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Preparing Your Child for Academic Success at J. T. Lambert Intermediate School
Suggestions for Parents
MAKE SCHOOL WORK PART OF YOUR CHILD'S DAILY ROUINE AT HOME
Students at J. T. Lambert Intermediate School need to do school work at home each night to be successful.
"School work at home” includes assigned homework as well as other school work that needs to be done at home. This other school work includes reading every night, working on projects or book reports, reviewing class notes or study guides, studying for quizzes or tests, and organizing school materials for the next school day. Every student at JTL is assigned homework. Every student needs to do assigned homework. Every student at JTL also needs to do other school work at home (in addition to assigned homework).
Most successful 8th grade students at JTL spend about 1 to 2 hours each school day on school work at home. Most successful 7th grade students spend about 1/2 to 1 1/2 hours each school day on school work at home. Most successful 6th grade students spend about 1/2 to 1 hour each school day on school work at home. Successful students will spend even more time doing school work at home when they need to complete a project or study for a test.
Students need support, encouragement, and direction from their parents to accept this responsibility and meet this expectation. Please expect your child to do school work at home each night (for 1/2 hour to 2 hours), and please hold your child accountable for this responsibility.
MORE SPECIFIC INFORMATION AND SUGGESTIONS FOR PARENTS
The information and suggestions listed below may help you as a parent of a JTL student. Your child will be more successful as a JTL student as a result of your help.
Please review the information presented below about the topics that are of interest to you:
Help your child be academically ready for school.
Set up a school work area for your child.
Choose a school work time that is best for your child.
Help your child avoid distractions.
Allow short breaks if your child needs breaks.
Help your child get school materials ready the night before school.
Take active interest in your child's school work and homework.
Help your child be physically ready for school.
Make certain your child is well-rested.
Provide breakfast for your child.
Help your child be motivated for school.
Communicate your expectations to your child.
Help your child set meaningful goals.
Identify long-term goals, short-term goals, and steps to reach goals.
Reward your child for accomplishing steps and achieving goals.
HELP YOUR CHILD BE ACADEMICALLY READY FOR SCHOOL
Set up a school work area for your child:
Find a place in your house that is quiet. Make sure the place is bright enough for your child to read. Identify this place as your child’s “school work area.” Require your child to do school work in this place every school day. Make sure that your child keeps this place supplied with everything he or she needs to do school work (Chromebook, dictionary, pens, pencils, erasers, paper, ruler). If possible, do not use your child’s “school work area” for any other family activities and, especially, not during “school work time.”
Choose a school work time that is best for your child:
If possible, schedule “school work time” at the same time every day.
Feel comfortable negotiating when “school work time” starts, but do not negotiate how long “school work time” is. Students who are expected to work on school work at home for a specific amount of time (1/2 to 2 hours each school day) are less likely to rush through school work assignments. On the other hand, students who are expected simply to “do all assigned homework” are more likely to rush through homework assignments just to “get the homework done.” Students should still be expected to complete all homework assignments even if this work takes more than 1/2 to 2 hours.
Expect your child to start “school work time” at the agreed upon time, and expect your child to work on school work for the agreed upon amount of time. When your child finishes all assigned homework, direct your child to continue to work on school work until “school work time” is over. Allow your child to choose what other “school work at home” he or she would like to do: read a book, work on a project, review school notes, or review for a quiz or test.
Help your child avoid distractions:
Tell all family members and friends when your child does school work at home. Ask family and friends not to disturb your child during this time. Shield your child from distractions that do occur. Take possession of the cell phone that your child uses, and do not allow your child to interrupt work to respond to texts, emails, or calls from others. If your child receives a text, email, or call during homework time, state that your child cannot respond at this time, and ask the person to contact your child at another time.
Allow short breaks if your child needs an occasional break:
For some students, short breaks help. For other students, short breaks interrupt their work. Ask your child whether or not breaks help. If breaks help, make a plan for the break. Give your child a choice between appropriate break activities: get up and stretch, go for a quick walk, or have a healthy snack. Limit the amount of time for each break (5 minutes) and the number of breaks (two breaks each hour).
Help your child get school materials ready the night before:
Have a place for your child to put his or her book bag each night. Direct your child to pack his or her book bag right after your child finishes “school work time” and to charge his or her Chromebook. Ask your child to make sure that he or she has everything needed for school the next day in his or her book bag before your child goes to bed at night.
Take active interest in your child’s school work and homework:
The satisfaction that comes from successfully completing hard work is one of life’s great rewards.
This statement is as true for children as it is for adults. Your child will feel good about completing his or her school work, both assigned homework and other school work that needs to be done at home. However, most successful children benefit from knowing that other people (particularly people who are important to them - parents) know that they have successfully completed hard work.
Having other people recognize that you have successfully completed hard work is also one of life’s great rewards.
Your child will feel even more successful when you are able to recognize that he or she successfully completed hard work and when you congratulate and reward him or her for working hard. As a parent, you have to know that your child worked hard. To know, you need to be familiar with your child’s homework on a day-to-day basis. Checking your child’s homework after he or she has finished is one way. Being available to your child during homework time to provide encouragement, help, and direction is another way. Helping your child prepare for quizzes and tests is yet another way to be familiar with your child’s work.
Create a Sapphire account to access your child’s grades. Review class grades with your child at least once per week and more often if your child’s grades do not meet your expectations. When your child fails to meet your expectations, review the grades for assignments, homework, quizzes, and tests with your child. Contact your child’s teacher by email. Email addresses or links are available on the JTL webpage and organized by team. Alternately, contact your child’s teacher by phone. Each team has a designated “team call-in” time each week. Your child’s teachers for English, Math, Reading, Science, and Social Studies are available to talk with you about your child’s achievement and behavior during team call-in time.
All these behaviors communicate to your child that you are interested in his or her success and that you value the effort he or she puts into school work at home.
HELP YOUR CHILD BE PHYSICALLY READY FOR SCHOOL
Students at J. T. Lambert need to be physically ready for school to benefit from the educational activities that school provides. “Physically ready” includes getting enough sleep on school nights and getting breakfast on school days. Students need support and direction from their parents to make sure that they are well-rested and have enough energy for the school day. Please expect your child to get a good night’s sleep and to eat a nutritious breakfast every day.
Children need to be well-rested to do well in school:
The amount of sleep a child needs decreases with age. Generally, a 12-year-old needs about 10 hours of sleep each night to be well-rested, but not all 12-year-olds are the same. Some 12-year-olds need more than 10 hours of sleep to be well-rested, although others do not need quite as much to be well rested. As the parent, you should judge the amount of sleep your child needs to be well-rested, and you should make sure that your child is in bed in time for sufficient sleep.
Try to keep your child on the same schedule every day. Certainly, you can allow your child to stay up later than normal occasionally, even on week nights. However, try to limit changes to one night per week, and if possible, allow changes only on Friday night.
Children need to eat breakfast to do well in school:
Your child’s brain (and central nervous system) run on glucose. Glucose is the fuel that your child needs to think, walk, talk, and carry on any and all activities. Glucose is in many breakfast foods (fruit juice, fruit), and your child’s body gets glucose from many breakfast foods (complex carbohydrates in breakfast cereals, pancakes) as it digests these foods.
Eating breakfast has been proven to improve concentration, problem solving ability, mental performance, memory, and mood.
Children who eat breakfast are more alert and perform better on school tasks than children who do not eat breakfast. They are also more creative and energetic. Children who eat breakfast think faster and clearer and have better recall than children who do not eat breakfast. Hunger, even the short-term hunger your child may experience on any day that breakfast is missed, decreases attention span and ability to concentrate. Your child will certainly be at a disadvantage without breakfast.
HELP YOUR CHILD BE MOTIVATED FOR SCHOOL
Communicate your expectations to your child:
Students at J. T. Lambert Intermediate School who do well academically are aware of the expectations that adults - parents, teachers, administrators - have for them. These students experience the satisfaction that comes from meeting the expectations of others. Your child will feel good about meeting his or her teachers’ expectations. More importantly, your child will feel good when he or she meets your expectations. To experience this satisfaction, your child needs to know what your expectations are. Please talk with your child about your expectations for his or her social and academic behavior.
Knowing what expectations our teachers have for students at JTL may help you express your expectations to your child.
Teachers at JTL are very clear with students about their expectations for students’ behavior. In general, teachers expect students to have appropriate social behavior (follow classroom rules, follow school rules) at all times.
In addition, teachers expect students to have appropriate academic behaviors.
(1) Teachers expect students to participate in the learning process. Students are expected to listen and pay attention when instruction is provided, to ask questions when they do not understand the material, to answer questions when they do understand the material, and to seek extra help when needed.
(2) Teachers expect students to be responsible for class work, even when students are absent from school. Students are expected to finish assigned class work, to do assigned class work well, to do assigned class work neatly, and to turn in assigned class work on time.
(3) Teachers expect students to be responsible for assigned homework, even when students are absent from school. Students are expected to finish assigned homework, to do assigned homework well, to do assigned homework neatly, and to turn in assigned homework on time.
(4) Teachers also expect students to do other school work, besides assigned homework, at home. Examples include book reports, reading assignments, and projects. Students are expected to finish this work, to do this work well, to do this work neatly, and to turn in this work on time.
(5) And, yes, teachers expect students to do all their school work all the time.
Help Your Child Set Meaningful Goals:
One way to challenge your child to do his or her best is to help your child set meaningful long-term goals.
First, you and your child would benefit from discussing your goals for him or her as well as your child’s own goals for himself or herself. Talk with your child about your hopes and expectations for him or her.
Next, ask your child what he or she would like to do in high school and what he or she would like to do after high school. (Please do not be surprised if your child wants to be a professional athlete. Many young adolescents do. Ask, “What else would you like to do if that does not work out?” And ask again, “What else would you like to do if that does not work out?) Try to identify a range of work opportunities or jobs, even if these positions require very different skills and training.
Then, work with your child to discover what educational requirements are needed for specific types of jobs. Set educational goals that will enable your child to pursue these types of jobs.
Identify Long-Term Goals, Short-Term Goals, and Steps to Reach Goals:
Effective long-term goals are reachable but require hard work to attain.
To reach long-term goals (“Go to the college I want to attend” or “Get the job I want to have”), you need to help your child set meaningful short-term goals (“Get on the high honor roll each school year”). Effective short-term goals are reachable and require hard work.
Short-term goals usually have a few steps that identify what your child needs to do, when he or she needs to do it, and how he or she will know when he or she has done it. Effective steps are action-oriented, detailed and specific, and measurable. Identifying effective steps takes practice. Parents may benefit from “practicing with each other” before working with their children to identify steps.
Steps should be action-oriented and describe what your child needs to do from his or her perspective. For example, one step towards “Get on the high honor roll each quarter” might be:
“I will do school work at home for a minimum of one and one-half hours (from 3:30 to 5:00) every school day. On days when I am not finished with my school work at 5:00, I will do school work after dinner (from 6:30 to 7:30).”
Steps should be detailed and specific. For example, one step towards “Get on the high honor roll each quarter” might be:
“At the start of my school work time, I will make a list of the school work I need to do. I will organize my school materials. During my school work time, I will complete all my assigned homework. I will also do extra school work at home. I will review notes that I took during class. I will study for my quiz/test. I will place homework, notes, quizzes, and tests in my notebook. At the end of my school work time, I will organize my school materials for the next day.”
Steps should be measurable. For example, one step towards “Get on the high honor roll each quarter” might be:
“I will check my grades every two weeks. At the end of each quarter, my grades will be on my report card. Each quarter that I make high honor roll, my name will be printed in the newspaper.”
Reward Your Child for Accomplishing Steps and Achieving Goals:
The parents of children who do well academically often use incentives to motivate their children.
Incentives should be positive and stated positively. For example, “When you complete all homework assignments for one week (as indicated by your teachers in your homework book), then you will be able to invite a friend over for dinner and a movie on Friday night.”
Incentives must be meaningful to your child. In other words, he or she must want or need whatever reward you agree to. The best way to determine what incentives might work for your child is to talk with your child and ask him or her to develop a list of incentives from which you will choose.
Keep in mind that not all incentives are equal. Incentives that involve shared experiences, doing activities together, or the opportunity to make decisions (choose the movie, choose dinner) or to enjoy special privileges (later bedtime on Friday night) are more effective than incentives that simply involve money or things money can buy.