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Speaking and Listening in Content Area Learning

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Speaking and Listening in Content Area Learning

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Strategies for Speaking and Listening Skills

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There is no reading gene that is passed from one generation to the next. Each and every brain must be taught to read anew. Unlike hair or eye color, which are coded in DNA, reading is a complex, rule-based system that must be imposed on biological structures that were designed or evolved for other reasons (Wolf, 2007).

Although most children are born with the right structures, these structures don't inherently know how to read. They are hardwired to speak and listen; in other words, we were born to talk (Hulit, Howard, & Fahey, 2010). Reading and writing are optional accessories that are bolted onto a speaking and listening brain.

Listening and reading comprehension

Decades of research, not to mention personal experiences, confirm that listening comprehension outpaces reading comprehension from early childhood through at least middle school. Based on their review of research, Stricht and James (1984) analyzed the gap between listening and reading comprehension by age of learner (see Figure 1). What is obvious from this figure is the fact that access to complex ideas, for many years of the learner's life, requires oral rather than written input.

Simply stated, children can listen to and talk about much more complex ideas than they can read (and probably write) about. In addition to the research, anyone who has ever read a bedtime story to a preschooler knows that listening comprehension is more sophisticated than reading comprehension. The proof comes from nights when you're tired and you skip a page while reading a bedtime story. That 3-, 4-, or 5-year-old's eyes pop open. You are accused of skipping some of the story, and the punishment is that now you must start over. Yes, in fact, the child is listening, understanding, and comparing the text with his or her expectations.

What is less obvious from personal experience is the persistence of this gap. According to Stricht and James (1984), the gap extends well into middle school. This gap has implications for high-quality instruction across the learner's elementary and middle school experience, and oral language development should not be considered solely the role and responsibility of early childhood educators.

Figure 1. Listening and Reading Comprehension by Age (Stricht & James,1984)

Speaking and listening and text complexity

In this time of great interest of increasing text complexity, the data represented in Figure 1 raised several question for us. Is it possible that one way to ensure that students read at increasingly sophisticated levels is to focus on increasing students' listening comprehension? In other words, if we pushed listening comprehension higher than identified in the previous research, would reading comprehension follow? If we did so, would it take longer to close the gap, or would the gap size remain, although at a higher level?

If we want to ensure that students read increasingly complex informational texts, it seems logical that students should be talking during their content area learning (e.g., Nystrand & Gamoran, 1991). Although there is significant attention to the Common Core reading and writing standards, we believe that teachers should also attend to the increased demands of the Speaking and Listening domain, especially Anchor Standard 1, which states that students should

Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010, p. 22)

There is a lot to focus on in this standard. First, students should come prepared for the discussion and not simply be expected to work collaboratively with no preparation. Second, students are expected to interact effectively with a wide range of people, not just their friends and others they choose to interact with. Third, students are expected to build on each other's ideas, maintaining the conversation and continually building on the ideas of others in the discussion. And finally, they need to be able to do all of this while they express their ideas clearly and persuasively.

Anchor Standard 1 in the Speaking and Listening domain of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represents increased expectations for students, especially students in the primary grades. Figure 2 contains grade-level expectations for this standard. We have bolded words and phrases that did not appear in the previous grade to highlight the instructional components of each grade. For example, students in third grade are expected to "stay on topic," which is not an expectation in second grade. Analyzing the differences by grade level, known as vertical alignment, is critical if teachers are going to develop teaching points aligned with the CCSS. In addition, teachers need to ensure that students have opportunities to engage in speaking and listening regularly, which may require changes to the instructional environment.

Figure 2. CCR Speaking & Listening Anchor Standard 1

8th Grade Students

SL.8.1
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Kindergarten Students
SL.K.1
Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

SL.K.1A
Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion).

SL.K.1B
Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.

Instructional ideas for speaking and listening

There are a number of ideas for ensuring that students across the grade span and in different content areas are able to practice their speaking and listening skills. Most importantly, teachers need to dedicate time every day for students to engage in collaborative conversations in which they use academic language with their peers. In fact, we recommend that about 50% of the instructional minutes devoted to content area learning be used for collaborative conversations with peers. This is based on the success that the students in Chula Vista, California, had when their teachers increased the amount of student-to-student interaction using academic language (Frey, Fisher, & Nelson, 2013). In addition to providing students an opportunity to expand their understanding of the content as they engage in peer-mediated instruction (e.g., Sperry, Neitzel, & Engelhardt-Wells, 2010), it provides teachers an excellent opportunity to work with small groups of students who need additional support to achieve their goals.

Some evidence-based speaking and listening instructional routines have been useful for students during content area instruction in the past:

Technology offers teachers new ways to engage students in speaking and listening tasks. Even very young children are learning to follow oral directions while using tablets. Some enhancing speaking and listening tasks can be used in elementary content area instruction:

Listening Gallery Walk in which students create a visual image, record themselves talking about the image, and then code it with a symbol that will allow others to access the digital file. One way to do this is with QR codes that can be printed and included in the image itself. Alternatively, students can use the Aurasma app. This is an augmented-reality application that allows users to create and post video to enhance a viewing experience. For example, some museums use Aurasma for their patrons to view additional content after pointing a smartphone or tablet at a display. In terms of classroom application, students can create their own videos and pair them with displayed work. For example, during their investigation of artists, students in Ms. Bledsoe's third-grade class narrated their original artwork that had been inspired by a specific artist. When a tablet enabled with Aurasma was pointed at one of the art pieces, the video that accompanied the art played. When students' parents visited for open house, they were able to see their children talking about their work and to learn more about the other students in the class.

Photo narratives in which students collect images and then record a narrative to accompany the images. For example, the first graders in Anthony Munoz's classroom planted seeds. Each day, they took a picture of the container in which their seed was planted. Mr. Munoz read aloud the text From Seed to Plant (Gibbons, 1993) several times as the plants grew. Mr. Munoz helped his students create a time lapse video using Quicktime, and the students recorded their narrative about the growth of the plant that accompanied the video.

Digital storytelling to create original narrative and informational pieces. The Storybird app provides access to thousands of illustrations and photographs to illustrate original pieces of writing. These are best when completed collaboratively in order to create lots of opportunities for students to engage in meaningful discussion with one another. The Voicethread website offers two-way communication between writers and readers. Like Storybird, students create a digital story using the Voicethread tools and their own illustrations. In addition, they dictate the text for each page. Subsequent listeners can either listen to the writer's own voice or read the dictated script. Importantly, readers can then pose questions and offer connections that are in turn viewed by other readers.

As part of their social studies curriculum, Davinia Thompson's second-grade students used Voicethread to develop a class digital book on people who make a difference in their community. Ms. Thompson compiled each student's contributions and uploaded them to the Voicethread website. Later in the centers, students viewed the class book and recorded their comments and questions. Ms. Thompson then had the entire class view the completed digital story, with their questions included, so the class could continue the conversation about the topic.

Talking in class

Regardless of the specific approach that a teacher takes, students simply must talk in class. We have to change the climate, expectations, and accountability for student-to-student interaction in classrooms everywhere. A day should not go by in which students silently try to learn content. Instead, there should be a hum of learning, with many voices engaged in discussions about the topics under investigation. Only then will we fully realize the literacy achievements of our students orally, digitally, and in print.

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Speaking and Listening in Content Area Learning

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Oral language development facilitates print literacy. In this article, we focus on the ways in which teachers can ensure students' speaking and listening skills are developed. We provide a review of effective classroom routines, including some that can be enhanced with technology.

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10 Strategies to Enhance Students' Memory

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10 Strategies to Enhance Students' Memory

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Strategies for Memory Skills

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Effective and efficient memory is critical for reading and school success. Here are 10 strategies to help children develop their memories.

The memory demands for school-age children are much greater than they are for adults. As adults, we have already acquired much of the knowledge and skills we need to function day to day. Although the knowledge base for some fields such as technology changes rapidly, the new information is generally highly specific and builds on existing knowledge. On the other hand, school children are constantly bombarded with new knowledge in multiple topic areas in which they may or may not be interested. Additionally, they are expected to both learn and demonstrate the mastery of this knowledge on a weekly basis. Thus, an effective and efficient memory is critical for school success.

Many students have memory problems. Students who have deficits in registering information in short-term memory often have difficulty remembering instructions or directions they have just been given, what was just said during conversations and class lectures and discussions, and what they just read. Students who have difficulty with working memory often forget what they are doing while doing it.

For example, they may understand the three-step direction they were just given, but forget the second and third steps while carrying out the first step. If they are trying to solve a math problem that has several steps, they might forget the steps while trying to solve the problem. When they are reading a paragraph, they may forget what was at the beginning of the paragraph by the time they get to the end of the paragraph. These students will look like they have difficulty with reading comprehension. In facts, they do; but the comprehension problem is due to a failure of the memory system rather than the language system.

Students who have deficits in the storage and retrieval of information from long-term memory may study for tests, but not be able to recall the information they studied when taking the tests. They frequently have difficulty recalling specific factual information such as dates or rules of grammar. They have a poor memory of material they earlier in the school year or last year. They may also be unable to answer specific questions asked of them in class even when their parents and/or teachers think they really know the information.

The following ten general strategies are offered to help students develop a more efficient and effective memory.

1. Give directions in multiple formats

Students benefit from being given directions in both visual and verbal formats. In addition, their understanding and memorizing of instructions could be checked by encouraging them to repeat the directions given and explain the meaning of these directions. Examples of what needs to be done are also often helpful for enhancing memory of directions.

2. Teach students to over-learn material

Students should be taught the necessity of "over-learning" new information. Often they practice only until they are able to perform one error-free repetition of the material. However, several error-free repetitions are needed to solidify the information.

3. Teach students to use visual images and other memory strategies

Another memory strategy that makes use of a cue is one called word substitution. The substitute word system can be used for information that is hard to visualize, for example, for the word occipital or parietal. These words can be converted into words that sound familiar that can be visualized. The word occipital can be converted to exhibit hall (because it sounds like exhibit hall). The student can then make a visual image of walking into an art museum and seeing a big painting of a brain with big bulging eyes (occipital is the region of the brain that controls vision). With this system, the vocabulary word the student is trying to remember actually becomes the cue for the visual image that then cues the definition of the word.

4. Give teacher-prepared handouts prior to class lectures

Class lectures and series of oral directions should be reinforced by teacher-prepared handouts. The handouts for class lectures could consist of a brief outline or a partially completed graphic organizer that the student would complete during the lecture. Having this information both enables students to identify the salient information that is given during the lectures and to correctly organize the information in their notes. Both of these activities enhance memory of the information as well. The use of Post-Its to jot information down on is helpful for remembering directions.

5. Teach students to be active readers

To enhance short-term memory registration and/or working memory when reading, students should underline, highlight, or jot key words down in the margin when reading chapters. They can then go back and read what is underlined, highlighted, or written in the margins. To consolidate this information in long-term memory, they can make outlines or use graphic organizers. Research has shown that the use of graphic organizers increases academic achievement for all students.

6. Write down steps in math problems

Students who have a weakness in working memory should not rely on mental computations when solving math problems. For example, if they are performing long division problems, they should write down every step including carrying numbers. When solving word problems, they should always have a scratch piece of paper handy and write down the steps in their calculations. This will help prevent them from losing their place and forgetting what they are doing.

7. Provide retrieval practice for students

Research has shown that long-term memory is enhanced when students engage in retrieval practice. Taking a test is a retrieval practice, i.e., the act of recalling information that has been studied from long-term memory. Thus, it can be very helpful for students to take practice tests. When teachers are reviewing information prior to tests and exams, they could ask the students questions or have the students make up questions for everyone to answer rather than just retelling students the to-be-learned information. Also, if students are required or encouraged to make up their own tests and take them, it will give their parents and/or teachers information about whether they know the most important information or are instead focused on details that are less important.

8. Help students develop cues when storing information

According to the memory research, information is easier retrieved when it is stored using a cue and that cue should be present at the time the information is being retrieved. For example, the acronym HOMES can be used to represent the names of the Great Lakes - Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. The acronym is a cue that is used when the information is being learned, and recalling the cue when taking a test will help the student recall the information.

9. Prime the memory prior to teaching/learning

Cues that prepare students for the task to be presented are helpful. This is often referred to as priming the memory. For instance, when a reading comprehension task is given, students will get an idea of what is expected by discussing the vocabulary and the overall topic beforehand. This will allow them to focus on the salient information and engage in more effective depth of processing. Advance organizers also serve this purpose. For older students, Clif Notes for pieces of literature are often helpful aids for priming the memory.

10. Review material before going to sleep

It should be helpful for students to review material right before going to sleep at night. Research has shown that information studied this way is better remembered. Any other task that is performed after reviewing and prior to sleeping (such as getting a snack, brushing teeth, listening to music) interferes with consolidation of information in memory.

Thorne, G. (2006). 10 Strategies to Enhance Students' Memory. Metarie, LA: Center for Development and Learning. Retrieved Dec. 7, 2009, from from http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/articles/memory_strategies_May06.php

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10 Strategies to Enhance Students' Memory

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Effective and efficient memory is critical for reading and school success. Here are 10 strategies to help children develop their memories. The memory demands for school-age children are much greater than they are for adults. As adults, we have already acquired much of the knowledge and skills we need to function day to day.

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NOTE TAKING STRATEGIES AND TIPS FOR SECONDARY

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NOTE TAKING STRATEGIES AND TIPS FOR SECONDARY

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Strategies for Note-Taking

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Looking for ways to teach note taking strategies, but not sure where to begin? Keep reading.
Okay class, today we are going to be taking notes during our mini-lesson on summarizing. Please pull out your notebooks so that we can begin.
If I utter these words to my students without first teaching them strategies and expectations for note taking, I'll generally find one of two outcomes:

1. They will stare at my like I have food stuck in my teeth. After I ask them why they aren't taking notes, they will claim, "We don't know how!"

2. They will pull out their iPads or cell phones and proceed to screenshot the notes I display.

I'm not saying that taking notes by hand is the only way to succeed in life, but I do think it's imperative for secondary students to learn note taking skills. For one, studies have shown that taking notes by hand helps students process the material better. Plus, there are other benefits. Note taking improves focus, attention to detail, organization, creativity, prioritizing, comprehension, and retention.

Explain the relevance.

Students want to know why they should take notes. How does it benefit them both now and in the future? The now aspect is simple. In addition to the research proven benefits mentioned above, note taking will also help them to succeed in their classes. It's easier to study with notes than without. It's easier to stay organized with class material with notes than without.

The future is where things get fuzzy. This is also where you can start to differentiate. Explain to students that most employers demand soft skills. Have them research soft skills that are highest in demand. Then, have them make connections between the benefits of note taking and those skills. You can also share this note taking infographic with students or have them create their own based upon their research about the benefits of note taking.

Encourage color.

Research shows that color has brain benefits with memory. I encourage students to color code their notes to help them recall information. Colored pens, highlighters, and even colored paper can add some pizzazz to an otherwise mundane task.

Another success I've had with note taking is simple. One day, I found some stationary that had clouds on it. It had been sitting in my double door cabinet for a couple years, and I thought it might interest the students to use it. Their enthusiasm about taking notes on stationary was much greater than I had anticipated. Whenever I asked them to get out their cloud notes so that we could add to our Odyssey timelines, I never heard one groan.

I wouldn't recommend this fancy paper approach for the whole year, but it's a fresh approach for a unit that's heavy on note taking. Try it.

Give feedback.

When you first begin asking students to take notes, make sure to give them feedback. A grade is not really necessary, but feedback is beneficial because it will help students to know whether they are on the right track and where they have room for improvement. We want students to view notes as documents that are worthy of attention from and communication with a teacher.

Because one of students' main struggles with note taking is not knowing what to write down, providing feedback will help students to know whether they are writing too much or too little.

Model different kinds.

We're talking metacognition now. Students need to know that there are different ways to take notes. They also need to understand that they have the power and responsibility to choose the mode that best fits the content being delivered. I try to incorporate a different type of note taking approach each day during mini-lessons at the beginning of the year. As I do, I talk about the benefits and drawbacks to different note taking strategies. It's also important to think aloud about why you are writing down some information but not others...why you are placing information in a specific area on your notes.

Free Style: Free style notes (as I like to call them) are my favorite place to begin. I call them free style notes because students just write down all of the information they find important as they listen, not worrying about where they are putting it or what it relates to. This strategy is good for students who have a hard time listening while they are also trying to analyze and organize. However, it's important to take free style notes a step further by teaching students how to reflect upon their notes and reorganize them. The following approaches can help students make meaning from their free style jottings.

LINEAR NOTE TAKING STRATEGIES

Outlining: Outlining is beneficial because it doesn't require students to do anything other than organize the information into headings and related information. Depending on how fancy your note taking expectations are, they can also prepare students to write an outline for an upcoming research paper. Double duty! Here's a on using the outline note taking strategy.

Cornell Notes: Cornell notes usually consist of three sections. I like to think of it as a glorified T chart. Students write key ideas or terms in the left column, and the right column, which is sizably larger, lists all of the important ideas related to the main ideas in the left column. The bottom portion of the Cornell Notes is a place for students to reflect on what they have learned. Typically, this space is used to summarize ideas, but teachers can easily ask students to synthesize ideas from multiple texts, to make connections, or to ask questions, among other options. Here's a brief Cornell Notes "How-To."

Question and Answer: Students write down questions and answers that capture the big picture of what was discussed. Notes reflect conclusions about information. Share this short video on Q & A note taking with students!

VISUAL NOTE TAKING STRATEGIES

Mind Mapping: With mind mapping, students write the topic in the center, and then subheadings branch off from it. Students then write more specific details around the heading and subheadings as needed. Mind maps help students to see the connections between related ideas. Here's a video about the basics of mind mapping for teachers and students.

Sketch Noting: Sketch notes are a form of note taking that combines text, layout, color, and imagery. It has powerful brain benefits, but it definitely lies in the realm of creativity. Many students who enjoy coloring, drawing, and thinking outside the box would love it. Because of its rising popularity, it's worth at least introducing to students. Sketch noting is most beneficial when students already have a good grasp on the material, so asking them to doodle sketch notes during a lecture might not be effective. Here is a video about how to take sketch notes. I love this post because it gives some examples of how students can use sketch notes in the classroom.

Webs: Maybe students aren't quite ready for the depth and complexity of sketch noting. Instead, showing students how to complete a simple cluster web graphic organizer is beneficial. This type of note taking can be done on the fly.

Let students choose.

After showing, modeling, and providing feedback slowly over a period time at the beginning of the year, let students choose which style they find most comfortable and valuable. Giving them freedom to choose is a form of differentiation, and it gives them voice in their own learning.

Make suggestions.

Sure, we want students to be self-sufficient note takers, but the secondary classroom is where they are honing their skills. While teaching, make sure to give students hints about what information they might want to write down. Explain to them why they should have recognized that it was important information. Perhaps it was because you referenced a test or because you mentioned it was the building block for a more complex idea. Guidance will help students enjoy note taking and be more confident when they attempt it on their own.

Looking to introduce more soft skills to prepare students for real-world communication? Try this email etiquette mini unit, which you can use to help students understand how to email teachers respectfully and professionally.

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Note Taking Strategies and Tips for Secondary | Reading and Writing Haven

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Looking for ways to teach note taking strategies, but not sure where to begin? Keep reading. Okay class, today we are going to be taking notes during our mini-lesson on summarizing. Please pull out your notebooks so that we can begin.

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6 Easy Tips to Organize the Disorganized Student

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6 Easy Tips to Organize the Disorganized Student

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Strategies for Organizational Skills

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There are always a couple students each year who really struggle to stay organized. These students are not difficult to spot. They often have messy desks and lockers, can't locate things, are unprepared for class, are unaware of deadlines, have trouble prioritizing, and are unfocused. In the past, you may have ignored these issues, or maybe you tried fixing them by helping your student straighten up every once in awhile. Let me guess, the attempts to help probably didn't make a difference.

Let's face it, disorganization is often ignored because our instruction time is already too valuable. I was that teacher once - and let me tell you, I was doing it all wrong. In reality, disorganization is one of the biggest drains on quality instruction time, and you can't afford to avoid it.

Disorganized students can drain so much time in a classroom. They waste their own time when they can't find supplies, don't come prepared, and have trouble focusing. Additionally, these students often cause another problem. When disorganized students can't focus on a lesson or on their own work, they often initiate disruptive behaviors that distract others. So now that you understand why disorganized students can be a problem, what can you do? I've come up with several tips to help you easily organize your disorganized students.

Students' personal spaces such as desks, lockers, or cubbies need to be clean and organized. Studies out of Princeton and The Journal of Neuroscience have found that clutter or messiness in an environment competes for a person's attention, leading to decreased focus and increased stress. These studies were done on adults with fully-developed brains, so imagine the effect on our students.

There are a few different strategies to help keep students' personal spaces clean, but one worked well for me. First, I established the "Clean Routine." I explicitly taught my students how to clean their desks and lockers. You can refer to my blog post HERE to learn how I teach and model routines and procedures in the classroom.

Our routine works like this: Every Monday morning, I have all of my students pull everything out from inside their desks and put it on top. The food wrappers, half-empty water bottles, and other trash is immediately discarded. Any items that they do not need to complete their schoolwork goes home in their backpack. They open their home/school folders or subject folders and neatly place any loose papers in the appropriate folder. It's important that everything has a home, and it's important that you teach students how to neatly place papers in a folder. Many students will try to crumble and shove papers in folders. This causes folders not to close properly, thus leading to more chaos and disorganization.

I allow students to keep only 2 chapter books in their desks at a time, no toys or electronics, and every loose supply, like crayons and colored pencils, needs a home. If they do not have a pencil box, then I give them a large freezer bag to store things like crayons, pencils, scissors, etc. Then, I have them lay out the inner contents of their desk in a neat pile on top of their desks. I walk the room and "approve" student piles as they finish cleaning (bonus- give your students a sanitized wipe to quickly wipe out the inside of their desks. A quick way to eliminate germs each week!). Once they get the quick head nod of approval from me, they immediately put their contents back in their desk and begin their morning work. As the year progresses, I start to put some of my extremely organized students in charge of this each morning. They love having this responsibility, and it frees me up to do those important morning things like attendance and lunch count.

As long as you explicitly teach this "Clean Routine" at the beginning of the year, every part of this routine places the responsibility on the student. So the longer the student takes to complete this routine, the less time they will have to work on their Morning Work. My students love the Morning Work that I've created because it's fun jokes, riddles, and games. They're bummed when they can't start it right away. You can read more about this HERE.

After a few weeks, most students learn to differentiate between necessities and garbage on their own and quickly make it their routine. As the year progresses, we take no more than three minutes to finish this routine each Monday morning. It's important to note that this "Clean Routine" is done on a Monday morning. Many teachers choose to clean and organize on a Friday, but I disagree with this. By having students clean and organize on a Monday, you are teaching your students that they need to start their week off on a positive note. By having students get organized on a Friday, you are teaching them that they can be extremely disorganized all week, and they will get the chance to clean up their mess on a Friday. With this weekly reminder, even chronically disorganized students quickly start having clean personal spaces.

The title says it all. Now that students have discarded the junk, they also need to organize and account for the things they do have. To help them, I model exactly how they should organize their desk, books, supplies, and papers. I also keep a diagram posted in the classroom to remind them. While you may have never realized that you need to do this (and I didn't at first either), it's so important that you explicitly teach your students how to organize their belongings. You need to explicitly teach your students how to do things like neatly place a paper inside the appropriate folder, how to stack textbooks in a desk, how to reorganize your desk if a binder doesn't fit correctly, which supplies belong in a pencil box, etc. Angela Watson from The Cornerstone For Teachers has an awesome visual titled, "What Does a Clean Desk Look Like." Click HERE to read more about this visual on her blog.

As the teacher, you must set the example. You can't demand student organization if your classroom has clutter everywhere. If there are boxes stacked in corners, papers haphazardly strewn about on your desk, books and resources jumbled everywhere, and messy overflowing cabinets, your students will use this as the example. It sends the message that they can be jumbled, unfocused, and worst of all - lazy. Your own classroom should have a clearly designated place for everything. Your desk should always be neatly organized with no clutter in sight. Confession: This is really hard. I get it. My solution? I opted to eliminate my desk completely. I now have two bins for papers. One for incoming papers and one for outgoing papers that I have dealt with. I also have an accordion folder for papers that need to be checked, and another accordion folder for papers that are checked and need to be passed back. I have a binder for my planner and a small cup for pens, pencils, highlighters, etc. That's it. No more messy cluttered teacher desk. I keep these few things in a bin, and I tuck the bin away in a closet.

Student seating should also be organized, and allow for clear aisles and walkways. In addition to this, keep reading nooks with soft seating orderly and organized. It doesn't matter how you organize things, but don't just throw things around to get them out of sight and deal with them later. Give everything a place, and be intentional about it. A peaceful and organized learning environment will send a strong message to your students, keeping them organized and focused.

Many studies have shown the benefits of color-coding. A 2006 study at John Hopkins showed that color-coding items allow people to track, organize, and remember large amounts of items in a visual scene. Color-coding is multi-sensory and helps the disorganized brain easily categorize and build associations between things with uniform colors.

This really is a game-changer for students who struggle to locate things. Have students color-code each subject. Having a specific color for each subject will help students locate materials and assignment quickly and easily so that they are prepared each time you transition to a new subject. The same color cues around your classroom can also help students locate where to turn in assignments, return supplies, replace books on a shelf, etc. I got some really great ideas on color-coding the classroom from Kristen over at Ladybugs Teacher Files. You can read about how she color-coded her classroom HERE.

Checklists and planners are a great way for students to visualize all of the tasks that they need to get done. You can have checklists for a number of different things around your classroom. You can put a checklist in the disorganized student's locker that includes the items he or she needs to bring into class each day. You can put a checklist at the disorganized student's desk that lists the order of completing the morning routine each day. The possibilities for checklists are endless depending on the student and their needs.

In addition to checklists, planners are a great tool to help students get organized. I explicitly teach students how to fill out their planners each day as part of our classroom procedures. I model for students where to write, what to write, and how to write it. Most planner companies offer an enlarged version of their student planners that you can attach to a bulletin board or you can simply project a copy of the student planner on a document camera.

At the end of each day, I have students take out their planners and write down any homework that needs to be completed, and important upcoming events or dates, and any other tasks that they need to complete before the start of the next school day. To make my expectations clear, I say the exact words that I want students to write down.

By itself, a planner is a great tool that motivated students can use to help get themselves organized. However, many disorganized students may forget to bring their planner, fake like they are writing things down at the end of the day (seriously!), or just lose it altogether. For these students, you may have to take an extra step to hold them accountable. I typically walk the room when we are filling out planners, and give gentle reminders (like putting my finger where the student should be writing). I may even have some students bring their planner to me to show me that they have filled it out. I typically only have to do this a few times before these students get the picture. As an added level of accountability, I also have parents sign student planners on random occasions so that they know the exact assignments and tasks their child should be completing.

While not always easy, this step is very important. When it comes to homework, tasks, and organization in general, there is often a disconnect between parent, student, and teacher. You know the assigned work, the student knows the assigned work, but often, parents do not. Parents may not realize there is an issue until progress reports, conferences, or even worse, report card time. It's so important that you are constantly communicating with parents about their child's organization. Make phone calls, write notes in planners, etc. A very easy way to get parents involved is to have them sign their child's completed daily planner. It's a simple way to bring everyone on board. Also, if issues persist despite signatures on the daily planner, you can call home to work out any other issues that may be getting in the way of the student staying on task.

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6 Easy Tips to Organize the Disorganized Student - Young Teacher Love

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There are always a couple students each year who really struggle to stay organized. These students are not difficult to spot. They often have messy desks and lockers, can't locate things, are unprepared for class, are unaware of deadlines, have trouble prioritizing, and are unfocused.

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14 Strategies to Support Struggling Writers: Build Confidence & Increase Success

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14 Strategies to Support Struggling Writers: Build Confidence & Increase Success

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Strategies for Writing Skills

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14 Strategies to Support Struggling Writers: Build Confidence & Increase Success

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Teaching and assessing writing can be challenging, and even more so when you're trying to identify effective ways to scaffold writing instruction for struggling students. Set teenagers up for success by incorporating these teacher-tested, student-approved strategies.

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11 Ways to Improve Your Students’ Oral Language Skills

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11 Ways to Improve Your Students’ Oral Language Skills

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Strategies for Oral Language Skills

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Oral language is one of the most important skills your students can master-both for social and academic success. Learners use this skill throughout the day to process and deliver instructions, make requests, ask questions, receive new information, and interact with peers.

As a teacher, there's a lot you can do during your everyday lessons to support the development of strong oral language skills in your students. Today's post, excerpted and adapted from Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, OWL LD, and Dyscalculia , by Berninger & Wolf, gives you 14 ideas for supporting oral language development in your students who are verbal. These teaching strategies can help students with specific language disabilities (including dyslexia), and they can boost the language skills of your other learners, too. Try these and see which ones work best for your students!

Encourage conversation.

Every social interaction gives students a new opportunity to practice language. Some of your students might need a little guidance from you to engage in conversations, so spark interactions whenever you can. Ask questions, rephrase the student's answers, and give prompts that encourage oral conversations to continue.

Model syntactic structure.

Your students may not use complete oral syntax in informal speech, but encourage them to do so when they're in the classroom. When a student uses fragmented syntax, model complete syntax back to them. This builds oral language skills and gives students practice in a skill necessary for mastering written language.

Engage in eye contact with students during instruction and encourage them to do the same. Maintaining eye contact will help learners gauge their audience's attention and adjust their language, their volume, or the organization of their speech. This will help them be better understood, communicate more clearly, and successfully interpret nonverbal cues about their clarity.

Remind students to speak loudly and articulate clearly.

Ask students to feel the muscles used for speech while they're talking and monitor their volume and articulation. Remind them that clear and loud-enough speech is essential for holding the attention of the group and communicating their information and opinions effectively.

Have students summarize heard information.

Encourage students to verbally summarize or otherwise discuss the information they hear. This should begin in kindergarten and continue with increasingly difficult questions as students grow older. Teach students to ask for clarification when they don't understand something, and emphasize that they can ask you directly or query fellow students.

Model and guide sentence construction.

Some students have trouble getting started with the wording of a sentence. Saying the beginning word or phrase for the student can help the student structure their response. Give students time for thinking and formulating an oral or written response. Students' explicit experience in both producing their own oral language and processing others' language will help facilitate their comprehension of reading material.

Explain the subtleties of tone.

Your students have probably experienced playground arguments related to tone; misunderstandings are common when students are using loud outdoor voices. Remind your students how tone of voice-which includes pitch, volume, speed, and rhythm-can change the meaning of what a speaker says. Often, it's not what they say, it's how they say it that can lead to misunderstanding of motives and attitudes. Ask your students to be mindful of tone when they're trying to get a message across, and adjust their volume and pitch accordingly.

Attend to listening skills.

Ensure that your students are listening by using consistent cues to get their attention. You might use a phrase like "It's listening time" to give students a reminder. Some students might also benefit from written reminders posted prominently on your wall.

Incorporate a "question of the day."

During each school day's opening activities, ask a question to encourage talk. (You can even write one on the board so your students can read it and start thinking about their answer as soon as they come in.) Start with simple one-part questions like "What is your favorite animal?" If a student doesn't answer in a complete sentence, model a complete sentence and ask the student to repeat your model. Once your students are successfully answering these simple questions in complete sentences, move to two-part questions that require more complex answers: "What is your favorite animal? Why?"

Compile a class booklet of students' phrases.

Give your students a sentence to finish, such as "When my dog got lost I looked..." Have each student contribute a prepositional phrase to complete the sentence (e.g., at the grocery store, in the park, under the bed). Then have your students create a class booklet by writing and illustrating their phrases. When all the phrase pages are assembled into a booklet, students can practice reading the very long sentence with all the places they looked for the dog. Encourage them to come up with a conclusion to the story.

Some students may have difficulty with abstract concepts such as before, after, or following, and with sequences such as days of the week or months of the year. To help students learn and retain these concepts, you may need to present and review them many times and in multiple ways. For example:

You might ask students to identify which holiday comes in each month and then review holidays for other months in sequence: "Groundhog Day is in February. What holiday is in March? In April?"

Have students identify the month before or after a given month. "May is before June and after April." "May is between April and June."

Question to boost comprehension.

Asking questions before and after a reading assignment not only helps sharpen oral language skills, it also helps students think about what they're reading and absorb information from the words. You might try the following strategies to facilitate reading comprehension:

If there's an introduction to the story or passage, ask students to read it and answer purpose-setting questions: "Where does the story begin? "What kind of story or article is this? Why do you think so?"

Ask students to predict outcomes: "What will happen? How do you know?"

After the reading, ask students to reveal whether their predictions were correct and identify where the ending or conclusion begins.

Have students summarize the passage: "Who were the characters?" "What was the plot?" "What was the outcome?" "What was the main idea?" "What were the supporting details?"

Teach for oral reading fluency.

Oral reading fluency refers to how rapidly, smoothly, effortlessly, and automatically students read text. The goal is accurate and fluid reading with adequate speed, appropriate phrasing, and correct intonation. Here are a few activities that aid fluency:

Sentence completion: Read a phrase and signal for a student to complete the sentence. Then read another phrase and signal another student to complete the next sentence. This activity provides good modeling of rhythm and inflection and builds reading group skills.

Round-robin repeated reading: Each student reads a sentence, paragraph, or page, and then the next student gets a turn. Prompt each student to read with rhythm and fluency.

Partner reading: Paired readers choose a quiet, cozy spot to practice reading to one another. This activity provides additional practice after reading in small groups.

Monitored reading: Ask an aide or parent volunteer to listen to a student's oral reading and watch for good phrasing and rhythm.

Repeated reading: Parents may assist with repeated reading at home by asking students to read orally the same 150- to 200-word passage repeatedly over several days. Students do not have to spend more than 10 minutes rereading each night.

Never assume students understood your instructional talk.

You use oral language every day to teach-but some students may not be getting your message. In this chart from Berninger & Wolf's book, Beverly Wolf shares some examples of how students in her classroom misinterpreted sentences delivered orally:

Be aware of the potential disconnect between what you say and what your students hear. Go over your message and present it in multiple ways to be sure all students understand.

***

Oral language is one of the foundational building blocks of learning. Try the suggestions in today's post with your students, and give them the boost they need for future academic and social success.
Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, OWL LD, and Dyscalculia
By Virginia W. Berninger, Ph.D., & Beverly J. Wolf, M.Ed.

Learn how to provide effective instruction for students with learning disabilities while meeting the needs of all students! The first teacher training text to cover all four learning disabilities that require differentiated instruction, this book prepares educators to deliver explicit and engaging instruction customized to the needs of their students. Critical insights from diverse fields blend with lessons learned from actual teaching experience.

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Edited by Judith R. Birsh, Ed.D., CALT-QI, & Suzanne Carreker, Ph.D., CALT-QI

The most comprehensive text available on multisensory teaching, this book prepares today's educators to use specific evidence-based approaches that improve struggling students' language skills and academic outcomes in elementary through high school.
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45 Strategies That Support Young Dual Language Learners
By Shauna L. Tominey, Ph.D., & Elisabeth C. O'Bryon, Ph.D., NCSP

Discover 45 of today's best strategies for teaching young dual language learners and supporting their families. Includes practical guidance on how to apply each strategy in real-world classrooms!

Quick Interactive Language Screener™ (QUILS™)
A Measure of Vocabulary, Syntax, and Language Acquisition Skills in Young Children
By Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Ph.D., Jill de Villiers, Ph.D., Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D., Aquiles Iglesias, Ph.D., and Mary Sweig Wilson, Ph.D.

Early identification is the first step to helping children with language delays improve their skills. Find the children who might need help with QUILS, a one-of-a-kind tool that helps you evaluate whether children are making language progress appropriate for their age group.

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14 Ways to Improve Your Students' Oral Language Skills - Brookes Blog

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UPDATED: 3/23/22 Oral language is one of the most important skills your students can master-both for social and academic success. Learners use this skill throughout the day to process and deliver instructions, make requests, ask questions, receive new information, and interact with peers. As a teacher, there's a lot you can do during your everyday [...]

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5 Ways to Support Students Who Struggle With Reading Comprehension

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5 Ways to Support Students Who Struggle With Reading Comprehension

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Strategies for Reading Comprehension Skills

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These strategies can help students who are able to decode well but have difficulty understanding what they read-and they're beneficial for all students.

monkeybusinessimages / iStock

When we think of reading issues, we often imagine children who struggle to decode the letters in text and turn them into spoken language. This type of struggling reader has a very difficult time figuring out what many of the words are and has poor phonological (speech-sound) skills. However, there are also many students who sound like they're reading beautifully but have difficulty with understanding vocabulary and figurative language, inferencing, verbal reasoning, grammatical development, and oral expression.

As children get older, if they are decoding text well we assume they are reading well. Once a person learns to decode, reading comprehension becomes more about language comprehension and focus. At this transition, starting around third grade, teachers may begin to notice some students who decode text fluently but are not understanding.

Since this type of struggling reader is less noticeable than ones who have difficulty decoding, they often slip under the radar until they begin to fail standardized state comprehension tests. Even then, their issues may go undetected for a long time, resulting in middle and high school students who sound like they're reading but understand nothing that they have read.

These struggling readers should be targeted for remediation-the earlier the better. However, remediation consisting of practice passages and questions may be ineffective as it focuses too narrowly on text-based skills.

Supporting Students Who Struggle With Comprehension

Here are five strategies to try out with students who read fluently but struggle to comprehend what they're reading.

1. Target overall comprehension of language: Recent research reveals that reading comprehension difficulties may stem from an underlying oral language weakness that exists from early childhood, before reading is even taught. It turns out that students who have poor reading comprehension also often understand fewer spoken words and less of what they hear, and have worse spoken grammar. So, to address reading comprehension deficits effectively, educators may have to use an approach that teaches vocabulary, thinking skills, and comprehension first in spoken language and then in reading and written language.

2. Teach vocabulary: Because students with poor comprehension often have poor vocabulary skills and understand less of what they hear, it's helpful to teach the meanings of new words through the use of multisensory strategies like graphic organizers, pictures, and mnemonics. Improving their overall language skills increases the likelihood that they will understand the words they encounter in written text. Since it is impossible to know every word one might encounter, students should be taught about the different types of context clues and how to use them to determine the meaning of unknown words.

Discussing or activating prior knowledge,

Developing questions while reading,

Connecting what they are reading to another text, something they have seen, or something they have experienced,

Visualizing or picturing what they are reading,

Making predictions about what will come next in the text,

Looking back for keywords and rereading in order to clarify or answer questions, and

Thinking aloud to model the strategies and thought processes needed for comprehension.

3. Teach thinking strategies: Once students have the vocabulary to be able to make it through a text, they often struggle with the complex thinking or sustained attention required to keep up with all of the important details and to access information that is implied but not directly stated. Teachers can instruct students on cognitive strategies they can use. Many common text reading strategies-such as annotation, SQ3R, and the KWL chart -make use of these thinking strategies, including:

Students can learn and then use the strategies that work best for them depending on the text they're reading. Pulling deeper meaning out of text through the use of thinking strategies can be beneficial not just to reading comprehension but also to writing.

Questioner, who poses questions about parts of the lesson, discussion, or text that are unclear or confusing, or to help make connections with previously learned material.

Summarizer, who sums up each important point or detail from the lesson, discussion, or text.

Clarifier, who tries to address the Questioner's issues and make sure that parts they found confusing are clear to others.

Predictor, who makes a prediction about what will happen next based on what was presented, discussed, or read,

4. Have students practice reciprocal teaching: Once taught, cognitive strategies can be consistently practiced and implemented through the use of reciprocal teaching, which encourages students to take a leadership role in their learning and begin to think about their thought process while listening or reading. Teachers can use reciprocal teaching during class discussions, with text that is read aloud, and later with text that is read in groups. The students should rotate between the following roles:

5. Directly teach comprehension skills: Students should be directly taught comprehension skills such as sequencing, story structure using the plot mountain, how to make an inference and draw a conclusion, and the different types of figurative language. Students should have the opportunity to first use the skills with text that they hear the teacher read aloud, and then later with text that they read independently at their own level.

The comprehension skills and strategies listed above can be used with the whole class, as they closely align with reading and language arts standards for elementary and middle school students. Teachers can help students select reading material with vocabulary that matches their current ability levels so that within a classroom, students are reading text and working on vocabulary at levels that are accessible for each of them.

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5 Ways to Support Students Who Struggle With Reading Comprehension

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These strategies can help students who are able to decode well but have difficulty understanding what they read-and they're beneficial for all students.

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10 Fluency Strategies for Struggling Readers

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10 Fluency Strategies for Struggling Readers

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Strategies for Reading Fluency

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Literacy skills are one of the most important areas of ability children develop in their first few years at school. That's why it's crucial to provide fluency strategies for struggling readers as soon as a learning difficulty is picked up.

Most children begin by sounding out words and learning to recognize common vocabulary from books and classroom materials. With sight reading and more spelling practice comes greater fluency. Reading then speeds up and comprehension of more complex texts becomes possible as vocabulary knowledge grows exponentially. However, not all students find learning to read such an easy process. Struggling readers can quickly fall behind their peers and may develop low self-esteem and a lack of confidence as a result.

Because reading ability affects performance across all areas of the curriculum, including writing skills, it's important to provide adequate strategy training as early as possible. Ideally remediation is tailored to the individual student's needs, particularly when a learning difficulty is involved.

Different learning difficulties affect fluency in different ways but one of the most common conditions implicated in reading problems is dyslexia. If a student has poor reading skills and a somewhat inconsistent approach to spelling -they recognize or produce a word correctly one day but not the next-- dyslexia may be involved.

There are different signs but around 70% of students with dyslexia struggle to split words into their component sounds. It is this lack of phonemic awareness that prevents accurate sound-letter mapping, which is required for spelling and decoding in early reading. A focus on phonics can help students with dyslexia. Another way to help is by taking a multi-sensory approach to teaching reading and spelling - learn more in this article on Orton-Gillingham based reading instruction.

Some kids have trouble focusing their attention on the books or classroom worksheets they are meant to be reading. For students with attention related learning difficulties, including attention deficit disorder with and without hyperactivity, the challenge is not so much in sounding out the words but concentrating long enough to process what they are reading.

Sitting still and controlling impulsive tendencies can also be problematic, particularly for students with ADHD. What's crucial is that teachers recognize the root of the problem early on and find strategies to help enhance focus during reading sessions. One idea is choosing a regular time of day when the student is most calm, possibly after an outside exercise break. It's also a good idea to reduce distractions and create a quiet space where they can go to read on their own.

Parents and teachers may observe reading fluency is lacking in individuals with slow processing. This is because the brain requires more time to carry out the complex cognitive processes involved in reading, from word recognition to comprehension.

Patience, time and more time may be the solution here. In some instances, a student can appear to read fluently but not actually understand what he or she is reading. This is often true for students with autism spectrum disorder-learn more in this article on reading comprehension and autism. For information on addressing fluency issues for students with visual impairments, try this article.

Pre-literacy skills

It's extremely important and beneficial for children to read with their parents. Even 1 year-olds can enhance their vocabulary and learn more about the world as they point to objects and characters they recognize. Reading with adults helps kids understand how books work. They participate by choosing their favorite stories and turning the pages as their parents read aloud.

Ample exposure to print also gets children ready to learn the alphabet. Silly songs such as "Old McDonald Had a Farm" are used to enhance phonemic awareness and help kids develop their control over stress, rhyme and rhythm in language. Discussing their day and reciting sequences of events is a precursor for understanding how narrative works.

Learn more in 6 pre-literacy skills parents can encourage.

Decoding & comprehension

Reading is a complex cognitive task that involves parallel activity in different areas of the brain. Readers must decode the letters on a page, recognize the words they are made up of and make meaning out of groups of words, sentences and paragraphs. Issues concerning reading fluency can stem from decoding skills, comprehension skills or both. Learn more in this article on common reading problems.

Decoding

This is the process of recognizing letters and words and sounding them out. Decoding is easier said than done in English, a language in which multiple letters can be used to represent the same sounds. The only way to effectively learn how to pronounce common vowel and consonant clusters is to have seen them before. This is one reason why learning to touch-type and drilling letter combinations on a keyboard helps struggling readers. This is especially true if audio recordings of the words are played at the same time.

Comprehension

Fluency can also be affected by a failure to understand what is being read. Readers are required to hold a number of details and contextual clues in memory in order to make connections and pick up on gist, inference and main ideas in the text. If comprehension is a struggle, it can interrupt fluency as students find they cannot follow what they are reading and need to go back to re-read earlier parts of the text. In the same way, focusing too much on decoding can prevent struggling readers from paying attention to the content of a reading.

10 Strategies for fluency

1. Record students reading aloud on their own. If certain sound-letter combinations or words are causing problems, teachers will benefit from listening to the child read out loud. However, this activity can be extremely stressful in front of a classroom of kids, particularly for a student who struggles with fluency. It is best to avoid calling on struggling readers during group reading and instead have them work through a paragraph on their own. Make a recording that can be analyzed later on by a teacher or tutor in order to provide targeted help.

2. Ask kids to use a ruler or a reading window to follow along. Decoding is easier when students don't lose their place as they move across a page. It's up to the individual student how they go about this. Some may want to use a pen or pencil, others a piece of paper or a ruler that they move to help them stay focused on the sentence in front of them. A reading window is a useful tool which blocks off the text before and after the sentence the student is reading. Moving something along the page is also a good strategy for readers with ADHD because it involves a kinesthetic element.

3. Have them read the same thing several times. When you're trying to improve fluency, it helps to see the same text multiple times. Each reading becomes easier and motivation goes up as students experience enhanced fluency thanks to repeat exposure to words and phrases. It can also help when it comes to developing comprehension skills as readers have more opportunities to notice contextual cues.

4. Pre-teach vocabulary. Prime the words a student is going to see in a text and practice reading them in isolation or in phrases. You might do this via an interactive classroom based activity. Get students to use the words and then practice reading them from the board or on a piece of paper. Crossword puzzles can be an effective teaching tool or playing a spelling game. It's much easier to read a word if it is fresh in memory.

5. Drill sight words. Some words are more common than others and students who have a hard time with fluency will find it is much easier to read when they are familiar with 90% of the vocabulary in a text. Around 50% of all books and classroom based materials for young readers are composed of words from the Dolch List. Learn more in our post on teaching sight words.

6. Make use of a variety of books and materials. If a student has difficulty with reading it can be even more of a struggle to practice with material that is not of interest to them. Sometimes all it takes is getting readers excited about a topic to help them lose themselves in the activity. Try chapter books, comics and poems. Even picture books can work as long as the student doesn't perceive the material as being below their level. Experiment with texts of different lengths starting with shorter material and gradually working up to longer pieces. TOP TIP: Where fluency is concerned, emphasize the quality of the student's reading, not the quantity of pages or speed at which they read them.

7. Try different font and text sizes. If there's a visual impairment that is causing some of the difficulty, reading larger text or text printed on color tinted paper can sometimes make things easier. There are specific fonts which are more appropriate for anyone with learning difficulties, including dyslexia, because they help with discerning letters and decoding language.

8. Create a stress free environment. When students are enjoying a book, anxiety and stress are reduced and fluency is enhanced. It's also possible to foster a relaxing environment by removing any deadlines, time-limits or assessment related goals and just focusing on classroom reading for reading's sake.

9. Guide students to help them establish a steady pace. One of the hallmarks of fluent reading is establishing a consistent rhythm and pace that guides students through a text. This doesn't need to be fast and in the beginning new readers should have the option to start slow and increase their pace as they become more comfortable. Some students will want to have a guide, such as a metronome, which gives them a rhythm they can match. Others will find this strategy stressful. Playing music in the background might also work - or not!

10. Introduce a typing course. If a student continues to struggle with fluency, teachers, tutors and parents may consider introducing an extra-curricular program designed to enhance literacy skills. A multi-sensory course like Touch-type Read and Spell can be used at home and in school to learn typing and enhance spelling and sight reading at the same time. An audio component accompanies letters on the screen while students type the corresponding keys. Automated feedback and coursework is divided into discrete modules and independent lessons foster self-directed learning and enhance motivation and self-efficacy in new readers.

Offering encouragement and support

Reading and writing are essential skills and when fluency does not come naturally, strategy instruction based around the individual student's needs is crucial to help new readers gain the confidence they need to be successful at school.

Regardless of the intervention, progress takes time to achieve. That's why it is a good idea to schedule a plan of action and set up attainable goals for improving fluency in the long-run.

Parents may consider hiring a private tutor - learn more about how to choose a tutor - and teachers can adjust classroom practices to create a less stressful environment in which children can hone their skills.

Above all, students need to be made aware that learning difficulties and reading ability have nothing to do with intelligence and understand that effort is more important than results. This will encourage a healthy self-image and help them maintain the motivation required to improve their skills.

Read more about encouraging children with learning difficulties, or try our tips for motivating students to read.

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fluency strategies for struggling readers

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10 Fluency strategies for struggling readers

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Learn more about literacy skills development and the best fluency strategies for struggling readers in and outside of the classroom.

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Strategies for Reading in Every Content Area

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25 Reading Strategies That Work In Every Content Area
Reading is reading. By understanding that letters make sounds, we can blend those sounds together to make whole sounds that symbolize meaning we can all exchange with one another.

Without getting too Platonic about it all, reading doesn't change simply because you're reading a text from another content area. Only sometimes it does.

Science content can often by full of jargon, research citations, and odd text features.

Social Studies content can be an interesting mix of itemized information, and traditional paragraphs/imagery.

Literature? Well, that depends on if you mean the flexible form of poetry, the enduring structure of a novel, or emerging digital literature that combines multiple modalities to tell a story. (Inanimate Alice, for example.)

This all makes reading strategies somewhat content area specific. Stopping (maybe the most undervalued strategy ever) and Rereading might make more sense in science, while Visualization and Text Connections may make more sense reading literary works. Questioning the Text may make equal sense in both.

But if you'd like to start with a basic set of strategies, you could do worse than the elegant graphic above from wiki-teacher.com. (Useful site, by the way.) It lists 12 basic reading comprehension strategies, to which we've added 13 for a full fourth of a hundred.

Looking for related curricula ideas? Check out our Reading Comprehension Strategy Resources
25 Reading Strategies That Work In Every Content Area
1. Reread

2. Activate Prior Knowledge

3. Use Context Clues

4. Infer

5. Think Aloud

6. Summarize

7. Locate Key Words

8. Make Predictions

9. Use Word Attack Strategies

10. Visualize

11. Use Graphic Organizers

12. Evaluate Understanding
To the above list, we'd add:
13. Question the Text

14. Stop!

15. Monitor & Repair Understanding (While Reading)

16. Paraphrase

17. Annotate the Text

18. Adjust Reading Rate

19. Prioritize Information

20. Use Graphic Notetaking

21. Predict

22. Set a Reader Purpose

23. Text-connections (text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to-world)

24. Skim

25. SSQ (Stop, Summarize, Question)

We'll gather these and put them in a Before Reading, During Reading, and After Reading matrix soon. Only because we like you.

See Also: 25 Self-Guided Reading Responses For Fiction And Non-Fiction
25 Reading Strategies That Work In Every Content Area

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25 Reading Strategies That Work In Every Content Area

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25 Reading Strategies That Work In Every Content Area Reading is reading. By understanding that letters make sounds, we can blend those sounds together to make whole sounds that symbolize meaning we can all exchange with one another. Without getting too Platonic about it all, reading doesn't change simply because you're reading a text from another content area.

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THE BIG LIST OF WAYS TO MOTIVATE STRUGGLING WRITERS

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THE BIG LIST OF WAYS TO MOTIVATE STRUGGLING WRITERS

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Strategies for Writing

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There are few things in the ELA teaching world worse than when a student flat out refuses to write. It happens for a myriad of reasons. Students lack confidence, interest, background knowledge, or research skills. They don't know where to start, aren't sure how to find inspiration, don't feel comfortable approaching the teacher for help, or don't know how to get past writer's block. We can help them if we try to view the experience of writing through their lens.

So, what are some reasons why students dislike writing? Understanding the causes impacts how we should alter instruction to motivate struggling writers.

Problem 1: The task seems overwhelming.

Commonly, students feel like writing an entire essay isn't possible. When students struggle to form complete sentences, it's overwhelming for them to think about writing an entire essay. We can build students' confidence in their writing abilities by scaffolding the process.

free resource will walk you through the process. You can try this with any genre of writing.

Once they are confident with sentence writing, move on to a paragraph. Instead of explaining expectations for every paragraph of the entire essay, just talk about one paragraph at a time. Conference with students, and help struggling writers by giving them frequent feedback so they know they are on the right track before attempting the next step.
Five Essay Grading Tips.
Problem 2: Students are confused about the expectations.

Sometimes students simply do not understand what the teacher wants from them. Teachers ask students to write an essay, and students become overwhelmed.

expectations to students, and see an editable introductory presentation.

Try explaining expectations to students in different ways. For instance, set individual student goals based on a pre-assessment. Model writing, analyze samples, and write as a class. Use memorable acronyms and graphic organizers or color-coded graphic organizers to help anchor abstract concepts.

Problem 3: Students believe their ideas are not worth writing.

"I have nothing to write." We've heard it before. Everyone's voice matters, but not all secondary students believe it. Students need to practice sharing their ideas with others in order to build their confidence muscles.

Another approach that is growing in popularity, thanks to Angela Stockman, is the concept of a makerspace. When reluctant writers are given the opportunity to make and manipulate their thoughts before vocalizing them, they begin to understand the power of their ideas.

9. Let students choose the topic. Students are more likely to be confident in writing about a topic of interest. Providing topic choice is a simple way to get past writer's block for some students.

Problem 4: The pace is too quick.

Anyone, not just a struggling writer, becomes overwhelmed when they have more to do than time available to do it in. Covering fewer writing skills in depth is better than covering every skill quickly if we want students to grow.

t's okay to differentiate expectations with writing assignments. We have to consider students' readiness levels and meet them where they are. For example, if you are working with a group of students who lacks experience with research and essay writing, try building confidence by just asking them to write one solid body paragraph instead of three. If your students have never done any research writing at all, just start with a research paragraph. Or, focus on growth between rough and final draft when grading.

he writing process is discursive, messy, and unique to each writer, so she believes a hyperdoc is the perfect way to accommodate all of your writers, no matter where they are in the process. It's basically a collection of resources that allows students to work through the writing process at their own pace, and it allows the teacher more flexibility to conference with writers. Here are Abby's writing minilessons. For more information on how to create hyperdocs to support your students, check out

Problem 5: Writing is hard. Avoidance is easier.

Student writers can get discouraged easily because writing is tough. Students use a wide variety of avoidance tactics to get out of writing. Some say they have no ideas, others stare blankly at their screen or paper, and still others crank something out and shout, "Done!" entirely too soon.

writing charts to help struggling writers overcome these hurdles. You will also find useful information in this and in this article, Support for Writers at All Levels.

14. Make feedback count. The way we respond to the presence of students' writing will determine whether or not they produce more...as well as the quality of their work. When giving feedback or grading writing, we have to respect students' internal dialogue. Writing is a vulnerable task for many students. In order for them to open up, they need to trust us. Try clarifying the audience's view or asking questions instead of making statements. Read more specifics in this post.

15. Discuss writing stamina. If we want students to live in metacognition, we need to train them. Have a conversation about writing stamina with students, and involve them in the brainstorming process. Teach them to pivot from complaining about not wanting to do it to figuring out how to change that mindset and overcome the hurdle. Hang their ideas as anchor charts so they can re-read and self-monitor as needed during work time.

Problem 6. Students view writing as a chore.

Sometimes writers struggle because they need a break from academic writing. When we ask students to write, oftentimes frustration comes from repeating the same writing tasks over and over again. Even for the most verbose writer, a shift in medium and in writing task can be a confidence-booster.

This resource will get you and your students started with writing and imagining alternate endings to the stories that you're reading in class.
50 Ways to Get Kids Begging to Write More.
There's not a one-size-fits-all solution to help struggling writers. The reason behind each student's reluctance is different. In this post, we've explored six different causes for lack of writing motivation and offered possible interventions for each. Tell us: What would you add to the list?
Still looking for more ways to support struggling writers? Try these related posts. 14 Ways to Support Struggling Writers Tips for Scaffolding the Multiple-Paragraph Essay How to Teach Conclusion Paragraphs
10 Tips for Responding to Student Writing

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The Big List of Ways to Motivate Struggling Writers | Reading and Writing Haven

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There are few things in the ELA teaching world worse than when a student flat out refuses to write. It happens for a myriad of reasons. Students lack confidence, interest, background knowledge, or research skills. They don't know where to start, aren't sure how to find inspiration, don't feel comfortable approaching the teacher for help, or don't know how to get past writer's block.

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Intellectual Disability - Literacy Strategies

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Intellectual Disability - Literacy Strategies

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10 Research-Based Tips
for Enhancing Literacy
Instruction for Students
With Intellectual
Disability

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Intellectual Disability - Speaking, Learning, Daily Living, and Behavior Strategies

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Intellectual Disability - Speaking, Learning, Daily Living, and Behavior Strategies

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It is important to implement strategies that address the needs of the individual. We recommend that you apply these strategies across home, school, and community contexts.
Go to the Site Map for a full list of resources and activities!

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picture exchange communication system cards

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Do2Learn: Educational Resources for Special Needs

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picture communication cards, songs, games and learning activities for autism, aspergers, fetal alcohol syndrome and disabilities

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Intellectual Disability - Writing Strategies

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Intellectual Disability - Writing Strategies

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Write On! Writing Instruction Strategies for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

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The benefits of writing instruction for students with intellectual disabilities are numerous. Consider the following suggestions for writing instruction. Each will encourage students to write. None of these tips require students to use a pencil, use immaculate grammar, or perfectly spell.

The benefits of writing instruction for students with intellectual disabilities are numerous. Writing can help children with disabilities learn to read, speak, and problem solve (Erickson & Koppenhaver, 2007). It also allows students to demonstrate often otherwise hidden competencies and to communicate precisely what they are thinking (Koppenhaver, 1992). Providing quality writing instruction to students with intellectual disabilities can be challenging. Here are a few strategies to make your lessons more effective and more fun.

Application
Consider the following suggestions for writing instruction. Each will encourage students to write. None of these tips require students to use a pencil, use immaculate grammar, or perfectly spell.

te with Alternative Pencils
Do you have students who cannot hold or manipulate a writing utensil? Are there students in your class who have a visual impairment? Perhaps you teach kids who might better express themselves with eye gaze, switches, or an adapted keyboard. Check out this information on Alternative Pencils.

te Without Standards
Writing without standards means that students are free to express themselves without fear of their spelling, grammar, and punctuation being judged. The goal is for kids to develop a love of writing and an ability to express their thoughts and feelings in print. Regular opportunities to write without standards can help accomplish both of these. The spelling and grammar will come in time.

Daily Opportunities
Try to include a writing activity every day. The best way for your students to improve their writing is to write more frequently. There are many different ways to incorporate writing into your lessons. For some great ASOL-specific writing lessons, request the free Teaching the Write Way TACtic from T-TAC ODU.

Kee p Copies of Students' Work
Publish your students' writing samples by posting them on a bulletin board or creating an anthology of your students' work. Another great reason to keep student writing samples is to share progress and milestones with parents during teacher conferences or IEP meetings. Let your students know that their writing samples are important by keeping them around. A confident writer is a better writer!

Teaching the Write Way: An Overview of Writing Instruction for Students with Intellectual Disabilities Follow the link to request this free resource.

References
Erickson, K.A., & Koppenhaver, D.A. (2007). Children with disabilities: Reading and writing the four-blocks way. Greensboro, NC: Carson-Dellosa.

Koppenhaver, D.A., & Yoder, D.E. (1993). Classroom literacy instruction for children with severe speech and physical impairments: What is and what might be. Topics in Language Disorders, 13(2), 1-15.

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Write On! Writing Instruction Strategies for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

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The benefits of writing instruction for students with intellectual disabilities are numerous. Consider the following suggestions for writing instruction. Each will encourage students to write. None of these tips require students to use a pencil, use immaculate grammar, or perfectly spell. Researc

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Intellectual Disability - Reading Strategies 

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Intellectual Disability - Reading Strategies 

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Effective Reading Instruction Strategies for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities

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Effective Reading Instruction Strategies for Students with Signif

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Intellectual Disability - Reading Strategies 

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Intellectual Disability - Reading Strategies 

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Reading and Students with
Intellectual Disabilities: Using the Readers Workshop Model to Provide Balanced Literacy Instruction

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Math Intervention Strategies for Struggling Students

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Math Intervention Strategies for Struggling Students

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Mathematics can leave some students feeling helpless.

And when we see them with their head in their hands or staring blankly at yet another activity that just doesn't make sense, teachers can start to feel helpless, too.
How do we get through to them?
Math-specific intervention strategies will give you the ability to help these struggling students.

We've compiled six of them here so you can confidently support the next student who says, "I just don't get it".

Direct instruction

Struggling learners often need systematic instruction, as opposed to student-centered activity.

Direct instruction (also known as " explicit teaching ") provides exactly this, with the teacher leading the students through the content every step of the way. Here's how it works:

1. The teacher introduces a concept, connecting it with previous content.

2. The teacher models the skill to be learned.

3. Students follow precise instructions to use the skill themselves in a scaffolded, step-by-step way.

4. The teacher checks for understanding at each step.

5. The above steps are repeated until students can practice independently.

Direct instruction is great for math interventions because it allows you to guide students through individual procedures step by step AND pick up on learning gaps immediately.

Teacher tip

The effectiveness of direct instruction relies on your clarity and precision when breaking things down - so don't spare the detail!

Use a think aloud strategy, talking through everything you're thinking even when you're not writing ("Now I think this would be easier for me if I rounded 48 up to 50. I'll do that and remember at the end that I have 2 extra I need to take off").

To make sure you don't miss anything, it's best to semi-script your explanation beforehand and use a PowerPoint (or write on the whiteboard) to support the explanation.

Visual aids

A visual representation will make it easier for a student to wrap their head around a math concept that would otherwise be an abstract mess. Here are a few examples of common visual aids and representations:

Number lines: These are straight lines with numbers sequenced in order from end to end. They are useful for developing students' number sense and counting skills.

Charts and graphs: These can be used to indicate the relationship between different sets of numbers, or to visualize abstract concepts (eg a pie chart for fractions).

Illustrations: Illustrations of concrete, recognizable items can make number sentences or word problems seems less abstract.

Graphic organizers: These are particularly useful for showing the relationship between number sentences and more literal representations. In the example below, the student reaches the sum 2 + 2 = 4 by counting circles in between the two steps.

Teacher tip

Students might find visualizations help them in class, but they don't know how to use them independently. Promote it as a working-out strategy they can use on their own (eg supply working-out paper and encourage them to draw when tackling problems independently).

Schema instruction

When a student has no idea what a word problem is asking them to do, schema instruction will help. It enables them to decipher the underlying mathematical operation (schema) being hinted at by the words.

Take the student through a range of word problems that all work off the same schema, and then help them devise a mathematical sentence stem that they can fill in for problems of the same type. Let's take the following two problems as an example:
Jack has three lemons and Solomon has two. How many do they have altogether? Nicole is collecting money for a friend's birthday present. She has 10 dollars so far and now she adds five of her own. How much money does she have for the present?
In both cases, the underlying operation is addition. So the schema might look like:

Number A + Number B = Total

You can then do this for other schema (eg subtraction, division, and so forth). It gives students a formula so they don't have to approach each word problem as if it is asking something completely unfamiliar.

Teach metacognitive strategies

Often when you ask a struggling student what they're having difficulty with, they'll tell you one of the following:
I just don't get it.
I don't know.

What this really means is that they have no metacognitive ability - the ability to think about their own mathematical thinking. Without this, they won't be able to identify where they're having trouble or do anything about it.

There are two metacognitive skills struggling math learners will need to develop:
Self-monitoring
Self-monitoring is the ability to internally talk oneself through a problem, step by step. For example, a student might approach a problem by asking themselves the following things as they proceed:

1. Did I understand the question? If not, reread.

2. Does this remind me of a problem I have done before? Let's try the strategy I used for that one.

3. That didn't work. What's another thing I could try?

Self-checking
Struggling learners often wait until they've reached a final answer to check their work, if at all. On the other hand, stronger students will constantly check their thinking along the way to make sure they're on the right track. Teach students to ask such questions such as:

Does this look right?

If I put my answer "back into" the problem, does it make sense?

Have I made any mistakes along the way?

Teacher tip
The best way to teach metacognitive skills is via a think aloud. Whenever you're modeling a mathematical skill, talk aloud so students hear each individual thinking move you make to arrive at a final answer.

It's best to step this out for yourself before you do it in front of the class. You might be surprised by how many quick steps you go through to solve a basic word problem or double-digit sum!

Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS)

Sometimes, a students' peers might do a better job at putting a difficult concept into familiar language. Students will also feel less pressure and anxiety when working with a trusted partner.

PALS allows you to make the most of this by partnering high-ability students with those who need extra support.

These students then work together for 20-30 mins a couple of times per week, taking turns being the "coach" and the "player". That way they have the benefit of one-on-one support and the opportunity to consolidate knowledge through teaching.

Give students the strategies they need to support each other first. It's a good idea to set a structure or sequence of activities to guide them, for example:

1. The coach models to the player how they would solve a word problem, thinking aloud the whole time.

2. The player then works through another problem, thinking aloud, with the coach guiding them.

3. The player completes a problem independently, which the coach checks.

Teacher tip
Rotating students through different partners every week will expose them to different ways of thinking and approaching mathematical concepts. With any luck, one of them will trigger the light bulb moment a struggling student is waiting for.

One-on-one student support

If you have a student who is considerably far behind, they may need one-on-one support in addition to the above initiatives. See if you can find a regular meeting time where you can work with them individually and take them through math activities step by step.

If time is at a premium (as it always is), consider supporting them with an online learning program that they can use independently. Look for one that syncs with your curriculum and automatically adjusts to student ability level, such as our Mathseeds and Mathletics programs. Click the link below to find out more.

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Math Intervention Strategies for Struggling Students | 3P Learning

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Mathematics can leave some students feeling helpless. And when we see them with their head in their hands or staring blankly at yet another activity that just doesn't make sense, teachers can start to feel helpless, too. How do we get through to them?

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Evidence-Based Math Instruction: What You Need to Know

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Evidence-Based Math Instruction: What You Need to Know

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Learn the most effective ways to teach math to students who struggle. Understand the four types of evidence-based math instruction.

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Math Interventions by Grade Range

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ACADEMIC RESEARCH BASED INTERVENTIONS

DIFFERENTIATED TIERS OF SERVICE:

Below, find curated, research-based interventions to support struggling learners with best practice instruction. All Tier II interventions are free and formatted in one page or web-game instruction. Tier III interventions denoted by an astricks * are inexpensive. Click on the content area and grade band that you want to target

ACADEMICS

LINKED WITH COMMON CORE STANDARDS

Research-based Sites

Core instruction that is school-wide and based upon Ohio State content standards. Utilizes common assessments and universal screenings to help students meet progress-monitored benchmarks.

Small group supplemental intervention for 10 minutes or more daily for those students not meeting progress monitored benchmarks. Includes use of planning at the yellow step in RtI. Additional progress monitoring occurs at least once per week.

Click HERE to redirect to Research Based Behavior intervention resources.

Individualized or small group intervention for 15 minutes or more daily. For use with students not making adequate progress with Tier II interventions. Includes use of planning at the red step in RtI. Additional progress monitoring occurs at least twice per week.

Interventions for ESL Students

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Free research based interventions linked with common core

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Any student can become an expert mathematician through hard work and continuous practice. One of the challenging parts of being an educator is teaching to the wide range of abilities in the classroom. In this article, we'll explore eight strategies that will help struggling math students. Plus, download free resources to assist you in supporting all math learners!

As you walk down the hallway of an elementary or middle school, it is not uncommon to overhear students' say: "I can't do math," "I will never have to use this," or "math is too hard." While the underlying causes for these phrases are diverse and might include past adverse experiences in math class or the messaging they hear from adults in their life, they are clear indicators that the students who are struggling are most in need of our help and encouragement in the math classroom.

Luckily, there are lots of strategies that math teachers can use to support struggling students.

A common misconception is that math is black and white; you either can do it or you can't. In reality, math offers plenty of room for students to explore, experiment, and unveil the patterns from which operations, rules, and mathematical phenomena are derived.
Download the 5 Strategies to Help Struggling Math Learners Tip Sheet now. Download the Helping Struggling Learners in Math Tip Sheet now.
Before Implementing Math Strategies for Struggling Students

Getting to know each student on an individual level is a fruitful first step in opening up students in order for them to be more receptive to the research-based strategies that work . Students who feel heard and understood are more willing to take risks in the classroom.

Engage with your students about their stories. How did they get to where they are? How do they feel about being behind in math? Are they aware exactly how far behind they are? Are they willing to take a risk again, given that risk-taking might not have worked out for them in the past?

As a team of teachers, it is essential to provide consistent messages indicating that school is a safe space school where students do not need to keep their defensive walls up. In my experiences, it has been this messaging that has opened students up, so that we could use the strategies below to build conceptual understanding, math skills, and problem-solving abilities.

8 Strategies to Help Your Struggling Math Learners

Strategy 1: Provide Rich Problem Contexts
I am a huge advocate and believer in every student being exposed to discovery-based learning in math. Rich contextual situations enable students to make connections between the classroom and the world around them by bringing real world scenarios into the classroom. At the same time, students are able to develop skills for decontextualization and recontextualization in order to make sense of the numbers they are working with.

Struggling students need to participate in these kinds of activities so that they can see and hear proficient math reasoning from their peers. Experiencing rich mathematical contexts along with their more proficient peers exposes struggling students to their classmates' proficient problem solving strategies and verbalization of proficient peer thought processes. Observing the way their more proficient peers use prior knowledge to solve current challenges and persevere in problem solving will help struggling students to improve their approach to engaging with rich contextual problems.

Strategy 2: Provide Explicit Instruction

Having just championed the need for rich contexts and discovery activities in the math classroom, this type of instruction by itself may not work for chronically struggling students. Explicit instruction can be used to model how to solve target problems step by step. I believe struggling students should be exposed to experiential learning, but they may get lost without follow-up.

Explicit instruction can be provided in full class mini lectures, intervention classes, or by using differentiation strategies in the main classroom. (An upcoming post will address this, so stay tuned!) Moments of explicit instruction can be supported by providing handouts to students and hanging posters around the classroom which help students remember what was discussed. The combination of explicit instruction and visual reminders minimizes the cognitive demand for struggling students allowing them to engage more meaningfully in discussions and activities throughout class.

Strategy 3: Decode Word Problems

It is not uncommon for struggling math students to also be struggling readers. These students usually need explicit instruction in the reading of word problem s involving strategies such as reading aloud, rereading, and highlighting important words. Explicit instruction for the reading of problems enables students to understand their underlying structure, choose appropriate operations and models to solve the problem, and develop strategies to represent their solution.

I find that when students understand a modeling strategy, they are more able to interpret word problems and choose an operation to solve. After students decontextualize the problem by representing it with a bar model, they are able to choose an operation to write an expression or equation all while also sharpening their reading skills. Using the models for addition and subtraction problems versus multiplication and division problems can help them conceptualize the problem.

Strategy 4: Practice Basic Facts

Struggling students should spend a few minutes every day working on their arithmetic basic facts. Ten minutes a day in homeroom, at the end of math class, or as a station in a series of math activities will help them build speed and confidence. There are many excellent applications and web tools available. If you have access to technology for this, use it!

If your district provides a subscription-based service, use it; however, if it doesn't, there are free online apps for basic facts. If you don't have technology available, flash cards (homemade or store bought) and partners will also do the job!

Strategy 5: Use Mnemonics

My staff and I conducted a survey asking special education students what they believed helped them improve by large margins on state assessments. One common theme amongst students' responses was that their teachers had provided them with strategies that were memorable because they were outlined by an acronym.

Here are some problem-solving strategies you might want to consider using with your students: RIDE, TINS, STAR, and FAST DRAW. These problem-solving strategies, along with the "infamous" PEMDAS, can be an easy way for students to latch onto a problem and come up with a solution.

The download for this post is a teacher tip sheet that includes these problem solving mnemonics and explains what their acronyms spell out.

Strategy 6: Make Math

Did you know that students' brains developmentally are not prepared to begin abstract thinking until they are 14-15 years old? Without the use of pictures or manipulatives math becomes a collection of memorizing magical tricks. Especially for struggling students, it is imperative to make thinking, patterns, and principles visible.

Get creative with the things you have around the classroom in order to begin each problem with a hands-on exploration. Concrete tools like pattern blocks, snap cubes, centimeter cubes, or household items allow students to move things around, easily explore, and make note of patterns. Next, begin introducing pictorial representations of these three-dimensional objects. Drawing pictures enables students to transfer their hands-on strategies onto paper which they can draw anywhere, including on high stakes tests!

Finally after practicing with drawing and labeling their pictures, guide students to generalize and abstract their thinking. Is there a pattern that is used every time? Challenge students to express their actions with operations, numbers, and variables. Each student will move through these stages, concrete, iconic, abstract, at their own pace allowing for natural differentiation and continuous progression towards abstract thinking.

Strategy 7: Multiple Strategies

It is quite possible that the standard method that you as a teacher are most familiar with will sound like a foreign language to some students. When students are able to contribute their own ideas and solution strategies, diverse and creative ways of problem solving are revealed. When considering something like division, some students may have the "lightbulb go off" when they think about repeated subtraction, others may think about taking one away each time by separating objects into groups, while others may easily make sense of long division.

It is in the best interest of every student to incorporate and explain multiple strategies for arriving at solutions. If a student shares a method that veers from the way you may have expected students to solve, respond with curiosity and allow the student to explain. The greatest moments of pure joy in a classroom are when students make sense out of a topic while listening to a peer's explanation.
Strategy 8: Carefully Sequence Diverse Examples
Hand in hand with strategy seven, is the sharing of these various strategies in a carefully sequenced order. Students move through their personal math journey, advancing from hands-on manipulatives to two-dimensional drawings to abstract written notations, at different speeds. As a result, on a single problem it is quite possible that each phase of understanding will be demonstrated in the students' approaches to solving.

By first sharing the most concrete and easy to follow solution strategy, you are able to ensure that your struggling students can understand a pathway to the solution. By advancing to strategies with increasing complexity, students are able to make connections between a method they are comfortable with and one that is just outside their understanding. Hearing and seeing their peers' solutions aids struggling students in moving through the progression of strategies to promote accuracy and efficiency in problem solving.

In Summary

One of the characteristics of a great math teacher is to be able to reach students where they are no matter what level that may be. All eight of these strategies are helpful when addressing the needs of all math learners and prove to be especially important for our learners who have the most room to grow.

Download these math strategies for struggling students as a helpful tip sheet and share it with the teachers at your school! You may also find the resources below to be beneficial in helping struggling math learners. Grab them now.

BONUS RESOURCE S TO HELP STRUGGLING STUDENTS

5 Ways to Enhance Math Instruction

Using Appropriate Tools by Grade Level

Math Test-Taking Strategies Kit

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8 Math Strategies for Struggling Students

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Any student can become an expert mathematician through hard work and continuous practice. One of the challenging parts of being an educator is teaching to the wide range of abilities in the classroom. In this article, we'll explore eight strategies that will help struggling math students.

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School-Wide Strategies for Managing Mathematics

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School-Wide Strategies for Managing Mathematics

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School-Wide Strategies for Managing... MATHEMATICS | Intervention Central

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Mathematics instruction is a lengthy, incremental process that spans all grade levels. As children begin formal schooling in kindergarten, they develop 'number sense', an intuitive understanding of foundation number concepts and relationships among numbers. A central part of number sense is the student's ability to internalize the number line as a precursor to performing mental arithmetic.

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Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Response to Intervention (RTI) for Elementary and Middle Schools

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Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Response to Intervention (RTI) for Elementary and Middle Schools

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Effective Strategies to Help Students Struggling With Math

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Effective Strategies to Help Students Struggling With Math

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If you have a student struggling with math, it can be a challenge to get them the help they need. The first step is to determine where the issue lies. Is he or she lacking foundational skills? Is it a particular concept like decimals, fractions or graphing? Once you know where the problem lies, you can better tailor the kind of supplemental material that you can use.

Whether you homeschool or your child attends traditional school, there are plenty of effective strategies for teaching students with difficulties in math. This page will explore a number of options for helping students with math in elementary, middle and high school, as well as provide information on how Time4Learning's award-winning curriculum provides all the tools your child needs to practice and improve their math skills.

Helping Elementary School Students With Math

Math Games: It's no secret children love to play. There are tons of online games that help students master math skills such as counting money, telling time, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and more. Teaching math facts to struggling students is a breeze with Time4MathFacts, an online math fact fluency program that uses games and rewards to help students master math facts. Aside from online games, there are plenty of math board games to help motivate students who have difficulties in mathematics.

Shopping: The grocery store or mall are great places to help students with math. While at the grocery store, you can have your child weigh produce so they become familiar with these metrics. You can also have them calculate cost per ounce, or per pound, of the meats you purchase. At the mall, you can give them a budget and have them compare and select items based on that budget. If a child wants an additional item, ask them which item they need to subtract in order to get the other item instead. This is a great way to stimulate learning basic math skills while also teaching them critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Understand the question: Believe it or not, reading comprehension plays a big role in math, especially when students get into word problems. If a student doesn't understand the question being asked, there is no way they will be able to work out the problem and provide a correct answer. Ensuring that your child has solid comprehension skills can help improve their math skills. Additionally, it's always a good idea to have students read the question several times, and even break it down into parts for multi-step problems.

Use visual aids: This strategy can be especially helpful for visual learners and kinesthetic learners who learn by observing and doing. Posters, videos, or manipulatives like toys, candy or cereal pieces, can help bring concepts to life. In addition, having students color and draw when learning geometry and fractions can be very helpful as well.

Helping Middle School Students With Math

Thorough, step-by-step instruction makes a huge difference in how well a student understands a math concept. Sometimes the key to helping students struggling with math can be as simple as teaching a topic in a different way. Whether you homeschool or just want to provide your student some after school math help, learning at home under your own terms makes a big difference.

Flexibility: Flexibility goes a long way when helping students with math. If a student isn't grasping a new concept, redoing the lesson can help further understanding, increase confidence, and motivate students to continue to learn. Our math curriculum for middle schoolers works on deepening students' understanding of math concepts they learned in elementary school and focuses on expanding their math skills to achieve their yearly math goals.

For example, mastering order of operations is critical for students to thrive at higher grade levels. In chapter 2 of our 6th grade math curriculum, you'll find activities that aim at ensuring students master this key skill before moving on to more complex concepts.

Other math concepts students usually struggle with at this level are proportions, integer operations, measurements and percents. All of these key concepts are covered in our scope and sequence pages for each of the middle school grades.

Provide multiple paths: "It's not the destination, it's the journey". Sometimes there are multiple ways to arrive at the same answer. Whenever possible, show students the various ways they can solve a problem. Provide a new problem and challenge them to see how many different methods they can use to solve it.

Taking breaks: If a concept isn't sinking in, frustration can get the best of students. When this happens, it's important to take a break and step back to clear one's mind. A few minutes can make a big difference and help students tackle the material with a fresh set of eyes and newfound clarity.

Helping High School Students With Math

Engaging materials: Whether it's interactive math labs like those in our high school trigonometry and pre-calculus courses, positive reinforcement, or engaging video lessons taught by funny characters, it's important to make math fun for students of all ages.

Practice makes perfect: Students struggling with math benefit the most with this strategy. This is true at any grade level, not just high school. Once a student is finally able to grasp a difficult concept, it is important to keep at it to ensure those hard-earned skills don't just fade away quickly. Whether it's worksheets, flash cards, whiteboarding, or even online activities, the more a student is able to practice, the better their math skills will be.

Make the connection: How many times have you heard your child say, 'How will I use this in real life'? You can answer that question by making real-world connections which is a major feature of our high school math curriculum where teachers step into real-world settings to engage students and help apply what they are learning to the world around them.

For example, if your child is into sports, you can explain how knowledge of physics, geometry, and trigonometry can help improve their performance. Additionally, there are careers in sports that use math to analyze data during sporting events for a wide variety of sports.

If your student is into arts and crafts, fashion design or other hands-on projects, improving math skills can help them make more accurate designs and creations.

Present students with choices: As students get older, they crave independence. Help them feel empowered by giving them the option to choose which problems to work on from a "menu" or "bank" of assignments. This can help them gain the motivation they need to improve their math skills and give them a sense of freedom and control over their studies.

Making sure students who struggle with math get the help they need is not just about improving their grades or making sure they get into a good school. Children with solid math skills become adept at the process of problem-solving. They're able to identify the root of a problem by taking it apart and explore possible solutions. This ultimately leads to enhanced critical thinking skills, increased confidence, and an appreciation for teamwork and effort.

Have any strategies or tips you'd like to share with other parents? Share them in the comments below!

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How to Help Students Struggling With Math

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If you have a student struggling with math, it can be a challenge to get them the help they need. The first step is to determine where the issue lies. Is he or she lacking foundational skills? Is it a particular concept like decimals, fractions or graphing?

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100 Best Resources for Kids Who Struggle With Math

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100 Best Resources for Kids Who Struggle With Math

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Just like with teaching reading to kids with dyslexia, finding the right resources and methods for teaching kids who struggle with math can make a tremendous difference in their learning.

The following 100+ resources are books, websites, games, apps, and curricula that teach math in a variety of multi-sensory ways that will provide effective tools for teaching math.

Some of the links below are affiliate links. I earn a small commission when you purchase through these links. Please know that I never recommend products that my own kids haven't benefited from. Thank you for your support of Homeschooling With Dyslexia!

Math Resources From Homeschooling With Dyslexia

Teaching Math to Kids With Dyscalculia Parent Class: This is our 8th parent class and covers in depth the causes of dyscalculia, why some kids struggle, what signs you may be seeing, simple strategies and effective activities to do with your kids at home to improve their math sense. Online video and downloadable audio formats with downloadable pdf for notetaking and access to our private Facebook group for class members only. Learn more and purchase here.

Math Posts from Homeschooling With Dyslexia
Understanding Dyscalculia 10 Ways to Help Kids Overcome Math Anxiety The Link Between Dyslexia and Dyscalculia Homeschool Math Curriculum for Students With Dyscalculia How We Teach Homeschool Math
Books About Teaching Math

Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students' Potential through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching By Jo Boaler and Carol Dweck

Mathematical Mindsets provides practical strategies and activities to help teachers and parents show all children, even those who are convinced that they are bad at math, that they can enjoy and succeed in math. Jo Boaler-Stanford researcher, professor of math education, and expert on math learning-has studied why students don't like math and often fail in math classes.

Family Math Books: The FAMILY MATH books frequently are used and recommended by teachers to help families rediscover the fun and excitement in making mathematics discoveries together. With an emphasis on four-to-eight-year-old children, activities in the FAMILY MATH for Young Children book use commonly found items and bring family members together in the process of learning from each other.

With over 300 pages of lively activities, the classic FAMILY MATH book represents one of the greatest strides taken to involve parents in the mathematics education of their children. Using easy instructions and simple objects such as beans, blocks, pennies, buttons, and string, parents, and kids solve problems together. For students in grades K-8.

Multiplication and Division Facts for the Whole-to-Part, Visual Learner by Christopher Woodin of the Landmark School

This program utilizes semantic reasoning strengths, and a combination of whole-to-part processing and gross motor-kinesthetic therapies to compensate for deficits in working memory, expressive language mechanisms, and executive function. By establishing a strong conceptual base, students are able to learn, store, and retrieve facts accurately and efficiently apply them to solve problems.

The Everything Kids Math Puzzles Book by Meg, Glenn, and Sean Clemens
Solving math puzzles stimulates thinking in a low-key way. No tests, no lessons, just thinking and solving. Fun for the whole family. BREAK BREAK BREAK

Web Sites About Teaching Math

Tons of resources and links for learning more about dyscalculia.

Understood.org
Search the Understood website for tons of information on dyscalculia, dyslexia and other learning struggles.

Woodin Math
Chris Woodin is a specialist in the fields of mathematics and learning disabilities. A graduate of Middlebury College and Harvard Graduate School of Education, he has taught extensively at Landmark School, where he holds the Ammerman Chair of Mathematics. This site is full of innovative teaching tips and methods.

Homeschool Math Curricula for Kids With Dyscalculia

Teaching Textbooks: (beginning in 3rd grade) Like having the 'good' math teacher year after year. Teaching Textbooks is computer based (no Internet required). Each lesson is taught and followed by 5 practice problems. Kids then work each lesson right on the computer. Immediate feedback allows students to watch the solution to any incorrect answers - after 2 tries. Read my full review of Teaching Textbooks here.

Math U See: An uncomplicated, hands-on, time-tested program for teaching math. Children learn each mathematical concept by building it, writing it and saying it. Used with base 10 math manipulatives, many dyslexic children find success with Math U See. We use Math U See until 3rd grade and switch to Teaching Textbooks.

Right Start Math: Another hands-on program that de-emphasizes counting, uses visualization of quantities, and provides strategies and visual pictures for learning the facts. Understanding and problem solving are emphasized throughout the curriculum. The primary learning tool is the Abacus, a specially designed two-sided abacus that is both kinesthetic and visual.

Touch Math: A highly visual, hands-on program designed for kids who struggle with math.

Resources for Learning Math Facts

Times Alive: Humorous, memorable stories and songs help kids remember their math facts with ease. Available as an app in both Android and Apple and as an online subscription for the computer or tablet. Read my complete review of Times Alive here.

Times Tales: Times Tales is a creative, innovative mnemonic-based program that makes it fun and easy to memorize the upper multiplication facts. Times Tales uses cute, simple stories to provide students with a "memory peg", allowing them to quickly recall otherwise abstract facts.

Math-It: A wonderful, activity-based program to help your kinesthetic learner master the facts! A combination of mental math "tricks" (ie, to add nine to any number, count one back and add "teen") or shortcuts and hands-on drill.

Skip Counting Songs: Skip counting has saved my older kids when they needed to know (but struggled to remember) their multiplication facts.

YouTube Channels for Teaching Math

1000s of videos on every subject. Also, visit the Kahn Academy website for more math videos.

Jo Boaler's Number Talks: Stanford professor Jo Boaler demonstrates number talks and how to teach kids to decompose and recompose math problems to increase math sense.

Chris Woodin of Woodin Math: Tons of creative, hands-on math teaching ideas from math expert, Chris Woodin.

Landmark School: Kinesthetic Learning: Chris Woodin is an accomplished teacher in the world of students with language-based learning disabilities. With a Masters in Education from Harvard Graduate School, Chris Woodin has brought innovative kinesthetic learning techniques into the lives of Landmark students. Kinesthetic learning is based on doing rather than observing.

Parent Teacher Education

How to Learn Math is Stanford University's Jo Boaler's class on teaching math.

Math Puzzles and Games

Explore shape, size, comparison, spatial reasoning, patterns and designs using these brightly colored plastic geometric puzzles.

Wooden building blocks
Studies show that kids who played with building blocks as young children did better with math throughout their entire school career!

ThinkFun Math Dice Jr: Kid's First Mental Math Game
Simple rules and chunky, brightly colored dice make this game fun for early math learners.

ThinkFun Math Dice: The Fast Fun Game of Mental Math (for older kids)

Players try to get closest to the target number by creating different equations using addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, even powers.
Sum Swamp
Journey through the swamp by adding and subtracting numbers on the dice.
Money Bags Place Value Game
For ages 7+. Includes plastic coins and paper dollars.
The Allowance Game
Perfect for teaching kids to identify money values, add & subtract money and more. For ages 5-11.

The cards have the equations....the game board has the answers. Each card has an addition or subtraction equation. Match a card to its correct answer on the board, then place your chip there. Groups of numbers are color-coded to help with number recognition.

Math Card Games

All three of these games are easy to learn, fast-paced, and encourage flexible thinking - a foundational skill for success with math.

Math Manipulatives

Kids who struggle understanding math concepts benefit tremendously from the hands-on learning provided by using 3-dimensional manipulatives when learning math.

Using manipulatives makes it easier for kids to discuss their math thinking, encourages them to ask questions, enables them to understand concepts, find multiple ways to solve problems, and helps them to demonstrate their new knowledge and skills.

You can use low-tech items such as beans, coins, buttons, and Legos.There are a ton of fun and affordable math manipulatives available along with teaching resources.Here are some of our favorites:
Two Sided Counters Pattern block activity packs
Base Ten Blocks

Less Expensive Options for Base Ten Blocks
322 Piece Place Value Set
A physical representation of fractions as parts of a circle helps students to recognize equivalences.
Geoboards
100s Chart Teaching Activities
More 100s Chart Teaching Ideas
See this informative post on how to teach math with an abacus.
Cuisenaire Rod Teacher Resource Dominoes Card Games for Kids (book)
Edible Math Manipulatives

Chocolate bar for fractions

Word Problem Resources

Math Story Books

Apps for teaching math
Number line app from Math Learning Center Also available in iTunes Fractions app from Math Learning Center Fraction app from iTunes
Operation Math ( iOS $2.99, Android $1.99) This app turns your students into spies who travel around the world on different missions. Kids can choose which operations they want to practice as they make their way through the app.

Number Frames (free for iOS, Chrome, and other web browsers) The Math Learning Center has lots of great resources for students, including interactive math tools to help students practice skills. With this tool, students explore the relationships between numbers as they represent each operation with virtual manipulatives. This free app gives kids the space to build a foundation that makes math fluency practice most meaningful.

Sushi Monster ( iOS free) Scholastic's app offers children multiplication and addition problems. They have to reach a target number by picking the correct factors and addends listed on different pieces of sushi.

Quick Math - Arithmetic & Times Tables ( iOS $1.99) With this app, kids answer traditional skill-and-drill questions-but they don't have to enter answers using a keypad. Instead, they can write the answer anywhere on the screen of their device, and the app reads their handwriting and records their response.

Number Line (free for iOS, Chrome, and other web browsers) This mobile and web app is perfect for helping students model their thinking as they explore different operations.

Pet Bingo by Duck Duck Moose ( iOS $1.99, Android $1.99) In this game, children answer addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division questions and place their answers on a bingo board. The app is full of colorful cartoon characters and offers visual models to help students understand each problem.

Meerkat Math HD ( iOS $1.99) This adventure app asks students to complete different races using math facts. In order to make their meerkat avatar run and jump fast enough to be a winner, they have to answer each question quickly and correctly.

10monkeys Multiplication ( iOS $1.99, Android free) Kids can practice multiplication facts with this animated app. The goal is to help monkeys trapped in a tree escape by answering a set of questions correctly. This app is broken down into different times tables and includes a reference chart so kids can review facts.

Math Vs Zombies ( iOS $4.99, Android free) This silly app asks children to add, subtract, multiply, or divide one- and two-digit numbers. Students need to answer each question correctly in order to zap the zombies back into humans.

YodelOh Math Mountain ( iOS $2.99, Android $1.99) A virtual take on a traditional carnival game, this app helps children practice all four operations. They have to work quickly so that the yodeler doesn't fall from the top of the mountain.

Apps that teach about time:
Activity Timer Talking Clocks
Chrome Apps and Extensions

Here are six Chrome apps and extensions to check out. (Extensions add functions to the Chrome browser.) They can be used on Chromebooks or on any device with a Chrome browser. The best part? They're all free.

opens in a pop-up window in Chrome. It can do basic arithmetic, but it also has many advanced functions, like exponents, logarithms, and sine, cosine, and tangent. It requires kids to use a mouse or trackpad to click on buttons-they can't type in math problems. If your child prefers to type in math problems rather than click, she may want to try the official Chrome calculator tool .

also opens in a pop-up window. It's a flexible tool that kids can use for many different math problems. If they type in words ("five times five") the answer will be in numeral form. Kids can create their own variables and even get basic facts like the population of a city.

Search engines like Google can also do these things. But this tool gives simple one-line answers that are stored in the tool's history. This way kids can access them for further calculations. Kids can also enlarge text and change fonts. To learn how to get the most out of this tool, kids should review available commands by clicking "Help."

Graspable Math opens in a sidebar window in Chrome. It lets kids manipulate math equations. Kids can pull equations from websites, or type in their own. Then with special click commands, they can move, combine and separate the numbers and variables. (This can be especially helpful for kids who struggle with handwriting.)

The tool can also do basic math like adding and subtracting. That includes math problems with fractions. It can also be used with equations that have powers and exponents. Each command has an accompanying video on the Graspable Math website that shows how it's used.

The Math Learning Center has 10 stand-alone Chrome apps for math manipulatives. These are virtual objects like number lines and blocks that kids can manipulate to understand math concepts.

Each of these apps opens in a separate Chrome window. The apps include fractions, money pieces, number lines and more.

Search engines like Google can also compute answers and give formulas. But this tool does it without giving all the search results, which can be distracting.

Price: Free (Pro version for students is $4.95/month)

(includes FX Draw, FX Equation, FX Graph and FX Stat): $65 (Mac or Windows)

Includes: math notation, graphing tool, and drawing tool

FX Equation lets kids write out equations very quickly. Kids can type in the equation using their keyboards. They can also easily insert the equations they create into Word, PowerPoint, and other programs.

Kids can type out an equation and plot it or draw various lines and curves directly on virtual graph paper. They can then print out the results.

Kids can also view the plot in 3D, add math notations, shading and notes to different sections.

(You can also buy the individual programs separately.)

Calculator, graphing tool, drawing tool, equation solving tool

Kids can plot the path of equations. There are many options for viewing and annotating the plotted graphs.

Kids can draw lines, points, shapes and other features. When they do, the program gives the corresponding equation.

With the equation-solving tool:

The program has a simple equation solver. By clicking on an equation, kids can solve for one or more variables.

Virtual manipulatives, graphic organizers

With the virtual manipulatives:

Aimed at grade-schoolers, this program has several sets of virtual objects. These include fraction tiles, base ten blocks and more. After kids use the objects, they can save their work as image files.

With the graphic organizers:

The program has a "Step Workspace" that lets kids show and explain their steps as they do math problems. Kids can add as many steps as they need.

Math notation and dictation

Kids can dictate math symbols and equations. They can use their voice to type out everything from pre-algebra to high-level calculus.

MathTalk requires that a computer has Dragon (formerly Dragon NaturallySpeaking) installed, as well as the program Scientific Notebook (which is included with the software).

Math notation program. By typing out or clicking on commands, kids can generate complex math equations using thousands of symbols.

MathType can handle advanced math like derivatives, statistics, and matrices. Once kids type out their answers, they can print or save and email their work.

: $29.95 (Mac or Windows)(The tools in this software are also available for free online at the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives .)

Kids have access to dozens of virtual objects like number lines, pie charts, algebra balance scales and more to help them understand math concepts.

Assistive Technology Finder

Visit this Assistive Technology Finder on the amazing Understood website.
Graph paper - with larger boxes Graphic organizers to help with math - free printable from Understood.org.
Online Math Resources
Basic Math Resources
Educational Math Games Online

Cool Math Games tests younger kids' math abilities in a variety of challenging ways. Find games that will strengthen different skills useful in math, such as numbers, strategy, logic, and memory.

Online Algebra Resources

Online Geometry Resources

Learning Math: Geometry: The geometry of Learning Math has information for students and teachers K-8. Video tutorials cover topics such as triangles, polygons, geometry basics, dissections and proofs, and the Pythagorean theorem.

Online Trigonometry Resources

Trigonometry Help is a comprehensive resource for students of trigonometry, complete with detailed descriptions of basic terms (including types of angles, laws, and formulas), lists of trigonometry identities, tips for picking a tutor, and even a brief history of the subject.Onl Pre-Calculus Resources

Texas Instruments: Equipped with tutorials on graphing calculators, explanations and practice problems on a range of concepts, test preparation advice, and more, this site is sure to be an invaluable tool for any student of pre-calculus - or, indeed, any level of math.

Online Calculus Resources

How about you? What are your favorite math resources?

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100 Best Resources for Kids Who Struggle With Math | Homeschooling with Dyslexia

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Just like with teaching reading to kids with dyslexia, finding the right resources and methods for teaching kids who struggle with math can make a tremendous difference in their learning. The following 100+ resources are books, websites, games, apps, and curricula that teach math in a variety of multi-sensory ways that will provide effective tools for teaching math.

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Best Practices in Secondary Math Interventions (7-12)

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Best Practices in Secondary Math Interventions (7-12)

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On T 2 October 2012, Jim Wright presented on the topic Best Practices in Secondary Math Interventions (7-12) in Deforest, WI. The workshop was sponsored by Wisconsin Educational Resources, LLC.

Here is the PowerPoint and handout shared at the workshop:

Below are additional web links and resources discussed at the workshop--organized according to RTI teacher goal.

GOAL 1: Creating a Supportive Math Instructional Environment. The math classroom that offers explicit instruction, accommodations, and strong core math instruction can reach the widest range of struggling learners.

GOAL 2: Obtaining or Developing Classroom Formative Math Assessments. Teachers who can measure student math skills formatively can efficiently adjust instruction to meet the needs of a wider range of math learners.

Screening/Progress-Monitoring

GOAL 3: Developing a Math 'Intervention Menu'. Math teachers who have at their fingertips a range of research-based intervention ideas can better meet the needs of struggling students.

Here are websites that feature information about Tier 2/3 Math Progreams:

Tier 2/3 Intervention Website: What Works Clearinghouse. This website reviews core instruction and intervention programs in mathematics, as well as other academic areas. The site reviews existing studies and draws conclusions about whether specific intervention programs show evidence of effectiveness.

Tier 2/3 Intervention Website: Best Evidence Encyclopedia. This site provides reviews of evidence-based math and reading programs. The website is sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University School of Education's Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education (CDDRE) .

Tier 2/3 Intervention Website: Doing What Works. This website is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and offers specific guidelines for how to teach effectively across disciplines.The site has a section devoted to math and science, including pragmatic recommendations for putting into classroom practice the specific recommendations of the National Math Advisory Panel Report of 2008.

GOAL 4: Enlisting the Student as a Motivated, Self-Managing Learner. The teacher who can motivate a struggling student to take increased responsibility for his or her own math learning has a greater likelihood of success.

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Best Practices in Secondary Math Interventions (7-12)

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On T 2 October 2012, Jim Wright presented on the topic Best Practices in Secondary Math Interventions (7-12) in Deforest, WI. The workshop was sponsored by Wisconsin Educational Resources, LLC. Here is the PowerPoint and handout shared at the workshop: Below are additional web links and resources discussed at the workshop--organized according to RTI teacher goal.

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Mathematics Strategies to Support Intensifying Interventions

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Mathematics Strategies to Support Intensifying Interventions

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NCII developed a series of mathematics lessons and guidance documents to support special education instructors, mathematics specialists, and others working with students who struggle with mathematics. These lessons and activities are organized around six mathematics skill areas that are aligned to college- and career-ready standards, and incorporate several instructional principles that may help intensify and individualize mathematics instruction to assist teachers and interventionists working with students who have difficulty with mathematics. The lessons may be used to supplement mathematics interventions, programs, or curricula that are currently in place. However, these lessons by themselves would not constitute an effective mathematics intervention.

In this video, Dr. Sarah Powell shares considerations for teaching students with math difficulty.

Click on the skill areas below to explore resources and lessons related to each area.

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Mathematics Sample Lessons to Support Intensifying Intervention

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NCII developed a series of mathematics lessons and guidance documents to support special education instructors, mathematics specialists, and others working with students who struggle with mathematics. These lessons and activities are organized around six mathematics skill areas that are aligned to college- and career-ready standards, and incorporate several instructional principles that may help intensify and individualize mathematics instruction to assist teachers and interventionists working with students who have difficulty with mathematics.

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Standards-Based Math Instruction for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

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Standards-Based Math Instruction for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

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Table of Contents

Concrete, representational and abstracts models of math.

Questioning used in mathematics.

Feedback

Teaching Math Vocabulary

Building Math Fluency

Error Analysis

This next section contains excerpts from the National Center on Intensive Intervention. (2016). Principles for designing intervention in mathematics. Washington,
DC: Office of Special Education, U.S. Department of Education and is in the pubic domain.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide brief explanations of practices that can be implemented when working with students in need of intensive intervention in mathematics.
Special education instructors, math interventionists, and others working with students who struggle with mathematics may find this guide helpful. The strategies presented in this guide should be used in conjunction with teaching guides developed for specific mathematical concepts. Specific topics covered include the following:

Explicit, Systematic Instruction (aka Direct Instruction)- Chapter 4
*Effective Questioning in the math classroom ( questioning was introduced in chapter 9)
*Concrete, Representational/Visual/Pictorial, Abstract/Symbolic Models
*Teaching Mathematical Vocabulary and Symbols
*Fluency Building
*Error Analysis

Concrete, Representational/Visual/Pictorial, and Abstract/Symbolic Models

Using multiple representations to teach mathematics allows students to understand mathematics conceptually, often as a result of developing or "seeing" an algorithm or strategy on their own. By building strong conceptual understanding, students are able to better generalize skills and understand algorithms (Gersten et al., 2009; Jones, Inglis, Gilmore, & Evans, 2013; Miller & Hudson, 2007). Moving through each phase is essential for every skill area, not just for early foundational skills (Jayanthi et al., 2008; National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008; Stein, Kinder, Silbert, & Carnine, 2005; Woodward, 2006). A description of the three phases follows.

1. Concrete: In this phase, students use three-dimensional manipulatives to solve problems and to gain a better conceptual understanding of a concept. Examples of manipulatives include counting bears, snap cubes, base-10 blocks, real or plastic money, clocks, fraction tiles, geoboards, Algeblocks, algebra tiles, and
others. It is helpful to use a variety of manipulatives (if possible) to teach concepts so that students can generalize the concept being taught. Using an assortment of manipulatives is not always possible, however; some concepts can only be taught using a specific manipulative. It is important to note that although students may demonstrate proper use of a manipulative, this does not mean that they understand the concepts behind use of the manipulative. Explicit instruction and student verbalizations, such as explaining the concept or demonstrating use of the manipulative while they verbally describe the mathematical procedure, should accompany all manipulative use.

2. Representational/Visual/Pictorial: Students use two-dimensional pictures, drawings, or diagrams to solve problems. These pictures, drawings, or diagrams may be given to the students, or they may draw them when presented with a problem. These representations should be used to connect and solve the same concepts previously taught using concrete objects. Representational models also may be presented virtually through websites or tablet applications. With a virtual representation, students move the image with a mouse or with their hands.

3. Abstract/Symbolic: During this phase, students are expected to solve problems through the use of numbers and symbols rather than with the use of concrete objects or visual representations. Students are often expected to memorize facts and algorithms as well as to build fluency.
Following is an example that demonstrates use of the three phases to solve the problem 4 + 5:
Effective Questioning and Providing Feedback

Students who have difficulty with mathematics need many opportunities to respond to effective questions, explain their thinking, and receive feedback that allows them to improve their learning. To increase generalization of skills and flexibility in thinking mathematically, instructors need to ask questions that increase student engagement, that provide feedback, and that are linked to algebraic or higher level thinking and understanding (Cai & Knuth, 2005; Witzel, Mercer, & Miller, 2003). Specifically, beginning algebraic thinking, such as analyzing relationships, generalizing models, predicting, justifying, or noticing structure, can lead to greater gains in mathematics understanding in later years (Kieran, 2004).
Following are guidelines for asking questions that will move student learning forward, increase student engagement, and offer immediate feedback.
1. Questioning: The three main types of questions that should be used in mathematics are reversibility, flexibility, and generalization (Dougherty, Bryant,
Bryant, Darrough, & Pfannenstiel, 2015).

Reversibility questions are those that change the direction of student thinking: for example, giving the student the answer and asking him or her to identify the correct equation. This type of question allows for multiple answers and gives students the opportunity to think about algorithms in different ways. Reversibility questions should be presented after the student has demonstrated mastery of a particular procedure or algorithm.

Flexibility questions support student understanding in finding multiple ways to
solve a problem or in discerning relationships among problems. For example, the student might be asked to solve an addition problem using a specific strategy and then show or prove the answer using another method, such as a number line. Flexibility questions can be used during instruction to show relationships between similar problems or differences in models.

Generalization questions are those that ask students to create statements about patterns. In the past, instructors would explain algorithms or rules, and they did not afford students the opportunity to develop explanations on their own. To increase conceptual understanding, guided questions about patterns allow rules or generalizations to be "discovered" by the student. For instance, students are presented with a list of numbers multiplied by two and then asked to describe any patterns they notice (e.g., one factor is two, product is an even number, etc.). The use of generalization questions allows students to develop a deeper understanding of mathematics and to generalize their thinking to similar problems.

Regardless of the type of questions asked, instructors should use the questioning strategy to assess student understanding and then use the information obtained from the questioning to evaluate and adjust their instruction as necessary.

Teachers should involve all students in questioning. This involvement can be accomplished in several ways:

First, teachers may invite all students to respond to questioning through unison choral response. Although this is an easy way to encourage students to respond, it is important to ensure that all students are responding to the questions at the same time.

Second, teachers can use equity sticks. Teachers write each student's name on an ice pop stick and then draw a stick for each question they ask. The student whose name appears on the stick answers the question. All students have the same chance to be called upon.

Third, teachers may use response cards. Write "A," "B," and "C" on separate cards. The instructor asks a question and presents three answer choices. Students select their choice and hold up the response card indicating their answer.

Fourth, teachers may ask students to write their answers on whiteboards. Students hold up the answers so the instructor can check them for accuracy.

Fifth, teachers may invite students to create a model. Students then pair-share their creations to identify differences and similarities among the models and answers to the mathematical questions.

Teachers may need to individualize their questions for students to gain a better understanding of a particular student's knowledge of the skill that is being taught.

2. Feedback: Providing students with both positive and corrective feedback is essential to their learning. It is important that students receive immediate feedback so that they do not continue to practice incorrectly. Students should also have an opportunity to practice/repeat the correct response after error correction has been provided (Archer & Hughes, 2011).

Teaching Vocabulary and Symbols

Students with a strong mathematical vocabulary will have a better understanding of the concepts and skills being taught. Instructors, therefore, should use precise language when teaching mathematical concepts and skills. Explicit teaching of vocabulary and mathematical symbols is important in helping students understand mathematical concepts, and this explicit instruction should be integrated into all lessons. Encouraging student verbalization of mathematics vocabulary, paired with explicit instruction in identifying and using symbols, can increase overall mastery of symbolic representation (Driver & Powell, 2015; Frye, Baroody, Burchinal, Carver, Jordan, & McDowell, 2013).
Examples for teaching mathematics vocabulary and symbols are explained in this section.
1. Word Walls/Word Banks: Word walls and word banks can be used in two ways. First, instructors can create cards with vocabulary terms or symbols and the corresponding definitions. Second, students can create their own cards. Once cards have been created, they are placed on a word wall, or students can keep their own notebook containing the terms. When the word wall or student notebook is organized, the words should be placed in meaningful sections. For example, one section may be devoted to fractions, another section to basic operations, another to geometry terms, and so forth. This meaningful organization will help students when they are looking for the terms. It is important to note that simply placing word cards on the wall or having students add them to their notebooks does not increase student understanding of the vocabulary or symbols. Instructors must teach these vocabulary terms and symbols and their definitions and then relate the terms and symbols to student learning. Instructors should use precise mathematical vocabulary in teaching and correcting, and they should also encourage students to use correct mathematical language in speech.

2. Vocabulary Cards: These cards may have the same vocabulary terms and symbols as those on the word wall or word bank. If instructors use vocabulary cards to teach definitions, they should write each term on the front of a card and its definition on the back. When the cards are used to teach symbols, the instructor should write each symbol on the front of a card and its name on the back. The cards are used as a practice activity in which students quickly say the word and state its definition or identify a symbol and cite its meaning. Through vocabulary card practice activities, students will learn to automatically recognize mathematical vocabulary terms and symbols.

3. Labeling: Students are expected to label parts of a problem or figure in mathematics. Often, students need opportunities to identify vocabulary terms prior to solving problems. To increase overall mathematical vocabulary and flexibility, problems should be written in a variety of ways to show variability. Providing students with examples such as the ones below will enable instructors to assess students' understanding of terms prior to problem solving.

4. Identifying Characteristics: Some mathematical terms or concepts are more complicated than others and require further explanation as well as examples and non-examples. A characteristics table presents information in a manner that is easy for students to access. When a term or concept is introduced, instructors and students should complete a characteristics table together. In the first box, characteristics of the term/concept are listed. In the second box, examples of the term/concept are provided. In the third box, non-examples are listed. For some concepts or terms, it may be helpful to provide pictures of the examples and non-examples.
polygon: a simple, closed plan figure made up of three or more line segments
Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are helpful mathematics tools; they allow a great deal of information to be logically organized in one place. Graphic organizers, such as the three variants of the Frayer Model that follow, are an efficient alternative to extensive note taking. Instructors explicitly teach students how to use the graphic organizer and the content provided. Graphic organizers can be used to illustrate most mathematical concepts.

Fluency Building

In addition to conceptual knowledge, students need to develop procedural fluency in mathematics. Providing students with practice activities that build fluency is essential. Opportunities to work through multi-step problems allow students to develop the higher-level thinking skills they need in order to progress to more complicated math concepts. Students need effective strategies and ample practice to increase their fluency in basic mathematics skills such as operational facts. The only way to truly increase fluency is to combine timed activities with additional practice opportunities (Raghubar et al., 2010; Woodward, 2006).

Another benefit of fluency can be enhanced motivation. When students become more fluent in mathematics skills, their motivation and confidence often increase. To heighten motivation, students should self-correct whenever possible for immediate feedback and then graph the results. Instructors also can integrate goal setting to further motivate and increase student self-regulation (Burns et al., 2010; Codding et al., 2009; Montague, 2007; Rock, 2005). Following is a list of suggested activities that instructors may use for fluency building practice. Many of these activities can be incorporated into peer tutoring activities.

1. Timed Activities: The use of timed activities to increase fluency in demonstrating knowledge of basic facts is a mainstay of mathematics education. The purpose of timed tests is to motivate students to increase their speed and to surpass their previous scores. Although timed activities are an effective tool for building fluency, they should not be the sole mode of instruction. Instructors should explicitly teach strategies that aid students in demonstrating their knowledge of mathematical facts. It is important to note that timed activities are not a motivator for all students; the focus, therefore, should be on answering correctly as well as quickly answering questions related to mathematical facts.

*Timed activities are not appropriate for all students. Jo Boaler, Professor of Mathematics Education, Standford University. Research suggests times tests cause math anxiety

2. Flash Cards: Flash cards are often used to improve fluency in demonstrating knowledge of basic facts. They also can be used in activities such as identifying coins and their values, reading clocks, identifying fractions, and performing other mathematical tasks. Flash cards can be used with students and instructors or with peer tutors. Answers are provided on the backs of the cards so that the flash cards can be worked through quickly. Peer tutors should be taught how to correct answers so that neither peer is practicing the wrong answer during flash card activities. Students should record items scored as "incorrect" so that they can further practice the specific skills associated with these items. Students can graph the total number of flash cards answered correctly under timed conditions. This graphing can be done in tandem with goal setting to motivate the development of fact fluency.

3. Computer Software: Computer software activities, when paired with explicit teaching, can be highly engaging for students. Computer software programs provide the additional practice that struggling students need to increase mathematics fluency and accuracy. Instructors should evaluate software programs to ensure that they meet the needs of students and that they require students to actively solve problems. Effective computer software will contain clear directions and will provide students with positive and corrective feedback immediately after they have answered questions (i.e., worked through problems). Computer programs should complement, rather than replace, instructor-led learning.

4. Instructional Games: Games provide students with fun, stimulating ways to practice skills that they have already been taught. Instructional games, including board games, have been found to increase skills in estimation, magnitude comparison, identification of numbers, and counting (Ramani, Hitti, & Siegler, 2012; Ramani & Siegler, 2008; Siegler & Ramani, 2008). The games should include mathematical components and foundational skills that correlate to the state standards. Following are some common games that can be adapted for teaching most mathematical concepts:

Bingo: The instructor draws a card and reads the number, basic facts, fraction, or other item. Students mark the number or solution on their bingo cards. The first student who completes a row or column wins only if he or she can read all the numbers or answer all the problems in the row or column.

Concentration/Memory: Students play the game as they would with cards; however, before students can pick up a match, they must read the numbers or solve the problem.

Dominoes: Students play the game as they would regular dominoes by matching numbers with objects, math facts, fraction names with pictures of fractions, and so forth. Students must be able to answer the problem before they place their dominoes.

Board games: Using commercially produced board games can assist students in counting, estimation, and understanding real-world applications of money. Board games also tend to be linear and link to understanding of measurement and fractions in later grades.

have _____; who has _______? This game can be used to practice a variety of mathematical skills. The sentence structure "I have _____; who has _____?" is written on each card. The cards are evenly distributed among students. One card has the word Start written on it.
Examples are as follows:
"I have 5; who has 6 more?"

"I have 11; who has 2 less?"

"I have 9; who has its double?"

"I have 18; who has 7 less?"

The game continues until all cards have been used. This game can be used to practice knowledge of basic facts or more advanced skills such as adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators.

Error Analysis

Error analysis is the process of analyzing student work to determine why students solved a problem incorrectly (Ashlock, 2010). Many errors can easily be detected-for example, regrouping ones instead of tens or adding denominators rather than finding common denominators. Other errors that are specific to an individual student's understanding of a process are more difficult to identify. Even more confusing, some errors lead to the correct answer, and, in turn, students develop misconceptions. These errors require more careful examination, and often, students need to explain their thinking before the errors can be identified. Developing a step-by-step task analysis for some skills may help the instructor identify where in the process a student is having difficulty. Once errors have been identified, instructors should quickly address them so that the student does not continue to practice incorrectly, and educators should adjust their instruction to facilitate student understanding (Archer & Hughes, 2011; Stein et al., 2005).

(National Center on Intensive Instruction, 2016)

The following text is adapted from: Herholdt, Roelien, & Sapire, Ingrid. (2014). An error analysis in the early grades mathematics - A learning opportunity?. South African Journal of Childhood Education, 4(1), 43-60. Retrieved September 13, 2019, from http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-76822014000100004&lng=en&tlng=en . CC-BY

Error analysis, also referred to as error pattern analysis, is the study of errors in learners' work with a view to finding explanations for these reasoning errors. This multifaceted activity can be traced back to the work of Radatz in 1979. Not all errors can be attributed to reasoning faults; some are simply careless errors (Yang, Sherman & Murdick 2011), identified as " slips" (Olivier 1996:3), which can easily be corrected if the faulty process is pointed out to the learner. Slips are random errors in declarative or procedural knowledge, which do not indicate systematic misconceptions or conceptual problems (Ketterlin-Geller & Yovanoff 2009). Error analysis is concerned with the pervasive errors ( or 'bugs') which learners make, based on their lack of conceptual or procedural understanding (Ketterlin-Geller & Yovanoff 2009). These authors explain that such mathematical errors occur when someone who makes this type of error believes that what has been done is correct - thus indicating faulty reasoning. Such errors are systematic (Allsopp, Kuger & Lovitt 2007) and persistent and occur across a range of school contexts (Nesher 1987). Yang et al (2011) point out that systematic errors might be the result of the use of algorithms that lead to incorrect answers or the use of procedures that have not been fully understood.

Error analysis, however, does not just involve analysis of learners' correct, partially correct and incorrect steps towards finding a solution, but also implies the study of best practices for remediation (McGuire 2013). This would require of the teacher a good knowledge of mathematical content, as well as a good grasp of learners' levels of mathematical understanding (McGuire 2013). McGuire (2013) argues that the ability of teachers to remediate common learner errors and misconceptions underlies Shulman's (1986) definition of pedagogical content knowledge. Hill, Ball and Schilling (2008) further includes the ability to anticipate learner errors and misconceptions in their understanding of pedagogical content knowledge. Hill et al's (2008) explains that activities such as error analysis, which require pedagogical content knowledge, involve more than just pedagogy; they involve a well-grounded understanding of the learner and how a learner learns.

Resource on Error Analysis in Mathematics instruction

University of Kansas, (n.d). Dynamic Math Assessment, Error Pattern Analysis. http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/~specconn/page/instruction/math/pdf/patternanalysis.pdf

References can be found at https://intensiveintervention.org/sites/default/files/Princip_Effect_Math_508.pdf pages 16-17

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Instructional Methods, Strategies and Technologies to Meet the Needs of All Learners

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Table of Contents Concrete, representational and abstracts models of math. Questioning used in mathematics. Feedback Teaching Math Vocabulary Building Math Fluency Error Analysis This next section contains excerpts from the National Center on Intensive Intervention. (2016). Principles for designing intervention in mathematics. Washington, DC: Office of Special Education, U.S.

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6 Teaching Tips for Kids with Mild Intellectual Disabilities

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6 Teaching Tips for Kids with Mild Intellectual Disabilities

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6 Teaching Tips for Kids with Mild Intellectual Disabilities

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Help your child learn with these simple strategies.

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Mathematics for Students with Moderate and Severe Disabilities

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Mathematics for Students with Moderate and Severe Disabilities

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Research-Based Practices for Creating Access to the General Curriculum in Mathematics for Students with Significant Intellectual Disabilities

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Research-Based Practices for Creating Access to the General Curriculum in Mathematics for Students with Significant Intellectual Disabilities

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Research-Based Math Interventions for Middle School Students with Disabilities

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Research-Based Math Interventions for Middle School Students with Disabilities

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Using Technology to Support Struggling Students: Science Literacy, Vocabulary and Discourse

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Using Technology to Support Struggling Students: Science Literacy, Vocabulary and Discourse

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Teacher Strategies to Help Struggling Learners

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Using Technology to Support Struggling Students: Science Literacy, Vocabulary and Discourse

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To be scientifically literate, students must be able to express themselves appropriately. Learn how to help struggling students master specific vocabulary and be able to use it in their science writing activities.

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5 Simple Strategies for Supporting Struggling Readers in Science & Social Studies

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5 Simple Strategies for Supporting Struggling Readers in Science & Social Studies

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Science Strategies for Struggling Readers

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Many students love science and social studies. There are often hands-on activities, simulations, and projects that keep these subjects engaging for learners. However, for some students, these subjects can be quite intimidating due to all of the non-fiction reading that is involved. That's why supporting struggling readers in science and social studies is so important.

If some of your students are struggling readers, you must take time to think about how you can ensure they have access to the content despite their difficulties with reading. Some simple differentiation can mean the difference between a student feeling overwhelmed and a student who is able to navigate the content on equal footing with her peers.

Here are five low-prep strategies you can implement to help make science and social studies more enjoyable and stress-free for your struggling learners!

1. Introduce vocabulary before each unit & provide extra opportunities for practice.

Vocabulary is often one of the biggest challenges for struggling readers when it comes to science and social studies.

There are so many big words that are difficult to pronounce, and the content specific vocabulary is often unfamiliar and confusing. Often times, students who struggle with reading do so because of gaps in decoding skills, and these challenges can be compounded with these Tier 3 words.

Pre-teaching vocabulary can be a huge support for struggling readers because it gives them familiarity with these new words and allows them to focus on making connections within the content rather than being bogged down in the foundations of reading.

There are several simple ways you can do this that don't require a great deal of extra time or effort. Here are just a few:

Send home a vocabulary list several days before starting a new unit. Include a short note explaining the upcoming unit and how to use the word list with their child. Home practice doesn't need to be long or intense. Just reading and reviewing the words once a day can be a huge help!

Introduce content vocabulary using a center or small group. Sometimes it can be difficult or impossible for parents to help. Using a small group or center to introduce the vocabulary in advance can be a great way to pre-teach unit vocabulary in the days before you begin.

Create a visual preview. Start hanging visual vocabulary cards in advance. This can give students a chance to see and begin making connections with content vocabulary in advance.

Below is an example of a center activity that can help students become familiar with the vocabulary while practicing language arts skills. While this particular activity doesn't focus on defining new vocabulary, it does help students who struggle to decode build word recognition. You can read more about how I built science vocabulary during centers here.

2. Provide extra copies of the text and share in advance.

As students get older, the amount of reading that is required in science and social studies grows exponentially and often comes from textbooks. This can be overwhelming to struggling readers because they can't keep up with their peers.

Providing an extra textbook or a copy of in-class reading for students to keep at home can be a great way to overcome this challenge.

You can easily parents informed about what chapter(s) you are working on in the textbook or make extra copies and send a packet home with students at the beginning of each unit. This allows struggling readers to pre-read, review, and re-read with adults or siblings to ensure they understand.

It can also be helpful as students prepare for end of unit assessments.

3. Use reading tools & strategies to focus on content.

Reading should never be the barrier to growth in science and social studies. Often times we are acutely aware of student needs during reading, but it can be easy to overlook putting the same tools and strategies into place for science and social studies.

Here are three of my favorites:

Use a line finder (affiliate link) or index card to help students keep their place in reading. Students who use these in reading class should use one when reading science and social studies content, too! Amazon has a bunch of different inexpensive options so you can find the right size for your readers.

Chunking text into shorter blocks can also be helpful. This may mean you make an extra copy and cut the paragraphs apart or teach students to fold the page to create less text.

Partner reading or read aloud is also an option for those students who are significantly below grade level. You can even have advanced students or early finishers record themselves reading the selection out loud, and students can listen along as they read independently, which can be really helpful for students who are embarrassed or uncomfortable with their reading struggles.

4. Differentiate homework.

Many science and social studies textbook companies produce an audio CD or leveled readers that go along with the chapter or topic you're focusing on in class.

If you assign reading homework, you can provide struggling readers with these support materials to help them complete assignments painlessly (their parents will thank you as well!).

5. Focus on the learning not the paperwork.

Often times, students who struggle with reading fall behind on their work and end up with a pile of overdue or missing assignments.

This can be frustrating for you, as a teacher, because it prevents you from grading and returning papers in a timely fashion. It can also be very overwhelming for the student.

When necessary, don't be afraid to take oral responses or find alternative ways to gather the information you need to determine if a child has mastered the unit concepts. You can document these adjustments in the grade book to help keep parents in the loop, but a student who knows the information should never be punished with poor grades in other content areas because of an identified gap in reading skills.

An alternative to waiting for failure

If you've ever worked with struggling readers, you know that these challenges can easily overshadow their academic successes. It is important that we, as educators, find ways to support and assess these students in science and social studies to prevent these difficulties from negatively impacting other content areas.

While the tips above don't negate the need to document and provide intervention, they allow students to work around their reading challenges and prevent them from falling further behind or becoming disengaged with learning.

If you enjoyed this article, check out these other articles you might find useful:

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5 Simple Strategies for Supporting Struggling Readers in Science & Social Studies - Differentiated Teaching

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Science and social studies can be overwhelming for struggling readers. These strategies will help teachers support these students and accurately assess their content knowledge without letting reading difficulties get in the way. Supporting struggling readers in science and social studies doesn't have to be hard.

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Using Technology to Support Struggling Students: "Doing" Science Like a Scientist

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Using Technology to Support Struggling Students: "Doing" Science Like a Scientist

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Technology Use in Science

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In an increasingly complex world, all students need to be scientifically literate. While some students may go on to pursue advanced careers in the sciences, basic scientific literacy is critical for all students. All students need to understand what it means to think like a scientist, and how to evaluate information that is called &quot;scientific&quot;. Many of the careers of the future will require that students have the ability to collaborate and solve problems using STEM skills. Struggling students are no exception - they will need the same types of knowledge and skills, and will often require additional supports to be successful.

Research has shown that the most meaningful learning happens when students are engaged in authentic activities that ask them to think and behave like chemists, computer programmers, mathematicians, engineers or archeologists - that is, when they are engaged in activities that mirror the real-life tasks of STEM professionals.[i] These activities might include the use of virtual environments and simulations, developing models of scientific phenomena, and using collaborative tools like email, video conferencing, and classroom wikis. These types of activities can present new challenges for struggling students and students with disabilities. In this series of science info briefs, Using Technology to Support Struggling Students in Science, we'll examine five different dimensions of science learning, the areas that may be challenging for struggling students, and how technology tools may help.

Physically 'doing' science - challenges for struggling students

Physical tasks are an important part of many science lessons, from taking soil samples, mixing chemicals, using Bunsen burners, recording data, and performing dissections. This type of physical work can present significant barriers for many students with disabilities - students with dysgraphia, poor motor control, emotional/behavioral disorders, orthopedic disabilities, cognitive impairments, and many others may all have difficulties with some of the physical requirements of the science classroom.

Educational and assistive technologies can help students with the physical demands of science lessons by providing alternative experiences for building science proficiency and knowledge. These technologies can benefit students in two ways. First, they provide students with a substitute for the natural world, as with simulations. Second, they can allow students to visualize and interact with the natural world in ways that would typically be impossible, because the processes involved are too fast, small, slow, or large to be easily perceived by people, or are not practical to repeat. For example, a virtual dissection both ensures access for a student who is unable to safely use a scalpel, and allows for multiple viewings, repetitions, and manipulations of organs and tissue without the need for multiple dissections.

Educational technologies can make a difference in three key areas:

Virtual experiments

Simulations of the natural world

Observation and measurement supports

Virtual experiments and activities

When - because of disability, cost, time, safety issues, or accessibility - students are unable to engage in certain science activities, virtual experiments and dissections can a viable alternative. [ii] These types of activities give students opportunities to see a representation of real bench science and to manipulate it with virtual tools.

Simulations of the natural world

Virtual worlds involve using a computer to display a setting and allow simulation participants to work and interact with it. Simulations may be relatively simple, as with simulations which allow students to manipulate animal population density, food supply, and other conditions affecting reproduction and the ecosystem. Other virtual worlds are significantly more complex, allowing groups of students to work in the environment at the same time, making observations, collecting data, testing hypotheses and communicating with one another.

Virtual instrumentation/data collection

Technology now enables a wide range of devices to connect to the Internet so that science activities can be conducted virtually and over great distances. Tools and websites are now available that enable students to interact with scientific equipment virtually. In addition to providing a more accessible experience, this technology can afford students opportunities to use equipment that is often too expensive or dangerous for the classroom.[iii]

Implications for educators

Teachers can utilize technology and classroom supports in a variety of ways to accommodate students who have physical barriers to performing standard science tasks:

Explore using instructional technology, including classroom projection or interactive whiteboards, to support student visualization and modeling.

Arrange teams so that students with disabilities are paired with other students who can support them in performing some tasks (mixing chemicals, making cuts with a scalpel, etc.).

Search the TechMatrix for tools that support science learning for struggling students.

Consider incorporating the resources listed below into your science curriculum.

Technology resources

JASON Mission Center
The JASON Mission Center is the online repository of related educational content associated with the JASON Project. Students can make use of online games, simulations, virtual labs, and other multimedia resources; teachers can access curriculum materials, and purchase curriculum units for 5 th through 8 th grade students.

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Using Technology to Support Struggling Students: "Doing" Science Like a Scientist

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In an increasingly complex world, all students need to be scientifically literate. While some students may go on to pursue advanced careers in the sciences, basic scientific literacy is critical for all students. All students need to understand what it means to think like a scientist, and how to evaluate information that is called "scientific".

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How to Differentiate in the Science Classroom (Or Any Classroom!)

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How to Differentiate in the Science Classroom (Or Any Classroom!)

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Differentiating Science

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As teachers, we often ask ourselves, "How do I meet the needs of all of my students?" With all of the behind-the-scenes tasks we do - staff meetings, parent conferences, professional development, and the like - it can be difficult to focus on the big picture of creating lessons, especially those that cater to students' individual needs. There are so many ways to support our students - accommodation, modification, differentiation - and each has their place in the world of education. Differentiation encompasses the majority of our students, requiring us to meet their needs by providing different options to learn the same material. And although it can be extremely overwhelming, it is both possible AND rewarding.

Just like any craft, there is a science to it, and differentiating lessons is no exception. Here are some of our favorite differentiation tips that won't monopolize your planning time and will leave your students feeling confident and proud of the work they've accomplished, even if it's slightly different than their neighbors'.

Accessible Academic Vocabulary

New vocabulary terms prove to be one of the most difficult things for students to grasp. Here are several ideas for making new terms less overwhelming for students:

1. Integrate your readings. Give students vocabulary in a fun and context-rich format with two versions of the same reading - one where the terms are bold-face within the text and one where they're not. Struggling students receive the bold-faced terms so they can easily find words and use the context clues to discover their meanings. Students on or above level receive the standard reading and should be able to easily find the terms and glean the meaning as they read along.

2. Provide various interactions with terms. Offer options like "match the term with the definition", "write the definition in your own words", or "use the term in a sentence." Differentiate extension activities by providing short answer questions and graphic organizers for on/above level learners and matching or fill-in-the-blank questions for struggling learners. Allow students to illustrate definitions or even show you what the word ISN'T. Use Bloom's Taxonomy to easily change up the wording of questions so you can assess simple knowledge or depth of understanding. And don't worry: Students won't notice that they're getting different lessons because the readings are identical and the accompanying questions assess the same material.

3. Display a visual word wall in your classroom. Allowing students to associate the word with a picture will solidify the word's meaning and reinforce the word as you continue through your unit. Further differentiate by adding in roots, prefixes, and suffixes of those words, or by translating into another language as needed by your students. Don't ignore your word wall - interact with it! Remove the words from the wall and point to them them throughout your lessons.

"Note"worthy Ideas

As middle school teachers, we often find that students still haven't acquired the necessary skill of note-taking, especially where subject areas are rich in content. Here's what you can do to combat this problem:

1. Provide your students with a fill-in-the-blank outline for class notes. This allows them more opportunities for listening to and understanding the material more thoroughly, participating in class discussions, asking questions, and making meaningful connections - rather than scrambling to write down as much information as possible before the next slide comes.

2. If the above method doesn't work for your whole class, try fill-in-the-blank notes for those who need additional assistance and a graphic organizer for those who can handle taking notes on their own. The graphics and language remain the same, varying only in the method for recording the information.

Testing, Testing... 1-2-3-4

Testing is a necessary evil of education these days, and it's no wonder students often do poorly when tests are often given more stage time than the actual lessons being taught. To help with academic test scores, check out these easy ways to improve performance:

1. Limit answer choices. Offer multiple choice tests that have options A, B, and C, or just A and B. This will assist those students who studied but may become overwhelmed during test-taking time. It's also a great option for lower-performing students and gives them more opportunities to feel successful, especially if they feel anxious about the material AND test-taking.

2. Increase the font size and the amount of white space on the page. It helps students to focus on individual questions and makes the test seem less daunting.

3. Provide essay questions in both short/long answer and fill-in-the-blank formats. Include the terms needed to answer the question in the essay directions or question. It helps prepare students for real essays, and you'll find you'll have more successful students when you provide this option on your differentiated tests.

4. Allow students to use their notes on tests or take them home. This is great way to help students that need more time during testing. If you provide rigorous questions, you can still assess student understanding.

ALL Hands on Deck

Nearly all students love hands-on, interactive, fun activities. Differentiating lessons during these class experiences can help to increase engagement and cement understanding for even the most stubborn learner:

1. Provide various templates for projects. For students who need little guidance once directions are disseminated, let 'em loose! Those that need more assistance can receive a modified "rubric" template that states each requirement and gives them space to mark if they've been accomplished so they meet all of the criteria.

2. Use your students as peer teachers. Model an activity for all students in their lesson first. Then have them create the activity on their own and have another classmate review and test their version to see if it works.

3. Provide various options to complete the same task. In life science, dissections are one of the most anticipated activities students do. However, due to varying personal and religious beliefs, dissection is not always feasible. To address this, provide students the option to complete an online tutorial or create a 3-D Dissection Model. Then, when the lab practical comes, students can still take the same test, using a paper or an online virtual model as their specimen.
4. Create lab opportunities no matter what your content. Labs aren't just for science but they can certainly become a part of any curriculum. Reading a book about the plague in ELA? How about a fun lab in which students discover how quickly and easily germs spread throughout a population? Studying about African countries? Try an ecology lab centered on African ecosystems in which students study predator-prey relationships. Science labs are a great way to collect and analyze data when you're in, say, a math class! A cross-curricular classroom opens up opportunities for students to fall in love with your material in a new way and be successful while doing it.

So, What Does Differentiation Look Like in Our Class?

In our class, we start with a short bell work or sponge that gets kids thinking about the topic of the day. These pre-work tasks may be done in small groups or individually depending on the depth of knowledge required, and may include a movie with follow-up questions or be as simple as asking a question about what the students think. Then we delve into the meat of the class period and offer up content with one of our differentiated notes sheets and an accompanying PowerPoint for visual learners. Once students have grasped the concept of the day's discussion, they get hands-on with a mini-lab. We begin by guiding them through the process of developing a hypothesis and then allowing them to lead their own activities at their pace and level, or complete a whole-class activity. We wrap up the period by discussing our findings and finish the class with an exit ticket that might involve completing a task card, writing a brief summary of their lab findings, explaining the reason for completing the lab, or discussing what they learned in class that day. So you see, you don't need a science laboratory to create spectacular differentiated lessons. Experiment with one of these methods, mix up your delivery and routines, and you'll see that you CAN meet the needs of the varied learning styles of your students!

Always nerdy,
Mel and Gerdy

***
Melissa (Mel) and Gretchen (Gerdy) are a dynamic pair of very "nerdy" secondary life science teachers who have a true passion for curriculum design. Armed with degrees in Education and Biology, they enjoy creating adaptable and engaging science lessons for diverse learners that grab students' attention and get them excited about the natural world. Their passion led them to becoming TpT Teacher-Authors and opening their store, Getting Nerdy with Mel and Gerdy, in 2012, where they love helping teachers focus on their students rather than on lesson planning. You can check out all of their goings-on at their blog, Getting Nerdy with Mel and Gerdy.

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How to Differentiate in the Science Classroom (Or Any Classroom!)

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As teachers, we often ask ourselves, "How do I meet the needs of all of my students?" With all of the behind-the-scenes tasks we do - staff meetings, parent conferences, professional development, and the like - it can be difficult to focus on the big picture of creating lessons, especially those that cater to students' individual needs.

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SCIENCE INTERVENTION: STRATEGIES TO HELP STUDENTS CATCH UP

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SCIENCE INTERVENTION: STRATEGIES TO HELP STUDENTS CATCH UP

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Science Intervention Strategies

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Science Intervention: Strategies to Help Students Catch Up

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Spread the loveMany students struggle in STEM-related subjects: science, technology, engineering, and math. Struggling in science can be disheartening for students, their parents, and their teachers. As students increase in grade level, the emphasis placed on science in the public-school system increases, leaving many students feeling as though they will never catch up.

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5 Ways to Engage Students in Science Class

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5 Ways to Engage Students in Science Class

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Engaging Students

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Struggling to keep students interested during science? You're not alone. Whether it's competing with smartphones, doodling, or something out the window, it's a challenge to get students to focus.

Based on our teaching experience, here are five ways we've found to engage students in science class.

1. Make them feel like real scientists

Research shows that students build self-esteem by engaging in "role-play." They gain scientific knowledge in the process as well as build and develop social and emotional roles that are vital to a well-rounded child. This makes experiment days where students get to use test tubes and beakers some of the most engaging days of the year.

During grade school years, students already feel like real scientists. (They just might not know it yet.) Students are naturally inquisitive and want to know "why." Learning to think and behave like a scientist allows them to learn how to ask questions, experiment and inform decisions.

It's normally cost-prohibitive to constantly do science labs. But with the right resources, the cost is well-worth the investment. As the NSTA writes, "The hallmark of science is that it generates theories and laws that must be consistent with observations" Labs are the primary way students can make observations and generate theories and laws.

A solution is to use some sort of lab that offers unlimited uses. Our Ardusat kits, for example, don't contain any one-time-use parts, so they can be used again and again for multiple lessons.

Once you familiarize yourself with the Ardusat Space Kits, the possibilities are endless. You can start learning with our structured experiments in eHub, then take your exploration to the next level by creating your own experiments!

2. Use real data

When students gather and analyze their own data, they're more interested in what it has to say. Students who are mathematically and scientifically proficient have experience collecting data, analyzing data, and explaining conclusions. These a instill a love of learning into students, plugging into their natural curiosity.

When students use real data, they have more incentive to understand what it means. Using real data provides a context for numbers. It provides a forum to explain the implications of the data - showing that the process is important, not just the final answer.

Plus, gathering data through observation or technology-assisted measurement is more fun.

3. Create opportunities for interactive feedback

As a science teacher, your feedback and mentorship is critical. Science is the medium by which students explore the natural and physical world, by using all subject areas - reading, writing, mathematics and historical context. Science is the integration of all areas of learning.

But you're not the only source of feedback. Through activities like coding, students can immediately see if their experiment is working or not. Or, by changing variables, they can see how the experiment is different. Science creates a safe place for students to test hypotheses, take risks and experiment without the fear of failure.

These interactive feedback moments allow students to explore learning and feel more connected to their activity. Few things are more rewarding as a teacher than watching students grow into inquisitive learners - science naturally lends itself to inquisition.

4. Let Students Choose

Science allows students to tailor their learning to align with their personal interests which allows for authentic learning to take place. We all know how many "why's" children have!

If you don't need to purchase different, expensive sets of supplies, and can instead make a single investment, then students can be given more choices. This is another benefit of science class investments that can be reused. This allows them to tailor their learning while still getting the standards-based education they deserve.

5. Apply activities to real-life

Science makes all areas of learning meaningful and provides a context to apply prior knowledge.

I once overheard a student talking about how what he learned in his physics class helped him take turns faster while driving. Even though we probably don't want to encourage teenagers to drive fast (they don't need the help), his excitement taught a good lesson.

There is nothing more rewarding than a student connecting new information to a past experience and having an "ah-ha" moment. "Ah-ha" moments provide more meaningful learning for students.

When students can understand how what they're learning in class can be used in the real world, they're much more engaged.

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5 Ways to Engage Students in Science Class - Because Learning

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Struggling to keep students interested during science? You're not alone. Whether it's competing with smartphones, doodling, or something out the window, it's a challenge to get students to focus. Based on our teaching experience, here are five ways we've found to engage students in science class. 1.

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50 Innovative Teaching Methods in Science

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50 Innovative Teaching Methods in Science

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Click Below for 50 Science Strategies

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Student engagement and understanding of materials is given more emphasis in today's education over spoon feeding the facts.

Therefore, using black-boards or the typical lecture methods are not adequate to teach science and other related subjects.

Many scholars and researchers have proposed advanced ideas and they claim that virtual teaching scenarios or simulations can help to build a better understanding of subjects amongst students.

More than just conveying facts or findings in science, students will love to explore the world of science. These innovative teaching methods in science can substitute the typical teaching techniques to achieve the goal.

1. Hands on Learning:

This is the best teaching method invented so far that involves the active participation of students to experience scientific concepts than to just have an audience view.

Schools are promoting the use of low cost apparatus in classrooms to helps students to have hands on learning experience. It can be a string telephone to teach about sound and communication, matchstick mecanno to teach 3D structures, notched pencil to teach rotation motion or anything similar.

2. Story Telling

Students love to hear stories and therefore, storytelling is one of the best ways to get their attention in class.

Teacher can explain the facts of biology or the laws of physics in the form of stories. This is a mental organizer as human brains can remember stories than just plain facts. Some teachers present the whole concept as a story while some others use a story to open and end the session.

3. Role Play

This innovative method is becoming an integral part of science education as students can intellectually and physically involve through activities while learning a new concept.

Activities can be organized in classroom sessions where a group of students can take the role of atoms or molecules to study a chemical reaction or they can represent a scientist group to demonstrate the particular scientist's laws.

4. Sports Based Learning

This is an interesting approach to learn problem-solving in physics or a stepwise method to study complex chemical reactions.

A game of football or cricket helps them to learn about the percentage, average or probability which can find its use in physics problems. Sports are mostly played in teams which also promote the importance of teamwork that helps them to synchronize better in group projects.

5. Visual clues

Using visual clues easily supplements auditory information and students can easily connect better with ideas.

The multi-sensory experiences improve their understanding and memorization. This includes drawings, diagrams, and pictures to assist theory and setting up examples to show its application side.

The sequence of lab procedures can be better taught using pictures with words approach.

6. Instructional Conversations

Building instructional conversations is a key method to teach science vocabulary. Let them talk in between the lectures about the experience they had with an application related to the topic of discussion.

This promotes their dialogue construction in science as they communicate using scientific and technical terms. Make this a classroom strategy to help students to easily learn science vocabulary.

7. Science Text Cards

This is an innovative teaching method to convey the science facts in an easy and organized way. In this activity, statements related to science concepts are written on index cards.

Students can work individually, pairs or in groups to sort the cards based on the given format. The formats include true/false,agree/disagree, matching pairs, classification, sequencing and more.

8. Word Games

This is a creative strategy to help elementary students to experience the language of science. Hangman, Pictionary, Dingbats, Bingo, Scrabble, Odd One Out, Charades, Trivial Pursuit etc. are the common games.

Playing these games using scientific terms helps the students to work closely with different hard to understand words and use them fluently in their subject.

9. Graphic Organizers

This teaching approach is helpful for students to interact with science in a more organized and structured way. Teachers can use different types of templates to represent the data according to the topic that is being handled.

A typical format for graphic organizer contains a central point from which different branches are formed and there may be sub-branches in certain cases. Arrows are used to point the direction or sequence of a process.

10. Word Parts

This teaching strategy is followed by teachers to educate the basics of science to elementary students. While introducing new scientific terms, they can reinforce the structure of words.

Students are asked to identify and understand prefix, suffix, and base word, and to relate their meanings. For example, metamorphosis - meta (large), morph (change), osis (process); photosynthesis - photo (light), synth (make), isis (process).

11. Social media

The different social media platforms can be used wisely to teach science to make the science classrooms more interesting and engaging. For instance, students can be asked to follow scientists in Twitter and share his/her new thoughts and findings in class or to use Feedly for improving the content of their research projects.

Students can also use Vine to document and to share science videos, Pinterest account for sharing images for research projects or writing prompts or WordPress class account for peer-to-peer learning.

12. Virtual science labs

There are many virtual science labs available online for free and therefore, this approach almost gives hands on experience of learning the subject without much expense.

Detailed diagrams, illustrations or close up pictures allow students to virtually get inside a plant or animal part without actually doing it. Dissections in biology can be studied thoughtfully with a virtual hands-on sensation without the problem of odour and similarly, experiment a chemical reaction without burns.

13. Word walls

Science word walls in classrooms can stimulate the interest of students in the subject and an opportunity for them to illustrate different concepts. In an advanced technique, a more in-depth understanding of different scientific terms can be made possible with pictures that accompany the words.

This is also an option to help them better understand words with multiple meanings. Teachers can design creative word walls or ask students to contribute to the idea weekly or monthly.

14. Thinking Maps

This is an ideal way to visually represent different thought processes which help to organize the science education with a better flow. There are different types of thinking maps available which can be chosen wisely to represent the particular topic.

This includes bridge maps to teach relation between ideas, brace maps to break larger objects into smaller parts, flow maps to show sequence of events, multi-flow maps to show effects or causes of an event, tree maps to classify objects or ideas and more.

15. Mini anchor charts

These interesting charts are a great idea to give a detailed overview or explanation of a science topic. Teachers use it to interactively teach areas such as scientific methods, types of energy, plant life cycle, states of matter, mixtures and solutions, force & motion and more.

To make the whole idea interesting, the teacher brings variations such as black and white charts, colored ones; fill in the blank models, and full-page anchor charts for large classrooms.

16. Crossover Learning

In this teaching method, students are given opportunity to learn in multiple settings such as inside the classroom, museums, field trips or clubs.

Teachers can use this method effectively by proposing a question in class, taking students to informal settings to find answers and then, going back to classrooms to discuss and share the findings. This way, learners can record, link, recall and share their diverse learning events to explore the topic and get a deeper level understanding.

17. Argue with Science

Learning through argumentation gives students a widened thinking to contrasting ideas which in turn deepen their understanding.

They can refine ideas with others and engage with open-ended questions, and re-state observations or remarks in a more scientific language. Teachers can also guide them in their approach and share the intellectual expertise with them.

18. Context-Based Learning

In this method, students are given the opportunity to create context and explore ideas from them. They interact with surroundings, hold conversations with subject experts, make relevant notes and attempt to modify the nearby objects.

The context can be understood in detail by exploring the world around. This gradually helps them to interpret new information from the context and relate to what they already know.

19. Computational thinking

This is an advanced technique to improve thinking and problem-solving skills. The method comprises decomposition i.e. breaking large problems into small units and pattern recognition-related problems to the ones which were already solved successfully in the past.

Computational thinking skills also cover algorithms-step by step approach to reach a solution; abstraction-neglecting unimportant details and debugging-refining these steps.

20. Remote labs

Learning by doing is an unparalleled approach to teach science and this is made a reality with remote labs. Students are given access to authentic scientific tools and opportunities to control remote lab experiments.

This would enhance their inquiry skills and conceptual understanding and also, the students can learn and explore with motivation.

21. Embodied Learning

In this approach, mind and body of the students work together to explore science. The physical feedback, as well as the resultant actions, will reinforce their learning process.

This idea is well supported by today's technology such as visual systems that track movement or wearable sensors to collect physical and biological data.

22. Science museums

Give opportunity to students to visit a science museum as part of the learning process. This gives them access to innovative resources and they can visualize data they learned in class.

They can have a look at the real work of scientists which improves their urge to learn about it further. Regular visits to museums make learning science more engaging and interesting.

23. Projects

This can be an individual activity or group activity which helps students to showcase the application side of what they learnt through theory.

This method involves choosing the idea, building a plan, executing the plan and finally evaluating it. When students pass through these stages, they can improve their skills to express ideas, problem solving, overcoming the challenges, team work and self assessment.

24. Multimedia Approach

This method is a blend of text, audio, animation, video, still images or interactivity content forms to teach diverse difficult to understand concepts in science.

The educator can convey vast information using advanced media, devices and techniques, and involve a wide range of activities to provide a meaningful learning experience.

25. ICT Enabled Learning

ICT refers to the use of Information and Communications Technology to teach the scientific ideas that promotes open source learning.

In order to make the accessing, storing, transmitting, and manipulation of information more easy, this approach integrates telecommunications, computers and relevant enterprise software, storage, middleware, and audio-visual systems required to handle the topic.

26. Video clips

This teaching technique makes use of instructional video clips available online or in libraries to show and teach a new concept.

The evolution of a process can be conveyed better with animation videos. It can also be videos of demonstration of an idea or an application side of a theory or an interview with a scientist, tutorial by a subject expert and more.

27. Power Points

Instead of the conventional talk and chalk methods, teachers now include power point presentations in their classroom sessions to make it more interesting.

They connect the computers to projectors to address a larger classroom and include interesting slides with diagrams and flow charts to make the teaching more interactive.

28. Mini-labs

Mini-labs allow students to take part in hands-on activities inside the classrooms to illustrate a concept. This makes classroom sessions more fun, engaging and memorable.

Students can attempt to mock-up day/night with a globe and flashlight, build circuits, test for conductivity and magnetism, produce mixtures and solutions or model the formation of sedimentary rock and more.

29. Science Fair

Schools should conduct science fairs as part of their teaching strategy to promote students interest in the subject as well as to evaluate their level of understanding.

In this competition, students are given a time frame to answer a question or perform a task through a range of experiments and research. They showcase the output in the form of reports, display board, or as models.

30. Research books

The teacher can promote the use of research books in classrooms rather than just text books and lecture notes. Students are asked to do a research on whatever topic is covered in class by means of libraries, websites or by talking with experts.

This can include the extended information of their syllabus and their findings with diagrams and charts to emphasize it. They can share their research books with classmates too.

31. Documented Problem Solving

In this method, the teacher insists students record their thought process when solving a problem. They are asked to explain their reasoning for reaching the particular solution rather than simply presenting a solution.

This kind of documented problem solving helps them to have a deeper understanding of their process and gives an option for self-analysis.

32. Science kit

This is one of the innovative methods of teaching scienceto kids and adults alike. Let it be physical science, life science, or earth science, teachers are now making use of science kits to help students have an engaging educational experience.

They can conduct small experiments with guided instructions to identify rock specimens, to watch out for insect metamorphosis or demonstrate chemistry reactions.

33. Science stations

This is a fun, quick and engaging way to teach science that promotes student-led learning. Science stations support differentiated learning that lets students immerse themselves in topics, experience science to the fullest and then reflect back on their learning.

There will be multiple stations built with different learning styles and students can research, explore, watch, read, write, assess and illustrate the science concepts.

34. Observation stations

More than just the textbook assignments that have limitations in exploring the topic, these advanced observation stations help students to build up their research, observation, and creativity.

This includes activities that help them to have an understanding of a specific concept using 5 to 6 stations with varied options. The activities include determining mass using a triple beam balance or testing objects to find out their electrical conductivity and magnetism and a lot more.

35. Peer-to-Peer Teaching

Students take the role of teaching each other that promotes excitement learning science. In Peer-to-Peer Teaching approach, they are really engaged in the content by discussing scientific topics, generating questions and working in teams to explore new information.

Some of the activities involved in this approach include buzz groups, solution groups, and critic groups.

36. Science movies

Teachers take initiatives to take them for science movies in theatres or in school halls that clearly showcase the application side of scientific concepts.

More than just entertaining them, many science movies captivate their attention and illustrate diverse science concepts in the real world. Science and nature-focused documentaries is one of the best ways to introduce science to kids than spoon feeding them with text book content.

37. Science games for kids

Kids always love to play and that is why smart teachers introduce science to them with interesting games. They can learn more about science and technology with fun.

A wide range of games are available online that showcase the concepts of animals, plants, space, forces, light, sounds, magnets, electricity, weather and gases. There are games with multiple levels and passing each level teaches a new concept and illustrates scientific experiments.

38. Science songs

This is another creative teaching method to help kids to learn about the science world with fun. Teachers can make use of the interesting science songs available online or create one to introduce the basics of astronomy, biology, botany, physical science and earth science with fun.

Science Is Real, Meet the Elements, The Star Song and Motion Song are a few among the popular science songs available online.

39. Science Exhibition

Encourage your students to take part in science exhibitions as part of school level or inter-school level competitions. This is a great opportunity to bring out their creativity in science and design an application based on a scientific concept.

Develop this inquisitiveness and creative mindset in students right from the elementary classes to help them to grow up as science enthusiasts.

40. Mobile apps for Science

A number of mobile apps are available online for elementary, middle school and high school students as well as for those undergoing advanced studies. Today's kids are tech savvies and they love to learn science using their gadgets.

The advanced mobile apps built with innovative features in fact turn students into scientists. This lets them hold science in their hands and explore it with just a few taps. The popular apps in the category include Human Body, Cozmic Zoom, Earth Primer, Video Science, Science360, NASA GLOBE Observer and a lot more.

41. Field trips

In the middle of boring classroom sessions, take your students out for field trips to experience science while learning. Go to an aquarium, a nature center, a scientist's home or visit a pet store.

You can also spend some time with the students in the bird park or simply go on a nature walk to experience the science around while learning new concepts.

42. Science clubs

Set up science clubs in your schools or community, which is an ideal approach to STEM education that assimilates high quality hands-on instruction.

This is the right place for science enthusiasts to share and discuss new happenings in the science world and to connect innovative ideas to what they actually learned.

43. Reward discovery

Right from the elementary classes, teachers should support, guide and inspire students to discover the wonders of science.

With an inquisitive mindset, there are a lot to discover from the science world we are living in. Also, reward them for the small discoveries they make and let them share and present it in class.

44. Interactive science journals

This is an advanced version of lecture notes in which students express the information they learnt into different templates and elicit their own responses.

Students can use this technique effectively to have a deeper connection to their learning and this activity promotes their higher level thinking. They can be creative with their notebooks using pictures, charts and comments, thus, building an encompassing resource for future reference.

45. Science at home

Like scientists say, science starts from home. Encourage your students to discover science at home from elementary classes itself. Ask them to find out a specific science concept application at home as assignments and let them discover science on the go.

There are fun science activities at home that involve parents and kids such as measuring Earth's circumference with a shadow, creating under water fireworks with chemistry, building a balloon powered toy car and a lot more.

46. Flipped Classroom

In this innovative teaching technique, students are asked to go through video instructions or tutorials in the initial stage, i.e. digital learning.

The second stage will be in classrooms where they involve in challenging tasks and assignments based on the information gathered through video assets. This flipped learning frees up class time for activities such as hands-on labs, guided practice or online simulations.

47. Guided Discovery Problems

Understanding science is more than just knowing some facts and the guided discovery problems method makes it possible. This technique can be integrated into the lecture, lab and field courses.

It refers to understanding science step-by-step through the discovery process and involves the collection and processing of data, debugging and explaining it through intriguing puzzles, structured hands-on activities and right presentation of information.

The conceptually difficult or counter-intuitive topics are better handled with this approach.

48. Fishbone

This is a visual tool for organizing critical thinking which is a good approach for problem solving in science. The fishbone diagram helps to teach students about the root causes leading to a problem and quantifying the relationship between the effect and cause. This is more effective when teaching a group. In this diagram approach, the head of the fish represents the change, the ribs show the reason and riblets have the supportive evidence.

49. Science Quiz

Include a quiz as a part of your classroom sessions when teaching science. This can be done as a whole class activity by splitting the group into 4 or more sets. The questions can include the application of the theory taught in class. Students can discuss and share ideas to find the solution within the stipulated time frame. This teaching approach helps students to think from different angles and sometimes, to think out of the box.

50. Build your model

This can be a challenging task given to students as part of science education. Models are the building blocks of science which are used to explain the diverse aspects of real world.

Ask your students to build their own model using the scientific knowledge they have acquired and you can provide supportive guidance.

Students will be creative in making models and designing their own imaginative means of testing them. This is the right approach to find the scientist in them.

The new era teachers and science enthusiasts have come up with many innovative teaching methods in science and the listed ones are just a few among them.

We live in a scientific world and the advanced teaching strategies are helping students to discover and explore science every day.

Other than the listed methods, teachers looking for advanced techniques can also try group discussion, case studies, laboratory experiments, seminar, outdoor teaching, creative illustrations, crafts, dramatization, and interactive lecture demonstrations to help students to experience the beauty of science.

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50 Innovative Teaching Methods in Science | Edsys

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More than just conveying the facts or findings in science, students will love to explore the world of science. These innovative teaching methods in science can substitute the typical teaching techniques to achieve the goal.

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Structure Matters: Twenty-One Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and Cultivate Classroom Equity

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Structure Matters: Twenty-One Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and Cultivate Classroom Equity

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Strategies for Biology

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Keeping Learning Fun

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Using the right instructional strategies for science can help students to stay interested in science even after elementary school (where it is usually a favorite subject among students).

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Strategies for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

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Introduction

Students with intellectual disabilities are identified by exhibiting the following criteria:

Sub-average intellectual ability (IQ 70 or lower)

Problems in adaptive functioning

Manifested before the age of 18

General Strategies

Identify science role models with disabilities with a similar disability to that of the student. Point out that this individual got ahead by a combination of effort and by asking for help when needed.

Keep up-to-date on the student's accomplishments in therapy.

Never assess a student's capabilities solely on the basis of their IQ or other standardized test scores (especially at the limits of the IQ definition).

Each student with an impairment needs to be in an age/achievement appropriate learning environment with peers who are not impaired.

After some time in the learning environment, which includes a mentally impaired student, the teacher, as an observer, should record the behavior that varies from the "norm" and which may indicate the need for referral for counseling and/or psychological intervention including drug therapy, if necessary.

Develop a protocol for the student to tell you when he/she anticipates a need for assistance.

When it appears that a student needs help, ask if you can help. Accept a "No Thank You" graciously.

Encourage classmates to accept the student with a mental impairment.

Be aware that a student with an impairment may frequently be treated with therapeutic medications that affect performance and speed.

Acknowledge that high, but realistic, expectations should be maintained to encourage full realization of social and educational potential.

Personal interactions with mentally impaired students:

Speak directly to the student with an impairment as you would any other student.

Involvement with other children: The teacher should, where possible, get to know the non-impaired students, engaging them and providing them a connecting link between these students and the students with impairments. The teacher shouldn't be seen as the person who relates only to the student with an impairment.

Modeling for others: The teacher should be aware that his or her interactions with the impaired student will serve as a model for interactions with students who are impaired. This may be particularly important in assisting others in areas such as communicating with the student with an impairment about behavior that does not appear appropriate in science teaching/learning activities.

Backing off: Often, interactions occur without the involvement of a teacher. At times, in fact, the presence of an adult may inhibit interactions, and it may be necessary to "Back off" and let things happen on their own.

Interactions in the context of school activities: It is important to observe the interactions of the student with others in the learning environment. For instance, what types of interactions occur, and at what times? Some activities are more conducive to getting students together than others. The teacher should note and promote opportunities for interactions, even if that means revising plans for teaching skills to allow for spontaneous interactions and play. Remember that not all interactions are verbal. Cheering together, sitting together and watching an event or doing an activity, or working as a team field or laboratory to build something are all examples of nonverbal/verbal interactions.

Learning strategies, such as mnemonics, provide quite good ways to access information, It can be an essential component in learning for many students with disabilities (a mnemonic is defined as a word, sentence, picture, device, or technique for improving or strengthening memory).

Teacher Presentation

Use a large amount of concrete materials to:

Proceed in small sequential steps and review each frequently

Provide prompt and consistent feedback.

Stress the mentally impaired student's successes.

Agreements such as: attentive listening, mutual respect, the right to pass, and appreciation, should be enforced.

Laboratory

Depending on the degree of impairment, provide opportunities to practice skills in both normal environments versus contrived experimental situations.

Consider alternate activities/exercises that can be utilized with less difficulty for the student, but has the same or similar learning objectives.

Provide opportunities to practice field skills in natural environments.

Reading

Before considering other treatments for reading/spelling problems, peripheral sensory deficits in vision and audition should be investigated.

Provides direct instruction in reading skills, such as decoding.

Offer appealing and "standard" print and electronic texts.

Provide positive explicit and corrective feedback. Reinforce attempts as well as successes.

Field Experiences

Depending on the degree of impairment, provide opportunities to practice skills in both environments.

Consider alternate activities/exercises that can be utilized with less difficulty for the student, but has the same or similar learning objectives.

Research

At the appropriate level of communication, review and discuss with the student the steps involved in a research activity. Think about which step(s) may be difficult for the specific functional limitations of the student and jointly devise accommodations for that student.

Provide opportunities to practice skills in both normal environments versus contrived situations or natural environments, as appropriate.

Testing

Encourage students to use relaxation and other stress reducing techniques during exams.

Allow more time for the examination.

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Students with intellectual disabilities are identified by exhibiting the following criteria: Sub-average intellectual ability (IQ 70 or lower) Problems in adaptive functioning Manifested before the age of 18 Identify science role models with disabilities with a similar disability to that of the student.

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SCIENCE EDUCATION AND STUDENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY:TEACHING APPROACHES AND IMPLICATIONS

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SCIENCE EDUCATION AND STUDENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY:TEACHING APPROACHES AND IMPLICATIONS

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Research Article

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Making Science Accessible to Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities

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Making Science Accessible to Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities

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Research Article

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Inquiry-Based Science Instruction for Students With Disabilities

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Inquiry-Based Science Instruction for Students With Disabilities

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Planning Science Instruction and Assessment for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities

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Planning Science Instruction and Assessment for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities

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PowerPoint Presentation

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5 Simple Strategies for Supporting Struggling Readers in Science & Social Studies

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5 Simple Strategies for Supporting Struggling Readers in Science & Social Studies

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Social Studies Strategies for Struggling Readers

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Many students love science and social studies. There are often hands-on activities, simulations, and projects that keep these subjects engaging for learners. However, for some students, these subjects can be quite intimidating due to all of the non-fiction reading that is involved. That's why supporting struggling readers in science and social studies is so important.

If some of your students are struggling readers, you must take time to think about how you can ensure they have access to the content despite their difficulties with reading. Some simple differentiation can mean the difference between a student feeling overwhelmed and a student who is able to navigate the content on equal footing with her peers.

Here are five low-prep strategies you can implement to help make science and social studies more enjoyable and stress-free for your struggling learners!

1. Introduce vocabulary before each unit & provide extra opportunities for practice.

Vocabulary is often one of the biggest challenges for struggling readers when it comes to science and social studies.

There are so many big words that are difficult to pronounce, and the content specific vocabulary is often unfamiliar and confusing. Often times, students who struggle with reading do so because of gaps in decoding skills, and these challenges can be compounded with these Tier 3 words.

Pre-teaching vocabulary can be a huge support for struggling readers because it gives them familiarity with these new words and allows them to focus on making connections within the content rather than being bogged down in the foundations of reading.

There are several simple ways you can do this that don't require a great deal of extra time or effort. Here are just a few:

Send home a vocabulary list several days before starting a new unit. Include a short note explaining the upcoming unit and how to use the word list with their child. Home practice doesn't need to be long or intense. Just reading and reviewing the words once a day can be a huge help!

Introduce content vocabulary using a center or small group. Sometimes it can be difficult or impossible for parents to help. Using a small group or center to introduce the vocabulary in advance can be a great way to pre-teach unit vocabulary in the days before you begin.

Create a visual preview. Start hanging visual vocabulary cards in advance. This can give students a chance to see and begin making connections with content vocabulary in advance.

Below is an example of a center activity that can help students become familiar with the vocabulary while practicing language arts skills. While this particular activity doesn't focus on defining new vocabulary, it does help students who struggle to decode build word recognition. You can read more about how I built science vocabulary during centers here.

2. Provide extra copies of the text and share in advance.

As students get older, the amount of reading that is required in science and social studies grows exponentially and often comes from textbooks. This can be overwhelming to struggling readers because they can't keep up with their peers.

Providing an extra textbook or a copy of in-class reading for students to keep at home can be a great way to overcome this challenge.

You can easily parents informed about what chapter(s) you are working on in the textbook or make extra copies and send a packet home with students at the beginning of each unit. This allows struggling readers to pre-read, review, and re-read with adults or siblings to ensure they understand.

It can also be helpful as students prepare for end of unit assessments.

3. Use reading tools & strategies to focus on content.

Reading should never be the barrier to growth in science and social studies. Often times we are acutely aware of student needs during reading, but it can be easy to overlook putting the same tools and strategies into place for science and social studies.

Here are three of my favorites:

Use a line finder (affiliate link) or index card to help students keep their place in reading. Students who use these in reading class should use one when reading science and social studies content, too! Amazon has a bunch of different inexpensive options so you can find the right size for your readers.

Chunking text into shorter blocks can also be helpful. This may mean you make an extra copy and cut the paragraphs apart or teach students to fold the page to create less text.

Partner reading or read aloud is also an option for those students who are significantly below grade level. You can even have advanced students or early finishers record themselves reading the selection out loud, and students can listen along as they read independently, which can be really helpful for students who are embarrassed or uncomfortable with their reading struggles.

4. Differentiate homework.

Many science and social studies textbook companies produce an audio CD or leveled readers that go along with the chapter or topic you're focusing on in class.

If you assign reading homework, you can provide struggling readers with these support materials to help them complete assignments painlessly (their parents will thank you as well!).

5. Focus on the learning not the paperwork.

Often times, students who struggle with reading fall behind on their work and end up with a pile of overdue or missing assignments.

This can be frustrating for you, as a teacher, because it prevents you from grading and returning papers in a timely fashion. It can also be very overwhelming for the student.

When necessary, don't be afraid to take oral responses or find alternative ways to gather the information you need to determine if a child has mastered the unit concepts. You can document these adjustments in the grade book to help keep parents in the loop, but a student who knows the information should never be punished with poor grades in other content areas because of an identified gap in reading skills.

An alternative to waiting for failure

If you've ever worked with struggling readers, you know that these challenges can easily overshadow their academic successes. It is important that we, as educators, find ways to support and assess these students in science and social studies to prevent these difficulties from negatively impacting other content areas.

While the tips above don't negate the need to document and provide intervention, they allow students to work around their reading challenges and prevent them from falling further behind or becoming disengaged with learning.

If you enjoyed this article, check out these other articles you might find useful:

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5 Simple Strategies for Supporting Struggling Readers in Science & Social Studies - Differentiated Teaching

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Science and social studies can be overwhelming for struggling readers. These strategies will help teachers support these students and accurately assess their content knowledge without letting reading difficulties get in the way. Supporting struggling readers in science and social studies doesn't have to be hard.

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SOCIAL STUDIES INTERVENTION: STRATEGIES TO HELP STUDENTS CATCH UP

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SOCIAL STUDIES INTERVENTION: STRATEGIES TO HELP STUDENTS CATCH UP

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Social Studies Intervention: Strategies to Help Students Catch Up

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Spread the loveAre you looking for Social Studies interventions to help students who are struggling? Here are several strategies that you can try. Eyewitness Account - A teaching tool in which students write, as if they were present at a specific event, through in-depth research that, as much as possible, places the writer at that moment.

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How to Help Struggling Readers in Social Studies

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How to Help Struggling Readers in Social Studies

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If you are looking for ways to help struggling readers in your social studies class, this blog post is packed with helpful tips!

As you know, students today have more to learn than ever before.

Throughout the school day, they receive instruction in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies.

Students also practice spelling words, attend P.E. or music class, and might even participate in band instruction.

Beyond these 'subjects', students also take part in lessons about internet safety, have fire drills, visit the library, and maybe enjoy a bit of recess.

This is an elementary description, but you get the idea.

Students today have a LOT on their plates and when they struggle with reading, it can all just be too much.

Our Students Have Diverse Abilities

As teachers, we know that students do not arrive in our classrooms with the same skills and strengths.

Some are great readers, while others are wizards in the math department.

Another truth is that, whether the student is in fifth grade or eighth grade, his reading ability may not match his age.

Further complicating things, most social studies textbooks are written above grade level.

Even with these challenges, it is our job to teach the curriculum to all students, regardless of their ability to read.

So how do we accomplish this task? What strategies can we utilize to support struggling readers within the social studies classroom?

Keep reading to find out!

Vocabulary is a Critical Part of Social Studies!

Best practices in vocabulary instruction will benefit all learners, not just struggling readers.

Say goodbye to the days when students were asked to write a vocabulary word and look up the meaning in the dictionary - very ineffective!

When teaching vocabulary, it's important to remember that 'a picture is worth a thousand words.'

Every vocabulary lesson should include pictures, drawings, or sketches.

Comprehension and memory improve significantly when combining pictures and text versus using text alone.

Front-Loading Vocabulary Words

Additionally, struggling readers will benefit from front-loading vocabulary words prior to the lesson.

Front-loading vocabulary words involves introducing critical vocabulary before students read the informational text.

Front-loading vocabulary is a huge help for students because they will already know the new words when they reach them in the text. This is such a confidence and comprehension builder!

The extra instructional time used is so worth it because this will help students to gain a deeper understanding of the word and its relevance to the lesson.

Fun vocabulary activities can make all the difference! Try this one: Jamestown Vocabulary Review Activities

Multisensory Learning

Allowing students to access multiple senses while learning will help struggling readers in your social studies classes.

Including pictures with vocabulary words and definitions is important - but why stop there?

With current technology and ample online resources, we can find short videos, gifs, and memes to address vocabulary words, as well.

Depending on students' ages and ability levels, teachers can supply these visuals, or invite students to find meaningful media on their own.

Learning increases when emotion and creativity are involved!

Do They Have to 'Read' It?

Again - technology! Many adults 'read' books by listening to them as we walk, drive our car, or clean the house.

Audio books have revolutionized the way we get information in our modern era.

Fortunately, textbook publishers realize the value of a read-aloud, and many have developed online learning platforms that include audio of the chapters.

Other features of digital curriculum might include short videos, games, and other methods of interacting with the content.

If you are looking for ways to integrate more technology, especially Google Apps, into your classroom, check out this post: How to Use Google Resources in Upper Elementary.

Partner Reading in Social Studies Class

Other than reading informational text aloud, we can use additional strategies for supporting struggling readers.

Partner reading improves engagement, aids in fluency practice, and helps in monitoring accuracy.

With a struggling reader, the teacher could start out as the partner, gradually transitioning the student to a student partnership as time goes on.

Partner reading usually involves students taking turns on pages, but they could also alternate paragraphs or sections, depending on the text layout.

Another option is to read a portion aloud as the teacher, then mix in some choral reading.

In summary, students of all abilities will benefit as we continue to discover more about how the brain learns, and continue to develop innovative methods of teaching and learning.

We CAN make social studies and history accessible to all students!

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How to Help Struggling Readers in Social Studies Class - Thrive in Grade Five

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If you are looking for ways to help struggling readers in your social studies class, this blog post is packed with helpful tips! As you know, students today have more to learn than ever before. Throughout the school day, they receive instruction in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies.

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Reading Strategies and Activities for the Social Studies Classroom

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Reading Strategies and Activities for the Social Studies Classroom

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Vocabulary and Grammar Support In High School

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For many social studies teachers, helping students develop reading skills is a low priority-nice to do if there's time, but not necessary. After all, there's scarcely time to meet the multitude of...

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5 Ways to Support Struggling Students in World Language Classes

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5 Ways to Support Struggling Students in World Language Classes

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Students with academic challenges benefit from these simple strategies as they develop confidence using the target language.

Marmaduke St. John / Alamy Stock Photo

It is unsurprising that students who face academic challenges may feel overwhelmed in world language classrooms, which require all learners to leave their comfort zones and embrace something new. Those who grapple with processing issues or memory weaknesses require additional assistance in order to successfully acquire a new language. However, this additional assistance should not mean resorting to English-it is possible to maintain the target language while meeting all students' needs.

As the Virginia Department of Education outlines in the informative guide Supporting World Language Learning for Students With Disabilities, it is critical to note that "students who underperform in a classroom often experience challenges handling information at one of three stages of the process-perception, processing, expression-or any combination of the three" (p. 17; I'll refer to this guide several times below, providing page numbers for ease of reference since it's 91 pages long).

In the context of world language courses, perception taps into reading and listening comprehension. Students who encounter difficulties with perception often struggle to "assign meaning to audio and visual stimuli" (p. 19). Processing involves all four communicative domains: speaking, writing, listening, and reading. Students with recall or memory issues often struggle with processing, as they are unable to "decipher, organize, and store previous and current stimuli" (p. 20). Processing difficulties often lead to challenges with expression, and a student who struggles with processing the language might also have difficulty expressing themselves in oral or written form.

I'd like to share some ways that I use research-based strategies to assist students who struggle with the perception, processing, or expression of the target language. Each of these strategies encourages and promotes maximum use of the target language.

Supporting Struggling Students

1. Incorporate images: Images aid comprehension because they "allow students to expand their language skills by attaching the word to a more concrete representation" (p. 35). In my Spanish classes, I provide an abundance of pictures of real people, places, or items, which allows me to infuse the target culture and is more engaging for students than working solely with texts.

For example, when teaching about foods, I include images of open-air markets in Spanish-speaking countries and point out and name different fruits, meats, fish, and vegetables, which exposes students to the target culture. And when presenting new vocabulary, I always display images to accompany the new words, aiding students' ability to grasp the meaning of the word without using English.

Allowing students to draw out words on paper or digitally is another fun way to include images, and it gives students the reins to express themselves as they learn. Students can demonstrate their comprehension of an audio or text by drawing a detailed image, and then tell what they drew aloud or in writing.

2. Provide sentence starters or a word wall: Asking and answering questions in the target language requires repeated practice-and builds confidence. Often times, starting off a sentence for students in the target language when you ask them to speak or write is just what they need, especially if they struggle with their oral or written expression in the target language.

Creating a word wall with sentence starters to help with common questions such as, "May I use the bathroom / go for a drink?" or "How do I say this word in Spanish?" or "Repeat, please!" is another way to incorporate sentence starters. You can display posters to create a word wall with the sentence starters you feel are most relevant to your class. The Virginia Department of Education guide suggests focusing on a particular sentence starter for several days to give students repeated practice.

3. Follow routines: Repetition is necessary for students to successfully acquire a language. For those who struggle with perception, processing, or expression in the language, a set daily routine helps maintain consistency and aids comprehension. The Virginia guide says, "For students to really integrate a word/expression into their own language, it is generally accepted that the student needs to be exposed to the term at least 30 times" (p. 37), and that's easier to track if you have set routines. Routines give students practice as they perceive, process, and express themselves in the new language.

Each day, I follow the same routine with my Spanish I courses. Our daily warm-up activity consists of writing out and reciting the date and weather in Spanish, along with another review-based task (typically practicing on Quizlet or answering open-ended questions). This ensures that students are thinking in the target language and using it from the moment they step into the classroom. Repeating the date, weather, and some basic questions each day also helps build confidence over time. Students are never confused or lost when they walk in because they know what to expect.

4. Act it out: Rather than drilling students on new chunks of vocabulary, make language learning more active by incorporating gestures. When teaching about hobbies or interests, for example, act them out-when reciting the verb "to run" or "to draw" aloud, perform those actions. Allow students to make gestures along with you.

Implementing physical response strategies serves as additional reinforcement to build students' comprehension of oral or written language. Try playing charades, with one student acting out a word or phrase and the others guessing what it is in the target language.

5. Consider wait time: Students may need more time than you may think to formulate responses. Allow them to process a piece information first by waiting for several seconds before asking for answers: "Generally, students learning a foreign language need between 18 and 30 seconds (or more) to process the target language before being called on to respond to questions in class or in writing" (p. 34). Waiting for up to 30 seconds before calling on students will give everyone a chance to feel successful and participate. Likewise, posing a question and allowing students to turn and talk before speaking to the whole class will assist them in building the confidence they need.

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5 Ways to Support Struggling Students in World Language Classes

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Students with academic challenges benefit from these simple strategies as they develop confidence using the target language. Marmaduke St. John / Alamy Stock Photo It is unsurprising that students who face academic challenges may feel overwhelmed in world language classrooms, which require all learners to leave their comfort zones and embrace something new.

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Strategies for Social Studies (and other content areas)

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Strategies for Social Studies (and other content areas)

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ReadingQuest Strategies | A to Z List of Strategies

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Literacy and reading comprehension strategies for use across all content areas.

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Teaching Strategies in the Social Studies Classroom

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Teaching Strategies in the Social Studies Classroom

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The Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM

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Teaching strategies in the Social Studies classroom can be very daunting. But, it can also have very rewarding results for your students when done with fidelity. Fortunately, social studies is a pretty all inclusive subject. However, in order to teach it, you have to hone in on a myriad of objectives for each topic. Consider these questions when planning your lessons.

Pre-learning:

What should students know prior to learning about this topic? How can students grasp the overall essential idea of this topic? What connections from students' 'out-of-classroom' lives can teachers use to help students master the objectives? What teaching strategies should be implemented to engage students from beginning to end?

During Learning:

What specific activities will help students demonstrate mastery of the objective? What skills should be paired with this particular objective to help obtain optimum mastery? How are students practicing mastery? What should they do with a partner? What should they do individually? How are students being measured at this level?

Post-learning:

What teaching strategies should be implemented to ensure students have a 'long-term mastery' of the objective? How can the content and skills from this lesson be transferred to the next lesson?
While these are questions teachers ask themselves when preparing lessons for other 'non-Social Studies' classes, these questions can transform a Social Studies class from low-engagement/low-mastery to high-engagement/high mastery!

So, let's get to discussing some of these strategies! These pre-lesson strategies require teachers to internalize the lesson DAYS before the lesson is taught.

Pre-lesson Strategies

Strategy 1 - Power 60 - Pre-Write

Write the topic on the board. Have students to complete a 60-second pre-write where they write everything they know about the topic in shorthand. This is a great opportunity to encourage students to incorporate what they may have heard/viewed in a movie, a song, in an overheard conversation with their parents, in a previous class, etc. They may even include relevant vocabulary words, historical elements, and more!

During the 60-second period, teachers should move about the room and monitor student progress. Encourage students who may want to quit, not participate, or just want to lean on other students' responses. During this time, too, make note of high points students wrote on their papers and reference them during share out time.

Strategy 2 - The Ol' Switch-a-Roo

After the time is up, have students to switch papers with a partner.
The partner must now read the original student's response and suggest ways to add depth.

Let's pretend the original student says, "He didn't fight the battle." This is without a sufficient amount of detail. The partner should note, "This was a great start, but in order to earn all of your points, try adding more specific details. For example, who are you speaking about? What is his name? What is his position?
Why didn't he fight? What was the cause of the battle? Did he end up fighting? If so, why did he change his mind? What was the effect of the battle?"

Partners should offer suggestions of new ideas, correct any 'suspected' errors, and challenge him to push for more depth. The suspected error in the original student's writing was that the emperor didn't fight. The emperor DID indeed fight the battle and eventually won the battle. The partner also suggested ways to add depth. Then, at the end of the allotted time, students should return papers back to their original owners. Students should be writing the entire time.

That's better...

Now, with the help of his partner, the original student will present his final answer: "Emperor Justinian was afraid of being killed in war because he knew the strong sentiment of dislike the people of his empire had for him. However, at the persuasion of his wife, Empress Theodora, he decided they would both continue the battle and fight for the unity of the empire they both loved dearly."

With the help of a peer, the original student was able to learn how to add more depth to his responses. With much practice and encouragement, students will be able to write with fidelity independently.
Allot time for students to review their partners' responses and allow share out time. It may be great to choose 1-2 student work samples to demonstrate corporately.

Strategy 3 - The Great Inquiry

Brainstorm a good, solid question that you can pose that will engage students. Write it on the board. For example, my go-to favorite question is: should women rule over men? This question ALWAYS stirs up intense debates!

Of course, your questions will change based upon your topic and objective, but it is a great way to stir up initial interest. Interest which can then turn into lesson-long, life-long engagement.

Allow students a 30-second NO-GO, where they only think of their responses and not write or talk. Distribute 2 post-it notes to each student. On one post-it note, students should complete one of the two sentence stems that are posted on two large sheets of butcher papers (labeled as such).

- No, women should not rule over men because...
- Yes, women should rule over men because...

Upon completion, have students to post their responses on the corresponding butcher paper. Allow time for students to do a quick gallery walk to read their fellow students' responses. For the gallery walk, each student should respond (on the post-it note) with at least two questions about two of their classmates' responses.

For example, Claire may write "No, women should not rule over men because we have gotten too far away from traditional values." Bethany may inquire, "Shouldn't gender roles be as modern as the times in which we live?" Bethany will post her questions on the bottom tip of Claire's original statement.

At the end of the gallery walk, allow students to revisit the gallery to read some of the responses. This will precede your oral discussion on the topic.

DURING LESSON STRATEGIES

Strategy 4: IDA - In-Depth Analysis

To transform their responses, encourage students to respond in ways that mirror deep analysis of the topic at hand. This in-depth analysis should mirror your specific field and should coincide with the overall objectives of your course. For example, in AP Human Geography, students learn to respond to prompts using E, S, P, eN. This stands for Economic, Social, Political, and eNvironmental.

In response to this initial inquiry, a student may say "In many societies, women are placed into second-class citizenship because men consider them inferior." Of course, this is super general. How can we leverage what students leave with during this activity?

Choose 4-6 statements to be placed on a sheet of paper and edited by other students. This will depend upon the amount of space you have in your room to post working material. Put students in evenly numbered groups and assign them to each poster. Each student must take a two-minute turn at the poster and write one sentence to add to the original response that will add depth.

As they wait, they must be taking note of what they can add to the poster.

Possible additions could include

- Real-world examples
- Historical examples
- Connections to another unit
- Vocabulary word definitions
- Relevant Quotes

After all students have included their lines, the entire group should verify every part that has been included in this response and make changes. This should span 4-5 minutes. If students are finished before this time, teachers should progress to the next stage of the process, which should be a discussion of your choosing that will help students substantiate their thoughts.

During this activity, teachers should monitor academic progress. Students should write factual information to prevent the rest of the group proceeding down the wrong path, thus hindering the learning process.

POST-LESSON STRATEGIES

Strategy 4: HIS-TAC-TOE

Now, this is hands down my favorite history game to have my students play and is meant to be a review game to be played at the end of the unit.

Preparation:
Small bin
Two small dry erase boards
Two dry erase markers
Two buzzers

25 pre-written questions on your test topic
9 toddler-sized hula hoops taped together w/ duct tape
6 pieces of fabric in one color
6 pieces of fabric in a second color
A large area in your classroom where students can play

Time to Play!

Rules:
1. Appoint a picker from each side. This person will be responsible for picking a question out of the bin for his/her team. The picker will alternate after each question.

2. Appoint a writer on each side (these should change after each question). This student will be responsible for writing down the answer on the dry erase board and submitting it to the teacher for review.

3. The pickers should choose their question and then share with his/her respective group.

4. Each group should work together to answer the question fully, but quietly.

5. Once a group has finished, they should press their group's buzzer.

6. The object of the game is to: a) answer correctly; and b) answer first.

7. The group who buzzes first should show their answer. If the answer is correct, they get the opportunity to place their flag in their desired hoop. If the answer is INCORRECT, they do NOT get the opportunity to place their flag in the desired hoop.

8. After the first group has placed their flag in their desired hoop, now the second group has to answer. If the second group answers correctly, they have TWO choices: a) they can place their flag in their desired hoop; OR b) they can force the other team to pick up their flag. (The second group CANNOT pick up the other team's flag and place their flag down. It is one or the other.)

9. This should continue until a team has won. If you still have questions, you can start a new game, so you can finish out the questions.

10. You may want to add an incentive. I usually award 5 or 10 bonus points on the upcoming test.

PLEASE NOTE: All students should participate (based upon their ability). If students refuse to participate and happen to be on the winning team, inform them that the extra points are for participating students only.

Teacher actions: Teachers should be prepared to engage students with specific details about what information students need to know for the upcoming test.

POST-LESSON STRATEGIES

Strategy 5: DBQ at the BBQ!

DBQ's are fun, but they should be well-planned out before delivery to students. Consider your objectives. What do you want students to leave with at the VERY end of this unit? What will they need to take with them to the next unit? With document-based questions, consider a myriad of documents on varied topics. You should also consider a myriad of mediums as well.

For example, I noticed that several of history's greatest leaders' childhoods were well-documented in their histories. So for my documents, I chose a picture of a grandpa yelling at his son who was yelling at his daughter who was yelling at the little baby sitting on the floor; a short video of a successful celebrity whose status was elevated with positive affirmations in their home lives as children; and a short history of Ivan the Terrible, Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great

With each of these, I engaged students in deep analysis. For example, with the picture, I engaged students in psychology and how trauma affects the way people develop over time and, ultimately, the people they become.

Some are able to choose greatness. Some are not. Their choice, though, decides what legacy they will leave. Essentially, students were able to use the activities in the DBQ packet to help them provide a solid, well-developed response to the question: Leaders of the Old World: Did Adult Parental Figures in the Lives of Great Old World Leaders Propel Them to Greatness or Set Them Up for Failure?

I hope these strategies and ideas were helpful to you! I love conjuring new ways to help students maximize their learning. After all, they are our future!

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Teaching Strategies in the Social Studies Classroom

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LaQuita Middleton-Holmes | May 2019 Teaching Strategies in the Social Studies Classroom Teaching strategies in the Social Studies classroom can be very daunting. But, it can also have very rewarding results for your students when done with fidelity. Fortunately, social

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12 BEST INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES TO THRIVE AS A SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER

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12 BEST INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES TO THRIVE AS A SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER

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Teaching high schoolers is an intimidating beast.

There, I said it, because it doesn't do anyone any good to keep that truth unspoken.

But it's also a ton of fun and a bit addicting. Especially when you realize you just captivated 35 goofy teenagers for an hour with a topic they would otherwise think is boring.

So whether you are just starting your student teaching practicum and looking for a few foundational instructional strategies, or you're a long-time teacher needing a mid-year refresh, you'll want to incorporate this list of my favorite start-using-tomorrow strategies.

The magic of teaching lays in perfecting a core toolbox of effective teaching strategies that are based on real brain science about how the human mind understands. The first thing to know about impactful instruction is that no matter whether your class periods are 45 or 85 minutes long, there is a beginning, a middle, and an end with transitions in between.

It's really just like a story. You are telling a story. An impassioned one. One in which your students are the heroes.

The most powerful storytellers follow a precise formula that the audience never notices, but is always there. Ask any aspiring novelist or motivational speaker.

How I approach the hour or so I have each day with my students changed dramatically after I read Chip and Dan Heath's book Made to Stick (seriously, one of my top 5 books of all time) and after TED Talks began blowing up as THE model for captivating public speaking. Years after my Master's program ended and I was still struggling to elevate my lessons beyond "Today we are going to...," these helped show me real strategies for engaging the toughest audience of all-teenagers.

These strategies follow a deliberate arch that will carry you through your lesson, from the hook to the ah-ha. I don't think I'll ever teach a social studies method course, so instead I've chosen this space to share my 12 all-time best strategies that I use in my high school social studies classes on the regular.

If you want more, my 48 instructional strategy favorites are organized into the 6 stages of the perfect lesson and formatted into a life-saving flip deck of 48 cards that you can keep handy at your desk when planning. I use it all the time because, to be honest, I originally made it for myself!

#1 The Hook

We all know a hook is important in teaching the 5-paragraph essay, but what about in the opening minutes of class?

What if you started immediately with a hook, created a bit of a cliff hanger, then tasked your students with a challenge, all within the first few minutes? Then, while they are working away, you handle all those things that otherwise kill the momentum before class has even started: attendance, missing pencils, or questions about yesterday's lesson.

My three favorite hooks aren't novel, but rather the exact same ones as those on the tried-and-true, science-backed list we give our students when teaching about the introduction paragraph.

Offer a crazy statistic or fact.

I start the very first day of my World Population unit asking students to spend a couple minutes guessing the percentage of people in the world who live under $2 a day and then $5 a day. They are floored when I reveal the answer-about 10% and 50%, respectively, according to the World Bank.

Tell a story.

The day I introduce our interview narrative project component of my Three Branches of Government unit, I tell the story of my neighbor who, while serving during the Vietnam War, gained a whole new appreciation for the meaning of democracy as he was perched high above his two thousand Naval shipmates and tasked with fixing the radar equipment while the whole mission waited on him.

I haven't said a word yet about the interview project they will be conducting in the coming days and they have no idea yet why I'm telling this story, but they are on the edge of their seats. And, honestly, it very likely is in part because they think my story is a tangent from the day's regular lesson. Little do they know...

Read all about creating your own interview project in my post where I break it down into 5 easy steps!

Display an "onion image."

As a history teacher, I delight in this one because our discipline is so rich with images that offer a bit of a puzzle. What's going on? Where is this? What are they doing? Why are they doing that? What does that detail mean? What are they likely thinking?

We are visual creatures and images are accessible regardless of reading levels. Images as hooks are a must! Pick a photograph or piece of art that has multiple things going on, comes at a very specific moment in history, or is perfectly representative of the topic you are covering today in class. You can read more about this in my post where I detail my favorite image analysis strategy.

#2 The Directions

You will save so much of your sanity and precious class time if you deliver your directions in a way that students actually hear and do them. This is probably the most fundamental aspect of teaching to master first, especially if you feel overwhelmed by all these other tips. Often these kinds of types are strategies are labeled for ELL instruction and we forget that all brains need needs clear, easy-to-follow directions!

Give one at a time.

This one works great if you need students to complete a series of tasks that require a specific order, like folding a piece of paper and labeling it before watching a documentary.

State the first direction, modeling it yourself if at all possible, and wait until everyone has done it before moving onto the next step.
Fold your paper hot-dog style like mine... Now, label the left side... Then, divide the right side into two...
Number the steps.

Tell students how many total steps, parts, or sections there are in the upcoming activity so that students have a broader understanding of what they are doing. Until they know the big picture, the details are meaningless. As you number them, hold up your fingers for visual reinforcement. This works great when you are about to release the students for independent work. Bonus strategy: you'll also want to have the steps posted on the board or student worksheet during the activity.
At each station, you will need to do three things. First...
Assign a task.

For every single text, video, image, or other stimulus, give a specific task that requires physical action. It may seem obvious why you want students to read a news article, but they won't know it for sure unless you tell them, and they won't do it for sure unless you task them. It can be any sort of task, just make it simple.
As you read, highlight with your two colors for problems and solutions.... As you examine each photo, write an emotion in the margin that... As you watch, list the 6 causes...
#3 The Lesson

This is what separates teacher overwhelm from teacher confidence. Doing deliberate things as part of a normal lesson because it makes the learning stick, whether you students realize it or not. It doesn't hurt to reveal your tricks from time to time, especially when the energy in the room is waning.

Write it down.

Writing is thinking. And by writing, I mean handwriting. So much scientific data is revealing now what teachers would file under #obvious, but it's still worth mentioning because writing is more than what we as teachers often think. Writing can be as small as a single word or even symbols.

Task students to summarize each paragraph of a historical essay into a single word in the margins as they read. Challenge students to assign a big, bold letter grade on the top of the text to the State of the Union Address after analyzing it. Recap with students the purpose of a political cartoon the following day by having them commit a verb next to the image.

Get them up.

This is the strategy we often need to be reminded of, because we are the ones up and moving around all day. Jennifer, over on Cult of Pedagogy, details a long, fantastic list of science-backed movement activity ideas so I'll just describe two super easy ones you can implement on the spot.

Have students pick a YES or NO side of the room to force them to decide a position, or pick a corner assigned as ABSOLUTELY YES, SOMEWHAT YES, SOMEWHAT NO, and ABSOLUTELY NO (or some similar variation).

Another effective one is having students get up and find a new partner every couple of minutes to complete one more step of an activity. That way students get to work through their task hearing different ideas. Keep the switching time short-no more than 10 seconds!

Have a driving question.

Know the big picture for why you want students to know something so well that you not only share it, but challenge students to it at the beginning, at the closing, and at any time when a student is lost. And this something has to be more authentic than "... because it's a state standard."

Having an open-ended question that sparks curiosity or truly asks students for their thoughts is a sure-fire way to build an engaged classroom. You can use a question to frame a whole unit or just a single lesson.

If you want to know more about crafting units and lessons around driving questions, I detail it in this blog post all about creating a PBL classroom. Don't worry, though, you can still have great driving questions without going full PBL.

#4 The Next Level

It's one thing to go through the motions of a lesson and get words written down on worksheets, it's an entirely different thing to create ah-ha, connection, and takeaway. These next few are the strategies for you, my teacher friends, who are feeling like you have Marzano's basic strategies on lockdown and are ready for the next step.

Facilitate divergent thinking.

This is one of my favorite parts of being a social studies teacher. We are the teachers who get to challenge students to think beyond what the "right" answers are. We get to ask questions with no "right" answers at all!

Ask students to think of the opposite. Why wouldn't someone...

Ask students to find evidence for the other side of their position. On which aspect can you agree...

Ask students for an alternative. If she had chosen another tone for her speech...

Teach meta-analysis.

Never analyze a source for its content alone. Have students also consider the persuasive devices used, the tone that is developed, the organizational structure chosen. If you want your students to be independent thinkers and, more importantly, doers, then you have to show them the tricks to being effective communicators and citizens through the models of past successes!

Don't just show students photos of the 1960s lunch-counter sit-ins, but also have them decide how effective sitting-in is as a protest strategy. (I have a great DBQ mini-unit that does just this!)

Don't just have students read the arguments of Mary Lease, the Knight of Labor, and the Populist Party for how broken Gilded Age government was, but also have them decide what about their arguments and examples were so persuasive that they sparked real change. Check out my Gilded Age source 6-pack to see what I mean.

Connect to today.

As social studies teachers, we try our best to consume high-quality media, but still it's impossible to always be on top of each day's news cycle. So, give yourself grace, for sure, but also be selective about a few main sources that come in formats you can consume easily. Having even a small pulse on the news affords you so many opportunities to weave in and make connections to what you are teaching in your lessons. And I always find taking a minute or two of class time to make that connection is well worth it in deepening student learning.A lot of news organizations now have daily emails or podcasts that take just minutes to absorb. NPR's Up First promises to be around 10 minutes and the New York Times' The Daily is around 20 minutes. Sign up for Washington Post's newsletters for quick emails on specific political issues as well general headlines.

The Atlantic has great long-form articles on all sorts of social, political, and economic issues that can be read at a more leisurely pace over the course of a month. I have learned I just can't keep up with weekly news magazines, so a monthly one has worked well for me.

If you want a quick skim of the day's news from across the political spectrum, then AllSides is the perfect website for you (and one you'll likely want your students to explore!). For certain issues, I head straight here to ensure I am hearing different angles. It's very eye-opening!
I hope these strategies give you the starting point or reboot you need to be an even more awesome teacher! Click below to grab my complete 48-card Instructional Strategies flip deck for more great strategies in one easy reference tool!

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12 Best Instructional Strategies to Thrive as a Social Studies Teacher

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Be a great social studies teacher with these use-tomorrow, science-backed teaching strategies.

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Integrating Social Studies into Literacy Routines

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Integrating Social Studies into Literacy Routines

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Social studies is an often-neglected subject in elementary school because it isn't generally assessed on the state standardized tests that young children take. However, informational text comprehension IS tested... and what better way to teach non-fiction reading strategies than through interesting and relevant resources about the world students live in? This page will help you integrate social studies instruction into your reading block and everyday classroom routines.

A reading strategy-based approach to Social Studies

The best social studies instruction is a balance of content instruction and reading strategy instruction. There are some lessons in which you want children to learn deeply about historical events and really delve into the material through projects and meaningful activities. (On the Fun Social Studies Ideas page, I share 15 awesome activities for you use during your content instruction.)

In other lessons, you simply use social studies texts to teach students how to comprehend non-fiction. Children learn how to use captions, photos, graphs, charts, glossaries, bold print, and so on to help them understand what they read. This reading strategy-based approach to social studies can be done during your reading block to make the most of your limited time.

Social Studies read-alouds:
A (really, really, really) important note for primary grade teachers!

For whatever reason, there's a tendency in the early grades to focus on fiction. This is compounded by most reading series which focus too heavily on this genre even in the upper grades. On behalf of intermediate teachers everywhere, I beg you to take nonfiction text instruction seriously! Many students come to third grade with no knowledge of how to use photos, captions, or charts to help them read because they've been exposed almost solely to fairy tales and other fictional stories. The majority of text on many state standardized tests is nonfiction, and that puts third graders in a really rough predicament of having to learn strategies for a whole new genre in just 6 months. Research shows that 80% of reading that adults do in America is nonfiction, so it's incredibly important for kids to learn this life skill.

And if those two reasons aren't convincing enough...do a reading survey with your kids and discover what they like to read about. I guarantee they will mention animals, natural disasters, dinosaurs, and other nonfiction topics. Kids (especially boys) love to read informational books and magazines-and when they're motivated to read, they'll learn skills more easily and apply them to new texts.

One of the best things you can do for your K-2 students is have non-fiction read-alouds several times per week in place of your fiction read-alouds. Have kids predict what they think is happening in the photos, then point to the captions as you read them and explain how the caption helps you understand what's happening. Think aloud as you read, modeling how to adjust your reading rate for non-fiction texts and re-read when you get to parts that are dense with information. Model how to use the index ("James really wants to find out what horses like to eat. Let's check the index and see which chapter might tell us about that"). Have kids draw diagrams to help them understand what you're reading. If you're not sure what else to do, ask an upper grade teacher in your school. You are doing your students an incredible service by exposing them to nonfiction and getting them excited about learning about their world. On behalf of upper grade teachers (including those middle and high school) and your students, thank you for taking on this challenge!!

7 ideas for embedding Social Studies into literacy routines

1) Use social studies-related texts to teach non-fiction reading strategies during your reading block.

This can be done with trade books, leveled books from your reading series, books from the media center, your social studies textbook, newspapers, magazines, etc. (preferably a variety of these).

2) When teaching students about biographies, have kids research historical figures.

Here are some Biography Projects from Mrs. Renz. The site provides directions for the project, student work samples, and kid-friendly links students can use to conduct their research. Mrs. Renz had her children research a famous person in history, create a timeline and poem, write a report and draw a picture, then dress up as the person and make a presentation. These are great ways to have your kids explore this important genre by researching historical figures that interest them. I've tried this during African-American history month, women's history month, etc (you can download one on my American History Activities page).

3) Use calendar, news, or sharing time to discuss the day in history.

The History Place- This Month in History makes it easy to integrate social studies into your daily routine. You can print out a list of interesting and important events in history by month and share them with your class during your calendar time. With a little planning ahead, you can check out related books from your media center and follow-up with a read-aloud, informational text lesson, or comprehension activity. You can even put a Today in History widget on your computer's dashboard or desktop and have the day's facts at your fingertips. There are lots of ways to incorporate this idea, but I find 'The History Place' exceptionally good because you can see all dates at once and plan ahead, and the events are specifically chosen to be of interest to kids. There's also a Photo of the Week, Speech of the Week, and links to many more History Place resources.

4) During your time in the computer lab (or when students use classroom computers), have kids complete historical web quests.

Kidipede: History for Kids is a great resource for online scavenger hunts and basic overviews of various time periods in history. I once taught a curriculum that required third graders to learn about a variety of ancient cultures (none of them in depth) and this site was a great tool for me to familiarize the children with the time periods in a way that was interesting for them and not overwhelming.

5) Use read-alouds to supplement or even drive your social studies curriculum.

Pull a handful of key vocabulary words from the trade book and put them on the board to discuss with students before and after reading. Allow children to give input on the topic or theme of books. I have a request form in my classroom for students to suggest topics they'd like me to read to them about. Popular requests include slavery, mummies, 9/11/01, various wars, Washington DC, New York, endangered species, and famous athletes, as well as books about specific countries where the students are from or have relatives living.

6) Leave two time-lines up in your classroom for students to add to throughout the year.

I have one from 1800-2010 and one from 5000 BC to current. As we read about different historical events in all subjects (including shared readings, our reading basal series, and science), we compose a brief sentence to go on the appropriate timeline and have a student illustrate it. This helps the kids see how various events relate to one another (i.e. Jim Crow laws were in the 1950's because they were after slavery). I know a middle/high school teacher who has kids keep their own personal timelines in their notebooks. Adding to the timelines takes about 5 minutes during a lesson and leaves a lasting reference that can be used for more teaching points throughout the year.

7) Set aside a few minutes a day for current events discussion.

Each child can be responsible for bringing in an article once a month or once a week to share, or you can have kids bring in things that interest them anytime at all. Show students how to use newspapers, magazines, and the internet to gather their resources. A great source for interesting current events is Yahoo's Most Viewed Odd News, which gives very short briefings and photos about weird stories from around the world. (Examples: 'Nepal Boy Claims to Be Shortest in the World', 'Moooove Slowly and Don't Hug Cows, Hikers Told in Switzerland', and 'Thieves Have Their Cake But Can't Eat It' (about 2 crooks in Germany who robbed a grocery store and only took a cake). Kids adore these types of stories, and all you have to do is visit the webpage where they're compiled and print out a story or two that appeal to kids. This activity takes very little time and gets kids interested in reading the news and following what's going on in their world. You can also have some very interesting character-building discussions for some of these articles, such as one recent day's odd news telling of an Iraqi who was forced to change his tee-shirt because it had "We Will Not Be Silent" written in English and Arabic-what a great way to talk about censorship and freedom of expression. Kids can have the chance to exchange and defend their views and see firsthand that there are not always right and wrong answers.

Recommended resources

Social Studies Content Integration information from Benchmark Education. Great research-backed ideas for teaching reading and writing strategies with social studies content.

Strategies for Reading Comprehension from Reading Quest: Making Sense in Social Studies. Activities, instructions, and printable charts!

Printable/downloadable 95-page document on reading strategies for the social studies class from Gretchen Koe and Anne Fitzpatrick of Mercer Middle School in Seattle. Very adaptable for elementary students.

Close reading eBook resources

SnapLearning has been a longtime supporter of The Cornerstone, and I believe strongly in the value of their digital resources. They provide hundreds of grade-appropriate eBooks, both fiction and non-fiction, which you can assign to your students and send to their devices! The eBooks come with interactive exercises and assignments which you can later review and assess. Best of all, the content is Common Core-aligned. If you want to check out their close reading portfolio (which is an awesome set of interactive exercises), you can request a free trial demo.

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Integrating Social Studies into Literacy Routines

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Social studies is an often-neglected subject in elementary school because it isn't generally assessed on the state standardized tests that young children take. However, informational text comprehension IS tested... and what better way to teach non-fiction reading strategies than through interesting and relevant resources about the world students live in?

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Including Young Learners with Special Needs in Social Studies Classrooms

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Including Young Learners with Special Needs in Social Studies Classrooms

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Instructional Strategies for Students with Cognitive Disabilities

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Instructional Strategies for Students with Cognitive Disabilities

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Teach self-monitoring techniques. (Students set goals to complete assignment and check off each step as they complete problem).

Have students work each step in an assignment in different colors.

Encourage students to subvocalize while learning.

Assign a peer tutor and allow the peer or adult to read the text aloud to the student.

Use cooperative learning techniques to allow students to "reteach" concepts.

Model and teach metacognitive strategies.

Teach note-taking sills.

Provide visual cues and props to reinforce and demonstrate from lectures.

Maximize students' potential for success by providing a balance of visual and auditory stimuli in your teaching.

Teach students to use self-questioning techniques.

Provide students with a written schedule of classroom routines and timelines.

Provide multiple opportunities to practice in different formats.

Use flashcards for individual or group review.

Use songs, rhymes or rhythms to help students remember information.

Chunk pieces of information together and in sets.

Use acronyms to help remember words or phrases.

Use individual and class lists for added visual representation.

Use semantic maps and diagrams to help students remember the connections between concepts.

Reteach items of information as often as possible, varying the approach a little each time.

Teach the meaning of key vocabulary words.

Introduce only one concept at a time and teach to mastery.

Provide many practice opportunities and include problem solving, reasoning and real-life application to help with transfer of information.

Provide learning aids such as manipulatives and models to help students focus on conceptual understanding and skill building.

Provide cooperative learning strategies with large and small groups.

Teach students how the textbook is organized, including the format for each page or section.

Provide video-taped and audio-taped lessons.

Have available textbooks on CD ROM.

Make connections between language arts and other disciplines.

Scaffold the instruction.

Use visual aids (posters, models, videos, slides, pictures, bulletin boards, notebooks).

Teach students how to look for the same or similar content in another medium (movie, filmstrip, audio tape, video tape, sticker book, photo album, field trip).

* For students with cognitive or physical disabilities, educators must involve instructional strategies that are accessible throughout the daily schedule. The classroom environment and educational staff must consider changes and accommodations to increase student participation and enhance learning. When teachers and students adapt effective instructional strategies, individual and groups of students gain the tools necessary to become successful learners. Below are suggested strategies to support students with cognitive and physical disabilities, and are applicable to use within all classroom settings and with all children.

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training and technical assistance centers

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Instructional Strategies for Students with Cognitive Disabilities

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The mission of Virginia's Training and Technical Assistance Centers (T/TAC) is to improve educational opportunities and contribute to the success of children and youth with disabilities (birth - 22 years). The Centers provide quality training and technical assistance in response to local, regional, and state needs.

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Teaching Social Studies to Students with Mild Disabilities

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Teaching Social Studies to Students with Mild Disabilities

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SOCIAL STUDIES ADAPTATIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH DIVERSE NEEDS

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SOCIAL STUDIES ADAPTATIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH DIVERSE NEEDS

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Teaching Students With Intellectual Disability to Use a Self-Questioning Strategy to Comprehend Social Studies Text for an Inclusive Setting

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Teaching Students With Intellectual Disability to Use a Self-Questioning Strategy to Comprehend Social Studies Text for an Inclusive Setting