Charter School Newsletter March 2015

Context, Conversation and Non-Verbal Clues

Susan Magsamen, SVP of Early Learning, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Young children are natural experts when it comes to learning critical skills. Unlike other mammals, babies need adult help for nearly everything. In their first year, while kittens are already batting at mice and colts are walking on their own, young humans are studying and mimicking their parents. Children come to understand that their survival depends on learning from their families and environments. As they acquire language skills, little ones become attuned to using words and gestures to help express what they feel and to get what they need.

In 1995, University of Kansas researchers Betty Hart and Todd Risley published a seminal study on vocabulary acquisition in preschool aged children, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children. Hart and Risley spent over two years studying the lives of 42 families of varied socioeconomic backgrounds, discovering substantial differences in how families spoke with children and how many words children were exposed to regularly. This research underscored the core principle that exposure to language early and often is crucial in preparing young children for success and closing achievement gaps at the elementary school level.

But language is not only about verbal skills and words. Context, gesture and environmental awareness are key factors in the way humans communicate, and young learners pay close attention here as well.

Erica Cartmill, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at UCLA, has produced fascinating research on the dynamic relationship between early social interactions and infant communicative development. Her research reinforces the theory that preschool vocabulary is a major predictor of school success, with particular focus on the role that both verbal and nonverbal forms of communication play in language acquisition. She notes that gesture in particular is an essential tool for children before they are fluid with verbal language.

As we can easily imagine, most of the words very young children acquire are derived from their parents’ vocabulary. But more than hearing words, the nonverbal clues that parents give toddlers about words are part of the context of learning, and influence the depth of children’s vocabularies upon entering school.

As parents and caregivers, we can take advantage of the experiences we share with our children to support language acquisition, especially if we keep in mind their perspective.

Here are our top six practical, everyday suggestions to help boost vocabulary in early learners:

• See Something, Say Something: Describe things that are happening as they are happening, e.g. “Here comes a dog", as opposed to “We’re going to see a dog”. Children have been shown to learn words more quickly when they can see and feel the object, as opposed to an abstract word with no apparent context.
• Be Descriptive: Encourage children to describe what they see. Typically when we point out objects to young children, for example a cow, car, boat, etc., we get stuck on nouns. Invite descriptions including shape and color (adjectives) and movement (verbs).
• Practice Anytime, Anywhere: Take advantage of time in the car or at the supermarket to practice word play, pointing out objects of interest as you talk about them to help provide immediate context and explanation.
• Provide Feedback: Reflect back what children say to you. This confirms their experience and affirms their ability to have a successful conversation.
• Use Nonverbal Clues: Remember: children are sensitive to gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice and other nonverbal actions, both in conversation and in educational situations.
• Offer Positive Reinforcement: When children are pointing at people or objects, validate and name them.

Susan Magsamen is the Senior Vice President of Early Learning at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt™, a member of the Educational Advisory Board for the Goddard School, co-founder of The Johns Hopkins Neuro-Education Initiative and founder of Curiosityville.

Regional Education Summits- Coming to a city near you!

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is pleased to announce our summer Education Summit event series “Connect. Converse. Cultivate.”

We recognize that your school isn’t like any other school and your student body isn’t one size fits all. There is no “uniform” methodology that works from desk to desk or school to school. There are, however, great ideas, useful anecdotes, and best practices amongst school leaders in your community. The Education Summits are designed to bring together education leaders in the Private, Parochial and Charter school communities to foster in-depth dialogue coupled with presentations and collaborative workshops that offer strategies and tools to better serve your students and faculty.

Further, we will be there with our industry expertise and powerful full-scale solutions to equip you with the confidence you need to face the challenges moving forward and end-to-end offerings to effectively impact your school’s success and your students’ achievement.
To view cities and dates, visit our registration site today!

We look forward to seeing you this summer!

Product Spotlight

Connections Extended Text Teaching Guides are perfectly matched with your favorite fiction and informational titles and presented in an easy-to-use format that supports your instruction with the expertise you’ve come to expect from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Select from a growing list of titles (available as print or digital) to engage and challenge your students to meet today’s standards, and use the Teaching Guides to provide the required depth of coverage and rigor.

Learn more about Connections here.

Professional Development Corner – HMH Education Services

Navigating Text Complexity with Carol Jago

Text complexity is something all teachers struggle with when selecting reading for their class. They can look at lexile levels, but that doesn't always represent that text complexity or deeper meaning of the text. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Program Consultant Carol Jago discusses the considerations for navigating text complexity in this excerpt from one of a series of on-demand, point-of-use professional development podcasts.

Charter School of the Month

Great Bay Charter School is a competency-based, project-oriented school in Southern New Hampshire. With a student population of 170 students in Grades 7–12 and a teaching staff of 10, the school is both a celebration and commitment to the process of learning. Through the use of project-based learning, students are able to dive deeper into problem-solving, make complex decisions, and gain realistic experience that will better prepare them for life and careers.

Additionally, Great Bay Charter School is a leader in the field of assessing competencies rather than measuring proficiency through seat time and test scores. As students progress through a course at the school, they are expected to master typically 8–10 competencies and be able to demonstrate their skill in that area in order to earn a competency unit credit towards graduation. Teachers can adjust projects as students excel or need additional opportunities to gain proficiency in a particular competency. Furthermore, while students are free to adapt projects to fit their individual learning styles, they are also held to a high standard of engagement. This freedom helps students to gain a better understanding of their strengths and truly take ownership of their own education.

Is your school a leader? Do you have a great success story you’d like to share? Tell us about it and you could see your school featured in a future edition!

Financial Resources to Help Your School Excel

Education Grants from the Kinder Morgan Foundation are primarily directed to educational programs for youth in Grades K–12. Funding is provided to local, state, provincial and regional educational institutions, libraries and programs that provide ongoing support, such as Junior Achievement. The foundation also supports youth programs provided by local arts organizations, symphony orchestras, museums and others.

Average Amount Awarded: $1,000–$5,000
Deadline to Apply: 10th of Each Month

Apply online here

Monthly Poll

Last month’s poll results: Typically, how do you first find out about new books to read in your classroom?

This month's question:What role do you think STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) plays in the future of education?

• Vital in preparing students for new careers
• Needs more focus but it’s not for all students
• STEM education should remain strictly optional
• I’m not very familiar with STEM

See how you compare next month when we reveal the poll results!

Upcoming Events

3/16/2015–3/19/2015 - CA Charter Schools Conference, Sacramento, CA
3/30/2015–3/31/2015 - New Jersey Charter School Conference, Atlantic City, NJ

Our Vision: From the Desk of HMH Leadership

“To meet the challenges facing education across the US and beyond, it's going to take experimentation and the incubation of new ideas. Digital innovation has the power to enable the transformation of the learning experience, but we know we've only scratched the surface,” says Brook Colangelo, Chief Technology Officer at HMH^®.”

- See more here.