Success for our Kindergartners
Strategies to Help Our Youngest Scholars
Strategies to use with our Exceptional Children (EC) Scholars
- Repetition, Repetition, Repetition - Teaching our EC scholars means using the same terms and reteaching the same information over and over again until mastery. You should not move on to new information until mastery of the old information is accomplished.
- Patterns - Teaching our scholars through the use of patterns is helpful with retention. Begin with a simple pattern and do not move forward until mastery has been achieved in 4 out of 5 trials.
- Chunking - Chunking is grouping 'like' information into chunks or units for long-term retention. This strategy makes the information you want your scholar to retain more manageable.
- Scaffolding - Scaffolding refers to the process where the teacher models or demonstrates how to solve a problem to the scholar and then steps back to see where assistance is needed for mastery.
i.e. If a child is learning how to tie his/her shoe ask him/her to show you how to do it. If your scholar says, "I don't know how" just ask him/her to show you how to start the process and that you will help/show him/her when needed. This helps you understand where your scholar's skills are and where to begin the teaching process. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-six-strategies-rebecca-alber
Classwide Guidance Lesson
If you would like for me to come in to your class and read this book, "Special People, Special Ways", with your scholars and have a guidance lesson I would be more then happy to. Just e-mail me some Tuesdays or Thursdays that would work with your schedule and include some available times. I will get back with you ASAP with a time and date.
What can I do when a scholar has attention difficulties?
1. Stop / Look / Listen
- Stop - what you are doing when you hear your name being called
- Look – at the person speaking to you (this works best if you are at his eye level)
- Listen – to the directions given to you
This is a great strategy to use in the classroom to make sure you have his/her and when your scholar is crossing the street.
2. Vary your instruction approximately every 15 minutes.
This is great for all kindergartners! As a teacher it's great for you and your scholars to be a part of a variety of different instructional strategies which should be changed approximately every 15 minutes (+/- 5 minutes). Through the use of different modalities we reach more of our students. Some of our learners are tactile in nature and learn best through touch, while others are auditory and learn best through listening. Others like to use their bodies to learn, while still others are visual and learn best through seeing. By using different learning modalities to teach the same concept you will likely reach all of your scholars.
3. Minimize too much going on at one time.
Students who are easily distracted are often overstimulated by too much activity or noise going on at one time. Therefore, by minimizing these distractions you are more likely to get better outcome out of your scholars.
MTSS Symbaloo-Research Based Interventions
Don't know what a Symbaloo?
Don't have time to research MTSS strategies?
Symbaloos are a way to bookmark a lot of different webpages and they can be organized and color coded to help you easily distinguish where to go.
This MTSS Symbaloo that was made to assist teachers.
How to reach your School Psychologist...
You can always reach me via e-mail at: