Category: Accommodation

Are your students REALLY watching that video?

2/24/2014

Are you looking for a better way to engage students with videos? The newest entry to the field of interactive video viewing might be just the answer. eduCanon, currently in beta stage, is the first interactive video tool that I have found to be flexible enough for teaching. It allows you to load any youtube, teacher tube or any public video and then insert questions at any point in the video. Other tools have limits on when and how many questions can be entered, but educanon gives teachers control over these decisions. The free version allows for multiple choice questions, but the paid version incorporates open ended questions. In addition to the Q & A, teachers can include detailed explanations of why an answer is correct or incorrect. Set up multiple classes, assign video viewing and collect student response data.

While much of the promotional material touts eduCanon for flipped lessons, I think it also has value within classrooms and for professional development activities. I tested it this week with a group of educators in my "Co-Teaching that Works" workshop and it received positive comments from everyone.

For a non-tech way to be more interactive during video viewing, check out this post from last year.

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Fantastic Fraction Accommodation

1/7/2014

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Students often struggle with trying to find common denominators when adding or subtracting fractions. Carol Gillis, a special education teacher in Webster, NY, developed this creative accommodation to assist students.

Make two copies of a multiplication chart - one on blue paper and one on green.
Laminate the charts and then cut them into strips as shown in the photo.
Paste the outer row/column to a piece of laminated card stock.
Apply a strip of sticy-backed velcro to the center back of each chart, and the corresponding velcro strip to the laminated piece of card stock.
When students are working with uncommon denominators, they pull the two strips off the chart, and line up the strips to see the common number. (See example above on right.) Then they can count over to determine the correct number needed to multiply the fraction to find the equivalent.

Thanks for sharing, Carol!

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What makes an effective Graphic Organizer?

5/15/2013

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I am fortunate enough to be invited to co-teach in classrooms all over the country. When these opportunities arise, I ask the classroom teacher to email me the lesson plan and any accompanying materials a few days in advance so that I can look at them. My goal is to analyze the materials from the perspective of a special educator, thinking about what adaptations or differentiation I can add to support struggling students.

Often, these classroom materials include a graphic organizer (GO) of some kind. Recently I reviewed several different “graphic organizers” and was struck by the breadth of what that term seems to mean to teachers. Some of the GOs were very detailed, while others were minimalistic. Reflecting, I wondered if educators need a rubric of some kind for what an effective GO looks like. (A web search led to several rubrics to use after a student has designed and completed a GO, but none for teachers to use in designing or choosing a GO to provide students. If you know of one, please share.)

Here is my first attempt at the criteria to include in a GO Rubric. Please let me know what you think!

·      The format allows for relationships or patterns to be clearly seen

·      Illustrations/graphics support the learning objective

·      Prompts are provided in a simple but clear manner

·      Scaffolding (as necessary) provides access to the concepts

·      Once complete, the graphic organizer can be interpreted in a meaningful way

The GO on the left was provided to me, designed for a lesson on the Civil War, in which the primary objective was for students to be able to identify multiple perspectives on a topic, especially that of the African American soldiers. The GO on the right shows my redesign, based on the above rubric, including supports for struggling students. It is generic enough to be used for any discussion of multiple perspectives. Feel free to download it here.

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Strategic Reading in a Non-Linear World

10/1/2012

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Recently I had the opportunity to co-teach in a class where students were learning about reading diagrams. Working in teams, they were supposed to assemble a complicated Lego toy by following one of the diagrams that had been provided. (The teacher had distributed diagrams at 3 differing reading levels.) Watching them, I realized that one group was struggling because the students did not have a strategy for effectively scanning the diagram for key information. They had ignored one very important section of the page.

Afterwards, the teacher and I had an opportunity for professional dialogue about the lesson. We discussed the fact that reading tasks are not always linear, or logical, in their directionality. We realized that it isn’t always enough to provide materials at different ability levels. We also need to teach strategic skills. We then developed the solution shown in the photo below. Using plastic report covers, we divided the page into four quadrants and numbered them (similar to a graph.) Students can scan strategically, teachers can talk about items in each quadrant, and students can even annotate. We also realized that these clear report covers could be used to teach students about how to scan web pages (see photo.)

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Frayer Model Masks

3/15/2012

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This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.

In the past I have posted about Work Masks - file folders that are cut to cover portions of student worksheets. This photo is of one I used this week in a high school science class. The worksheet had 3 different sections for students to complete. By using the work masks, we were able to reduce the amount of visual distraction, reduce the anxiety some students might feel about the quantity of work, and keep the class moving through the worksheet together, rather than working ahead.

While these masks are extremely effective for a portrait page orientation, they don't work for every worksheet. So I was very excited when Mike Shaner, a teacher at Smyrna High School, developed an idea for how to use masks for a Frayer Model worksheet. He cut the file folder down the center and then folded each section in half, exposing just one fourth of the page at a time. We had students fill in one quadrant at a time, while the other three were covered. Students then flipped the worksheet around to work on the other two boxes. Thanks, Mike!

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Are your students REALLY watching that video?

Fantastic Fraction Accommodation

What makes an effective Graphic Organizer?

Strategic Reading in a Non-Linear World

Frayer Model Masks

Anne M. Beninghof

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