Content Area Instruction

1
Content Area Instruction Study and Test Taking
Strategies

• SPED 585 LD-ED, MD-SD Methods
• Dr. Schneider, Fall 2008

2
Important issues

• Which content areas are relevant for LD-ED and
  MD-SD In which service models will SPED educators
  face which content areas?
• What are common challenges of content area
  instruction in SPED?
• What are good principles of instruction?
• What are some helpful strategies?

3
Food for thought

• If you are still using the same strategy and the
  student is still showing failure, who is the slow
  learner?

4
Content Areas taught in

• MD-SD

• LD-ED

5
Content Areas SPED Service Settings
6
Challenges of content area instruction

• All areas require good reading and/or writing
  skills, a weak area for most SPED students.
• Content area teachers may struggle with the
  concept of fairness of instruction and testing.
• Content area teacher do not understand SPED
  student needs and are not trained to accommodate
  with differentiated instruction, RTI, or
  multisensory structured strategies.

7
Challenges of content area instruction

• Learning styles of teachers are 90 visual that
  does not match SPED students preferences. The
  majority has a strength in kinesthetic-tactile
  learning and a weakness in visual and/or auditory
  processing.
• Poor spellers will at best be moderate spellers
  but never the best.

8
Challenges of content area instruction

• Regular school book texts are 2-3 years above
  students grade level
• Curriculum requires too much material too fast gt
  high stakes testing pressures
• Material presented w/o regarding SPED students
  strength and/or weaknesses
• too much independent reading writing required
  for SPED students basic academic skills.

9
General good principles for content area
instruction MD-SD LD-ED

• Analyze curriculum standards and teach LESS but
  WELL.
• But Do NOT water down the curriculum!
• Instead, use accommodations well, fewer
  modifications.
• Select learning contexts that are meaningful for
  students life skills, interests
• Focus on mastery of high frequency words that
  make up 12 of language spoken and written (w/
  red words)

10
General good principles for content area
instruction MD-SD LD-ED

• Emphasize kinesthetic-tactile practice.
• Include different learning channels in practice.
• Use differentiated instruction
• Use high interest-low reading level readers
•  www.highnoonbooks.com www.wrightgroup.com
  flyleafpublications.com
• CUT DOWN MATERIAL IN SMALLEST POSSIBLE LEARNING
  STEPS!
• Teach these steps explicitly using think out
  loud technique so that student knows why s/he is
  doing what s/he is doing.

11
General good principles for content area
instruction MD-SD LD-ED

• OVERPRACTICE to reach automaticity
• EXPLICITLY think of mnemonic devices to assure
  learning of FACTS efficient.
• See Mastropieri Scruggs book handout
• Short stories relating to what students know
• Rhythmic speech, songs
• Gestures, images
• Multisensory practice
• Switch activities every 5-10 minutes.
• Use computer technology film clips, images and
  concrete hands-on projects to illustrate content
  information.

12
General good principles for content area
instruction LD-ED

• Read questions out loud together
• Model for content area teacher how to model
  keyword note taking while teaching
• Demonstrate and encourage the use of MNEMONICS
  involve students
• Teach teachers and SPED students use of graphic
  organizers

13
General good principles for content area
instruction LD-ED

• READING
• enlarge print
• Teach sight words
• Teach word separation skills (VC/CV, V/CV, or
  VC/C or prefix-root-suffix)
• IF students are not secure with these patterns,
  pre-mark words for them so they can decode the
  parts
• E.g. pre.con.cep.tion dis.man.tle, vol.ca.no
• THIS ONLY WORKS WITH PHONETIC WORDS

14
General good principles for content area
instruction LD-ED

• READING
• Pre-teach content-specific vocabulary, according
  to word families
• hemi (half) sphere (globe shape)
• What is atmo sphere if atmo means ?
• 100 prefixes 100 roots 100 suffixes gt
  136.000 vocabulary words
• Average freshman in college uses 30.000 words
• See Idea Ehrlich (1968). Instant Vocabulary.
  Putnam Books (6.00)

15
General good principles for content area
instruction LD-ED

• WRITING-SPELLING
• Teach enough spelling stories and tricks so that
  student can use electronic spell checker and
  dictionary
• Teach explicit expository text writing because
  that genre follows same structure as content area
  books in social studies and some sciences
• see in Step up to Writing by Maureen Auman,
  2003 Sopris West

16
General good principles for content area
instruction LD-ED

• WRITING-SPELLING
• Teach explicit Note taking strategies (-gt see in
  Step up to Writing by Maureen Auman, 2003
  Sopris West
• TEST TAKING
• Teach students variety of strategies for
  different test types
• Make content area teacher aware of what test
  questions set natural traps for SPED students
  (e.g., gap-filling or matching)

17
Specific suggestion for content area instruction
MD-SD

• READING
• Teach basic life sight words, group what can be
  grouped
• By contrast (push-pull, exit-enter, stop-go,
  sweet-sour, hot-cold, soft-hard)
• By same word pattern same context (e.g. cooking
  words with short vowels, or ending in -er, or in
  -dle)
• Personal information (name, address)

18
Specific suggestion for content area instruction
MD-SD

• SPELLING
• Connect pronunciation w/ spelling when possible
  for life skill words, expressions, images
• Teach essential life skill sight words group
  them
• By semantic contrast
• By same word pattern same context , of
  syllables (e.g., all
• Personal information/relevance
• Treat non-phonetic words separately if students
  need to learn to read/spell them