Learning Strategies for Students with Disabilities Teaching our Students How to Learn Presented By: Sam Shutty Ginger Thomas

Characteristics of Trouble Learners Difficulty staying on task Poor work/organizational skills Difficulty listening Difficulty following directions Difficulty remembering information Poor decision making skills Difficulty identifying the next step

Characteristics of Strategic Learners Who the are: –Active learners –Think carefully about what they are learning –Learn things easier –Learn more information What they do: –Set goals and work towards them –Ask questions to ensure understanding –Change information to enhance understanding –Use effective strategies for learning

Does anyone know what a strategy is ? A strategy is a plan or method for solving a problem or completing a task We will be learning about strategies or methods that our students can use in a authentic educational situation. We want our students to have a plan to learn

What Are Learning Strategies? Techniques, principals, and/or rules which enable students to learn to solve problems and compete tasks independently. Learning Strategies focuses on –How to Learn –How to use what is learned

FIRST - Letter Mnemonic Strategy

Mnemonics Provides a visual or verbal prompt for students who may have difficulty retaining information. Create a picture, word, rhyme, or sentence that is attached to an idea. Builds on what students already know or have experienced.

Do you know: All the colors of the rainbow?

ROYGBIV Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet

Difficulty in retaining information Our goal is to help students learn how to create devices to retain information that has been presented to them in all subjects.

FIRST Form a word. Insert a letter or letters. Rearrange the letters. Shape a sentence. Try combinations.

“F” Form a word Given a list of information students will be able to use the first letter and form a word to remember that list.

Example: What rights do you have as a US citizen? Trial Assembly Religion Press Speech TARPS

“I” Insert a letter or letters Sometimes mnemonic devices aren’t formed so easily. You may need to insert a letter or letters to create a word that you will remember.

Example: Nations that lost their independence in the 20 th century? Hejaz Austria-Hungary Latvia South Vietnam Even though these words do not form a word you can add the letter “o” to form the word HALOS. (Think of a lost ones who have their halos)

“R” Rearrange the letters Sometimes no matter how hard you try inserting a letter or letters just doesn’t work. Try rearranging the letters.

Example: Certain animals are killed for their fur? Name them. Fox Opossum Mink Raccoon Sable You tried “F”orm a word, “I”nserting letters, so try rearranging the letters. FORMS

“S” Shape a sentence When you are unable to use the first three steps try to form a sentence using the first letter of each word.

Example:What are the reasons why flowering plants are the most successful plants? Broad leaves Deep roots Efficient vascular systems Quick reproduction Using the first letter you can make a sentence that you can use to recall. Boys Don’t Eat Quickly

“T” Try combinations If all other mnemonic devices do not work try combinations of all the steps. Example, You might need to rearrange letters and insert a letter to get a word or insert a small word to make a sentence.

Example:Examples of Arthropods Spiders Crabs Insects Lobsters Shrimp Combinations of inserting words, rearranging letters and making a sentence. Sally Cried In Louisiana because of Spiders

Students Needs Individuals need to find their own ways of retaining information presented to them. Students need to try different strategies that will help them on an individual basis. Not every strategy will work for every child.

The Test – Taking Strategy Provides an effective and efficient way to improve student performance on tests. It has been designed to help students: –Manage time and order sections while testing –Carefully read and focus on important elements in directions –Utilize other learning strategies –Make well informed guesses

What the Test – Taking Strategy is not: A substitute for studying –Students need to understand that although this strategy will improve test scores; it will not work if students don’t have content knowledge –The test taking strategy only help students while they are actually taking the test

Test Time Look over this test briefly Notice that many of these questions are about information with which you may not be familiar with. Begin test; you will have exactly 10 min. to complete this test. We will review the answers throughout the presentation.

Where can the Test – Taking Strategy be applied? We can use this strategy when our students are in school –In math, science, history, home ec classes, ect… We can use this strategy when our students test out of school –Drivers exam, applying for jobs, or college placement

Step 1: Prepare To Succeed Put your name and Pirates on the test –Each letter in the word PIRATES will help you remember the test taking learning strategy Allot time and order the sections –Divide the number of sections by the amount of time you are allotted –Order each section from the easiest to the hardest Say affirmations –Start on a positive note Start within 2 minutes

Step 2: Inspect the Instructions Read instructions carefully –Students need to know exactly what to do Underline what to do and where to respond –This practice slows students down and helps them think about what they are being asked to do Notice special requirements –Correct answers could be marked wrong if directions are not followed correctly “which is not a true statement”

Step 3: Read, Remember, Reduce Read the whole question –Sometimes the very last word in a question changes the meaning of the question Remember what you studied –What other learning strategies were used Reduce the choices –Crossing out obviously wrong answers can help students avoid careless mistakes

Step 4: Answer or Abandon Answer the question –Answer the question only if you are sure Abandon the question for the moment –Leave the question blank and come back to it when all of the questions are answered –Marked the abandon question with a predetermined symbol, being carefully not to clutter the test Arrows, stars, circles, ect…

Step 5: Turnback Simply go back to the abandoned questions and answer them Students may have remembered the answers by the end of the test or have seen the answer somewhere on the test

Step 6: Estimate Estimate means “Best Guess” Students should only guess when every technique for remembering an answer has been tried

The Ace Guessing Technique Absolute Words –All –Always –Every –No –None –Never –only Non-Absolute Words –Few –Some seldom –Sometimes –Most –Often –usually

The Ace Guessing Technique Avoid Absolutes –Most things are rarely “never” or “always” a certain way Choose the longest or most detailed choice –Most teachers will not take the time to create very elaborate distractors Eliminate similar choices –Many distractors have the same meanings and both can be eliminated Cross out choice with the same meaning the same way as you would for absurd choices

Step 7: Survey Survey to ensure all questions are answered –Very rarely are skipped questions not scored (SAT) Switch an answer only if you’re sure –Usually your first choice is the correct one If you are not sure don’t change it!!!!

THE STEPS OF THE TEST – TAKING STRATEGY Step 1: Prepare to succeed Step 2: Inspect the instructions Step 3: Read, Remember, Reduce Step 4: Answer or abandon Step 5: Turn back Step 6: Estimate Step 7: Survey What Word does these letters spell?

When students take a test… Write the word Pirates at the top of the test Recite the following quote –If you PASS and RUN, you will score more points and ACE the test

Other Learning Strategies

Word Identification Strategy Provides challenged readers with a functional and efficient strategy to successfully decode and identify unknown words in their reading materials. The strategy is based on the premise that most words in the English language can be pronounced by identifying prefixes, suffixes, and stems and by following three short syllabication rules.

Visual Imagery Strategy A reading comprehension strategy for creating mental movies of narrative passages. Students visualize the scenery, characters, and action and describe the scenes to themselves.

Self-Questioning Strategy Helps students create their own motivation for reading. Students create questions in their minds, predict the answers to those questions, search for the answers to those questions as they read, and talk to themselves about the answers.

Paraphrasing Strategy Designed to help students focus on the most important information in a passage. Students read short passages of materials, identify the main idea and details, and rephrase the content in their own words.

First-Letter Mnemonic Strategy A strategy for independently approaching large bodies of information that need to be mastered. Specifically, students identify lists of information that are important to learn, generate an appropriate title or label for each set of information, select a mnemonic device for each set of information, create study cards, and use the study card to learn the information.

The Paired Associates Strategy Designed to help students learn pairs of informational items, such as a name and an event, a place and an event, or a name and an accomplishment. Students identify pairs of items, create mnemonic devices, create study cards to learn the information.

Lincs A Starter Strategy for Vocabulary Learning helps students learn the meaning of new vocabulary words using powerful memory-enhancement techniques. Strategy steps cue students to focus on critical elements of the concept; to use visual imagery, associations with prior knowledge, and key-word mnemonic devices to create a study card; and to study the card to enhance comprehension and recall of the concept.

Sentence Writing Strategy The program comprises two parts: Fundamentals in the Sentence Writing and Proficiency in the Sentence Writing Strategy. Together, these components constitute a strategy for recognizing and writing 14 sentence patterns with four types of sentences: simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex. Each level of the program consists of two products: an instructor’s manual and a students lessons manual. The instructor’s manuals feature a systematic sequence of correspond to instruction procedures.

Error Monitoring Strategy Can be used by students to independently detect and correct errors in their written work to increase the overall quality of their final product. Instruction stresses the importance of proofreading written work for content and mechanical errors and eliminating those errors before work is submitted. Instruction includes development of personal strategies to avoid future errors.

The INSPECT Strategy Can be used by students to detect and correct spelling errors in their documents either by using a computerized spellchecker or a hand-held spelling device.

Assignment Completion Strategy Designed to enable students to complete and hand in assignments on time. The package consists of two books: an instructor’s manual, which provides step-by- step instruction for teaching this strategy, and the Quality Quest Planner, a spiral-bound notebook designed specifically for student use with the strategy. Each instructor’s manual comes with one Quality Quest Planner and contains the materials needed to teach the strategy, including blank copies of the forms used with the planner. The planner contains sufficient forms for recording, scheduling, and evaluating assignments for an entire academic year.