Be Evolved: Building Strategic Educational Paths

Mary speaks with Joely about their work many years ago - the strategies and tools Joely learned still resonate with them both. Joely is currently working as a member of a media agency for the Loreal account. Joely met Mary Miele when she was in the 9th grade. She was struggling to find a tutor to connect with and was having difficulty with critical thinking - especially the questions of "why" or "how come." It was hard for her to make sense of what she was being asked to write, even though she could understand the reading.

In their work together, Joely learned how to understand what the questions were asking by breaking down the questions and prioritizing what to attend to. Mary speaks about the curiosity she engaged in while working with Joely. She was noticing an emotional disconnection with the work and wanted to understand that more. Mary spent a lot of time asking questions.

Teachers could understand Joely's challenge by naming it as a reading comprehension issue or not demonstrating effort. In contrast, Mary saw Joely as putting forth a great amount of effort. Mary asked, "What is going on here that is causing this challenge?" When they met, Mary would break up the question and prioritize what is relevant to the question to help us answer the question. They identified key words. Mary found that Joely loved colors and pens. She would use the pens to color code and have so much fun doing the breakdown. Mary also told Joely to use the colors in testing in class. This work with Joely caused Mary to ask, "What lights this kid up? What makes this more interesting?"

The colors allowed Joely to differentiate what to pay attention to. Joely used this strategy and tool to study in college. She jokes that her friends tried to copy her and steal her colored pens. Mary points out how at one point in their work together she said, "do you notice I did nothing here?" She pointed out how capable Joely was while they worked. Joely speaks about how she found that part to be really helpful because she was struggling in so many ways - but after each session she would feel so much more confident. Joely speaks about how valuable this work has been for her in the long term. She uses the strategy of breaking up and asking for help even now in the workplace. Joely learned in her work to ask for help and be patient for herself. Mary wanted this tutoring to be a transferable for the long term.

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For more information, visit the Evolved Education website at: https://evolveded.com/

© 2021 Mary Miele

It is worth unpacking the reasons why students are disengaged. Ask the question given an observation you have made. Be specific. "Hey I noticed you have not turned in your history work this week, what's up?" In this way, we allow the kids to present their perspective to us. Mary cautions against being vague in this line of questioning. Be SPECIFIC!

Mary segues into talking about how adults can tend to make assumptions as to what is happening with a student and that by asking questions we can better understand and solve problems. She shares a personal experience with the Collaborative and Proactive Solutions program and discusses how it can help parents to unpack their own children's disengagement or lack of motivation.

For more information about Collaborative and Proactive Solutions, email Becky Reback at [email protected].

I'd really appreciate it if you would click the like button above and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you!

For more information, visit the Evolved Education website at: https://evolveded.com/

© 2021 Mary Miele

Highlighting strengths is always a great addition to any tutoring program. Mary suggests ways to approach doing this if it has not been done before.

First, let the student know that you are going to move forward differently. Then, interview the student to find out what is going well in each of their subject areas. They may need some probing questions to understand what you are wondering about. Suggest what could be going well - such as "Are you enjoying the content?" "Do you like the room the class is in?" "Do you enjoy the teacher?" "Is there a project you have liked?"

Mary segues into a short discussion about a time when she changed how she worked with students after learning SRSD Writing. She learned about SRSD from Pooja Patel who was working at a school in NYC called UNIS. That day, she wrote to a teacher friend and told her she would not teach writing the same way again. Mary told her students that she was changing the way she taught writing. Those students made tremendous gains.

Mary cautions to be careful about the cognitive load - and not to implement everything the tutor has learned at one time. The fun of teaching comes when you get to teach along with the student strengths. Strengths can be actions that are strong or talents, but also interests and areas that light someone up. They can change, evolve and grow.

I'd really appreciate it if you would click the like button above and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you!

For more information, visit the Evolved Education website at: https://evolveded.com/

© 2021 Mary Miele

Having so much going on in a support program is a detriment to their success. Cognitive load is the capacity of the brain available to learn something new. It can be affected by biology - one's current cognitive capability based on development or DNA, but also by internal and external factors - motivation, self-regulation, and more.

When something is learned, it becomes a part of a schema - something that is so familiar or known. Schemas don't need a lot of cognitive load to move through. The key is to reduce the cognitive load for students when you see them reaching frustration levels of learning. When we ask kids to do multiple levels of learning at one time, they can struggle or stall out.

Mary suggests making a list of the issues and pick ONE that you could make progress on. Communicate with the teachers what is being worked on and support the other requirements as you make progress with one area. Continue to build skills/mastery of concepts one at a time. In this way, you can "redo" the current math support program.

I'd really appreciate it if you would click the like button above and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you!

For more information, visit the Evolved Education website at: https://evolveded.com/

© 2021 Mary Miele

A parent asks, "Mary, my kid is in third grade and already hates math. We are worried about how this will implode over time and make things difficult in the long run. What should we do?"

In part 2 of this episode, Mary talks about the process of addressing an academic or learning problem. To start, she makes an objective for what the program will address, which has been uncovered by using the Evolved Education Paradigm (outlined in Episode 1).

Mary outlines common mistakes that are made when supporting students within areas of challenge:

1. The first mistake is that we do too much when we work with a student - our objective is actually many objectives.
2. The second is that we emphasize direct attention to the area of challenge without delving into the creative opportunities for learning.
3. The third is when we do not align our support to what is happening in school.
4. The last would be that the student is not in the driver's seat. We want students to be participants in their own learning.

I'd really appreciate it if you would click the like button above and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you!

For more information, visit the Evolved Education website at: https://evolveded.com/

© 2021 Mary Miele

A parent asks, "Mary, my kid is in third grade and already hates math. We are worried about how this will implode over time and make things difficult in the long run. What should we do?"

Mary reminds parents that they are not alone in this question. She lets them in on a way that she thinks about student problems that come to her: this is the Evolved Education Paradigm. Is this child struggling because of math, or are there other factors that are making math challenging - such as learning, social, emotional, physical development at home and/or at school. She suggests that parents can learn about this paradigm to understand their child's experience.

The paradigm history is explored as Mary discusses how she and Deanna Hyslop created the paradigm in 2016. There is a worksheet that parents can use to list their child's academic, learning, social, emotional and physical development at home and at school within the area of concern. We want to ask ourselves, "how is math going in each of these areas? Do I need to ask my student, the teacher, or learn more?"

Do you have a child who is understanding math and has mastery of skills? What learning abilities or skills does your child use when working in math? Is there anything going on socially or emotionally or physically that could be impacting learning? And finally, how does all of this - academic, learning, social, emotional and physical manifest at home and at school?

I'd really appreciate it if you would click the like button above and leave a review if your favorite podcast app has that ability. Thank you!

For more information, visit the Evolved Education website at: https://evolveded.com/

© 2021 Mary Miele