Lesson in learning styles
Nancy Manos
time this year. The kids will be joining us for P.E. on Mondays and then
I'll be bringing them home with me for Art History and Creative Writing.
Today was our first day. P.E. was great. It was really hot (103) but the
kids had fun. Coach Joe does a lot of water games in September and May to
keep the kids cool. Can't wait till October when it cools down a bit though
:-)
Anyway, our Art History lesson and project went very well. As did our
poetry project. What was very interesting to me, though, was seeing the
huge differences between two of the other kids. Since my girls *tend* to be
similar in their learning styles and modes of operation, this was my first
real experience with vastly different kids. It was really cool to observe.
There are 3 children in this family, two girls and a boy. The boy is the
youngest. I think he is 10 years old. He is very much a "get-to-the-point"
kid. He gets the instructions and acts quickly. The middle girl is 11.
And was the polar opposite of her brother. At first I wanted to hurry her
along a bit so they could all work together, but then it occurred to me
(duh!) that a benefit of home schooling is that they can work at their own
pace. The middle girl is very detail oriented and took *a lot* of time to
complete each part of the project ... thoroughly. She enjoyed the process.
Her brother on the other hand wanted to get it done with and "check-it-off"
the agenda, so to speak.
Maybe if we had had more kids I could have experienced this diversity sooner
;-) Thankfully I only had to "borrow" someone else's children to see it!
:-)
Nancy
Julie Pascal
"Nancy Manos" <nlm...@home.com> wrote in message
news:pHdn7.24764$5l6.3...@news1.rdc1.az.home.com...
(...)
> There are 3 children in this family, two girls and a boy. The boy is the
> youngest. I think he is 10 years old. He is very much a
"get-to-the-point"
> kid. He gets the instructions and acts quickly. The middle girl is 11.
> And was the polar opposite of her brother. At first I wanted to hurry her
> along a bit so they could all work together, but then it occurred to me
> (duh!) that a benefit of home schooling is that they can work at their own
> pace. The middle girl is very detail oriented and took *a lot* of time to
> complete each part of the project ... thoroughly. She enjoyed the
process.
> Her brother on the other hand wanted to get it done with and
"check-it-off"
> the agenda, so to speak.
>
> Maybe if we had had more kids I could have experienced this diversity
sooner
> ;-) Thankfully I only had to "borrow" someone else's children to see it!
> :-)
>
> Nancy
This is wonderful. And a wonderful observation.
I've sometimes thought that we (our society) has lost something
important because there are so many small families. I think that
we start to think that the *differences* in children are primarily
*parenting* differences. Know what I mean? But someone with two
compliant and studious children may just not have *had* that
third or fourth hyper-active ADD child that *I* got the first time! ;-)
(Though I'm certain that had I realized a few things *earlier* and
found this group of people earlier my kids would be much better
behaved. I'm still training myself to think in terms of training!
I really need to be "around" people like Scott and Denise, and
others too, but they come to mind first because they intimidate me
the most. <big grin> )
I've always found that people talking about the *differences*
between their children to be very encouraging. Particularly
when it comes to learning and learning styles and *readiness*.
Both my friend and my sister had first borns who were early
and prolific readers. They both *expected* that their second
sons would be the same. It was an adjustment for them to realize
that the second child wasn't going to read right off and that it
*didn't* mean that something was *wrong*.
I honestly think that I missed the "window" for my daughter
because her older brother was not ready to read yet. I think
I missed the point at which it would have been fun for her,
though she'd still have needed to be *active*. Now her
self-critical sensibilities are far more developed and she feels
very frustrated if she doesn't *get* something right away.
She will tell people that she can not read *at* *all*... which
drives me *nuts*.... evidently not being able to read *fluently*
is the same thing as "not at all." Argh!
My son is reading quite well, though, despite his late start
at it. I'm often impressed by his comprehension skills...the only
reading he has *ever* done was for comprehension. It's kind
of funny... at Vacation Bible School I taught his class and he
and the other kids had different *approaches* to words they
didn't know. (A couple of the girls likely read at college
level...we aren't talking about *them*...hehe.) When he came
to a word he didn't know it came out as "mummble" but he'd
still get the *content*. The other kids who ran up against
troublesome words would "sound it out" and continue, though
the "sounding it out" was somewhat haphazard... the *funniest*
example was the unknown word "blaspheme." It came
out *repeatedly* something very similar to "blastocyst." I got
the worst case of the giggles.
--Julie
Helen
(I say this sort of tongue-in-cheek), she writes like her dad talks.
EVERY conceivable detail MUST be included. I'm a get to the point
kind of person (though I do tend to go on sometimes). This is part of
where we had problems with her Summaries assignment (*see* "I don't
like this ..." post). I've told her that if she chooses to include
minutia ad infinitum, that will be okay right now in her creative
writing, but that there are a variety of *types* of writing and the
purpose of a Summary is to *summarize*.
It's all well and good to embrace who she is -- and believe me, I do.
I cherish her presence in our lives and thank God for entrusting her
to us for this time. Alongside that, she must learn to write
summaries. It's good training for learning to focus one's thoughts
and ideas in order to present ideas succinctly. Not everyone has the
patience to listen through all the minutia to get to the meat of the
thought.
So, all this verbage to ask for some idea of what this tendancy says
about DD's learning style and how I might help her to use this skill
(of reporting *every* *single* detail) appropriately as well as how to
teach her alternate modes of communication.
Helen
Ray Drouillard
"Helen" <mch1...@crosswalkmail.com> wrote in message
news:24f3a3c2.01091...@posting.google.com...
I tend to be a very detail-oriented person, and am often tempted to explain
things to the minutest detail. I have, however, learned the value of
getting things across quickly (lest I lose my audience).
Being able to use the computer has been wonderful for me. I can save a copy
of my lengthily verbiage, then look for ways to hack it down to a reasonable
size. When I do this, I haven't really destroyed anything because the
original is still there.
I'm currently working on a novel. I want it to be fast-paced, so I have to
express things in a smaller number of words. Believe me, it IS possible. A
lot of the information can be hinted at by the writer or extracted from the
context by the reader.
Ray Drouillard
Stainless Steel Streetrat
Julie Pascal
Helen, did you happen to see an exchange between John Rice and myself
where I "cliff-noted" his post? :-)
Personally I find summaries *very* difficult. If something can
be said in fewer words why not use fewer words to begin with?
Talk to professional writers who do, in fact, *have* to write
summaries... LOL... *everyone* is bad at it, hates it, and asks
desperately for someone to "please show me how to do this!"
It may be something she struggles with forever! I honestly don't
think it's a case of just "learning how."
Do you have her summarizing her own work or someone elses?
It might be much easier and good practice to summarize what
someone else has written rather than something that she's written
herself or to have her summarize non-fiction rather than fiction.
Some people just aren't "brief" no matter how hard they try
to be. We really are different people, and though some things
would be *nice* it really isn't that big of a problem if we aren't
good at them. And it's true that sometimes I *don't* read to the
end of John's posts (as an example) but there honestly isn't
anything extra to take out. Making a short post that everyone
could read to the end without too much effort would mean that
we'd miss out even on the possibility of some of that minutia
and detail and *richness* that is available. Because sometimes
I *do* read to the end. And I'm *glad* he doesn't write "short."
I don't mean to say not to study it or work on it, just that
eventual *total* success may simply *never* happen.
Like trying to teach a tone deaf person to sing.
If you know how (I don't have a clue) to do Deja or google
searches or whatever, there is a lady who posts to rec.arts.sf.composition
named Patricia Wrede who teaches writing from time to time and
who posts really wonderful advice about writing fiction (and has a
few choice words to say about how writing instruction is usually
presented.) She hasn't been posting for a while. I believe she is
busy writing the YA novelization for Star Wars Episode 2. The
questions she gives her opinions on come from everyone from the
newest beginners to published writers so I'd suggest this for anyone
with a budding fiction writer in the house. :-)
--Julie
Helen
> <SNIP> I don't mean to say not to study it or work on it, just that
> eventual *total* success may simply *never* happen.
> Like trying to teach a tone deaf person to sing.
>
Thanks, Julie. I think I was getting caught up in the end result
rather than the process. Your words were helpful to remind me of
that. We're working on summarizing a newspaper article of her
choosing. And I'm figuring out that I need to approach this
assignment as if she'd never been exposed to the concept.
So an assignment I thought would take one day is now going into day
three. C'est la vie! :D
Helen
Papa Koca
There is a secret to successful home education, and it is not often
talked about to newbies. Its a concept that is, in many ways, totally
foreign to our thought processes. Even when you know it, it is hard to
implement every time.
There was an excellent thread on this back in May titled: "Scope &
sequence" that had some excellent input. You might try a Google search
of this newsgroup to see what was shared.
--
Papa Koca - SAHD to six - A career home-educator
Keeper of the Perpetual Kindergarten
See the Piano...
http://homepage.mac.com/papakoca/iMovieTheater.html
California - Blackouts 2001 - Grayout 2002
Stainless Steel Streetrat
article, which *is* a summary itself. I'd suggest summarizing
something that *really* needs summarizing, say, like _War and
Peace_...
BookLover "Lee"
news:hob5qtscnhumq4kng...@4ax.com...
> On 14 Sep 2001 15:30:27 -0700, stre...@aol.com (Stainless Steel
> Streetrat) wrote:
>
> >Now, I can understand not understanding how to *summarize* a newspaper
> >article, which *is* a summary itself. I'd suggest summarizing
> >something that *really* needs summarizing, say, like _War and
> >Peace_...
>
>
> *whew*
>
> Kristina <bweg>
ROFLOLWTIME!!!!
I wonder how many volumes it would be?
--
In Messiah,
Lee
~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~
".....maybe there is woe enough yet to come, though still hope may seem
bright."
--Galadriel
http://home-educate.com/
~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~
Strider BD
> > ::::imagining JRice summarizing War And Peace::::
> >
> > *whew*
> >
>
> I wonder how many volumes it would be?
Forget paper, how big a hard drive does his ISP have?
--
David W. Varidel (BD)
dvar...@mail.com
www.varidel.iwarp.com
<>< <>< <>< <>< <><
"If I have not seen as far as others,
it is because giants were standing on my shoulders."
-- David Wright
Paola Addamiano-Carts
> mch1...@crosswalkmail.com (Helen) wrote...
> Stop writing completely.
Ok, but wh
And besides, how are other peo
I dunno, I don't think it's going to
SR, are you *sure* you know what your are
asking fo
______________________________Mar
Paola Addamiano-Carts
> "Julie Pascal" <ju...@pascal.org> wrote...
> > <SNIP> I don't mean to say not to study it or work on it, just that
> > eventual *total* success may simply *never* happen.
> > Like trying to teach a tone deaf person to sing.
> Thanks, Julie. I think I was getting caught up in the end result
> rather than the process. Your words were helpful to remind me of
> that. We're working on summarizing a newspaper article of her
> choosing. And I'm figuring out that I need to approach this
> assignment as if she'd never been exposed to the concept.
> So an assignment I thought would take one
> day is now going into day three.
Mebee, mebee. But the amount, and the depth
of what she's learning as compared to three
or 10 days of skimming over material like a
jetski over manatees is going to become
apparant soon enough.
> C'est la vie! :D
Hey wait a minute, do I detect some kind
of non-displeasure at having crashed thru
the guardrail of stale education in answer to
the call of the wild? Hmmm...
So anyway Helen, is dd enjoying this as much
as I begin to suspect you are? _______Marty
Helen
> > Hey wait a minute, do I detect some kind
> of non-displeasure at having crashed thru
> the guardrail of stale education in answer to
> the call of the wild? Hmmm...
>
> So anyway Helen, is dd enjoying this as much
> as I begin to suspect you are? _______Marty
I've always wanted to take a walk on the wild side! ;D As to DD's
enjoyment, I would say she's not there yet. But I believe she will
be, once we really get into the process. Now that we have the full
schedule in place (including her performing arts training), we can
begin to get a handle on all this and figure out how to facilitate the
greatest learning.
Helen