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Teaching Tips January 2011 |
Fido can be your best pal when it comes to educating your children. No, I’m not referring to the family dog, but FIDO. FIDO stands for Frequency, Intensity, Duration,
and Observation. Keeping these four simple steps in mind can go a long way in ensuring that what your child is working on will stick, no matter what learning style is involved. In fact, FIDO is the easiest way to take your child’s learning style into consideration when teaching. FREQUENCY has to do with how often you work on the skill, not just over time, but throughout the day. Random, global, and right-brain students are better off working on a skill in short bursts, spending less time at each session, while revisiting the skill at least two or three times in the day. These students also need more cumulative review throughout the weeks that follow. It all has to do with INTENSITY. Global, right-brain thinkers have to be interested in what they are doing or see how the material relates to them personally in order to pay attention for any length of time. Unfortunately, these students form their own little view of the world and what is important; most of the time that does not look the same as what the curriculum developers think is important. So the more involved you can get your students, the better. To get them involved, use their primary or secondary modality (preferred sense in learning). The main modalities are hands-on, auditory, and visual. The more senses that are involved, the more intensely the brain has to work, which usually translates into getting the material into long-term memory. Here’s the catch: you can’t depend on frequency alone. The amount of time spent at each session matters as well. This is referred to as DURATION. Duration impacts the amount of energy the brain uses while processing. As with an automobile, more energy is required to get the brain moving than to keep it moving. There’s a critical point at which maximum energy is used, and then from that point onward it is as if the brain is coasting. Coasting may save gas in your vehicle, but it’s costly in terms of learning. Coasting requires less attention from the brain, which causes many students to just go through the motions of doing the exercises without focusing on the material enough to get it into long-term memory. The key is to provide shorter, repeated activities to drill key concepts. That’s where OBSERVATION comes into play. There are no hard and fast rules for the number of times a task should be practiced and reviewed, nor for the amount of time to be spent practicing. You must observe your children, watching for tell-tale signs that the brain is no longer working at full throttle: • that glazed look in the eye • the distractive actions that crop up when the child loses interest (such as pencil tapping) • increased mistakes in the latter half of a worksheet • longing looks out the window, daydreaming about who knows what • dawdling during assignments • downright avoidance • ____________ (fill the blank with your child’s typical tactic) Using FIDO is all about finding what works with your children. FIDO can be as varied as the number of breeds registered with the American Kennel Association. It’s all part of the “joy” of discovery in your unique homeschooling journey. 565 Words To view more 'Teaching Tips' Articles please 'Log In' and visit the 'Achives' page. |
