Helping Your Frustrated Student

“I just don’t get it.”

“The teacher explained it, but it doesn’t make any sense.”

These are comments that you might hear at home when you talk to your child about their classes. Your child might be having a difficult time in one or more of their classes for a variety of reasons. However, there are that you can help them stay focused and confident in working through their academic struggles.

Every child in a classroom comes to school with a different set of experiences and skills. You may have noticed that your child is better in math or science than they are at English or vice versa. This is because our brains are all wired in different ways. A child who excels in math may be a concrete thinker, and an avid problem solver. They may also enjoy more hands-on activities.

A student who does well in English or history may enjoy debating the different sides of an issue or may like listening to and expressing their own feelings and opinions in the classroom. As a teacher, we learn numerous ways to incorporate multiple types of activities and lesson styles to help students connect to our content areas. We call it by professional names such as the differentiated classroom, or tiered learning.

One of the most well-known developers of this learning theory is Howard Gardner. He developed a guide of seven basic intelligences. They are: Linguistic, Logical, Kinesthetic, Spatial, Musical, Interpersonal and Intrapersonal

As a parent, it is vital to understand how we can support our kids at home who may struggle in different classes at school. Speaking from personal experience, I struggled with math from elementary school through ninth grade. During that time, I received extra help through resource classes, being pulled out of the classroom and help from my classroom teachers.

However, I have to say that not all of them were as understanding or patient in their teaching style with me. At times, I was frustrated and wanted to give up. But my parents were instrumental in helping me get through this time with their patience and going out of their way at home to help me with homework. It was not until 10th grade that something finally clicked in my algebra class. After that, it was not all a walk down easy street, but I had some mathematical confidence, which helped me through the rest of my academic and professional career.

So, what are some ways that parents can help at home?

Here are some practical tips:

• If organization is a problem, have your student use a planner to record assignments and projects. However, you must also go over these assignments with your student to help keep them on track and to be informed.
•  Set up a consistent time and place at home when homework will be completed
• For long term projects, help your child by breaking it down for them in smaller chunks and check on their progression nightly.
• It is helpful to only study or work on any one class for 10-15 minutes at a time and then switch work. It will better focus your student’s attention span to one topic at a time.
• If your student has a hard time getting ideas from their head onto the paper, consider having them use a tape recorder to more easily remember their thoughts.
• Some students work better when word-processing rather than writing on paper. If that’s the case, encourage your students to word-process whenever possible.
• It is natural for frustration to set in. Help your child regroup by taking a step back and refocus emotion and the direction of the study session by using some of the above ideas.

Remember, the key here is that you want your child to get the best grade they can by doing the best work they can. If they worked hard for that “C” in English, celebrate it with them as much as the “A” in math. This will help them gain confidence in their attitudes and efforts that will carry over to other classes and areas of their personal lives.

Parents Weekly Homework Assignment:

Do you remember struggling with any classes when you were in school?

Take your own preferred intelligence test by clicking on the following site:

http://literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/index.html

 What were your top three scores?

Consider how this information could help you in your everyday life and how this type of information could help your child do better in school.  

My top three scores were in linguistic, musical, and math.