Hello group users,
I want to highlight a resource that I have used often and for quite some time. It is "Keys to Effective LD Teaching Practice" from The University of Tennessee (Knoxville), Center for Literacy Studies, 2002, - Margaret Horne Lindop, Editor. It was built on the foundation of the National Institute for Literacy's Bridges to Practice. You can access this resource in the LINCS Disability Collection at https://lincs.ed.gov/professional-development/resource-collections/profile-480 >
It has four chapters;
Chapter 1: Preparing to Serve Adults With Learning Disabilities
Chapter 2: The Assessment Process
Chapter 3: The Planning Process
Chapter 4: The Teaching/Learning Process
In future posts within this discussion strand, I will highlight effective practices within chapter 4, The Teaching/Learning Process.
Rochelle Kenyon, SME
Comments
Hi,
We know that all adult students with LD have different challenges with learning. However, they all benefit from instruction that helps them processing information. The LINCS Collection resource highlighted above, Keys to Effective LD Teaching Practice, includes effective strategies for all students with information processing disorders.
One of the critically important and effective LD instructional practices is "Direct Instruction," Direct Instruction is characterized by high rates of teacher or tutor leadership and control during the initial stages of information acquisition, followed by careful monitoring of the learner’s performance as she gradually assumes control of and masters the information. Direct instruction is a map for teaching that incorporates all the characteristics of LD-appropriate instruction.
The Direct Instruction Model for LD-Appropriate Instruction below was adapted by Amanda Keller from Instruction: A Models Approach (Gunter, Estes & Schwaab, 1995)
I. Set: Provide Objectives, Establish Expectations, and Introduce the Skill
A. Activate background knowledge
B. Involve all students
C. Relate to real life
D. Label the learning and set goals
II. Instruction: Introduce and Model the Skill
A. Teacher does it. (Students use eyes and ears.)
B. Teacher does it; students help. (Students use eyes, ears, and voices.)
C. Students do it; teacher helps. (Students use eyes, ears, voices, and pencils.)
D. Students do it. (Students use pencils.)
III. Guided Practice With Feedback
Students have the opportunity to practice their new skills under the teacher’s supervision. This is a good opportunity for peer tutoring or cooperative learning, especially in the context of word problems.
IV. Closure
A. “Tell me (or someone else) what you learned.”
B. “Show me what you learned.”
C. “Do one more.”
V. Independent Practice and Generalization
A. Have student practice his or her new skill independently.
B. Have student do a problem every day.
Discuss: “How can you use this skill at home…or at work?”
Who has used the Direct Instruction strategy? You may not have been aware of the name, but the steps may be familiar to you.
Please share how you use Direct Instruction with your students?
Thanks,
Rochelle Kenyon, SME
Hello group members:
Have you used techniques to enhance your students' ability to visualize? If you answer no to that question, you are missing a great opportunity and technique. Visualizing text is a way to improve reading comprehension. The process can include brainstorming and mind mapping.
I am adding another Effective LD Teaching Practice onto this discussion strand from the LINCS Disability Collection resource of the same name. Information on visualization follows:
If you read well and enjoy it, you probably have vivid mental pictures of the people and situations you’re reading about. What if, when you read words, no pictures came to mind? Understanding and remembering those words and the meaning of the article or story would be much, much harder. Images and other sensory cues (e.g., descriptions of how something feels or sounds) give us hooks on which we hang meaning and memory. They contribute to the mental frameworks of our prior knowledge and experience that are vitally important to understanding what we read. If a student finds it difficult to visualize what she is reading, she needs explicit instruction in forming mental pictures of the meaning. To do this ask students to listen, make mental pictures, and describe. Whether a person decodes well or not, she can have difficulty visualizing the meaning of a phrase or passage.
The following quotes from practitioners in the field will highlight the importance of teaching visualization.,
• To strengthen this ability, read aloud to your students: a phrase, a paragraph, poetry, fiction, or a factual account. At first, do very short segments.
“I’ve found that reading comprehension was one of the greatest problems my students faced. They couldn’t seem to process what they read. But when I read to them, they could visualize the story.” —Charlene Feuchtinger
• Ask them to transfer the words into a mental picture. You may have to help with this at first: “Describe what you ‘see.’ What is the woman
wearing? What expression does she have on her face?”
• Model the process of visualizing and retelling.Work with your students to do this, helping them to link the mental image and the retelling.
To view the original resource in the LINCS Disability Collection , go to https://lincs.ed.gov/professional-development/resource-collections/profile-480 >
M Feldsher suggests a 4-step approach to teaching visualization at http://blog.mindmaple.com/2012/07/13/teaching-visualization-to-students/
Step 1: Modeling the Technique is where the teacher reads aloud text and then describes what images come to mind for the students to observe this active process in reading.
Step 2: Students Practice Visualizing is the stage where the teacher reads passages to the students, and they are encouraged to close their eyes and become aware of images that come to mind associated with the words read.
Step 3: Sharing Visualizations is the part where the students discuss as a group the images they created in their minds while listening to the passages the teacher read.
Step 4: Using Drawing to Help Students Visualize is the stage where mind mapping fits in well. Students are instructed to draw images that come to mind as they listen to the text read to them. Drawing the images reinforces their comprehension and retention. Mind mapping would be beneficial here, because when creating mind maps you can use words as well as images and other visual icons and features to even further promote understanding, enjoyment, and recall. In addition, mind maps would help the students to expand on their initial images/words and continue to map out fresh, new ideas as well. Students would be using their right and left brain with the mind maps to optimize learning.
Once students feel comfortable using mind maps for these types of exercises, they can begin to incorporate maps in many other school and personal activities such as note taking, presentations, and task management.
Do any of our group members teach the visualization process? Has it been helpful? Please describe your experiences.
Thanks to those that read and respond to these messages. Sharing experiences is an important part of the Community of Practice goals.
Rochelle Kenyon, SME
When I first started teaching, I attended a training by The Reading and Writing Project. One of my best take aways was the section on think alouds while doing whole class readings. Its the metacognative process of demystifying the processes of engaging with a text by verbally modeling how the teacher thinks about a piece of writing as you are reading. I would be reading in the front and stop at points and say things, "As a reader, I think this may be an important person in the story so I am going to write their name down so I remember." Or I would say, "Wow, the words used by the author really let me see what the house looked liked in my mind. Go ahead and draw how you see the house the author described." Teaching a special education language arts class with more than 70% of my students first generation migrant children, the ability for them to listen to stories and draw them allowed them to actively engage in the text without being singled out for low literacy.
Another class activity I employed came from the Visual Thinking Strategies approach. I attended their class while participating in the Teachers 4 Social Justice Conference. This approach uses art to start a dialogue. I really liked using pictures of murals from the neighborhoods the students came from. Often, the students had not stopped to look at the murals and it would become background noise. This was a chance for them to reflect on their neighborhood and to delve into the layers and messages in the murals. This activity could be done both simultaneously or asynchronously. The following day, the same picture would be up and the anonymous comments would be posted as well.
This approach created time for dialogue that was focused on the process of evolving ideas and the debate. The teacher can monitor the discussion and prompt students to push the thinking further or to re-frame some of their ideas bringing it back to the subject matters being touched upon in the classroom.
The teacher can continue the conversations the following day on ideas or topics that produced the largest response.
Hi Jen,
First of all, you have been outstanding as a guest speaker during out event this week ( Guest Discussion: Adult Learning Disability Populations within Secure, Correctional Facilities ). I have learned so much from you and from the resources you recommended. I can't thank you enough. Your bosses should be very proud of you and for the great impression our members gained about Five Keys Charter Schools.
Thanks for re-posting this message about Visualization. If this technique is unfamiliar to our members, it would certainly be well worth their efforts to try it.
Thanks,
Rochelle Kenyon, SME
Rochelle,
I am happy to contribute to these conversations. I'm very much about NOT recreating the wheel and there are so many amazing ideas out there, its nice to have them in one area.
Thank you,
Jennifer