How can you help your student?
- Ask your child about what he/she has chosen to read.
- Below is a list of questions you could ask to spark a conversation with your child about the book he/she is reading. Is this book similar to others you've read? How so? Who is your favorite character and why? What is the problem the main character(s) is facing in this book?
- When your student asks you to look over his/her writing, ask them questions you have as a reader, or write these in the margin, but try not to re-write anything for them. We want to work with your student's skills and abilities and this is difficult if the writing doesn't come purely from them.
- If your student comes to you with their writing and says they need help, ask them to tell you what they are specifically struggling with. The goal is to get them to voice what they are unhappy with in regards to their writing piece. Feel free to give suggestions for them to consider, but again, try to refrain from coming up with the actual words for them.
- If you are helping your student edit his/her writing, mark lines where there are grammar or sentence structure issues, but do not fix it for them. The same goes with misspelled words. Circle these, but have your student work through the editing corrections first. We want them to do the thinking; they will want you to do the thinking. If they continue to struggle with the spelling and/or grammar issues after using their resources (dictionary, etc.), some guidance from you is fine.