Instructional Support Newsletters
Topics

• Attention and Motivation
  
• Differentiating Assessment of Assigned Readings
  
• Diversifying Classroom Instruction
  
• Math: Applied Problems
• Completing Homework and Self-Monitoring
• Math Computation
• Differentiating Instruction when Learning New Words
• How do school psychologists determine that a student has a learning disability?
  
• Why are Students Unmotivated?
• Reading Activities
• Connect Homework to Specific Learning Goals
  
• Ideas to Review Lessons
• Keep Your Students Engaged with Humor
  
• Learning Contracts Encourage Excellence
  
• Show Students What Was Right!
• What to Do If the Textbook is Too Hard
• How it Feels to Have a Learning Disability

Interesting Websites

• Interventions and Strategies, Intervention Central
  
  
• Education Law Center
  
  
• Books on Tape, RFD & B, Recorded Books.com, Books on Tape.com
  
  
• PortaPortal web resources for your child (Guest name: stm-is)

 Instructional Support Weekly

 

Large Group Instruction

What could your teachers do to help you learn better from lectures?
Students with learning disabilities responded with these suggestions:

1. Slow down the delivery of the lecture (a lecture is fast if the rate of speed is 120 or more words per minute) Ideas for co-teachers:

2. Pause throughout the lecture (provides time for student to catch up with note-taking, ask for clarification if needed, or process the information) Segment the lecture by talking for 10 minutes and pausing for 3-5 minutes then resuming 10 minutes of lecture and pausing for 3-5 minutes.
Ideas for co- teachers:

3. Cue the most important points (helps students discriminate between critical and nonessential information). Teach students to look/listen for cues such as writing essential points as bullets on the overhead or board; listening for specific words to cue important information; listening for information that is repeated for emphasis or information in which the teacher asks student for a choral response
Ideas for co- teachers:

4. Explicitly teach the big ideas (all disciplines have "Big Ideas" or "Common Themes" that facilitate the broad acquisition of knowledge about that discipline). Continuously referencing the key concepts, big ideas, or common themes provides a connecting point for students each time new information is presented
Ideas for co- teachers:

5. Provide a preview, overview, or advance organizer of the lecture (before beginning the lecture, provide an overview consisting of a 3-5 sentence summary of what the students will learn in the lecture OR provide an advance organizer which attempts to bridge what the student already knows with what the student is going to learn
Ideas for co-teachers:

6. Provide many examples (the more examples the better as students will likely connect with one of the examples to help them better understand the information presented.)

7. Provide concrete non-examples of concept (in addition to providing examples that illustrate the concept it is helpful to provide non-examples - things that DO NOT illustrate the concept. By providing negative exemplars, students are able to better discriminate attributes of the concept. Memory is also enhanced with the contrast of examples and non-examples.
Ideas for co- teachers:

8. Incorporate role-playing for difficult concepts (enhances didactic instruction particularly difficult concepts, involves students with kinesthetic learning which can also be helpful. Memory can also be aided with a physical explanation) Ideas for co- teachers:

9. Use humorl! (relevant, content-based humor increases motivation and learning) Ideas for co-teachers:

Gore, M.C. (2004). Successful inclusion strategies for secondary and middle school teachers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press .

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