Courtney+McMillion

__Strategy Instruction for Math, Science, and Social Studies__

__Math Strategies:__


 * **Use white boards**: Give each student a white board, dry erase marker and an eraser. As you ask questions, have each student write his/her answer on the whiteboard and hold it up for your review. This is an especially effective routine to use at the beginning or end of lessons as it allows the teacher to quickly assess students' independent performance levels. The teacher may use this information to plan future instruction and/or to form flexible small group instruction for reteaching or enrichment. Plan to make the use of whiteboards an every day strategy in your classroom. This way each student in the class must grapple with each question. Usually only one student answers each question while others watch and listen.




 * **Thumbs up/Thumbs Down**: Students in math classes must learn to evaluate the solutions and arguments of their classmates. Requiring students to signal agreement or disagreement sets the expectation that students are actively listening to their classmates' explanations. Pair this strategy with asking students to repeat what another student said and students must stay actively tuned in to what's happening in the classroom at all times.


 * **Let go and let students...**: This phrase reminds teachers to put students in charge of their learning and in charge of explaining themselves. This practice incorporates multiple effective strategies to support student learning:
 * Give students the chalk or marker and ask them to come to the board or overhead to explain their thinking. Resist asking students to tell you what they did while you write what they did. Asking students to write as they explain allows them to organize their thinking and provides insight to teachers about what strategies and organizational methods students use effectively and independently. This strategy also provides practice for the expected independent test performance.
 * Ask another student to repeat a student's explanation or insight. Resist the urge to repeat or paraphrase each student's response. Ask classmates to do this instead, fostering active participation/listening skills in all students.
 * Ask students to read directions or problems aloud rather than reading them yourself. Once again, this practice encourages students to develop effective reading skills for math activities and tests. If reading levels are an issue in your classroom, you might begin with buddy reading, pairing students to effectively mitigate this issue.
 * Ask students to define math vocabulary terms in their own words. Post the best definitions around the room.
 * Post samples of effective problem-solving solutions that meet tough requirements of the problem-solving rubric you use to grade student responses. Make overheads of student samples and review them regularly so that all students see examples of effective ways to organize solutions and explain thinking.


 * __ Science Strategies: __ **

**Special Education in the Science Classroom: Strategies for Success **  __**Science Is for All Students** Science classrooms are places of excitement, interest, and inquiry. Students who occupy them are as diverse in needs, characteristics, and abilities as the myriad of science topics they study. To overlook this diversity limits and weakens science instruction. Recognizing and adapting to this diversity multiplies the power of well-planned laboratory experiences and other activities.__

Students with identified disabilities are found in science classrooms in every school in the nation. What specific techniques benefit special education students in the science classroom? Strategies designed to increase classroom success for special education students are based on sound instructional methodology, and thus have potential benefits for all students.
 * Overcoming Obstacles to Success in the Science Classroom**



**//Dealing with Issues Related to Attention//** **//Dealing with Issues Related to Information Processing and Communication//**
 * Break large chunks of instruction, particularly experimental procedures, into small parts. Have students repeat directions in their own words.
 * Integrate hands-on instruction with traditional methods. Switching to a different instructional modality can re-focus wandering attention.
 * Take advantage of the high interest level inherent in science subject matter. Find ways to integrate topics interesting to students. Encourage expression of opinion and discussion.
 * Consider seating arrangements. There is no "right" seat for a student with a given disability. An attention-craving student seated in front might prove a serious distraction to himself and the rest of the class. A student with difficulty focusing may experience increased success if seated away from high-traffic areas.
 * Incorporate body posture changes. Sitting straight up in a chair might not prove the most effective learning posture, particularly for students with Attention Deficit Disorder.
 * Communicate information in multiple formats. Students may process information more effectively in an oral, visual, or kinesthetic framework.
 * Coincide verbal directions with demonstration whenever possible.
 * Color coding materials may enhance identification.
 * <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Utilize multiple assessment tools. Students with disabilities may communicate understanding effectively through presentations, demonstrations, lab work, and the creation of portfolios.



<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">**//Dealing with Issues Related to Social Interaction//** <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">**//Learning Science Is an Active Process//** The second principle underlying the National Science Education Standards is that learning science is an active process. In the inquiry-based science classroom, students make observations, form hypotheses, ask questions, perform experiments, construct explanations, and communicate ideas. Mastering the critical thinking skills embodied in these processes can help students with learning disabilities excel in multiple areas of study and in life.
 * <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Dealing with Issues Related to Organization **
 * <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Maintain a clean, organized classroom. Clutter is an additional obstacle for students already struggling with organization.
 * <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Maintain consistent places in the lab for supplies and equipment. Clearly label these stations.
 * <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Create a climate of acceptance by modeling patience and tolerance. Students must feel comfortable asking questions and expressing opinions in the science classroom.
 * <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Build cooperative learning groups carefully. Students with disabilities must be grouped with students who will allow them to participate and use their strengths, but who are also willing to cooperate with their areas of difficulty.

<span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">**__Social Studies Strategies:__**

<span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Teachers today must find multiple ways to reach out to students using a variety of teaching strategies. Fortunately, social studies classes are the perfect setting for differentiating instruction. Social studies teachers have so much information to convey and yet so many options for teaching it.



<span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">General Ideas for Differentiating Social Studies Instruction <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 72.9%;"> <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 81%;">**Specific ideas** **for helping students include the following:** <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">**Incorporate Graphic Organizers** All students benefit from organizing material. Graphic organizers are very effective learning tools because they allow students to visualize and categorize information. There are several techniques to use: <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 81%;">This idea works well with social studies survey classes when the textbooks have a considerable amount information on each topic. <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Cover text sequentially.
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Use PowerPoint presentations or overhead transparencies for visual learners when lecturing.
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Teach key concepts and generalizations unique to each topic or period.
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Examine various points of view.
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Use a variety of text, video, and taped material of varying degrees of difficulty.
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Contrast historical or abstract facts with current events to bring relevancy to students.
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Offer several options for projects so that each student can express his or her understanding in individual ways.
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Allow students options for assessment, such as using an exam and an alternative form of assessment to form a whole grade.
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">The teacher creates the graphic organizer and gives it to the students with specific instructions of how to find the material to complete it. To assist the lower achieving students, it may be partially completed.
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">The teacher provides the student with the information and the students create their own graphic organizer.
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">To cover one chapter in a short amount of time:
 * 1) <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Divide the class into groups of three or four.
 * 2) <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Assign each student in each group a section of the chapter to read.
 * 3) <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Provide each group with a large piece of construction paper and divide it into three or four sections.
 * 4) <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">After reading, students should create a graphic organizer describing their assigned text.
 * 5) <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Once complete, they should use it to teach to the other students in their group.

<span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Develop a Gallery Walk:** <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">This activity allows students to learn at their own pace while physically moving around the room. The teacher posts pictures, art prints, or teacher- or student-created posters around the room. The students should be given an assignment to complete as they walk around the room looking at each object. Using art from different periods of history to demonstrate learning points works well. **Analyze Political Cartoons:** Most topics in social studies can be discussed using political cartoons. The use of political humor or satire to explain perspectives on history or current events can leave a lasting impression on students. There are Web sites where copies of international newspapers are online. Students can use these to critique and analyze current political cartoons from foreign countries. As an alternative to using existing cartoons, teachers can assign a topic such as the stock market crash of 1929, and have students draw their own cartoons to illustrate a perspective. **Use Time Lines** : For students to understand the present, they must learn what has happened in the past. Time lines are an effective method for teaching cause and effect in history. Several different techniques can be used: <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">**Student-Centered Instruction:** <span style="color: #800000; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> To have a successful differentiated social studies classroom, it must be student centered. The teacher coordinates time, space, materials, and activities as he or she helps the class achieve their group and individual goals.
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">A simple list of dates and events
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">File-Folder Games that are made into time lines.
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Lines that are drawn with marks to indicate different periods of time
 * <span style="color: #800000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">Illustrated time lines to depict different events in history

<span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;">Websites for Parents/Teachers/Students: <span style="color: #605c5c; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> http://www.allkindsofminds.org/PTK/mathStrategies.aspx

http://johnplaceonline.com/study-smarter/8-strategies-for-parents-to-help-children-improve-in-school/

http://michigan.gov/documents/Parents_Helping_Students_12344_7.pdf

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/education-and-parents/resource/3730.html