Thursday, November 25, 2010
N/Warren Town and County News
Page Nine
OVIATT
Concluded from p.8
ority over other activities.
Use Homework to Teach Organization Skills
Encourage your child to use an assignment book, write all assignments into the
book daily and check them off when completed. Your child should also break down
long-term assignments and projects into smaller parts, writing each part into the
assignment book. Many children also find it helpful to put other commitments into
the assignment book as well, including music lessons, sports and jobs.
Encourage your children to estimate how long it will take to complete each
assignment and help them plan their schedule accordingly.
Help your children set performance goals for their assignments and estimate
how much effort it will take to do that well. This will help them learn to divide study
time effectively.
Help your children learn to plan ahead. They should start working on major
assignments or reviewing for major tests well ahead.
Help your children increase their concentration time. At first they may be able
to concentrate for only 10 minutes. Parents can help their children build up this length
of time gradually, so that homework takes less time. Even high school students should
take a 10 to 15-minute break after studying for 45 to 50 minutes. Otherwise, they lose
the ability to concentrate.
Encourage your child to circle the verbs in directions.
Encourage your child to review class notes and add details, make corrections
and highlight the most important information.
Help your children to improve reading skills by having them pre-read non-
fiction reading assignments (reviewing the headings, picture captions, reviewing
tables, charts and graphs). Children can pre-read fiction by reading the front cover,
back cover and introduction, and skimming the first quarter to determine setting,
character and plot.
Encourage your child to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words by using
the context or by looking them up in a dictionary and writing them down.
Help your child learn effective reading techniques such as SQ3R, where the reader:
Surveys: Looks over the material before beginning to read to obtain a gen-
eral orientation.
Questions: Writes down questions about the material before beginning to read.
Reads through the material in the normal way.
Recites and Writes: Writes down or gives the answers to another person.
Reviews: Goes over the material several times before being tested.
Encourage your child to outline or "map" reading material for better under-
standing. To "map," a child places the main topic in the middle of a blank sheet of
paper. He then draws a branch for each subheading and places supporting details on
smaller branches going out from the subheadings. This creates a visual aid that in-
creases organization and comprehension.
Make sure your children understand their textbooks. Children should be able to
read nine out of 10 words accurately and answer at least three out of four questions correctl)a
.... , Help your 4t)9i outcomes, distinguish fact fro m opinion, discern emo-
tional appeals, recognize bias and discern inference as they read.
Encourage your children to organize their thoughts before beginning a written
assignment and write at least two drafts.
Have your child proofread and check for success or failure in answering the
purpose of the assignment, legibility, neatness, spelling, complete sentences and punc-
tuation errors.
I
SC.OOLAND SPORTS PAO00S k
SPONSORED BY:
*COMMUNITY BANK
285-4900
*FOUR SEASONS AUTO WASH
981-4454
*DR. DONNA GRANT FAMILY DENTISTRY
256-9000
*HASKIN CHIROPRACTIC CLINIC
981-0556
*JJ DESIGNS CUSTOM embroidery/screen
print - 953-6306
*EDWARD JONES INVESTMENTS
Kevin Pearson - 285-1838
*MAID RITE SANDWICH SHOP
981-1031
*NORWALK INSURANCE SERVICES
981-0434 or 981-4293
*NORWALK LIONS CLUB
981-0432
*OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATES
981-0224
*SCOTT'S FOODS
981-0606
*NEWTON STANDRIDGE
STANDRIDGE GROUP
229-5310
*NfWARREN TOWN & COUNTY NEWS
981-0406
Help your child to see tests as an opportunity to "show off" what they have
learned, rather than something to be feared.
Help your children predict test questions as they study for tests.
Encourage your child to space studying over several sessions instead of cram-
ming the night before. Five hours of study spread over a week is better than studying
five hours the night before the test. Cramming for tests increases anxiety and causes
lower grades.
Avoid acting as a tutor for your child. If a child needs a tutor in a particular
subject, call the local high school and ask for a student tutor through the Honor Society.
Provide and Enforce Logical and Meaningful Consequences
Have your children assess their own homework completion each week by re-
viewing returned papers, tests and quizzes and current grades. With your children,
note their progress, improvements, areas of need and jointly plan how to solve any problems.
Display well-done work in a prominent place, such as on the refrigerator door.
With their help, graph your child's grades. Include the grades for each class, the
average grade for all classes and an agreed upon target line. The target line should be
the grades that you and your children agree are reasonable and obtainable (if your
child is now receiving D's, a reasonable goal is grades of C. Setting the first goal at A's
will lead to frustration). Discuss the graph with your children, help them identify
any patterns of poor performance and work with them to develop solutions.
Teach your children to bring all necessary maferials home. If your children get
in the habit of "forgetting" homework materials, have them spend time on reading
or working on other academic activities during the agreed-upon study time. Your
children could also walk back to school to pick up forgotten materials, or be charged
"gas money" cut of their allowance for car trips back to school. Or, with the help of a
school psychologist or counselor, set up a system that rewards them for bringing
everything home.
Sometimes children "lose" completed homework in their books or backpack.
Placing all completed homework in one folder in the backpack can solve this prob-
lem. Packing the backpack for the next day should be part of the evening routine, not
a task left for morning.
If homework becomes a chronic problem for your child, reduce his freedom
until grades improve and his teacher indicates that the problem is solved. Methods
of reducing freedom might be (a) giving your child less control about where and
when homework is completed, (b) checking homework every evening, (c) parents
and teachers maintaining ongoing communication in the assignment book, or (d) the
child not being able to participate in a planned activity such as a field trip.
Reward your child for good grades and for improving grades. Consider your
child's preferences in determining the reward, but the rewards need not be expen-
sive. Going out together for an ice cream cone, or telephoning a grandparent to tell
them of the child's success, are examples of inexpensive but effective rewards.
Provide support and genuine praise for homework completion and good study
habits.
BUILD WITH BAGS
Concluded from p.1
lies and community members that kept bringing the plastic bags to school so we
could recycle them. The community also used their reusable shopping bags during
this challenge. Continue to be good role models for our children and recycle those
plastic bags and bring your own bags when shopping.
In addition, Oviatt wants to thank everyone at Scott's Foods, especially Scott Ha-
vens and Nancy Hildreth, as well as Fareway Food employees, especially Bryan
Greiner because both stores took our bags to weigh and communicated with Metro
Waste Authority. They also promoted the use of reusable shopping bags to earn credit
for our school during this challenge. We could not have won without such great
community support. Norwalk Community always steps up whenever the school dis-
trict needs help.
The Build with Bags School Recycling Challenge started October 4, 2010. Twenty-
nine schools competed to see whose students could recycle the most plastic bags
and/or use the most reusable shopping bags over the five week period. The program
was developed to educate students about the importance of recycling or reusing
shopping bags while localizing America Recycles Day.
"Iowa Grocery Industry Association was proud to team with Metro Waste Au-
thority to offer this great program to elementary schools to help teach children about
the importance of recycling," said Jerry Fleagle, Iowa Grocery Industry Association
President. "IGIA launched the Build with Bags program in our stores statewide in
August and this local School Challenge was a great way to bring attention to the
importance of recycling the plastic shopping bags."
Tom Hadden, Executive Director of Metro Waste Authority continued, "The pro-
gram received a great response from participating schools. Our goal was to raise
awareness about the issue of plastic shopping bags becoming litter, and teach skills
to begin to divert that waste. Participating schools recycled approximately 6,800
pounds of plastic shopping bags, which is equivalent to 408,000 plastic bags, in just
five weeks. Those numbers are incredible and we couldn't be more pleased."
Participating schools that recycled at least 100 pounds of plastic shopping bags
and received credit for using 75 reusable bags will get a $100 store gift card.
The plastic bag recycling challenge is in its fourth year and this is the second year
that Metro Waste Authority and IGIA have partnered. This program was successful
in educating students about the importance of recycling and environmental stew-
ardship. Area elementary schools collected used plastic shopping bags and deliv-
ered them to their local grocery store for recycling. The participating elementary
schools got credit for the weight of the plastic bags they recycled at the stores.
About Build with Bags
The Build with Bags program is a cooperative effort of the Iowa Grocery Industry
Association, Keep Iowa Beautiful, Metro Waste Authority, Iowa Department of Natu-
ral Resources and The Des Moines Register. Over the course of several months, rep-
resentatives of each of these organizations witnessed focus groups convened to dis-
cuss plastic bag issues and then met to develop a program aimed at demonstrating
how Iowa grocers could help to reduce the environmental impact of plastic bags. In
addition to reducing the environmental footprint of plastic bags, the goal of the group
was also to provide an effective alternative to plastic bag bans and the unintended
consequences that often result from bans and other related regulatory efforts.
