Maureen Riley, M.Ed.

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Excerpted from Transitional Skills for Post Secondary Success: Reflections for Students with Learning Disabilities.

During a discussion about succeeding, a student asked, "What's it all about Professor?" Nobel Prize Laureate, Seamus Heaney answered in his spare, direct way: "It's all about—getting started, keeping going, and getting started again."

Purpose

The advice of Seamus Heaney helps put into plain language some of the most complicated ideas in the field of education and, in particular, in special education. All of
these apparently simple behaviors—getting started, keeping going, and getting started again—have deep and important underpinnings that need to be understood 
for the success of students with learning disabilities. 
Many students with learning disabilities have trouble doing their work:

Getting started: focusing/analyzing the task/initiating

• figuring out and comprehending what is involved in the task deciding what the first move will be

Keeping going: self-monitoring/reflecting/recalling/sustaining attention/persisting

• holding onto the parts of the problem

• calling up from memory what is needed to solve the problem

• juggling all of the pieces needed to complete the work

Getting started again: shifting attention/ analyzing/ changing course

• moving to the next step or stage

• deciding whether to switch an approach

• judging when to stop and how begin again

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Underlying these seemingly uncomplicated behaviors are multifaceted concepts: attention, memory, task analysis, self-regulation, executive function. These are highly complex ideas requiring continued study and still considered by researchers to be "...unwieldy with fuzzy conceptual boundaries" (Lyon & Krasnegor, 1996, p. xv).

The existing research has, however, identified and demonstrated that there are particular coping mechanisms central to these concepts which can be critically important to the academic achievement of students with learning disabilities. They have also been shown to be well within reach of students with learning disabilities to develop (Boudah, Schumaker, & Deshler, 1997). These coping mechanisms include metacognition, reflection, self-monitoring, strategizing and planning (Montague, 1998; Swanson, Carson, & Saches-Lee, 1996; Scruggs & Mastropieri, 1993; Wong, 1999).

The goal of this chapter is to unpack and share some of those concepts and coping mechanisms, which the research has demonstrated to be most beneficial to students with learning disabilities.

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Quick tips versus reliable resources

Why is it so important to know what the research says? Quick tips and advice are readily available as solutions for the complex difficulties facing students with learning disabilities (LD). Tips or suggestions may, or may not be, appropriate for an individual student, and loss of time and increased frustration are risks. Interpreting lack of student accomplishment as laziness, procrastination, stubbornness and applying pressure to solve the problem also are not very productive and can be harmful.

When seeking advice it is wise to turn to persons who have devoted lifetimes to the study of how students with learning disabilities learn most effectively. There is a body of knowledge developed by groups of experts in the field of special education based upon research studies—rigorous thinking, planning and intervention—going into the classroom and testing out —what works. The studies extend for several years or longer on a particular topic, for example, to learn about a type of memory process problematic to many students with learning disabilities or about the effectiveness of a specific approach to improve reading comprehension.

Joining the professional dialogue

Parents and students need to be "let in on" professional dialogue about the advances in the field of special education. Parents so commonly express their frustration with the professional information and terminology used in their children's diagnostic testing reports:

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"At the end of the report, metacognitive strategies are recommended. After only a half-hour explanation of all of the different testing, I definitely left not knowing what 'metacognitive' means. I'm not even sure about how the term 'strategy' works. The recommendations listed books full of strategies, and I'm not sure where to begin to help my son."

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This man and his son could benefit greatly from understanding these terms, metacognition and strategic problem solving, which have been demonstrated to relate to increased achievement for students with learning disabilities (Swanson et al., 1996). Some authorities in the field of special education go so far as to say that the skills involved in metacognition and strategic problem solving—that is, "...the student's degree of 'know how' including how to study and analyze academic subjects, self-knowledge, confidence and awareness"—are more reliable predictors for college success than even reading or language skills (Greenwood, 1983, p. 241).

Unpacking some of the complicated ideas

In my experience working with students with learning disabilities and their families, I have found that both parents and students express that they feel empowered and relieved to find that they are clearly able to comprehend and make use of the important concepts, terminology, issues and problems in the field of special education—in particular, the best practices supported by research. The goal here is to share the findings from research in order to combat the disheartening maxim, "...twenty years from research to the real world."

Overview

Strategic mindset
This chapter develops the components of a strategic mindset, which the research has identified to be associated with increased achievement for students with learning disabilities.

To develop a strategic mindset, the students need to work on:

• becoming more self-aware: thinking about their own thinking, knowing about knowing and knowing about memory

• understanding the school environment in which they have to cope

• strategizing and implementing: learning about strategies; trying out, comprehending, and revising strategies to make them work personally for them; experiencing that persistence pays off

• self-monitoring: self-alerting to make use of the strategies when needed; to initiate, to reflect and be selective about which strategy to apply

• reflecting and planning: checking how they are doing, when to keep going and sustain their efforts, and when to stop and see that they need to shift direction

• knowing how and when to ask for help and realizing that appropriate help increases independence

The need for strategic mindset
Too many students with learning disabilities unnecessarily lack a clear and functional understanding of their learning disabilities (Silver, 2000; Riley, 1999b). Compared to their peers without learning disabilities, they also tend to have a less certain understanding of academic strategies (McPhail & Stone, 1995; Swanson, 1990). They tend to overestimate their own strategic functioning; teachers and other evaluators rate them at a lower level than they rate themselves in this area (Graham, Schwartz, & MacArthur, 1993; Meltzer et al., 1998). To develop the knowledge and skills for a strategic mindset requires serious effort, but putting in the work has high payoff (Boudah et al., 1997).

This chapter is best read by parents and students together. It is not a quick, one-time read. Each citation makes available to the student and parents data-supported information from the years of work by authorities in the field mentioned above. The concepts need to be revisited over time as students work on developing the components encompassed in the term, strategic mindset. Taking into consideration the student's age and developmental level in the conversation, even students as young as middle school can begin to become knowledgeable about themselves and the factors affecting their learning, and certainly, high school students have the capacity to become highly informed.

Practical information
Included in the appendices and in the text is practical information, such as required college preparatory course sequences; standardized testing requirements for college admissions; SAT, ACT, AP; book list to prepare for standardized tests; questions to ask guidance counselors; student self-evaluations for self-advocacy and self-awareness; listings of potential academic accommodations and technological aids.

Part I: Self-Knowledge: Appreciating and Trusting Intellectual Strengths

Getting rid of the misunderstandings
In order to develop the "self-knowledge" and the "know-how" which influence academic success, it is necessary for students with learning disabilities (LD) to realize that it is not a lack of intellectual ability that makes schoolwork more time-consuming and frustrating for them than for their peers. Students need to be reminded that, to be tested and categorized as "LD," they have already demonstrated through diagnostic testing that they are of average or above average intelligence. "The term does not include children who have learning problems which are primarily the result of...mental retardation, or emotional disturbance." (USOE, 1977, p. 65083). The intellectual strength is there for students with LD to be academically successful, to know themselves as learners, to develop the "know how," and importantly, to reduce the frustration.

The typical battery of tests given to diagnose learning disabilities is a valuable resource to establish this understanding. Too often, however, the disability areas, the weaknesses, become the focus of attention. Because the definition of learning disabilities is so individual and varied, it is not surprising that students with LD do not easily gain a clear grasp of their learning abilities or disabilities (Field, 1996; Lichtenstein, 1993).

Presently, there are intense professional arguments about the definition of LD, but the category of learning disabilities was established for very important reasons which students with LD need to appreciate. One reason was to clarify serious misunderstandings which students in the past experienced and which led to inappropriate lowering of academic expectations, and/or behavior management interventions, rather than a focus on challenging academics. In the fifties and early sixties, students who were not learning effectively were thought to be unable to learn because they were too limited in their general cognitive ability or because they were behaviorally or emotionally disturbed.

Leaders in the field of special education were perplexed about a group of students who had difficulty learning to read, write or do math; these students were failing to learn, but did not fit these two special education categories used at the time. They came to see that many of these students could understand complex, higher order ideas and were not necessarily behavior problems. Their problem was that they were hampered by disabilities in lower order information processing required to learn their basic skills. For example, many of these students had specific perceptual problems, such as difficulty distinguishing and manipulating sounds in spoken language, and with sounds and letters in reading and spelling. Some had lower memory difficulties, such as memory for factual information not integrated into meaningful concepts, e.g., the fifty states and capitals or the multiplication facts (Kauffman & Hallahan, 1981).

The overemphasis on weaknesses
In the early grades, the basic skills are heavily dependent on the very areas that are problematic for many students with LD, and this results in an overemphasis on students' weaknesses (Gregg & Ferri, 1998). Notably, the much-celebrated milestone of childhood—learning to read—is typically hindered, as is spelling and often writing. To feel unnerved or discouraged about not being able to meet parents and teachers' expectations, and not being like one's peers, is a developmentally appropriate response. It is difficult to avoid the normal reaction of children to lose confidence in themselves as learners as they watch other children accomplishing these highly valued skills with relative ease.

Hence, it evolved that students with good academic potential who processed particular kinds of information differently for learning were categorized as students with learning disabilities. This clarified perspective and the term learning disabilities prevented misunderstanding and unnecessary hurt. As she reviewed her cases with this new perspective, one psychiatrist with whom I worked in these early years commented that she felt that she should write letters of apology to a number of these children she treated for years for "refusal to learn."

Self-knowledge from diagnostic testing
 

Information Meetings
Too often, due to the heavy case load, too much of the school psychologist's time is spent on evaluations to determine diagnostic labels rather than working with teachers and students on ways to improve student achievement. As a result, the reports have "little instructional relevance" (OSEP, 1995, p. 10). It is important to have follow-up meetings with the psychologist for the explicit goal of gaining an in-depth, personal understanding of how the test performance informs the student's learning. The key is to make the evaluations "instructionally relevant."

If the psychologist is not available for meetings, it would be important to find another psychologist or an educational advocate to assist with interpretation of the diagnostic report. Educational advocates may be independent agents or volunteer advocates from agencies, such the state departments of education or teacher federations for students with special needs. For a percentage of their cases where needed, professional advocates specializing in learning disabilities may provide services without charge or on a sliding scale.

Gaining an In-depth Understanding
If it is possible to choose the tester, it is of value to have a licensed psychologist with a broad testing perspective do the diagnostic testing. To be useful, the psychologist's report should include, as well as grade or percentile levels in subject areas, the student's specific skill strengths and skill needs in relation to reading, writing and math. Additionally, a psychologist with an information processing or neuropsychological perspective can also provide relationships between the student's processing abilities—memory, attention, perception, conceptualization, etc.—and the student's academic skills.

S/he can provide insights and explain the ways in which these abilities interact with the student's ability to form concepts and solve problems. Parents and students can ask the tester (and continue to ask themselves over time) such questions as: what are the student's difficulties with language, memory, attention, perception, spatial relations etc.; how do they interact with specific academic struggles; what are the student's strengths in comprehension, visual spatial, language, conceptual abilities etc.; how can the student strategize to use strengths to bypass academic difficulties and accomplish tasks through alternative routes?

Applying the Understanding Over Time
Relating the information to the various subject matter learning is not simple and is not accomplished in a few meetings; it is an on-going, long-term process. It is necessary, therefore, that a tutor, mentor or parent—some support person—participate in the follow-up meetings and acquire a solid grasp of the student's learning in order to assist the student over time in building the necessary body of strategies. Adolescents naturally are concerned about the issue of independence and the suggestions for involving so many adults in their lives. However, for students with LD, seeking out mentors and reaching out to family are behaviors associated with academic success and ultimately with independence (Hamilton & Hamilton, 1992; Hoy & Manglitz, 1996).

Diagnostic information for documentation and accommodations
It is also of value to know that this type of specific diagnostic information is required as documentation for accommodation requests. The identified ways in which the student's disabilities hinder test performance is required, for example, for extended time on standardized college entrance exams, SAT or ACT (See Appendix A for SAT and ACT accommodations). Importantly, such diagnostic information continues to be needed for self-identification for eligibility of services and for academic accommodation requests in college (See Appendix B for General Accommodations).

Accentuating strengths: meeting college admissions requirements
 

College Course Requirements
After gaining greater self-understanding, the next stage for students is to accentuate their intellectual strengths. As they move up through the grades, students with LD express satisfaction that they find they are better able to experience and use their intellectual strengths. Their understanding of challenging ideas in the content becomes more of an advantage than with the curriculum in earlier grades (Riley, 1998). Students with LD who want to go to college should maintain high expectations and keep themselves in the college preparatory courses (See Appendix A for college course requirements, timing, sequence and questions to ask your college counselor).

Balancing the Course Load
It is of great value to take care to balance the course load carried each year—a balance between the courses the student finds most difficult with courses in the student's areas of strength. If this isn't workable, to relieve pressure during the school year, it may even be wise to take some of the most challenging courses in the summer, one at a time at a nearby accredited preparatory school or community college. The intense, singular focus can facilitate the grasp of the material. Permission to get credit for summer school courses usually requires approval by the high school administration.

Identifying Content Area Strengths
For the student's self-esteem and academic record, focusing on a strength area and achieving in a challenging academic subject area clearly demonstrates the students' intellectual capability, to themselves and others. Students work out which subject areas fit their strong points and build those areas to the level where they excel -- and can enjoy the academic accomplishment. Selecting a subject area takes careful consideration because, surprisingly, different cognitive strengths are called upon even in closely related academic areas. In science, for example, if chemistry proves to be very difficult for a student, biology very well could turn out to be a strength area. Even those students with LD who have difficulties with expository writing—where they strain to convey factual knowledge in an organized fashion in reports—may find that they have talents for creative writing, fiction or poetry (Riley, 1999a).

Standardized test requirements and strengths
As well as the regularly required SAT I Math and English tests, many colleges additionally require three, subject-specific SAT II Achievement Tests. Students should plan to make the content areas in which they are building depth be the ones they will eventually take in the SAT II Achievement Tests or for the (voluntary) Advanced Placement Tests AP (See Appendix A). Students benefit from taking the SAT II tests close in time to taking the content area courses related to that achievement test. Local colleges offer summer school courses, which students could take—not necessarily for grades or credit—but rather to deepen their knowledge further in the specific content area, perhaps the summer before they plan to take a particular SAT II test. Some students choose to take the summer course before they take the high school course.

Students may repeat the SAT I content areas of Math and English as one or two of the subjects for their SAT II subject-specific Achievement tests. If they do not want to do their achievement tests in either Math or English, they need to plan to gain depth in three other content areas for the SAT II Achievement tests. It is also worth checking whether the colleges where one is thinking of applying require that students take SAT IIs in particular content areas. Locale of the college relates to whether the SAT or ACT is required (See Appendix A). Many students find it advantageous to take the SATs more than once to improve scores.

Part II: "Know How" for Coping in the General Education Classroom

Understanding the environmental realities to understand oneself
To develop a well-grounded self-knowledge a student needs to be able to distinguish when the factors creating challenges are internal to oneself or external, environmental factors—or both. To resolve the issue, one has to know what needs to be modified and where and how to place precious time and energy. It is a healthy stance for the student to ask, first, "What do I need to do? What have I not done? How could I find a way to compensate and fit into the general education system?" It is, of course, important not to place the responsibility on external causes without thinking the situation through. However, one of the issues, which students need to understand, is that sometimes there are factors in their academic setting that reasonably need to be altered (See Appendix B Accommodations).

The "Try Harder" Mandate
Due to hard, even painful struggles with learning, students with LD have a particular need to experience the relationship between effort and achievement (Vaidya, 1999). In order to develop trust in their own abilities, students need to know when it is their efforts or capabilities that are the issue and when it is not. Students with LD often express that they have had doubts about their abilities from having been told so often, "If you would just 'try harder.'" As one student said in a very difficult context, "I'm trying harder, and I'm doing worse. And then I wonder if it's worth it to keep trying." It is crucial for academic achievement for students to understand what went right as well as what went wrong—and why—in order to gain control over the academic outcomes of their efforts (Hagborg, 1999). The relationship between experiencing control over one's environment and enhanced motivation has long been established (Dweck, & Leggett,
1988; Zimmerman, 2000).

Full-time Inclusion Still Needs Improvement
Students need to know, therefore, that leaders in the field of special education have stated—and have demonstrated by research in the classroom—that the necessary changes in general education required to support the academic needs of students with learning disabilities in full-time inclusion have not yet been accomplished (Baker & Zigmond, 1995; Lenz, et aL, 1995; Zigmond, Jenkins, Fuchs, et al., 1995). Students planning to go to college must be in the general education inclusionary or mainstream classes, and it is particularly challenging for professionals to design inclusionary curriculum to support both students who are college bound, as well as those who are not (Edgar & Polloway, 1994).

This is not a criticism of the teachers; teachers themselves express that they feel frustrated that, under the present conditions, they cannot do what they know needs to be done, such as make instructional adaptations or find time to collaborate with special educators (Morocco, Riley, & Gordon, 1995; Riley & Morocco, 1999). At the secondary level, the collaboration model among professionals is especially challenging; the greater numbers of students, staff and departments in high schools result in a complex interaction of people and programs (Ellett, 1993).

Seeking Reasonable Accommodations and Support
The United States is one of the few nations in the world attempting the idealistic goal of mass education. We are still in the process of learning how to educate all of our students, especially those who learn differently. To cope with some conditions, therefore, it is an intelligent and appropriate strategy for students to seek additional support or to request a reasonable accommodation—and not to interpret all obstacles as possible to overcome on their own (See Appendix B & Appendix C).

What the students have to say about high school
 

Surveys of Student Opinions
In studies surveying the opinions of high school students with learning disabilities, the students express that, layered on top of the usual high school pressures that exist for all college bound students, they do experience additional academic frustration (Guterman, 1995; Kotering & Braziel, 1999b; Seidal & Vaughn, 1991). Their feelings of frustration increase as they move from elementary to junior high or middle school, and frustration escalates markedly with the programming models at the high school level (Eccles & Midgley, 1990; Ellett, 1993). Students with LD from high-income backgrounds have been found to be somewhat more positive about their educational opportunities than others (Vaughn & Klinger, 1998). This may relate to more extensive individualized support available in advantaged families, availability of adult time for mentoring and the financial means to provide out-of-school academic supports and enrichment.

Drop-out Rates and Grades
Generally, however, student expression of stress is consistent with the studies that show that drop-out rates for high school students with LD is double the rate of students in the general population (Capital Publications, 1997; Kortering & Braziel, 1999b; Whinnery, 1993). Consistent also is that national surveys report that high school students with LD mainstreamed in the general education programs, in spite of average or above intelligence, have lower grade point averages than their non-LD peers (Bursuck, Munk & Olson, 1999; Bursuck, Polloway, Plante, et al., 1996). A consistent finding is that students hold their special education teachers personally in high regard, but strongly voice the need for more individualized instructional time and mentoring by all of their teachers and by administrators (Hamilton & Hamilton, 1992; Vaughn & Klinger, 1998). Students with learning disabilities doing well need to appreciate themselves for their hard earned success.

The realities and hurdles from the teachers' perspective
 

Coordinating General and Special Education Systems
Knowing the realities and limitations of the environment saves a student wasted time and energy over presently unalterable conditions. One of the major differences in special education programming at the high school level is that there is not a parallel curriculum between general and special education (Ellett, 1993). In earlier grades, the basic skills are addressed in the curriculum of both systems, reading skills, writing book reports, math fundamentals, etc. In high school, the interface for curriculum is more problematic.

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"Expecting secondary special education teachers to teach all basic and content area courses, even in areas where they are unendorsed, was the supervisors' of high school special education second most often expressed practice that should be discontinued (Houck, Engelhard, & Geller, 1990, p. 322)."

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Secondary LD teachers express the concern about their ability to provide sufficient instructional time for their students scheduled for special services (Houck et al., 1990). As well as the breadth of the content in the varied subjects that students bring to LD specialists for content clarification and test preparation, the specialists are also responsible for determining how much remediation of weak basic skills should continue to be the focus of high school special education support. Time is spent on basic skills, but with some students reporting that the instruction is on lower level skills that are simply repetitive for them (Houck, et al., 1990; Guterman, 1995). The issue of where to focus available instruction time is debated: do minimal changes in basic skills at this stage justify the time and energy spent (Whinnery, 1992)? Since time is so limited, one argument is that time needs to be selectively used only for basic skills that are clearly receptive to change (Houck, 1990).

Amount of Content and Numbers of Students
General education teachers in high school inclusionary classes report that they are increasingly under pressure to "cover the content." Their teaching is affected by the demands for increased curriculum content prescribed by the local school system, state standards, and the college entrance achievement examinations; this results in a hurried pace in their instruction (Lenz, et al., 1995). As well, it is not unusual for high school teachers to be responsible for five periods per day of classes, with twenty to twenty-five students per class—one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five students per day. Additionally, classes include a wide range of instructional needs due to the increasingly diverse population of students with English as a second language, as well as the inclusion of students with special learning needs (Boudah, Deshler & Schumaker, 1997).

Whole Class Instruction
These factors force a whole-class instructional model with little or no time to stop for individualized teacher-student interactions (Hagborg, 1999; Lenz et al., 1995;
Schumm et al., 1995). Direct observation of classes finds few examples of instructional modification for clarification or explanation (Baker & Zigmond, 1995; Mclntosh, Vaughn, Schumm, Haager & Lee, 1994). Yet, the importance of individual student feedback has been identified as one of the critical elements in instruction for effective inclusion (Lenz, et al., 1995; Morocco, Riley, & Gordon, 1995; Schumaker & Deshler, 1988).

The conclusion reached by some high school teachers is that high school must be a place where students learn to make it on their own or to seek out ways to get the help they need (Schumm et al., 1995). It appears paradoxical to talk about independence and seeking support as companions, but they are two sides of the same coin. It is by making use of the necessary additional instructional support services—mentors, tutors, parents—that students with LD learn to develop the strategies, adaptations and accommodations they need to reach the independence they want and require for college.

Part III: Becoming Strategic: Building the Repertoire of Personal Strategies

Defining strategy
Stated most simply, a strategy is finding "a way to go" to solve a problem or to reach a goal. It is a procedure or a method with an orderly set of steps or it can be likened to a "mini system." Becoming strategic requires—knowing that there are different kinds of knowing. A strategy involves knowing how to go about accomplishing a task or solving a problem. It also presupposes that one will be calling up from memory basic information. That is, knowing that; students need to know that the steps in the procedure include the particular set of actions. They also may know that, for example, a problem is a time-distance problem. They then need to know how to go about solving it—search out, figure out—what is the appropriate strategy to apply. Increasing awareness of these subtle distinctions in thinking and knowing requires deliberate instruction.

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"A legitimate and preeminent principle of educating a student with a learning disability is based on the assumption that 'teaching that' and 'teaching how' must precede 'knowing that' and 'knowing how' (Simmons & Kameenui, 1988, p. 394)."

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The need for strategy instruction
Without the benefit of instruction and guidance, it has been found that many students with LD tend not to, spontaneously, employ this search for the needed strategy in an ambiguous situation (Swanson, 1990). Students with LD have the ability to strategize, but it is as if their computer doesn't default into a strategizing mode to get started.

Another tendency is that the students with LD are inclined to stick with familiar strategies, even when they are not particularly effective (Torgensen, 1980). Yet, importantly, research has demonstrated that, with instruction, students with LD have learned and generalized strategies in ways that have enabled them to master complex academic work (Boudah et al., 1997).

Another common reaction, however, for many students with LD to strategy instruction is to be anxious to "get the work done" and not to take the time to stop to reflect on the process of building strategies. They need to be made aware of the worth of the strategies as they are learning them. If students evaluate, select, and adjust the strategies, the numbers of strategies get narrowed down, become habituated, and the effortfulness is markedly reduced. Initially, in order to gain the motivation to persist, students need mentoring or tutorial support to help them reflect upon their own processing. That is, to experience and note the efficiency of the strategy and to see the connection between the successful outcomes and the strategy (Hoffman & Field, 1995).

Metacognition: paying attention to one's own thinking
The term "cognition" refers to thinking and knowing. "Meta" here means "above" or "transcending." Metacognition can be thought of as rising above—climbing up above oneself—and looking down upon one's own thoughts. Metacognition is the technical term for thinking about one's own thinking and knowing about one's own knowing. It also includes knowing when one knows and knowing when does not know. For students with LD, metacognition has been found to be one of the most powerful tools to gain control over their problem areas in processing information and to increase achievement (Pressley, Harris & Guthrie, 1992).

The combination of self-knowledge and metacognition can help to demystify the sources of confusion and frustration which have been a part of many students' learning throughout their schooling.

Talking to yourself
Talking to oneself may be commonly associated with behavior that is sometimes thought of as strange. For those who don't tend to talk to themselves very much,
however, it is actually an important skill they need to develop. Effective problem solvers talk to themselves. It provides the opportunity to reflect—to stop and take the time for a second look at what is being asked—and provides the chance to clarify the situation. It allows for a better response, especially for a complicated task. Students may feel pressure from others to give a response before they are ready. Many students also experience their own urge to respond too quickly—perhaps to "get it over with." One cognitive intervention program provides the students with a phrase to say to themselves (or to others) when they feel that pressure to respond too quickly, "Just a minute let me think ' (Elliott, 1993).

Talking aloud is a form of "thinking aloud." Voicing one's own thinking and hearing that thinking can strengthen metacognition.

Self-questioning
The self-questioning is another form of the students' talking to themselves, being reflective and metacognitive.

"What is causing me the most difficulty with this assignment? What is it that I do—or don't do—in my reading that makes it difficult? What is it about writing papers that don't get them done on time? On what parts do I get stuck? Which kinds of papers are the hardest for me? In what kinds of work do I feel the most frustration? What subjects are the easiest for me? The most difficult? Where do I do best in math? Algebra? Geometry? Where do I get confused in math? With which kinds of problems… with basic facts... with recognizing what kind of problem it is? Is it a problem with finding the right procedures to solve the problem or remembering the steps of the procedure? What gets in the way of my realizing when assignments are due?"

The important next set of questions, which can lead directly to active strategizing:
"What could I do about...(any and all of the above)?"

Strengthening strategies through dialogue
Some students are able to talk about strategies but, even then, do not apply them (O'Neill and Douglas, 1991). Working on assignments with a mentor one-on-one, or in a small group, provides the time and opportunity for dialogue, for exchange of ideas.

Engaging in dialogue provides a structure for students to practice the strategy of going back over their thinking and expressing aloud the reasoning that led them to the place where they were stopped. Even simple verification from another that the student thinking is "on mark" is important for the consolidation and progress of the student's learning. Students with LD tend not to go back over and recheck their work on their own (Meltzer, Roditi, Houser & Perlman, 1998). There is something about having to explain to another person that presents a demand and keeps one on target. The mentor can mediate their learning, that is, not "tell" but—assess the student's cognitive efforts where steps are missing or misapplied; pose probing questions to stimulate student insight around those places; if needed, model partial approaches (Riley & Morocco, 1999).

Students rethink and fill in on their own or can explain back what has been modeled. They reason through the set of facts—looking for and pointing up the relationship across the information, expressing the connections between steps—not just repeating or verbalizing. Explaining aloud provides the opportunity to see the sources of their confusion or to reflect upon the connections to gain insight into how their thinking moved forward. It is not uncommon for students to begin quickly to clarify their own thinking.

"Oh, I see, this is where I went off...this is what I need to do." They are enabled to construct their own meaning because they are not simply "told." They are enabled to climb up and reach the goal on their own because they have been provided the necessary scaffolding in the mentoring process (Wood, Bruner & Ross, 1976).

Personalizing strategies
What is known is that strategies need to be personalized; students need to find the strategies that fit them individually and that work with their strengths and compensate their personal need areas (Borkowski & Muthukrishna, 1992). Individualization is necessary because the category, learning disabilities, encompasses such a heterogeneous group of students that, therefore, there are not generic strategies that will work for all students (Swanson et al., 1996). Students frequently say, "That just doesn't work for me." For example, one student may need to "ball park" very quickly, what the answer to a problem may be in order to get started. That strategy is anathema to some students; to get a sense of what is needed, they need to clarify the parts of the problem, piece by piece, and only then stand back and look at it as a whole.

Different strategies need to be tried out and then continued to be honed to fit the individual student and to become increasingly efficient. After ball-parking, some students need to find a "next" strategy to be able to begin to work the problem. They may have to be encouraged to use the strategy of talking through with a partner what cues or reasons were used as a basis for the estimate or "guess." Strategies are best developed during the process of students doing their real class assignments and with students reflecting on what personally makes sense to them. They discuss which strategies, and how the strategies, have made a difference for them in that context. They also benefit from thinking about how the strategies could be useful with other settings and tasks (Montague, 1993; Swanson et al., 1996).

Part IV: Applying the Strategizing to the Schoolwork

Self-monitoring and planning: overseeing and managing strategies
Effective strategizing is guided by continual self-monitoring and planning. Both self-monitoring and planning have been identified as particular areas of need for students with LD (Wong, Wong, Blenkinsop, 1989). The term executive functioning is one of the significant but still fuzzy concepts. However, it is very helpful as an image. It helps to sum up the need for this issue of the overall managing of one's thinking. Like the chief executive officer of a business, students need to be in control of the various departments of their thinking and working: recalling what they know about a problem; holding onto to that information while deciding what is new; predicting what else will be needed; splicing the new ideas with what they already know; selecting and recalling the procedures needed; applying the procedures; testing out the solution, etc. They need to be overseeing, planning, and juggling these different kinds of ideas and actions that are happening to "get the job done" and come up with the product or the solution.

Another term that helps to illustrate these behaviors is called self-regulation. Students who are self-regulated are self-aware learners, setting goals or plans; evaluating how well or poorly they are performing; understanding that success is related to effort and persistence; and knowing when to seek help (Zimmerman, 2000).

Adolescent thinking and the ability to oversee strategies
As they reach adolescence, it is important for students with LD to know that they are at a significantly higher cognitive level developmentally. Their cognitive abilities have developed to a new, adult stage of thinking referred to as the capacity for "formal thought." It is a time to try new ways of approaching learning, gaining control, and experiencing the efficacy of and satisfaction from learning. Students with LD, especially, need to learn to make use of these higher order capabilities in their academic work (Guterman, 1995). Years of remedial sub-skill instruction can be so dominant for students with LD that a great deal of time and energy has been drained away from experiencing the satisfaction of their higher order abilities.

Adolescents have cognitive capabilities well beyond those of younger children. They now have greater control over earlier pitfalls, such as getting stuck on singular factors that can be compelling and dominating, or being generally overwhelmed by complexity. They have gained the ability to manipulate broad concepts and to think about them in a systematic way. As adolescents, they are now able to see the large picture; juggle the factors; rule out the extraneous and the trivial; consider other possible additions or hypotheses to work toward the solution of a problem.

It is true that some of the very difficulties associated with LD can get in the way of higher order thinking. However, adolescents now can begin to identify the specific sources of their quandary, and this is their opening to gain greater control. For example, if their diagnostic testing shows that the students' tendency is to become over-focused and miss the big picture, they are able to guide themselves to step back and to self-question. In reading comprehension, they can self-question, "what is this all about; what does the author think is so important that he is bothering to tell about this; what would I argue for; what do all these pieces add up to; what big point is being made?" Some students become under-focused and get the gist of things, but miss the important details. They can self-monitor and direct themselves to go back through and ask themselves which specifics inform, shape, make a difference to the big ideas, and then select and circle those specifics.

Task analysis and getting started with assignments
Formal thought allows students to take a task apart, to use an important and useful coping mechanism. That is, task analysis. Task analysis involves taking a "meta" view of a job to be done -- looking down on it as an entity to see what it entails. A task, of course, can be any piece of work, any class assignment —an essay to write, a math problem to solve, a report or project to complete. So that they don't have to hold it all in their heads, some students take out the "pieces" or sections of the problem and draw a kind of a flow chart or map; some prefer to write out a list of the parts or subsets.

Where to Begin
An issue for many students with LD is that the parts of the assignment do not appear obvious—do not "stand out" for them. If the structure or framework isn't evident, deciding how to begin—where to pick up a piece to begin to work—becomes a problem. Unfortunately, this situation can be interpreted as procrastination, avoidance due to laziness, stubbornness, etc. Students' confidence in themselves can be diminished. One student commented:

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"I began to ask myself if maybe I am just lazy—cause I just find lots of ways to get up and get away from it—or maybe I'm stupid cause I know I really do want to do it—but I just sit there so long and don't really do anything."

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Finding the Blueprint
Students need to see the construction of assignments; they need to be able to become aware that they there is a kind of "blueprint" of the job. This is another area where many students legitimately require support in order to become independent. They often don't have awareness of what it is that is stopping them. A person who is an expert on problem solving today reflects on his experience with this type of frustration as a student and encourages the intervention of mentors:

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"I was enormously irritated by the hundreds of hours that I wasted staring at problems without any good idea about what approach to try next in attempting to solve them. I thought at the time that there was no educational value in those 'blank' minutes, and I see no value in them today (Wickelgren, 1974, p. ix)."