School is Easy Tutoring

Tutoring Agency

Tutor and Teacher Educational Resources

In this section of our education blog, we give tips for tutors and teachers on how to teach subjects, keep kids passionate, and more. Subscribe to our newsletter (on the left or below on mobile) to get bi-monthly updates in your inbox!

How STEAM learning is changing STEM subjects, and why it matters

Published: Last Updated Date:

STEM education and careers

In a past article we discussed ‘How the push for STEM education in Canada could change your child’s future.’ We talked about how modern curriculums are including science, technology, engineering and math as an interdisciplinary approach. We also discussed the way in which governments, businesses and organizations are investing in teaching and popularizing those subjects. STEM is becoming a framework for ensuring a viable workforce in Canada’s future.

However, a newer term has been popping up, called STEAM learning. The ‘A’ stands for “Art.” Art includes design, and it’s concepts. The newer acronym is changing the way we look at STEM subjects.

For one, it may get your kids more interested in pursuing STEM. And, it can change the approach to teaching these subjects by integrating the creative with the ‘modular.’

How STEAM learning affects STEM education and careers

In our last article on STEM education, we mentioned that STEM is invasive. It pervades our lives nowadays. It’s hard to meet someone who doesn’t own a piece of technology – be it a smartphone or a flip phone. Either way, even if your phone can’t tweet, it still needed people in STEM careers to make your life that much easier.

But STEM is not just about computers. It includes engineering and innovation in the things you don’t really notice or think about daily. Like the fuel efficiency of your car today compared to your parents’ time. Or the ability of your symmetrically-shaped glass windows to keep your heating bill down, compared to centuries ago. Or the systems that take your toilet waste and turn it into clean drinking water without you smelling or seeing it.

These all have the need for something that overlays STEM subjects: design thinking. Sometimes, this extends into a term called ‘whole-brain thinking,’ where business is added to science and creativity too. In short, the design component, while it may seem only creative, is not. The design is what decides how science is going to solve problems for humans in a way that they can adapt to it, or use it.

And so, the Rhode Island School of Design started a push to start changing the term STEM into STEAM. The idea is to combine art into the STEM subjects, because it’s still needed. The two fields are dependent on each other.

Their website, stemtosteam.org explains how art and science often converge. It gives the case study of a painter who discovered daguerreotypes – the precursor to photography. Photography, at the time, needed chemistry to develop film, an understanding of light to capture images, and more. Today, the way a camera is designed is reflective of how it needs science to work.

And we can see this in many areas, without a scholar needing to show us. The height of the Eiffel Tower is clearly related to its magnificent design, for instance. Buildings that grow plants on their walls or roofs are clearly a convergence of design and science working together. And so on.

Edutopia has a list of resources to help educators bridge STEM with art, and explain the need for both:

https://www.edutopia.org/article/STEAM-resources

How STEAM learning might encourage more students to pursue STEM

Since the need for STEM-educated students is rising, the ability to get kids interested in these fields is also proving to be a challenge. Around the web you’ll find articles and stats about diversity issues in STEM, and the reluctance of kids to want to pursue these subjects in post secondary schools. We covered some of that in our previous article on STEM, mentioned above.

However, when you add art and creativity into the mix, you suddenly have an avenue for getting kids interested in what STEM subjects can do. This is most prominently noted among the gender gap in STEM; girls are less likely than boys to pursue these hard skills.

This article on Lifehacker.com also explains how the application of STEM can get kids interested in studying it further. For example, music actually uses a lot of math. And cooking requires chemistry. And so on.

Google started an initiative called Made with Code to get girls interested in the field. You’ll notice that the way they attract girls to take on coding subjects is by things they may be interested in, that involve art: like fashion design.

Thanks to STEAM learning, students no longer have to pick distinct paths

With the realization that art and science can go together, and need each other, it makes the choice of picking a career much easier. In the past, students may have chosen a degree in the arts believing it could not be applied to traditional STEM projects. However, workplaces and educators are seeing that is not necessarily the case. In fact, the most freedom to be able to create can come from the STEM subjects, integrated as STEAM learning.

Teaching kids how to start a newspaper (5): learning to critique the media and spot ‘fake news’

Published: Last Updated Date:

Teaching kids about fake news challenges

See other articles in this series:

In our last article in this series on teaching kids how to start a newspaper, we discussed the need to learn how to research and identify sources of information.

But there is a bigger societal issue at hand presently. And it’s becoming a buzzword people are using to denounce the state of journalism, as we know it on the internet. It’s called “fake news.” What does fake news mean? Well, it’s fake; it’s not true. But how do people get fooled by it? By not knowing how to identify reliable sources of information. We all need to learn how to research, not just kids.

Troublingly, reports are showing that kids nowadays can’t tell the difference between real news and fake news. And so, in our educational system, it seems wise to teach kids how to start a newspaper, so they can learn what goes into news storytelling. This will make them better-informed citizens of our future.

Learn to be critical of the media, recognize bias and spot ‘fake news’

We discussed the need to recognize bias in the media in our first article on this series. However, this comes into play when analyzing sources, especially secondary sources. As mentioned above, a good news story will simply report on its findings. Interpretation, opinion, conjecture and the like have no place in a ‘pure’ news article. But sadly, that’s not the state of all journalism these days.

So, kids should learn to be critical of the news, and to recognize bias. They should ask questions like, are there contradictory opinions on a subject? Or am I telling only one side of this story? Did the student, in their news article assignment, cover both those opinions by dutifully interviewing two opposing sources?

And, what happens when a primary source – say, someone you’re interviewing – makes statements about ‘facts.’ Do you check on those facts, to find out if they are true? How do you check? Kids need to learn how to find both primary and secondary sources, and to spot them in a news article.

One way to learn to research is by media critiquing exercises. Have students find a news article they believe to be true. Then ask them how they can know for sure it is absolutely true. Chances are, when learning to research, students will find a lot of nuance regarding the subject – and not all of it will be based on what they thought they knew (see this article, page 12). This can help kids get out of their own ‘bubble’ and see the subtlety in news bias.

See the article below for a story of teaching kids in school to spot fake news:

The Classroom Where Fake News Fails

This article explains the need for teachers to teach kids the elements of news stories that are assumed to be general knowledge. We forget as adults we carry lots of previously-acquired information that kids don’t always have, to be able to make these analyses.

And, while this John Oliver rant is not a video to show kids in a classroom, it can give a teacher a primer on the issue of native advertising, especially as it relates to being ‘fooled’ on news sites nowadays.

Plus, see our related article on this blog:

The impact brands have on children

Teaching kids about fake news challenges our own ‘truths’

One diagram being shared on the web makes an attempt to help people identify quality news. However, an opposing article makes the claim that in itself, the diagram is liberally biased.

This may spur an interesting discussion with your students. How do they themselves know what a reliable news story is, without someone having to tell them?

In short: we all have biases. And we all have a tendency to believe what we hear and read in the media, just because it’s our go-to source of information.

This lesson should challenge kids to question even the source that says “this is fake news.” It should direct kids to learn how to make well-informed critiques, instead of trusting what their favourite website or celebrity says. To do that, kids must learn how to research and fact-check, which we discussed in Part 4 of this series on how to start a newspaper.

Teaching kids how to start a newspaper (4): learning to research and identify sources of information

Published: Last Updated Date:

Teach kids to back up their sources

See other articles in this series:

In our series on teaching kids how to start a newspaper, we can’t help but discuss the important need to teach kids how to research. When you teach kids to research, you are not only teaching them to be investigative journalists; you are enhancing their curiosity to want to know the truth behind everything.

Learning how to identify a reliable source, a primary source and a secondary source can also transfer to other areas of academics. Even if writing is not the focus, research always is in academia. Think of writing academic papers, scientific reports and so on.

Let’s begin.

Learn the difference between a primary source and a secondary source

When doing research, you have multiple ways of finding information. What types of information are there?

There are many ways you can categorize types of information. There is qualitative and quantitative data, for instance. In journalism, the two main information types to teach kids when learning to research are primary and secondary sources. There are also tertiary sources. The page below gives an overview of the types of information sources to use when doing research, and how they differ:

http://www.lib.vt.edu/help/research/primary-secondary-tertiary.html

A well-researched news article will use at least one primary source (i.e. an interview) or one secondary source (i.e. a scientific report). However, asking questions is what journalists are known for, so there will usually be a primary source in a current events type of article.

Scholastic has published a page on ‘How to Conduct a Journalistic Interview,’ which you can use in your classroom.

This article explains the steps to quality investigative journalism, which can be used to teach kids how to research and identify reliable sources of information.

This article also delves into how journalists can use data as a research method, and the need to do so these days.

Teach kids to back up their sources while writing

Quality journalism means not expecting your reader to take what you say at face value. Journalists always have to back up their sources. That means, they have to state where they found their information.

Journalism has specific standards for including sources in news articles, which we won’t get into fully here. However, as a form of habit, when teaching kids how to research, they should learn the difference between writing sentences as fact, and writing them as a report of what another source states. For example, note the difference between:

“The sky is blue.”

And

“Jane said the sky is blue.”

Or

“This scientific study, which you can find at _____, discovered that the sky is blue.”

The first example makes an assumption, and assumes the reader will believe the writer no matter what. The other two are backed by sources – either primary or secondary. They simply report on findings. They make no analysis, interpretation nor true or false statements. They also don’t give an opinion.

Teaching kids how to research makes them better learners

This is an opinion of ours: that if kids learn how to research, they can become better learners. (Notice that we haven’t sourced the statement, so it can only be an opinion!).

Learning how to start a newspaper is a great entry point into understanding where information comes from (hint: it’s not social media!). Students can learn the difference between fables and truth. They can understand what it means to verify that something is true before believing it. And so, when they learn new topics, they can think more critically about the information they are absorbing.

We plan to delve into this subject more in our next article on this series. Stay tuned!

Teaching kids how to start a newspaper (3): learning to write news copy (part 2)

Published: Last Updated Date:

Men reading newspapers - teach kids to write tight article

This article is a follow up to our article on learning to write news copy, where we covered the inverted pyramid model of writing, writing leads, writing simple and the general concept of news copywriting. This is part of our series on teaching kids how to start a newspaper. See our other articles on this series below:

In this article, we’re going to get into a big topic when teaching kids how to write news copy: the way of writing ‘tight.’

Teach kids how to write ‘tight’

First, a review of the inverted pyramid style of writing

The purpose of the inverted pyramid style of writing is to ensure that if space is limited (which it often was in the old days of paper-only newspaper publishing), the editor can cut from the bottom, upwards. Thus, the lesser important information would be cut, since it’s at the bottom of the article. And this would not compromise the important information at the top, nor reduce the value of the story.

Time is short in the world of reporting, where media companies compete to be the ‘first’ to have released a story, thus attracting more readership. And so, newspaper editors have to find ways to rush the news out to the public as fast as possible. This is why cutting from the bottom upwards saves time, and helps get a newspaper out to the public faster.

Why learn to write tight for lessons on starting a newspaper?

To make more room for ads, and to increase readership, stripping down word count is also an exercise used by journalists, which can be learned when teaching kids how to start a newspaper.

In addition to putting the most important information at the top, journalists must ensure all information is written with as few words as possible. This is where learning to write ‘tight’ comes in.

There are multiple ways to write tight, and to reduce word count in an article. Here are some journalistic practices you can teach students when learning to write a news story:

Eliminating adjectives and words that embellish a sentence, without adding core information.

For example:

“The silly, furry cat walked down the stairs.”

Versus

“The cat went downstairs”

The first sentence took up eight words, whereas the second sentence only takes up four. That’s already a 50% reduction in word count.

This topic may involve a lesson on adjectives first, if your classroom’s age-group hasn’t covered that part of writing structure yet.

Using plural instead of singular

Sometimes, when we switch to the plural, we can use less words. For example:

“An apple can be eaten by a rat”

Can be written as:

“Rats can eat apples.”

In the example above, the meaning and ‘truth’ is not taken away, but the word count is reduced.

Ask your students to identify ways they can turn the singular into the plural to reduce word count in their news articles.

Reducing unnecessary phrases and words

Below is a great resource that explains how writing can often include unnecessary words to get the message across (aside from adjectives described above):

http://web.uvic.ca/~gkblank/wordiness.html

Lead-in phrases like, “And so,” or “Above all else,” create what the author calls “wordiness.” This also happens when we use extra words like “all of a sudden,” which can be turned into merely “suddenly” and “bald-headed” which can be turned into “bald.” See more examples from the author in the link above.

Also, it’s worth noting that often we use words like “that,” “are” or other ‘fillers.’ These can be taken away and still maintain meaning and readability in a sentence. For example, the first sentence in this paragraph could be turned into:

“It’s worth noting we often use words…”

See how we took out “also” and “that”? We reduced the sentence by two whole words.

However, an editor may revise again and claim that “also” is needed in this case, so as to lead-in from the paragraph above. These are the types of decisions editors need to make: should we keep the word, or can it be cut? Would it help or confuse?

This is what writing tight is all about – finding ways to say the same thing, but shorter. But the aim is always for better readability, whether that means taking away, or keeping and adding words.

And, writing tight is not easy. In fact, it can take more time than writing long. But it is ever so important when submitting an article to an editor, or you might not be doing your job properly as a journalist. See how we could have cut “ever so” out of that previous sentence?

There is more to learn when teaching kids how to write tight

Learning to write tight is a great lesson for students when self-editing one’s work, and when learning to accept edits from a peer. It also turns the craft of writing into a disciplined art, where student writers pay attention to every word, making them all count. This way, they have to really think about what they are saying and spewing out. They also have to learn to think clearly and sequentially to be able to write tight.

We encourage you to teach your students the many ways they can learn to write tight. We won’t cover them all here, but we will give you some resources for identifying ways to reduce word-count when learning how to write for the news:

http://www.writerstreasure.com/how-to-write-tight-sentences/

http://writetightsite.com/7-cs-of-tight-writing/

http://writetodone.com/15-ways-to-write-tight/

http://www.peoi.org/Courses/Coursesen/mass/mass5.html

http://journalism.about.com/od/writing/a/Want-To-Learn-To-Write-News-Stories-Just-Follow-The-Format.htm

The pros and cons of teacher ‘looping’ for education in Canada

Published: Last Updated Date:

Pencil crayons and child drawing - teacher looping pros and cons

This article is a follow up to our article titled “What is teacher ‘looping’ and is it time more schools in Canada use it?” In that article, we explain the challenges faced by classrooms in Canada, and the need to consider ‘looping’ as a possible solution.

The pros and cons of ‘looping’ have been documented on the web already. Below are some resources to help explain the issue. Some are written by the insightful testimonies of teachers who have experienced teaching a looping classroom.

To summarize the information in the above links, we’ll delve into the pros and cons of teacher ‘looping’ for education in Canada.

‘Looping’ in education is beneficial because:

  • Students can form bonding relationships with teachers, to improve learning. This is especially helpful for special needs students, who may need time to build trust with their teacher, and for their teacher to understand their individual needs.
  • Parents also form relationships with teachers, so that a child’s needs can be better communicated and worked on in both the home and school environment.
  • Teachers save time by not having to ‘waste’ early weeks of the school year on classroom rules and behaviours. They also are better able to understand the transition children go through from grade level to grade level.
  • Teachers remain innovative and are motivated to learn more about education methods, since they can’t reuse the same material every year.
  • Learning can progress smoothly, or pick up on ‘gaps’ in skills that were underdeveloped in the previous year.
  • The group of students can bond better, and form a sense of community.

The concept itself, as noted in a link above, is also as old as the one-room school house. Rural cities and towns may already be using the method. So while ‘looping’ doesn’t necessarily mean multi-age or multi-grade classrooms, its concept of the same teacher for multiple years is not new to education.

The case against teacher ‘looping’:

As you were reading the above list of ‘pros’ for teacher looping, you may have thought of some counter arguments. And you are not alone. The disadvantages of looping in education have been noted as:

  • A teacher not being able to specialize in teaching a certain age group, thus reducing the quality of lessons in classrooms.
  • A conflict between a teacher and student carrying on for years, affecting learning ability for the student.
  • Children not being exposed to the change that is needed in their environment to learn how to cope with new surroundings, relationships, rules or conditions.
  • Leaving a ‘loop’ interval after multiple years, and joining a new group of students, with a new teacher all of a sudden can be more shocking and difficult than yearly, regular changes.
  • A weakness in the classroom, with the challenges noted above, could hold back students who are ready to advance to tougher subjects. This would then be aggravated by the length of the looping interval.

However, many ‘counter-counter-arguments’ have also been made to the above points that negate the benefits of teacher ‘looping.’ Some will say, for example, that

  • If a student has a problem with a teacher, parents can request a new classroom.
  • Groups within the ‘loop’ can be organized with consideration to help create the maximum learning outcomes – meaning everyone is at roughly the same learning level within the group. This seems to already happen with advanced placement programs in schools for students who want more challenges.
  • If a teacher is not doing their job properly, they shouldn’t be teaching at all, and the school should recognize that weakness.
  • Schools can make an effort for the looping groups to get together so they are exposed to more peers and teachers.

 

As a tutoring company, we are tasked with the job of creating student-teacher matches all the time. We have seen that the right student with the right teacher can make all the difference in learning a subject that a student is struggling with. We have also seen that parents and students often request the same tutor they had in the previous school year. This can be indicative of the case for teacher ‘looping’ in our schools. Perhaps the familiarity of the same teacher year after year can improve education.

What is teacher ‘looping’ and is it time more schools in Canada use it?

Published: Last Updated Date:

Canadian schools face challenges

The interesting thing about the education field is that it is continuously evolving in its method to try to improve, just like many other industries. Teacher ‘looping’ may be one way for Canadian schools to face the challenges of today’s students. This method of teaching means keeping the same teacher with a grouped classroom throughout multiple grade levels. It has both pros and cons that we’ll discuss in this article.

Many theories of education are out there, and all of them contribute to the thought that leadership and progression are needed in ensuring positive outcomes for future generations. As society changes and learns more about child development, its education needs to change too.

And it’s not always the case that one-size-fits-all: both in terms of the individual child, school or society the education system operates in. So we will emphasize our belief that the teacher ‘looping’ strategy is an idea for discussion, but not necessarily a method that all schools must adapt.

Some background on why teacher ‘looping’ should be discussed more often

Why even talk about teacher ‘looping’? Isn’t our education system facing enough challenges and changes? Aren’t enough experts tasked with improving education outcomes already? Didn’t B.C. just implement a new curriculum update?

The above is all true. However, we found it hard to find many schools in Canada that use ‘looping’. However, it’s apparently more common in Europe, and is being adapted as an innovative strategy in the U.S. It’s also used in a large way by Waldorf schools, which keep the same teacher with a class for most of the elementary grades.

See related:

Ditch the computer and head outdoors: why Waldorf Education may be for your child

It’s not that no one in Canada knows or talks about the subject, but it may be something for more educators to become aware of.

Canadian schools face challenges that teacher ‘looping’ may help

Today, we’re living in a country that faces challenges in our schools such as:

  • Increasing diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder and other special needs.
  • At-risk youth living in underprivileged households, or from families with uneducated backgrounds, which then make it hard to keep up with schooling.
  • Larger classroom sizes and volatile funding for schools (though one report says otherwise).
  • Large diversity of students facing newly acknowledged identities, such as being labelled as LGBTQ, holding a set of not-commonly-Western religious beliefs, being ‘gifted,’ and so on.
  • Students coming and going from the public school system that vary in education backgrounds, such as homeschooling, alternate education, private schooling.

And possibly more.

So when you have these above considerations in a classroom, it can be hard, by the experience of some teachers, to benefit all the students. By nature, their learning needs will be different, and could take more time as a whole than would otherwise be the case. This is because relationship-building, and understanding individual students is important to the process of education.

Stay tuned for our future article that outlines the pros and cons of teacher ‘looping’ for education in Canada.