In 2012, 44% of Florida 3rd Graders Will Be Retained or Need Remediation
Find Out How You Can Make The Difference For Your Child
Did your child fail the 3rd Grade FCAT?
There are options. Most districts are offering end of summer exams, and 3D Learner has had students pass these tests and be promoted to 4th grade.
A couple of questions you want to consider are:
Does your child remember places visited, even from years ago?
Does your child learn best when information is seen and experienced?
If this describes your child, there is a good chance your child LEARNS DIFFERENTLY and is a right-brained learner. Right-brained learners are creative, good problem solvers and visual. They often struggle with reading comprehension, high stakes tests and lengthy homework assignments. The 3rd Grade FCAT is a virtual nightmare for the right-brained learner, especially with the new and harder 3rd Grade FCAT 2.0 where:
- The passages have gone from 350 to 500 words
- The questions have become more complex and require thinking skills they may not have mastered
- Anxiety and Stress have dramatically increased because more students are being retained or need remediation. They also feel the stress coming from teachers who are now graded and paid on how well they perform on these tests!!
Three additional questions you might want to consider are, does your child:
- Skip words and lines when reading?
- Lose focus in class, when doing homework and on long tests?
- Get anxious or frustrated?
We are Mira and Mark Halpert. Mira is a right-brained learner and has her Master's in Education from the University of Michigan. Since 1995, Mira has been helping right-brained learners to read and succeed. Since 2001 when the 3rd Grade FCAT started, we have helped hundreds of 3rd graders pass the 3rd Grade FCAT, often with scores way above what is required. We do not teach to the test. We address the whole child.
Many of the students we help have a combination of challenges:
1- They are a right-brained learner, often with a left-brained teacher and a left-brained curriculum that is logical, sequential and auditory. Right-brained learners struggle because the process does not leverage the way they learn best. Three major challenges this presents include:
a) Problem with sight words – words like "what", "when", "why" and "if" – words that do not generate a picture.
b) Difficulty recognizing words they have previously “learned”, but not mastered.
c) Real difficulty with abstract concepts that teachers and parents think your child should understand.“What is the best answer” and “compare and contrast” are two examples of the challenges your right-brained learner may experience.
2- Tracking issues, where your child might skip words and lines when reading, are often missed by school vision tests that may look at how well your child sees from 20 feet away. Reading and the 3rd Grade FCAT focus on your child’s ability to read from 18 inches away, that if a far different skill
Over 70% of the students we see have an undetected tracking issue
3- Attention issues are often present, and this becomes a major issue with the longer 3rd Grade FCAT passages (passages are now 500 vs. 350 words long) and the test is comprised of two 70 minute segments – an eternity for many right-brained learners.
4- Anxiety – we have seen 3rd graders whose heart rate went from 90 to 152 when we just mentioned the four letter word FCAT. Can you imagine what happens to your child when they are taking the 3rd Grade FCAT.
Given the above learning differences and challenges, there are 3 key steps that can help you to go from 3rd Grade FCAT Stress to Success:
1- Shifting the focus from the 3rd Grade FCAT to both the 3rd Grade FCAT and the Whole Child
2- Assessing for success vs. the traditional way of assessing for a disability
3- Partnering with the right professionals
Fill in the form below and we will provide you insights that can make the difference for your child and you, in ways you never even envisioned – from the 3rd Grade FCAT, to reading comprehension, homework, self-esteem and how to put your in a position where you do not have to worry about the FCAT.
Complete the form and then call us for a Free Consult at 561-361-7495
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