Dear Teachers Q & A

By Peggy Gisler and Marge Eberts

It’s Mid-Year Checkup Time

          Parents: For years, getting report cards throughout the year was the main way parents learned exactly what progress their children were making in their classes. Now, many schools go beyond report cards to sending home midyear or mid-report card period progress reports for students in grades 1-8. Not only do they give a picture of the progress children are making in achieving the appropriate growth in meeting state standards in academic subjects, these reports also review social/emotional development, behavior and work habits. And some progress reports are sent out when students are having academic, social or behavioral problems.

          With the school year half over or nearly half over for most students, now is the time you want to know whether there are any significant problems that can be resolved before the end of the year. If you have not received this vital information via midyear progress reports or other communications, here are some things that you can do to be up to date on your children’s progress in school so far this year:

• Observe whether or not they are having trouble doing homework assignments and in what areas.
• Become a monitor of your children’s work by looking over the papers they bring home every day. Check to see whether they are filled with red pencil correction marks.
• Acquaint yourself with the online information your children’s teachers provide. Some will have test dates and scores, class assignments, resources for parents and contact information.
• Study the results of any standardized tests your children may have taken.
• Schedule a conference with your children’s teachers if you have questions about your children’s progress.

Increasing Children’s Vocabularies

Question: My son currently is in fourth grade. His teacher says he has a very limited speaking vocabulary and is not using grade level vocabulary to express himself. Also, the teacher says he has trouble understanding more advanced vocabulary. How can he increase his vocabulary? -- Needs Words

Answer: Children pick up new words and their meanings in two major ways: through listening and through reading. Starting in fourth grade, new and unfamiliar vocabulary is introduced in all subjects, especially science and social studies, building a foundation for future learning.  Mastery of these words is absolutely essential to understanding the material. This task is much easier for the good listeners in every classroom. Children who don’t listen in class are always playing catchup in learning vocabulary. Could this be part of the reason that your son’s vocabulary is limited? The teacher can have him sit in the front of the classroom, take notes on what is being said and answer questions about what is being discussed—all ways to improve his listening skills.

Building children’s vocabulary does not just occur at school. The more you talk to your children, no matter what their age, the larger their vocabularies will be, because parents use far more challenging words than children’s peers. So much of the key to increasing your son’s vocabulary lies in your talking to him and his talking more to you. Increase the opportunities to do this by doing chores together, having mealtime and car conversations and bedtime chats. Do all of these things with neither of you using any electronic devices. The more you and your son talk to each more, the faster his vocabulary will increase. And the more the discussions go beyond trite exchanges to talking more about current happenings in the world, the sooner he will enlarge his vocabulary. Doing these things is really a great way to increase all children’s vocabularies.

Your son’s limited vocabulary may be partially due to his not mastering much of the new vocabulary in content area subjects, especially social studies and science, as well as new words in his readers. The secret to his learning these words is to hear them at least four to 12 times. Part of this will occur at school. However, you can accelerate the process by having him write out the meaning of new words (textbooks usually list these words for every chapter). Then make a point of using these words in conversations as you discuss each day what he is learning in school. By hearing, saying, reading and writing more challenging words, his limited vocabulary should grow.

You might want to start building his vocabulary by checking whether your son understands the 300 most basic words that should have been mastered in first, second and third grades. You will find this list on our DearTeacher.com website under Skill Builders - reading. There are also lists of words there that middle schoolers and high school students should know that will be helpful for your son later on. If he doesn’t know these very basic words, use flashcards to help him learn them.

Parents should send questions and comments to DearTeacher@DearTeacher.com and to learn more about helping their children succeed in school visit the DearTeacher website.

©Compass Syndicate Corporation, 2021

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