Cristina Nemeth  MAT in Biological Sciences and Teacher of Students with Disabilities  Student Teaching in 7 th Science and 7 th grade replacement Math

Students as Learners  8 students in Math replacement  All have Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) under IDEA  They vary in their abilities: Learning Disabilities, ADHD, Behavioral Disorders, OHI  In replacement based on recommendations and discussions during IEP conferences as well as their academic levels based on their IEP testing , Bloomfield Middle School reported 19% of total student enrollment includes students with disabilities.

Why replacement?  7 th grade Math curriculum: Connected Math  Connected Math is an inquiry based curriculum that allows students to work in collaborative groups to problem solve. Discovering for themselves is intended to make math learning more meaningful.  To be effective for diverse learners, Connected Math requires vocabulary and reading comprehension instruction.  84 minute blocks every day.  Replacement class focuses on:  Scaffolded Instruction  Explicit Instruction  Discrete skill building  Behavioral Expectations

Who am I as a dual educator?  Creative, strategic teaching  Rigorous content needs to be broken down to make it accessible to all learners; Multiple means of representation and engagement:  CURR 509: Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners  SPED 568: Universal Design for Learning  CURR 505: Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences  Strategies are built into the content: This allows students to learn the content while mastering the strategy for use in other contexts.  TFL 1: Strategies with Dr. Goeke  Teach students how to learn.  Teaching learning strategies is a cognitive-behavioral approach that facilitates independent learning for students with memory and/or metacognitive deficits.

 Mnemonic device for cognitive retrieval  Break down word problems into steps

 Probe of five 7 th grade level word problems; administered every 1-2 weeks  20 minutes every other day for the past 10 weeks.  Explicit Instruction on each step of CUBES: I Do, We Do, You Do

 This strategy promotes independent learners.  Students are taking responsibility for their own learning by using the self- monitoring tools provided (i.e., prompt, manipulatives, etc.).  Strategic predictability reduces anxiety (when teaching a new strategy, teaching approach should be predictable).  Students are carrying strategies over to other contexts.

Evidence One student’s growth over 7 data points.

Evidence: 8 Students Progress on Cubes (10 weeks of instruction)

Evidence One student’s use of CUBES on a Math Unit Test.

Reflection  Strategy instruction must be done to mastery.  Two students will be moving to inclusion classrooms for 8 th grade, I wonder if they will be able to generalize this strategy to help them succeed.  The success of this strategy has really proved to me that strategy instruction is necessary for the rigorous content learning for students with LD.  You don’t need to lower your expectations; you need to deliver the content in creative, effective ways to make all students successful.