Chapter 9: Differentiating Instruction

·         Preskills are basic skills necessary for performing more complex skills.

·         PReP (PreReading Plan) strategy has three major steps: preview the text or lesson, and choose two to three important concepts; conduct a brainstorming session with students; and evaluate student responses to determine the depth of their prior knowledge of the topic.

o   Resource: http://www.litandlearn.lpb.org/strategies/strat_4PReP.pdf

o   This PDF document shares what a PreReading Plan is and explains the three phases and the three levels of the plan.

·         Anticipation guides can help you activate student knowledge about a particular topic and construct bridges to new information by encouraging students to make predictions.  They consist of a series of statements, some of which may not be true, related to the material that students are about to read.

o   Resource: http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/pd/instr/strats/anticiguide/index.htm

o   This website is titled the instructional strategies online and explains what an anticipation guide is, the purpose of it, assessment and evaluation considerations and even teacher resources.

·         Advance organizers include information presented verbally and/or visually that makes content more understandable by putting it within a more general framework.

o   Resource: http://www.netc.org/focus/strategies/cues.php

o   This article is about a focus on effectiveness and focuses on the cues, questions, and advance organizers that teachers use.  It shows key research findings, implementation and other resources.

·         Cue words are important for students with special needs, many of whom have difficulty telling the difference between important information.

·         The purpose of an environmental inventory is to find out what modifications are needed to increase the participation of these students in the classroom as well as in community environments and to help them meet more functional curricular objectives specified on their IEPs.

·         Concept map- a type of graphic organizer or visual representation that reflects the structure of the content, such as stories, hierarchies (top-down and bottom-up), feature analysis, diagrams, compare/contrast, and timelines.

·         Planning Think Sheets- helps writers focus on background information as well as on the audience and purpose of a paper.

Chapter 8: Students with Special Needs Other Than Disabilities

·         In section 504, any condition that substantially limits a major life activity, such as the ability to learn in school, is defined as a disability. 

o   Reference: http://www.help4adhd.org/en/education/rights/504

o   This website provides an overview of the federal law, including which services are available, who qualifies, and how to apply.

·         Section 504 might include students with significant attention problems, drug addiction, chronic health problems, communicable diseases temporary disabilities resulting from accidents or injury, environmental illnesses, and alcoholism.

·         For students with chronic health or medical problems, the plan could address accommodations related to the student’s need for occasional rest periods, opportunities to take medication, exemption from certain physical activities, and provisions to make up assignments and tests after absences. 

·         Attention Deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is diagnosed when an individual has chronic and serious inattentiveness, hyperactivity, and/or impulsivity that is more severe and occurs more frequently than in peers.

o   Reference: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/adhd_add_teaching_strategies.htm

o   This article concentrates on helping children with ADHD/ADD succeed in school.  It includes practical tips that supporting teachers can do for school success for children with this disorder.

·         Professionals now recommend that five types of interventions be used for students with ADHD: environmental supports, academic interventions, behavior interventions, parent education, and medication.

·         Giftedness traditionally has referred to students with extraordinary abilities across many academic areas and talent to students with extraordinary abilities in a specific area. 

·         Enrichment is an instructional approach that provides students with information, materials, and assignments that enable them to elaborate on concepts being presented as part of the regular curriculum and that usually require high levels of thinking.

·         Child abuse generally refers to situations in which a parent or other caregiver inflicts or allows others to inflict injury on a child or permits a substantial risk of injury to exist.

·         Child neglect is used to describe situations in which a parent or other caregiver fails to provide the necessary supports for a child’s well-being, such as basic food and shelter, education, medical care, and other items.

o   Resource: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/child_abuse_physical_emotional_sexual_neglect.htm

o   This website offers an abundance of information on child abuse and child neglect, for example recognizing the signs of abuse, the different types and what to do to help the victims.

Chapter 7: Students with High Incidence Disabilities

·         Students with high-incidence disabilities have speech or language disabilities, learning disabilities, emotional disturbance, or mild intellectual disabilities

o   Resource: http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_specialed_cluster_2/28/7202/1843735.cw/index.html

o   This site is part of the Pearson publishing group and they offer a chapter online on the overview and general information on students with high-incidence disabilities. 

·         Speech articulation- resulting in the inability to pronounce sounds correctly at and after the developmentally appropriate age.

·         Receptive language- involves understanding what people mean when they speak to you.

·         Expressive language- speaking in such a way that others understand you.

·         Students with mild intellectual disabilities are students who have some difficulty meeting the academic and social demands of general education classrooms, in large part because of below-average intellectual functioning.

·         Students with emotional disturbance are of average intelligence but have problems learning primarily because of external (acting out, poor interpersonal skills) and/or internal (anxiety, depression) behavioral adjustment problems.

o   Resource: http://specialchildren.about.com/od/mentalhealthissues/a/ED.htm

o   This website is a factsheet about children with emotional disturbances and includes the definition, the characteristics and the educational implications it may cause. 

·         Academic survival skills- attending school regularly, being organized, completing tasks in and out of school, being independent, taking an interest in school, and displaying positive interpersonal skills with peers and adults.

·         Self-control training teaches students to redirect their actions by talking to themselves.

·         Attribution retraining- if you can convince students that their failures are due to lack of effort rather than ability, they will be more persistent and improve their performance in the face of difficulty. 

o   Resource: http://www.education.com/reference/article/attributional-retraining/

o   This website offers much information on the process of attribution retraining and how to implement it in your classroom.  It includes the benefits of the application of it in classrooms and studies that prove its success.

Chapter 13: Building Social Relationships

·         Social Skills- appropriate social behaviors and developing friendships

·         Peer Tutoring- a system of instruction in which pairs of students with relatively equal standing are given formal roles for promoting each other’s achievement.

·         Classwide Peer Tutoring- a researched program in which all the students in a class take on the rules of tutor and tutee in turn and follow a set of clear steps for helping each other to learn.

o   Resource: http://cecp.air.org/familybriefs/docs/PeerTutoring.pdf

o   This PDF document is actually a brochure for families that has information for classwide peer tutoring.  It includes general questions, information on what the teachers can do, what the parents can do, studies that prove its effectiveness, and even more resources on the approach.

·         Reciprocal Tutoring- both students alternate between the tutor and tutee roles.

·         Cross-age tutoring- older students tutor younger ones.

·         Cooperative learning- a strategy for achieving racial and cultural integration, assisting socially isolated learners, fostering inclusive education for students with disabilities and other special needs, and accommodating culture-based learning styles. 

o   Resource: http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/cooperativelearning.htm

o   This website is useful because it describes exactly what cooperative learning is, why you should use it in your classroom, elements of cooperative learning, and examples of class activities that use cooperative learning.

·         Jigsaw Classroom- students are assigned to heterogeneous work groups.  Each member of the work group is also assigned to a separate expert group.  Work groups meet and decide which member to assign to which expert group.  Each member focuses on their expert topic, then after studying the material, then they come back together and teach the members of their original group the material.

o   Resource: http://www.jigsaw.org/

o   This website provides an overview of the technique, the history of the technique, tips on implementation, and even books and articles related to the technique. 

·         Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition- a cooperative learning program designed to help students in elementary and middle schools working on reading, writing, and other language arts.