Sue Scheff: Teens Homework and Procrastination

As the first quarter of school is either completed or about over, many parents are either thrilled with the reports they are receiving less than happy results. I have heard over and over again how teens are very intelligent, do well on exams yet fail to complete their homework assignments which can lead to failing grades. Does this sound familiar? Check out these great parenting tips from Connect with Kids.

Source: Connect with Kids

Procrastination

“For me, it probably started [in] sixth grade, seventh grade.”

– Tony, 18 year old

During the school year, it’s one of the most common household battles of them all: homework. Getting your kids to finish their homework before they turn on the TV, or get on Facebook, or start texting their friends.

About getting homework finished, there are a million excuses.

“Best one was freshman year, I said my mom was driving me to school and it was really hot, so we had the window rolled down. I was doing my math homework, and it flew out the window,” 17-year-old Hamida says.

“I’ve said that I’ve been beaten up by rival schools on my way to school and they’ve taken my homework,” says Tony, 18.



Nearly every student has used excuses and exaggeration to wiggle their way out of finishing their homework. And it usually starts in grade school.

“I always used to blame not having my homework or an assignment on my mom. She didn’t put it in my backpack, or she must have left it on the kitchen counter,” 17-year-old Heidi says.

But eventually, the homework gets done, and that’s why experts say the REAL issue is procrastination. “There’s always fun things to do that are more fun than studying, more fun than learning,” says Viera Pablant, a clinical psychologist.

The challenge is to train your kids to get unpleasant tasks out of the way early, before they have to make excuses. “Since early childhood, begin to teach children how to wait for things, how to work for things, how to save money, for example, to get what they want,” Pablant says.

Psychologists call it “delayed gratification,” which means chores and homework come first; fun comes after they’re done. Then, your child won’t need excuses like the one’s Hamida uses.

“Oh, my favorite one was I said I left my homework in my car. It was a worksheet, and I took my car to the cleaners and when they were vacuuming inside it just went away; they sucked it up,” she says.

Parents beware: a study from researchers at DePaul University in Chicago shows that students’ excuses for missing academic deadlines are actually bald-faced lies about 70% of the time. The study of 224 American college undergraduates also rated the most common “fake” excuses used by student procrastinators, which included the following:

•“I was sick.”
•“I didn’t understand the assignment.”
•“I overslept.”
•“My alarm failed.”
•“I forgot.”
•“I had a family emergency.”
•“My grandma/grandpa died.”

According to study author Joseph Ferrari, “It sounds cynical, but professors really need to be skeptical when a student tells you ‘well, this is why I can’t do this or that. Most of the time, they are falsehoods.”

Tips for Parents
Why do some children procrastinate? According to the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions, power struggles begin to kick in when children begin school. They want to exert more independence and control. Putting off homework that an authority figure has assigned is one way in which children try to take more control. Sometimes, if kids feel a lot of pressure from parents, peers and others to achieve, they might procrastinate because they fear failing. Another reason for procrastinating is the feeling of being overwhelmed. These children procrastinate because they want to postpone those negative feelings.

If you have difficulty getting your child to do his or her homework, the Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities suggests that you need to begin by acting as a role model for your child. Take the opportunity to read a book or newspaper while your child studies. Show your child that learning is a lifelong process.

Try these additional tips from the National Parent Information Network to prevent your child from putting off a project until the last minute:

Make homework a priority.

•Encourage your child to take responsibility for completing his or her assignments.
•Set rules making homework more important than other activities, such as television, games, etc.
•Supply your child with the materials he or she needs to do work both at school and at home.
Show interest in your child’s learning and education.

•Talk to your child about school and show interest in what your child is learning.
•Encourage your child to ask and answer questions about what he or she is studying.
•Set up family literacy-related activities, such as regular trips to the library and reading together.
•Attend or participate in school activities.
Know the homework policy of your child’s teachers.

•Know what type of assignments your child is expected to complete.
•Find out how much time your child is expected to spend on homework each night.
•Find out what type of parental involvement each teacher expects.
•Encourage your child’s school to set up homework hotlines and a website that allows teachers to post daily assignments and other information to help parents know what their children are working on.
Set aside a time and place to study and to do homework.

•Create a place at home that makes it easy for your child to study and learn.
•Set a time your child can devote to doing homework.
•Eliminate distractions, such as television, telephone and other noises, while your child is studying.
•Some children may find it easier to work with soft music playing; others may not.
Help your child keep track of daily assignments.

•Check homework schedules each day.
•Call your local homework hotline, if available.
Check your child’s completed homework.

•Check to ensure that work is complete and neat.
•Read teacher comments on graded assignments to see what areas your child needs to work on.
Help your child develop a study plan.

•Help your child identify what he or she needs to accomplish during each study session.
•Make sure your child reads and follows directions on all assignments before beginning work.
•Make sure your child understands what he or she is expected to do.
•Allow your child to take breaks based on his or her individual needs.
Help your child learn time management skills.

•Establish and follow a daily schedule.
•Encourage your child to complete homework when it is assigned, not just before it is due.
•Help your child learn to break longer assignments down into shorter sections.
Be consistent!

•Enforce the rules you establish for your child.
•Children of all ages and grade levels sometimes need parental involvement in homework. Make yourself available to help.

References
•Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities
•DePaul University
•National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions
•National Parent Information Network

Sue Scheff: Teens Study for SAT Tests

Study, study, study - college applications, campus tours and major decisions! What do I want to be when I grow up? What do I want to study? Do I want a large campus, small? Close to home or out of state? Choices, choices, choices - but most will begin with your SAT scores. Be prepared, no one says you have to know what you want to be, but what you do need to know is you have to do your best on your test scores. With this, many doors will be open for you and chances are greater will find what will be your brightest future.

Source: Connect with Kids

“Some students will see huge differences. [Some] students don’t improve at all. Students get out of it what they put into it.”

– Wendi Deen Johnson, Kaplan Score Prep

In just a few weeks 17-year old Caroline will take the SAT for the first time.

“Well I know it’s like a really important test and I am really kind of concerned about that because I want to go to a really good college,” says Caroline.

To prepare for the college entrance exam, Caroline enrolled in an SAT prep course where she learned some useful strategies.

“For instance, she says, “What kind of questions are going to be asked and timing- it speeds me up so that I can get through more questions and hopefully get more answers right. “

But how will that prep course affect her score?

“Some students will see huge differences- we’ve had students who’ve increased 300-points. We also have students who don’t improve at all. Most of the time, students get out of it what they put into it,” says Wendi Deen Johnson, a spokesperson with the Score Prep division of Kaplan, Inc. a national test preparation company.

According to the College Board which administers the SAT, on average, SAT coaching increases verbal scores by eight points and math scores by eighteen points. In other words, coached students are likely to get one to three more questions right when compared to non-coached students.

If parents do opt to enroll their children in professional prep courses, even some in the test prep industry say it can be a mistake to start too early.

“If it’s a kid who’s really anxious about test-taking, then probably preparing them early wouldn’t be the best thing. You’d want to give them some time to mature and grow and learn some more skills,” says Johnson.

Commercial prep courses can cost hundreds of dollars, but experts say parents can help their kids prepare for less money by purchasing study guides, surfing the net for information, or enrolling in independent study courses.

That is exactly what Caroline did. Soon she’ll find out how well it worked.

“I’m hoping for a 1400 on the SAT,” she says. A near perfect score.


Tips for Parents

Anxiety stemming from standardized tests is not uncommon among today’s teens. In fact, a poll conducted by Public Agenda showed that 73 percent of surveyed students said they get nervous before taking a test, while 5 percent said they become too nervous to even take the test.

The University of Illinois Extension says that most students experience some level of anxiety during an exam, and this anxiety is due to a variety of reasons:

Poor time management
Failure to organize information
Poor study habits
Negative test-taking experience
Low self-confidence
Negative attitude about school
According to the State University of New York at Buffalo, children who frequently experience test anxiety also worry about the future and become extremely self-critical. Instead of feeling challenged by the prospect of success, they become afraid of failure. This makes them anxious about tests and their own abilities. And ultimately, they become so worked up that they feel incompetent about the subject matter or the test.

The National PTA says that it does not help to tell your child to relax, to think about something else or stop worrying about standardized tests. But you can help your child reduce test anxiety and prepare for tests like the SAT by encouraging the following actions:

Space studying over days or weeks. (Real learning occurs through studying that takes place over a period of time.) Understand the information and relate it to what is already known. Review it more than once. By doing this, your child should feel prepared at exam time.
Don’t “cram” the night before – cramming increases anxiety, which interferes with clear thinking. Get a good night’s sleep. Rest, exercise and eating well are as important to test taking as they are to other schoolwork.
Read the directions carefully when the instructor hands out the test. If you don’t understand them, ask the teacher to explain.
Look quickly at the entire examination to see what types of questions are included (multiple choice, matching, true/ false, essay, etc.) and, if possible, the number of points for each. This will help you pace yourself.
If you don’t know the answer to a question, skip it and go on. Don’t waste time worrying about it. Mark it so you can identify it as unanswered. If you have time at the end of the exam, return to the unanswered question(s).
As a parent, you can be a great help to your child if you observe these do’s and don’ts about tests and testing from the U.S. Department of Education:

Don’t be too anxious about your child’s test scores. If you put too much emphasis on test scores, this can upset your child.
Do encourage your child. Praise him/her for the things he or she does well. If your child feels good about himself or herself, he/she will do his/her best. Children who are afraid of failing are more likely to become anxious when taking tests and more likely to make mistakes.
Don’t judge your child on the basis of a single test score. Test scores are not perfect measures of what your child can do. Other factors might influence a test score. For example, your child can be affected by the way he/she is feeling, the setting in the classroom and the attitude of the teacher. Remember also that one test is simply one test.
Meet with your child’s teacher as often as possible to discuss his/her progress. Ask the teacher to suggest activities for you and your child to do at home to help prepare for tests and improve your child’s understanding of schoolwork. Parents and teachers should work together to benefit students.
Make sure your child attends school regularly. Remember, tests do reflect children’s overall achievement. The more effort and energy your child puts into learning, the more likely he/she will do well on tests.
Provide a quiet, comfortable place for studying at home.
Make sure that your child is well rested on school days and especially the day of a test. Children who are tired are less able to pay attention in class or to handle the demands of a test.
Give your child a well-rounded diet. A healthy body leads to a healthy, active mind.
Provide books and magazines for your child to read at home. By reading new materials, your child will learn new words that might appear on a test. Ask your child’s school about a suggested outside reading list or get suggestions from the public library.

References
College Board
National PTA
Public Agenda
State University of New York at Buffalo
University of Illinois Extension
U.S. Department of Education

Sue Scheff: eNotes Helping You Help Your Child's Academic Future

One of the best things about being an active parent advocate is when other parents email me different parenting websites, links, articles, Blogs and more that they would like me to share with others. Just yesterday I was forwarded this website that can help you better educate your child. Check out http://www.enotes.com/ and see how they can assist you!

The students can get free homework help in the Q and A area from real teachers, and the literature resources are great for getting in-depth help.

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