S'more Stuff
Something new and shiny for your teacher bucket.
You Matter
8th grade science teachers matter! Thank you for continuously implementing creative ways to get all students up and moving, chanting, singing - addressing all learning styles!
Choir teachers matter! Thank you for allowing our students time for extra tutorials during your class. The students grades are positively affected by your actions.
Math teachers matter! They look for opportunities to hook kids into math. Learning about kids interests and drawing them in to math.
You Talkin' To Me?
* Tell stories which relate to the student's life
* Establish Relevancy
* Provide concrete examples
* Provide current event articles that stimulate interest
* Seat the student closer to the teacher.
When a student is disengaged in the lesson it is important to look at the function of the behavior. Ask W questions. Why is the student resistant to participate? What does the student want? What is influencing the student's behavior? How does the student's disability effect them accessing this lesson? What happened outside this class that may be causing this behavior?
Some times an increase in rigor will increase a student's involvement. There was an article published on 12/13/2014 that addresses this very idea. Worth a read. "3 Tips to Boost Student Question Asking". The comments section can also yield lots of great strategies and tips. Loved the comment on the "I Wonder" poster. May have to make one of those!
Cool Tools for School
Google for Collaborative Writing - I see lots of articles floating around about how awesome Google is for school, but they are all saying the same thing. There are a few tools that I have used, but not as effectively as described in this article. I was also impressed with the "Research" feature. It's like having the Google search feature right in your paper. Then, the "Personal Dictionary" feature. Kids could do amazing things with that. Type in their vocabulary words so that they are ready to use, create a list of frequently misspelled words so that they are spelled correctly. Wondering what other applications we could come up with to support our students
3 - 2 - 1 READ!!!
Students list "3 things we discovered" from the text. Then list "2 interesting things". Finally "1 question I still have".
Pro's of this strategy: Provides students with a frame for their reading. They know what they are looking for so that they focus on the material. Struggling readers will not be as overwhelmed trying to read and look for the details in the selection. They will be able to focus on the content as a whole and then go through to beak it up. The best part of this strategy is that it is a great activity preceding discussion. Students will have talking points from their reading selection and be able to contribute to the class discussion. Chances are you will have a great diversity of responses which will touch on the intended topics plus some. If you teach the frame early on in the year you can use it all year long.
Con's of this strategy: Some students have been unsuccessful reading informational texts for so long that they will struggle with trusting the system. You may have to work with them for several opportunities to show them that there are no wrong answers, and that their thoughts are as valid as their peers.
Want more information? Check out Read Write Think for sample lessons and more details.
Accommodation - Copy of Class Notes (Part 2)
Copy of notes by a designated note taker - This is where a peer takes notes for another student. The expectation is that the notes are provided to the student right after the lecture. Pro's: Less work for the teacher. Con's: Note taker will need to be directly instructed on note taking expectations. You are trusting another student to write down what is important for another student. Resources: Ask your inclusion teacher for a printable file to send to the copy center and printed on carbon paper.
Problem Solving
"You know how to do this?! What happened?" "Why didn't you ask for help?" said no teacher ever - right. Our students frequently let things slip through the cracks or even let little problems snowball into big problems.
Middle school students continue to learn problem solving strategies. They are trying out different scenario's and different tools to solve the problems. They haven't figured out that no one way works all the time and that they will need an arsenal of strategies to solve problems in their future. One thing we can do to hep students develop problem solving skills is to give them a frame to work in.Step 1: Identify the problem
Step 2: List all the possible solutions to the problem
Step 3: Predict the outcomes to the solutions
Step 4: Pick a solution to solve the problem, based on realistic expectations.
Step 5: Work the steps of that solution keeping in mind time management.
Step 6: Be willing to ask for help, and try another avenue if the first attempt doesn't work.
Teachers can support by teaching ways to effectively plan and follow through on the solution. It is essential to any good plan to identify the possible resources and the students best resource is you. It's someone with experience problem solving, and can talk them through to see if it will be a reasonable solution. Sometimes teachers want to give explicit steps to solving the problem instead of guiding the student toward the solution. Offering choices, allowing the student to make the choice and to receive the natural consequences is essential to the learning process. Teaching students to "fail forward". That they don't just give up on a problem because their solution doesn't work. It's just another option they can cross off and learn from for the future. Allowing students to accept responsibility for those choices increases student ownership and eventually student engagement.
How can you be explicit in teaching problem solving using TEKS?
- When students ask a question refer them back to their resources (notes, websites, textbooks, etc.)
- Ask questions that will guide them toward the answers. Why would the Texans respond that way to Mexico? If the sun's rays hit the surface of the water what happens to the molecules? All those great open ended questions.
- Modeling asking for help. It is good for students to see us ask each other or even other students for help. Seek those opportunities out. They are priceless.
- Show them the end project and ask them how they might get to that result. Brainstorm ways to do those projects while demonstrating knowledge of the content.
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