Lucky Number ... Six?

Writing is not as hard as you might think it is. Really. All it takes is some effort and some know-how. I can help you with both. Teaching and tutoring English for a number of years has given me the opportunity to train with a multitude of methods that all have beneficial effects on a student's writing. As one quickly learns in the area of writing, what seems like an abstract, ephemeral process can be turned into something that is concrete, doable, and most of all, writable. And, that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is where six, does indeed, become your lucky number. Really.
It has nothing to do with games of chance, the same suite of five, or three "sevens" matching across a quarter slot game. It does, however, have everything to do with a thing called the Six Traits of Writing. And what are they? A group of teachers came together and graded many pieces of student writing (hey, some things in life never change). As a result of their collaborative grading, they came up with six traits of writing that strong papers in the pool all had, as a unifying theme: ideas and content, mechanics, word choice, organization, voice, and sentence fluency. What developed out of this collaboration can help your student become a skilled writer. Really.
So, here is the breakdown of the six traits: each trait is graded on a scale of one to six, with six being the highest. What is also given under each score is some written text that exemplies, for better or for worse, what makes a score what it is. There is a total of six numbers, and those numbers are then averaged for a score that ranges anywhere from a zero (the student wrote nothing) to six (highly improbably, but it has happened). Aiming for a total score of four to five is a goal that can be reached. Really. So, how do you get your student there?
Well, hiring a tutor that has a mastery of the English language, but also, who has a mastery of the types of rubrics school districts are using is a step in the right direction. Taking writing step by step, in addition to teaching the traits in chunks, can solidify an exemplary writing model that your student can use in any classroom. Since many students have difficulty with developing and elaborating ideas, I usually start tutoring with the trait of "ideas," and show them with graphic organizers, with the recalling of prior knowledge into other subjects that they know, and with showing them the cause/effect relationships their own ideas have, how to turn a one sentence wonder into a beautifully substantial paragraph with innumerable possibilities for discussion and thought. All it takes is the introduction of the process and some practice.
Really.
For more information about students being tutored in the Scottsdale and Phoenix areas, please visit www.excellenceinacademicstutoring.com.

For more information about the six traits (now Six Traits +1), please visit www.nwrel.org.

What You Should Know about Tutoring

Two weeks ago, I had an enlightening conversation with a woman to whom I had been describing my business. She asked me what kind of services I provided for the students I tutored, and as I ticked off a myriad of situations in which a student might benefit from the use of a tutor, she was quiet for a moment, and then replied, "I always thought tutoring equalled trouble!" It was then that I had an epiphany. As a teacher that is "true blue," and as a tutor who understands all of the ways tutoring can help children, I was flabbergasted to realize that, maybe, a good chunk of the population believed the same way that my lunching companion did. If that is the case, then please allow me to make my case for illustrating the innumerable ways parents can benefit their children by hiring the likes of me (your English and reading specialist, extraordinaire):

• curriculum enrichment: Think of tutoring as preventative maintenance on your child's knowledge for the school year - tutoring can reinforce, supplement, and assess what is being done at his school, and also provide additional knowledge to widen the child's knowledge base.
• specific academic goals that need to be met: Whether your child needs to get an "exceeding" or "meets" on her English portion of the AIMS test, whether your child is gearing up to write her senior research paper, or whether your child needs to learn the "ins" and "outs" of the library in order to do proper research, tutoring can help with all of those tasks.
• literature enrichment: Would you like to improve your child's analytical, higher-level thinking skills? Would you like to see your child make connections between the literature he's reading in school and with happenings that are taking place on a national and global level? How about having your child make connections between the literature and himself? (by the way, those are all ideas that are listed in the state standards of this beautiful state, of ours). Well, proper tutoring done by an expert can help develop those critical thinking skills that each teacher, nationally, wants to see in their students' work.

The point here is that there is always a reason to hone and develop your child's writing, reading, and analytical skills. The point is that not only does learning never go out of style, but that this schematic building of knowledge will enhance the child's worldview, and, as an adult, will line his wallet. Knowledge makes you rich mentally, spirtually, and in this earthly world, financially.

For more information about tutoring in Scottsdale and Phoenix, Arizona, please visit http://www.excellenceinacademicstutoring.com/ for services that will assist your child in being a standout, but also, a child that stands apart from others.

Everyone Should Practice What He Preaches

In a commentary in Education Week, Joseph Renzulli passionately--and somewhat patronizingly--argues that "Engagement is the Answer." In fact, he maintains this so vehemently, it is the title of the commentary itself. Although there are some issues he raises that ring with some truth, the truth is only perceived with one angle. Two points of Renzuli's article will be introduced, and then examined.

Point One: Renzulli lists the implied evils of what education has done in the name of narrowing the chasm of achievement between advantaged and disadvantaged students: smaller schools, year-round schools, single-sex classes, charter schools, merit pay for teachers, and a long list of other plans that imply failure. He states, "...these structural changes have focused too much on low-level, highly prescriptive pedagogy intended to improve standardized-test scores" (www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/07/16/43renzulli.h27.html?print=1).

There are at least two major problems with this argument. What Mr. Renzulli doesn't do when he implicitly states that public education, as a whole, is a failure, is list or research its successes. Research in the field of education is an evolving body of knowledge, and this evolving body of knowledge does give proof that year-round schools and single-sex classes do have positive, quantifiable research that offer benefit to why these types of schools and classes exist. And these are only two examples. Granted, it does not mean it is the only answer for narrowing the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students, but to say that engagement is the only answer, too, is short-sighted.

The other problem is that this "prescriptive" pedagogy that Renzulli speaks of is not for the sole result of improving standardized testing. What schools and their districts are trying to do is not only improve testing scores, but show a quantifiable improvement in learning and comprehension. It is not solely the onus of public education that has made it the puppet of forces higher than it. Namely, the government. When state and national legislation involve themselves into things that are not in their field of expertise, public education has to bend itself to their latest demands and whims.

I am not, also, saying that public education is perfect. There are many fissures in its system, but being within that system for many years has shown me firsthand that schools are improving, and that student learning is occuring. Renzulli's use of the word "prescriptive" is almost said as if it were a curse word. It is insulting to true educators to have a word that is connected to the ideas of structure and method, which by the way, are connected to student success, to be bandied about like it is a taboo.

Point Two:
Mr. Renzulli states that alternative, even counterintuitive, approaches should be taken when talking about bridging the distance of achievement between advantaged and disadvantaged students. He lists some of the following ideas as to what contributes to the bridging of the gap, but also, to how it relates to the idea of student engagement: monitor understanding and the need for additional information; identify patterns, relationships, and discrepancies; draw comparisons to other problems; transform factual information into usable knowledge; and finally, extend one's thinking (www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/07/16/43renzulli.h27.html?print=1).

It is ironic how listing these truly wonderful objectives are labeled by Renzulli as "counterintuitive," because, guess what? Any teacher who has been teaching in the public education system will tell you that the language and ideas he thinks are counterintuitive are found in the state standards, the standards by which districts, schools, and teachers form and monitor how students are taught!

Not only have I taught all of my years as a teacher with the standards in the forefront of my mind, but I have also performed contracting work aligning state objectives and the state standards. I have done this for several states, and all of these states are states in which I have not resided. I remember being proud that the standards were unified in idea, whether we were discussing North Carolina, Arkansas, or Arizona. And these unified ideas are inculcated into teachers in every teaching college across the nation. So, are the colleges producing teachers that are brainwashed and beaten, like Renzulli's idea of what today's students are, or are the ideas from public education that have been inveterate very similar to Renzulli's "counterintuitive" ones? I vote for the latter.

Mr. Renzulli does bring into light some valid concerns that our society is facing with the problems of public education. However, "engagement" is not solely the answer. Bridging the reality of today's classroom with the teachers and the teachers' support systems--parents and tutors, namely--are also key factors into what will bridge the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students.

Tutoring - Education's Necessary Invention

"'Your job description is 'whatever needs to be done,'" stated Tom Meardon, a principal of a high school in Colorado. And he should know, as not only is he the principal, but he also serves as a coach for track, basketball, and he also serves as a sponsor to the school student council. In an article listed in Education Week, "Rural Schools Doing a Better Job with Fewer Resources," it states what will confound people. Even though the schools in this article are economically poor, with meager funding, the schools in question all have students meeting or exceeding the reading scores for their grade levels. And to put it succinctly, " ... a collection of small towns in this corner of Colorado's farm country are dodging the disadvantages of remoteness and poverty, thin resources and shrivelling economies to produce some of the state's best schools" (http://www.edweek.org/). And, as one can imagine, it will mystify anyone who has lost sight of what the true marks for a successful student are. Curious as to what they are? Well, read on ... the next paragraph is only underneath this very sentence.

So, if money isn't the issue and the solver of problems every single time, what are these clusters of schools doing that some other schools aren't? They are holding the students and parents accountable for student success, and it turns out not only is that the key to success, but key. Period. Education has always triumphed or suffered at the hands of whatever has come into vogue in the political educational world, and to be frank, the lack of success with education as of late does not have its biggest correlation tied to a lack of funding, or a lack of effort. As an English teacher of nine years, I was in the "trenches," and saw the effort that both teachers and schools put forth in order to gain success. What I have also seen, however, is a going away from the student seeing consequences for taking responsibility in his learning and behavior. I've seen coddling take place, in lieu of a firm hand. Luckily, this "firm hand" method has not gone by completely unnoticed. And it's not gone by unnoticed because people paid an exhorbitant amount of money to have a consultant tell them that a firm hand is needed; like the small communities these schools spring from, the staff of the school does not spare the educational "rod": "The students [who] had gotten D's and F's that morning ... earn[ed] them[selves] extra time with a teacher instead of the privilege of watching the junior high volleyball game" (http://www.edweek.org/). It's as simple as that, folks.

Since we know these particular schools in the rural part of Colorado absolutely make the students accountable, the other factor of success in this amazingly simple equation is the parent. It's stated in the article that the parents are expected to support the school--ideologically--and some parents, sadly, have moved their families away. But, when this happens, not only is the rod being spared, but the real factors of what makes successful students are being spoiled. Some times, it does take a whole village ... or community.

Excellence in Academics Tutoring, LLC. wholeheartedly believes in the idea of everyone being accountable for student success, and so that is why our mission with working with parents, so their children excel is so paramount to our success as a business, and your student's success in school.

The "rod" (the mental, not necessarily, the physical) that is used today will be the sceptre your child has gleaming by his side, as he sees his success grow commensurately, with his own accountability in learning.

A New Me Helping the New You

I stand on the precipice of a new self, and the view is just dandy. Welcome, everyone! What is the welcome for, you ask? Why, it is the welcoming of a creation of a blog without the title of "public school teacher" attached to its author! On May 28 of 2008, my nine year identity of a high school English teacher ended, so that I may pull up stakes, and plant new ones in the fruit-bearing grounds of education. However, instead of sowing the seeds as a teacher in a public system, I'm now sowing the seeds in the private sector, as a new owner to my one year old business, Excellence in Academics Tutoring, LLC. Watch for the name, as you will see it on a marquis in the near future.

And it is amazing to see how quickly the transformation from teacher to entreprenuer has taken place. After the initial "work so hard that you don't even realize school is over until two days past" coma had subsided, I got down to business - quite literally. I called my website company that's designing my new webpage, and sent them my new logo (I don't think I've ever loved the possessive pronoun "my" until becoming a business owner), and finished writing the text that will be going on the pages of my site (did I mention that I love "my")? I also, on the wise advice of my superior business coach, joined a networking organization, from which I've already gained a new client, whose kids with whom are wonderful to work! In addition to that, there are blogs to write, articles to transfer, and the creation of material for my tutees to be done. And, as I expected, instead of it being fatiguing, it has been nothing short of exhilarating!

In a previous post, I brought up the idea of a person trying to juggle her passion with her life's work, and in a point that's been long culminating, I've created a business that absolutely meshes the two! There is nothing more intoxicating for me than knowledge, and now, I've opened up a business that's centered around it. I've made it my business to have knowledge about English and reading, and now, in the greatest joy, I get to share and teach that knowledge to kids in the privacy of their home, or the nearest library. It is absolutely cutting out the middle-man, and brings back the discussion and absorbtion of knowledge to a personalized level. The relationship between tutor and tutee cuts out the classroom dynamic, which is always entertaining, but not always the most effective when the process of learning is happening.

So, as the newer version of the older me develops as a business owner, the newer older version of you as student will develop into a student who excels in academics - thus the new entity, Excellence in Academics Tutoring, LLC.