 ROBOTICS LAB IS OPEN . 1
ISSUE 2
2015
 MATH CORNER/YESS TEAM
2
 UNDERSTANDING READING
STRATEGIES TAUGHT IN
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL .......
3
Rowan
y.e.s.s.
ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF INDIVIDUAL STUDENTS AND HELPING TO
SUPPORT ALL LEARNERS: Y.E.S.S. (YOUTH EDUCATION SUPPORT
SERVICES)
My name is Beth Allen-Boyle and I am the Instruction and Intervention
Specialist for Rowan Elementary School. Enjoy the quarterly newsletter
filled with tips and information to help support your child’s needs in and
out of school.
Rowan Robotics Lab in Full Swing
If you have a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th grader at home,
they might have mentioned the Robotics
Lab. It is open and filled with excited young
minds learning to build robots that they
program through a block-by-block coding
program. Our 2nd and 3rd graders are using
Lego WeDo and our 4th graders are engaged
through the EV3 robotics. Taught by Mrs.
Allen-Boyle, Mrs. Hester, Mrs. Costanza,
and Mr. Andrekovich, the robotics lab is an
exciting and hands-on way to enrich all of
our students.
So what exactly are the students gaining
from their time in the robotics lab?

Cooperative learning and how to work
as a team to accomplish a challenge.

Problem solving and perseverance

Computer programming through block-


by-block coding
Following directions and also how to
think creatively in order to accomplish
the challenges
Language skills (yes, it’s like learning a
new language!)
The robotics lab offers students the chance
to experience challenge and rigor through
fun. The students are excited to take part in
the challenges and are taught how to learn
from trial and error. If this is something that
your child is truly enjoying, you may want
to explore some of the camps offered by the
Cranberry Township Recreation
Department, Carnegie Mellon, or Green E
Academy. However, there are also excellent
programs online or for a much smaller fee
that would also excite a young engineer.
If your child is coming home wanting advanced robotics kits, or if you would like more opportunities, here
are a few great places to start:

Kahn Academy (basic programming or the Hour of Code)

Code.org and Scratch

Kodeable (best for K-2 students)

Girls Who Code

Tynker

Tynker Crate (maker crates delivered to your door)
Math Corner –
Create a Lifelong
Love for Math
MY CHILD
NEEDS MORE
SUPPORT
What to do?
Helping to promote early math skills will set your
child up for lifelong success.
for us then we were out of luck?
Or is it that our perception of
math was a negative one?
“I’m not good at math so my
child gets that from me” is a
common phrase that teachers
hear from parents of kids who
struggle in math. This kind of
“negative self-talk” could be the
culprit to your child’s math
difficulties – not their math
abilities.
As in life, attitude is everything.
The way we think controls the
way we act. The way we
perceive situations drives how
we respond. The way we talk
about math drives our success or
failure in math. For example, in
a crisis example, teachers are
trained to remain calm. We are
trained to understand that we are
a mirror and how we react is
how our students will react. If
we are calm, they are calm. If
we freak out, we have literally
hundreds of students freaking
out. Not a good picture, right?
The same thinking applies to
parenting our children to love
math. The saying “The apple
doesn’t fall far from the tree” has
proven itself to be quite accurate
as we all know. Many of us did
not have a good experience with
math growing up. Why is that?
Is it because we were only taught
one method to problem-solving
and if that method didn’t work
your kids to the store with
you often. Have them
decide what products are
smart buys based on
volume and cost. Have
them help you to figure out
a budget for a family trip or
quantities of food for a
family gathering. Point out
patterns in nature or math
in everyday experiences.
Think of how your child
perceives math. Next, think of
how successful they are in math.
Is there a connection? How
does this connect to your
perception and success in math?
If you are noticing a negative
pattern here, they are ways to
work on this problem before
your child moves on to upper
grades and those attitudes
toward math become permanent
habits.
1. Recognize your own
negative self-talk (“I’m not
good with numbers, go ask
your dad.” Or “I never
could understand math, you
get that from me.”)
2.
REPLACE that language
with self-HELP talk.
(“That’s a really good
question, let’s try another
method like drawing a
picture to solve it.” Or
“Let’s look at a YouTube
video on how to do partial
products and we can learn
this together.”)
3.
Recognize and TALK
about math in everyday
life. We do this often with
reading (“What good books
have you read today?”) but
rarely with math. Take
4.
Play games – and not just
computer games. Card
games like “Rummy” are
an excellent game for
young students to learn
addition and skip-counting.
That solid number sense is
key for long term math
success.
So what if math is still hard?
Explain to your child that
experiencing difficulty means
that your brain is working.
Teach your child to step up to a
challenge and persevere. When
it gets hard, try different
approaches. Ask for help if
needed, but always exhaust
every method first. Those
resiliency and problem-solving
will come in handy throughout
life. Whatever you do, set aside
your own distaste for math (for
your child’s sake) and
remember that attitude is
EVERYTHING. If your child
has a good attitude about math,
they will be able to achieve
success.
MRS. BETH ALLEN-BOYLE
INSTRUCTION AND INTERVENTION SPECIALIST
ROWAN EXT. 5086 ALLENBOYLEEA@SVSD.NET
If you are concerned that your
child may not be working to
his/her potential, you are not
alone. But what is the
appropriate way to go about
asking for more help and
sharing your concerns?
First, reach out to your child’s
classroom teacher to get
his/her input. The classroom
teacher may be able to share
some simple tips or insights.
The teacher may also be able
to suggest a tutor that could
help with your concerns. If
the problems continue, our
Y.E.S.S. team is here to help.
You or your child’s teacher
may ask for the support of the
YESS team. This team
consists of our Instruction and
Intervention Specialist,
Reading Specialist, School
Counselor, Classroom
Teacher, and an
Administrator. This team
meets together with the
parents to brainstorm
interventions and strategies to
help set the student up for
success. Together, we can
find solutions to help your
child find academic success.
Parent School
Newsletter #2-Visualizing/Making Mental Images
...A Parent Education Newsletter to help explain the what, why and how of your child’s new reading vocabulary.
Has your child been sharing what they “visualize”
as they are reading? Do they understand that
they can form pictures in their mind as they read?
Visualizing is a comprehension strategy that is
taught to all of our young readers to help them to
make sense of what they are reading. For many
students, if they can picture what they are
reading, then they can understand. As young
readers progress from “Learning to read” and on
to “Reading to learn,” the strategy of visualizing
becomes more and more important and relevant.
Visualizing helps students to:




Use their prior schema and make
connections
Check their mental images against text for
discrepancies and details to gain a more
complete understanding
Match language to images and therefore
improve their processing of ideas
Better help visual learners understand text
better
comprehension skills at younger ages. Visualizing a
picture or scene with the words and phrases
allows the reader to organize the ideas, to see the
relationship among the ideas, and to make
meaningful connections with them.
Know that it is important for students to realize
that everyone will have different mental
images/visuals and that is okay. There is no
“correct answer” of how text should be presented
in one’s mind as an image. Compare your child’s
images with your own and talk about them….it will
certainly spark some interesting conversations!
How to help your child use this
strategy:
To help your child visualize while
they are reading, ask him/her the following
questions:

What do you picture in your mind when you
read that part? Can I tell you what I was
picturing?.....

Wow, I can just picture how that character
looked when that happened….How did you
picture the character?

Read that paragraph again and try to make
a mental movie. What did it look like in
your mind?
The Purpose of the Strategy:
Visualizing may also be called Making Mental
Images or even Creating Mental Movies. It is the
creation of images in the mind as the student
reads, processes and recalls what has been read.
As advanced readers, adults may do this
automatically. Teaching young students this
strategy helps them to build stronger