Adaptations for Students with Disabilities

February 13th, 2014  

Students with disabilities often struggle with general education classroom work. Whether the environment is too distracting or they can’t understand what they are being asked, students need our help to adapt their environment and instruction for success. The final newsletters of the year will include some concrete ways to adapt for students. One way is to lower the readability of questions while maintaining the same content. Here are some examples of how easy that is:

Original Question Revised Question
Compare and contrast the deciduous forest and the tundra. How are the deciduous forest and tundra alike?  How are they different?
Plants respond to things in their environment.  List three stimuli to which most plants respond. Name three things to which plants respond.
Name those structures that are found in both plant cells and animals cells. What parts do animal cells and plant cells have in common?
Distinguish between a nuclear reaction and a chemical reaction. What is a nuclear reaction?  What is a chemical reaction?
Identify some of the plants and animals that live in freshwater habitats and some that live in marine habitats. Name a plant and animal that lives in the freshwater habitat.  Name a plant and animal that lives in the saltwater (marine) habitat.
Discuss reasons why animals hibernate. Why do certain animals hibernate during the winter?
Volcanoes are produced by what conditions? What causes volcanoes?
Laura Thomas needs insurance for her personal belongings but not for her residence since she lives in an apartment.  If her semiannual insurance premium is $47.00, what amount will she have to pay for 2 years? Laura Thomas lives in an apartment and needs to insure her belongings.  The insurance premium costs $47.00 every 6 months (semiannually).  How much will she pay in two years?

 

Breaking down questions into more manageable parts and choosing a word choice that students can independently understand can help students to be successful in general education!

~Thanks to KPBSD school psychologist, Dr. Terese Kashi for providing the information for this series of newsletter articles.

Pre-K Math Enrichment (Not just for Pre-K)

April 4th, 2013  

According to Cindy Middendorf, a training consultant and veteran kindergarten teacher, most early childhood brain research indicates that children between 4 and 7 years old are primarily right-brain thinkers. The best ways to work with this are to provide whole-picture and multisensory classroom instruction. “Often times, we’re too quick to say that a child has a specific learning disability,” Middendorf said. “More often than not, it’s a problem with conceptualizing because most of our math instruction for decades has been the traditional left-brain, logical, sequential type of instruction. That’s mainly because math lends itself to that kind of instruction.” Some ideas of how to work with students are included in the March 27, 2013 Special Ed Connections e-newsletter.

bullet-point-image-8 Develop students’ math language. Students often need to develop the language of math before they can    understand its concepts. For example, without concrete experiences of what “equal” means, students will likely fail to grasp the concept.

bullet-point-image-8 Ensure students internalize concepts. Research has indicated that students in second and third grade who are struggling in math are the ones who never developed an internalized sense of numbers.

bullet-point-image-8 Build problem-solving skills. Teachers often compartmentalize math when the child’s developing brain needs the big picture. When teaching the number 3, for example, teachers can also introduce triangles to make     connections for the children. Children with special needs may need visual references, so your teachers might provide them with three straws to make a triangle.

bullet-point-image-8 Use technology in moderation. Technology provides strong visual and auditory engagement. However, early childhood teachers need to be aware of children’s developing vision and the impact of extended periods of time in front of a screen. Also, there is often little socialization among children when using technology.    “Technology should be used in small doses with mammoth breaks in between.”

bullet-point-image-8 Explore development opportunities. Early childhood centers and schools may lack the funds to send teachers to conferences for professional development, so explore alternative resources. “TeacherTube has phenomenal model lessons that provide examples of  teachers and students interacting on concepts,” Middendorf said.  Though TeacherTube does not necessarily show lessons or strategies that are research based, it does give some ideas that may be helpful.

Celebrations! – KCHS Study Skills

March 17th, 2013  

We have a special spot in the newsletter for celebrations of staff excellence and innovation. If you know any person or team to celebrate, please let Denise Kelly know!

With the guidance and assistance of their school psychologist, Dr. Tim McIntyre, the teachers of KCHS, Lois Bisset, Melisa Frates, Granger Nyboer and Holly Zwink, have incorporated Robert Marzano’s & Debra Pickering’s book, Building Academic Vocabulary, into their study skills classes. Over the past year and a half, special education students have made gains in their understanding and use of vocabulary in their classes. If you are interested in learning more, contact any of the team at KCHS!!

Hats off to the team at KCHS for pushing study skills to be more than a study hall for students to get their class work done!

 

Using Blogs for Writers

February 1st, 2013  

“For students with LD who may struggle with generalization, blog writing offers an experiential environment that does not have to be translated to the “real world” – it is real.” (Jones, 2012)

Blogs are web sites that reflect an author’s informal thoughts on topics of their own personal interest. They may have one author or many and most will invite comments from readers. Classroom blogs can offer several benefits for writing instruction. They create an authentic audience for writing. Because blogs have a real audience, they change the purpose of the writing from finishing an assignment to communicating a message. Some may no longer be concerned about the grade they will receive, but rather will write until they believe they can be understood.

Research is limited regarding blogging and students with Learning Disabilities. Studies available suggest that authentic audiences can increase the writing output and achievement of diverse groups of learners, including those with LD.

Studies also suggest that blogs can facilitate authentic writing, increase writing output, and improve writing quality. There are specific things that special educators can do to facilitate student success in blogging.

1. Choose a blog platform based on students’ needs and available resources.
2. Create a writing community.
3. Create meaningful writing assignments.
4. Use evidence-based prewriting strategies.
5. Support online composition with assistive technology.
6. Teach students to create and respond to comments.
7. Maintain, evaluate and tweak the blogging experience for long – term success.

Here are some FREE blog platforms for you and your students to explore:

Google Blogger www.blogger.com

Word Press www.wordpress.com
(KPBSD has an internal server set up through this website that allows any district employee to set up a blog by going to: http://blogs.kpbsd.k12.ak.us

Edublogs (specific to educators and students) http://edublogs.org

KPBSD Resource www.kpbsd.k12.ak.us/employees.aspx?id=11230

Jones, S.R. (November/December 2012). Digital Access: Using Blogs to Support Adolescent
Writers with Learning Disabilities. Teaching Exceptional Children, 16-23.

HSGQE Resource Guides

January 29th, 2013  

If you have students taking the HSGQE this spring that have an approved modification to use math and/or writing resource guides, please make sure that students are familiar with the resource guides before the test administration.  If you haven’t already, you should download the resource guides and begin working with students so that they have an opportunity to use these guides and become comfortable with them prior to April’s test administration.

The state-approved resource guides can be found online (see links below).

Only students with a State-approved modification can use these resource guides on the HSGQE re-test!

Links to Guides:

Math Resource Guide
Writing Resource Guide