2009 June » Special Education and Learning Differences

Elementary Life Skill Lesson #263 & 1/2

Jun 262009

Psychology of the Tattle Monster

Most young children use tattling as a means to help them learn the difference between right and wrong and practice their understanding of good and bad behavior, a crucial life skill. Older elementary-age students often tattle to gain attention from adults, use adults to solve a problem, get someone else in trouble, or to be perceived as “good” or “better than” others, all of which are ways they assimilate social skills.

It should be clarified that you agree that saying mean things or excluding others is not acceptable behavior, but that telling on another person to keep him or her from doing something dangerous or destructive, or from harming someone, is important and the right thing to do. Children need to understand that providing this type of information to an adult does not make them weak or a “baby.” Rather, it shows that they are truly strong in character and have a clear understanding of right and wrong, which is significant to children’s life skills development.

It is also essential to make your classroom a safe environment for reporting. Students need to trust they’ll be protected if they report information to an adult in an effort to keep their peers safe. Talk about the Crime Stoppers program, and explain how it was established to keep the identity of the “reporter” safe.

Here are two more ideas to help special ed students, students with learning differences, as well as regular ed students, develop the social skills necessary to differentiate between tattling and reporting:

• Set a Challenge for a Week. Ask your students to stop a moment before they tell on someone and ask themselves a question: Am I telling because I am mad or my feelings are hurt, or am I telling because someone might get hurt or is breaking a school rule? With younger students you may need to ask them the question when they come to you the first few times.

• Role-play. Acting is an effective way to demonstrate the difference between tattling and reporting. Think of common tattling occurrences, and then ask two individuals or two groups of two to come forward. Tell each student/group what their role will be and act out the scene. Next, act out a scene that demonstrates reporting to an adult. After both scenes are played, ask the class questions about what happened in each one to clarify how tattling is different from reporting.

Yes, it can be difficult to explain the difference between tattling and reporting. However, taking the time to do so may save you countless hours in the classroom. More importantly, one day it may also save a life.

Article Author: Rachel Kaspar

Elementary Life Skill Lesson #263

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Jun 242009

TAMING THE TATTLE MONSTER IN THE INCLUSIVE CLASSROOM

Tattling is a common, annoying problem encountered in every elementary school nationwide, every day, in special needs and regular ed classrooms alike. Because children this age are still developing their sense of right and wrong behavior, they can take keeping or breaking the rules quite seriously, as demonstrated with tattling. Teachers know it’s not only disruptive, but also time-consuming to handle efficiently and effectively.

In an age when violence in schools rages through the media, students need to know there is a time and a place when telling on a peer is the right thing to do. It is vitally necessary they understand the difference in tattling on a classmate to get them in trouble, and reporting a student doing or speaking of something dangerous or talking about hurting someone.

The following are two easy ideas to teach the differences between tattling and reporting and reinforce basic social skills in the inclusive classroom. As well, these exercises refine fundamental behavior skills for special ed students, students with learning differences, and special needs children:

• Create a classroom “Tattle Book.” Using a spiral notebook, instruct students to write their daily grievances in the book instead of tattling to an adult. If you have students that have learning differences or are struggling learners challenged by writing or spelling, tell them to only write two or three key words that describe what was said or done that bothered them. Take some time at the end of each day as a class to sort out the “tattles” from the “reports.”

• Lead a class discussion. Ask students how it feels to be “tattled” on. This will help those who are prone to tattling understand that their actions have consequences, such as not getting to play with others or losing a friend’s trust. Appeal to your students for their input to help those frequent “tattlers” understand the difference between “tattling” and “reporting.”

Our goal as educators is help students learn to make good choices, respect themselves and others, and be productive citizens. As we teach children the difference between tattling and reporting, we are teaching them important behavior and social skills, and leading them down the road to becoming responsible people in school, at home, and in the community.

Article Authored by Rachel Kaspar

Sparking Motivation – Part 2

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Jun 172009

Build Confidence to Keep Special Needs and Struggling Learners Motivated to Succeed

Students with learning differences need to feel successful in school every chance they get. Because they know that their performance is often below that of their peers, keeping struggling learners motivated is important. With a little pre-planning, finding different ways to spark their motivation does not have to take a lot of time. teacherstudents1

Here are a few more ideas to help you assist your students with special needs or learning differences to stay motivated and be successful.

Vary the Activities Often
Unmotivated students are not likely to maintain their attention on one activity for long periods of time. To keep students engaged, plan a brief (3–7 minute) lesson and multiple activities that practice the skill. As you vary the activity, also plan to vary the modality. For example, if students have been listening, switch to an activity where they must participate orally. If students have been sitting, the next activity could involve body movement or a manipulative.

Include Daily Activities that Showcase Individual Success
One of the easiest ways to motivate a student is to allow him or her to participate in an activity that you know he or she can complete effortlessly and successfully. Each day, select an activity that reviews a mastered skill. Upon completion, praise the student for a job well done. As well, perhaps once a month or at the end of a grading period, a certificate of success for mastering a skill could be awarded. These positive experiences will help the student associate schoolwork with feelings of confidence.

Select Materials that Engage Students in the Learning Process
Choose materials that motivate and support the struggling learner. There are many materials that include activities that utilize a variety of modalities, such as board games, oral-language practice, card-matching activities, or a computer activity, that will keep your special needs students engaged and reinforce the skill being taught.

A positive learning environment and acknowledgement of successes go a long way toward building confidence to keep struggling learners motivated and to be successful in school.

Please share with us your success stories and ideas to keep students motivated!

Authored by Janie Hohlt

Sparking Motivation – Part 1

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Jun 152009

Engaging Special Needs Students to Learn

The motivation to learn is a key element in any successful classroom. Students who are motivated become engaged in learning activities and enjoy participating in class experiences with other students. These positive classroom experiences build students’ confidence and contribute to a favorable self-image.

But it is not always easy to motivate students. This can be particularly true of students with special needs. Many teachers say that their students with special needs are capable of learning, but are not motivated to learn. A lack of motivation often emerges in students who have had difficult, perhaps even painful, past learning experiences. For some students a natural defense mechanism response is to just give up.

If you need a new tactic for motivation, I found these strategies worked well for students at any level:

Remove any Extrinsic Rewards
Often, in a desperate attempt to motivate students, teachers design elaborate reward systems that involve points, prizes, and free passes. By creating multiple systems of rewards, students rely less on their own intrinsic motivation and focus only on the external rewards.

Instead, verbally praise and publicly honor students for their successes. This practice promotes a feeling of accomplishment and establishes pride within the classroom community. As well, you demonstrates success can be different for each student making learning differences in the classroom more acceptable.

Change the Classroom Climate
Let students know that you are a seeker of knowledge instead of an all-knowing dispenser of answers. Take an active role in projects and assignments with students. Don’t be concerned if you don’t know an answer.

Instead, ask your students where they would start looking for the answer. Let students observe as you seek the proper resource to find the answer (book, computer, expert). If you equalize the playing field in your classroom, you will simultaneously demonstrate risk-taking without the fear of ridicule.

These concepts can be built upon and modified to your teaching style as well as for your particular group of students, whether special needs, struggling learners or regular learners.

If you have had success with a particular motivation strategy, please share with us. I will be posting more ideas, too, so stayed tuned!

Authored by Janie Hohlt

Technology for Phonemic Awareness

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Jun 112009

Help Struggling Learners and Students with Learning Differences be Successful Readers

Research conducted by a National Reading Panel created by Congress found the best way to teach children to read is “through systematic and explicit manipulation of phonemes in words in a balanced reading program… Knowledge of phonemes, as part of the beginning literacy program, is critical in early reading development.”¹

Once children have developed phonemic awareness, they can link letters and sounds together. Then, they can move on to phonics instruction and the next steps in a reading program.

But what about students with learning differences? How can students who struggle with phonemic awareness move to the next step? They need more time, more practice, and more reinforcement. Do you hold up the whole class for your struggling learners, or do you move on and hope that they catch up?

Although the use of computers is relatively new to classrooms, the National Reading Panel states that this technology has great promise in the teaching of reading. Students who need extra practice with a concept like phonemic awareness can use a computer program like Build & Read software to strengthen their skills.

Because using the computer is so appealing to children of all ages, it can be a reward activity that your struggling students can choose to do on their own time. Since the whole class does not have to be engaged in this activity, a student who is struggling can practice at his or her own pace without an audience.

Visual and auditory learners benefit from using computer programs as independent practice. Students who need to hear the sounds of the phonemes can use a program like Build & Read with headphones. He or she can get extra reinforcement without disturbing others in the classroom.

¹ The above quoted information comes from this website:
http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org/Publications/textversionvideo.htm

Article by Kristina M. Swann

Bolster Reading Comprehension

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Jun 022009

Drawing Conclusions to Enhance Reading Comprehension for Struggling Learners

littleboynewspaper Reading comprehension is an essential life skill. Drawing conclusions about a story requires students to understand what they are reading and then use clues, hints, assumptions, and prior experiences. For struggling readers and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners, drawing conclusions can be a difficult skill to develop. Just understanding the words in the story is a challenge for many of these students.

When I taught elementary struggling and ESL students, I developed several interactive activities and strategies that helped students develop the skill of drawing conclusions. These can also be used to help special ed students, students with autism, and those with mild cognitive disabilities.

Here are some activities you may find helpful and can modify to your students’ ability level:

1. Listen and Draw: Read a picture book to students. Wrap the cover so students cannot see any pictures and do not show the pictures to the students as you read the story. After reading, have the students draw a picture of what they think the main character or characters look like. Students must decide if the character is an animal or person, boy or girl, young or old, and what the character looks like. Then, have students explain their illustrations. Show students the cover and illustrations and compare students’ drawings.

2. Packing the Clues: Pack three small suitcases with items that can be worn or used to swim, play in the snow, and camp in the woods. Open and display one suitcase’s contents at a time. Ask students to conclude what the items in each suitcase are for and where someone would go with them. Have students share personal experiences that helped them draw their conclusions.

3. Five Questions: Have each student choose an animal for the activity. One student answers five yes-or-no questions from the other students about his or her animal. For example, “Does your animal have fur?” or “Does it walk on four legs?” or “Does your animal live in the water?” Students will use the hints to draw conclusions and identify the animal. When students correctly identify the animal, another student takes a turn.

For more activities and practice sheets on drawing conclusions, see my Basic Reading Series and Reading Comprehension Cards published by PCI. These activities are appropriate for introducing and reviewing how to draw conclusions and other reading comprehension skills to struggling learners, ESL learners, special ed students, and for reviewing and reteaching secondary students.

About the Author

Kristine Lindsay was an elementary teacher teaching ESL and working with struggling readers before she began working with PCI. Her teaching experience in the classroom led her to author several top selling products. She has a heart to see struggling learners, special ed students, English Language learners, and those with learning differences succeed in school. Kristine continues to author as well as consult on various projects.