V.2 #2 Recommended Practices - Teaching Content to Middle School and Secondary Students with Learnin
When I speak to middle and high school teachers, they all express the same trepidation about the start of the school year: how am I going to meet the wide range of academic needs of all my students while teaching the curriculum? Teachers at these grade levels are challenged to meet the increasing academic and cultural diversity of today’s classroom in an atmosphere of high-stakes testing and rigorous achievement standards for all students, including those with learning disabi
V.2 #2 Social Development - Nonverbal Learning Disorders and Social Skill Difficulty
Although professionals have recognized nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) for over 30 years, there is little information on this neuropsychological disability. The lack of information comes partly from the disability not being included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV TR) and the lack of a clear, widely accepted definition. What is nonverbal learning disability (NLD)? NLD is defined by the distinct pattern of
V.2 #2 Early Intervention - English Language Learners and Special Education Referral, Evaluation, an
The number of English Language Learners (ELLs) in public schools in the United States grew by about 900,000 between 1993-94 and 1999-2000 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2004), and young ELLs represented about 15 percent of all children attending public preschool programs in 2000-01 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2001). Children who arrive at school speaking a language other than English may be referred for special education services at disproportionate
V.2 #2 Spelling and Writing - Whole Class Revising Sessions to Improve Revising Ability
In my last columns I discussed several ideas to help establish an overall supportive environment that will encourage revision behaviors to grow and flourish in your writing classroom. I also discussed methods of creating and growing an essential element in this learning process: reflective dialogue between you and your student writers, and between the students themselves. Reflective dialogue is essential when revising because often, when our students finish the initial drafts
V.2 #2 Reading - Motivating the Unmotivated
In a previous column, I discussed whether to pass struggling readers who work hard to succeed, but fail their tests. This group gets far more sympathy from teachers than struggling readers who appear unmotivated to learn. For struggling readers who fail—despite working hard—my general recommendation is to pass them and provide supports. But for struggling readers who have given up—who no longer try to learn to read and pass their subjects, or who come to school to waste time
V.2 #2 Mathematics - Teaching Division to Students with Learning Disabilities
Division is a complex operation, the efficient execution and use of which presupposes a considerable amount of prior knowledge and skills, such as: understanding the process of distributing the items of a large set into smaller equal sets. knowledge of number combinations in number families (e.g. 6x7=42, 7x6=42, 42÷6=7, 42÷7=6). understanding the correspondence between algorithmic steps and actual activities with real objects. knowledge of number combinations and algorithms o