Meeting the Needs of Students with Learning Differences

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Meeting the Needs of Students with Learning
Differences

• Cynthia Lindenmeyer, SCAESIC
• Lisa Lajoie, SCAESIC
• Leann Todd, SCAESIC
• January 23, 2009

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Desired Outcomes

• Understanding of the concepts underlying
  inclusive schooling
• Applications of concepts and strategies for
  inclusion success

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What is Inclusion?

• A philosophical approach to the instruction of
  students with disabilities
• Individuals with disabilities are a part of
  society and as such should be included in all
  aspects of society.

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Inclusion

• educating students in the schools they would
  typically attend if they did not have a
  disability
• commitment to educate students with disabilities
  in the the least restrictive environment
• commitment to bringing support services to
  students rather than students coming to services

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Inclusion is

• A term that expresses commitment to educate each
  child, to the maximum extent possible, in the
  regular education classroom
• The law
• Changing the rules of the game so that everyone
  cam play and everyone can feel success

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Inclusion is

• Bringing the support services to the child and
  requires ONLY that the child will benefit from
  being in the class
• The child should begin in the regular education
  environment and be removed ONLY when appropriate
  services cannot be provided in the regular
  education setting

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Inclusion is

• Flexible curriculum and instruction
• Collaboration between special education staff and
  regular education staff
• An ever-changing and on-going process
• Helping students become more accepting of one
  another
• Hard work
• Rewarding

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Primary Learning Style

• Determining learning preferences through eye
  movement and how this relates to learning.

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Eye Movement Activity

• Look at the person and watch his or her eyes as
  you ask 3-4 questions which require that they
  RECALL information.
• As you look at their eyes, you will see their
  eyes move in one directions first. (up, middle,
  down) (left and right)
• Mark the eye as you see the movement. You do this
  from the observers point of view.
• The first direction is considered the
  hard-wired learning and information storage
  preference.

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Eye Movement Answers

• Visual Learners are people who tend to look up
  first.
• Auditory Learners are people who tend to look
  sideways.
• Kinesthetic or Tactile Learners are people who
  tend to look down.

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Visual Learners

• Looking up and to left indicates a visual learner
  who prefers symbols, pictures, maps.
• Looking up and to the right indicates a visual
  learner who prefers to learn with words.
• About 50 of learners

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Auditory Learners

• Looking straight right indicates an auditory
  learner who learns best by listening to words.
• Looking straight left indicates an auditory
  symbolic learner who learns best when sound
  (often music) is tied to what he is learning.
  Many auditory symbolic learners prefer to listen
  to music while studying and do best on their
  tests with the same music.
• About 20 of learners

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Kinesthetic or Tactile Learners

• Looking down and to the right indicates that
  person needs to work in 2 dimensions
• writing, painting, or drawing to learn.
• Looking down and to the left indicates the
  student needs to actually move their bodies in
  order to learn.
• About 30 of learners

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Thinking Styles

• After you have determined the inborn or primary
  learning style of the student, look for his or
  her preference for thought organization.

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Are You a Global or Linear Sequential Thinker?

• The left hand column contains a number of
  statements that may or may not describe you. As
  you read each statement, decide if the statement
  Almost Never, Sometimes, or Almost Always
  describes you.

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Global Thinkers

• Global thinkers tend to miss details and do not
  put as much emphasis on doing all the steps in
  sequence.
• Visual, global thinks often have a lot of stuff
  in view so that they can keep track of it.

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Linear Thinkers

• These people are great for details and often need
  uncluttered spaces.
• Have trouble working in the midst of visual
  clutter.
• Likes things put away in an organized system.
• Do things precisely and in order.

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Scoring and Interpretations

• Most peoples total score falls somewhere between
  -5 and 5 on the continuum.
• In terms of organization, knowing these
  tendencies helps understand how the student sees
  the world and therefore what may or may not be
  important in organizing.

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ACCOMMODATIONS

• Definition Accommodations are practices and
  procedures in the areas of presentation,
  response, setting, and timing/scheduling that
  provide equitable instructional and assessment
  access for students with disabilities.
• Accommodations reduce or eliminate the effects of
  a students disability and do not reduce learning
  expectations.
• Grading is typically the same

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MODIFICATIONS

• Changes are made to provide meaningful and
  productive learning experiences based on
  individual needs and abilities
• Grading is different

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ACCOMMODATIONS APPLICATIONS

• The use of accommodations is linked through each
  of these areas

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9 Types of Curriculum Adaptations

• Quantity adapt the number of items or number of
  activities prior to assessment
• Examples
• Spacing of problems on the worksheets
• Reduce number of social studies terms a learner
  must master
• Add more practice activities or problems
• Auto summarize
• Umber of words on a line and actual spacing
  between words on line
• Can spread letters in words out a little more

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Time

• Adapt the time allotted and allowed for learning,
  task completion, or testing
• Examples
• Pace learning differently( increase or decrease)
  as needed
• Self-timers
• Watches with self-timers
• Assign a number of problems to get completed in a
  certain amount of time
• Overhead timer
• Chunk assignments or projects in smaller

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Level of Support

• Increase the amount of assistance
• Examples
• Assign peer buddies/peer tutors/teaching
  assistants/cross-age tutors
• Speech language clinicians in regular education
  classroom
• Related service providers into the classroom
• Larger notebooks/assignment books (enlarge)
• Post-it notes/tabs to help with organization
• Color coding books, notebooks
• Cues (maps, visual calendars)
• Hi-lighting tape
• Note-taking
• Books on tape/CD

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Input

• Adapt the way the instruction is delivered to the
  learner
• Examples
• Different visual aids
• Enlarge text
• More concrete examples/ hands-on activities
• Cooperative groups
• Pre-teach concepts or terms before the lesson
• Adjust size and color of fonts and text
• Teach to all modalities
• Graphic organizers
• Books on tape/CD
• Monitor rate of speech(160-190)
• Position of notes on paper
• Colored filters

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Difficulty

• Adapt the skill level, problem type, or the rules
  on how the learner may approach the work
• Examples
• Allow the use of calculator( different types of
  calculators)
• Simplify task directions
• Change rules to accommodate learner needs
• Assign fewer problems
• Spell checkers (Franklin, computer, word
  prediction)
• Fewer problems per page
• Complete the more difficult problems first
• Complete the ones you know first before asking
  for assistance
• Study guide
• Word banks

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Output

• Adapt how the student can respond to instruction
• Examples
• Allow verbal response rather than written
• Use communication book for some students
• Allow students to show knowledge with hands-on
  materials
• Raised line paper
• Tape recorder
• Alternate assessment activities
• Math pad
• Inspiration/Kidspiration/graphic organizers
• Colored notebook paper
• Scribe
• Types of pens/pencils
• Allow student to write on the test and not have
  to transfer answers
• alphasmart

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Participation

• Adapt the extent which a learner is actively
  involved in the task
• Assign roles in cooperative learning groups for
  success
• Have student turn the pages instead of reading
  the passage
• In geography, have student hold the globe while
  others point to the locations
• Pre-teaching concept
• Assign problem or concept before working on it so
  the student has time to make sure that they know
  the answer before they are called on

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Alternate Goals

• Adapt the goals or outcome expectations while
  using the same materials
• Examples
• In social studies, expect a student to be able to
  locate the colors of the states while other
  students learn to locate each state and name the
  capital
• Partially completed study guide/notes that looks
  the same
• Use of times tables, manipulatives while others
  are relying on memorization
• Social skills
• Participating in a group appropriately

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Substitute Curriculum

• Provide different instruction and materials to
  meet a learners individual goals
• Examples
• During language lesson student will work on tying
  shoes or sorting activities
• Operate switches to complete an activities
• Hold flag during the flag salute
• Start to finish books (looks age appropriate
  however is at the students level)

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Case Study
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Reflection time

• Please pair up and choose one of the following
  activities to summarize what you have learned
  during this inservice
• Venn Diagram Brochure
• Recipe Time Line
• Slogan Commercial
• Jingle Rebus Story
• Editorial Clay
• Skit Jingle
• Collage Slogan
• Cube Graph

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Ending Thoughts

• Educational progress depends on the ability of
  the teacher to perceive the untapped resources of
  the student and to develop techniques of using
  these resources to the best advantage.
• -Rudolf Dreikur

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DOOR PRIZES

• If you have a sticker on the back of your handout
  packet please let us know. You are a prize
  winner!

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