Above Grade Level - Southwestern Alberta & South Eastern, BC

Home
Canada
Blairmore, AB
Above Grade Level - Southwestern Alberta & South Eastern, BC

We provide world class, in-home tutoring in math, English, reading, and the Sciences in Southwestern Alberta & South Eastern, BC.

05/24/2022

The science of how to teach reading has been well established and is embedded in the VERY heart of our Super Readers program - the underlying methodology of which is proven to be the most powerful method to teach reading to young children based on the largest scale, independent studies ever conducted on literacy!

Phonics is at its heart.

Which is no surprise at all because a half-century of research shows "phonics — sound it out exercises that are purposefully sequenced — is the most effective way to teach reading, along with books that build vocabulary and depth."

And MODERN evidence continues to pile up:

"With brain science steadily adding to that evidence, there is a sense — at least for many in the education establishment — that the debate over early reading instruction may be ebbing. Phonics is ascendant."

Now, as per attached article, a prominent, seminal figure - a policy influencer for literacy instruction globally - has REVERSED course and has adopted phonics once again! Unfortunately, many were raised with "guessing" methods and "picture power" tricks that have nothing to do with how we read.

How do we read? We now KNOW for certain:

"[F]unctional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain demonstrates that humans process written language letter by letter, sound by sound. Far from being automatic, reading requires a rewiring of the brain, which is primed by evolution to recognize faces, not words."

Phonics is the key. Our Super Readers program is the tool that unlocks reading abilities in young children more powerfully than any other - and this is not our opinion: the results of the largest literacy intervention research studies done within the education system itself confirm this to be true.

If you want your young child to read well and to gain these skills with remarkable speed, ask about our Super Readers program today!

Lucy Calkins, a leading literacy expert, has rewritten her curriculum to include a fuller embrace of phonics and the science of reading. Critics may not be appeased.

11/19/2021

⬇️⬇️With THIS on the near-term horizon, does this mean we've finally reached the denouement of the pandemic? It would seem so! 🤞

The announcement expected Friday means one of the biggest pediatric vaccination efforts in Canada’s history will soon be underway.

11/09/2021

"Convincing students that they could make themselves smarter by hard work led them to work harder and get higher grades. The intervention had the biggest effect for students who started out believing intelligence was genetic."

What if students understood that "intelligence is highly malleable and can be developed by hard work…that learning changes the brain by forming new…connections and that students are in charge of this change process?"

This is what we instill in our students every day; this is why our students' skills, grades, and confidence quickly and dramatically improve.

“I’m just not a math person.” We hear it all the time. And we’ve had enough. Because we believe that the idea of “math people”…

11/02/2021

👉US kids age 5 to 11 will start receiving COVID-19 shots as early as this week - and no doubt Canada will follow suit soon!

“Today is a monumental day in the course of this pandemic, and one that many of us have been very eager to see,” she said at the opening of the panel’s all-day meeting. “For almost two full years, schools have been fundamentally changed; there have been children in second grade who have never experienced a normal school year.”

Once OK’d by the CDC director, the program to distribute the vaccine will be fully up and running next week, said a coronavirus response coordinator f...

10/06/2021

As early as the end of October, COVID-19 vaccines for kids 5 to 11 could be available in Canada:

“All doors will be open” to immunize children between five and 11 as quickly as possible once COVID-19 vaccines are approved for that age group, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore said Tuesday.

“All doors will be open” to immunize children between five and 11 as quickly as possible once COVID-19 vaccines are approved for that age group, Ontario’s…

09/16/2021

"Schools are far more than bricks and mortar, or places of teaching and learning; they’re the basis of a strong social and economic future.

Anyone who doubts that public education has the power to improve our collective fortunes should bear in mind that nearly nine out of 10 respondents equated public education with the Canadian identity. I think that’s something worth fighting for.

On election day and beyond, the Canadian Teachers’ Federation urges voters to choose a government that will continue investing in public education to ensure all children have access to high-quality public education. The future of our country depends on it."

The return to school is meant to be a special and exciting time of year, an annual rite of passage for Canadian children, youth, and their families. This year, it’s anything but. When schools fully reopen this week, they do so under a cloud of uncertainty caused by a stubborn pandemic. For the thi...

01/28/2021

One unexpected silver lining to COVID-19 is that in some foreign countries COVID led to lower teacher-to-student ratios BECAUSE of the necessity of implementing COVID-19 safety protocols - and that in turn led to a ratio of 1 teacher to 15 students which is known to produce better education outcomes. Most pedagogical studies indicate that this 1:15 ratio is what most governments should target for their school classrooms. Ironically, COVID concerns forced many countries to hit this target for the first time to reduce the rate of COVID-19 transmission.

Efforts in some countries to control COVID-19 in schools by limiting class sizes and using alternate locations made for a more stable and effective learning environment, according to Prachi Srivastava from Western University. She says research shows a lower teacher-to-student ratio also has better e...

01/26/2021

✅➕➖✖️➗Let's promote TRUE math understanding! Students are often taught to memorize math steps, without actually understanding the underlying mathematics. This is a problem. One solution is to encourage *higher order thinking* by using comparison models e.g. "comparing multiple correct strategies, comparing confusable problem types, and comparing correct and incorrect strategies."

This works! New research reveals that "incorporating these types of comparison problems resulted in greater conceptual knowledge and procedural flexibility than the control groups."

If you want to promote true *understanding* of mathematics, then the *comparison model* technique works wonders! And it's fun!

How can cognitive science principles support the deepening of mathematics education? A team of researchers from Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of education and human development and Harvard University's graduate school of education explored how using a basic learning process—comparison—...

01/23/2021

“Looking out at our society, we are plagued by vast amounts of misinformation, conspiracy theories, science denial, and other forces that are threatening our society,” said Jal Mehta, a professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and co-author of “In Search of Deeper Learning.” “We need inquiring citizens to make good decisions about our democracy, and to take on big challenges like climate change, education, health care, poverty, and more.”

While there are many ways to cultivate a love of learning in your children, here's one easy one:

“Researchers have found that a strong predictor of childhood flourishing is the ability of families to share ideas or talk about things with their child that really matter,” said David Grodberg, a psychiatrist and chief medical officer at the behavioral health platform Brightline. “For example, creating family rituals around shared activities like playing board games or reading ― or maybe at the dinner table, listening to each other and talking about ideas and interests together.”

Experts share advice for parents who want to foster intellectual curiosity in their children.

01/19/2021

Do smarter teachers make smarter students? How do teachers' cognitive skills impact student performance, country-wide?

It turns out, the answers are, YES & SIGNIFICANTLY, respectively. (Just one of the reasons why our tutor candidates have to successfully pass through a gauntlet of skill assessments and screening processes before they can join our ranks.)

"We find that teachers’ cognitive skills differ widely among nations—and that these differences matter greatly for students’ success in school. An increase of one standard deviation in teacher cognitive skills is associated with an increase of 10 to 15 percent of a standard deviation in student performance. This implies that as much as one quarter of the gaps in average student performance across the countries in our study would be closed if each of them were to raise their teachers’ cognitive skills to the level of those in the highest-ranked country, Finland."

International evidence on teacher cognitive skills and student performance

01/14/2021

🌈🌈Although it's tough to find a silver lining in these dark days of the pandemic, doctors are noticing one very positive trend among kids: there is a significant "decrease in common respiratory illnesses, including the flu, colds, and RSV. Experts credit that to practicing safety health measures like hand-washing, social distancing, and mask wearing."

On the flipside, there has been an obvious uptick in mental health issues among kids, including elevated rates of depression and anxiety.

With safety measures in place to prevent COVID-19, doctors are seeing a much calmer respiratory season. Experts explain what that means and what parents should pay attention to.

01/13/2021

💉💉Many parents are wondering, "When will kids be able to get the COVID-19 vaccine?" Well, Pfizer's vaccine has been authorized for those 16 and above; Moderna's vaccine has been authorized only for those 18 and above.

For those under 16, clinical trials are currently underway.

According to Emily R. Levy, M.D., Pediatric Critical Care Specialist and Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist at Mayo Clinic:

“We have extended the age group that we’re testing these in to include kids. Depending on the exact vaccine, I think the Pfizer one now is enrolling kids over 12. Some of the other ones have gone down to 5 years of age.”

The current hope is that at the very least a vaccine variation for kids 12 to 16 years old will be available by the start of the 2021-2022 academic year.

Pfizer and Moderna have clinical trials underway to study the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines in children.

Address

1817 112 Street
Blairmore, AB
T0K0E0

Telephone

+14037530776

Website

http://www.abovegradelevel.ca/tutoring/ab/southwest/index.htm

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Above Grade Level - Southwestern Alberta & South Eastern, BC posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Want your school to be the top-listed school/college in Blairmore?