Teaching High School Mathematics to Special Needs Students

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Teaching High School Mathematics to Special
Needs Students

• City College of the City of New York
• May 15, 2008
• Presenters
• Ursula Endara District 75 High School
  Math Coach
• Dorota Koczewska District 75 Director of
  Mathematics
• Danielle Masella - District 75 370K

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Our Students

• Emotionally Fragile
• Violent tendencies/outburst
• Come from prison/homes/juvenile jails
• School Phobic
• Alternate Assessment Students
• Learning Disabilities
• ADD and/or ADHD
• Psychotic
• Oppositional Behavior

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Differentiated Instruction for Math

• Differentiated instruction is a process through
  which teachers enhance learning by matching
  student characteristics to instruction and
  assessment.
• Differentiated instruction allows all students to
  access the same classroom curriculum by providing
  entry points, learning tasks, and outcomes that
  are tailored to students needs (Hall, Strangman,
  Meyer, 2003)

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• Differentiated instruction is not a single
  strategy, but rather an approach to instruction
  that incorporates a variety of strategies
• Teachers can differentiate by (Tomlinson, 1999)
• content different levels
• process oral, written, web,
• product for students solve a
• problem set while another builds a model

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Differentiated Instruction Depends On Assessment
of the Following

• Students readiness - skill level and
  
• background knowledge
• Interest topics that will motivate the
• student
• Learning style visual, auditory, tactile, or
  kinesthetic learner grouping preferences
  (individual, small group or large group) and
  environmental preferences (quiet, alone, lots of
  space)

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Optimal Learning Classroom Enviornment

• Building students confidence and self-esteem
• Use of charts for instruction
• Hanging teacher made charts
• Consistent routines with clear expectations
• Flexible lessons and planning more than less
• Risk taking safe environment

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Differentiating Instruction in the Special
Education Classroom

• Unambiguous classwork expectations
• Lesson flows from one activity to the next
• No more than 1 concept at a time 2 at most
• Manipulatives rulers, number lines, calculators,
  teacher made charts, etc
• Colored chalk, pencils, markers
• Graphic Organizers
• Careful pacing of lesson

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Differentiation in the classroom (continued)

• Talking slowly
• Wait time
• Providing experiential activities if no prior
  knowledge (e.g. classification of numbers)
• Make connections to prior knowledge
• Spiraling and Scaffolding often
• Repetition and practice
• Individual attention and teaching autonomy
• Adapt word problems
• Testing Accommodations during class

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Problem Consider this shopping trip

• You have 1.
• First you buy a candy bar that costs 35 and
  receive
• change in the least possible number of
  coins.
• If there are more quarters in a dollar than
  nickels in a quarter,
• you pay 1 nickel for a pencil otherwise,
  you pay 1 dime.
• You find 1 nickel and 3 pennies on the sidewalk.
• You give the grocery clerk your half dollar (50)
  
• for a 20 pack of gum, receiving three coins
  in change.
• You meet a friend who is parking her car. She
  needs change for the parking meter, so you give
  her 2 nickels in exchange for 1 dime.
• You buy a piece of candy with each dime you have
  left.
• If you now have more than 10 left, you pay 10
  for bus fare and ride home. But if you have less
  than 10 left, you buy a 3 stamp and walk home.
  How much money do you have left when you get
  home?
• From Mathematics, Teaching in the Middle Schools
  from NCTM. October 2004. Vol 10, Nu 3, p 137.

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Suggestions for working with problem and helping
students access concepts

• Treat each part of the problem as a story and use
  pictorial and visual aids.
• Using a table is a great aid in organizing
  concepts and in sequencing problem solving.
• Dime d Nickel n Quarter q Half
  Dollar hd Penny p

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Graduation Requirements

• Regents Diploma must pass everything with a 65
  and seat time
• Local Diploma must pass RCT with a 55-64
• and seat time
• IEP Diploma must meet IEP goals

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