The Little River Turnpike Tutors

The Little River Turnpike TutorsThe Kaplan tutoring company has been around for a long time and has been very successful. They offer their tutoring to parents who send their children to a school or a private tutor. There are many types of Kaplan tutoring which can be delivered in different formats. Some of the forms of tutoring include through emails, phone calls, lectures or just a chat with the tutor at home.One of the other advantages to using a Kaplan tutoring program is that the little river turnpike tutors are dedicated and will work very hard to help your child. They take their work very seriously and do everything they can to be as successful as possible. They also provide all the necessary materials for your child to take home.One of the important things about using a Kaplan tutoring program is that they give the little river turnpike students a thorough education that will benefit them throughout their academic careers. They will know all of the great things that they can d o and all of the great things that they should not do. This is very helpful in setting them up for success when they get older. Students will be more confident and will make better decisions.When your child goes into the class periods, they will have the opportunity to ask questions and have them answered. The tutors are very experienced at answering questions and this will help them to build up confidence and self-esteem. The tutors also work on teaching the students what they can do well and what they need to work on.In order to become a good little river turnpike student you need to be prepared. The children in this program go through a rigorous process to ensure that they are ready for their classes. The teachers know the challenges that your child may face and they will try to find a way to help your child overcome their challenges.These classes can be quite overwhelming at times because of the demands and the simple terms that the students are using. The classes are offered to help make the students succeed and Kaplan tutors will help these students in every way that they can. The programs will also give students the chance to build up their confidence and self-esteem. They will learn how to deal with all the trials and tribulations that come with the river.It is very important for all parents to be aware of the obstacles that a small river turnpike can cause. Children with learning difficulties can really benefit from the Kaplan tutoring program. The online program will help to teach your child the different skills and techniques that they need to be successful in this program. They will also help them to cope with their anxiety levels.The Kaplan tutoring program is a very good choice for a parent who has a child who has learning difficulties. The tutor will be a child who has a lot of experience and can really help the students who attend the River turnpike. The people who run the program will understand the difficulties that are faced by your child an d will find ways to teach them the right ways to cope with them. This can be an extremely rewarding experience for both the students and the tutors.

Crash Course Biology - Basic Information About Protein Synthesis

Crash Course Biology - Basic Information About Protein SynthesisThere is a lot of information out there about how proteins are made and what they do. But have you really understood the real importance of proteins? It is because of the discovery of protein synthesis that we can survive on earth. Proteins are important for our body's energy production, biological defense, and can be modified to suit the needs of the body.Our human body requires around three hundred proteins for it to function correctly. The structure of proteins has always been a mystery and this is why it is so difficult to produce new proteins. The human body needs a different pattern for protein synthesis than other species, and this is where biotechnology comes in.A new protein can be synthesized by synthetic biology by using the genetic code and modifying certain amino acids. When it comes to developing proteins for the body, they are more complex and it can be hard to make the right genetic changes to make a prot ein suitable for humans. This is where biotechnology comes in. The challenge is making new proteins, but then if a new one is produced, it means new genes are present in the genome.These genes have the capacity to translate the genetic code into proteins. Now it is possible to create new proteins by combining different amino acids, proteins and DNA. This is called molecular biology. Protein synthesis using molecular biology is a growing trend in the field of science.In biotechnology, it is common to use simple molecules like DNA as the material to create and test proteins. New proteins can be made by combining multiple proteins together. The time taken to perform the process depends on the quantity of proteins required.There are different techniques used in making new proteins such as forcing them into simpler shape and then reshaping them using specific chemicals. Many times, biotechnology and synthetic biology take longer to make the proteins, and then it takes longer for the prot eins to be beneficial for the body.New protein synthesis can be used in medicines, nutrition supplements, and even cosmetic products. Different companies are in constant competition with each other to find out which technique will yield the best results. The time taken to make the new protein or any other ingredient is crucial in every industry.

Why School Districts Are Abandoning Textbooks

Why School Districts Are Abandoning Textbooks Gone are the days of having to carry around eight textbooks in your backpack, or to rush to your locker to grab that American History textbook for your next class. One school district in Indiana has completely ditched textbooks in favor of online curricula that students access via laptops. According to an article in the New York Times, all math and science textbooks in the Munster, Indiana, school district have been replaced with digital editions. The change impacts all students in grades 5-12, and cost over $1 million to implement. Some of the biggest differences are obvious. With a laptop, the digital curricula is complemented with video clips, audio files, and interactive games. Some of the excuses are new, such as the server ate my homework! or the wifi network is down, I cant access todays assignment! Munster is hardly the first district to try such a technological leap. Many other districts across the country are changing some or all of their curricula to digital platforms. Some school districts have issued all of their students iPads instead of laptops. Regardless of the technology being used, it is a sure fact that heavy textbooks will gradually be phased out across the nation. What remains to be seen is whether technology and its use can truly enhance student learning, or if it is merely the same material in a different package.

Is Arabic Hard to Learn

Is Arabic Hard to Learn Is Learning Arabic Difficult? ChaptersLet Go of Your Presuppositions Regarding ArabicObstacles in Arabic Lessons Are All RelativeJudging How Difficult It Is to Learn ArabicFor some people, the task of learning a new language with all of its corresponding grammar, spelling, conjugations, and everything else, just seems impossible. Others see learning a new language as a marvellous opportunity to learn something new and expand their horizons, as well as learning about different cultures and regions of the world.One of the main things that puts people off studying a new language is the difficulty often associated with doing so. Many people had negative experiences learning languages at school and are therefore less keen to go through that again.There is always a desire for a so-called quick fix, with some people suggesting it is possible to master Arabic in 30 days. But remember that you will need to be patient when learning this ancient language. Hard work and dedication are both the key to success when learning Ar abic.So what’s it really like learning Arabic?Is it really that difficult to study?Don’t Make Mountains Out of Molehills!Of course, the Arabic language has almost nothing in common with English; either in structure, grammar, or pronunciation. However, this shouldn’t stop you from deciding to learn the language.At the beginning, you’ll hit a few walls as you try to learn Arabic, but this is normal no matter what you choose to study. As long as you keep at it, what once seemed a massive challenge will eventually be completely achievable.Don’t forget to study regularly for your Arabic class!If you truly immerse yourself in the language, and you give it everything you've got, many of the things that previously seemed impossible to absorb will suddenly become obvious and you'll wonder why you ever struggled.You will start to see the many benefits of studying Arabic, and your eyes will be opened to a wide range of fantastic Arabic cultures which have heavily influenced the moder n world in more ways that most people fully comprehend.Don’t Forget the Small Rules!Without realizing it, we use lots of idioms and cliches in English which make it an incredibly tough language, not only to learn, but to understand and to fully utilize.It’s a fact - native speakers are often the worst at judging the difficulty of their language.So for some people, Arabic classes could seem nice and easy, but to others they might appear horribly difficult.Pay attention to what people tell you and do some research about the Arabic language to decide if you really want to learn it. If you decide to pursue Arabic, you’ll find dozens of ways to achieve your goal.What you must remember is that language learning should be fun. Don't get bogged down in the grammatical intricacies of Arabic writing. As a new learner, you should focus on the conversational side of the language, with an emphasis on Arabic words and Arabic phrases.An enormous amount of help can be found online to help you learn Arabic, with a number of free resources being readily available. What's more, most Arabic classes are affordable.Judging How Difficult It Is to Learn ArabicWhen you think that there are over 7000 languages currently spoken in the world, including all the different dialects, it would be difficult to make a purely analytical assessment of which language is the most difficult to learn.So while some African languages have a reputation for having incredibly difficult grammar, or alembic structures, they aren’t often included in the lists of the most challenging languages to learn.Throw yourself heart and soul into learning Arabic!So how can you decide if a language like Arabic is difficult or not?There are several different objective criteria that you can use to judge just how difficult it is to learn Arabic.How Long Does It Take to Learn Arabic?This is a difficult question to answer. This does not only depend on each individual person and how much time and energy they invest in to learning Arabic, but it also has to do with previous language experience, the quality of teaching and the exposure to the language outside of a learning environment. Your attitude and your motivation will also play a key role in how long it takes you to learn Arabic.However, according to the US Foreign Service Institute (FSI), Arabic is a group 4 language. Research done by the FSI suggests that it will take around 720 hours of study to reach a basic fluency level in Arabic, whereby you can talk about social situations and work requirements. This is compared to 480 hours for group 1 languages such as French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.Therefore it is highly recommended that you are committed to learning Arabic, and that you take advantage of all of the resources at your disposal and online to make sure that the process is a successful one.How Similar Is It to Your Mother Tongue?A good way to evaluate how difficult a language will be for you to learn, is to find out ho w different it is from your native language.For example, if Spanish or German seem like the easiest languages for you to learn, that’s because they have more in common with English, especially thanks to the ‘vulgar’ Latin that was spoken as the official language of the Roman Empire at the dawn of the first century AD.After all, French, Spanish, and Italian are all divergent dialects which came from the same language (English is a slightly unique case because of its history of invasions, and although it has many similarities with the Romance languages, it is actually classified as Germanic.)Do all the roads lead to the Arabic language?If you speak Spanish well, there are many words that might seem familiar in Arabic, but with different intonations. This comes from the long Arab presence on the Iberian peninsula.As for French, it might seem easy for an English speaker to learn because a lot of English words actually came from French originally. However, the pronunciation is ofte n very different and can pose a challenge for French students.As you are probably now starting to see, the further from English (or a Romance or Germanic language) you go, the more difficult the language will seem, and you’ll face more challenges as the language you’re studying seems to have less in common with English.Are the Sounds Similar?If two languages have similar sounds, learning to speak a new language will often seem slightly easier.But in Arabic, it is difficult to find any similar vowel or word sounds to English.If you asked a native Arabic speaker to pronounce the difference between ‘in’ ‘on’ and ‘an’, would they hear a difference?According to one study, Italian is considered to be the most beautiful European language, but that might be because most of the sounds in Italian are also present in other European languages, to various degrees.It is this sense of familiarity which makes us think that Italian is a beautiful and easy language to learn.With the A rabic language, it’s more difficult to find similarities in the sounds and pronunciations, especially since vowels are barely pronounced in the language.Even though the Arabic alphabet has a somewhat familiar 28 letters, none of them resemble what we tend to use in America or Europe. Not to mention that the shape of each letter changes depending on where it’s placed in the word.From this point of view, alas, it seems a given that learning Arabic will be more difficult for English speakers than for students who are coming from other languages.Complex Grammar StructuresArabic is spoken by more than 400 million people worldwide.However, there are many different variations on Arabic, especially between the written (literary Arabic) and spoken (dialect) forms.It isn't necessary to learn literary Arabic if you want to speak Arabic, but it’s a very good place to start if you want to learn the structure of the language well and avoid any bad linguistic habits.Spoken Arabic, on the oth er hand, is something quite different. Essentially, each Arabic speaking country has developed its own local dialect, with its own unique vocabulary, expressions, and grammar.If you live in Morocco, it isn’t a given that you’ll be able to understand Tunisian or Egyptian Arabic, or even that will understand someone from the United Arab Emirates.You should think about which Arabic dialect you want to learn to speak, and make sure you find the right teacher and resources to learn the type of Arabic that you want to.You will surely find the right teacher for your Arabic lessons London on Superprof!A Confusing ScriptMost Western languages use the Latin alphabet, and it is easy to recognize all the different letters that make up the English alphabet.This is another challenging aspect about Arabic - there are 28 letters in the Arabic alphabet, but their forms all change depending on where the words fall in the sentence.Learn to decode the Arabic alphabet!You might see the same letter a t the beginning, end, or in the middle of a word, each time with a completely different meaning.You’ll also have to learn to stop reading from left to right, and begin reading in the opposite direction - but this is a hard habit to break for a native English speaker!The 3 Unknown SoundsFinally, pronunciation and reading pose one of the big challenges to learning Arabic - there are 3 sounds in Arabic which don’t exist in most Western languages, and are written with the numbers 3, 7, and 9.These sounds don’t exist at all in English and therefore mastering them can be somewhat tricky.But what are they? The sound ‘qu’ which comes from the back of the throat, a rough ‘h’, and finally a vocalized ‘h’ that sounds like ‘ai.’Once you’ve learned how to understand and interpret all of these little quirks and differences of the Arabic language, learning Arabic will be just the same as any other language.As you can see, learning Arabic will take a lot of personal dedicati on; it’s a long process which requires regular study of spelling and grammar rules.Arabic is not a language that you can just dip in and out of. It requires dedication and a commitment of time and effort if you truly want to learn to speak and write it.You will also need to make good use of a wide range of resources. It is highly recommended that you get hold of a good English-Arabic dictionary, especially if you want to learn Modern Standard Arabic. You should also search for some of the best smartphone apps to help you to practice what you have learned whilst you are commuting to and from work.But perhaps the best way to tackle learning Arabic is to find an Arabic course. This could be an Arabic for beginners course at a local language school, private one or one classes with a native speaker, or if you are particularly motivated, free online classes for learning Arabic on the internet.The prospect of learning Arabic can often seem quite difficult when you first start studying it , but so long as you work hard and maybe do a bit of conversation practice with an Arab speaker, you’ll make consistent progress.If you make good use of all of the tools and resources available to you, you will progress quickly and you will learn about fascinating history of a language and a culture which is constantly shaping the modern world in which we live.There isn’t just one place to go to learn Arabic, and since it’s spoken in so many countries you have a wide choice to choose from. So whether it's Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, or Lebanon, take your pick and discover a language that has been evolving for millennia. And remember, this is your best bet to learn Arabic quickly.

Why A Strong Leader Must Be at the Core of Any Business - Introvert Whisperer

Introvert Whisperer / Why A Strong Leader Must Be at the Core of Any Business - Introvert Whisperer Why A Strong Leader Must Be at the Core of Any Business Even more important than the impact leadership has on your business as it stands today, one must look at the implications that it brings to the table in terms of the future of your organization in particular. The chances are high that even though you founded your business, youre not going to be steering the ship forever. Youre going to want to step aside gracefully at some point and when that day comes, hopefully, there will be a viable candidate to pick up the baton and carry on in the way youve always envisioned. Without prioritizing leadership today, however, there is a very slim chance of that actually happening.  Leadership Will ALWAYS Be the Core of Your Business Consider the fact that according to a recent HRPA study, 63% of millennials in the workplace feel like their leadership skills are just not being developed by the companies that they work for. As a result, a massive 71% of those millennials are looking for opportunities to leave their job within the next two years to help fix this problem as soon as possible. A failure to promote the other strong leaders within your organization besides yourself is a massive problem for many companies these days but thankfully, its also one with an easy fix. You probably already use a tool like Visme (which I founded) to create collateral aimed at bringing your message to the widest possible audience of potential customers. You can use those same tools to focus a leadership-driven message inward, too. Dont just create Infographics to get your customers ready for that upcoming product or service launch create Infographics that will also help you visualize the direction you want your company to go in for the next five, ten and even twenty years. Use it to convey to your employees the leadership skills that matter the most to you the qualities that you will collectively need to make those dreams become a reality. This is a great opportunity to not only get everyone on the same page as far as leadership is concerned, but to also begin developing some of those necessary leadership skills as soon as possible. Any type of collateral that you would create to broadcast an outward message can also be focused inward in these ways including presentations. Start creating presentations that will help you focus on the leadership skills that will align your efforts to further develop your existing employees with your long-term objectives as an organization. Not only will this go a long way towards actually getting everyone on the same page, but it will also be a great way to show the younger generations that work for you that you do value their skills and their place in the future of your business. When these people see that leadership development is actually one of your priorities, it will go a long way towards solving the problem of quality employees jumping ship in search of someone else to work for.  Actions Speak Louder Than Words Another important thing to consider is that sometimes the importance of leadership is best conveyed through action something that is true both in terms of how essential leadership is today and with regards to the types of leadership qualities you want to instill in the future managers of your brand. If you pride yourself on having a forward-thinking company, for example, you should constantly be on the lookout for new ways to put your money where your mouth is, so to speak. Take the type of marketing collateral that you create. Everyone these days is uploading videos to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter or YouTube for their customers. But is there an opportunity to go above and beyond that you may be overlooking? Instead of simply following the rest of the industry, consider forging your own path using a service like Uscreen. Uscreen is a video monetization tool that lets you sell your video content as subscriptions, for a fixed price. Using a tool like this, you have the chance to do things with your content that few others are actually doing you can create a streaming site built around your industry, develop an educational learning site and more. Not only will this pay off in terms of the additional return on investment that youre able to guarantee for your collateral today, but it also sends a number of important messages about leadership to your company. It shows that youre willing to take risks and always look for new opportunities to connect with your audience. It also shows that youre not content to simply reactively chase trends and are instead eager to proactively take advantage of some new ones on your own. Rest assured, these are the types of qualities and actions that people will sit up and pay attention to if you give them a chance.  A Strong Leader is All That Matters The only reason your business was able to get to where it is today is because there was a strong leader at the heart of it all: yourself. Youre more than just the captain of a ship youre the light in the darkness. Youre the person with the vision that people can buy into the one who they want to follow even when they cant necessarily explain why in words. The importance of this is something that cannot be overstated enough. But this need for a strong leader is something that, if all goes well, can and should outlast you a strong leader will always be the core of your organization. The simple acknowledgment of this fact along with the actionable steps that you take today to reinforce those ideas will determine whether or not your business is actually around in another decade or more. About the Author: Payman Taei is the founder of Visme, an easy-to-use online tool to create engaging presentations, infographics,   and other forms of visual content. He is also the founder of HindSite Interactive, an award-winning Maryland digital agency specializing in website design, user experience and web app development. Go to top Let me emphasize that Self-Promotion doesn’t have to be obnoxious to be effective.  But, if you don’t Self-Promote you, who will?  If you ever want to get ahead, you have to learn how to Self-Promote. I want to help you accelerate your career by connecting you with your Free Instant Access to my video that shows you simple, yet effective ways to Self-Promote. Start watching now by clicking here! Brought to you by Dorothy Tannahill-Moran â€" dedicated to unleashing your professional potential. Introvert Whisperer

How to Handle the College Application Process as a Parent

How to Handle the College Application Process as a Parent The following piece was written by Kofi Kankam. Kofi has been featured in our Admissions Expert series and is a former admissions interviewer for The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the co-founder of Admit Advantage. His face was alight with the joy of life. Not a care in the world, he would always greet me, arms open, beaming, I love you, Mom. Good morning. I trust you slept well. Anything I needed, from the floors being mopped to cleaning out the refrigerator, done without pestering or even request. But all of a sudden, fall semester of senior year, he morphed into some other teenager. So, if you happen to have the kid described above, God bless you because your next one is sure to be his out-of- control, system-bucking counterpart to balance things out. The reality is that few of us experience the extremes of the personas described above, but life does sometimes change, and not necessarily for the better, for many families walking through the college application process. From an already stressful and over-scheduled existence, families delve into college season viewing the application process as the element that sends someone in the family, head-first, plunging into the deep end. And quite often, it is the parents. The gripes and complaints vary, but overwhelmingly, I hear three most often. Here they are, presented in no particular order, with some tips and strategies on how to overcome them: I just cant get him motivated to complete his applications. Ah, procrastination. It is the root of much parental frustration and angst. It has reared its ugly head in the past but likely with less at stake. Heres the first thing that you, as a parent, must acknowledge this is your childs college experience, not yours. If you are in a position to assist your son or daughter with organizing their materials and you feel comfortable doing so, then by all means, feel free. Create a chart or timeline that is useful in helping them understand the time constraints that can define the pressure-cooking application season. Send them reminders about looming deadlines for standardized tests, college visits, high school recruiters, and applications. Assemble documents that they may need to reference in order to complete the applications and then check in regularly to gauge their progress. However, you must realize that the more handholding you do during this final year of high school, the harder the transition will be come freshman year of college. You kn ow the old saying about leading a horse to water? Well, consider your child the horse. At some point you will need to cut the ties that may cripplingly bind and let your child rise or fail to rise to the occasion. You know your child and the amount of assistance they may need to be nudged along; use this as your compass without crossing the line. You do not want to be that parent on the college campus advocating for a grade change next fall and then five years later discussing his promotion on the job. If your child seems resigned to failure, even with the scaffolding youve put in place, perhaps he isnt ready for college at 17 or 18 years old and a year to grow and experience what life is like outside the world of academia may suit him well and motivate him to take more of a proactive role the second time around in the application process. We cant even talk about his applications without the conversation morphing into an argument. Children are very perceptive, especially college-bound seniors. If college has become your singular focus, they will pick up on it immediately. Remember, your child is more than a mere application. Try to revert to conversations of yesteryear and show a genuine interest in your child beyond his applications and pending acceptances. Let him know that you are there to bounce ideas off of and review materials as needed. You must also realize that application season is a particularly vulnerable time for students. Try to recall your own experience with applying to college. Too long ago? Go back to your last job interview. Remember the feeling of outlining all of your experience and qualifications and then waiting for the verdict? Well, this is your childs new reality. Often, for the first time, these students are putting their existence of the last three plus years on the line for evaluation, and that is a scary prospect. A short fuse or resistance to engage in an ongoing dialogue with you about applications may be less a reflection of his feelings for you and more an indication of how scared and insecure he may be feeling during this process not to mention the delicate dance he is now doing to manage all of his academic and extracurricular commitments beyond the applications. Let your child know that you recognize the stressful nature of this period and are there as an outlet. Encourage him to take a break and plan something fun, like a trip to his favorite restaurant or seeing a movie. The greater the sense of normalcy and balance you can maintain, the more likely he is to come to you to discuss his college application questions and woes. He wont even let me read his essay. The shroud of secrecy that envelops college essays often drives parents insane. Equally, parental badgering and inquiries to read the essay often annoy kids beyond belief. As a parent, the first thing you should ask yourself is what is your motivation for reading the essay? Will you be critical or judgmental? Will you attempt to hijack the essay and make it your own? In reviewing the essay, your motivation should be to support your child in writing an essay that is authentic, relevant, and effective. It should be his voice that comes across, it should answer the question being posed, and it should leave a lasting impression on the reader. When you ask your child if you can read the essay, try to do so in a manner that is supportive and encouraging. Again, reflect on your own similar experiences in which one piece of writing or project carried significant weight, and share the experience with your child. Acknowledge the difficulty of conveying something meaningful in a few meager paragraphs but also affirm your belief that he is capable of writing a strong essay. And rather than always asking directly, Can I read the essay now?, show a genuine interest in his writing process by inquiring, Hows the essay coming along? When you do finally get the chance to read the essay, youll want to remain as objective as possible and only offer feedback that is candid and constructive. If you completely destroy the essay, its not likely that your child will continue to solicit or accept your feedback. Highlight the strengths of the essay and encourage him to develop weaker areas by pointing out portions of the essay that are effective. Finally, if you find that both you and your child have drawn lines in the sand and are unable or unwilling to talk out your differences regarding the essay, seek the advice or counsel of someone else. This may come in the form of a family friend who has recently gone through the application process. It could also be an aunt or uncle with whom your child has a strong and less contentious relationship. It could also be an English or History teacher for whom you child has written other papers. Realize that sometimes it is the collective feedback from a few trusted key sources that can ultimately shape and guide an essay that is well written and engaging. Visit Admit Advantage for more information. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Varsity Tutors.

French Grammar Basics When to Use Tu and Vous

French Grammar Basics When to Use Tu and Vous Sign up successful French grammar dictates that “vous” be used in two basic situations. In one situation, you are still speaking to only one person, but that person is your social superior. It could be your boss at work, a teacher or professor, or a friends older relative. Depending on the level of formality used in a family, it could also be used by a child speaking to his or her parents or grandparents, although many families do not require this. In any other situation that requires formality, or when in doubt, use “vous.” In the second basic situation, the speaker is talking to more than one person. It doesnt matter if you are talking to two people or a thousand, to women, to men, or to both (and yes there are languages that care about this, too!). The formality of the situation also becomes less important in this case, since the speaker will use “vous” in any case. In some regional spoken dialects of modern English, people will say “yall” (short for “you all”) when speaking to more than one person. For those English-speakers who include “yall” in their speech, this is a reasonably closer English equivalent to vous than the simple “you.” So when you are speaking and are trying to figure out which one to use, ask yourself three basic questions: Is it a formal situation? Are you speaking to more than one person? (Use “vous!”) Or are you speaking to one person in a more relaxed, familiar situation? (Use “tu!”) And keep at it with your study of French language and grammar! Learning French takes persistence, but time and effort will help you master it. Carol Beth L. teaches  French lessons in San Francisco, CA. She has her Masters in French language education from the Sorbonne University in Paris and has been teaching students since 2009.  Learn more about Carol Beth here! Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher Photo by Gareth Williams

How To Improve Your Writing Skills

How To Improve Your Writing Skills Writing is one of the more interesting subjects to teach, it may not be the most difficult, but it is definitely different than teaching math or science. William G. Tierney and Stefani R. Relles, two professors, guest wrote an article in the Washington Post about teaching writing. Their main point is that teachers spend too much time addressing bad writing and not nearly enough time helping students improve. They see writing as a product and not a process, and that is the root of the problem. Together, they have created a program that seeks to effectively teach writing to college-bound students who have struggled with the subject. Most of the students they help have never written the prototypical, formal five-page paper. They have very little experience developing a core idea or argument to articulate beyond two or three pages. Through this course, Tierney and Relles have identified four ways to teach students how to write better. Define set, understandable goals: There are too many writingtests. These tests only give students vague results, like you scored in the 85th percentile. Instead, teachers need to pick a set goal, like helping students become college-ready writers. Teachers need to break down what good writing is into compartments and subjects, and show how one begins to craft a solid essay. Teach students how to revise: Teachers need to stop just writing comments at the end of essays, as ways to improve their next essay. Most of the time, students dont even remember them. Teachers need to spend more time with students during the writing process, helping them improve an existing paper. Teach students how to form thoughts: Writing is not thinking. Writing is putting thoughts into words. Students are often taught how to think critically and analytically about themes and problems, which is the first step in writing. However, they are not taught the second step nearly enough, which is finding the words for your thoughts. Require more/longer writing: Budget cuts have increased class sizes, and larger classes means one thing for English teachers: more reading. So, many cut down on the essays and writing pieces they assign simply because they dont want to read more. Longer papers force students to stretch out their writing, instead of cramming it all into a one- or two-hour block. This forces students to spend multiple days with their assignments, which creates more revisions and ultimately better writing. Tierney and Relles say that making these suggestions could change the entire way in which writing is taught, something that might be too controversial to implement. But, the problems bad writing causes are simply unavoidable. Many college freshmen are placed in remedial writing courses, which are lower-level, college classes designed to help them catch up with other students. These classes are often referred to as the gateway to dropping out because the graduation rate for these students is very poor at only 17 percent. Tierney and Relles argue that these teachers need to place a stronger emphasis on teaching the craft in these courses, instead of telling the students they are not good writers. Even President Obama is targeting these classes, saying they could help produce more college graduates.

10 Mind-blowing Research Findings to Supercharge Your ESL Lessons

10 Mind-blowing Research Findings to Supercharge Your ESL Lessons Research Findings I presented the following 10 research findings at the Rascals Conference in St-Hyacinthe, Quebec, on June 4th, 2018. The handout is here. Get the error correction card game that I described. The PowerPoint and references are below. I have created a web version of the talk that I gave and uploaded it to YouTube so that if you missed my talk or want to share these mind-blowing findings with your colleagues, you can. I have included 9 x 2-minute discussion questions to stimulate discussion and help you supercharge the ESL pedagogy in your at your school. Please share and comment. It is difficult to improve without feedback, so please let me know how I could improve my talk. Research Findings 1. Teachers are inept and deluded (Kruger Dunning, 1999). More than 90% of teachers think that they are above average (Cross, 1977).Teachers are inept at recognizing our ineptitude because we don’t know what we don’t know and because we interpret the absence of complaints as a success.We underestimate how long it takes to learn skills we ourselves have mastered.We overestimate what our colleagues and students know. 2. Effect-size indicates that some interventions work much better than others, despite what teachers believe. Smaller class sizes (20-30 students) learn more than class sizes of about 80 (d=0.21) because smaller classes permit group work and more feedback on classroom behaviors (Hattie, 2009).Computer-assisted learning (d=0.37) is 75% more effective at improving student performance than a smaller class size because of the volume of timely feedback it can deliver (Hattie, 2009). 3. Firing 10% of the worst teachers will dramatically improve education (d=75) and stimulate the economy (Hanushek, 2011). Firing 8% of the worst teachers in the U.S. would raise the level of education to that of Finland.Replacing an average teacher with an above average teacher adds $400 000 of value to the economy every year based on calculations of derived demand. 4. Degrees and experience have no effect on teacher quality Degrees and experience have no effect on teacher quality (Hanushek, 2011).Teacher quality only improves in the first 3-5 years of a teacher’s career unless other measures are taken. 5. Teacher quality is best improved by making 3 changes to the way you teach: video-recording your teaching to watch and analyze for improvements (d=88)maximizing the clarity of your feedback by refining your instructions and explanations (d=0.75)and developing good student-teacher relationships (d=0.72) 6. Teachers routinely sabotage student learning: Using textbooks and lessons with irrelevant colour pictures compete with the text for the student’s attention and activate the wrong schema, making new information irretrievable (Harp Mayer, 1997; Mayer, Heiser, Lonn, 2001).Over-emphasizing formal registers in courses for non-fluent (100 101) learners reduces integrative motivation when those students are placed in informal social situations (Segalowitz, 1976).Prioritizing argumentation and debate in ESL reduce interest-based motivation to speak, group cohesion, and therefore group productivity (Poupore, 2014).Prioritizing argumentation instead of narratives in courses for business students leaves them unprepared for the most common business communication tasks in corporations (Jameson, 2001).Teaching the 5-paragraph essay encourages anti-scientific thinking (Berggren, 2008), and its overemphasis at college leaves students unprepared for the range of writing tasks they will face in the workplace and universityâ€"and teaching onl y the 5-paragraph essay has a deskilling effect on teachers (Moss, 2002).Failing to align objectives, instruction, and evaluation tasks reduces achievement by up to two standard deviations (Cohen, 1987). The failure to align CEGEP ESL courses is most evident in the continued use of discrete-item grammar tests and academic writing tasks to test a range of verb tenses. Academic writing contains only a high frequency of simple present verbs (Biber et al., 1999). In contrast, narrative writing tasks containing quoted speech can reliably elicit modals, simple present, present continuous, simple past, past continuous, present perfect, and future (will and be going to). 7. Disciplinary removal is ineffective at teaching the social curriculum (Skiba Peterson, 2003). The social curriculum is more effectively taught through presentation of positively framed rules, practice, and feedback, and by using colleagues to communicate expectations to students 8. Production (even silent mouthing) enhances explicit recall better than silent study (McCleod et al., 2010). Circling, underlining, and highlighting have only a small effect on explicit recall compared to saying words aloud, miming, drawing, or mouthing words. 9. Reciprocal teaching has one of the largest effects (d=74) on student learning (Hattie, 2009). Learning effectiveness pyramid Getting students to teach each other has three times the effect of smaller classes. Rather than trying to reduce the student to teacher ratio further, it is much better to get the students to take turns teaching each other by leading discussions on weekly readings. The effect comes not so much from the pedagogical skills of students but from their desire to master the material when it is their turn to teach. 10. Self-reporting grades (d=1.44) and formative exams (d=0.90) have the biggest impact on student learning of all the interventions reported in the scientific literature (Hattie, 2009). Simply getting students to predict their score on an exam makes them work harder to achieve that score. Self-reporting grades is a kind of goal setting activity that has about twice the effect size of reciprocal teaching.The second best classroom intervention imvolves giving formative exams. Getting forewarning about ones performance on an exam allows the student to concentrate on areas of weakness that were not visible to them before. PowerPoint Presentation This is an embedded Microsoft Office presentation, powered by Office Online. References Berggren, A. (2008). Do Thesis Statements Short-Circuit Originality in Students’ Writing? In Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism: Teaching Writing in the Digital Age. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/dcbooks.5653382.0001.001 Biber, D., S. Johansson, G. Leech, S. Conrad and E. Finegan (1999), Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Harlow: Pearson Education. Cohen, S.A. (1987). Instructional alignment: Searching for a magic bullet. Educational Researcher, 16, 16-20. Cross, P. (1977). Not can but will college teaching be improved? New Directions for Higher Education, 17, 1-15. Duxbury, A. R. (2008). Speaking my mind: the tyranny of the thesis statement. NCTE English Journal, 97(4). Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/journals/ej/issues/v97-4. Hanushek, E. A. (2011). “The economic value of higher teacher quality. Economics of Education Review 30: 466-479. Harp, S. F., Mayer, R. E. (1997). The role of interest in learning from scientific text and illustrations: On the distinction between emotional and cognitive interest. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 92-102. Hattie, J. A. C. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London, UK: Routledge. Jameson, D. (2001). Narrative discourse and management action. Journal of Business Communication, 476-511. Kruger, Justin; Dunning, David (1999). Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing Ones Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. American Psychological Association. 77 (6): 1121â€"1134. Mayer, R. E., Heiser, J., Lonn, S. (2001). Cognitive constraints on multimedia learning: When presenting more material results in less understanding. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 187â€"198. MacLeod, C. M., Gopie, N., Hourihan, K. L., Neary, K. R., Ozubko, J. D. (2010). The production effect: Delineation of a phenomenon.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36(3), 671-685. Moss, G. (2002). The five-paragraph theme. The Quarterly, 24(3). Retrieved from https://www.nwp.org/cs/public/download/nwp_file/467/The_Five-Paragraph_Theme.pdf?x-r=pcfile_d Poupore, G. (2014). The influence of content on adult L2 learners’ task motivation: An interest theory perspective. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics: 17, 2: 69-90. Segalowitz, N. (1976). Communicative incompetence and the non-fluent bilingual. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 8(2), 121-131. Skiba, R. Peterson, R. (2003). Teaching the social curriculum: School discipline as instruction.Preventing School Failure, 47(2), 66-72. Please follow and like us: