Aboout the Author

 Jacqueline Jo Rhoades

 Jacquie began her life in Chicago and moved to Pomona, California at an early age. After growing up in the country, surrounded by orange trees and truck gardens, she began her  career as a teacher, write of curriculumr, and workshop presenter, in and out of the  United States. She now resides with her family  near her childhood home.   

 ,In addition to ,earning  a Master of Science degree in education from Mt Saint Mary’s College Los Angeles and a Bacelor of Science degree in sociology from Long Beach State University, Jacquie has received numerous awards from local and national leaders and organizations.

 Jacquie has taught general,  special education, and reading  in  elementary and secondary settings. Additional positions:  literacy leade, program specialist,  adjunct professor at Sonoma State University and Dominican College San Rafael. Additionally, she served as an  education specialist for the California Sepecial Education Resource Network.\

Teaching Tools Blog: www.readingcompany.us

Published Books: Simle Cooperation in the Classroom, The Nurturing Classroom, Social and Academic Activities for the Cooperative Classroom, Lessons from Cherry Creek, Outcome Based Learning: A teacher's Guide to Restructuring the Classroom, Rhoades to Reading levels A, B, C, D, Language Arts and Simple Cooperation

Curriculum is based on the theory and practice of the fClassroomllowing pioneers in education:  Madeline Hunter, David and Roger Johnson, Ana Gillingham, Maryanne Frostig, Reuven Feuerstein,  Ray Barsch, Donald Deschler, and Renee Herman.  While diverse,  each approach demonstrates students learn at different rates and in different ways; yet, when given a chance they  can learn.  

A special thank you to Jeannie and Ken Womack, Jenna Kreeger, and Tonianne Merante for editing the Rhoades to Reading program. My gratitude goes to Dr. Maria Palacio for permitting sixteen teachers to field test the curriculum , and to Dr. Linda Gamble for supporting our efforts. A number of lessons from Rhoades to Reading are posted on this blog.

 

 

Has cursive gone the way of quills and parchment?

 

Has cursive gone the way of quills and parchment?

From Psychology Today

Accprdomg to Ed Week  only 21 states require the teaching of cursive. EdWeek link 

While some say cursive belongs in the past, research says otherwise. 

The purpose of this article is to explore the reasons why cursive is an important element in learning and to provide one method for the teaching of cursive..

William R. Klemm Ph.D discusses.Cursive and Cognitive Development in Psychology today.  Following is a quote from this article.

Handwriting dynamically engages widespread areas of both cerebral hemispheres. Virginia Berninger, a researcher and professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington, says that brain scauring handwriting show activation of  massive regions of the brain involved in thinking, language, and working memory.

Writing Beats Typing discusses current research and explains in detail the reasons, though inconvienent, for teaching cursive. 

Whether working with one student or a class of 35, teaching cursive can be a multisensory activity rather than a chore. The following method for teaching cursive has been successful in  general  and special education classes.  The sample below demonstrates the method.  To access the  entire  lower case alphabet and sample writing paper, please follow the link below.

Teaching Cursive

Preparation

Draw two sets of solid, parallel lines about five feet long on the board
approximately 24 inches apart. Draw a dotted line midway between the
solid lines (approximately twelve (12) inches above the bottom lines).

Supply Students with lined writing paper..  Follow the air tracing process included in the Teaching Cursive lesson.

Note: Use this line formation for all letter and word demonstrations for as long
as required. When the students understand the concept of the dotted line
and can write correctly on their papers, the use of lined paper can be eliminated.

Watch What You Say! You May be Teaching Thinking Skills

 

Watch What You Say! You May be Teaching Thinking Skills

There are many ways to think: Well, let’s see, there is critical, creative, lateral, strategic, divergent, and…... There are thousands of papers and books written on the subject, and assessments, of every ilk, measuring how we think. Yet, parents, teachers and caregivers are most-often left without a clear direction on how best to easily bolster thinking in our young people. This post is based on excerpts from two publications I authored a number of years ago: The Nurturing Classroom and a chapter entitled Cognition and Cooperation: partners in Excellence-found in If Minds Matter a Forward to the Future

FRAME OF REFERENCE - a first consideration   

For sure, we need a reference point, usually referred to as frame of reference, to assimilate new information. If we don’t have a reference point on which to connect the new information, It just sits there or disappears from the thinking field altogether.

For new information to become relevant we must be able to either link it to past experience or construct new meaning. Each time we are exposed to a new way to think about something, we add another strategy or path to our thinking abilities. If there is nothing in our past experience OR if we are unable to construct new meaning, we will not be able to make sense of the information.

As parents, teachers, and caregivers we can create an environment that promotes the development of more and more thinking paths. If we tell young people the why’s and elaborate on some of the how’s, rather than just telling them what to do, we help them develop new paths of thinking.

FOR EXAMPLE:

 Style #1

Assume  it is winter and Rob, an eight year old child, does not close the door completely upon entering the house or school room. Rob may be told: Rob, close the door. To a young child this is just another command to obey or get into some kind of trouble.Stylet #1 is a direct command.

 Style #2

If the adult explains: Rob, close the door cold air is coming in.  Rob begins to make the mental connection- if the door is open cold air is getting in the house or school room. The reason for the request starts to make sense. We can not assume the connection comes automatically.

 Style #3

If the adult elaborates even further: Close the door, cold air is coming in. When this happens the house or room will get cold causing the heater to come on frequently. If this happens too often, the heating bill will be so high we will not have any money to take our vacation or field t trip to Disneyland.

Rob is learning about cause and effect, which is a critical element in problem solving. Some might say this is common sense. Consider the fact that Rob may not have the opportunity to learn common sense if his life is filled with direct commands.

In each of these instances the stimulus is identical. The adultt’s response is the critical factor in determining the child’s cognitive growth pattern. In other words, if a child is living in a command-only emvoprm,emt, where the reasons behind a given action are never explained, he may be living in the context of Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy Level 1—Just the facts.

Obviously, it is not appropriate for adults to always give detailed responses. However, if elaboration persists over time a child’s memory bank will be filled with options. Frames of reference will abound. When presented with new information they will have a much better chance to make sense of what comes their way.