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Ch. 1 Text Dependent Questions

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For the next couple of weeks, I will be engaging my students with the chapter book, Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White, for various reasons. One reason is that my students need to know how to navigate a chapter book and its components. A second reason is that I want to give my students the experience of reading more complex text. A third reason is that I want my students to understand how characters transform over time as they experience different types of challenges and conflict. This is a great narrative to explore those ideas.

I will be taking on a larger role with the reading of the first chapters, though my students will each have a copy of the text even at the beginning. As we progress through the story, I will expect students to take on a more independent reading role.

Today, after introducing the chapter, we will spend time reading chapter one: "Before Breakfast." I will engage the students with some text dependent questions.

After the reading, I will gather the students on the rug to discuss the story elements and what students have learned about the plot in this chapter.

Finally, I will have students recount the first chapter.
On the Rug:
Today, I am starting with my students on the rug. I am introducing the book by playing a game. First, I ask them what they know about chapter books. I ask them to ask their partner: What is a chapter book? After they share with their partner, I have a few share out loud. Next, I am having them guess the title of the book by having them ask yes or no questions. They will need to pay attention to the clues I give them to try to figure out the name of the chapter book. I have placed all 21 copies of the book in a large bag ready to be opened as soon as they guess.

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Questions are a great way to begin a story. As students embark on their introduction to Charlotte's Web, they will get practice asking comprehension-deepening questions about the key details Plan your 60-minute lesson in English / Language Arts with helpful tips from Maricela Rodriguez

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Wh Questions | Worksheet | Education.com

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In this fiction comprehension worksheet, readers will look over an interesting passage about a woman and her dogs as they think about the "who," "what," "when," "where," and "why." Catered to the first-grade curriculum, this worksheet uses a sample reading to have students think about the "wh" questions that can help them understand a story.

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"The Boy Who Cried Wolf" Story Map | Worksheet | Education.com

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Give your second graders some practice building their reading comprehension skills with the timeless story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Students will read this classic fable and then answer questions about setting, characters, genre, and cause and effect.

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TPT Lesson Option

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This Story Recall Bundle is a bundle of great graphic organizers!!! This pack includes 17 graphic organizers for recalling important story elements. This pack includes: Story Summarizing (4 pages - Beginning, Middle, and End) Story Sequence (4 pages - First, Next, Then, Last) Story Structure ...

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How reading fluency and comprehension relate to ELLs

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How reading fluency and comprehension relate to ELLs

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Word Knowledge and Fluency Strategies!

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Reading is a process of getting meaning from print. Early reading includes the direct teaching of words and sounds. Children must be able to distinguish between different sounds of oral language for the purposes of achieving understanding. They also need basic knowledge about the written alphabet, sound-symbol relationships, and concepts of print because these are the basis for decoding, reading fluency and the development of comprehension skills students will need in order to learn content in the upper grades.

Fluency is the bridge between decoding and comprehension. Fluent readers decode words accurately and automatically, and they also have the capacity to make sense of the text through prosody. Prosody is the ability to use the appropriate volume, tone, emphasis, phrasing, and other elements of oral expression. Prosody is the evidence that the student is actively interpreting or constructing meaning from the passage.

How reading fluency and comprehension relate to ELLs

English language learners (ELLs) have great difficulty attaining fluency in reading without the proper instruction on the four dimensions of fluency:

accuracy in word decoding

quick and automatic recognition of words in connected text

expressive and meaningful interpretation of text

a holistic comprehension of what they just finished reading

For ELLs, success in reading in English at second and third grade reading levels depends on assessing the student in several areas:

basic decoding skills in English or in their primary language

word knowledge in English (vocabulary)

prosody (their intonation, pronunciation of words, stress, pitch, and smoothness)

basic comprehension skills (rereading, self-correction, thinking about meaning)

After proper assessment, a second or third grade teacher can begin by teaching/building on these skills.

Classroom strategies: Fluency

Word knowledge

Fluency problems for ELLs begin with limited word knowledge. Some ELLs appear to read with accuracy in decoding but have poor comprehension. They buzz through a passage and read the words, but pay little attention to sentence juncture or other punctuation. When asked what they read, they usually respond, "I don't know." These students have developed decoding skills but may not know the meaning of enough words in the sentence or passage to understand it. If your students don't know the meaning of at least 90 - 95 percent of the words they are reading, they may not comprehend the text.

Other ELLs read in a slow and labored word-by-word manner. Their reading rate may be around 50-60 words per minute. These students need help not only with word knowledge but also with decoding.

You can teach word knowledge either before reading (highlighting key words and their meanings) or during your teacher read alouds by using an English as a Second Language (ESL) strategy (described below) when a potentially unknown word is encountered. You can preview the text to be read by you or the students themselves and select five to six words that are likely to stifle comprehension for ELLs. You can quickly highlight Tier 1 words (everyday words that all English speakers know, but not ELLs) and Tier 2 words (grade-level words that all students need to know) through ESL strategies such as:

Role playing or pantomiming

Using gestures

Showing real objects

Pointing to pictures

Doing quick drawings on the board

Using the Spanish equivalent and then asking students to say the word in English

If words are more abstract and do not lend themselves to these strategies (Tier 2 and 3 words), you can follow these steps for each word:

Select the word from the text or conversation beforehand.

Explain meaning with student-friendly definitions.

Provide one or two examples of how it is used.

Ask students to repeat the word three times.

Engage students in activities to develop mastery by using the word in similar examples.

Have students say the word again.

Listening comprehension

Listening comprehension is when you read aloud to your students and they listen. As you read aloud, model reading fluency and enrich the ELLs' receptive and expressive vocabulary. You can also introduce comprehension skills such as rereading to clarify meaning, finding the main idea, and thinking about cause and effect. This is a great opportunity for ELLs to learn these skills because they are not having to do the arduous work of decoding, learning new words, and trying to comprehend the story while also attempting to think about the messages of the story - all at the same time. They can learn these skills through discussions with you or by listening to you thinking aloud.

Partner reading for fluency and comprehension

After you model reading fluency and reading strategies, students can take turns reading the same passages aloud in pairs. Each partner takes turn reading one sentence. Alternating sentences between partners helps them focus on what they are reading. Reading with their partner also creates a safety zone where ELLs can feel comfortable through the trials and errors of reading aloud. After they read a paragraph or two, they should stop and summarize together what they read.

Other ideas

After students finish their partner reading, you can use cooperative learning strategies such as "Numbered Heads Together":

Ask students to sit in teams of four and number off.

Pose a question and ask students to put their heads together to discuss the answer.

All four students must be prepared to give the answer because they don't know whose number you are going to call.

Randomly select a number and ask students with that number to stand and give the answer (be sure to have at least four questions on hand so that every student has an opportunity to answer).

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Reading is a process of getting meaning from print. Early reading includes the direct teaching of words and sounds. Children must be able to distinguish between different sounds of oral language for the purposes of achieving understanding.

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7 ELL Modifications to Set up Students for Success.

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7 ELL Modifications to Set up Students for Success.

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We ESL teachers are the experts in English language acquisition.

Our superhuman powers even allow us to impart knowledge to students through an osmosis-like processes.

Okay, not really. Excuse my wishful thinking.

Instead, we stay up late researching strategies to motivate our students.

We constantly seek new ways to liven up our ESL lessons, and we explore tools to meet the needs of various learning styles.

While all these things are great - and necessary - we need to make sure that we're supporting our students 100%.

This only occurs by implementing the necessary and appropriate modifications and accommodations in the classroom.

But many of us don't have firsthand experience learning a second language and, for those of us who do, most have had the benefit of receiving most or all of our education in our native language. Our students don't necessarily have that luxury.

In fact, the majority of them are learning to navigate a new language and culture while simultaneously learning their native language. With content area teachers, students are learning various concepts and ideas for the first time in a language that they have yet to master.

That's not an easy feat, to say the least.

So, how do we figure out which modifications and accommodations our students need to succeed?

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

The Importance of Implementing Modifications for ELLs

Many English Language Learners are identified as having Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and, in turn, struggle to access the material or concepts being taught in class. In this common situation, it's imperative for teachers to choose appropriate modifications and accommodations in order to make the content more accessible to them.

Although these modifications are insufficient to place our students on a level playing field with their English speaking counterparts, they do make a huge difference in our students' academic success.

The terms modifications and accommodations are often used interchangeably, but it's imperative that teachers understand the differences between the two.

Modifications are essentially changes made to the core content so that the learning objectives are different and more accessible for the student.

Accommodations, on the other hand, don't change the actual content being delivered. They're add-ons, tools that ensure that students can demonstrate what they know without lessening their expectations. Since modifications do usually lessen the expectations for the students, they're usually only used in extreme circumstances.

Both modifications and accommodations should be used carefully and with thoughtful consideration.

Let's discuss some ideas on how we can use accommodations and modifications to make learning easier for students with LEP.

1. Alternate Responses

When assessing your ESL students, be sure that you're clear on exactly what it is that you want them to demonstrate. Then, think of creative ways that they can demonstrate that knowledge. For instance, a teacher assessing students' understanding of causes of the Revolutionary War may traditionally have required that students write responses to a number of questions or prompts. For ELLs, this may be restrictive and prevent them from communicating what they actually know.

If you're not actually assessing their writing ability, then you can find alternate ways for the students to respond.

They can be allowed to draw a series of pictures with short captions or even speak their responses into a recorder in lieu of providing a written response. This way, you're giving them the chance to communicate their knowledge in a way that circumvents the language and/or writing barrier.

2. Advance Notes

Just thinking about the advanced French class that I took in college makes my head spin to this very day.

The instructor spoke in French the entire time. Although I had a decent grasp on speaking and understanding French, it was still difficult for me to keep up with everything that was covered.

Our students face a similar problem in many of our classes.

One way that we can make things easier is by preparing and distributing advance notes. This gives ELLs the opportunity to preview what will be taught and, in turn, aids in comprehension of the material.

If your students are required to take notes, your ELLs can use your advance notes and make small additions as necessary. This decreases the amount of writing required, allows the student to slow down and helps them make sense of what is being said. It's also a huge confidence booster that's been proven to increase student performance.

3. Extended Time

It's obvious that response time for ELLs is significantly greater than it is for students proficient in English. Given this, we know that ELLs may require more time to process and communicate information on assessments. To support your students in this area, give them additional time on tests to help. Extra time will also help to decrease anxiety, which often has a significant impact on test performance.

4. Teacher Modeling

As ESL teachers, we're always thinking about reducing Teacher Talking Time (TTT). One great way to do this is to focus on ways to communicate non-verbally.

Modeling and using gestures to aid in understanding can be a very effective accommodation for ELLs. Make sure that you're thoughtful about what you'll model and how you'll do it ahead of time. Also make sure that you're not only modeling during instruction, but that you also model directions as well.

So, let's say you're going to tell your students that they need to get folders from their backpacks. Place your own backpack on your desk, find a place to sit and support your ELLs by modeling each step as you say it. You can point to a desk when you ask them to place their folders on their desks. You can also pick up a folder and point to your backpack when you ask them to do the first step.

The key is to keep your actions clear and simple. Too much moving around can distract students from listening to what you're saying.

5. Simplified written and verbal instructions

Whether you're giving instructions for a test or assignment verbally or textually, you should simplify them as much as possible for students with LEP. Many times, this can be easily done by taking out extra words or turning complex sentences into simple ones. Consider these directions:
Carefully read each sentence below and determine its subject and predicate. Then, underline the subject once and the predicate twice.
These directions can be easily changed to this simpler version:
Read each sentence. Put one line under the subject. Put two lines under the predicate.
These simple changes require minimal effort and time, but actually do make a huge difference for our students!

6. Frequent breaks

Learning is fun, but it can also be hard work!

This is especially true for students learning a new language. All that hard work may mean that your ELLs need more frequent breaks than others. Give your students frequent breaks during class time or tests so that they can perform at their best. Simply stepping out in the hall, walking around the room or taking a trip to the water fountain can make a huge difference, leave them feeling refreshed and get them in the zone to be ready for more.

7. eDictionaries

When used correctly, technology never fails to transform a classroom. Allow your students to use eDictionaries in your classroom to look up unknown words. Any regular dictionary will do, but eDictionaries allow students to hear the pronunciations of words. As you might imagine, this is extremely helpful for anyone learning a second language. If students encounter an unknown word, they can type it into an eDictionary, hear the word pronounced and either read or listen to the definition. Also, if they aren't sure how to to spell a word, many eDictionaries will allow them to speak the word to have the correct spelling displayed.

Using Content Modifications When Necessary

There are definitely situations where accommodations are simply not enough. In these moments, you'll need to actually change or modify content and learning objectives.

In these instances, you'll actually change the overall expectations of the individual student and/or make the content less complex. The goal is that this will help the student to learn as much as possible while still working towards their overall learning goals.

So, if one learning objective for your students is to be able to identify the causes of the Revolutionary War, a modification could entail that one particular student only has to identify all parties involved in the war, dates, and other specific bits of information.

Evaluating Effectiveness of Instructional Accommodations

There are many, many options for accommodating your students.

All of these accommodations aren't equal.

What works for one student may not work for another, and what worked at one point in time may no longer be effective for your current classroom.

When implementing accommodations and modifications, be sure to continuously evaluate their effectiveness.

During this evaluation, it's important to solicit and consider student feedback. If something is working well, then great. If not, then you'll need to find other accommodations that are more effective. Talking to other teachers can be especially useful in this process. Many of your colleagues will have ideas and examples of accommodations that they've used successfully.

Keep in mind that the goal of the accommodation is to make the process of teaching and learning easier for the student. Put forth time and effort into carefully selecting accommodations and watch how these small changes make a world of difference!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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7 ESL Modifications for Lesson Plans That'll Make Learning Easier

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We ESL teachers are the experts in English language acquisition. Our superhuman powers even allow us to impart knowledge to students through an osmosis-like processes. Okay, not really. Excuse my wishful thinking. Instead, we stay up late researching strategies to motivate our students.

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12 Ways to Support ELL in the Classroom.

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12 Ways to Support ELL in the Classroom.

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Listen to this post as a podcast:
A note on terminology: The acronym ESL is used less often now in schools than it used to be, because we recognize that many students who are learning English already speak several other languages, so English would not be a "second" language. I use it several times in the post because schools sometimes refer to the teachers as ESL teachers, and the term is still widely used as a search term for this topic. My intent in using the acronym is to make this post easier to find online.

You have a new student, and he speaks no English. His family has just moved to your town from Japan, and though he receives English as a Second Language (ESL) support, he will also be sitting in your room every day to give him more exposure to his new language. How can you be a good teacher to someone who barely understands you?

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, an average of 9 percent of students in U.S. public schools are English Language Learners (ELLs); that number is closer to 14 percent in cities. Although many of these students start off in high-intensity, whole-day English programs, most are integrated into mainstream classrooms within a year, well before their English language skills would be considered proficient.

How prepared are you to teach these students? If you're like most classroom teachers, you have little to no training in the most effective methods for working with English language learners (Walker, Shafer, & Iiams, 2004). So that means we have a problem here: Lots of ELL kids in regular classrooms, and no teacher training to ensure the success of that placement.

Below, three ESL teachers tell us what they know about the things regular classroom teachers can do to improve instruction for ELL students. These 12 strategies are simple, they are not very time consuming, and best of all, they will help everyone in your class learn better:

1. Make it Visual

"Avoid giving instructions in the air," says Melissa Eddington, an Ohio-based ESL teacher. "ELL kids have a harder time processing spoken language." So instructions - even basic directions for classroom procedures - should be written on the board whenever possible. Challenging concepts should be diagrammed or supported with pictures. And modeling the steps of a process or showing students what a finished product should look like can go a long way toward helping students understand. "Sometimes showing our students what to do is all they need in order to do it," Eddington says. Not only will this kind of nonlinguistic representation improve comprehension for ELL students, it will help all of your students grasp concepts better.

2. Build in more group work.

"Kids aren't just empty glasses that we pour stuff into and then at the end of the day they dump it back onto a test," says Kim, an ESL teacher who was the subject of my very first podcast interview. "If you really want the kids to learn, they've got to be engaged." That means less teacher-led, whole-class instruction, and more small groups, where students can practice language with their peers in a more personal, lower-risk setting. And if ELL students attend your class with a resource teacher, make use of that person: In most cases the resource teacher doesn't have to work exclusively with the ESL students; they can work with smaller groups that happen to contain these students, helping to improve the teacher-student ratio and give kids more time to practice.

3. Communicate with the ESL teacher.

Mary Yurkosky, a former ESL teacher in Massachusetts, credits much of her students' success to the strong relationship she had with the regular classroom teachers. "The classroom teachers were always talking to me about what they were doing in their classes," she says. "They made it so easy for me to support them: If a teacher was going to be doing a unit on plants, I could make sure we used some of that same vocabulary in the ESL class."

Ideally, this could be systematized, where ESL teachers could regularly get copies of lesson plans or collaborate with regular classroom teachers to build solid back-and-forth support, but "it doesn't have to be that much work," Yurkosky insists. "Just talk to each other. Talk about what's going on in your classrooms, invite each other to special presentations, share what your students are learning, and the words will naturally find their way into the ESL class."

4. Honor the "silent period."

Many new language learners go through a silent period, during which they will speak very little, if at all. "Don't force them to talk if they don't want to," says Eddington, "A lot of students who come from cultures outside of America want to be perfect when they speak, so they will not share until they feel they are at a point where they're perfect." Just knowing that this is a normal stage in second language acquisition should help relieve any pressure you feel to move them toward talking too quickly.

5. Allow some scaffolding with the native language.

Although it has been a hotly debated topic in the language-learning community, allowing students some use of their first language (L1) in second-language (L2) classrooms is gaining acceptance. When a student is still very new to a language, it's okay to pair him with other students who speak his native language. "Some students are afraid to open their mouths at all for fear of sounding stupid or just not knowing the words to use," Yurkosky says. "Letting them explain things or ask questions in their first language gets them to relax and feel like a part of the class."

And this doesn't only apply to spoken language. If you give students a written assignment, but the ELL student doesn't yet have the proficiency to handle writing his response in English, "Don't make them just sit there and do nothing," Eddington says. "Allow them to write in their first language if they're able. This allows them to still participate in journal writing or a math extended response, even if you can't read what they write." There has even been some evidence that allowing second-language learners to pre-write and brainstorm in L1 results in higher-quality writing in L2 in later stages of the writing process (Yigzaw, 2012).

6. Look out for culturally unique vocabulary.

"For most of these kids, their background knowledge is lacking, especially with things that are unique to American or westernized culture," says Eddington. It's important to directly teach certain vocabulary words: "Show them videos of what it looks like to toss pizza dough, show pictures of a juke box or a clothing rack - things that are not common in their own language."

One way to differentiate for ELL students is to consider the whole list of terms you're going to teach for a unit, and if you think an ELL student may be overwhelmed by such a long list, omit those that are not essential to understanding the larger topic at hand.

7. Use sentence frames to give students practice with academic language.

All students, not just English language learners, need practice with academic conversations. Sentence frames - partially completed sentences like "I disagree with what _________ said because..." - show students how to structure language in a formal way. Keep these posted in a highly visible spot in your classroom and require students to refer to them during discussions and while they write.

For this kind of language to really sink in, though, Kim says it has to become a regular part of class. "They won't do it if it's not the norm in the class, because they'll be embarrassed to use it among their peers," she says. "But if they can put it off on the teacher and say, Oh, well, you know, Miss Kim makes me talk like this, then they don't look as hoity-toity as they would otherwise."

8. Pre-teach whenever possible.

If you're going to be reading a certain article next week, give ESL students a copy of it now. If you plan to show a YouTube video tomorrow, send a link to your ESL students today. Any chance you can give these students to preview material will increase the odds that they'll understand it on the day you present it to everyone else. "That kind of thing is wonderful," Yurkosky says. "The kids feel so empowered if they've had a chance to look at the material ahead of time."

9. Learn about the cultural background of your students...

Our second-language populations grow more diverse every year. Taking the time to learn the basics of where a child comes from - exactly, not 'somewhere in the Middle East/South America/Asia/Africa' - tells the student that you respect her enough to bother. Kim remembers one time when she had to set the record straight about the diverse South American population at her school: "I was listening to the teachers talking about the 'Mexican' kids in our building," she says, "and I was like, 'We don't have any Mexicans.'" Not taking the time to at least correctly identify a child's country of origin, much like not bothering to pronounce their name correctly, is a kind of microaggression, a small, subtle insult that communicates hostility toward people of color. Make a commitment to be someone who bothers to get it right.

Once you have the country straight, take things up a notch by learning about students' religious and cultural practices. If he is a practicing Muslim, he should be told if one of the pizzas you ordered for the class party has sausage on it. If she comes from a culture where eye contact with adults is viewed as disrespectful, you'll know not to force her to look you in the eye when she's talking.

10. ...but don't make a child speak for his entire culture.

In her podcast interview, Kim shared a story about watching a teacher ask a new Iraqi student how he felt about the war in his country, right in the middle of class. "That's not cultural inclusiveness," she explains. "I've seen teachers do this and then pat themselves on the back. The students' English is limited so they can't express themselves very well, and they don't want to 'represent'; they just want to be there." If you anticipate a theme coming up in your class that's going to be relevant to one of your students, have a conversation with them in advance, or check with your ESL teacher to see if they think it's appropriate for in-class discussion.

11. Show them how to take themselves less seriously...

By modeling the risk-taking that's required to learn a new language, you help students develop the courage to take their own risks, and to have a sense of humor about it. "I tried to say the word 'paint' ( pinta) in Portuguese and instead I said the word for 'penis' ( pinto). They all roared with laughter while I stood there with a What?? look on my face," Yurkosky says. "When they explained what I'd said, I laughed so hard! I told them that laughing was fine because sometimes mistakes are really funny, but ridicule is never okay."

12. ...but always take them seriously.

One of Kim's pet peeves about how teachers interact with English language learners is the way they often see students' efforts as 'cute,' missing the whole point of what the student is trying to say. "A student will be desperate to communicate, and the teacher will get distracted by the delivery and miss the message," she says. "That's painful for me to watch." It bothers her when teachers mistake a lack of language for a lack of intelligence or maturity. When a child can't express themselves as well as they would in their native language, it's far too easy to assume the concepts just aren't in their heads.

"It breaks my heart when I hear teachers say (ELL kids) don't know anything," says Eddington. "These are brilliant kids and they know a lot. They just can't tell us in English yet." Make a conscious effort to see past the accent and the mispronunciations and treat every interaction - every student - with the respect they deserve.

"They're doing twice the job of everybody else in the class," Kim adds, "even though the result looks like half as much." ♦

Further Reading

The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide is one of the highest-rated books on teaching English-language learners available. In addition to offering an overview of the research on second-language learners and best practices in teaching ESL, it also includes a whole section on teaching ESL in the content areas and another specifically geared toward teaching ELL students in mainstream classrooms.
References:
Walker, A., Shafer, J., & Iiams, M. (2004). "Not in my classroom": Teacher attitudes towards English language learners in the mainstream classroom. NABE Journal of Research and Practice, 2(1), 130-160.

Yigzaw, A. (2012). Impact of L1 use in L2 English writing classes. Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences, 8(1), 11-27.

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12 Ways to Support English Learners in the Mainstream Classroom

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Advice from three ESL teachers on the things regular classroom teachers can do to help English language learners thrive in mainstream classrooms.

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Five Ways to Support Students with Special Needs.

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Five Ways to Support Students with Special Needs.

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Learning disabilities impact the way children are able to process and understand information; they are neurological disorders that might manifest themselves as difficulty listening, thinking, writing, speaking, spelling, or doing mathematical calculations. Dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, visual perception disorders, auditory processing disorders, and language disorders fall under the umbrella of learning disorders. Many children with ADHD also have comorbid learning disorders.

An idea teachers must understand is that students with special needs such as learning disabilities need to be taught differently or need some accommodations to enhance the learning environment. Not everyone learns in the same way, and you can follow some tips to create a well-rounded learning atmosphere.

1. Maintain an organized classroom and limit distractions. For students with special needs, maintaining a healthy balance of structure and unstructured processes is important. For example, on each student's desk, have a place for everything that is clearly labeled (use words or colors, for instance). Also consider using checklists and help students keep their notebooks organized; teach them how to do so on their own, but also check at the end of each day and offer suggestions for keeping it more organized. On the unstructured side of things, allow students with special needs to change their work area while completing homework or studying and assign tasks that involve moving around the room. For students with special needs and learning disabilities, hearing instructions or following directions can be made difficult if there are too many distractions. Schedule breaks throughout the day and seat students with special needs in an area of the classroom that limits distractions; for example, do not sit these children by a window, in front of an open door, or by the air conditioner, as people walking by or additional noises might be too distracting.

2. Use music and voice inflection. When transitioning to an activity, use a short song to finish up one task and move to another. Many of us have sung the "clean up" while cleaning up before the next activity; use a similar approach in the classroom. Students with special needs might also respond well to varied voice inflection and tone, so use a mixture of loud, soft, and whisper sounds. Using proper pronunciation and sometimes slightly exaggerating proper speech will help a child model the same principles.

3. Break down instructions into smaller, manageable tasks. Students with special needs often have difficulty understanding long-winded or several instructions at once. For children with learning disabilities, it is best to use simple, concrete sentences. You might have to break down a step into a few smaller steps to ensure your students with special needs understand what you are asking. You might even want to put the directions both in print and saying them verbally. Ask your students with special needs to repeat the directions and ask them to demonstrate that they understand. Do not give further instructions until a student has completed the previous task.

4. Use multi-sensory strategies. As all children learn in different ways, it is important to make every lesson as multi-sensory as possible. Students with learning disabilities might have difficulty in one area, while they might excel in another. For example, use both visual and auditory cues. Create opportunities for tactile experiences. You might need to use physical cues, such as a light touch, when a student might get distracted or inattentive. Get creative with your lesson plans, and students with special needs will appreciate the opportunity to use their imaginations or try something new; use a balance of structure and familiar lessons with original content.

5. Give students with special needs opportunities for success. Children with learning disabilities often feel like they do not succeed in certain areas, but structuring lessons that lead to successful results is a way to keep them motivated. Provide immediate reinforcement for accomplishments, be consistent with rules and discipline, correct errors and reward students when they make these corrections themselves, explain behavioral expectations, and teach and demonstrate appropriate behaviors rather than just expecting students with special needs to pick them up.

While these suggestions are ideal for classroom settings, parents of students with special needs can also implement these principles. Helping children with learning disabilities both in and out of the classroom is the best way to help your students with special needs achieve success.

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What exactly are special needs? Most of us have heard the term "special needs children", but the reality is that there are many different conditions that a child may have in order to fall into the category of being a special needs child.

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Modifications and Accommodations to Lessons and Assessments. 

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Modifications and Accommodations to Lessons and Assessments. 

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Explore topics about ADHD, dyslexia, and learning disabilities. Learn about focus, hyperactivity, executive function skills, and trouble with reading, writing, and math.

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Why We Have Thanksgiving** by Margaret Hillert You could use any informational text that has clear illustrations and is at the 2nd grade reading level

Lesson vocabulary words from the Reading/Writing word wall: questioning, inference, beginning, middle, end, informational text, literal

Set up whiteboard

post-it notes for the students and teacher square size is fine

big question mark cut from butcher block

Ask & Answer Questions worksheet

This lesson is one of the first of many about questioning. My students are able to ask lots of questions, but they tend to be literal. Using questioning to improve comprehension is not a reading strategy that they often employ. In this lesson, the students ask and answer to demonstrate understanding of key details in an informational online text (RI.2.1), which supports the shift in Common Core Standards toward using text evidence to improve comprehension. This focus on using ** I chose this book because it has nice pictures about why the Pilgrims left England. Although the title is about Thanksgiving, it really sums up the Mayflower and Pilgrim experience nicely. The text is early 2nd grade level, which lets me focus more on the questioning strategy and allows the opportunity for independent reading. information from a text to support their answers, especially in an informational text is great practice for Social Studies, Science and other disciplines. This cross-curricular learning encourages students to draw on their abilities to discover answers for themselves rather than rely on adults to supply the facts, a shift in learning from the Common Core Standards.

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Why We Have Thanksgiving** by Margaret Hillert You could use any informational text that has clear illustrations and is at the 2nd grade reading level Lesson vocabulary words from the Reading/Writing word wall: questioning, inference, beginning, middle, end, informational text, literal Set up whiteboard post-it notes for the students and teacher square size is fine big question mark cut from butcher block Ask & Answer Questions worksheet This lesson is one of the first of many about questioning.

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Pg. 15 and 25

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Strategies Inside Each Lesson For Students needing extra support or reteaching. 

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Strategies Inside Each Lesson For Students needing extra support or reteaching. 