3rd grade is a grade for change! Prior to this year, students need a lot of support and guidance as a learner. In third grade, this is the time for them to grow to become a confident, independent, problem solver. These skills will help them be a successful learner in the future, as they practice their knowledge and problem solving skills practiced by being to become an independent learner! Below you will find some tips on how to best help your child develop these skills. This will not happen instantly and will take practice by both you as the learning coach and the student. Students at this age will not be able to teach themselves or to work completely independently to learn new material. The goal for 3rd grade is that by the end of the year, your student should be able to read directions, follow them, and complete a task with minimal support. This year is just the start to the developmental process, so that your student can continually grow their independent learner skills for the future.
Ways to help your student become a confident, independent learner:
· ALL assessments (NWEA, OLS end of lessons, etc.) should be done WITHOUT help. This means no hints, no eliminating answers, or reading of the tests unless specified by the teacher (reading tests should NEVER be read).
Why?: This helps you, as the learning coach, and us, as the teachers, know what THEY know, so we can best help them!
· Pose questions to GUIDE. When your student struggles with questions, this helps them find the answer. This is tricky because it’s hard to guide and not tell! Questions that guide : “What do you do first?”, “ Where would you find that information?”, “What are the important words in the question that help?”
Why?: This helps students become problem solvers! If they don’t know the answer, you posing questions helps them problem solve on how to either figure out the answer or how to come up with an answer.
· Give them a chance! Start out slow. Your student will not become an independent worker overnight. This is a year long process and won’t even be completely finished in 3rd grade! The goal is to start.
1. Give a short task to do independently. For example: “Do the next 2 math problems on your own, and then I will come back, and we can check them together.”
2. Slowly give more responsibility to the student. For example: “Read the paragraph and answer the questions for this story. We will then check it before doing the next story.”
3. Finally, check the understanding of the topic/teach the lesson according to the teacher guide, and then assign the practice work. Go over the practice page together to check.
Why?: Sometimes if the help is easily accessible, students use it more than they actually need it! It’s important when you have them working independently to leave the area they are working in, let them go to a different room, or you leave the room for a short time.
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