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Parent
Tips to Help |
These suggestions are things that you can do at home with your child of any age to help them succeed on the MSPAP test as well as strengthen their skills for all academic areas.
Encourage your child to read. Talk to your child about what he or she has read. Encourage your child to think hard and give detailed answers to questions. Help your child compare things that he or she is reading about and relate them to your child's life.
Encourage your child to speak in complete sentences.
Help your child learn how to write in complete sentences. Proofread your child's written work and help your child learn to edit his or her own work (to find errors in punctuation, capitalization, and spelling).
Provide tools for your child to use for mathematics work. A ruler, a compass, a calculator, graph paper, and a protractor may be appropriate depending on what grade your child is in. Ask your child's teachers for ideas.
Practice following recipes. This is great practice in following directions.
Help your child learn to be observant, especially in the area of science. Discuss things your child observes and help him or her describe the characteristics or results of things that happen.
Help you child learn to summarize in writing things he or she has read or done. Students also need practice putting ideas and definitions into their own words.
Encourage your child to relate events of the past to current events. Help your child learn to read maps and give directions.
Use sections of newspapers and magazines to enhance comprehension skills. For example, cartoons, advertisements, articles, charts, and graphs can be interpreted and discussed.
Ask your child to explain or summarize song lyrics.
Set time limits on household chores or homework assignments. Ask to see the work at a specified time. This holds students accountable for their completing their work.
When you give your child directions, start with one step directions and work your way up to two or three part directions.
Take your child to the grocery store with you. It is a good place to practice math, problem-solving, and reading skills. Together, figure out where to find items and how to determine which item is least expensive.
Play board games. This is both practice in both working together cooperatively and following directions. Also, play games which put things in categories. For example, categorize types of clothing, furniture, food, etc.
Be aware of your child's mental and physical health, especially during testing time. Eating well and getting plenty of rest helps students do their best.
Ask your child for his or her opinion. Use words like "how," "why," "what if," and "what do you think." This applies to anything and everything -- from the dinner menu to television shows.
Talk about how important it is to complete all tasks and to do them well. Offer lots of praise and encouragement.
Be aware that attendance is very important to the school's performance and your child's performance. Please make sure your child attends school every day during MSPAP week.
Your best source of information is your child's teacher(s), the principal, and other professionals at your child's school. Drew-Freeman Middle School offers monthly workshops on MSPAP-related activities. Call the Main Office at (301) 817-0900 about upcoming dates.
To obtain practice tasks to use at home with your child, please consult "Sample Tasks for Practice at Home" listed on the MSPAP Menu.
This information from this page can also be found at www.pgcps.org/MSPAP.html.
We acknowledge and thank a number of sources for the information contained on this page, especially MSDE, Prince George's County Public Schools, Calvert County Public Schools, and Advocates for Children and Youth, Inc..
CLICK HERE for some staff development ideas to assist staff in facilitating meaningful, purposeful, and ongoing parent and community outreach related to MSPAP.
