A homework night that runs past eleven looks like a hard-working child. Jan van Blam sees a school day that did not finish its job. She founded Einstein School in Texas for children who learn differently. Parents call her about kids who quit sports and lose sleep over homework. If that is your house, your child isn’t broken, and you are not alone.
FROM THE VIDEO
Key moments from Let’s Talk Learning Disabilities, with Jan van Blam of Einstein School and host Lori Peterson:
- 02:48Why homework at Einstein only finishes what class did not, and when a child chooses to do it.
- 08:09Van Blam on supports built into the school day, and the record students need for the ACT, SAT and college.
- 18:36How small classes let teachers build in reading training like Take Flight and Orton-Gillingham.
Common questions from parents
My child does homework until late at night. Should I worry?
Should I ask for fewer accommodations in my child’s IEP?
What is structured literacy?
Do I need a diagnosis before I start helping?
A school for kids who learn differently keeps homework small. It builds supports into the day. And its founder has a rule about sleep.
Should homework take the whole evening?
At Einstein School, homework is kept small on purpose. Van Blam gives an example. A math class works on nine problems, and a child has two left. The child finishes them the next day. Or in tutorial time. Or with the teacher at lunch.
“I would rather our teacher be the tutor,” she says. The teaching happens in class, where the teacher sees the work. Her worry is that a tutor at home might teach a different method. Two methods for one problem confuse a child.
Sometimes a child says, “Let me knock these out tonight.” To Van Blam, that is the turning point. The child chose the work. Nobody had to push. Her word for where this leads is independence.
She has a second rule. “You should never compromise your child’s sleep,” she says. She wants kids to have a life outside school too: sports, friends and rest. We agree, and we put sleep first as well. Here is why we protect a child’s sleep first.
Keep the plan. Then look at each support in it, and ask what it builds.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
Do more accommodations always mean more help?
Many parents hear the same advice. Get more supports into the plan. It sounds right. More help should mean more progress. The better question is what each support does.
Einstein School builds supports into the day. Van Blam calls it “a comprehensive educational matrix.” It is the school’s short version of an IEP or a 504 plan. Children get their supports without being singled out. There is a practical reason too. Later, students must show they got support. That record matters for the ACT, the SAT and college. The school keeps it. If your child plans on college, read why college runs on self-advocacy.
Here is the question we ask about any support. The question was never “accommodation: yes or no.” It is “is this support building the skill, or replacing the expectation that it gets built?” One study tested a keyboard as a writing support (Berger & Lewandowski, 2013). It was run with older students. Both groups wrote longer on the keyboard, not only the students who needed help. That does not make the keyboard wrong. The reason to use it is plain: the task was testing the wrong thing.
So keep the plan. Then look at each support in it, and ask what it builds. At Einstein, the supports sit inside a day full of teaching. We wrote about two more habits from Einstein School that you might copy.
Key takeaways
- Homework finishes the day: At Einstein School, homework covers only unfinished class work.
- Ask what a support builds: Keep the plan, and ask what each support builds.
- Reading is taught, not guessed: Small classes teach letter sounds directly, step by step.
How does a school like this teach reading?
Classes at Einstein are small. Van Blam says that lets teachers build reading training into class. She names programs like Take Flight and Orton-Gillingham. This kind of teaching is called structured literacy. It teaches the sounds of letters directly, step by step. The child learns to sound out the word, not to guess it.
Not every classroom works this way. Some still teach children to guess. The child looks at the picture, or thinks of a word that might fit. This is called three-cueing. In one 2019 survey, 3 in 4 early-reading teachers said they teach it. That same year, Emily Hanford’s Sold a Story brought it into the open.
Keith Rayner’s eye-tracking work shows what skilled readers do. They look at most words in turn. They skip mainly short or predictable ones. Reading researcher Timothy Shanahan has a view on three-cueing. He calls it “descriptive of how poor readers read rather than how good ones do.” A child taught to guess is learning to look like a reader.
So ask your child’s school how reading is taught. This guide to balanced and structured literacy lists what to ask. Was your child taught to guess? Here is how to teach reading instead.
A child taught to guess is learning to look like a reader.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
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