Author: Yelena

WHAT BOOKS TO READ IN THE SEVENTH GRADE? A list of popular books recommended by a tutor

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To recommend a specific book for a teenager is always a challenge. Kids are different, and the same book that makes one reader thrilled leaves another absolutely indifferent.

In my reading class I never force studenst to read a book which does not interest them, even if I think that the book is great. Instead, I provide recommendations and let  students choose and decide what to read and later explain their preferences. When given a free hand, a young reader becomes more involved in the process of preliminary discussion and making a proper choice.

Here are some books that are especially popular among my seventh graders:

“The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire” by Suzanne Collins.  When asked why they like those books so much, the students give various reasons such as unforgettable characters and unusual plot. Although the story abounds in cruel episodes and an impossible choice between love and life, the younger readers are not negatively affected by the omnipresence of “Death.”

“The Scythe” by Neal Shusterman.  Similar to The Hunger Games, this book does not leave any of my students in the reading club indifferent. The utopian future created by the author seems so real that the kids retell the events as if they were details of their own lives.

“The Giver”, a young adult dystopian novel by Lois Lowry.  I would recommend this book for younger students.

Although many teenagers prefer fantasy and mystery, realistic fiction also remains popular. Here is a book that most of my students, both boys and girls, adore:

“Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher.

Of course, this is a very short and “personal” list of recommended books. Every young reader is unique, and although I know the tastes of my students, I can only suggest a book and guess whether they would like it or not. 

Writing Can Be Fun!

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I have a few students who want to learn how to write fiction. As a rule, they are voracious readers with great vocabulary and strong desire to write. They come to my class hoping to get a professional advice and/or motivation to develop their skills. It is enjoyable to read and discuss their short stories and see how their daily experience is reflected in their writing. However, most of my students have never thought of creating something of their own. For them, “writing” is associated with school assignments, something mandatory, difficult, and tedious.

As a tutor, I try to show to those students that writing can be fun!  Usually we start with something short and not overwhelming. What is it? Poems! Yes, writing poems is a great practice in creativity and a source of joy, but prior to an actual writing the students need to see the  difference between poetry and prose. The difference is not as obvious as it seems, especially for younger students. When assigned to write a poem at school, the fifth-graders do not hesitate to jot down several sentences on the suggested topic and pass their work to the teacher. Usually, these “poems” do not differ from their stories written in prose. However, if to ask a student to read and analyze poems written by great children’s poets, the difference becomes clear. First hesitantly, the children read the lines and find examples of  personification, metaphor, and simile.  Then they try to rewrite their own poems adding “decorative elements.” For some, this simple activity turns into an adventure.

Here is a poem, which has a lot of examples of personification.

APPLES ARE LAUGHING IN THE GARDEN

Apples are laughing in the garden.

A pair of grinning boots is running to work.

A flock of leaves is flying by,

Cackling and giggling.

Here is a smiling umbrella!

A newspaper is chuckling in the mailbox.

Clouds in the sky are roaring with laughter.

Raindrops jump into the puddle and –

PLOP!!! –

Happy splashes everywhere!

An old hat is sitting on my head,

Beaming with joy!

 

 

 

 

SAT Reading Comprehension

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Reading Comprehension part of the SAT test can look easy but it is not! In fact, to increase your score on reading is harder than on any other SAT section including Math.

Why is that? At first sight, the Reading  section seems pretty easy: just to read a passage attentively and to choose the best answer out of four. But here is a catch! If in order to improve on Math or Grammar sections you can learn “rules” and/or equations, the same method does not work for Reading because there are NO RULES! Instead, there are skills obtained during years of your school work, reading for fun, and reading for knowledge. The better reader a student is, the higher his expectations at SAT Reading section can be. Actually, the best preparation for the SAT Reading section is to read. That is why the students who take honors classes in English and Literature have a huge advantage: they still need some preparation to score higher but  mostly to familiarize themselves with the format of the test and the passages.

The question arises: what can do those who are not taking honors classes and have never been avid readers? Is it still possible to raise their scores? The answer is “yes.” As a tutor, I would advise to start with familiarization: it is important to know the types of questions and to calculate the length of time which one can spend on a specific passage. Then comes practice. Usually I recommend to start working on individual passages without time. After a couple of tests we add time and learn to work under pressure. As a rule, at this point the percentage of correct answers drops, which is understandable. After some practice students stop being nervous and learn not to rush.

Finally, we need to tackle the whole SAT Reading section (timed), which is the hardest part of the whole prep course. Why? Because the Reading section is long and sometimes … mmm … tedious! The same students who score high on one or two sections become bored and tired at the end and miss half of the questions of the last passage. I do not think that there is “one- for all” solution to this problem. For some students I advise to take the full-length test once a week or even once in two weeks. For those who do not want to invest too much time in preparation, we discuss and choose the strategy, which could help enhance the performance. For example, if a student is not good at certain types of questions and tends to  spend a lot of time on them, we decide to omit them and move on to those questions which are easy and even enjoyable.

 

WHAT DOES LACK OF INTEREST IN HOMEWORK INDICATE?

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Lack of interest in homework may clearly indicate that a student has problems with his/her work assigned for home. Perhaps, earlier a child missed his teacher’s explanation and as a result does not clearly understand how to approach certain math/science problems.

Once I had a new private student whose parents were concerned about her low grades in Math. In fact, Victoria did not know how to solve linear equations. It seemed strange because according to her parents, Victoria was a very diligent student who was always good at Math. Later I found out that three weeks ago the girl had missed a few classes. When she came back to school, the teacher was introducing  a new material using the words “collect like terms.” Everybody but Victoria knew what it meant. Unfortunately, the girl was shy to ask the teacher a simple question, and her next test was a complete disaster. Eventually, Victoria lost confidence and interest in Math.

The second reason that a child may lose interest in school is boredom. When advanced students deal with easy tasks, they become bored very soon. Paradoxically, lack of challenge causes lack of interest even faster than too much demands.

In both cases, individual classes can make a great difference. For a student who is behind the class, an explanation of a certain problem encourages a child and bolster his/her confidence. As for advanced students, an individual program motivates them to work harder. It is amazing how excited a child can be when instead of a familiar task he has to deal with a real challenge.

As a Math tutor, I always try to figure out what causes lack of interest in homework and adjust my program. It is exciting to see that small changes can motivate children and make them love Math!

 

 

 

 

GRAMMAR QUESTIONS ON SAT LANGUAGE TEST – 2. Advice from an experienced tutor.

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I have already written about some grammar questions that are typical for the SAT Grammar (or Verbal) section. In this entry, I am going to focus on the Rules of Punctuation, especially on the difference between a semi-colon and a colon.

Actually, the difference between a semi-colon (;) and a colon (:) is relatively simple. The only thing you need to remember is that semi-colon separates two independent sentences. in fact, semi-colon serves the same purpose as a period but is “weaker.” As for the colon, it usually serves as a warning that the next part of the sentence is either an explanation of or an addition to the first one. A colon can be used to separate two independent sentences or to precede a list of items, a quotation, or an expansion or explanation.

Here is an example of the punctuation problem in a way how it can appear on the SAT grammar (language) section:

It took me by surprise, then, when my favorite exhibit at the museum was one of it’s tiniest; the Thorne Miniature Rooms.

Here are your choices:

a) NO CHANGE

b) its tiniest;

c) its tiniest:

d) it’s tiniest,

In this particular example we have to deal with two types of grammar mistakes, one of which is a punctuation error. I hope that the first mistake is obvious although the confusion between it’s and its is not that uncommon. If you remember that its is a pronoun while it’s is a compressed form of it is, you can easily cross (a) and (d). Now we have to face a punctuation problem and recall the difference between a colon and a semi-colon. Since a semi-colon is used in place of a period to separate two independent sentences, (b) cannot be the right answer. Circle the only one left – (c) – and proceed with your test.

COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY: Be yourself!

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Tim is a great student who knows how to write a good essay, but the suggested topic for his college application essay (which was simple and personal) made him confused. He knew that a good essay should have an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. However, the prompt was so simple that any introduction sounded trite and… hmmm…. boring. The same boredom permeated his whole essay, which contained a list of activities and successes and looked like a resume.

“I don’t know…. What do they actually want?” asked Tim hoping to hear a clear answer.

I said, “Don’t think about them. Think about yourself instead: what do you want to tell the world?”

After a brief discussion we found out that Tim had no idea what he wanted to tell in his essay. For the first time he read the prompt attentively and… began to jot down idea after idea. I asked him not to worry about proper words or grammar (we could work on that later). What we needed at that moment was to accumulate ideas, examples, stories from his life, and to create a rough outline of our future masterpiece. Surprisingly, Tim felt inspired and even poetic! Later he confessed that it was fun to write something really important for himself, not for the teacher.

As a tutor, I advise my students to be honest, sincere, and personal while writing their college application essays: “Avoid general statements about your persistence and will to succeed. Instead of empty and meaningless declarations tell a story. If you like metaphorical language, do not avoid it. A good metaphor can tell a lot about your inner world. Be introspective if you feel like that. If you have doubts about your future career, do not hide it: nobody expects you to choose your future once and forever. In other words, do not try to please anybody but be yourself.

MATH TUTORING: OPERATIONS WITH INTEGERS

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MATH TUTORING

OPERATIONS WITH INTEGERS: EASY WAYS TO DEAL WITH “NEGATIVE-POSITIVE” NUMBERS

Victoria is an 8-th grader. At the moment she is struggling with calculating the slope of linear equations. Although Victoria knows how to find the slope, she experiences difficulties in pure calculations. Every time she has to subtract a negative number from a negative she gets the wrong result. At first I thought that my student was just not paying attention; however, when the same miscalculation happened three times in a row, I realized that we had to put aside the slope and focus on a very important topic: Operations with integers.

The rules for adding or subtracting integers are simple:

The same sign: ADD!!! If both integers are positive, the sum is positive. When both numbers are negative, the result is negative.

2 + 3 = 5                                                -4 – 3 = -7                                                                                                      

-2 + – 3 = -5                                          -2 – 2 = -4

-4 + -6 = -10                                        -4 – 6 = -10

-5 + -9 = -14                                        -10 – 3 = -13

Opposite signs: SUBTRACT a smaller number from a bigger one! If a bigger number is positive, the result is positive. If a bigger number is negative, the result is negative.

– 2 + 1 = -1

-8 + 4 = – 4

-2 + 2 = 0

-4 + 4 = 0

-8 + 6 = -2

-10 + 10 = 0

Remember: two negatives in a row turn into positive!!!

10 – ( – 5) is the same as 10 + 5

10 –( – 5) = 15

10 –(- 10) = 20

12 – -11 = 23

1 – -2 = 3

Now, time for practice! (After you are done, check your answers and calculate percent. I hope you’ll get 100%)

Test #1

  1. -5 + – 12 =                                                            10)  -144 – 6 =
  2. -7 + -7 =                                                               11)  -1 – 2 =
  3.  -1 + – 8 =                                                              12)  -0.5 – 1 =
  4.  2 + 100 =                                                             13)  -4 – 100 =
  5.  -2 + – 100 =                                                          14)  -30 – 70 =
  6.  13 +(- 7) =                                                            15)  -7 – 13 =
  7.  -3 –( – 2) =                                                            16)  -7 – (-11) =
  8.  100 + -100 =                                                        17) 102 – (-100) =
  9.  -9 – (- 1) =                                                            18)  -15 + 2 =

Answers:

  1. -17;   2) -14; 3) -9; 4) 102; 5) -102; 6) 6; 7) -1; 8) 0; 9) -8;
  2. 10) -150; 11) -3; 12) -1.5; 13) -104; 14) -100; 15) -20; 16) 4; 17)202; 18) -13