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Something new and shiny for your teacher bucket.
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Writing Strategies for Students with Learning Disabilities
Some of our students struggle with the ambiguous expectations in the writing process. They hear what they are being instructed to do, but lack the ability to match the instruction with a process for completion. They can look at the rubric, and be completely lost. This is extremely frustrating for everyone involved.
A strategy for resolving this frustration is to provide a frame for the student to fill out and then use to create a short answer or essay response from. On the 7th grade science website there is an excellent frame for Article Abstracts. 7th grade social studies have been using a frame for reflective writing after reading an article.
Making your expectations as explicit as possible helps those students who struggle with the writing process. A correctly completed model is also helpful for those who continue to struggle.
Reading Strategy for Students with Learning Disabilities
When students have participated in read outlouds I have noted an increasing number of "common" words that they have never experienced. Not just with long words or higher level words, but with common object words.
Just last year I was providing Oral Administration on a 6th grade science test. The question had something to do with using a match. The student had no reference for what a match was and what it is used for. Once the student was provided the background knowledge they were able to apply it to the question and successfully answer it.
What are some "common" words you have noticed students struggling with?
Accommodation - Copy of Class Notes (Part 3)
Guided Reading /Fill In The Blank - This is an option where summarized notes are provided with key words left blank for students to fill in as they participate in the lecture or in reading text. Pro's: Many teachers like this plan because they feel that it increases student engagement with the lecture and with the text. Con's: Some students with auditory processing disorders struggle with identifying those key words in the lecture or text. It may take several presentation of the material before the student is able to place it into context. For some students who struggle with reading the surrounding text must match exactly to the guided reading notes in order for them to know which words to place in the blank. They may even need the teacher modeling the note taking for them.
Twitter, Twitter, Tweet, Tweet
I am not a fan of in service. I have a difficult time sitting for more than a few minutes at a time on non-preferred topics. I also struggle with communication in lecture style formats. When I was in high school and college I would position myself so that I had the perception that I was one of only a few students in the room. I would make sure that I had frequent eye contact with my professor and that I engaged in lots of discussion. I took my basics at ACC so that I had the smaller class size, and only took classes of high interest when I transferred to a 4yr. college. It wasn't until I came to teaching that I had increasing difficulty in accommodating for myself. There are lots of reasons, but the fact of the matter is I struggle with in service.
This external conflict fosters a bigger internal conflict. I love learning. I love the intellectual exchange of information. I just do not feel that the typical experience with in service fosters that intellectual exchange of information. I felt stagnant in my learning. So stagnant that I started seeking learning opportunities elsewhere. The problem is, those opportunities started looking more and more like in service or college classes that didn't seem the right fit. Being a teacher who feels stifled in their learning is not a good thing. How can one teach when one stops learning?
Sitting in an in service and exploring the technology I had been provided, I decided to see if anyone on Twitter had anything important to say. J-Lo's butt or something equally important had to be trending. It would entertain me for a few minutes. I saw a tweet that started with Q1 and had # at the end of it. I knew enough that if I searched the # it would pull all things with that # in it. When I did that I found that other people were tweeting A1 with the same hashtag at the end. It was a dialogue. A professional had posted a question about education and other people were sharing their response to it. Then even more people were responding to those responses. I tried responding. People responded to me - directly! I was learning and engaged in the conversation. Then I started seeing emails saying "So and So are now following you!". Then I noticed that people were retweeting my tweets. It dawned on me that I was participating in professional development AND making connections with educators around the globe.
At the end of the hour long Twitter Chat I had learned, connected, and been invigorated. It was the best professional development I had attended in a long time. I wanted more. I started seeking out people on Twitter. Making connections and reading tweets. Admittedly I am not as proficient at it as I would like to be. I have stumbled on another Twitter chat, but I don't know how to seek them out yet. I am trying to learn how to host one. Each time I get on Twitter I learn, connect, and grow in my own professional development. It's no longer this weird little social media thing that's just pushing information at me. It's a tool to connect and learn.
Want to start your own Twitter experience? Check out these Tweeters:
@jlscheffer - she also has a great article on this subject "Ten Minutes on Twitter"
@ShakeUpLearning
@GwynethJones
@GoogleForEDU
@MrSalakas
@LISDTechie
@Wonderopolis
- Contributed by Ellen Deckinga
Your SpEd Team
Paul Mitchell and Crissy Morris, 6th Grade Inclusion
Dawn Bjorge and Colleen McAllister, 7th Grade Inclusion
Hope O'Connor and Karen Taff, 8th Grade Inclusion
Kim Walker, GOALS
Ellen Deckinga, SCSS
Nancy Perkins, ICAP
Jenny Davidson, LSSP
Robin Alkek, Diagnostician
Susan Cox, Speech Language Pathologist
Website: http://classroom.leanderisd.org/default.aspx?RBMSSpecialPrograms