IntroductionTo Special education

Instructional Strategies

WHY

• Discussion– Why is it important to meet the needs of students

with special needs?

Times they are a changing

• It is very difficult to find low level jobs in this economy

• The world has changed, we now are in global economy– Higher demands– More competitive– More reading, writing technology

Changes in How we teach

• Schools have undergone massive changes• What are some ways how – instruction has changed– Assessment– Materials in• Math• Reading• Science• Social studies

• The next few clips introduce some basic concepts of special education

• Any terms you were not familiar with?• Any terms you want to add that were not

mentioned?

Autism Spectrum Disorder Deaf-blindness Deafness Developmental Delay Emotional Disturbance*** Speech and Language

Impairment*** Traumatic Brain Injury

Hearing Impairment Mental Retardation*** Multiple Disabilities Orthopedic Impairment Other Health Impairment Specific Learning

Disabilities*** Visual Impairment

including blindness Notice LD Missing

Disabilities( *** High Incidence Disabilities)

Methods and their impact on learning

• There is a continuum of approaches from primarily teacher directed to principally child centered.

• Both ends of the continuum have negative learning experiments for diverse learners

• Teacher directed, students unlikely to become self directed and independent

• Pure discovery possibly more detrimental

High Quality Educational Tools

• It is important that you look at six features as you try to meet the needs of your diverse learners – Big Ideas– Conspicuous Strategies– Mediated Scaffolding– Strategic Integration– Primed Background knowledge– Judicious review

Big Ideas

• The curriculum process in many places caused the curriculum to grow and become full of massive amounts of goals and objectives

• This type of curriculum allowed only high performing students to succeed.

• The other end of the curriculum/ discovery/ wide open/open ended constructivist also had negative effects on diverse learners

Big Ideas

• Looking at Big Ideas was a balance between the two

• It did not focus on an unending list of objectives and allowed for deep understanding as in constructivist learning

• BIG Ideas are highly selected concepts, principles, rules, strategies that facilitate the most efficient acquisition of knowledge

Big Ideas

• Examples might be– Science- the scientific process– Reading Story grammar

– When you can reduce the curriculum to big ideas, you can provide greater levels of differentiation while guaranteeing that everyone gets the basics

Conspicuous Strategies

• Teach general strategies that can be applied• Some teachers fear that kids will memorize steps

in an explicitly taught strategy, without developing a understanding for concept

• However, teach it as you mean it– Begin with a great goal

• Today you will learn a strategy that you can use to understand a story• Today you will learn a strategy that you can use to write an

essay in any subject

Conspicuous Strategies

• Singapore math does this• It teaches Basic steps that can be applied in

many different situations• Watch the following two clips that introduce

Singapore math

Mediated Scaffolding

• Scaffolding is a type of support that is slowly removed till a students is independent– Manipulative– Study guides

Strategic intervention

• Similar to the concept of Piaget/ accommodation and assimilation

• Knowledge should result in a new and more complex structure

• Something that did not exist before• Each concept must be integrated before a new

one can be introduced

Strategic intervention

• Strategic Integration is the careful and systematic combining of essential information in ways that results in new and more complex knowledge

Primed Background Knowledge

• This is the related knowledge that students must know before they can learn a new concept

• Variance and statistics• Chronic illness and missed class greatly effects

this feature

Primed Background Knowledge

• Think how you may teach a child a concept• Some people try and teach a concept by

teaching the opposite before they understand the positive incidence

• How can you teach accident by teaching intentionality

Judicious Review

• Judicious review facilitates memory. It is much more than just drill and practice

• Judicious review should consist of – allow the students to perform the task without

hesitation– distributed over time– Cumulative with integration of more complex tasks– Varied and allow for wide application of information

Debate

• What do you think about Special education students and standardized test

• Should a students reading at a third grade level have to take a fifth grade standardized test?

Changes over timefor schools and diverse learners

• Once not allowed in school• Then allowed to attend but with limited access• Then we made incredible accommodation• Now it has changed and there is a balance

Diverse learners

• Go to pretest• Then SES 1

Diverse learners

• We now face diverse learners in many ways• Demographics