Our school occasionally posts our weekly letter in this blog. We encourage other schools to adopt this procedure.
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Letter to Parents
Reading at home
An essential part of preparing for life after high school
SUMMARY
Reading Daily is essential.
Preparing for tests
The Personal History Project
The Weekly Letter
The bedside library (like Oprah Winfrey)
Our school asks students and parents to look at academics as a 24-hour job.
- Make sure students get 8 hours of sleep
- Make sure students read at least 45 minutes per day.
- Make sure students look at sample test problems at least 30 minutes per day.
HOW TO COMPLETE 3.5 Hours of test prep per week
Our school’s weekly schedule makes this easy: Friday can be when students catch up. Look at test questions for 15 minutes each day (6 days x 15 minutes = 1.5 hours) and on Friday the student can do 2 hours of test questions (it will help if 30 minutes is spent on writing an essay).
The 3.5 hours each week for test questions should be divided between math questions, grammar and reading questions and writing an essay. At least one essay per week is helpful.
To prepare for tests, students generally need to invest at least 15 minutes per day LOOKING AT SAMPLE PROBLEMS. This means
reading the problem for 1 to 2 minutes,
spending at least 2 minutes finding the incorrect answers, and
One minute for finding the answer (showing work in math questions, drawing arrows to the text to show how you found the correct answer in reading questions).
Each incorrect answer needs to be explained “why is this answer wrong?”
This is a mindful approach. Each question can take 5 to 8 minutes to deeply investigate. It is better to spend 15 minutes on two questions than to rush through 10 questions. This step-by-step method reveals deeper understanding.
Some of this “looking at test questions” takes place at school. The typical environment in the school does not match the test-taking situation.
Test situations
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Classroom
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Test areas are quiet
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Our classes encourage working together, so we are learning through talking and listening.
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Test taking is usually about “asking students to produce”
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Learning is about “asking students to take in information.”
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The students are isolated
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The students are together
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The school also sends home worksheets and samples from previous tests.
CLICK HERE to see all of these links: TINYURL.com/ABCDESSAT
You can create the ideal learning space at home.
Students often say, “I study better with music.” Fine. The music should be without lyrics. No singing. There are plenty of songs and “music to study by” on Youtube. Parents have a role to make sure that time is well spent during the study session.
School is a time to “practice being a young adult.”
The practice continues when the student is not on the school campus.
Some of the responsibility for following these instructions rests with the teenager. When a teenager sets up a quiet space and listens to music without lyrics, we can give points (if the parent confirms that the student is using time wisely).
POINTS
Students who earn points will be rewarded with special privileges at school.
PARENTS
We encourage you to recommend to us any special tips about “what motivates your child” and your hopes for your child.
PROJECTS
For example, studies have shown that a student who writes about her family’s history is more likely to understand recent events than a student who studied the history of Ancient Egypt, China and South America. We recommend the free ebook PERSONAL HISTORY WORKBOOK and you can download it at TINYURL.com/PersonalHistoryEbook. If you don’t have access to a computer, we can make the ebook available at the school.
The Personal History is a fun project for many students. They learn about “events that my relatives remember when they were teenagers.” You are encouraged to help your teen build a family biography.
Students who complete this project often learn more geography because their relatives might have lived in or visited other states or countries.
The importance of reading
Daniel Willingham, a scientist who studies the brain, points out that much of our understanding of the world depends on "background information." Reading is an important way for students to build their "background knowledge" ...
To build positive reading attitudes, students need to have positive reading experiences. They need to see themselves as readers. And they need to have books that they enjoy readily available. -- Daniel Willingham
You can read more here
THE WEEKLY LETTER
Each week the school sends home with the student a letter that includes recommended websites and videos to visit. Please make sure the student sees the materials. As adults in the house, you are encouraged to demonstrate “life long learning” by looking at the links, too.
THE HOME LIBRARY
Our school has a goal for each student:
Build a bedside library.
Oprah Winfrey has led the way with this idea. She keeps ten books next to her bed to read from. One of the books is a quote book.
We have supplied each student with a quote book (such as H Jackson Browne’s books). If you have a book in your library that you can recommend to your child, please let us know so we can adjust our curriculum to include the books that your family has.
Read until you find
at least one gold nugget.
Put the quote on a poster and
put the poster on a wall.
Mark the page.
Circle the quote.
Write the page number inside
the front cover of the book
Help the next reader of the book.
Tell that reader where to find gold.
“Reading gives
you the ability
to reach
higher ground.
And keep climbing.”
Oprah Winfrey
Be the best version
of you.
I tell myself to build
on my strengths.
I look for gold nuggets
when I read.
Tai Lopez
The most annoying man
on YouTube
“Books allowed me to see
a world beyond the front porch
of my grandmother’s house…
They gave me
the power to see possibilities
beyond what was allowed
at the time.”
Oprah Winfrey
Courage is what it
takes to stand up
and speak.
Courage is also
needed to sit down
and listen.
Winston Churchill
(yes, look him up on Wikipedia)
