DEAR TEACHER
– by Peggy Gisler and Marge Eberts
Helping all parents make their
children’s educational experience
as successful as possible
Schools Want Children to
Read More Nonfiction
Q
uestion: I hear that children,
starting in kindergarten and
continuing through high
school, are going to be required to read
more nonfiction, from news articles to his-
toric documents. What is the reason for this
new emphasis on reading nonfictional ma-
terials? — Changing Times
Answer: What has happened is the
realization that both college classes and
many careers require the ability to read
more complex materials. Out in the work
world, most of what people read in their
careers requires the ability to understand
informational text.
Back in 2005, only 51 percent of
ACT-tested high school students were
ready for college-level reading. Further-
more, current research is showing that
many college and junior college students
need to take remedial courses. This lack
of reading readiness for college is one of
the indicators why so many freshmen are
dropping out of school.
Until the enactment of Common Core
Standards, rigorous reading standards were
close to nonexistent. The standards expect
that in elementary and middle school, at
least half of what students read should be
nonfiction. This figure will accelerate to 70
percent of reading material by 12th grade.
While classrooms from kindergarten
through high school are now having stu-
dents read more nonfiction material, not
all states have adopted the standards. Plus,
it is very important that teachers instruct
students in how to read this material — not
all do so. One thing for sure is that parents
need to be encouraging more nonfictional
reading at home. Here are just a few ways
that they can do this:
Give children who are interested in
specific sports or hobbies magazines
on these topics.
56 WNY Family April 2019
Introduce new board games, and have
children read the rules and explain
them to the players.
Have them follow a topic of interest
on Twitter.
Engage children in the process of re-
searching places to visit on a family
trip.
Have them follow favorite sports
teams online and in newspapers.
Plan to Celebrate Earth
Day This Month
Question: I have heard about Earth
Day. When is it, and what is it? — Eco-
Friendly
Answer: Earth Day was first celebrated
in 1970. Nowadays, it is celebrated around
the world. In the United States, it is always
celebrated on April 22. This year it falls on
a Monday, so you may want to celebrate it
over the weekend when your family is at
home together. Why don’t you have your
family join the more than 1 billion people
celebrating this day by improving the envi-
ronment in some way?
Join one of the many Earth Day events
in your community. You could be part of a
group working to improve city, state, or na-
tional parks. Other groups clean up streams,
plant gardens at schools, and pick up street
trash. Have a family discussion tonight. If
the above ideas don’t appeal, try one on the
list below:
Recycling is always a good place to
begin. Commit your family to sepa-
rating recyclables from your trash ev-
ery week.
Plant a tree for every member of your
family. Trees remove carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere.
Start turning lights off when you
leave a room. Unplug appliances
when they are not in use. When you
use less electricity, less oil and gas are
being used to create electricity.
Build a compost pile. Find a section
of your yard in a back corner and start
putting all the leaves and grass cut-
tings from your yard in this pile. It
will decompose, then you will be able
to put it in the soil for other plants in
your yard.
Make bird feeders. This can be done
by collecting pinecones and dipping
them in peanut butter or honey and
covering them with birdseed.
Whatever your family decides to
do on Earth Day will make a difference.
Your family may even do similar activities
throughout the year — making Earth better
for everyone.
Ways to Boost Your
Child’s Short-term
Memory Skills
Question: My child simply doesn’t
hold information in her head very well, so
she has trouble following directions or doing
mental math. How can her short-term mem-
ory skills be boosted? — Can’t Remember
Answer: Unfortunately, the demands
on your daughter’s memory skills will con-
tinue not only throughout her educational ca-
reer, but throughout her life. What she needs
to do is to improve her working memory,
which will allow her to hold on and work
with the information stored in her short-term
memory. Show her how to use the activities
below to build her memory skills:
Use funny rhymes, songs and acro-
nyms to remember lists of facts.
Associate new learning with some-
thing familiar.
Use the outline approach. Learn general
concepts and then fill in the details.
Group information together in a relat-
ed area. Organizing information can
significantly improve memory.
Overlearn the material. This is the
most effective strategy that your
daughter can use.
Say what she is trying to learn out
loud. Repetition helps information to
be retained.
Work on visualization skills. Create
mental pictures in her mind.
Teach what she has to memorize to
someone else.
Play card and matching games.
Parents should send questions and com-
ments to dearteacher@dearteacher. com
or to the Dear Teacher website.