"We must meet our students exactly where they are with exactly the brains they have right now. We must use all the tools we have available to us and not expect them to fit into a mold or all behave exactly the same." - Dr. Gene R. Carter
All of us, children and adults alike, have different strengths and weaknesses in our learning. Historically, however, schools have approached student learning with a one-size-fits-all mentality and have struggled to adapt to changing student needs.Learning Differences
The Challenge
Approximately 20 per cent of children (10 million students) in United States public schools have learning profiles that are not aligned with the expectations and teaching methodologies prevalent in mainstream school systems; they learn differently. Students with learning differences include those who have dyslexia, attention issues and learning disabilities.
As a result of this mismatch, students with learning differences are often perceived as not being capable of performing well in school, as unmotivated or as just not trying hard enough. These students often disengage from school, perform poorly and may not graduate. Those who graduate often choose not to pursue post-secondary educational opportunities. As adults, many are under-employed or can even end up in prison.
Individuals with learning differences can achieve to the same standards as their peers; however, they often struggle to reach their full potential because:
- teachers report being underprepared and lack resources to support diverse learners;
- students are often misunderstood and not included in the conversation;
- parents are not equipped with knowledge and tools to understand and advocate for their children;
- most personalised learning environments are not optimised for students with learning differences;
- neuroscience advances need to be translated into practice; and
- tools need to be strengthened and developed to describe the dimensions of learning.
What we're doing
In the Learning Differences Programme, we envision a world where students with learning differences are agents of their own learning success and are supported by educators and environments that expect, embrace and respond to diverse learner profiles. Our hope is that students with a wide range of learning profiles achieve success within public schools, from kindergarten through to high school, and transition to and through college and other post-secondary opportunities.
Please read the What we fund page for more information on our programme priorities and our definitions of key terms for more information.
Please read the What we fund page for more information on our programme priorities and current grant information.
Principles
In addition to the overall principles of Oak Foundation, our programme strategy is based on the following core beliefs:
- Each learner possesses a diverse set of cognitive, social and emotional assets, knowledge, skills, interests and preferences. These characteristics interact to form a unique learner profile that changes over time.
- Students, particularly those with learning differences, can achieve greater academic success when they understand how they learn and use that knowledge to plan for and adapt to learning environments.
- Educators should be prepared for, and have the tools to respond to, diverse learner profiles in order to better serve students with learning differences in general education environments.
- Parents should have the knowledge to understand their child’s unique learner profile and the tools to advocate for him/her.
- Education systems should define student success using accountability frameworks with multiple indicators of academic performance as well as measures of social and emotional wellbeing, persistence and engagement.
Learning Disabilities vs. Differences
Many people prefer to use the terminology "learning differences" or "learning challenges" instead of "learning disabilities". Some are concerned that the term "learning disability" focuses on an individual's cognitive weaknesses and isolates them from other learners while the term "learning differences" highlights the fact that they simply learn differently than others do. So what exactly is the difference and why does it matter what terminology is used?
LDA agrees that individuals with learning disabilities do learn differently and have as much to offer and contribute as individuals without learning disabilities. However, in the United States today, there are several laws in place to preserve the rights of individuals with disabilities to equal treatment. For school-aged children, the Federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) ensures that students ages 3-21 will receive a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). IDEA ensures that children with disabilities will have the same opportunities and access to public education as their peers without disabilities. Under IDEA, there are currently 13 different disability classifications. In order for students to be considered eligible to receive the supports and services provided under IDEA, they need to be "classified" under one of these 13 categories. One of these categories is Specific Learning Disability (SLD). Unfortunately under IDEA there is no classification of Learning Difference or Learning Challenge. The same principle holds true for adults with learning disabilities who's rights may be protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
LDA endorses the use of the terminology of "learning disabilities" versus "learning differences" to ensure that individuals are appropriately identified as required by these laws in order to receive supports and services as provided by these laws or who deserve equal access to employment and other similar opportunities.
Useful Resources:Learning Differences: What You Need to Know Library Accessibility Tip Sheet 2
Learning Disability vs. Learning Difference: How to Avoid Conflict in the Workplace and Postsecondary Settings
Types of Learning Disabilities
Learning Disability or Learning Difference: What Does Each Term Mean?
Specific Learning Differences
Types of Learning Disabilities
Disorder, Disability or Difference: What’s the Right Term?
What is working memory?
Working memory refers to one’s ability to consume, retain, and then use information. Some people have an innate ability to store vast amounts of information; others need more bite-sized chunks. Too often, difficulties with working memory are misinterpreted as a lack of understanding of the content. Thus, developing and supporting students' working memory is imperative.
What is executive function?
There are many components to executive function: impulse control, emotional control, planning/prioritizing, flexibility, working memory, self-monitoring, task initiation, and organization. In sum, executive functioning skills are the skills that enable you to take information, make a plan, and follow through with that plan - even in the face of distractions. While all students are born with the capacity to develop strong executive functioning skills, differences of experience or educational opportunities impact how executive function develops. For teachers who work with younger students, this means that it is imperative for them to work with all students to practice and develop executive functioning skills. For teachers of older students, this may mean that they have to explicitly teach and exercise executive functioning skills with students who have a gap in this area.
What is intrinsic motivation?
The term motivation is derived from the Latin verb movere (to move) and refers to the process in which learners engage in a sustained, goal-directed activity. Not all types of motivation have the same effect on learners’ competence, behaviors and achievement outcomes therefore educators must be able to distinguish between different types of motivation and how they can impact academic achievement. For example, intrinsic motivation refers to engagement in an activity for its own sake. Learners who are intrinsically motivated perform academic tasks because they find them enjoyable. Simply participating in the learning activity is reward enough. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is engendered by factors external to the learner. Learners who are extrinsically motivated work through academic tasks because they believe that it will result in coveted outcomes such as a reward or praise. Many scholars believe that education should strive to foster learners who are intrinsically motivated. However, students will have to perform some tasks they are not intrinsically motivated to do. Thus, a balance of the two is necessary in today’s classrooms.
Executive Function
I'm from Brooklyn, New York, I'm 20 years old, and currently a junior at Vassar College, but this isn't where I started. Where I started was at my first school, and in my first school things were really difficult for me cause I had three LD's, three learning differences and I didn't even know I had them. So, a little bit about my three learning differences, um, it's kind of like my brain playing tricks on me, that's how I like to describe it, and they all like to get in on the tricks so the first one is dyslexia. And how dyslexia works is it changes a word like chief to chef. So when I'm reading, I can see a word and I know the word is chief but from something when I see that word, recognize that word, and say that word it has changed to chief, and that's where dyslexia just came in and played that trick on me.
Another one I have is dysgraphia, and dysgraphia loves to play tricks on me also. So how dysgraphia works is when I'm envisioning what I'm writing, I could envision really beautiful characters in my head and when I look down on my paper, something completely different, sometimes illegible, so something from going to my head to paper, dysgraphia came in and switched up everything and I just look at my paper and I'm like, "Oh my goodness, what is this?" Executive functioning now, that's a big barrier to entry and it's also a big trickster, very convincing at times. How it works is, I know that I have dyslexia and dysgraphia so writing a paper, the actual writing of the paper sometimes is very difficult. So how executive functioning comes in is like..."hey, Matthew you know, writing that paper is very difficult cause you're dyslexic and dysgraphia, so why not just do the thinking." Well, initially, that's really great and I usually do a lot of deep thought on all my papers but the actual writing of it, that happens a lot of times far too late, so that's a really good mindset initially, but sometimes I just need to start my paper and with executive functioning, that part of it gets really, really difficult. So like with all those working against me I was in a school that I didn't even know that was happening, so things were getting really convoluted, really confused and I was just getting really getting lost, and I was lost and I really didn't know why I was being lost. I didn't know if something was wrong with me or wrong with the material or I just...I really didn't know. So um...it turned into that feedback with where I just kept performing worse and worse because of all of that and just not even knowing that I had that going on. Fortunately, I also had a really amazing teacher in that first school I went to because like in every other way; so what happened to me in that first school is, in 4th grade they kicked me out and told me I could not meet the rigor of that school. So, I was also really, I was just like, "Are you kidding me?" so they gave up on me in 4th grade, but the one silver lining that I had was this really amazing teacher, Uti, he saw that I was struggling in most of my classes but where he helped me out was he knew that I could learn the material, I just needed to learn the material in a different way. So, what he did was, he was teaching Japanese at the time, and Japanese was one of the courses that on top of math, history, science, cursive, typing, I also had Japanese. So, Uti knew all of this, he knew me because of afterschool programs I have had and he was the teacher that truly believed in me as a student. So he saw that the textbooks that I was learning that was being implemented at the time, was just not working for me, me sitting with a textbook and saying, "I think he does in front of a mirror thirty times was just not going to work", so what he did was he showed me Japanese cartoons, Japanese game shows, Japanese music and really immersed me into the culture and the language in a different way than the textbook and it actually paid off a lot and I realized at that moment, as early in 3rd, 4th grade that I can learn, it's just I needed to be introduced to information in a different way, and thankfully, also, after I got kicked out of my first school I came to a second school that was for kids with learning differences. And they also believed in all of us as students that we can learn material, it just...we might need some unorthodox, untraditional ways of learning this material, so the teachings perspectives, the teaching perspective and the teaching angle in the second school was completely different and it helped us as students cause we could see that also. We were introduced to accommodations, so that's more of the untraditional, unorthodox ways of learning information. I know that for reading a book, an audio book is the most amazing thing ever for me cause what an audio book allows me to do is plant in my strengths. My comprehension of material audibly is just so much better than my comprehension if I sat down and read, I'm not saying I can't read, it just takes me so much longer and it just...a lot of information, a lot of content is lost in that struggle of me deciphering through. So, with an audio book it takes away that struggle and allows me to listen to this book, listen to this material, listen to this content and do the task that I need to do with it and that is rearticulate that information and then in class rearticulate it on a paper, rearticulate it in different ways, so that's the amazingness of one accommodation I learned there. Other accommodations are like writing scribes, dictation, and there's a lot of different types of dictation, so like if you have a Mac, your standard Mac comes a lot of times with a dictation program, extremely useful in my everyday life, I use my dictation a lot. Accommodations have also done a lot to level the learning field because it allows me to use the things that I'm really good at to compensate for the things that I'm not so good at. Something that really helps me is academic coaching, it sounds really big, sounds really scary and intimidating but all it is is a person that's there to keep me organized. It's someone I meet with weekly who just...we break down what I need to do every single day for the next week, then I meet them next week and we just break down what I need to do each day; who I need to email, maybe even what assignments I have, what assignments I have with me, just keep everything present and to keep me on top of the things that I need to be doing. I think the most helpful thing that I can say that I've noticed is that you really just have to believe in the fact that your students can learn and that you might have to struggle to find a really unorthodox way to teach this student, but this student can learn, and that's something that I picked up on at a very early age, that I had teachers that didn't believe in me at all and that led to me not performing well in their classes and I had teachers like Uti who really were there who just like were struggling with me and they're like "you're going to learn this, we're going to figure out how you're going to learn this". So like just knowing that this person is working so hard cause they believe in me, had this result on me to really work hard myself cause I didn't want to let that person down. I think it's very important we are having this conversation cause see this day...this conversation is still a fairly new conversation that's happening and to this day, learning differences, learning disabilities, even that play...the discrepancy in those, what they're telling you, a learning disability sounds like something that hinders me from learning at all, a learning difference is me just learning things in a different light. So even the language around this topic is so different, one's heavily stigmatized and the point of that is to get rights, rights to level the learning field. The word dyslexia is so heavily stigmatized especially when like in academically rigorous spaces like Vassar, I know a lot of people who wouldn't even want to tell their closest friends that they're dyslexic cause what that comes with is not being able to read and being in an academic institution where you could be required to read three-hundred pages a night, no one wants to have that cause no one wants to have that label. So I think this conversation is one that's only been really happening over the last thirty years, this conversation is one that has a lot of progression. |
Welcome back! You're now officially half way through our Learning Differences MOOC-Ed. So far, we've covered two concepts of learning differences, working memory and motivation. This week we open up the first of two units on executive function.
Executive function is often called the air traffic control system in your brain. It's what you call upon to set goals, create a plan, take steps to achieve that goal and monitor your progress or adjust the plan as needed until reaching your goal. The good news is these are learned skills so as teachers you're tremendously influential in setting up your students for success. This first week we hope to provide you with a broad overview of executive functioning skills and then next week we'll break the skill set down, diving deeper into six aspects of executive function. Before we go further into depth, let's hear from our experts. What is executive function? Yeah I think of executive functioning as pretty much the prefrontal cortex so sometimes we go, "Ahh", and it's the previewing and organizing, it's sort of like the analogy's been made to air traffic control, what's coming through and... The purpose of these is actually to prepare learners for learning so what are the sorts of things that need to be in place in order to create the setting for effective learning. Executive function as I think about it, are those hierarchical sort of processes by which we go through the day and it's probably innate for most of us that are probably taking part in this course because we're successful. But for many kids it's not, and how do we get these kids to help them push through the learning process and thinking about the metacognitive strategies and things that they have to bring through to actually be successful. It either goes right to action or there's a little pause, "Is this the right thing to do right now, what will be the implications if I do do it before it goes to motor" so it's sort of adding that extra little step in there and the self-monitoring is partly about did I pause, did I preview, do I need to pause, do I need to preview, how effective was what I just did? So, both regulating one's self and paying attention to...which is a bit of metacognition, how effective was I in the choices that I just made. What do executive functioning skills look like? These high level skills that aren't specific to any one content area or modality right, but there are these high level things like planning and organization and goal directed behavior. Under that umbrella people talk about impulse control and things like that. When it comes to things like planning and organization and you know, self-monitoring and goal directed behavior, I think one of the most exciting things about that aspect of learning differences is first of all, we see it just naturally in classrooms, you'll just see differences in people's ability to plan and organize. An example is, so many of our students do their homework at home but then don't never turn it in to the teacher cause it gets stuffed in the backpack and they forget to take it out and that's some example of executive functioning kinds of pieces, so it could be how a student organizes their desk, how they approach their work, their ability to manage impulsivity to stop and preview, "If I do this, then this is going to happen". How can I work with my students to develop executive functioning skills? At one of our school's we have a basic mantra that we use across everything, make good choices, get more choices, make poor choices, get fewer choices. Executive functions are skills, they can be acquired and I think the old way of thinking about them as something you have in your brain led us to a completely misguided and not particularly useful view in education, which is, "Okay the kid has poor organizational skills because they have executive function deficits, it's sort of circular logic but now we know that there's...a lot of kids just come in and haven't acquired the skills that some other kids have acquired sort of at home in other environments and that you can teach them directly and if you teach them directly the kids, not surprisingly, perform better tasks of executive functions and you see meaningful, measurable improvements in their learning. This week we encourage you to check out the activity for some immediately actionable steps you can take in your classroom. Let us know how they worked or what you did to improve upon them in the discussion forum or on Twitter. Be sure to use our hashtag, #all_learn. And we look forward to learning with you! Executive function is described as:
These definitions do not contradict one another, however they do represent a few of the perspectives of how we might define executive function. As you read, consider the various perspectives and definitions available to you from our experts. Then, apply this knowledge to your classroom using the application resources. |
===What is executive function?===
There are many components to executive function: impulse control, emotional control, planning/prioritizing, flexibility, working memory, self-monitoring, task initiation, and organization. In sum, executive functioning skills are the skills that enable you to take information, make a plan, and follow through with that plan - even in the face of distractions. While all students are born with the capacity to develop strong executive functioning skills, differences of experience or educational opportunities impact how executive function develops. For teachers who work with younger students, this means that it is imperative for them to work with all students to practice and develop executive functioning skills. For teachers of older students, this may mean that they have to explicitly teach and exercise executive functioning skills with students who have a gap in this area. In the executive function badge stack you will have the opportunity to develop and demonstrate five competencies:
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Resources: Executive Function 101 Getting organized & Good Work Habits 8 Key Executive Function Three Brain-Based Teaching Strategies to Build Executive Function in Students Building brain power: Executive function and young children Executive Function (Webinar) Adolescents and Executive Function Skills Addressing Executive Function at the Secondary Level Do Kids Outgrow Executive Functioning Issues? Building brain power: Executive function and young children Executive Function (Webinar) Adolescents and Executive Function Skills Addressing Executive Function at the Secondary Level Do Kids Outgrow Executive Functioning Issues? |
Strategies for Supporting the Whole StudentWelcome back! Over the past three weeks, we've introduced you to three constructs of learning differences: working memory, motivation, and executive function.
In the prior units, we looked at students through the lens of one learning difference, however reality is that we don't use working memory one minute and then motivation the next. Exactly, Lauren, these learning differences represent just three dimensions of our learning profiles. The truth is that all of these dimensions affect how we're learning at all times. So, as a teacher, think about how your students are tapping into each part of their learner profiles throughout your lesson. It's also important for us as teachers to use this information to our advantage. Take Ben, for example. During my first year teaching, Ben was on the autism spectrum and had many developmental and emotional difficulties as the result of serious abuse as a child. What this meant in the classroom was that when things got tough and Ben reached his frustration level, he ran. However, as the school year progressed, I realized that Ben was very good when he knew what was coming and he could build a plan. Given long term projects he was excited about, he would plan and prioritize very well! It was his emotional control that often times derailed him. So I tried to support him by previewing both content and procedures before/after school and during lunch. Getting the mini-lesson beforehand helped him feel more confident in the classroom, he felt more connected to me as a teacher, and being able to plan and monitor his reactions appropriately helped him avoid frustrational points. So this week, we encourage you to think about your students holistically and, in the process, think about the connections between the constructs as they relate to your students' learner profiles. |
Internalizing a Growth MindsetWyatt, I met him outside of school, and he was someone that you know, that started showing up at our house and was a friend of my daughter's and I thought, "This kid is an incredible kid". Absolutely incredible kid, he was bright, he loved to cook, he was a, you know...but would always come over, help me prepare meals; he was an artist at cooking. He had a wealth of knowledge about um, sports and media and culture, loved soccer which I knew nothing about um...was an expert at video games, he was my reverse mentor teaching me how to play a guitar hero and I just thought, "What an incredible student!" and Wyatt told me that he hated school and that he was a special education student and I said, "What!" I said, "I'm...I'm a former special ed teacher and what about you...I said, "what's your category?" He said, "I think I'm emotionally impaired or I'm behavior disordered" or you know he really couldn't even remember what it was and he said, "So I don't know how to learn in school...you know the only time I'm handicapped is when I'm in school." And that stuck with me, now he's one of my rearview mirror kids where I think about, "How could life have been better for Wyatt?" if teachers or Wyatt could have expressed to school what I was able to see in a different environment. No shortcuts for him, I'm not saying you know to and...what I always used to say to Wyatt is "You know, I'm just really gonna help you do really tough stuff, you know...you're smart, you're going to take the literature classes, you're not getting a GED you know...you're going to go in and you're going to you know...tell teachers that you expect higher expectations", he had an adult advocate, that was me but I think that this is something that teachers can do for those students too, is to sort of find out 'so who are the one or two students that you really want to hone in on' and ask those questions about...if I'm not seeing it in school, is there a place that they're a great learner and have some expertise and again, it's sort of going back and thinking, "Where can I observe more broadly and kind of use some of this...sort of framework of thinking about learning to learn more about a student". I mean this was the story of this...there is a whole family of kids that this school district had wiped out; Wyatt eliminated this to me and he was the oldest and you know, I went on and I said, "You're going to be a great learner and the most important thing is you're going to show your five other brothers that this school district is wrong about your family". So, Wyatt went on and became a...he studied with...at French Laundry with Tom Keller and he's a really well respected Sui chef in San Francisco. His other brother is a CPA at an accounting firm in Chicago, the third brother is an assistant coach for Real Madrid in Barcelona, the family always loved soccer, the fourth kid, and this is when the school began to realize that maybe these kids weren't losers, it took three of them, the fourth kid became the National Champion for the District, first National Championship ever in Forensics and went on and got a scholarship to USC at Acting School, and I don't know what happened to the fifth one but I think he just kind of went to the University of Michigan and did something boring you know, but I mean...so these kids were not just...and they were all, the three boys were in special education and tracked into a you know...no end career because they just said, "Oh, these kids are trouble makers, their family", now they were, that was also true, I mean they were in court a lot and I ended up being a court appointed guardian you know...for...for Wyatt but so you know, there is a little bit of evidence that they you know...but that you're missing all of this talent there. An investment in one kid changed a trajectory of possibility for a family.
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Working Memory
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What is working memory?
Working memory refers to one’s ability to consume, retain, and then use information. Some people have an innate ability to store vast amounts of information; others need more bite-sized chunks. Too often, difficulties with working memory are misinterpreted as a lack of understanding of the content. Thus, developing and supporting students' working memory is imperative. What is working memory? Working memory refers to one’s ability to consume, retain, and then use information. Some people have an innate ability to store vast amounts of information; others need more bite-sized chunks. Too often, difficulties with working memory are misinterpreted as a lack of understanding of the content. Thus, developing and supporting students' working memory is imperative. Example instructional strategies for developing working memory strategies in students:
Educators must demonstrate a basic understanding of what working memory is, how it affects student learning, and general strategies to support working memory in the classroom context. Ted Talk! Peter Doolittle Video on Working Memory Cogmed Working Memory 10 Strategies to Enhance Students' Memory Understanding Working Memory: Classroom Guide |
Elementary Case Study
Elea is an 8 year-old third grader. Up to this point in school, her mother has had few concerns about her academic performance. Her report cards have been solid, and she always seemed to enjoy school. She learned to read with no difficulty, picking up the connections between sounds and letters. Also, she readily learned her basic arithmetic skills, such as addition and subtraction.
Elea is a big-time collector of all sorts of things. She has numerous shoeboxes in her room that she uses to store stickers, colored pencils, trading cards, comic books, etc. Lately, she has really gotten into postcards, and her mother and relatives pass on any they receive to her. Elea also enjoys drawing and coloring, and she has become quite an artist. She keeps her creations in several folders that she labels.
Lately, however, both Elea and her mother have become a bit anxious about school. Elea has complained about being bored with much of what happens in the classroom. For the first time, she earned a "needs improvement," on her report card, for reading. This came as quite a shock to Elea's mother, who has seen Elea sound out long words with no trouble whatsoever. Elea has also started having trouble with math.
Elea's 3rd grade teacher has observed that she daydreams a lot during story time, although she focuses more when the book has pictures to go with the text. He also sees Elea as being an excellent decoder, but she has great difficulty answering questions about what she has read, and her comments about reading passages are often way off the mark. In terms of math, she performs well with basic calculations, but she is quite confused by some of the word problems she is now asked to solve, such as figuring out how much a meal will cost by looking at menu prices.
Elea's learning challenges
by Nerisa Pampilo - Tuesday, August 11, 2015, 7:23 PM
Elea's learning challenges are typical in a large classroom where everyone will not be given enough attention at all times. So, I just figured that might be the case. She was doing fine with no difficulty at first but something seems not right when she lost interest in class. If I were the teacher, I need to revert to the previous practice when Elea was productive upon using her strengths. Apparently, Elea was good in organizing and has interest in drawing and coloring so I will make use of those strengths to get back herself in the classroom so that she will not be bored and loss interest and ultimately lost track of her progress. I will use pictures to make connections and to reinforce math concepts and reading details to help her with word problems and difficulty of answering questions. I would also need to preview content and procedures to Elea before and after school and during lunch and particularly pay attention on her behavior or emotional difficulties that might be affecting her different dimensions of learning and divert her attention not to stay focused and staying organized. Should there be a need to revisit or come up with different perspective on her learning difficulties that might be addressed with the help and cooperation of Elea's parents then that should be carefully taken care of. I will partner or collaborate with her parents for solutions and learning opportunities for Elea to address her learning challenges because I believe most strategies that are strengthened at home become more effective and significant to student's life.
Collaborative Learning Process
Developing a Growth Mindset in Teachers and Staff
Checklist: Know Your Child’s Strengths
3 Ways to Plan for Diverse Learners: What Teachers Do
Adam's Story
Adam is a rising 5th grader who has a history of behavior problems and academic weaknesses. He seemed unprepared for kindergarten, both socially and academically, and participated in an after-school tutorial program twice a week for several years. For his first three years of school, he struggled in all academic areas. By second grade, he read at grade level in reading but his writing and math skills lagged behind. Adam started crawling under a table when it was time for writing. He also became belligerent at recess, quick to push and kick his classmates. He was placed in the RTI process for math intervention, midway through third grade. The interventions included his participation in the after-school program and modified homework. In third and fourth grade, his writing skills improved but Adam’s math performance was the lowest in his classroom. Adam began to have tantrums during math instruction and his teacher set up a “chill out” space for him.
Adam spent almost every lesson in that space, missing most math instruction for at least 5 months. By the end of fourth grade, Adam was moved to a tier 3 intervention level and recommended for special education because of a behavior disorder.
Adam is significantly small for his age and is often teased about his height. He enjoys playing basketball in his neighborhood but finds it hard to compete with his taller classmates. He is quite agile and has taught himself a number of gymnastic moves. He enjoys hip hop music and video games. He watches so many online videos for Minecraft and 5 Nights at Freddy’s that he has memorized the dialog for a number of them. Adam is very adept at using a computer and can assist his teacher in using the SmartBoard. He regularly plays a recreation league sport in the spring but does not talk about that with any enthusiasm. Adam also reports numerous fears which keep him from sleeping well. Social services has been involved in his home situation.
Middle School Case Study
Maggie is a 13-year-old eighth grader who is extremely well liked by her peers. Although she is not an honor roll student, she is very involved in extracurricular activities. She excels in cheerleading, art, and life skills, and was recently chosen as "Star of the Month" by her life-skills teacher for her innovative fashion design. All of Maggie's teachers say that she is a pleasure to have in class because of her positive attitude and helpful nature. While she may not use the best approach to tasks, she is always willing to share her ideas with a struggling neighbor.
Maggie's positive attitude and willingness to help is also evidenced by her volunteer work at the local retirement home. She loves spending time with her grandmother whom she calls Nana. Maggie and her grandmother oversee craft projects, some of which are Maggie's original ideas. Maggie's original ideas aren't limited to her craft projects, though. She spends enormous amounts of time in her room arranging and displaying her sticker designs. Her favorite stickers are of dolphins and other aquatic animals. Maggie says that these animals make her feel free and happy.
While she continually wears a smile on her face at school, her parents say that she appears frustrated and overwhelmed at home. Her mother says that watching her begin a task is like watching a pinball machine-she bounces around and has no apparent pathway or direction. She does things by deploying the first thing that comes to mind. When preparing for tests, she goes over material in a random, disorganized manner. When beginning assignments, she is often missing the needed materials for the task. Because she keeps things in such disarray (e.g., locker, notebooks, bedroom), searching for these materials is a time consumer. Any effort given to a search ends up creating an even bigger mess and wasting even more time, adding to her exasperation. This inattention to time often results in frequent tardiness to class and other activities. Her lack of organizational insights and everyday practices stand in the way of efficient school performance and escalate Maggie's frustration.
High School Case Study
Jeff is a bright 10th grader who has generally been a strong student, though he has had some difficulties since middle school. In particular, for the past couple of years he has been receiving poor grades on writing assignments, especially on essays and research papers.
Jeff does well on most tests and evaluations and is well thought of by most of his teachers. However, his papers, reports, and essay tests usually return with the same messages: "disorganized", "needs more clarification", "incomplete". The continued negative feedback on writing assignments frustrates Jeff and he has begun to feel humiliated about it. "I don't get it," he says, "I rewrote that essay twice and it still comes back with marks all over it!"
Jeff's family lives on a horse ranch. The family provides stable boarding for horses and his mother gives riding lessons. Jeff is an accomplished rider himself, having grown up closely with the horses. He enjoys riding over the hills behind his home, where remains of houses from an old homestead stand. Sometimes Jeff sits on the hill and makes sketches of the houses and landscape.
Elea is an 8 year-old third grader. Up to this point in school, her mother has had few concerns about her academic performance. Her report cards have been solid, and she always seemed to enjoy school. She learned to read with no difficulty, picking up the connections between sounds and letters. Also, she readily learned her basic arithmetic skills, such as addition and subtraction.
Elea is a big-time collector of all sorts of things. She has numerous shoeboxes in her room that she uses to store stickers, colored pencils, trading cards, comic books, etc. Lately, she has really gotten into postcards, and her mother and relatives pass on any they receive to her. Elea also enjoys drawing and coloring, and she has become quite an artist. She keeps her creations in several folders that she labels.
Lately, however, both Elea and her mother have become a bit anxious about school. Elea has complained about being bored with much of what happens in the classroom. For the first time, she earned a "needs improvement," on her report card, for reading. This came as quite a shock to Elea's mother, who has seen Elea sound out long words with no trouble whatsoever. Elea has also started having trouble with math.
Elea's 3rd grade teacher has observed that she daydreams a lot during story time, although she focuses more when the book has pictures to go with the text. He also sees Elea as being an excellent decoder, but she has great difficulty answering questions about what she has read, and her comments about reading passages are often way off the mark. In terms of math, she performs well with basic calculations, but she is quite confused by some of the word problems she is now asked to solve, such as figuring out how much a meal will cost by looking at menu prices.
Elea's learning challenges
by Nerisa Pampilo - Tuesday, August 11, 2015, 7:23 PM
Elea's learning challenges are typical in a large classroom where everyone will not be given enough attention at all times. So, I just figured that might be the case. She was doing fine with no difficulty at first but something seems not right when she lost interest in class. If I were the teacher, I need to revert to the previous practice when Elea was productive upon using her strengths. Apparently, Elea was good in organizing and has interest in drawing and coloring so I will make use of those strengths to get back herself in the classroom so that she will not be bored and loss interest and ultimately lost track of her progress. I will use pictures to make connections and to reinforce math concepts and reading details to help her with word problems and difficulty of answering questions. I would also need to preview content and procedures to Elea before and after school and during lunch and particularly pay attention on her behavior or emotional difficulties that might be affecting her different dimensions of learning and divert her attention not to stay focused and staying organized. Should there be a need to revisit or come up with different perspective on her learning difficulties that might be addressed with the help and cooperation of Elea's parents then that should be carefully taken care of. I will partner or collaborate with her parents for solutions and learning opportunities for Elea to address her learning challenges because I believe most strategies that are strengthened at home become more effective and significant to student's life.
Collaborative Learning Process
Developing a Growth Mindset in Teachers and Staff
Checklist: Know Your Child’s Strengths
3 Ways to Plan for Diverse Learners: What Teachers Do
Adam's Story
Adam is a rising 5th grader who has a history of behavior problems and academic weaknesses. He seemed unprepared for kindergarten, both socially and academically, and participated in an after-school tutorial program twice a week for several years. For his first three years of school, he struggled in all academic areas. By second grade, he read at grade level in reading but his writing and math skills lagged behind. Adam started crawling under a table when it was time for writing. He also became belligerent at recess, quick to push and kick his classmates. He was placed in the RTI process for math intervention, midway through third grade. The interventions included his participation in the after-school program and modified homework. In third and fourth grade, his writing skills improved but Adam’s math performance was the lowest in his classroom. Adam began to have tantrums during math instruction and his teacher set up a “chill out” space for him.
Adam spent almost every lesson in that space, missing most math instruction for at least 5 months. By the end of fourth grade, Adam was moved to a tier 3 intervention level and recommended for special education because of a behavior disorder.
Adam is significantly small for his age and is often teased about his height. He enjoys playing basketball in his neighborhood but finds it hard to compete with his taller classmates. He is quite agile and has taught himself a number of gymnastic moves. He enjoys hip hop music and video games. He watches so many online videos for Minecraft and 5 Nights at Freddy’s that he has memorized the dialog for a number of them. Adam is very adept at using a computer and can assist his teacher in using the SmartBoard. He regularly plays a recreation league sport in the spring but does not talk about that with any enthusiasm. Adam also reports numerous fears which keep him from sleeping well. Social services has been involved in his home situation.
Middle School Case Study
Maggie is a 13-year-old eighth grader who is extremely well liked by her peers. Although she is not an honor roll student, she is very involved in extracurricular activities. She excels in cheerleading, art, and life skills, and was recently chosen as "Star of the Month" by her life-skills teacher for her innovative fashion design. All of Maggie's teachers say that she is a pleasure to have in class because of her positive attitude and helpful nature. While she may not use the best approach to tasks, she is always willing to share her ideas with a struggling neighbor.
Maggie's positive attitude and willingness to help is also evidenced by her volunteer work at the local retirement home. She loves spending time with her grandmother whom she calls Nana. Maggie and her grandmother oversee craft projects, some of which are Maggie's original ideas. Maggie's original ideas aren't limited to her craft projects, though. She spends enormous amounts of time in her room arranging and displaying her sticker designs. Her favorite stickers are of dolphins and other aquatic animals. Maggie says that these animals make her feel free and happy.
While she continually wears a smile on her face at school, her parents say that she appears frustrated and overwhelmed at home. Her mother says that watching her begin a task is like watching a pinball machine-she bounces around and has no apparent pathway or direction. She does things by deploying the first thing that comes to mind. When preparing for tests, she goes over material in a random, disorganized manner. When beginning assignments, she is often missing the needed materials for the task. Because she keeps things in such disarray (e.g., locker, notebooks, bedroom), searching for these materials is a time consumer. Any effort given to a search ends up creating an even bigger mess and wasting even more time, adding to her exasperation. This inattention to time often results in frequent tardiness to class and other activities. Her lack of organizational insights and everyday practices stand in the way of efficient school performance and escalate Maggie's frustration.
High School Case Study
Jeff is a bright 10th grader who has generally been a strong student, though he has had some difficulties since middle school. In particular, for the past couple of years he has been receiving poor grades on writing assignments, especially on essays and research papers.
Jeff does well on most tests and evaluations and is well thought of by most of his teachers. However, his papers, reports, and essay tests usually return with the same messages: "disorganized", "needs more clarification", "incomplete". The continued negative feedback on writing assignments frustrates Jeff and he has begun to feel humiliated about it. "I don't get it," he says, "I rewrote that essay twice and it still comes back with marks all over it!"
Jeff's family lives on a horse ranch. The family provides stable boarding for horses and his mother gives riding lessons. Jeff is an accomplished rider himself, having grown up closely with the horses. He enjoys riding over the hills behind his home, where remains of houses from an old homestead stand. Sometimes Jeff sits on the hill and makes sketches of the houses and landscape.
Motivation
Hello, and welcome back! Brittany and I are so excited to dig into yet another way that students learn differently, motivation. Motivation is the driving force behind student action and engagement. But it can be difficult because students are motivated by multiple different things so one method may not work for all of your students.
It is often a long process to build motivation. So you know what we find to be a really good step is to really take the time to learn your students' passions and their strengths, and use that while you teach them in your classroom. In this video we've broken down the resources, both by content area and by grade level to help really support you in your classroom. Keep in mind that all students in all classrooms are going to look different but we do provide a couple of strategies for you to try out and we really encourage you to look at your classroom and work with your students in this piece. Learning Differences Unit 3 Motivation: What is motivation? Motivation equals expectation of success times value of whatever it is you are trying to do. So if you expect you can do it that's going to increase motivation, the value of accomplishing it is going to increase motivation but it's a time, so if either of those is zero, motivation is zero. So...so in terms of learning differences, how do you understand yourself as a learner and how that helps you manage your expectation of success is really important. Well, when we look at motivation from a differences standpoint, is when you see a kid not doing what you think they should, it's still important to figure that out but part of it is make sure they are having experiences that are leading to success, right? Repeated success is what creates intristic motivation. How does motivation impact student learning? If the kid will sit down and do what I say they must intrinsically motivated and that's great, and if they don't, they must be extrinsically motivated and that's bad, but of course it's really kind of a silly thing, you know everyone's extrinsically motivated by some things but the only way you get to intrinsic motivation is to have a deep interest in the material. For some reason that's nice, but at the end of the day you have to have some success. The only reason that we see kids...we call them intrinsically motivated, let's say it's in you know...math, is that they've had a series of experiences where they've enjoyed it but they've also had success...the reward of actually learning. When that happens you're brain starts to key in, so you see a textbook and you go "Ah, there's information there" right, and you'll actually be intrinsically motivated to sort of tackle that. We've been too deficit focused and our kids' motivation is impacted very negatively with a deficit focus, so being strengths based we increase their expectation of success. I think there's another piece to looking at this, um, in terms of motivation, Peter Senge says there are only two kinds of motivation, aspiration and desperation, and desperation won't take you to long haul so we need to give our kids things to aspire to, hope, and in order to have hope you have to see yourself as a competent learner. How can I build student motivation? I think the teacher's job is very largely to help manage motivation, so this interplay between expectation that I can do this and doing it is worthwhile so what it's going to take me to accomplish this has to be worth the payoff. Be a kid watcher and find those passions because when you connect that to the struggles that kids are having and if you can ask them to do something 'hard' in a way that ties into their passion, you've got the motivation and you've got the hook. You know throughout this Unit we do encourage you to 'partner' with your students so you can find out what really does motivate them, and then please share what you discover in our discussion forum. We hope you enjoy! When I first started taking this class I had two students that was my specific work on, my challenge for the school year. And one is inhibition, and he is working with professionals and he has his own things that he's doing at home, and we sat down at the beginning of the time I started the class and I said to him, “I’m taking a class to learn to help you be a better studentâ€, and he said, You're taking a class for me?, and I said, "Yep, we're going to do this together and I'm gonna finds ways for you to be better at what you're doing. And I took the little girl and I said the same thing, and both of them have shown me that what I'm doing is working because they grin more, and they're more participative and my inhibitions, one, will make it through an entire period and write everything neatly and complete all his work, and then look at me and show me and do a grin, and he'll give me a thumbs up. So, as soon as I see that thumbs up, my brain knows it's working, it's happening. The other little girl, her parents have contacted me and said, "I don't know what you're doing, but please keep it up." Then the next week she said, "Please, tell me what you're doing, I need it at home." So I know some things are happening with her staying organized and staying on task, that she's bringing back home which makes me know that I've done my job, it's working.
When I think about motivation as a student, I try to think about myself in their place. Do they want to do magnet that day, do they want to do long vowels again, we've done it every day? So I try to build it through my voice, and through my actions, I try to make whatever is coming next exciting. The students that are already excited about doing anything in first grade run with me and get there. The ones that don't, I call on them when I know they know an answer, so it builds that confidence, it builds excitement in what they're getting ready to do. The ones I just can't reach, I will go sit right beside in class or I will come right to them and put my hand on their shoulder and say, "You're next, think about what you're going to say". It gives them the opportunity to think about, "Woo-hoo, I'm getting ready to go next! What am I going to answer, what am I going to say?" Those kids that I know don't like math, when math comes they're pulled to the board, they're the ones that get to write on the board and do the "fun" things that allows them that opportunity to build that excitement about a class. Helping Students Motivate Themselves
Student Goal Orientation, Motivation, and Learning Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic. The Challenge of Motivation. Write to FutureMe About FutureMeAs with the last unit, we hope you will take the content you've gained here and apply it to your classroom. Whereas the working memory unit came with strategies you can use to support students immediately, building motivation takes time. However we hope the activity will help you begin that process.This week's activity has two advantages:
FutureMe.org is a simple online tool that allows you and your students to send email in the future. You and your students can simply type an email and set the date and Future Me takes care of the rest. One of the reasons we like FutureMe is because it activates one of the greatest factors of intrinsic motivation: goal setting. Imagine you or your students using FutureMe to:
Try It Out
When you receive your note in a few months, we hope it will be motivating to you and serve as a good reminder of everything you've learned so far in this course. Perhaps, getting an email is not that motivating to you or your students... you can still make use of the concept by having students write paper/pencil letters to themselves in the future. YES, use SNAIL mail! Check out this free, downloadable teaching packet (free sign-up to Teachers Pay Teachers is required) with directions, a parent letter, and several graphic organizers that will help you get started with "letters to the future." NOTE - There's a public part of the FutureMe site that has uncensored "future me" letters to read, and you never know what you'll find there. There are sample letters on the right side of the letter-writing area that seem to be okay, but we recommend that students should definitely be supervised while using the site. Elementary students might not have to use FutureMe.org themselves, but they could possibly write their letters in Word or Google Doc so that you could enter them later. |
My name is Travis Dalton Sauerbrey, I'm 30 years old, I just transferred out of Nassau Community College, my two years and I'm actually going to Fordham University in January, So, I'm really, really happy for that. I come from Long Island, New York, I just moved to Manhattan this past June to finish up at Fordham and I have dyscalculia, I have ADD, ADHD, and dyslexia. Teachers always thought that I wasn't motivated just because I wasn't paying attention to a subject, but then it was opposite, I was motivated on two many things at the same time, too many assignments at the same time to be able to just calm down and not worry about all the other assignments that needed to be and concentrate on just one, singular, topic that needed to be done. An example of that was is that, and this goes to my first informal diagnosis with ADD is that we had a science fair when I was in the first grade and it was going to be a class group effort, we were all going to get together on that Friday, it was assigned on Monday, we were going to get together on that Friday and we were all going to have a big science fair and we were all going to walk around. So I was really, really excited to be in the science fair and to participate in it, brainstorming the ideas, I was so motivated to do it that I was just telling everybody else about it and telling my friends and drawing make believe projects that and doing this, that and the third, that I forgot to tell the two people that I needed to tell about my project who were my parents; cause they were the one's who were going to help me with it. So I followed through all the way until Friday, Friday morning I woke up and I was in tears, I told my mom "I don't want to go to school today, I don't feel well", and she said, "Why don't you feel well?" and she asked me and I told her about the science fair. I told her how it made me feel like a little dime, I felt like I worth about $.10. So my mom she just wiped the tears off and she said, "All right, we're going to go to school and we're going to figure this out." When we got to school she begged and pleaded with my teacher, Mrs. Marrow, you know..."please just give him til the weekend, can't he do it Monday, is that all right?" and she said, "Okay" and that Monday came and I was excited to get the project and show everyone this original idea that I had, I was embarrassed because I didn't do it Friday, I was doing it Monday and I went up there and I got an 'A' on the project. And it was awesome, all my peers were applauding me and I was just reveling in the spotlight. They said that when you get an A you wanna like keep chasing after them and going after them, which you should always do but for me, the type of learner I was, that was my A, I earned it, I was fine with it, I didn't need another one, I didn't need to prove it to myself or anyone else, that was my A. And it began like this vicious cycle of you know September would come of the next year and it would be a clean slate, then May would come and it would be this frantic dash to kind of like clean up everything and you know get all the assignments in and on time. So, for motivation, it's not that I wasn't motivated, it's just that I was motivated on too many things at the same time and never really had like a teacher calm me down and say, "Okay, let's just concentrate on one item, let's just concentrate on this first before we go on to the next." So the motivation was there, it's just that I was just like I'm using it for too many things at the same time rather than just one.
I wasn't diagnosed until I failed the 9th grade; that was kind of like the turning point. I failed the 9th grade and when I failed the 9th grade I had to do the entire 9th grade in summer school but it was at summer school was where we figured it out because I was in a smaller classroom and I had more time and I started getting better grades and I think that's when the light bulb clicked for a lot of people, including myself. So I went to a smaller high school going into the 10th grade and at this point I was formally diagnosed, I had an IEPA, I was allowed my accommodations so we kind of like, the mystery was solved, at this point we knew what was going on. And, at the new school that I was going to in the 10th grade, we had a resource room, and it was my Resource teacher, Mrs. O'Connor, she was the first real advocate for me...like 'real' advocate for me in school. She was the toughest Irish woman that you would ever meet in your life. She saw a million students like me beforehand and a million students like me afterwards too. She pushed me to a point that I had never been before, the point that I was in the 10th and 11th grade and I was getting A's, I was in the honor society, and she pushed me to no end that when I graduated high school, when I walked across it was equally not only my success but her success as well and that's how it translated. So Ms. O'Connor, she was...she paved the way and she set the bar for what I...the other professors and allies and administrative people that I've had helped me down the road, is that she set them up. We knew that math, for example, was a weak point for me, um...that's where my LD lied was dyscalculia, and really the reading and writing wasn't that big of a problem. So Mrs. O' really focused on math for me and she worked with me one on one, day in and day out, and she always made sure that I was comfortable with a topic before going on to the next one because in the math classes it was all connected, so while the rest of the class would be on Chapter Five I would still be struggling with Chapter Two, so she wanted to make sure that after the extra help and the extra hours that I was comfortable with Chapter Two and comfortable with the material that I wasn't strong in before going on to the next. That was one way that we did it, another way that helped out was just having a quiet place to take the test. I still need it to this day, I get really distracted by every other...just the outside world and everything else, it's just...my brain is just tuned that way. So having that quiet place, just my own little room to be able to organize my thoughts, organize what I need to do, the assignments that I need to complete, even for work as well, and just having that quiet moment to do that just helps me to do it better and more efficiently and having the extra time to do that as well; cause during the classroom times when I was...before I was in the new school, it was like the teacher would go, "you have fifteen minutes left to finish the essay, for fifteen minutes left to finish the assignments" and I would panic because I just wanted to finish. It wasn't about retaining the knowledge or thinking about what the question was asking you, it was more about, oh my god, I have fifteen minutes left, I just need to finish this assignment and just hand it in. It doesn't matter what I wrote down on the paper or it doesn't matter what the work was, as long as I finished it I would hand it in and I would be fine. That changed with Mrs. O'. She created and environment where I was able to have the extra time and just have that extra fifteen minutes to make sure that I was doing it right and getting it done on time. You think back to September and when you were in school and it's like a clean slate, like I said before, you gotta go share it and you know you're in the new grade and it's really exciting. But somewhere along the lines it and I don't know for me it was usually after the PTA meeting when my parents would sit down with the teachers and they go over what the teachers thought or how that teachers say that the kids are doing. At that point, you know there needs to be that...that really let the parent/teacher relationship I guess, to build...to bridge that gap, that's what worked with Mrs. O'Connor and I and my mom is that they were always in communication with each other. If my mom knew something, if there was some new development or something, Mrs. O'Connor knew it that morning. Something happened in school, Mrs. O'Connor let my mom know about it, but there was that bridge right there. You need more than just you know...a half hour PTA meeting at the beginning of the school year in order for a teacher to properly judge what's going on with a student. You need that more time, I think it's definitely there should be more of just bridging the gap between teachers and parents, I mean it's...it's two entities that can really influence a child for either good or bad. Umm...and if parents and teachers are on the same page, the only thing it could be, is beneficial for the child. It was definitely a trial and error cause we didn't really know up until the 9th grade, it's unfortunate...I mean...just unfortunate for me that I had to fail the 9th grade in order to figure that out, that I was in a smaller classroom. That I thrived better actually in a smaller classroom and a quiet place and having extra time for my accommodations. That trial and error, I had to slip in order to figure that out umm...but when I went into the new school and even so Nassau in college, when I started college I was under the guides that I couldn't have accommodations, I couldn't have extra time, I couldn't have a quiet place to take the test and it turned out I was wrong, it's that you still can have those accommodations in college. So I was going to the CSD office, the Center for Students with Disabilities and dropping of the papers and allowing myself to have that time and having expressing my rights that I need for those accommodations. So, it was definitely me speaking out but I had to have that bump in the road in order to figure it out unfortunately. Definitely finding out what most child's needs might be in a classroom. Unfortunately, you know with...even on the college level there are teachers who don't really teach the individuals, they just kind of teach to the curriculum and to the classroom. The classroom, they teach it as a whole but know one looks the same, no one has the same...you know not everyone in the classroom's going to look the same, everyone's you know...a different race, different religion, umm...everyone is different and everyone learns differently as well. So, if one student's struggling in the classroom where the whole class may be able to learn this one way that the teacher is speaking, teacher is teaching, it would be beneficial for the teacher to find out what that student might need in order to be a better student and to be more motivated really for the assignments and the curriculum. If the teacher feels that that student needs extra time, just fifteen extra minutes just to finish assignments, then by all means, fight for that kid to have that extra time, or if it's a quiet place to take the test, or whatever it needs to do the assignment, fight for that kid to have that. Uh, go up and ask them and say "Look, this one child is struggling in my classroom, I think he may benefit in a different environment." Seek out that environment and go for it, definitely. Hello, and welcome to the Learning Differences MOOC-Ed offered by the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at NC State University. We are thrilled to have you join us as we embrace and acknowledge the fact that we all learn differently.
Our school system uses a 'one size fits all' approach, we take the learner profile, a complex set of strength and weaknesses that influence how students learn and we simplify it down to the average student's needs. However, we know that for 20% of students, that's ten million students across the United States, the way we teach does not align with how they learn. And you know we often categorize these students as low or difficult or even disabled, throughout this course we are going to challenge that paradigm, we're going to offer innovative ways that you can use in your classroom so that you can meet all the diverse learners. Each of us can think of a student that we know or that we taught for whom the school system may not have met their individual needs. This may be a student whose struggles were misunderstood or it may be someone for whom their strengths were not what we were measuring. For me that student is Riley. Riley came to me as a 5th grader who was unable to read, I quickly recognized that his strength was in memorization but phonics was not working for him. He agreed to work with me and memorize ten words every single day and very quickly he a reading vocabulary of over 1,000 words and he was able to put together almost anything. Riley could learn, but just not typically in the way that we teach reading. In addition, we have five experts with us who are knowledgeable in the field of Learning Differences and Brain Science. They'll be with us during the course helping you put strategies together that you can implement on the ground tomorrow. Let's hear from them now. Learning Differences: Unit 1: Embracing New Habits of Mind Why should I take this MOOC-Ed? With the knowledge that you gain in this MOOC, I think that it is a way that you can use the science of learning to embrace wonder in a...in its best sense. How do I observe this child, what's my hypothesis, what's the evidence, what can I try, how can I enlist them as a partner to unlock the mystery of what's going on with them. Walking into your classroom after maybe having done something like this MOOC with just a new mindset.... With a new mindset, with a new way of looking at kids and the way they learn without judgement, without preconceived notions and expectations, I think it allows you to start reorganizing your own thinking and developing different teaching skills. Teachers will be able to understand how they learn and sees that anybody learns in a different way so they can replicate that in the teaching. It's incredibly important because it's a mindset that's really important to have and knowing that every single student can achieve amazing results and that it might look differently for different learners. I have a learning, we all have a learning difference, it doesn't change once you're not a student any more, and I think being mindful of where we are as adults is very similar probably as to who we are as learners, the difference being we probably came up with some different strategies along the way to navigate this external space. What are habits of mind? The habits of mind way of looking at and engaging with students that results in developing a deeper understanding of them as a learner, that always the question that we need to be asking is "Why?" What am I seeing? Why might that be happening? What can I do? I think it opens up the door to that relationship with the student of discovery of trying to best understand them as a learner and help them to come to understand themselves, which I think ultimately is the goal of education. When you look at the range of Learner Differences and things that you're learning in this course, they'll be things that resonate with you personally, you know and then they'll be things where you feel like you're not sure yet or things that you'll question. I think nothing beats trying something out and applying it and if it actually solves a problem for you, you'll be more committed to trying things. Thank you for joining us, we invite you to check out the resources, participate in discussion and try out ideas and activities with your own students. This course is what you make of it, so use the content in ways that meet your own personal learning goals. We look forward to learning with you. |
Make It Your Own: Add to Your Toolbox
As a teacher, it is incredibly important to continuously add to your toolbox. We have focused on three types of tools throughout this course: Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) that you can use with your colleagues, digital tools that you or your students can use, and your Professional Learning Network (PLN) that you can continue to expand and grow.. Click the buttons below to learn more about each of these types of tools.
Professional Learning Community GuideAs you and/or your team work through the course content, we encourage you to purposefully share your new learning “back at home” or with your “Professional Learning Community” (PLC). Think of these knowledge sharing and discussion opportunities as easy ways to disseminate and grow “Habits of Mind” of most value when addressing the wide range of learning differences among the students in your school or district.
PLC Small Group Opportunity
During the course there will be an opportunity to join a “Virtual PLC.” To participate in a PLC-type meeting with other course participants via a Google Hangout or conference call, please register your interest here. These groups of no more than ten participants will meet weekly to discuss the course content and dig in deeply to make connections to your practice. You only sign up for one week at a time so we encourage you to join as you are able! At this time we are only able to accommodate 40 course participants so please only sign up if you are able to participate.
Consider whether one of the following activities might work well for your colleagues and context during a regularly scheduled staff/department/PLC meeting:
As a teacher, it is incredibly important to continuously add to your toolbox. We have focused on three types of tools throughout this course: Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) that you can use with your colleagues, digital tools that you or your students can use, and your Professional Learning Network (PLN) that you can continue to expand and grow.. Click the buttons below to learn more about each of these types of tools.
Professional Learning Community GuideAs you and/or your team work through the course content, we encourage you to purposefully share your new learning “back at home” or with your “Professional Learning Community” (PLC). Think of these knowledge sharing and discussion opportunities as easy ways to disseminate and grow “Habits of Mind” of most value when addressing the wide range of learning differences among the students in your school or district.
PLC Small Group Opportunity
During the course there will be an opportunity to join a “Virtual PLC.” To participate in a PLC-type meeting with other course participants via a Google Hangout or conference call, please register your interest here. These groups of no more than ten participants will meet weekly to discuss the course content and dig in deeply to make connections to your practice. You only sign up for one week at a time so we encourage you to join as you are able! At this time we are only able to accommodate 40 course participants so please only sign up if you are able to participate.
Consider whether one of the following activities might work well for your colleagues and context during a regularly scheduled staff/department/PLC meeting:
- Hold a staff screening of the The Myth of Average, Todd Rose’s TEDx Talk video, and after watching together, discuss the following questions:
- Do Todd Rose’s comments resonate with your personal or professional educational experience to date?
- Have you been in classrooms designed for the “average pilot”?
- What do you need to embrace a “design to the edges” attitude?
- Encourage your staff to complete a learner sketch or profile at Faces of Learning either before or during your meeting. After folks have completed their profile, encourage conversations around the following:
- Sharing strengths and challenges in each others’ learning profiles;
- Reviewing and evaluating the various strategies suggested in each others’ learning profiles;
- Learning profiles next steps… How might we use this with our students? What will we do with what we find out?
- Provide folks with paper or electronic copies of your local or site-based teacher effectiveness standards and prompt folks to uncover the following:
- In what ways do the standards address learning differences?
- To what extent do the standards address learners’ varying experiences, abilities, talents, and prior learning?
- To what extent do the standards expect teachers to address learners’ language, culture, and family and community values as assets that can be used to promote their learning?
responses_and_comments.docx | |
File Size: | 24 kb |
File Type: | docx |