Learning Strategies for Students with Special

Needs

What are learning strategies?

•Mental schemes for memorizing, solving problems, planning, or organizing

•Efficient, effective, and organized steps or procedures used when learning, remembering, or performing

•Tools and techniques we use to help ourselves understand and learn new material or skills

Teaching Students to Use Learning Strategies

1. Get the students interested in the learning strategies

2. Describe the strategy3. Model the Strategy4. Practice the strategy5. Provide feedback6. Promote generalization-students need to know how to apply strategies in certain

situations-students need lots of exposure to the strategy

General Learning Strategies

Mnemonic Devices

•Definition: system of memory training that helps students remember important concepts by associating ideas to visual stimuli •Actively think about materials students are trying to

remember •All systems involve an organization scheme •Well organized information makes more sense

•Most use “deep processing” that relates the information to things already held in long term memory. •Associated with illustrations and images

Acronyms

•Definition: the use of the 1st

letter of each word or

phrase that needs to be remembered to make a meaningful word/phrase•Each letter of the phrase then stands for 1 feature of the information that is to be remembered

Examples:D.E.A.R. Drop Everything And Read T.E.A.M. Together Everyone Achieves MoreH.O.M.E.S. Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior

Acrostics•Definition: recall information by creating an entire

sentence with the 1st word being the prompt for

the information that the student is to learn•1st letter of every word is for a different word/phrase that needs to be recalled

Example:My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine

Pizzas (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto)

Koala by Maggie

Keeps their young in a pouch until five or six months old Older females usually have one joey every two years Are fully grown by third or fourth year Lives in different parts of Australia Australia is the only place on earth that they live Several names are named for baby koalas such as: joey,     cub, back young, or pouch young

Peg Word

•Definition: Method to help memorize a list of words/phrases by using the following rhyme

One is Bun

Two is Shoe

Three is Tree

Four is Door

Five is Hive

Six is Sticks

Seven is Heaven

Eight is Gate 

Nine is Vine

Ten is Hen

Peg Word continue…

•After learning the rhyme, a student should form an image of each word interacting with the peg word from the rhyme.Example:

One is bun

•The peg word is bun•The word that needs to be remembered is giraffe•The student could then picture the giraffe buttering a

bun.

•The peg word can be changed to fit in with your classroom better

Method of Loci

•Uses association of items that are to be learned with different places or locations

•Remember things interacting with locations/features at location

•Usually use rooms in buildings or imagining yourself walking through one’s house

Example list

Walking through home1. open the door2. put coat in closet3. walk up stairs4. put backpack in room5. Go to the bathroom6. Wash hands7. Walk to the Kitchen for a snack8. Watch TV9. Check your email10. Go to bed

•Rhymes: Help recall specific information•Simple to remember

•Examples: •“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean

blue” •“30 days hath September…”

•Rote Learning: memorizing by saying something over and over and over again

Group ActivityDo 2 things:

1. Use R.E.A.D. as an acronym and make up what each letter is going to stand for (they don't have to be a sentence)

2. Use the Directions seen on a compass to make an acrostic (a sentence)

N

E

S

W

Math Strategies

Basic Math Strategies

•Let students use manipulatives first. After they understand using the manipulatives, then start on the symbolic and abstract numbers.•Number lines•Teach the facts in families•Let students “think out loud”•Allow students to use calculators

Touch Math

Digits with “touch points”

1 2 34 5 6

Nines on my Fingers

•Hand trick using the 9’s time table

Review Games

•Retention is key: review sessions within a day or two of the initial learning of difficult skills.

•Review games, like Jeopardy, are great for reviewing.

Rhythm and Music

2 Times Table

By Sara Jordan

Chorus:

2,4,6,8,10,12

14,16,18

20,22,24

Count by 2’s Learn some more

2x1 is 2.

2x2 is 4.

2x3 is 6.

2x4 is 8.

Chorus

2x5 is 10.2x6 is 12.2x7 is 14.2x8 is 16.

Chorus

2x9 is 18.2x10 is 202x11 is 22.2x12 is 24.

Chorus

http://www.songsforteaching.net/

sarajordan/2timestable.htm

Graphic Representation

•Schematic diagrams allow students to organize information in the problem to facilitate problem translation and solution.

•Using graphic representations to emphasize conceptual

understanding can help children with learning disabilities in

inclusive classrooms.

? apples 13 apples7 apples

plus

equalsplus equals

Reading Strategies

Questioning and Paraphrasing (Reciprocal Teaching)

•Dialogue between teachers and students regarding segments of text •Uses four strategies

•Summarizing provides the opportunity to identify and integrate the most important information in the text.

•Question generating reinforces the summarizing strategy and carries the learner one more step along in the comprehension activity.

•In clarifying the students are being taught to be more alert to new vocabulary and difficult concepts.

•In predicting, students have a purpose for reading: to confirm or disprove their hypotheses.

Paraphrasing

•Students divide their reading into smaller parts like sections or paragraphs

•After reading one section or paragraph, the students are prompted by the teacher or themselves to self-question in order to identify the main idea or details

Story Mapping

•Helps students generate a visual map of a story’s events and ideas

•In order to fill up the map, students need to identify the title, setting, characters, time and place of the story, the problem, the events, and the solution.

•Teacher needs to modelStudents need opportunities to practice

KWL Chart

•Emphasizes student's prior knowledge, what they want to know, and after reading what they have learned

•“K”, which is accessing what the student knows about the book •“W”, which is determining what the student wants to learn

Questions they have

•“L” is recalling what the student did learn as a result of reading

Reading Response Journals •Provides students with the opportunity to respond to the literature they read

•Students become more aware of the parts of the story, such as the characters and the setting

•Teachers may want to read journals or make comments in them to check for understanding

Read Aloud

•Lends support to language structure and reading as a process

•Very beneficial for some students because it is an interactive and social process

Books on Tape•Improves listening and comprehension skills

•Increases vocabulary

•Helps learn proper pronunciation of words

•Gets child motivated to read more by an author they've been introduced to through an audio book

•Engages a child's interest in a way that any other ways of reading aloud may not

•Provides an enjoyable activity.

Writing Strategies

Penmanship

• Provide plenty of time for practice

• Provide wide lined paper that gives plenty of space to write

• Place a letter strip showing upper and lower cased letters on the child’s desk

• Have see through over lays that the student can place over their letters to use as self evaluation

• Teach children how to hold pencil and position paper

• Teach correct posture for sitting at the desk and writing

Note Taking

• Photocopy a students notes to share with the student or use carbon copy paper

• Have guided notes

• Provided complete notes for the student before lecture

• Emphasize key words and facts

Writing Strategies

• Allow students to use a computer for spelling and grammar checks

• Have a list for each student that contains frequently misspelled words

• Provide strategies that are used to group thoughts together to start writing, for example webbing and topic listing

• Provide an outline that breaks apart the writing assignment into sections (introduction, paragraph 1, conclusion)

• For longer assignment have daily or weekly due dates

• On tests and worksheets provide lots of white space and if possible lines to write on

Writing a Paper

• Getting Started:

-Webbing, topic listing,

-Provide an already started thought or story

-Make outline for of content for paper or checklist

• Let first draft rest before revising

• Have a teacher or buddy read your paper

• Check outline or checklist

• Revise and reread again

Other Learning Strategies

•Intuitive outlines (Inspiration, Webs)•Use for research, organization of thoughts, notes•Color Coordination Folders with subjects•Just two folders

•One for completed•One for homework (To Do)

•Buddy System•Keeps a student organized•Less likely to forget to do something

A Couple More

•Spacing Effect: Studying 1 time every day for a week as opposed to studying 7 times in one day

•Use more codes (visual, verbal, spatial, imagery, etc.)

Teach strategies that build on their strengths and help bypass their weaknesses.