JULY 2007

TABLE OF CONTENTS

*Introduction to The Tonelli Learning Center (TLC)

*Welcome from Norman Tonelli, L.M.H.C.

*Article

*Summer Learning

*Question and Answers

 

 

Introduction to The Tonelli Learning Center

 

Tonelli Learning Center (TLC) is a new addition to an established successful counseling practice of over 20 years.  TLC offers academic support for children of all ages based on individual needs.  These needs are assessed through testing by TLC's psychologist Dr. Mark Caron.  A Program of Study is written for each child to address academic needs identified through testing. Certified teachers work with each child to strengthen identified areas of need. Communication with parents, schools and the ability to address the "whole child" are components that TLC promises to make a child's time spent with us effective and successful both academically and emotionally.  

 

For further information about TLC, please contact us at 508 867-4491 Ext. #2.  To view our commercial go to http://www.normantonelli.com/wmv1.html . 

 

In the next issue of our newsletter, we will introduce one our teachers - Joann Severance.

 

 

Welcome

 

Dear Parents:

 

I, Norman P Tonelli, promise to deliver on the following message: As the owner and director of the West Brookfield Counseling and the Tonelli Learning Center (TLC), I will continue to listen to you, the parent, intently.  I will see to it that both your child's needs and your needs as a parent are respected as well as understood.  I have hired professionally credentialed, friendly, and supportive teachers.  We will not stop at simply educating your children, but we will inspire in them a love of learning and self-appreciation.  I stand on my reputation as a child and family therapist in private practice for 20 plus years.  I promise to deliver the same personalized and energetic service that I have given my clients all these years to this new educational endeavor. 

 

Thank You,

 

Norman Tonelli, LMHC

Owner and Director of the West Brookfield Counseling Center, and The Tonelli Learning Center

 

 

Article

On Summer Loss

By: John Hopkins University, Center for Summer Learning (2004)

Research demonstrates that all students experience significant learning losses in procedural and factual knowledge during the summer months.

Studies also show that the magnitude of summer learning loss varies significantly by grade level, subject matter, and family income.  Most importantly, research identifies the cumulative effect of summer learning differences as a primary cause of widening in-school achievement gaps between students by family income.

A recent study by Harris Cooper, professor of psychological sciences at the University of Missouri, estimates that summer loss for all students equals about one month on a grade-level equivalent scale.

Summer loss in mathematics

On average, all students regardless of socio-economic status, lose approximately 2.6 months of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation over the summer months.  Researchers speculate that summer learning losses in mathematics are similar among lower and middle-income students because all students are less likely to practice math skills outside the formal classroom setting

Summer loss in reading

Family income plays an important role in predicting the magnitude of summer loss in reading.  Low-income students experience significant summer learning losses in reading comprehension and word recognition.  On average, middle-income students actually experience slight gains in reading performance over the summer months.

Low-income students experience an average summer learning loss in reading achievement of over two months.  On average, children from low-income families lose nearly three months of grade-level equivalency during the summer months each year, compared to an average of one month lost by middle-income children when reading and math performance are combined.

Impact on the achievement gap

The research of Johns Hopkins University sociologists Karl Alexander and Doris Entwisle documents that while student achievement for both middle and lower-income students improves at similar rates during the school year, low-income students experience cumulative summer learning losses over the elementary school grades.

In the Beginning School Study, Alexander and Entwisle found that the increasing gap in test scores between children from families of high and low socioeconomic status over the elementary-school period accrued entirely from the differential gains that students made when school was closed.

Poor families could not make up for the resources the school had been providing. Middle-class families could make up for the school's resources to a considerable extent and so their children's growth continued, though at a slower pace than during the school year. By the end of fifth grade, poor children fall more than two years behind their middle-class peers in verbal achievement and 1 1/2 years behind in math.

Reprinted with permission from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Summer Learning (www.jhu.edu/teachbaltimore/).

 

 

Summer Learning

 

 GET READY FOR SEPTEMBER

 

The Tonelli Learning Center

a Division of the West Brookfield Counseling Center

 

Will be holding

one week summer tutoring sessions

for Grades 1 through 6

 

 

AUGUST 13^th THROUGH 17^th

8:30 a.m. TO 11:30 a.m.

 

Our summer program is designed to provide extensive help in preparing your child for their upcoming grade.

 

COST: $199.00

10% discount for current or prior West Brookfield Counseling Center clients.

 

SUMMER TUTORING SESSION SIGN UPS

 GOING ON NOW

 

 

Please call 1-508-867-4451 Ext. 2 for further information

 

 

Question and Answers

  

Question: What can I do as a parent to help my child not fall behind in math over the summer?

 

Answer: Play fun math games in the grocery store. 

Have them estimate the total cost of the bill or have them round up to the nearest dollar for each time that an item is put into the cart and keep a running list of the total. 

Take a walk and have your child find all the house numbers, then add them up as you continue your walk.

 

 

 View our Video Commercial at http://www.normantonelli.com/wmv1.html

CALL OR E-MAIL TODAY FOR YOUR FREE SESSION.