Monthly Archive for December, 2011

Dec 14 2011

Internet-Blocking Software Provides Freedom from Distraction

During my in-take interviews with new families, their child’s distractibility is one of the most common complaints. How do we get them to FOCUS?! Especially when they’re on the internet?

I totally get it, partially because I experience the same distractability in my own life, and I know many adults who do as well. This problem is certainly not isolated to teens.

Recently a friend who is a professional playwright and poet was complaining about her own difficulties focusing. Evidently, when she is momentarily stumped in the midst of her writing, she involuntarily opens a new tab and begins browsing the internet and falling down the rabbit hole of google.

I call this phenomenon the Technology Twitch, and it happens to me all the time. The second my brain bumps up against difficulty, my hand clicks onto facebook before I’m even conscious of what I’m done. That’s why I call it a “twitch”; it seems uncontrollable.

When she wants to circumvent the Twitch, my poet/playwright friend swears by the new software called Freedom. It’s easy-to-use interface allows the user to shut down the internet for a specified amount of time.

I tried it the other day, and found it an invaluable tool! I needed to read my friend’s dissertation, and every time I read a complex idea that required me to stop and think, I felt the “twitch” happen in my body. However, the internet was no where in sight (and my iphone was conveniently hidden in the next room)! So I simply noted the feeling of discomfort, and then moved my attention back to the difficult passage. What a relief!

I highly recommend Freedom to distractable students and parents. A word of caution, though, when it comes to doing homework: blocking the internet will require that you plan out your homework regimen before turning Freedom on. So many assignments these days require the internet. Review all your homework assignments for the night, make a list of the ones that require the internet, and then plan out what you are going to do first, second, third, etc.

If Freedom seems too extreme, check out this list of other software designed to diminish distractions.

If you try Freedom (or any of the others on the list), let me know how it works for you! Your reflections will help me recommend various tools to my academic coaching clients.

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Dec 11 2011

Reading Comprehension Tips: How to Find Main Ideas in a NonFiction Book

Several seniors with whom I work have recently been assigned their first nonfiction (read: non-textbook) book: The Future of Freedom by Fareed Zakaria. This is not light reading, and several of them feel lost. It’s a big jump to go from a textbook that force feeds you main ideas and subheadings, to a nonfiction book where main ideas have to be hunted down and highlighted.

It’s especially a big leap if the student has never really *thought* about how ideas are structured, whether in textbooks or otherwise. So much of my job as an academic coach is to get students to slow down and pay attention to structure — of learning activities, the teacher’s lecture, or their own thinking. Perhaps I should call myself a meta-cognition coach!

My client Toby was writing a book review for The Future of Freedom and needed to identify Zakaria’s main ideas. However,  Toby struggles with dyslexia and slow processing; he felt overwhelmed by the volume of ideas in the book and didn’t know how to glean the main point.

I pointed out that most nonfiction books are structured like a 5 paragraph essay, only longer. In a five paragraph essay we are guaranteed to find a concise statement of the main idea/theme of the book at the end of the introductory paragraph. Similarly, a nonfiction book will usually have a concise statement of the main idea in towards the end of the introductory chapter.

Toby and I checked it out; we scanned the final pages of the introduction looking for a clue, and sure enough: we found a paragraph that began with the words, “This book is a call for…”

Aha! I got really excited. If a book is “a call for” something, that’s a verbal clue that what follows will be a main idea!! As Toby and I read through the rest of that paragraph, it sure seemed like Mr. Zakaria was pointing to a main idea; however, before totally trusting what we’d found, Toby and I needed to  double-check our thinking.

“Where else in a 5 paragraph essay can we find a concise restatement of the main idea?” I asked. “The conclusion?” Toby responded. Yes, yes! So we scanned the conclusion chapter of the book, to see if there was a repetition of the main idea we’d found in the introduction. Again, success!

By the time Toby left our session, he had not only figured out the main idea of The Future of Freedom, but he’d learned a great deal about how authors structure their own thinking. Plus, he’d discovered that the 5 paragraph essay structure is not just a method of torture, but it’s a basic way that anyone — even the most accomplished authors — often organize their ideas.

Not a bad lesson from a 40-minute coaching session.

If you would like a free 15-minute consultation about how academic coaching might help your student become better at thinking about thinking, please contact me. I’d be happy to help.

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Dec 08 2011

What Makes Homework Different Than Studying

Many of my academic coaching clients have a devil of a time studying for tests.  The reasons are varied, but one major stumbling block I’ve uncovered is this: students do not understand the purpose that homework plays in preparing them for tests! Our current education system rewards students for mindlessly following teacher’s instructions, rather than thinking about the purpose behind the instructions. I’ve repeatedly discovered that it’s my role as an academic coach to help students uncover the connections between homework and what’s on the test.

Let’s look at two clients in particular, who are learning to understand the distinction between studying versus doing homework, and how both tasks are a crucial part of test preparation.

Michaela and Grant are both 9th graders who are consistently scoring Cs and Ds on their history tests. The other day I asked Michaela to show me her homework assignments, and sure enough: it appeared to me that she had copied the definitions from the textbook into her homework assignment.

Technically speaking, Michaela is answering her homework questions correctly; however, when she copies the definitions, she’s not actually internalizing the information she’s supposedly “learning.” When I asked her if she even pays attention to the meaning of what she’s writing, she confirmed, “No, I don’t. I just scan for the answers and write them down. That’s what I’m supposed to do, isn’t it?”

It hadn’t occurred to Michaela that the purpose of homework is to be introduced to new information, and then to practice that information with the purpose of learning it. If she mindlessly reads and answers questions, she *might* get a 100% on her homework assignment — but she’s making studying for the test extra hard.

We then discussed the difference between doing homework (when the teacher structures the learning activity, and you make sure you’ve learned it) and studying (when you structure your own learning activity to make sure that you’re understanding the information).

Michaela was shocked, and a little disheartened, to learn that test prep begins waaaaaaay back when she first does a homework assignment. It’s important for her to:

a) think actively when completing the teacher-assigned activity, so that she is aware of of what she is learning as she learns it (this is homework), and then

b) take some time to determine her strengths and weaknesses, and then (using multiple modalities) drill the weak areas and reinforce the strengths (this is studying).

If she does her homework with conscious attention to what she’s learning, and then several times a  chooses to study what she’s learned, she will be much better prepared for the eventual test.

Another client named Grant was working on a history worksheet during our coaching session. At one point, the worksheet asked Grant to make a list of the five beliefs shared by the enlightenment philosophers. Just as Michaela had done, Grant copied the beliefs directly from the textbook. When I asked him, “Do you even understand what you are writing? Would you be able to remember what these mean for the test?” he answered honestly,  “Probably not.”

Together we practiced going back, rereading the textbook, looking up confusing words, summarizing the information, and only THEN writing it down into his homework. Although this kind of mindful attention is more time-consuming, it saves time in the long run because Grant will not need to re-learn the information the night before the test.

I know it will probably take Michaela and Grant a couple of years before they fully “get” the distinction between studying and doing homework and how both impact their time efficiency and performance on tests. Both students have learning disabilities which make them slower processors, which makes the entire learning process — as well as thinking about their own thinking — a bit harder for them. Many students don’t fully integrate these processes until college!

In the meantime, Michaela and Grant will practice, practice practice. I’ve been an academic coach for long enough, I know that by the end of their sophomore year, they will (most likely) turn the corner and be more interested in improving their learning processes. One step at a time…

If you’d like a free fifteen minute consultation about your student and whether he or she could benefit from academic coaching, please contact me. I’d be happy to talk in more detail.

Photo by icanhascheezburger.com.

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