Chapter 9

Chapter 9 – Differentiating Instruction

How can you make accommodations for students with special needs in basic skills instruction?

·         Teaching Pre-skills

o   Pre-skills – basic skills necessary for performing more complex skills

o   Because textbooks do not generally list pre-skills, you need to ask yourself continually what pre-skills are required, and you need to be on the lookout for students who lack them

·         Selecting and Sequencing Examples

o   Help students make key discriminations between current and previous problem types by using examples that at first require the application of only one particular skill

·         Deciding the Rate of Introduction of New Skills

o   New skills should be introduced in small steps and at a rate slow enough to ensure mastery prior to the introduction of more new skills

o   Prioritize skills

o   Slowing down the rate of skills introduced is an accommodation in the way curriculum is presented, but it is not the same things as reducing the amount of curriculum to be learned

·         Providing Direct Instruction and Opportunities for Practice and Review

o   Some students may need more direct instruction and practice

o   Practice is most effective when it follows direct instruction; practice is never an adequate substitute for direct instruction

o   You need to differentiate instruction to enable students with special needs to acquire basic skills

How can you make accommodations for students with special needs when teaching subject-area content?

·         Activating Background Knowledge

o   The amount of background knowledge students have can greatly influence whether they can read subject matter with understanding

o   Use the Prep Strategy

§  Preview the text or lesson, and choose two to three important concepts

§  Conduct a brainstorming session with students

§  Evaluate students responses to determine the depth of their prior knowledge of the topic

o   Prepare Anticipation Guides

§  Consists of a series of statements, some of which may not be true, related to the material that students are about to read

o   Provide Planning Think Sheets

§  Help writers focus on background information as well as on the audience and purpose of paper

§  Questions:

·         What is my topic?

·         Why do I want to write on this topic?

·         What are two things I already that will make it easy to write this paper?

·         Who will read my paper?

·         Why will the reader be interested in this topic?

·         Organizing Content

o   Use Advance Organizers

§  Identifying major topics and activities

§  Presenting an outline of content

§  Providing background information

§  Stating concepts and ideas to be learned in the lesson

§  Motivating students to learn by showing the relevance of the activity

§  Stating the objectives or outcomes of the lesson

o   Employ Cue Words for Organizational Patterns

§  Ways in which content area texts are written to reflect main ideas such as compare-contrast, cause-effect, and problem solution

o   Construct Study Guides

§  Outlines, abstracts, or questions that emphasize important information in texts

§  Helpful in improving comprehension for students with special needs in content-area classrooms

§  Not a substitute for direct instruction

o   Create Graphic Organizers

§  Visual format that helps students to organize their understanding of information being presented or read and the relationships between various parts of the information

·         Teaching Terms and Concepts

o   Model examples and use synonyms and definitions

o   Make concept diagrams

How can you improve clarity in written and oral communication?

·         Clarity in Written Communication

o   The closer a pronoun is to its referent, the easier it is to translate

o   There is a need for adopting structurally and organizationally coherent textbooks

·         Clarity in Oral Communication

o   Give directions

o   Ask questions

o   Present Subject Matter

What accommodations can you make for students to help them succeed in Independent Practice?

·         Differentiating Seatwork Assignments

o   Verbally present tasks

o   Add practice examples that you can do with the whole class or small group of students who are having particular difficulty

o   Write alternative sets of directions

o   Highlight the important words in the directions

o   Have students help each other when the directions are difficult

Outside Resources
Education 4 Kids	www.edu4kids.com
ProQuest K-12	www.proquestk12.com
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)	www.tesol.org

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – Students with Special Needs Other than Disabilities

Which students are protected by Section 504?

·         Understanding Section 504

o   Disability – any condition that substantially limits a major life activity

o   Does not provide funds to school districts to carry out its requirements

o   Responsibility for making accommodations for students who qualify as disabled belongs to general education personnel

·         Students Eligible for Services under Section 504

o   Students with chronic health or medical problems

§  Diabetes, allergies, etc

o   Students with learning problems

§  Dyslexia

How can you accommodate students with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder?

o   Define: medical condition in which students have significant inability to attend, excessive motor activity, and/or impulsivity

·         Characteristics and Needs of Students with ADHD

o   Inability to regulate attention

o   Fail to develop executive functions

o   Difficulty in reading, in listening

o   Behavior problems vary

·         Interventions for Students with ADHD

o   Classroom should be free from distracting items

o   Focus on essential information

o   Behavior interventions emphasize structure and rewards

o   Medication

·         Families of Children with ADHD

o   Try to build positive relationships by encouraging parents to reward their children for being successful and by helping them see their children’s strengths

How can you accommodate students who are gifted and talented?

o   Define: Giftedness traditionally refers to students with extraordinary abilities across many academic areas and talent to students with extraordinary abilities in specific areas

·         Characteristics and Needs of Students who are gifted and talented

o   Usually have an extraordinary amount of knowledge

o   Advanced ability to comprehend information

o   Skilled problem solvers

·         Interventions for Students who are Gifted and Talented

o   Curriculum compacting

o   Acceleration and Enrichment

o   Differentiation

o   Individualized Interventions

What are the needs of students from culturally diverse backgrounds?

·         Cultural Awareness

o   Consider demands of the classroom setting and identify the strengths and interests students bring to the learning environment

o   Look for potential problem areas throughout your entire instructional program

o   Effective decisions about teaching strategies are made by matching the needs of students from culturally diverse backgrounds to instructional approaches

·         Families and Diversity

o   Learn about students’ community

o   Respect and be sensitive to students

·         Multicultural and Bilingual Education

o   Curriculum and instruction reflect the diversity of society

o   Develop curiosity about students’ cultures and languages

o   Become culturally competent

How can you meet the needs of students who are at risk?

·         Characteristics and Needs of Students at Risk

o   Students who live in poverty

o   Students who are abused or neglected

o   Students who live with substance abuse or are substance abusers

·         Interventions for Students at Risk

o   Set high but realistic expectations

o   Establish peers as teaching partners

o   Collaborate with other professionals

o   Support family and community involvement

Outside Resources
Children and Adults with ADHD	www.chadd.org
Gifted and Talented	www.gifted.uconn.edu
National Association for Bilingual Education	www.nabe.org

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 – Students with High-Incidence Disabilities

What are High-Incidence Disabilities?

·          High-incidence disabilities – students with speech or language disabilities, learning disabilities, emotional disturbance, or mild intellectual disabilities

·         Characteristics:

o   Difficult to distinguish from peers without disabilities

o   Exhibit a combination of behavioral, social, and academic problems

o   Benefit from systematic, explicit, highly structured instructional interventions

What accommodations can you make for students with communication disorders?

·         Understanding Speech Problems

o   Speech articulation – the inability to pronounce sounds correctly at and after the developmentally appropriate age

o   Stuttering – a speech impairment in which an individual involuntarily repeats a sound or word, resulting in a loss of speech fluency

·         Understanding Language Problems

o   Students who have language problems have trouble with either or both two key parts of language: receptive language (understanding what people say) and expressive language (speaking so people understand)

o   May have difficulty using language in social situations

o   Problems with sounds can result in students’ having difficulties acquiring word analysis and spelling skills

o   Can impede the content-area learning stressed in middle, junior high, and high school

o   May have difficulty verbalizing the steps to solving problems

·         Accommodations for Students with Communication Disorders

o   Create an atmosphere of acceptance

o   Encourage listening

o   Teach listening skills

o   Use modeling to expand students’ language

o   Provide many meaningful contexts for practicing speech and language skills

What are the academic needs of students with learning and behavioral disabilities?

o   Learning disabilities (LD) – condition in which a student has dysfunction in processing information typically found in language-based activities, resulting in interference with learning

o   Mild intellectual disabilities – condition in which students have some difficulty meeting the academic and social demands of general education classrooms due in large part to below-average intellectual functioning

o   Emotional Disturbance (ED) – condition in which an individual has significant difficulty in the social and emotional domain, so much so that it interferes with learning

·         Reading Skills

o   Problems with decoding (identifying words accurately and fluently) and comprehension

o   May lack background and vocabulary knowledge as well as strategies for identifying the key elements of stories and content-area texts

·         Writing Skills

o   Include handwriting, spelling, and written expression

o   Handwriting – could be due to lack of fine motor coordination, failure to attend to task, inability to perceive and/or remember visual images accurately, and inadequate handwriting instruction in the classroom

o   Spelling – could have trouble with words that can be spelled phonetically, spelled by following certain linguistic rules, and spelled irregularly

o   Written – product problems and process problems

·         Math Skills

o   Problems with spatial organization

o   Lack of alertness to visual detail

o   Procedural errors

o   Failure to shift mindset from one problem type to another

o   Difficulty forming numbers correctly

o   Difficulty with memory

o   Problems with mathematical judgment and reasoning

o   Problems with mathematical language

·         Learning Skills

o   Problems with attention, organizing and interpreting, reasoning, motor coordination and fine motor coordination, independent learning

What are the social and emotional needs of students with learning and behavioral disabilities?

·         Interpersonal Skills

o   Difficulty in social relations with their peers

o   Explanations: not know what to do in social situations, trouble reading social cues, may choose not to act on their previous knowledge, lack confidence

·         Personal and Psychological Adjustment

o   SELF-IMAGE – little confidence in their own abilities

o   May have severe anxiety or depression

What accommodations can you make for students with learning and behavioral disabilities?

·         Addressing Academic Needs

o   Provide instructional accommodations

o   Bypass a student’s need by allowing the student to employ compensatory learning strategies

o   Make accommodation in classroom management, grouping, materials, and methods

o   Provide student with direct instruction on basic or independent learning skills

·         Addressing Social and Emotional Needs

o   Behavior contract

o   Social skills training

o   Self-control training

o   Attribution training (failures are due to lack of effort rather than ability)

Outside Resources
The Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice	http://cecp.air.org
LDOonLine	www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/iep/iep.html
The Learning Disabilities Association of America	www.ldanatl.org
National Center for Stuttering	www.stuttering.com