Why Writing Matters!

by Sophia Taborski In order to communicate at all with the outside world, people must be able to learn to write, and writing represents engagement in our digital world,  After all, how are you receiving this information right now?

More crucially, writing requires key skills, such as forming a clear overarching idea, supporting it with solid evidence, and organizing information in a coherent fashion. Those same skills are required in all walks of life, for doctors diagnosing a patient, for engineers solving software problems, and even, to use a popular example from our students, for kids persuading their parents to get them a video game, a skateboard, or pet.

Teaching writing is about more than producing a polished product: it’s about tapping into the cognitive processes of understanding, evaluating, and synthesizing information and ideas. Teaching writing is teaching thinking. In fact, it’s teaching critical thinking.

While all students can feel a sense of pride when they see their articles published, our writing teachers have cultivated a creative team spirit and an emerging sense of pride among our students who are connecting to the power of written communications.

In their later elementary and middle school years, students are bursting with ideas of all sorts.  One of our First Focus students wrote a philosophical piece questioning the purpose of human existence; another pitched a remake of the original Star Wars with John Cena as Luke Skywalker and Oprah Winfrey as Princess Leia. Regardless of the topic, students thought through their ideas and supported them.  

Nothing piques students’ interests and excitement like choosing their own topic for a research paper. 

During the research process, we brainstormed myriad topics as a group, and you can see the results for yourself.  While students were researching on their own, they became engrossed in each others’ topics. I couldn’t resist turning that exchange of ideas into a teaching moment (even as I begrudgingly redirected the students to focus on their own work).  I exclaimed “This is why you’re writing!  People want to know what you have to say!”   

In addition to enthusiasm, elementary and middle school students also possess the flexibility which makes their openness and developing maturity, the best time to establish foundational writing skills.  I’ve previously taught a college freshman writing seminar.  While many of those students made insightful points and crafted astounding essays, some of them lacked the time necessary to re-learn and internalize basic organizational and reasoning skills. Elementary and middle school students, however, readily seize writing basics and release their imaginations on engaging essays.

Structured Writing provides Logical Organization

At First Focus, we teach a tried-and-true framework for writing essays.  While some may find writing to a formula stifling, a formula actually provides students with more freedom to focus on generating their own content.

Our writing teachers have embraced this effort to promote the development of written communication skills within our academic camps and after-school classes.  During this summer of 2018, we will be conducting a range of writing camps, designed for students entering the 2nd through the 8th grade. You can click on the following links to learn more about the purpose, content, schedule, and pricing of each camp: Beginning Writing, Intermediate Writing, Advanced Writing and Middle School Writing.  

Learn to Write in a Summer Camp

The one-week JumpStart Reading Camps operate from June 25 through August 10, 2018.  Students entering kindergarten have four camps to choose from, most students take two or three weeks of the progressive camps to be ready for immediate engagement in kindergarten. Students entering 1st grade have two progressive weeks of reading camp to develop a deeper level of reading skills with sight words.  

Each camp course book is designed to provide two weeks of instructional content and has different topic material for each week. Students who complete a reading camp are better prepared for the incoming grade level expectations.  The exposure to an academic program during the summer provides an opportunity to advance their skills from the end of the school year.

Students who receive a learning experience during the summer show a significantly higher level of skill retention, leading to a higher level of early engagement with the curriculum for the upcoming school year.  

For more information, please visit www.firstfocus.com email us at info@firstfocus.com or call 650-938-3100 from 1:00- 6:00 pm Monday - Friday.

Why a Summer Academic Experience Matters

 The three month summer vacation is great time for kids and a disaster for academic achievement.

Educational research has not discovered any benefits to the embedded practice of interrupting their educational learning progress for three months during each summer.

The opposite has been well documented, the three month summer disengagement with the learning process has been shown to contribute to an accumulated learning deficit among all students. 

Academic school standards and expectations have become more challenging and students can easily fall behind in foundational skills such as reading, writing and math.

Reading: Taking a JumpStart Approach

Reading is the most essential skill for a successful educational career and is the gateway for intellectual development.

The one-week JumpStart Reading Camps are operate from June 25 through August 17, 2018.  Many students find a deeper level of engagement by attending for two or more weeks and are able to demonstrate significant progress during the summer.  Each camp course book is designed to provide two weeks of instructional content and have different topic material for each week. Students who complete a reading camp are better prepared for the incoming grade level expectations.  The exposure to an academic program during the summer provides an opportunity to advance their skills from the end of the school year.

The JumpStart Reading Camps are designed for students entering PreK, Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades.  More information on the reading camps is available at First Focus Reading Camps

The Power of the Pencil

A growing number of students are becoming excellent writers and in our opinion, have the potential to becoming influential bloggers.  Given the career and business opportunities for describing events and craving persuasive article, we have noticed a resurgence of interest in written communications and creative writing in particular.  While all students can feel a sense of pride when they see their articles published, our writing teachers have cultivated an emerging sense of pride among our students who are connecting to the power of written communications.

Posting articles on internet forums can lead to blogging which can be the beginning of a digital identity, even at a young age, and this experience can help develop skills essential to the 21st century economy.   Our writing teachers have embraced this effort to promote the development of written communication skills within our academic camps and after school classes.  The writing camps, designed for students entering the 2nd through the 8th grade, are defined as Beginning Writing, Intermediate Writing and Advanced Writing.  

 Why First Focus?

The camps are an accelerated learning experience over one week, Monday-Friday.  This nature and design of our camps promote a framework for critical thinking and comprehension skills that contribute to academic success.

Students who receive a learning experience during the summer show a significantly higher level of skill retention, leading to a higher level of early engagement with the curriculum for the upcoming school year.  For more information, please visit www.firstfocus.com , email us at info@firstfocus.com or call 650-938-3100 from 1:00- 6:00 pm Monday - Friday.

Attend a Summer Camp for Continuing to Develop Literacy Skills

Silicon Valley is an international community with broad cultural diversity. The team at First Focus provides a series of unique reading weekly camps during the Summer, June 26-August 12. The purpose of these camps is to provide a fun and social educational experience designed specifically to begin or advance a child’s English literacy skills.

The First Focus JumpStart Reading Camps provide students with a visual literacy experience which empowers them to become independent learners.

We use the visual literacy strategy to develop a foundation in reading, writing, and comprehension using the following approach: 

• decoding words with appropriate reading strategies 
• reading words correctly aloud 
• creating a visual image of words by looking at pictures to further develop understanding 
• using words in spoken and written sentences 
• read passages and stories to enhance comprehension 

One of the very popular camps is the Advanced Reading Camp, designed to provide students entering 2nd and 3rd grade with reading skill development during the summer and also provide a strong start for the new school year.  Many students attend the Advanced Reading Camp for 2 weeks to cover the full range of material in the Advanced Reading Camp course book.

Why First Focus?

The Full Day camps are an accelerated learning experience over one week where students will have a visual literacy experience, which is embedded in all camps. This visual literacy experience provides a framework for critical thinking and comprehension skills that contribute to academic success.

The camps feature three-hour classes in the morning that introduce new academic skills to students, and project-based activities in the afternoon which provide an opportunity to interact with native speakers and use those skills in context.

 Detailed information and a video outlining each camp is available at:

http://www.firstfocus.com/reading-camp.html

Students who receive a learning experience during the summer show a significantly higher level of skill retention, leading to a higher level of early engagement with the curriculum for the upcoming school year.

First Focus Learning Systems
1059 El Monte Avenue, Ste A
Mountain View, CA 94040

www.firstfocus.com
Tel 650-938-3100

email:  info@firstfocus.com

7 Key Components in STEM/STEAM Project Based Learning

STEM has been a popular acronym conveying an emphasis on the key components for successful 21st-century careers featuring project based learning that integrates Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.

A movement in educational curriculum development has resulted in a modified approach to project based learning. This approach is referred to as STEAM which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Engineering, and Math. You might ask how does adding Art to the formula transform education?

The “A” for the arts is a recognition that success in technical careers involves much more that the pure technical skills, it also involves the ability to find a creative solution, to “think outside the box”, to consider design, layout, presentation.  

STEAM advocates believe that the best way to encourage “outside the box” creative thinking and problem solving is to look at the problem from different perspectives, from different angles,  – recognizing that many projects warrant an effort in design, aesthetics, presentation and communications.  These additional skills are best developed by including and educational exposure to the arts.   

STEAM advocates place an emphasis on team collaboration including the development of social skills among all team members.  Social skills in a team are essential in the real world and have been undervalued in many traditional scientific curriculums.  

This definition has separated proponents of the two approaches, something along the lines of a respective discussion to a heated debate.

The core issue comes down to how you define Art and its role in the learning process.  STEM advocates believe team collaboration, communications and respect for different approaches are already included  STEM programs.  STEAM advocates believe there is room to include the Arts in a broader educational context, including a focus on the user experience, considering the aesthetics of the design verses pure functionality and the verbal and written presentation both written and verbal, about the benefits of the project. 

Both approaches include what we believe is important, that project based leaning provide an inquiry-based approach which encourages and rewards children and youth through hands-on exploration, originality of the approach, the use of innovation in the project, team work, evaluation and reflection. 

The afternoon sessions of our First Focus camps are a project based STEM / STEAM experience, where students work in small teams on specific projects, collaborate with their team members in a project based learning experience and present the results to the group.  

Our experience in conducting project based summer camps has allowed us to define the following seven key elements in a STEM/STEAM learning experience:

• The project complexity is appropriate to the age and attention level of the students and it can be completed within the defined time limits.
• The project has several acceptable approaches and a range of different outcomes. 
• Students are provided with background material on the project, why it matters, who will benefit, how those benefits can be observed or measured.
• Students can work in teams to share knowledge, solve problems they encounter individually or they can work independently.
• Students write a short description of the project, track their progress, outline what worked, what did not work and any insights they gained in the project.
• Students use the written description to make a presentation to the class.
• Students take home their project, explain it to their family and friends

For more information on the summer camp series conduction as one week camps over 7 weeks with STEM/STEAM programs in the afternoon, please visit www.firstfocus.com/camps