1. Special Education Credential of Competency Standard #7: Instructional Planning
PA Department of Education, Bureau of Special Education
Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN)
November 13, 2008
This is the seventh presentation in the series of presentations focusing on providing the knowledge needed for participants to achieve Standard #7 on the Special Education Credential of Competency: Instructional Planning.

2. Pennsylvania’s Commitment to Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
Recognizing that the placement decision is an Individualized Education Program (IEP) team decision, our goal for each child is to ensure IEP teams begin with the general education setting with the use of Supplementary Aids and Services before considering a more restrictive environment.
This slide is a part of all PaTTAN presentations and focuses on the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s commitment to LRE . This commitment includes recognizing that the placement decision for a student with a disability is an Individualized Education Program (IEP) team decision and the goal for each child is to ensure that IEP teams begin with considering placement in the general education setting with the use of Supplementary Aids and Services before considering a more restrictive environment.

3. District, IU, Preschool Agency Policy
Your local district’s policies regarding paraeducator job descriptions, duties, and responsibilities provide the
final word!
Because there is such wide variability between districts and agencies across PA, we want to refer you to your local district’s policy for the final word on your duties and responsibilities regarding today’s topic.

4. Standard #7 : Instructional Planning
S1: Follow written plans, seeking clarification as needed
S2: Prepare and organize materials to support teaching and learning as directed.
This presentation focuses on the skills associated with Standard #7: Instructional Planning.
These skills are:
S1: Follow written plans, seeking clarification as needed.
S2: Prepare and organize materials to support teaching and learning as directed.

5. Why Plan for Instruction? Who Plans for Instruction?
Agenda
Why Plan for Instruction?
Who Plans for Instruction?
Components of Effective Instructional Planning
The Paraprofessional’s Role in Supporting Instructional Plans
This is the agenda for our presentation this afternoon. In the context of instructional planning– we will talk about the importance of planning for instruction and who does the plans for instruction. We will talk the components of effective planning. Finally, we will spend some time discussing the paraprofessional’s role in supporting instructional planning and we will provide you with some accommodations and strategies to use with students who have special needs.

6. Learner Outcomes Participants will be able to:
Discuss the importance of careful
planning for instruction.
List and describe the components of effective instructional planning.
Describe the paraprofessional's role in the instructional planning process.
This slides shows the learner outcomes for the presentation. When this videoconference is finished, participants should be able to:
Discuss the importance of careful planning for instruction.
List and describe the components of effective instructional planning.
Describe the paraprofessional's role in the instructional planning process.

7. Why Plan For Instruction?
To begin our presentation we will discuss why we should plan for instruction.

8. Why Plan for Instruction?
The purpose of planning is:
communication—with YOURSELF
describing the best means to the end product (helping students achieve intended outcome.)
the most efficient utilization of available resources.
Planning for instruction helps you to analyze and communicate what you want to achieve and how to go about doing it in a particular lesson. This exercise results in the most efficient utilization of the available resources: time, materials, and YOU.
A key principle of planning is looking at variables to come up with the best plan to achieve the desired outcome.
Example: Almost any series of roads will take you from Key West, Florida to Anchorage, Alaska eventually. However there is only one set of roads that represents the shortest and best route depending on several variables. This route may be different if you are driving a brand new car or an old model with 150,000 miles on the odometer. It may be different if you have a week to make the trip or a month. It may be different if you are traveling on a shoestring and must stay in budget hotels or if you are planning to spend your entire vacation savings account.
Planning for a lesson is like planning a trip. With the destination in mind, look at the vehicle you are working with---the student or group of students– and think about the best route to take depending on your available resources and time.

9. Who Plans for Instruction??
Let’s look at who should be planning for instruction and why.

10. Divide yearly plans into units Plan weekly and daily
Teachers
Make long-term plans
Divide yearly plans into units
Plan weekly and daily
Teachers are instruction planners.
They make long-term plans for instruction based on the district curriculum and the State Standards. They take their year-long plans and break these plans into Units and ultimately daily lesson plans

11. Must have written lesson plans: For accountability In case of absence
Teachers
Must have written lesson plans:
For accountability
In case of absence
Teachers are responsible for planning daily lessons in all subject areas. They do these plans to guide instruction and also to make their daily activities available to substitute teachers if they should be absent.
Their plans also document that they are utilizing the resources available to them in the most efficient way to ensure success for all students.

12. Paraprofessionals Work with teacher(s) to :
Plan how to include student with a disability in group lessons
Identify individually appropriate learning outcomes for student with a disability
Identify student’s need for modifications, accommodations, strategies
Plan ways paraprofessional can assist in implementing modifications, accommodations, strategies
Paraprofessionals also have planning responsibilities. They should work with their partner teacher to
Plan how to include students with a disability in group lessons.
Identify individually appropriate learning outcomes for students with a disability.
Identify students’ need for modifications, accommodations, strategies
Teachers need to work with their paras to help them plan the ways they can assist in implementing modifications, accommodations and strategies to help students with disabilities experience success.

13. Paraprofessionals
Make plans for their own activities to support students
Paraprofessionals also have the responsibility to be sure that they plan for the activities they use in their small groups to support instruction such as drill and practice and reinforcement lessons.
Let’s look now at what paraeducators need to do to plan for the work they do with students with disabilities.

14. Components of Effective Instructional Planning
We are going to explore the different parts of effective instructional planning.

15. Components of Effective Planning
Who is the target audience?
Consider the destination
Look at your resources
Time
Materials
Set the stage
Choose activities
Utilize accommodations/strategies
Check for understanding
When we plan for an instructional activity or lesson we need to consider all of these parts:
Who is the target audience?
Consider the destination
Look at your resources
Time
Materials
Set the stage
Choose activities
Utilize accommodations/strategies
Check for understanding
We’ll examine each part in detail in the following slides of our presentation.

16. Who is the target audience ?
Let’s begin by first thinking about the audience for our lesson or activity. Some of us work with the same group of students or the same student every day, so this step of planning is easy. We have learned about these students and what strengths and weaknesses they have and what strategies work with them. Even if the target student is the same, still take a moment and think about what you have done lately that has been especially successful and what has not. If the group that you are working with changes, however, you will need to look at your audience more carefully. Ask your partner teacher to share information about what has worked for her in the past when she worked with these students and what wasn’t as successful. What should you know about the dynamics of the group and which students work well together and which ones need to be kept apart.

17. Consider your destination
When planning an activity or lesson, always keep your destination in mind. Where do you want students to end up? Think about how your activity fits into the larger lesson being done by the entire class. Don’t waste your time or your student’s time in activities that do not contribute in a direct and effective way to the class lesson. Don’t have your students engage in activities just to keep them busy.

18. Consider Your Destination
What is the overall goal?
What knowledge do students already have that will help?
What skills and knowledge will students need?
Here are some points to consider when thinking about the objective or destination of your activity or lesson:
What is the overall goal?
What knowledge do students already have that will help?
What skills and knowledge will students need?

19. Look at Your Resources
Next, you need to consider what resources are available for you to use. Resources include:
Time, materials, and you! What is the time period that you have available for your activity?
What materials do you need to gather? Do you need to make any materials for your lesson? Do you feel comfortable working with students on this information? If not, how can you get yourself up-to-speed to be a confident instructor?

20. Setting the Stage for Learning
Once you have looked at your audience, figured out where you want to take that audience, and planned for the time available, the materials you need and any brushing-up you may need to do to be ready for your activity, it’s time to think about setting the stage for your lesson.

21. Setting the Stage for Learning
You need a HOOK!!
Setting the stage for learning means developing the students’ interest in learning what it is that you are about to teach or reinforce in your activity. One way to do this is to relate the information that you are drilling or reinforcing to a real life situation. A good example deals with a lesson on fractions. You could start out by asking the students how they would divide up a pizza to make sure that each person in your group gets an equal amount of the pie.
You can also use “props” to create interest in an activity. A song, poem, story, or a visual to share can be a good way to start.

22. Choose Activities
After you have “hooked” your students, you need to think about the step-by step- procedures that you and the students will follow. The methods that you employ can either be teacher-centered where you direct the learning process such as: demonstration, direct instruction, lecture discussion. Or they can be learner-centered where you serve as a facilitator and your students discover their own understanding such as cooperative learning groups, discussion sessions, role playing, and learning centers.

23. Planning for Students with Special Needs: Utilize Accommodations/Strategies
Because we work with students with disabilities, we need to also utilize accommodations and strategies to ensure their success .

24. Planning for Students With Special Needs
Accommodations
Strategies
Toolkit
The next part of our presentation will explore how to plan for students with special needs and utilize accommodations and strategies. We will also present you with a toolkit of ideas to try out as you plan for activities and lessons. Be sure to talk with you partner teacher before you try new strategies or accommodations.

25. Planning for Students with Special Needs
Accommodations are those changes made to help the student access the information presented.
Strategies are those processes students learn to help them make sense of the information.
This slide contains the definitions for terms accommodations and strategies. The point we are stressing is that accommodations are changes that are made on behalf of the student to facilitate learning. Strategies are taught to the student and the student uses them to more easily access and learn information.
Often these terms are interchanged but they shouldn’t be! We will review each so that you have a strong understanding of what each term means for our students and your work. 25

26. Accommodations
Let’s talk about accommodations first. The reason why this slide has a stadium graphic on it is because accommodations are all about “leveling the playing field.”

27. Planning for Students with Special Needs
Accommodations
Refers to the actual teaching supports and services that the student may require to successfully demonstrate learning.
Accommodations do NOT change expectations to the curriculum grade levels.
Focus is on equal opportunity to learn.
An accommodation refers to the actual teaching supports and services that the student may require to successfully demonstrate learning. For example, students may need large print, more time to complete a task, more structure, the ability to take frequent breaks) Accommodations DO NOT change expectations! A non-example of an accommodation would be having the student excused from a writing assignment. The appropriate accommodation may be that the student is permitted to use the computer word-processing program to compose the assignment rather than to handwrite it. Notice that the non-example, excused the student from the curriculum expectation of writing (composing) a paper.
Trainer: If is imperative that you emphasize the importance of this statement. Read it aloud to the group.
“The Paraeducator is under the direction of the teacher and should not modify or change any of the student’s work without permission and direction on how to do so. The information offered here is for learning purposes only. Please share your ideas with your teacher so that s/he may direct you toward meeting the requirements of the IEP.”
Accommodations are about leveling the playing field and accessing the information. 27

28. Planning for Students with Special Needs
Examples of Accommodations
Books on tape
Additional time
Large print
Accommodations help the
student get to the information
Accommodations may include books on tape, being offered additional time to complete an assignment, or large print materials. Notice that we are not changing the content but how the student accesses the content.
Notice that the graphic of the magnifying glass does not change the information that is magnified, it only makes it larger. 28

29. Not an Accommodation!
NOTE: Mention that giving the answers or information to the student is not a way to get ‘them’ to access the information. 29

30. Planning for Students with Special Needs
Accommodations –
The Paraeducator’s Role
Help the student get organized
Customize the learning environment
Provide physical supports
In order for students with disabilities to receive equal access to the general curriculum in the content areas, they may need to be provided with accommodations that are intended to reduce or even eliminate the effects of the disability.
For example, consider a student with poor organizational skills. Because they are disorganized they are unable to gain access to the content information. This is the student who doesn’t take home the right book to study or the correct work page because they can’t remember to put it in their back pack. Or the student who completed his homework last night but doesn’t hand it in because he can’t find it! The Paraeducator can help this student accommodate for his lack of organization by offer some ways to get organized. We’ll talk about some of these ideas in a moment. Let’s share some ideas that may be useful for you in providing organization to the student’s day. 30

31. Accommodations - The Paraeducator’s Role
Getting Organized!
Help students to…
Set Goals
Slow Down
Avoid Clutter
Make To-do Lists
Choose an Effective Study Area
Use a Student Planner
Color-Code
Students who do not have a routine organization to their day may have difficulty keeping track of the work they are required to do, the meetings they are to attend, the assignments they are to complete or when a test is coming up. You can help the student get organized as a accommodation. This organization allows them to access the information they need.
Trainer: Refer participants to Handout # Ideas to Help Students Get Organized
We are going to review a couple of these and you can read the remainder from your handout.
Trainer FYI: More information on organization is available at 31

32. Accommodations - The Paraeducator’s Role
Help the Student Get Organized!
Set Goals
Make To-do Lists
Color Code
Let’s examine three items from the list of 20 in Handout #1 20 Ideas to Help Students Get Organized
[Set Goals, Make To-do Lists and Color Code]
Students who feel that school is overwhelming may shut-down or not offer their best efforts toward learning. In our day, we set goals of what we wish to accomplish and students need to do the same thing. Paraeducators can help the student set realistic goals for the day. Have the student verbalize these goals and write them down on index cards or post-it notes that are visible throughout the day to the student. Writing down the goals helps make them more concrete and acts as a motivator for the student.
You may need to walk them through a few of these, but prompt students to think about their own goals for the day. You also may need to break this down to a half-day or even an hour’s goal. Another aspect of goal setting is setting the steps and due dates for accomplishing a project. This technique for organization can be used across the subject areas.
Trainer: Refer participants to Handout #2 To-Do Checklist
In coordination with setting a student’s goals, Paraeducators can show students how to make ‘to-do’ lists for the work or things they have to accomplish during the day. Handout #3 offers a copy of a simple To-do checklist that can help you help your students organize what they need to do throughout the day. For example, they may need to remember to 1) take my absence excuse to my homeroom teacher; 2) write down assignment in math in my day planner; 3) meet with Mrs. Jones during learning support about the science test… If written in a checklist form, students can check off what they have accomplished. The use of a checklist or ‘to-do’ list is an organizational tool that can be used in and out of school.
Trainer FYI: has to-do lists that are downloadable and colorful!
The final technique I would like to share with you is color-coding. Students set a common color code for each subject or content area in order to ensure that all the information pertaining to that course is in that course’s colored folder. For example, because the history book’s cover is blue, all materials that pertain to History are in a blue folder, notes for history are taken in a notebook with a blue tab, assignments written in their day planner are highlighted in blue. This simple technique helps students make sense of the multitude of papers and materials they have to deal with daily. 32

33. Accommodations - Summary
We have defined ‘accommodation’ as something that helps the student access the information but does not change the content.
We have listed and discussed ways to offer an accommodation with specific attention to helping the student get organized.
Trainer: Review the information that has been presented so far in this presentation by reading the summary of such on the above slide. If time, ask participants if they have any questions concerning accommodations or how they are implemented. 33

34. Accommodations—Your Turn
Work with a partner
Discuss accommodations that you have used with students
Share accommodations with the group
Give the group five minutes to discuss accommodations they have used. Take three or four suggestions from individuals in the group.

35. Instructional Strategies
Let’s move on to instructional strategies. In order to focus on exactly what a strategy is, let’s look at the next slide and do a little activity.

36. Strategies Activity Can you name all 50 states?
On the back of your handout, I want you to list as many states as you can in one minute.
Give the group one minute to list the states.
How many did they get?
What strategy did they use?
abc order, abbreviate, geographically, picture of map in head, remembered the 50 states song…
Can you name all 50 states? 36

37. Strategies Refers to an approach used to accomplish learning.
Strategies help the student learn the materials or content.
Focus is on obtaining and retaining the information.
A strategy increases the student’s efficiency in learning and studying. The paraprofessional really gets involved in the strategies a student learns to use. Teaching a student to be a strategic learner helps him build independence and responsibility for his own learning process. A strategy is a way to learn.
A strategy:
Refers to an approach used to accomplish learning.
Helps the student learn the materials or content.
Focuses on obtaining and retaining the information. 37

38. Strategies Guided Notes Note-taking Graphic Organizers
Let’s take a look at some of the ways we can help students learn using specific strategies. The strategies that we will examine are guided notes, note-taking and graphic organizers. They are just three examples of many, many strategies. 38

39. Guided Notes
“Guided notes” is one strategy that can be used to assist students with note-taking and keep them engaged in the lecture. This strategy helps them to write key words and phrases. Guided notes can be described as a skeleton outline that lists main points and provides designated spaces for students to complete as the speaker talks about each main idea. Research has shown that guided notes is a strategy that provides students with the opportunity to respond actively to lecture content and provides them with a standard set of notes for study and review. Guided notes can be used with all students, not just students with special needs. Let’s look at an example of guided notes.

40. Guided Notes Guided notes activity:
Let’s pretend you are the student and I am the teacher who is giving a lecture that you must take notes on. I am a good teacher, however, and I have provided you with a template for guided notes. Use Handout #3. I want you to listen as I lecture about The Solar System. Fill in the correct blanks. The blanks and the words in bold are “testworthy “facts!
The Solar System consists of the Sun and those celestial objects bound to it by gravity. These objects are the eight planets, their 166 known moon five dwarf planets, and billions of small bodies. The small bodies include asteroids, icy Kuiper belt objects, comets, meteoroids, and interplanetary dust.
In order of their distances from the Sun, the eight planets are:
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
As of mid-2008, five smaller objects are classified as dwarf planets. Ceres is in the asteroid belt, and four orbit the Sun beyond Neptune: Pluto (formerly classified as the ninth planet), Haumea, Makemake, and Eris .
Six of the planets and three of the dwarf planets are orbited by natural satellites, usually termed "moons" after Earth's Moon. Each of the outer planets is encircled by planetary rings of dust and other particles

41. Note-taking Strategies
There are many other note-taking strategies. Let’s examine an other way to enable note-taking skills.

42. Note-taking Strategies – Cornell Note-Taking
Topic:
Passing Lane
Main Idea
Detail
Handout #4 Cornell Note-taking
Organizing information like notes and deciding what is important is usually very difficult for high school students. The Cornell Note Taking Method simplifies the process.
The student is to draw a somewhat lopsided T on their note paper, giving more room to the right side than the left. On the right side of the T, they listen to a lecture or read a book and write down a main idea and a detail and another detail of the main idea. They put a big dot in front of each main idea.
Then, the most important part of this graphic organizer is the smaller space on the left. Before the end of class, the student is given time to look at the main ideas and turn it into a question that he thinks the teacher may put on a test.
Students can work together to form test questions based on their notes. This is called the PASSING LANE because my doing this, it will help them pass the class with better grades and understanding of the subject content. 42

43. Note-taking Strategies – Cornell Note-Taking Example
Topic: Biodiversity = # of species
Passing Lane
What three factors affect biodiversity?
Factors affecting:
Area-more space more species less space less species
Climate-more near equator less at poles
Coral reefs-rain forest of sea
Value of:
Economic-human survival
Ecosystem – all connected
Here a student is taking notes from his 6th grade Life Science textbook. He lists a main idea and then some details about the main idea. After he is finished, he writes a test question based on these notes. 43

44. Graphic Organizers
The last strategy that we will explore is graphic organizers.

45. Strategies - Graphic Organizers
Graphic Organizers are a visual way to sort or outline information and thoughts for understanding, remembering, or writing. Graphic organizers are powerful tools that can be used to enhance learning and create a foundation for learning.
A picture IS worth a thousand words!
Trainer: Read the above description of a graphic organizer on the slide to participants.
When we need to remember a sequence of directions or to ‘see’ how items are connected, we often remember them better with a graph, a flow chart or a visual picture. A picture IS worth a thousand words. When we ask someone for directions we might draw a picture of which turns to make or what landmarks show us we are on the right track. Students can benefit from drawing pictures or creating visual depictions of the information they need to know to enhance their learning. There are many different types of organizers. Neither you or your students need to be familiar with all of them. To start, learn just a few organizers that are useful for different types of content. The students need to be taught how to use each organizer.
The key , though, is not learning lots of organizers, but learning to use graphic organizers as tools to assist in learning, storing and retrieving important curricular content. 45

46. We are now going to look at some graphic organizers to help us learn the details of an important piece of American television history…Gilligan’s Island. The next few slides will direct us through several activities showing the use of graphic organizers and how they can be used to help students access information by adjusting for differences. Some graphic organizer are used before a lesson, some during a lesson and some after a lesson.
To give you a feel for how graphic organizers can be used, we are going to do a little lesson using the “Ballad of Gilligan’s Island”
How many of you are familiar with Gilligan’s Island? (some will be, some won’t – it’s okay)
We will use the “Ballad” as an example of how to you can use three graphic organizers to learn this content.

47. Before Coconuts Little Buddy Mary Ann
Handout 5. The Sequential Roundtable Alphabet
Sequential Roundtable Alphabet is a good organizer for finding out what background knowledge students have about a topic. Students fill in a word or concept related to the content at hand for each letter – filling in as many letters as possible. Students can take turns going through the alphabet in order or they can fill in the blocks randomly as they think of words or ideas. You can find out where kids are in relation to the content before you start and can adjust your instruction depending on how much students already know.
It can be used individually, as a pair-share or a whole class activity.
What do we already know about Gilligan’s Island? I have already started this one for us by filling in coconuts, Little Buddy, and Mary Ann. Let’s take a moment or two to fill in a few more as a whole group. Can anyone think of a word or idea related to Gilligan’s Island? Take a few answers from the group and ask them to add them to their handout as you add them to the handout shown on the doc camera. .

48. During Story Map Handout #6
Main Characters: Gilligan, Millionaire
Setting:
Plot / Major Events: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Problem:
Story Outcome / Resolution:
Theme / Lesson Learned:
Story Map
Title of Story Gilligan’s Island
During
Story Map Handout #6
Here is another type of organizer that is appropriate for use with narrative content – in this case reading a piece of literature in the form of a song or poem.
This is a pretty straightforward content organizer that helps students pull out the main story elements and important ideas.
This can be done individually or as a group.
This can be completed as the student reads the story or directly following reading.
I have started this one for you, by noting a few of the main characters so you can see how it is used.

49. After Castaways People thrown overboard at sea
Need to stay afloat – get rescued
Work together to swim
Make signal device
Look for land
People creative in crisis
Brings out best / worst traits
After
Before and After Table
This last organizer can be used both before and after introduction of the content. This is a good organizer to use with literature, social studies content.
Place a word, phrase or concept in the center top box.
The students would be asked to think about this idea beforehand and tell what they know about this idea related to the topic and make predictions about what will happen related to the idea. Then after reading the material or going through the unit of instruction the students would re-visit the organizer. They would fill what the idea really was about and what actually happened, or what they learned and compare to what they thought before the lesson.
Here we as a class have already completed the before side related to the idea of ‘castaways.’ The class (or group or student) thought that castaways was about people thrown overboard at sea. They thought that this would cause a problem in that castaways would need to stay afloat and get rescued. They predicted that the castaways would work together to swim or perhaps make a signal device and look for land.
Let’s look at how this might work – next slide.

50. After Castaways As a group, let’s fill in the after part of this form.
People thrown overboard at sea
Need to stay afloat – get rescued
Work together to swim
Make signal device
Look for land
People creative in crisis
Brings out best / worst traits
After
As a group, let’s fill in the after part of this form.

51. Insert link to song
The words to Gilligan’s Island are Handout #8. As a final activity, play and sing the Ballad.

52. Strategies - Paraeducator Role
Helps student learn strategy
Helps student to determine when a strategy is appropriate
Offers opportunities for student to practice strategies
Periodically review strategies
The Paraeducator often plays a major role in teaching strategies and helping the student to practice them until they become part of the student’s repertoire of learning tools.
In order to teach a strategy, the Paraeducator must first thoroughly understand the strategy and when it can be used.
Remember that you must explicitly model and practice, practice, practice to ensure that the student is able to use the strategy. 52

53. Components of Effective Planning
Who is the target?
Consider the destination
Look at your resources
Time
Materials
Set the stage
Choose activities
Utilize accommodations/strategies
Check for understanding
Let’s look at our final step in planning a lesson or activity: Checking for understanding.

54. Check for Understanding
Active Response
Reaction
Fun Ways to Check for Understanding
When we check for understanding, we can informally look for understanding as well as doing more formal assessments. We are going to talk about several ways of checking for understanding that are noted on this slide:
Active Response
Reaction
Fun Ways to Check for Understanding

55. Active Responses Frequently check student understanding Ask to repeat
Paraphrase
Question
Do frequent checks of the student’s understanding by having them repeat things you say, have them put it in their own words or paraphrase. Always make sure that you have had the student do enough rehearsal of the answer to a question before you ask it. In this way a student experiences success and is not afraid to speak up.

56. Reaction
Always allows students to “react” to what they have learned about a particular topic
Uses signal words:
before learning about
I learned that
a fascinating thing was
I would like to learn more about
“Reaction” probes help students understand that they have learned something about a topic.
Prior knowledge is linked to new information. This reinforces the student’s prior knowledge and makes it easier to remember new information by connecting it to what is already known. 56

57. Fun Ways to Check for Understanding
Develop a list of questions and answers about the content.
Use common games to learn/review
Catch
Connect Four
Tic Tac Toe
Connect the Dots
You can use common games like Tic Tac Toe or Connect Four to practice information. Just develop a list (or better yet have students develop one) of questions and answers and have the student answer one before they take their turn. If they don’t answer it correctly, they skip their turn!

58. Connect the Dots Here is the “connect the dots” game.
Take turns
Each person needs to answer a question from our study sheet.
When you give a correct answer, draw a line connecting 2 dots either horizontally or vertically (no diagonal lines).
Object: Be the person who closes the fourth side of a square and put your initials inside the box.
The person with the most boxes, wins!
Here is the “connect the dots” game.
You will need a study sheet with questions on one side and answers on the other side. Each person will take a turn. There is no limit to the number of players. Each person must answer correctly before they can draw a line to connect to dots. The lines drawn must be horizontal or vertical –to make a box. They cannot be drawn diagonally. The object of the game is to be the first person to close a box and put your initials inside. The person with the most boxes at the end of the game wins. Give participants some time to play the game.

59. Connect the Dots DMC Continued connect the dots game. Take turns
Each person needs to answer a question from our study sheet.
When you give a correct answer, draw a line connecting 2 dots either horizontally or vertically (no diagonal lines).
Object: Be the person who closes the fourth side of a square and put your initials inside the box.
The person with the most boxes, wins!
DMC
Continued connect the dots game.

60. The Paraprofessional’s Role in Supporting Instructional Plans: A Toolbox of Techniques and Strategies
For our remaining time, we will be looking at some techniques and strategies to put in our “toolkit” of planning activities.

61. Advanced Organizers
Using advanced organizers is one way to give students the correct information to learn. Advanced organizers can also help students remember the steps in a process or help them to organize time.

62. One highly effective strategy for teaching students concepts in the content area is an advance organizer. An advance organizer can show students what to expect during a class period or in schedules for the day, week or month.
This is an advance organizer for a child who needs to have a structure for seeing activities in their week. Some students may use an ‘agenda’ or ‘day planner.’
There are three compelling reasons for using advanced organizers.
First, students are considerably more likely to understand and remember the content subject you are teaching. Graphics can also help students separate what is important to know from what might be interesting.
Second, how the information is structured can be a powerful way to facilitate understanding.
Third, students are more likely to become strategic learners. Reading and writing skills, communication skills, and analytical, critical, and creative thinking skills are all subject to improve when students learn to recognize these patterns of thinking, construct, and use advanced organizers.

63. Here is another sample of an advance organizer.
When information is effectively organized using graphics, very powerful instructional higher order thinking activities can be executed. Organizing information allows you to implement a variety of activities that otherwise might not be possible.
This particular organizer was used for horseback riding—items that were needed and things that weren’t. It was laminated and then items that weren’t needed that week were just crossed out with Vis a Vis markers or crayons.

64. This symbol was placed at a child’s desk to remind him to raise his hand before speaking. It worked wonders—it completely solved the problems of him speaking out in class.

65. Placing pictures and a few reminders helped a student remember bathroom rules. It was placed on the inside of a bathroom door.

66. This calendar was made of a desk blotter which had magnet pieces stuck to each corner. It was placed on the refrigerator in a home. A piece of colored plastic cut from a report cover, framed in black and with magnets on the back was used to highlight the current day. Symbols were used—this was used with a boy who was about 18 years old.

67. Graphic Organizers
We discussed graphic organizers earlier in our presentation. Here are some additional examples.

68. Other examples of a ‘Graphic Organizer.’
Graphic organizers can be grouped into two categories; those that depict the six basic information structures (whole-to-part, cause/effect, etc.) and those that serve specialized needs (i.e., a graphic which structures project planning, a graphic which structures goal setting, etc.).
There are a wide variety of designs for depicting the same basic information structures. Graphic organizers depicting other information structures also come in a wide array of designs.
This was used with an older boy who needed symbols—the days were placed on the blackboard. Activities of interest were placed on the velcro strips for each day.

69. Another example of a ‘Graphic Organizer.’
This too is from the same classroom and is related to the calendar information. The student was working on verb tense, so the calendar information was placed on worksheets, which changed as the events happened (from future to past tense).
If you think of your content instruction as having a beginning, middle, and end, graphic organizers can be used during any of these segments. They can be used to facilitate student’ activation of background knowledge and to create anticipation for future learning at the beginning of a unit or even a specific lesson. They can be used as the new content is being explored. They can also be effective ways to facilitate review of previously taught materials.
Graphic organizers can also be used to teach processes and strategies.

70. Another example of a ‘Graphic Organizer.’
This helped a student get through phys ed class. This was in a three ring binder, and there was a section for each sport that the kids did in phys ed throughout the year. The sports were broken down into activities ( the teacher collaborated with the phys ed teacher to create this list over a period of time). Some of the activities were placed each day on the velcro strip, and the student would do the activities that had been assigned. This was paired with a number strip that was used to count down as the student did each task (e.g., 12, 11, 10, 9…) a number was removed every time he did one repetition of the assigned task.

71. Contact: GraphicOrganizers.com
This is a website where many graphic organizers can be found and accessed for use in your activities or lessons.

72. Try This!
Now we’ll talk about things you can do to vary your instruction or drill and practice activities.

73. Rebus Pictures Rebus Picture examples
Rebus pictures can be used to create interest in a story or activity. They can be used to set the stage for learning.

74. More Rebus Pictures
Another example of Rebus Picture examples.

75. Larger Make the print larger Provide a larger work area Space Lines
Sometimes a student just needs to have the usual classroom activity made larger so they can see it or so they can have enough room to write their information.

76. Tangible Have items the student can touch and move Actual objects
Pictures
Words
We all know students who love to touch things. They frequently have little items in their desk or pockets to fiddle with. We should embrace a student wanting to touch things by having it be part of their learning. Use actual objects when you can, pictures and words on pieces of paper that can be moved.

77. I do it We do it You do it Model Instruction
When working with students it is very important to model what it is you expect them to do. Show student how to do problem, then work together several items until you see the student can do it successfully alone. Then and only then do you have the student do it alone.
You do it

78. Websites www.graphicorganizers.com www.interventioncentral.org
We have provided you with a list of websites that may help you provide your students with appropriate strategies and accommodations to facilitate their learning. You may want to share these sites with your partner teacher and access them together. 78

79. Upcoming Events- Afterschool Videoconferences 4:15-6:15 pm
February 11, 2009-Standard #8: Assessment
March 10, 2009-Standard #9: Professional and Ethical Practice
April 28, 2009-Standard #10: Collaboration
We have scheduled our afterschool videoconferences for next year. The dates are shown on this slide. They will be downlinked to multiple sites across the Commonwealth.

80. Upcoming Events- Afterschool Videoconferences 4:15-6:15 pm
Registration is available about 6 weeks before each event on the PaTTAN website:
Click on the “online registration” button.
Registration is generally available about 6 weeks before each session on the PaTTAN website.

81. Learner Outcomes Participants will be able to:
Discuss the importance of careful
planning for instruction.
List and describe the components of effective instructional planning.
Describe the paraprofessional's role in the instructional planning process.
This slides shows the learner outcomes for the presentation. Now you are able to
Discuss the importance of careful planning for instruction.
List and describe the components of effective instructional planning.
Describe the paraprofessional's role in the instructional planning process.

82. In summary, communication disorders:
Impact language, speech or hearing
Range from mild to severe
Can be developmental or acquired
Can be a primary disability or secondary to another disability
There are many strategies to use to support student success with communication
Remember to consult with your partner teacher to determine what strategies are appropriate to use with particular students or to get guidance if a student is experiencing difficulty communicating with others. 82

83. Learner Outcomes Participants will:
Describe basic elements of communication
List strategies for communicating effectively with adults and students.
Describe specific ways to respond to difficult people and situations within the work setting.
Describe the types of communication and language difficulties that students with disabilities may experience in school.
Learn strategies to support students who have challenges with communication or language.

84. Bureau of Special Education
Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network
Edward G. Rendell Gerald L. Zahorchak, D.Ed.
Governor Secretary
Diane Castelbuono, Deputy Secretary
Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
John J. Tommasini, Director
Bureau of Special Education
Please fill out your evaluation forms and pick up your Certificate of Attendance. Thank you for your participation.
Contact Information: