special education » 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 3: Engaging Reluctant Readers & Writers

Special Education Classroom, Teaching Tips No Responses »

Jan 192012

This post comes from Jennifer in Lima, New York. She is a 1st-2nd grade teacher in Special Education, and her strategy is to help reluctant readers and writers get excited about doing just that: reading and writing!

Her project: Language Experience Stories.

“Students who are not yet excited about reading or who are hesitant to write need a hook. So we made them the characters in the story. I surveyed the children regarding things they like to do. They chose swimming. We created a list of things they did when swimming. I then brought in a blow up swimming pool and other items (floaties, pool toys). We then took pictures of them in the (empty) pool using the item or pretending to swim. From the pictures they wrote their sentences for their stories.”

Learning Objectives:

“Students learned to plan out a story, write their own sentences and then read their story to others. Their confidence grew and they were very proud of their accomplishments. When writing students used a promethean board rather than paper and pencil to make it different for them. Here they were more willing to stretch out the words and were more willing to stay on task.

“The children who created these stories were not enthusiastic about reading or writing prior to writing these stories. During the process they became more involved and excited. Once the story was complete and in their hands they loved it! Not only were they authors who could read their story, they were in the story! They wanted a copy to keep in their classroom and one to have at home. Parents also shared how proud their children were when they brought these stories home.”

Materials:

“With this story it was chart paper, a blow up pool, pool toys, floaties, camera, and a promethean board. Computer and printer were used to create and print the book. With other language experience stories the materials were different depending on the topic that they chose.”

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Brought to you by We Are Teachers partnership with PCI Education’s Teacher Grant Asks: http://www.weareteachers.com/ideas/partnerask/teachingidea?app=16609&grantId=75

Make It Real: Explore Your Newspaper

Special Education Classroom No Responses »

Oct 292009

Relevant Life Skills Lessons for Struggling Readers and Students with Learning Differences

Keeping middle school and high school students with learning differences or that are struggling readers engaged in practicing reading and writing skills is a familiar challenge to teachers. Explore Your Newspaper was created to motivate and engage these students to reinforce reading comprehension and writing skills, as well as introducing or reviewing the newspaper concept and relating it to a basic academic skill.

This comprehensive program includes lesson plans and activity sheets to help students learn about each section of a newspaper while they practice basic skills. Because of the many types of information in newspapers, including articles, charts, graphs, photographs, comics, and schedules, readers must use a variety of academic skills from several subjects, including reading, writing, math, and geography.

Each worksheet in the lesson includes clear, simple directions along with a visual icon to help students who struggle with reading. Many of the exercises involve situations that middle and high schools students will encounter in the future, such as finding an apartment, interpreting advertisements, and determining what to wear based on weather forecasts. Activities cover specific sections of the newspaper and integrate basic skills, such as locating necessary information, identifying facts and opinions, following a sequence when writing, placing information into categories, and identifying the meanings of abbreviations in classified ads. Most activities require students to find or cut out information from a newspaper and use that text to complete an activity, adding a hands-on component to the program.

Explore Your Newspaper is a flexible program designed to use either as a complete newspaper exploration program or as a fun basic skills supplement to any unit. The sections and most of the lessons can be completed in any order. Several lessons are designed to build on each other and should be taught in the suggested order. An index of skills is provided so that teachers can easily locate lessons that reinforce specific skills.

Because this program was designed for students with learning differences and struggling readers, the materials are already modified to their level of understanding and age appropriateness. Explore Your Newspaper is relevant to everyday life making the articles and activities meaningful and the lessons applicable to building and retaining basic life skills.

Funding, Idea Sharing Available Through Microgrant

Special Education Classroom No Responses »

Oct 152009

WeAreTeachers announces a new microgrant, “Special Education: Individual Attention, Collective Impact,” sponsored by PCI Education.

Share how your work, project or idea can make a positive impact for special education students. All of the grant submissions will be published online, where members of the WeAreTeachers community will vote for their favorite project. The 10 submissions that receive the most community votes will be awarded a $200 cash microgrant and a Flip Videoä camera to share the project in action. Your project will inspire other teachers who collectively can make a difference in the lives of more students with special needs.

Grant submissions will be accepted through Oct. 31st. To apply for this grant online, visit www.weareteachers.com. Voting will begin Nov. 3rd, when the submitted projects will be posted online for community review, and winners will be announced Nov. 19th.

The microgrant is part of a new partnership between PCI Education and WeAreTeachers, an online network that brings together teachers, learners and content in the education industry. The partnership provides the WeAreTeachers community with special education expertise, by offering teachers access to community support, idea sharing, product recommendations, and grant opportunities.

Through the PCI Education home page on WeAreTeachers, special education teachers can connect with one another, share best practices and interact with one another, as well as with PCI Education, to create a classroom culture that is up-to-date with the latest and best in teaching techniques and products.

In addition, WeAreTeachers offers members the opportunity to rate PCI Education products to help colleagues make informed purchase decisions. Teachers can write and share reviews and implementation recommendations on products they are using in their classrooms. Each review provides members with points that can be redeemed for charity contributions, gift cards or other classroom supplies.

To access the online community, visit www.weareteachers.com/web/pcieducation.

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

Take the “Arrrddd!” Out of Standardized Tests

Teaching Tips 1 Response »

Sep 142009

Incorporate Teaching & Test-Taking Strategies Now to Minimize Anxiety at Test Time

In a society where standardized tests are reality in many states, teachers are faced with an ever-present dilemma: “Should I, or should I not, teach to the test?”

Both sides of the debate have merit. In a world where teacher salaries, school funding, and student promotion are sometimes determined by test scores, it is seemingly impossible not to teach to the test. However, many feel that teaching to the test limits meaningful learning in the classroom, especially for students with special needs, in special ed, and students with learning differences.

The following activities are recommended for educators to combine meaningful learning with test-taking strategies, thereby facilitating overall academic achievement and standardized test success:

1. Provide repeated exposure to standardized test format. Broaden the curriculum by applying standardized test format and test-taking procedures in other areas of the curriculum. Repeated exposure to standardized test format takes away some of the anxiety experienced when students are faced with “real” standardized tests.

2. Teach necessary components in bite-sized pieces. In an effort to avoid students feeling overwhelmed by too much at one time, break necessary skills down into individual components. For example, when teaching writing, break lessons down into individual components such as topic sentence, supporting sentences, and closing sentence. Allow plenty of time for struggling readers and learners to succeed in one area before moving on to the next.

3. Tailor modifications to meet the needs of each child with learning differences. Not every modification works for every child. Providing more time for one student may not be as beneficial as having a test administrator read the test aloud. Large print accommodations do not benefit all students, and in some cases, may cause them to see the test as longer and more intimidating.

4. Teach test-taking strategies.

• Emphasize first and foremost: read directions thoroughly.
• When reading long selections, teach students to read the questions first so that they know what information they are looking for.
• Have them underline key words and phrases and make notes in the margins.
• For multiple-choice items, teach students to cross out wrong answers with a pencil before choosing the correct answer from the choices remaining.
• Teach the importance of reading all of the choices before answering.
• To help students avoid feelings of frustration and inadequacy by spending too much time focusing on one difficult passage, question, or test area:
o Help them understand that it is okay to skip an item and come back to it after the remainder of the questions have been answered.
o Have them circle the question number so they know which one to return to quickly.

5. Encourage critical thinking skills across the curriculum. Provide opportunities each day for students to “think outside the box” in an effort to improve critical thinking skills. Encourage creativity, instead of letting the pressure of standardized tests stifle it.

6. Make every effort to reduce the pressure for students. Employ test-taking strategies as a routine in the classroom, not just at standardized test time. Help them understand these tests scores don’t make or break their grades. Emphasize that all students should do their best, and leave it at that.

Authored by Rachel Kaspar
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“I feel the most important requirement in success is learning to overcome failure. You must learn to tolerate it, but never accept it.”
–Reggie Jackson, Major League Baseball Player

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

Helping 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

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