Making Project MORE Work for Students with Low Incidence Disabilities

We are Carroll County Board of DD We serve 31 school age students and 48 Preschool Students More than 50% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch

Why Read?

What Our Students Are Working On 4 of them are working on the Alphabet 1 of them is working on Comprehension 4 of them are working on Phonics Age of our Students involved in Project MORE are Ages 9 through 17

We have students with multiple disabilities in our program such as: Down Syndrome Autism Cognitive Disabilities Cerebral Palsy Other health impaired: Seizures Fragile X Shaken Baby Syndrome

Some of our students have difficulty with: Social Interaction Communication Sensory Integration Comprehension Cognitive- Literal thinking, attention and memory problems, learning disabilities

Project MORE is Great for our Students because: It is set up for students of all reading levels Easy to read lessons The students receive one on one attention The students are proud of their progress

School year we had 6 students involved in Project MORE School year we have 9 students in Project MORE In the school year we hope to have 12 students involved in Project MORE

Accommodations offer alternative ways for students to acquire information or share what they have learned with you. Accommodations do not lower the difficulty level nor expectations for the student's achievement, although there may be changes in teaching materials used, or even in the instructional environment. Educators often make accommodations for individual students informally as they teach and we need to in-service our mentors that straying from the script is not a bad thing. MORE can mean other things such as learning social skills, proper boundaries, attention to task and new knowledge about other subjects. Don’t be afraid to change based on your students needs!

Individualized Intervention: Is defined as specific services, activities or products developed and implemented to change or improve individuals’ Risk Attitudes Behavior Awareness

Academic Intervention Is important supplemental instruction provided to students who struggle in certain areas. Using ideas that make learning fun is key to turning around academic attitude and aptitude. Behavior Intervention Students with behavioral issues that are not appropriately dealt with are not getting their specific needs met. Therefore, the longer a behavioral problem exists, the more the student may become disengaged from the learning process as a whole. Furthermore, students with behavioral issues can have a negative influence on the learning environment for an entire classroom, thereby negatively affecting the academic performance of their classmates.

Mentors High School Students We have contacted our local High school guidance Counselor to recommend student's Staff Some students will work better for certain staff Project MORE is a great way to get our administration in the school to get to know our students Community Based Our program pays for finger printing for our community volunteers We do have a high turn over rate year to year due to graduation and employment of our volunteers.

Mentor Video

Number One thing to remember Not all students learn the same!

We monitor our students progress with

Picking a mentor for your students

Factors To consider: Factors to Consider: * Some Students don’t do well with change. Try to get the same mentor to work with the same student daily or limit it to only 2 mentors with that child. * Students with behavior problems sometimes will not work well with people they do not know. With these students it may be better to let them work with classroom staff they are already use too.

* Also look at the time mentors are available to come. Some students may work better first thing in the morning, after lunch or even toward the end of the day. Put them with a mentor who is available during a good time for the student. * Look at the personality of the students. If you have a shy student it may be better to put them with someone with a big personality to help bring them out of their shell.

Each student is different. Some students may take more or less time to finish a lesson

* In a normal Project MORE lesson it allows 4 days. At our school we allow 5 days per lesson and if needed we allow more. Some students may only take 2 days and some students may take 10 days. As project coordinator I go through each lesson and highlight Day 1 in blue highlighter and then Day 2 in yellow and so on. Some of the lessons may take them 2 days to get through part 1, and so on, so I think about each child when setting up the lessons.

Lesson Plan High Lighted Weekly Plan Highlighted to follow along with lesson plan

Every morning before school starts I quickly go through to see what each student accomplished the day before. If the student was unable to get all the activities done, I put a posted note on the outside of their binder saying what needs done that day. It is very important to let your mentors know that if the student is unable to get all the activities done in the amount of time, that’s ok! Just write in the lesson plans what did not get done, so I know to let the mentor know the next day.

Each student has a different attention span than their fellow students. I tell my mentors to try to get the students to work for 30 minutes. If they can’t, its ok. Some may only be able to do 20 minutes. We don’t want to force them to work the whole 30 min if they are unable to. This may cause behaviors which we do not want to happen. If your student isn't able to work for longer than 10 to 15 minutes break it up into 2 sessions one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Mentors daily grab the binder of the child they will be working with that day. On the outside is a posted note of what needs to be worked on that day. Before each session the mentor takes time to review the binder so they are confident in what they are doing before they go get their student.

Location: Each student is different in where is best to do Project MORE based on behavior, attention and support needed. Some work best in their classroom where their teacher is available to help keep them on task. In our office there are 3 rooms available for students to to use with the door open, so if mentors need help they can ask for it at anytime. When it gets to be nice out, our mentors also sometimes get to sit at the picnic tables outside. This is a nice treat for the students, and they enjoy this very much.

*Make sure your teachers tell you if your student is having an off day. Sometimes your students may need a break. If they are not having a good day maybe wait till later on in the day to do Project MORE or just cancel theirs that day.

On fun days we tend to cancel Project MORE because the student will not be concentrating on their reading because they are just going to be wondering what everyone else is doing. Or it may cause a behavior because they are mad they have to read while everyone else is doing the activity. Sometimes on Fun Days instead on canceling the mentors, I let them participate in the activity with the students.

“It is a mystery why adults expect perfection from children. Few grownups can get through a whole day without making one mistake” Marcelene Cox

Intervention Methods: Some Strategies….

What motivates each student? Staff Member Cheryl says that Project MORE has helped her student Alex to recognize words and pictures. She says that he has a hard time reading the books in one sitting, so they try to read a few pages a day. Cheryl works in a classroom with Alex. She waits for down time to work with Alex so he is not missing out on other classroom activities. Alex works very well through each lesson because he looks forward to the game at the end. So every day they play the game, it is great motivation for him. Also if Alex does Project MORE 4 days, like he is scheduled to, he receives a pencil every Friday. This is also great motivation for him since he loves pencils!

Our superintendent, Matt Campbell, likes to turn the picture cards into a game to help motivate Tessa He has Tessa flip the card over to see what letter it starts with Then he flips a card over and does the same thing Whoever flips over the most amount of cards with the alphabet letter of the day wins.

Our Elementary Classroom teacher, Mrs. Bosler, likes to work her lesson plans around what the students are learning in Project MORE. Each week, for the letter the Student is working on, the teacher also gets writing sheets to work on in the classroom. After each student finishes a lesson they get a copy of the book to keep at home, and also in the classroom so Mrs. Bosler can review periodically with the student.