For Parents

 

Supplies students need for language arts: binder paper, pencils, flash drive, blue or black pens

 

 As parents of young teens, you may find the following sites helpful or interesting.  Click to link:

 

How can I help my adolescent with school work?

  1. Have your child at school every day!  There is a direct corelation between school attendance and school achievement.
  2. Make sure your child gets enough sleep and eats breakfast.
  3. Provide a quiet place and consistent schedule for homework and to check grades and class web pages.
  4. Check his or her assignment book regularly to see what is going in classes and to help him or her stay organized.
  5. Help him or her make up a schedule for projects.
  6. Offer to proof-read written assignments and offer suggestions.
  7. Talk about school activities, projects, and books.

 

What should my child do if he or she is struggling in class?

        Even typically strong students may begin to falter in middle school.  Not only are they dealing with the social, emotional, and developmental issues of adolescence, but the work is getting increasingly difficult.  In addition, they are feeling the need to be more independent.  As a result, a student may not deal with a misstep on an assignment or the fact that he or she has missed a concept.  Often, the situation snowballs to the point where the student feels there is no way catch up, so they give up.

          Students need to understand two things.  First, good students are good students, not because they are smarter than the rest of us, but because they are persistent.  Good students keep working at things they don’t understand until the concepts “click”.  They practice until they are proficient.  They spend the time and energy it takes to produce good quality work.

       Second, the student is responsible for his or her success.  When he or she is ready to get extra help or re-do an assignment to bring up a grade, the student needs to be the one to approach the teacher and the student should have a plan to accomplish his or her goal. 

       That being said, I do not provide “extra credit” assignments as a quick fix to bring grades up.  However, most of the seventh grade teachers do stay late on Tuesdays so that students can make up missed work or tests, get extra help, get help with organization, or work on assignments.  If a student is struggling, it may mean that they have to miss or reschedule a sport or an activity so that they can come in on Tuesday afternoon.  

       Many additional resources are available to students, as well.  They can form study groups.  Homework help is available at public libraries.  For language arts, reference websites abound (some links are on my “language arts” page).  My “student” webpage contains links to a myriad of games to help students master everything from parts of speech to homonyms.

       All in all, there is no reason for a student to fail.  Not every adolescent can be or needs to be a straight “A” student, but every one can be successful.