social skills » Special Education and Learning Differences

Real Teachers-Real Strategies 13: Manipulative Multiplication

Apr 032012

Our last winning blog post comes from Cindy in Oklahoma City, OK. Cindy is a Special Education Teacher to 5th and 6th graders with special needs. She has paired rhymes and manipulatives with multiplication facts that brings success to her students learning their ‘facts.’

The Project: Multiplication with Manipulatives.

I teach multiplication facts to my 5th and 6th grade students with special needs using manipulatives and catchy rhymes. My students are low achievers who have special needs that prohibit them from being successful in the general education classroom. The program I use for teaching multiplication facts helps my students reach goals, develop self-confidence, and feel successful. I make multiplication facts concrete and fun! When my students learn and apply these facts, they are proud of themselves.

I work to motivate my students and encourage them in all areas of learning. I have seen students learn these multiplication facts and their feeling of self-worth soars. Learning multiplication facts may seem insignificant, but when this small thing can turn a child from having low self-esteem and feeling worthless, it is a huge thing! I will continue teaching multiplication facts this way, reaching out to my students, hoping they will see their worth and that they are not failures.

Learning Objectives:

My students are given a foundation for math application by learning their multiplication facts in elementary school. I teach my students a rhyme or “trick” for each fact using manipluatives to make it a concrete learning experience. Students keep track of facts they know, showing them progress toward a goal. Students work together to learn the facts, and they encourage each other along the way. Once students have mastered all the multiplication facts presented, we celebrate their achievement.

Materials:

I use small manipulatives, such as plastic spiders or toy worms to teach the facts. Some facts are acted out by the students to help them internalize the facts and remember them. I present the facts in many ways using a SmartBoard, dry erase boards, chalkboards, computer games, and worksheets to reinforce and meet all students’ needs and learning styles. We play games with the multiplication facts as well.

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Brought to you by We Are Teachers partnership with PCI Education for the Fall 2011 Teacher Grant: http://www.weareteachers.com/teaching-ideas/grant/teaching-idea?app=18477&grantId=75

Real Teachers-Real Strategies 11: The Spelling Game

Teaching Tips, Uncategorized No Responses »

Mar 212012

From Manning, SC, we are pleased to share with you our second place PCI/We Are Teachers Teacher Grant Winner, Adela. She is a Resource Teacher for 7th and 8th graders. Adela’s strategy is making spelling a fun activity to keep her students engaged, which in turn strengthens her students’ vocabulary and spelling skills.

The Project: Let’s Learn How to Spell.

Each student thinks of or finds 2 words containing at least 5 letters and is hard to spell. Using Ran Barnes strategies with the “Paper Plate” spelling game, each student writes their words on a paper plate and places them on a table top. Next, a student is chosen to stand in front of the class with their word-plate facing the other students and pronounces their word for the class. The other students then look for the word-plates that have letters that the word in front of them contains. Making this spelling exercise a game helps the students learn new words and how to spell them.

Learning Objectives:

Because the majority of students struggle with spelling and vocabulary, we know that making the task fun to do will improve both spelling and vocabulary.

Materials:

Paper plates, markers or crayons, and “The Differentiated Classroom: Challenging All Students, NOT Dummying Down For Some” by Ran Barnes.

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Brought to you by We Are Teachers partnership with PCI Education’s Teacher Grant Ask: http://www.weareteachers.com/teaching-ideas/grant/teaching-idea?app=17318&grantId=75

Real Teachers-Real Strategies 10: Being Prepared for the World of Work

Teaching Tips, Uncategorized No Responses »

Mar 082012

This post is from our #1 voted winner: Susie in Minerva, OH. Preparing her high school students for the work force is as important as ever in today’s economy. She truly believes in her students and their ability to be active and productive members in their community after high school. Susie helps her students to prepare for this new world with every tool she can provide them.

The Project: Being Prepared for the World of Work.

I teach a transition life skills class to students with multiple disabilities. I use the School-to-Work DVD series with worksheets I have made up and some home made video’s using a Flip Camera to show students role playing and real life situations about being prepared for work and how to interact at work. The students are engaged when watching the video’s of real job skills and sites where they can learn job skills and possibly become employed.

Learning Objectives:

Students will see past graduates in their current jobs putting into place some of the job skills/ life skills that we emphasize in our classroom daily. Students can see good and bad ways of dealing with different situations that may occur on a job site through role playing videos. Students will then get to go into those same job sites and experience some of the same situations and know how to respond or interact appropriately.

Materials:

Flip Camera, other “getting a job” curriculum, transition planning materials, job sites and real employees/employers. The Functional Skills System: Social Skills or Workplace Social Skills. The Life Skills Readers and other Read-to-Learn library sets are also great tools. I would like to use iPods/iPads to also run the videos on and take video for immediate reinforcement learning. PCI’s Getting Along with People Series would be a nice addition to what we are teaching as well.

Susie also says:

I very much love my job, and the materials and resources available have come along way since I began teaching 12 years ago. Thank you for continuing to look for interactive and engaging materials that can reach the students I work with. In the world today where it is getting more and more difficult for the average person to find employment has made it that much more important for my students who already have struggles to work through to be even more prepared for the world they will soon enter.

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Brought to you by We Are Teachers partnership with PCI Education’s Teacher Grant: http://http://www.weareteachers.com/teaching-ideas/grant/teaching-idea?app= 18246&grantId=75

Real Teachers-Real Strategies 2: A Radio Broadcast

Special Education Classroom, Teaching Tips No Responses »

Jan 162012

Our second post in this series is from Matthew in Carteret, NJ. He teaches 7th and 8th graders.

His idea: Fireside Chats.

Students learning about the Great Depression had the opportunity to step into the shoes of President Roosevelt and create their own fireside chat radio broadcast based on the events of the 1930′s. Students learn the material in the classroom and then record an audio broadcast using the software program Audacity. The tasks involved are research, writing a script, and performing the broadcast. The project has different modalities so that each student in the group can shine in his/her own way.

Learning Objectives:

Students will be able to understand the impact that the events of the Great Depression had on America. They will also be able to relate the information they have learned to today’s economy. Students will enhance their research, writing and technology skills throughout the process of the project.

As well, this project was a collaboration between the students’ social studies and language arts classes. It took place in a variety of settings in our 8th grade. Both in-class support students and self-contained students had the opportunity to create their own group broadcast. The students learned tangible skills while also learning the important characteristics of teamwork.

Materials:

Audacity, an opensource audio recording program. Microsoft word, to type the script. Microphones to record the broadcast. EBSCO and Grollier online for research.

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This post is brought to you by We Are Teachers partnership with PCI Education’s Teacher Grant Asks: http://www.weareteachers.com/ideas/partnerask/teachingidea?app=16996&grantId=75

Character Education, Lasting Effects

Special Education Classroom No Responses »

Oct 022009

A Curriculum That Builds Character and Reading Comprehension Skills

Character education has long been a shared responsibility of parents, teachers and members of the community throughout history. It is a learning process that should be exemplified in a school community to help students understand, care about and act on such core ethical values as respect, justice, civic virtue and citizenship, and responsibility for self and others. These core values serve as the foundation of our society.

Whether a student has learning disabilities, developmental disabilities, or special needs, developing a strong character is essential to everyone. It affects developing good behavior skills and social skills as well. Because students spend much of their day in classrooms, teachers have an opportunity to explain and reinforce core values upon which character is formed.

Character education must be approached comprehensively to include the emotional, intellectual and moral qualities of a person or group. We must offer multiple opportunities for students to learn about, discuss and enact positive social behaviors so that being a person of strong character becomes a part of a student’s beliefs and actions. We must practice character for it to have a lasting effect.

PCI Education has designed a curriculum that provides diverse activities to develop character, practice positive behavior skills, and build reading comprehension called Bugg Books. These books infuse important life skills into engaging tales and entice struggling readers. As the main characters in each book work through everyday situations, they learn the value of good citizenship and having a strong character. The Bugg Books character lessons include:

• getting along with others
• learning to share
• practice makes perfect
• dealing with bullies
• respecting others
• sticking to the truth
• facing your fears
• paying attention
• doing your best
• consequences of stealing
• the trouble with tattling
• believing in yourself
• controlling your anger

Teaching character education along with reading comprehension skills is easy with the Bugg Books. The curriculum features two distinct lessons and exercises for each of the books in the series. The first lesson focuses on reading comprehension. The second lesson focuses on the character education lesson of the book with a wide variety of activities to specifically engage students in the lesson, extend it to their own everyday situations, and make personal connections. The curriculum also includes activities that families can do at home to reinforce each lesson.

Students with special needs, learning differences, or developmental disabilities can also evolve in character education, understand social values and learn positive behavior skills. It is vitally important we instill core values in all our children so they, too, can embody and teach the next generation a strong sense of character, values, and citizenship.

Within the character of the citizen lies the welfare of the nation. — Cicero

Special Needs: How Do You Learn?

Teaching Tips 1 Response »

Jul 272009

Engage Special Needs Students in Figuring Out Their Own Learning Style

Teaching has become as multidimensional as the world in which we live. With technology opening up so many different mediums for teaching, children with cognitive disabilities, learning differences, and developmental deficiencies have more opportunities than ever to learn basic school skills like reading, writing, and math along with communication, social and behavior skills.

Exploring what technology has to offer and modifying existing classroom practices, students with special needs or in special education can achieve academic success and be contributing members to their community. Teachers strive to help all children realize their worth and to successfully assimilate what they are capable of learning.

A positive step in that direction is engaging special ed students in figuring out their own learning style. Involving them in their personal learning process facilitates comprehension skills. When they are led to discover their personal style of learning, they build self-confidence and turn learning into a positive experience.

Make students responsible for their own learning. Allow students to set their own goals and enable them to recognize their achievements and successes. A variety of acknowledgements for each victory will build their esteem and confidence, as well as keep them motivated to learn. Struggling learners and students with learning differences or cognitive disabilities will realize they, too, can achieve academic success regardless of the challenges they face.

Let students become teachers. Allow student-initiated topics to set the stage for open forums. Encourage all students to share what they know. This process builds self-esteem and opens the door for future learning.

Make connections using real-world problems. Make students aware of the world around them. Encourage higher-order, critical thinking skills by encouraging students to brainstorm solutions to daily problems presented in the local news or available through other media sources.

Connect the past to the present. When studying an event from history, do not just tell students when and where the event occurred. Instead, initiate a research project to discover the reasons why the event occurred and what the results were. Next, connect the past to the present by studying how the event changed the world and, therefore, affects our lives today.

When students are responsible for their own learning, you are teaching them to recognize their abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. They will learn to work toward their strengths and discover new abilities in themselves to work with a weakness and still achieve their goals. Building upon those positive aspects will further mature life skills we all use and need daily.

Article Authored by Rachel Kaspar

Real-World Teaching Challenges

Teaching Tips 1 Response »

Jul 132009

Teaching to 21st Century Special Ed Students

Teachers face challenges today unmatched by past generations. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are still the basic skills taught, but far more advanced. Then add the new requirements for teaching, a myriad of guidelines of what to teach, and standardized testing teachers aren’t allowed to teach to, a very different landscape and scope of teaching has emerged. As well, teachers are also encouraged to help cultivate social skills in their students so they can be productive members of their community. These demands, coupled with the varying learning differences and emotional or behavioral needs of special needs students, can be overwhelming.

In an effort to make so many pieces a little more fluid rather than separately taught concepts, the following are suggestions for combining real-world learning with already-in-place classroom practices. These ideas connect how the subjects taught in school are relevant to everyday life skills. Perhaps these will also enable you to maximize your time-use for better efficiency and effectiveness.

Meaningful cooperative learning.

Survey what skills your students already know using this as a starting point. Cooking uses math skills. Going to a birthday party utilizes social skills, or attending family events exercises behavior skills. Making lists or sending Thank You notes uses writing skills. Every person comes to a group with a different set of experiences, skills, and opinions. Encourage students to share their personal knowledge base, which can then be built upon. Using open discussions develops communication skills and teaches peer cooperation. Students’ unique observations of their environment or researching a specific subject matter are directly relevant to nurturing critical thinking skills, which they use every day to learn at school.

Writing relevancy.

Facilitate students’ understanding that writing skills are important in almost every career and aspect of real life. Ask them how they think you would use writing to do your job and how they would use writing at home and in school. Encourage students to use writing as a sounding board for presenting their thoughts, opinions, and ideas to the world and even to their parents. Make writing fun by allowing students to share their distinct voices on a topic of their choice. For those students who struggle with the process of writing by hand, allow word processing as an alternative.

Multidisciplinary discovery process.

Help students understand how curricular areas are interconnected to each other and to their life. Point out that the subjects learned in school have a real impact on daily living as well as their history. Even if the subject matter taught in school is not relevant to a career they are considering or what their parents do, you can help them make the connection that the thought processes needed to understand each subject is related to work skills their parents use or they will use themselves one day.

Drawing real-world connections so that students understand WHY they have to learn what you are teaching will make the learning more relevant. Understanding how this is significant in-the-now could be the difference they need for academic success.

Authored by Rachel Kaspar

Elementary Life Skill Lesson #263

Teaching Tips No Responses »

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