Coupons as Math Manipulatives

 Teaching Tips  1 Response »
Oct 082009
 

Teach Number Operations and Practical Life Skills Using Coupons

PCI1857-Coupon-Math-Coupon

by Kristine Lindsay

Finding special education resources to teach students that are on a level that isn’t too childish for older students but appealing to all students with special needs, and that do not have to be overly modified to fit your students’ learning abilities can be a challenge. Teaching basic number operations in a meaningful way to children with learning disabilities needs to be applicable to their lives to retain the information and build real-world life skills.

Students with learning differences and in special education classes learn basic number operations best through real-world applications. Coupons are a convenient and fun tool in helping struggling learners improve their mathematic skills in relevant ways.

When I taught in a special education elementary classroom, I found that my students were able to add and subtract monetary amounts better when the materials related to a life skill they could use or observe daily. I created several hands-on strategies using coupons and grocery store ads that helped struggling learners improve their addition, subtraction, and problem-solving skills.

Here are some of the strategies I used successfully with individuals and in group activities:

Needed Materials: a variety of coupon flyers and multiple grocery store ads

1. Parts and Purpose of a Coupon: Have students create grocery lists with 3 items and look through coupon flyers to find as many coupons as they can for those items. Have students identify the coupons’ attributes, including product, value, brand, restrictions, and expiration dates. Discuss the purposes of coupons and when they do or do not save shoppers money. Explain that students may find several coupons for an item, but the “best deal” is based on price, coupon value, or size/quantity of the item.

2. Subtraction: Give students pre-made grocery receipts, listing 3 items and their prices with a subtotaled amount. Have students find a coupon for one of the items on the list. Students will subtract the values of the coupons from their subtotals to find the totals to be paid. Discuss what using a coupon does to the total amount paid.

3. Addition and Subtraction: Give students pre-made grocery receipts listing 5 items and their prices with a subtotaled amount. Have students find one coupon per item on their lists, knowing that some items will not have coupons. Then, have students add the values of their coupons and subtract the total values of the coupons from the receipts’ subtotals. Discuss what using several coupons does to the total amount paid.

4. Two-Step Problems: Instruct students to create a shopping list of 5-8 items and try to find one coupon per item. Then, have students add their items’ prices to find a subtotal, and add their coupons’ values. Subtract the coupons’ values from their subtotals to find their total amounts paid. Students can swap lists with other groups for more practice.

For more activities and practice sheets on using coupons as math manipulatives, see the Coupon Math program I wrote that was inspired by my teaching needs for special education materials that are relevant and fun. This program is an appropriate elementary special education curriculum for introducing and reinforcing addition, subtraction, two-step problems, and problem-solving strategies. It is also a great secondary special ed resource for reviewing and reteaching number operations and money concepts to middle school and high school students with special needs.

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 Education is PCI’s Specialty

 Special Education Classroom  No Responses »
Sep 102009
 

Academic Materials Tailored to a Variety of Special Needs

2008 PCILogoNew  by Kristina M. Swann                       

Several years ago, I jumped at the chance to write curriculum and other materials for PCI Education. Previously, as a special education teacher, I had spent hours modifying materials for my students. At PCI, I had the opportunity, along with other former teachers, to create curriculums and worksheets that feature a variety of modifications for students with special needs. We have the unique opportunity to create materials tailored to these students so teachers in the field did not have to go through the extensive modifications on their own any longer.

In my role as teacher, the modifications most frequently included:
•  enlarging the font of a textbook page or worksheet
•  shortening assignments
•  providing study guides so students will know what information they need to know
•  testing only on the most important information

I’m sure many of you can relate that these modifications needed to be accomplished without resulting in pages that look babyish or too different from what other students were using, which is not an easy task. However at PCI Education, the art directors and graphic designers know how to make materials easy to read without being juvenile.

To encompass the variety of special needs and learning differences, PCI’s products are specifically written to these students’ needs to facilitate learning in an inclusion classroom or special ed classroom in these ways:
•  Written at a lower reading level to accommodate struggling readers
•  Are printed in 14-point font
•  Have worksheets that are pleasing to the eye and not visually confusing
•  Questions are broken up into blocks of 5 questions at a time
•  Limiting choices in a word bank
•  Including crossword puzzles that are fun but also provide clues to exercise critical thinking skills
•  Include worksheets that also serve as study guides for the quizzes and tests. Each worksheet tells students on which corresponding student text page they can find the answer.
•  Created to have no surprises on tests and quizzes. Each test question comes from the worksheet pages, and all test and quiz questions have been answered before in a different format.

For example, a true/false question that appeared on a worksheet might appear on the test as a multiple-choice question, like the example below.

1. Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States during the Civil War.
•  True or False?

1. ________________ was President of the United States during the Civil War.
•  A. Abraham Lincoln
•  B. George Washington
•  C. George Bush
•  D. John F. Kennedy

At PCI, our goal is to make it as easy as possible for students to learn and retain the information presented in our student texts. PCI Education prides itself on creating materials that meet academic standards for students with special needs, struggling readers and struggling learners, students with learning differences, and students with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

Um, What Happens After High School?

 Teaching Tips  No Responses »
Sep 042009
 

Incorporating Transition Instruction for Students in Special Education

Research and daily interactions with secondary students support the need for focused instruction in the area of transition, especially students with learning differences, emotional/behavioral needs, mild cognitive disabilities, or students with other special needs. They will be asked to answer what type of career they have an interest in or an aptitude for.

Career research via writing projects can provide valuable information and experiences utilizing critical thinking skills. After researching career options, students with special needs often need assistance charting a transition path and should be encouraged to develop at least two alternate or back up transition plans. An initial outline of their main idea should be put together answering who, what, when, why, where, and how.

Then, the focus needs to be a progression of learning self-advocacy and self-determination skills. It is important for them to know:

  • Their legal rights and responsibilities as an adult with a disability.
  • They understand what type of support they can expect to receive after high school.
  • Students in special ed or with special needs should exit high school with current documentation of their disability to allow a continuation of support services if needed.

These basics along with skills for getting a job and keeping it should be addressed prior to completing an in-depth transition path.

The skills to secure and retain a job need to be taught and practiced along with workplace behavior and social skills. Often the skills of completing applications, interviewing, demonstrating good worker traits and teamwork are expected or at best quickly reviewed. Teaching students’ with special needs how to access and succeed in any of the post secondary options – employment, technical/trade college, college/university, or the military – is crucial. 

Tips for where to begin: 

  • A separate elective course using a transition curriculum
  • Supplementing a regular education “careers” curriculum
  • Integrating it into a self-contained classroom
  • Providing additional assistance during a resource period
  • Coordinate with other teachers for writing and/or research assignments that would work for both classes

There are many resources in a variety of mediums specifically designed and written for students in special education and students with special needs. Several examples of curriculums offered are:

  • Career Folio Curriculum is a reproducible activity binder that contains everything needed to organize relevant career facts into one meaningful whole for students, including blackline masters to help students organize their own Career Folios as well as a career action plan and post-program goals.
  • Career Planning includes student text and an audio cd library, plus teaching strategies, application activities, ideas for classroom projects, and tips on learning styles. Covers a variety of skills job seekers need-reference gathering, résumé writing, communication, interviewing, working with others, and managing time.
  • Everyday Life Skills is a textbook and video series that is a comprehensive career development program for high school students making the transition to postsecondary life. This curriculum focuses on the important “how to live and work” issues not always covered by regular curricular materials. Interactive cd’s and audio cassettes are also part of the curriculum.

“Minds-On” Science Instruction

 Teaching Tips  No Responses »
Aug 282009
 

Science LabHelping Special Ed Students and Struggling Learners Get Their Heads into Science

For years, we have been taught that “hands-on” science activities are the ones that students remember. The writers of the National Science Education Standards state that, “ ‘Hands-on’ activities, while essential, are not enough. Students must have ‘minds-on’ experiences as well… and all students should have access to excellent science education, regardless of age, gender, cultural or ethnic background, disabilities, aspirations, or interest and motivation in science.”

This means that students must develop their understanding of science by not only learning the basics of scientific knowledge, but combining that knowledge with critical thinking skills.  Students are now being asked to say why the demonstration is interesting and how it’s relevant to our lives.

Students need to take in the science information they are being taught and then apply it, whether in a class discussion, a one-on-one conversation, or in writing. Whether you teach an inclusive class, a special education class, or have special needs students, you can provide students with the essential skills that they need to develop a better understanding of the world of science and how it impacts their life.

These activities are a start to getting students to take a minds-on approach along with hands-on practice in your elementary, middle school, or high school science classroom.

• Use a hands-on lab experiment as a springboard for other activities. For example, students could do research to find out if other schools or other classes within your school achieved the same results as them. Add the minds-on to it by having them create a presentation to illustrate their findings, or their results versus another class’s results. Or, have a class debate about why something happened the way that it did in the experiment.

• Assign research projects to students about different experiments. Then, have students recreate the experiments (hands-on) in the classroom and write up their results (minds-on).

• Conduct a hands-on lab experiment, then have the students turn their minds-on writing a short paper about how this experiment relates to something important in our lives today, along with “what if” this experiment never happened, what impact it would have.

For special needs, special ed or learning differences students, using a science word bank journal, a science flip-chart, or science graphic organizer would afford them a visual tool to successfully complete any of these ideas. There are also great software and audio programs available to provide reinforcement and added visual aids.

[ The above quoted information comes from this website: http://www.nsta.org/standards ]

By Kristina M. Swann

Getting the Words Right

 Teaching Tips  1 Response »
Aug 242009
 

boy-and-blocksVocabulary Tactics in an Inclusive Classroom  by Kristina Swann

We know that learning vocabulary is an essential first step to learning anything. Obviously, students must learn vocabulary while learning to read, but they must also learn vocabulary for every subject they study. Each subject comes with its own vernacular. Without basic knowledge of the vocabulary of a topic, understanding the subject would be hard at best, but vocabulary can be especially challenging for special needs children and students with autism or those with learning differences.

In today’s inclusiveclassrooms, vocabulary development is more important than ever before. There is a growing number of students with learning differences and special needs challenges and students who are English language learners.

These are some things I used while teaching and reinforcing vocabulary in my inclusive classroom:

• Use multiple methods of review and reinforcement of terms. Students can match terms to definitions, sort terms into categories, or identify the correct term from a list of choices.

• Practice vocabulary in a fun way. For example, play vocabulary bingo with your students. You can also turn reviews into a rhyming game or a sing-along. Depending on the age of your students, they could even be engaged to make their own song or rap to remember the words.

• Make vocabulary visual. Put up a word wall. Students will be able to see the vocabulary words every day when they walk into the classroom. If you have a few extra minutes between lessons or at the end of a class, call on volunteers to define words from the word wall or put them in sentences. Reward students for answering correctly.

• Use technology. Instructional software programs are a fantastic way to provide extra practice to students who need it most.

• Use the words. Once you have taught students a vocabulary word, use it. For example, if you have taught students the word “subtract,” don’t use the phrase “take away” anymore when teaching about subtraction. Say “subtract” every time you address the topic.

• Get students to own their vocabulary words. Have students make up definitions in their own words. Have them write words in sentences and draw pictures to represent the words and their definitions. Letting students take control of the words while they are learning them allows students to keep those words with them for the long term.

Special Needs: How Do You Learn?

 Teaching Tips  1 Response »
Jul 272009
 

booksboy1Engage 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

Elementary Life Skill Lesson #263

 Teaching Tips  No Responses »
Jun 242009
 

secrets2TAMING 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

 Teaching Tips  No Responses »
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

 Teaching Tips  No Responses »
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

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