Strategies For Managing Language Challenges

By Glenda Thorne, Alice Thomas and Candy Lawson

There are many strategies that will help a student with language problems. A few are listed below.

1. Take the Mystery Away

Teach the student about language and language strategies. Help the student understand his/her own language strengths and challenges. This process is sometimes called demystification – taking the mystery […]

• Articles
• Literacy

What Can A Student Do To Increase His/Her Attention?

By Glenda Thorne, Ph.D. and Alice Thomas, M.Ed.

Attention Self-Test (Designed primarily for the junior high school student; statements may be adjusted for younger or older students.) Directions: Circle one number for each question. Key 0 Never 1 Sometimes 2 Often 3 Always

1. In conversations with friends or when the teacher […]

• Articles
• Attention

How Minds Work: The Key To Motivation, Learning, And Thinking

By Alice Thomas

All children are motivated. However, not all children are motivated about that which we want them to be motivated. (The same is true for adults.) How, then, do we keep students in our classrooms motivated and engaged?

The underlying knowledge a teacher must have to orchestrate differentiated instruction day after day, hour after hour, […]

• Articles
• Higher Level/Critical Thinking
• Learning

Retention Is Not The Answer!

by Alice Thomas

It’s that time of year…again.  And…if we keep doing the same thing over and over, we will keep getting the same results.

For over 40 years, study after study on grade retention has reached the same conclusion: Failing a student, particularly in the critical ninth grade year, is the single largest predictor of whether […]

• Articles
• Retention

Teach Students the All-Purpose Academic Word List

By Alice Thomas

The Academic Word List (AWL) consists of 570 word families that occur reasonably frequently over a wide range of academic texts. The list was developed and evaluated by Averil Coxhead for her MA thesis (Coxhead, 2000). The AWL word families were selected according to range and frequency. For range, the word families had […]

• Articles
• Vocabulary

Building Vocabulary Through Morphemes: Using Word Parts To Unlock Meaning

By Alice Thomas

Direct instruction of the most common morphemes (prefixes, suffixes, and root words) can greatly enhance and build the vocabulary and reading comprehension of all students, especially struggling readers. Once students become familiar with the most common morphemes, they can then use their knowledge of word parts to help determine meaning when they encounter […]

• Articles
• Vocabulary

Understanding The Learning Process To Effectively Differentiate Instruction

By Alice Thomas

The underlying ability a teacher must have to orchestrate differentiated instruction day after day, hour after hour, by assessing his/her students and adjusting strategies and tactics moment by moment, requires sophisticated knowledge and skills.

To successfully use differentiated instruction, a teacher must first have a firm understanding of each of the cognitive components of […]

• Articles
• Learning

How To Increase Higher Level Thinking

By Alice Thomas and Glenda Thorne

Most of us don’’t think about thinking – –we just do it. But educators, parents, and legislators have been thinking more about thinking, and thinking about how we want teachers to teach our students to think.

As students move from elementary to middle to high school, they are asked by their […]

• Articles
• Higher Level/Critical Thinking

Language, Learning And A Place Called School: Learning Language And Using Language To Learn

By Alice Thomas and Glenda Thorne

In school as in life, the main way that ideas are exchanged is through language. So it becomes essential for a child to master language if he is to succeed at this place called school and a journey called life.

Kids who are “naturally” adept at language seem to master language […]

• Articles
• Literacy

What Is Attention?

By Glenda Thorne and Alice Thomas

Attention Quick Facts

Paying attention is the first step in the learning process.
Everybody fails to pay attention sometimes, but some people fail to pay attention a lot.
Not paying attention to what you are doing can be a problem for both children and adults. For example, not listening to the directions in […]

• Articles
• Attention