to let them explore the alternatives without making initial judgments, as in the Decision Education Foundation's program profiled in Edutopia's December issue.
Amber Lamprecht of Literacy and Learning in San Francisco has really made me think about this, recounting her work in helping young people to chart out positives and negatives of possible decisions and having them visualize possible outcomes. Young people, in my opinion, will more often than not make good life choices when they are given tools to make them and are empowered to do so.
The two articles about the problem with "right" answers really hit home with me. I am currently working with a sixth grader and a seventh grader who have homework "study guides" they fill in for literature and social studies. At times, they get frustrated with me because I press them to give me their own interpretation of the material without letting them know if it is "correct," and I get frustrated with the "study guides" because they end up not guiding study, but filling time with empty busy work.
"Getting It Wrong: Surprising Tips on How to Learn" Scientific American 10/20/09
"Decision Making Becomes the Newest Life Science" Edutopia 12/09
Some great stuff by way of Edutopia. My sister has recently been telling me about motivational programs used in Washington state that appear to be about telling kids what they need to do to change their lives. But perhaps a better approach is to let them explore the alternatives without making initial judgments, as in the Decision Education Foundation's program profiled in Edutopia's December issue.
Amber Lamprecht of Literacy and Learning in San Francisco has really made me think about this, recounting her work in helping young people to chart out positives and negatives of possible decisions and having them visualize possible outcomes. Young people, in my opinion, will more often than not make good life choices when they are given tools to make them and are empowered to do so.
The two articles about the problem with "right" answers really hit home with me. I am currently working with a sixth grader and a seventh grader who have homework "study guides" they fill in for literature and social studies. At times, they get frustrated with me because I press them to give me their own interpretation of the material without letting them know if it is "correct," and I get frustrated with the "study guides" because they end up not guiding study, but filling time with empty busy work.
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