Thousand Grains of Salt

Using evidence from the text is important--not only does it show that the text was read and understood, but it helps students think through the 5 Ws--who, what, when, where, and why. A simple way to add text evidence into an answer is to use the "because" method! That way, students are able to easily explain their logic and connect the question, their thoughts, and the reading. Is it the fanciest way to answer a question? Probably not. Does it work? Yes!

Ms. Michelle is a California credentialed teacher with over 25 years of experience working with English Language Learners and students with special needs. Although she has technically retired, Ms. Michelle still works with students through Thousand Grains of Salt to develop their reading proficiency and prepare for tests like the ELPAC and Smarter Balance ELA assessment. She is the creator (and main instructor!) of our Novel Studies workshops and classes.

Feeling overwhelmed again? It seems like this time of year is overflowing with too much stuff to do! There's testing, finals, competitions, fairs, and a ton of projects that all seem due at the same time.

It is easy to get lost in the list of to-dos for adults and students. What are some of the things you do to help everyone get done on time, with the least amount of stress?

Synonyms are wonderful tools to help students (and adults!) gain a better understanding of a statement or story section. Some synonyms work great, while others don't. Even more importantly, substituting words can help students better understand the meaning and usage of their new word by comparing it to words and concepts they already know. It also can be a quick way to encourage understanding, rather than having to stop in the middle of a story to go find a dictionary!

Ms. Michelle is a California credentialed teacher with over 25 years of experience working with English Language Learners and students with special needs. Although she has technically retired, Ms. Michelle still works with students through Thousand Grains of Salt to develop their reading proficiency and prepare for tests like the ELPAC and Smarter Balance ELA assessment. She is the creator (and main instructor!) of our Novel Studies workshops and classes.

Last week, Ms. Michelle talked about the importance of memorizing the factors of 100, but that got us thinking--what tools help students memorize math facts? We did a little brainstorming and came up with a few ideas, but we would like to hear what you do! Do you have any special tricks you use? Do you have math songs that have helped your family?

Many of our struggling readers find dictionaries to be particularly frustrating--not only is it hard to find a specific word, but then the definition doesn't even make sense in the context of what they are reading!

Dictionaries don't know where you found the word, so they can't help a student understand the word in context. Instead, it is better to start with looking at the ideas surrounding the word: is it positive, or negative? Are there clues in the sentences before and after that can help? If there was no word here, what might I put in to make it make sense? These questions can help everyone get a better idea of what is going on, and may even allow a student to keep reading, rather than interrupting the story to go hunt for a dictionary!

Synonyms can also help readers figure things out: if I can find two or three other words that mean about the same thing, it can help me understand this word, and contextualize things a bit more when we finally do make it to the dictionary!

Finally, once you have a good idea of what a word means, it helps to write out your own personal definition. This is not so much to build your own dictionary (though that can be a fun, year or semester-long project!), but rather to help your brain remember the definition: now that you have read it, thought about it, and written it out by hand, you are much less likely to forget!

Ms. Michelle is a California credentialed teacher with over 25 years of experience working with English Language Learners and students with special needs. Although she has technically retired, Ms. Michelle still works with students through Thousand Grains of Salt to develop their reading proficiency and prepare for tests like the ELPAC and Smarter Balance ELA assessment.

Everyone experiences stress, no matter their age. Many of our students come to us extremely stressed out about school, family and friends, and the state of the world in general. In fact, after confidence, stress is the biggest non-school subject that we work with students to tackle!

How do you talk about stress with your students? Do you teach them ways to identify stress, or focus more on solutions? What seems to help you the most?

Share your thoughts below, so we can all benefit from each other's ideas!

Learning new concepts can be less frustrating when it is similar to something you already know. Intentionally building math skills so they clearly connect to each other can help make a difficult subject a little more manageable. It won't fix the struggle entirely, but it will make it easier for students to find their confidence and try a bit more!

Ms. Michelle is a California credentialed teacher with over 25 years of experience working with English Language Learners and students with special needs. Although she has technically retired, Ms. Michelle still works with students through Thousand Grains of Salt to develop their reading proficiency and prepare for tests like the ELPAC and Smarter Balance ELA assessment.

Ugh, sometimes the procrastination wins! The worst part is when the anxiety creeps in and gnaws at you while you are procrastinating--and then someone says, "it's not that hard, just do it!" Sure, it's not that hard *for you*, but it is for me!

This is a common problem for adult AND kids, so you aren't alone! What do you do to help make tasks manageable? Do you have advice that's better than "just do it"? Don't keep that wisdom to yourself--comment and share!

If you need a tutoring buddy to help conquer the scaries, pop over to our website to schedule a session this week. www.1knacl.com

Multiplication tables are tough—but worth it! Once you have them memorized, multiplying and dividing becomes a lot easier. Starting with the perfect squares gives students a good launching point: if you can do perfect squares from 1 to 10 (or 1 to 12!) it is easier to the multiplication problems above and below. Plus, it is highly gratifying to be able to fill out the entire diagonal line on a multiplication table.

Once you have the perfect squares, twos, tens, and fives are good next steps: the patterns are easily identified, and students probably worked on these when they were learning to count and work on basic addition!

If a student is very frustrated by a concept and are afraid to try again, it may be time to look for some outside help: there are many songs that can help (including the old Schoolhouse Rock songs!), and there are tutors who can help students work on short term goals. If you get stuck, don’t try to do it all on your own!

Ms. Michelle is a California credentialed teacher with over 25 years of experience working with English Language Learners and students with special needs. Although she has technically retired, Ms. Michelle still works with students through Thousand Grains of Salt to develop their reading proficiency and prepare for tests like the ELPAC and Smarter Balance ELA assessment.

If you know us at all, you know we love gamifying learning, and we're excited about revisiting a classic learning method: role-play games!

We will be running three groups this spring: two that focus on creative writing, and a third that focuses on improv, performance, and social-emotional intelligence.

You can visit 1knacl.com/workshops for more information, or keep an eye out for updates here!

In honor of the start of Ramadan, one of our team members has written a little summary of the holiday, along with some tips and resources so our families can respectfully learn about it on our blog! Hope to see you there!

You can read the whole blog post at http://1knacl.com/blog

We love our diverse community, and we love to highlight the holidays that are meaningful to our students! Our staff write about the holidays that are important to us, but we would love to hear about your family's traditions. If your student wants to share a report, short story, or piece of artwork that highlights one of your traditions, send us a message or drop us an email, and let's talk about featuring it on our blog!