One Size Does Not Fit All: Working With the Classroom Teacher to Modify Curriculum

1. One Size Does Not Fit All:Working With the Classroom Teacher to Modify Curriculum Facilitated By Sara Fridley Region 3 Education Service Agency sara.fridley@k12.sd.us SPED Academy Feb. 23, 2006

2. “Currently, students are required to adapt . . . to the prevalent teaching practices and instructional materials and assessment instruments. Those who can’t adapt are viewed as being deficient in their ability to learn.” - Marie Carbo, Educating Everybody’s Children

3. 3 Key Ways to Differentiate Instruction • Process • Activities • Calls on students to use key skills • Content • What we teach students • Materials and methods used • Product • How students show what they have learned • Should also allow students to extend what they learned

4. Key #1 – Adapt Process • Students use key skills • Bloom’s Taxonomy • Multiple Intelligence Theories • Common focus • Vary student activities NOT goals • Teacher uses a variety of methods • Modify the environment

5. More Than One Way to Get There

6. Process Differentiation Examples • Modify their environment (fidgets) • Graphic Organizers • Add elements to traditional lessons • Color • Movement • Time adaptation • Metacognition • Learning Logs • Scaffolded Instruction • Choice of tasks

7. Creature Comforts Grades K-12 • Students must feel safe (intellectually) • Tolerance for sitting will ALWAYS be at different levels for different people. • Even adults benefit from Fidgets or Movement • Set ground rules in the classroom. • Remove “it” if/when it becomes a toy or distraction

8. Tactile FidgetsGrades K-12 • Paper clip • Cellophane tape rolled backwards around a finger • Pipe cleaners • Stress balls • Pocket Fidget (small item kept in the child’s pocket) • Carpet square under desk • Swimming “noodles”, rough towel

9. Visual FidgetsGrades K-12 • Lava lamp • Fish tank • Mobile

10. Nomadic Learners • “If we build in enough movement during the class period, students will be less likely to move on their own.” • Motion resources • Minds in Motion • http://doe.sd.gov/oess/schoolhealth/mindsinmotion/ • Learning on Their Feet • Crystal Springs Books

11. Ideas for the Nomadic Learner • Mini Field Trip • A Home Away From Home • Music Stand Learning • Rocking Chair Reversal

12. Graphic Organizers • http://www.writedesignonline.com/organizers/ • http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1grorg.htm

16. Math Word Problem Graphic Organizer • Helps students take step-by-step approach • Start with easy ones first • For strong auditory learners • Use tape recorder to rephrase question & explain the process & answers

17. Act It Out – Visual CluesGrades 4-12 • Vocabulary strategy for the Kinesthetic Learner • Place students into groups • Provide 60 seconds to figure out how to Act Out a vocabulary word • Example – PERIMETER (walking around edge of room)

18. Color Increases Understanding • Using color for key concepts can increase memory retention up to 25%

19. Teach in Color • Color Code • Key Concepts • Colored Pens • Color with Sunshine • Highlight grammar • Colored Acetate • Number chart • Sliding mask • Highlighting tape • Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome • Painted Essay

20. A Simple Start • “Color Code” key concepts • Easy in modern classrooms • White boards & computer software • Key terms in all content areas • Math (parts of equations) • Language arts (parts of speech, important vocabulary, editing) • Correct “with sunshine” • Students do their own color coding

21. By Prefixes and Suffixes Antisocial Submarine Geology Agreeable By Syllables REDUNDANT EXPLORATION Color Coding Words

22. The Painted Essay

23. Good Strategies Go K-12 • Use elementary reading strategies with older kids • Because they may still need them!!!! • Examples • Word sorts • Flip charts • Word banks • Making words

24. Vision & Learning • “25% of students in grades k-6 have visual problems that are serious enough to impede learning.” (American Public Health Association) • “It is estimated that 80% of children with a learning disability have an undiagnosed vision problem.”(Vision Council of America)

25. 20/20 does not mean that vision is perfect! • The 20/20 vision test does not test how well you see at reading distance. In fact, the 20/20 test fails to evaluate many other important aspects of normal vision such as: • Eye focusing • Eye coordination • Eye teaming (binocular vision) • Eye movement • Visual perceptual skills • Color vision

26. Visual Learner • Images go directly to long-term memory in brain • Humans process visuals 60,000 times faster than text • Words processed sequentially • Keyboard • Images processed simultaneously • Camera

27. Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome • 12% of population • Contrast problems (only 1 symptom) • Black text on bright white paper • Striped patterns on carpet clothes seem to move • Vertical/horizontal blinds • Leads to classroom difficulties • Restlessness • Difficulty staying on task

28. Use Colored Paper or Acetate • Contrast problems (only 1 of many symptoms) • Strategies • Use dull colored paper for writing to reduce glare • Use colored acetate over black text on white paper • Use a bookmark when reading to avoid losing place • http://www.hale.ndo.co.uk/scotopic/ • Has an excellent simulation of Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome • http://www.irlen.com/sss_main.htm

29. Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome • Contrast problems (only 1 symptom) • Strategies • Use dull colored paper for writing • Use colored acetate over black text on white paper • Use a bookmark when reading to avoid losing place • http://www.hale.ndo.co.uk/scotopic/ • http://www.irlen.com/sss_main.htm

30. Turn Your Paper Sideways • Grades 2-7 (or higher if needed) • A trick for lining up numbers when working with multi-digit numbers in columns • TURN THE PAPER SIDEWAYS & use the lines as column guides • Also provides novelty (brain trigger)

31. Tools for Learning • Focus Frame • Isolates individual math problems or sentences • Helps lower distractions • Bookmarks • Use to keep place while reading • Add colored acetate

32. Metacognitive Instruction • Thinking about one’s own thinking • Provide students with tools to improve organizational skills • Planning steps necessary to complete task • Ordering steps into correct sequence • Monitoring progress on those steps • “Silent Language”

33. Example of “Silent Language” • Teacher completes problem, reciting steps (modeling) • Teacher & student complete next problem, with student reciting steps • Student completes another problem, while reciting steps • Student completes next problem while whispering steps • Student completes next problem using silent language to provide self-instructions

34. Correct “With Sunshine” • Use yellow highlighter to identify incorrect answers • Give student option to correct and receive partial (or whole) credit • Option – require students to explain in writing what they did wrong and how they corrected the problem

35. 1). • Instead of “checking” wrong – highlight wrong answers • Student is then required to correct it • Student is also required to explain (written or oral) what the error was and how they corrected it • Understanding the mistake and the process

36. Key #2 – Adapt Content • Materials & methods • Accommodate students’ different starting points • Skills/standards • Readiness • Some students ready for more complex or abstract levels • Some students ready for independent work

37. Content Differentiation Examples • Multiple texts • Interest centers • Learning contracts • Support systems • Audiotapes • Mentors • Study partners

38. Identify Standards & Skills • Work with classroom teacher to identify exactly which skills/standards for each student • Are they at grade level? • If not, go to the appropriate grade level standards! • Unpack standards with teacher • What do those standards really mean? • Put them into kid-friendly language. • What skills are part of them?

39. Unpacking Standard Example

40. Audio & Print Resources • Hearit • http://www.hearitllc.com/ • Tools to improve speech discrimination • American Printing House for the Blind • http://www.aph.org • Library Reproduction Services • http://www.lrs-largeprint.com • Recorded Books, Inc. • http://www.recordedbooks.com

41. Smaller is Better • For students who are overwhelmed by size and weight of textbooks • Get administrative permission! • Carefully cut pages out • Laminate & hole punch pages • OR use the clear page protectors • Bind by chapter • OR simply photocopy the pages

42. Overhead Textbook Visuals • Photocopy textbook pages • Use transparencies • Visual aid

43. Key #3 – Adapt Product • Culminating learning experience that occurs after many days or weeks of study • Demonstration and extension of what they know, understand, and are able to do

44. Product Differentiation Examples • CHOICE • Variety of assessment types • Tiered Assignments • Independent Study

45. Oral Response • Taped responses • Work great for students who struggle to put their words onto paper

46. Tiered Assignments • Provides choices of tasks • Mix of optional & required assignments • Should address all levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (if mastery is expected) • Layered curriculum & student contracts are different versions of tiered assignments

47. Variables to Consider • Readiness – in reading, math, & beyond • Complexity & Challenge of both process & product • Pace of learning and production • Grouping practices • Use of assessment results to inform teaching and learning

48. Principles to Guide Differentiated Classrooms • Focus on essentials • Attend to student differences • NO strategy works on ALL students • Assess often and use it to make adjustments/modifications • Mutual respect • Be flexible • Doesn’t happen 100% of the time!!!!

49. Simple Ways to Start • Modify the environment • Add elements to existing lessons • Movement/manipulation • Color • Graphic organizers • Taped responses • Adjust time