Guest Speaker at the Roosevelt Island School PTA Meeting

At the PTA meeting at The Roosevelt Island School on November 19th, 2009 guest speaker Steve DeMeo gave presentation "Differentiated Learning, Differentiated Teaching: What It Means for Parents?" As a P.S./I.S. 217 student's parent and Associate Professor of Science Education at Hunter College holding a joint appointment in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Curriculum and Teaching, Steve advises parents to:
- Follow up on homework.
- Check math/science work, and encourage seeking alternative methods of checking.
- Use "WSD" strategy for reading books: Write it out (summarize), Say it (put in other words, retell), Draw it (put in another modality).
- Work through word problems, and embedding qualitative and quantitative concepts.  Beware of memorizing algorithms without understanding the meaning of the foundational concepts.
- Involve kids in cooking - get boys in the kitchen too!  Following recipes prepares children to learning lab procedures later in their physics and chemistry classes.