January Newsletter
SELCO BULLETIN JANUARY 2010
2010. Wow, we are already into the second decade of the 21st Century and the Third Millennium. What better time to look toward the challenges of the future!
Now, what might these challenges be? For one thing—one very BIG thing—we need to prepare more students with identified learning problems for the rigors of the Recommended Graduation Plan while at the same time preparing many of the rest to survive and benefit from the requirements of 4 x 4. Even the minimum graduation route requires 4 credits in each core subject, hence, 4 x 4. More importantly, though, we MUST prepare these students for an information/technology-based job market.
FYI: Recommended Graduation Plan requirements:
4 credits in English
4 credits in math (must include Algebra I and Geometry)
4 credits in science
4 credits in social studies
½ credit in economics
1 ½ credits in physical education
2 credits in language other than English
1 credit in technology applications
1 credit in fine arts
½ credit in Communication Applications
3 ½ credits in electives
The first 4 requirements constitute 4 x 4.
Special educators have a lot of work to do to prepare students for all of this, but for right now, let’s consider Algebra I.
Look at the current TAKS math tests: grade 9 covers about 74% of Algebra I TEKS; grade 10 covers about 90% of Algebra I TEKS; and TAKS Exit covers about 90% of Algebra I TEKS. The End of Course test—which will replace TAKS in 2011—covers about 95% of Algebra I TEKS. That means one year for students to learn enough algebra to be able to pass that test as well as be prepared for geometry and Algebra II. Are we ready for that?
In 2008 the National Mathematics Panel set out benchmarks students need to know in order to be ready for Algebra I.
Fluency with whole numbers: proficiency with addition and subtraction by the end of 3rd grade; multiplication and division by the end of 5th grade.
Fluency with fractions: by the end of 4th grade: identify and represent fractions and decimals, compare them on a number line or other common representations of fractions and decimals. By the end of 5th grade: proficiency with comparing fractions, decimals, and percents and with addition and subtraction of fractions and decimals. By the end of 6th grade: proficiency with multiplication and division of fractions and decimals—as well as all operations involving positive and negative integers. By the end of 7th grade: proficiency with all operations involving positive and negative fractions as well as solving problems involving percent, ratio, and rate and extension of this work to proportionality.
Geometry and measurement: by the end of 5th grade: solve problems involving perimeter, area of triangles and all quadrilaterals having at least one pair of parallel sides. By the end of 6th grade: analyze properties of 2-dimensional shapes and solve problems involving perimeter and area ; analyze properties of 3-dimensional shapes and solve problems involving surface area and volume. By the end of 7th grade: be familiar with the relationship between similar triangles and the concept of the slope of a line.
But the Math Panel did one other noteworthy thing. It surveyed Algebra I teachers nation-wide asking their views on student preparation, work-related attitudes and challenges, and the use of instructional materials. Results showed that—from the perspective of these teachers, the weakest preparation issues deal with rational numbers, word problems and study habits; that their top challenges were working with unmotivated students, making mathematics accessible and comprehensible, and handling different skill levels in a single classroom. That’s a lot…and…
It’s one tall order—making sure our students have all of this knowledge, motivation and positive work habits—stored in their brains by the time they attack Algebra I. What can we do? What resources do we have? What kind of training and on-going communication must happen to accomplish this?
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has published a book: Algebra for Everyone. A look at the Table of Contents speaks to many of the challenges we face—how we transition from arithmetic to algebra, how to maintain skills, the role of expectation, instructional strategies. Reading this book is a start, but what else must we do? Maybe this challenge isn’t quite like conquering Mr. Everest—then again…..maybe it is!
Ideas? Contact Gail: gmadison@slatonisd.net.
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Other Events Occurring in January 2010
Things you can celebrate all month long:
Book Blitz Month
California Dried Plum Digestive Month
National Bird Feeding Month
National Get Organized Month
National Soup Month
Oatmeal Month
Some of the week-long celebrations:
Someday We’ll Laugh About This Week: 2—9
Cuckoo Dancing Week: 11—17
No Name Calling Week: 20—24
National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Week: 23—30
Finally, the daily observations:
January 2: Earth at Perihelion
4: “Thank God It’s Monday” Day
8: Bubble Bath Day
Show and Tell Day at Work
9: Positively Penguins Day
13: Rubber Duckie Day
18: Pooh (Winnie The) Day
22: Answer Your Cats’ Questions Day
23: National Pie Day
24: Belly Laugh Day
National Compliment Day
Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day
30: Inane Answering Message Day
Banned Word List: 2009
Every year, wordsmiths at Michigan’s Lake Superior State University select the words/phrases they think were so over-used that year that they should be banned! 2009’s list includes “shovel-ready,” “stimulus,” “tweeting,” “unfriended,” “chillaxin” (chillin and relaxin), and “toxic assets.”
Things We Can Learn from Dogs
- Never pass up an opportunity to go for a joy ride.
- When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
- When it is in your best interest, practice obedience.
- Take naps and stretch before rising.
- Run, romp and play daily.
- Eat with gusto and enthusiasm.
- Be loyal.
- Never pretend to be something you’re not.
- If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
- When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle him.
- Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
- When you are happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
CLASS CHUCKLES
Why not enjoy a good laugh with students before sending them home? Label a jar “Class Chuckles.” Invite students to write jokes on slips of paper and submit them to you for approval. Then place the approved slips in the jar. Each afternoon, after everyone is packed and ready to go, have a child draw a slip and read a joke aloud. Everyone will leave with a smile.
Groucho Glasses:
Nonverbal methods of redirecting a student to task or composure are generally the best. Lori White, a teacher of ED students, suggests this:
I have a pair of Groucho glasses in my desk drawer (the ones with the big nose and mustache). When I see a student starting to pout or get frustrated, I will slip on the glasses and call his/her name. Laughter results and the student usually forgets what upset him/her in the first place.
Now I keep an extra pair of glasses in my desk so that on-task students can wear them as they do their work. When an administrator walks in and sees a student wearing them, they’re really thrilled.
Richard's Grammar & Composition Blog
By Richard Nordquist, About.com Guide to Grammar & Composition
Two-Faced Words for the New Year
As you may know, the first month of the year is named after Janus, the Roman god of entrances and exits and the guardian of new adventures. Janus is traditionally depicted with two faces, one looking back at the year gone by and the other looking forward to the year ahead.
A Janus word is similarly two-faced. Also known, less playfully, as a contranym, contronym, or autantonym, a Janus word contains opposite or contradictory meanings.
For example, to strike something usually means to hit it--except in baseball, where a strike is a miss. To sanction sometimes means to authorize, other times to penalize. When dusting furniture, we remove fine particles from a surface. But when a crime scene is dusted for fingerprints, detectives spread fine particles over a surface. And while a fast sprinter runs quickly, a fast color doesn't run at all.
Other Janus words in English include trim (which can mean either remove by cutting or add by decorating), screen (either conceal or show), clip (attach or separate), and cleave (divide or stick together).
Our favorite Janus word for the new year is the common noun fix--which can refer to either a problem (as when you're left in a fix) or a solution (when you find a fix). It all depends, I suppose, on your predicament and point of view.
Image: Janus, the Roman god of gates and doorways and of beginnings and endings
Ordinary Things
The point is not to do remarkable things, but to do ordinary things with the conviction of their immense importance. De Chardin
Nobel Prize-------Dyslexia
How many times have you paired “Nobel Prize” and dyslexia? Probably never. HOWEVER, Dr. Carol W. Greider, who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine with her co-researchers, had a hard time getting into grad school because her GRE scores were not all that great. Because she has dyslexia. But get into grad school she did and the rest, as they say, is history. Be sure to share this bit of information with your struggling readers.
An Enduring Genius: Do you realize that one of the most revered books in the English language has just 50 words in it? Not only that, the book was the result of a bet! One day, Bennet Cerf, who was then the publisher at Random House, bet Theodore Geisel that he couldn’t write a book using just 50 words. (Who knows what Cerf was thinking? After all, this was the man of whom he eventually said, “I’ve published any number of great writers, from William Faulkner to John O’Hara, but there’s only one genius on my authors’ list. His name is Ted Geisel.) Not long after that, Geisel presented Cerf with Green Eggs and Ham, a book with only 50 words—and another blockbuster for Random House. Just who is (was) Ted Geisel? Why, Dr. Seuss, of course.
Words to Teach By: Words that can help a kid who has difficulty starting something hard:
Teacher says: “Yes, you had trouble with this particular assignment today. But do you remember yesterday when you did well on that other assignment? So, it’s not trouble with everything. You’re just having some trouble with this particular assignment.
ARTICLES OF INTEREST
(Contact Gail for copies: gmadison@slatonisd.net)
“STUDY GUIDES TO THE RESCUE.” G. Conderman & V. Bresnahan, Intervention in School & Clinic January 2010. As general education classrooms become more diverse, teachers continue to explore ways to support students’ learning. Study guides support students in learning their material, focus their attention on important topics, and help them review for quizzes or tests. This article provides successful classroom-tested ideas for developing and using study guides in diverse inclusive settings.
TARGET AUDIENCE: General education and inclusion teachers.
“COLLABORATIVE PRETEACHING OF STUDENTS AT RISK FOR ACADEMIC FAILURE.” J. Munk, G. Gibb & P. Caldarella, Intervention in School & Clinic January 2010. Students with learning disabilities often lack the strategies needed to control and direct their thinking, to gain more knowledge, and to remember what they learn. Research shows that learning strategies can facilitate learning and remembering. Preteaching is one instructional strategy that builds background knowledge and therefore helps students with advanced instruction of key terms, facts, or concepts before those terms, facts or concepts are introduced in the general education classroom. This article explains the a,b,c’s of doing this.
TARGET AUDIENCE: General education and inclusion teachers.
“INDIVIDUALIZED RESEARCH-BASED READING INSTRUCTION FOR STUDENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES: SUCCESS STORIES.” J. Allor, P. Mathes, F. Jones, T. Champlin & J. Cheatham, Teaching Exceptional Children Jan/Feb 2010. Three centers funded by the Institute of Education Sciences are conducting studies to explore methods for teaching students with ID to read. Three subjects have been participating in a study that seeks to determine whether methods that are effective with at-risk students with average IQs are also effective for students such as the subjects—each of whom is categorized as having a moderate intellectual disability. These are fascinating case studies that have a lot to teach us. If you teach students with ID, you need to read this.
TARGET AUDIENCE: Teachers of students with ID. (By the way, efforts are underway to replace the term mental retardation with the term intellectual disabilities. Many people use ID now, but it will take some legislation to change the terminology in federal law.)
“CREATING OPTIMAL OPPORTUNITIES TO LEARN MATHEMATICS: BLENDING CO-TEACHING STRUCTURES WITH RESEARCH-BASED PRACTICES.” J. Sileo & D. van Garderen, Teaching Exceptional Children Jan/Feb 2010. The authors say that the emphasis in education is to ensure that all students learn. Therefore, it is important to create optimal learning opportunities for everyone. The combination of research-based instructional practices in mathematics and co-teaching models may create powerful learning environments that enable all students to develop mathematical understanding. Indeed, the authors developed procedures for blending the two and wrote about it in this article. Teaching math is difficult. Having two teachers in the room is a good start—but knowing what to do with two teachers is necessary if this model is going to work. A good article to study.
TARGET AUDIENCE: General education and inclusion teachers.
“TEACHING LITERACY TO STUDENTS WITH SIGNIFICANT COGNITIVE DISABILITIES.” K. Cooper-Duffy, P. Szedia & G. Hyer, Teaching Exceptional Children Jan/Feb 2010. The authors deal with these questions: How can special educators teach academics that link to the SCOS (for Texas, the TEKS) for multiple children with significant cognitive disabilities at different ages and grade levels within the same classroom? How can special ed teachers instruct students to participate in a group settings? What instructional approach(s) should teachers use to teach these academic skills when research shows that strategies such as time delay are effective in teaching discrete academic skills in one-to-one training sessions? How can we blend what we know works with what is expected?
TARGET AUDIENCE: Teachers of students with intellectual disabilities.
“A FRAMEWORK FOR REMEDIATING NUMBER COMBINATIONS DEFICITS.” L. Fuchs, et.al., Exceptional Children Winter 2010. This article introduces a framework for the remediation of number combinations (NC) deficits. The Framework comprises a 2-stage system of remediation. The less intensive stage implementing 1 of 3 intervention approaches hypothesized to be most productive for a student uses a validated protocol while monitoring student response. The more intensive stage, which is reserved for non-responders, involves integrating the 3 intervention approaches within a skills-based diagnostic scheme for individualizing intervention. Important vocabulary used in this article: decomposition and counting-up. This is a good article to help you understand the role of number combinations in developing early math proficiency.
TARGET AUDIENCE: Elementary general ed and special ed math teachers.
“IMPACT OF CURRICULUM MODIFICATIONS ON ACCESS TO THE GENERAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES.” S. Lee, M. Wehmeyer, J. Soukup & S. Palmer, Exceptional Children Winter 2010. This study investigated whether curriculum modifications predicted student and teacher behaviors related to the general education curriculum and if there were differences in ecological, student, and teacher variables depending on the presence of such curriculum modifications. Findings indicated that there were significant differences in student and teacher variables depending on the presence of curriculum modifications. When curriculum modifications were provided, students were engaged in more academic-related responses and fewer competing behaviors and teachers were engaged in fewer classroom management activities. Sounds most interesting.
TARGET AUDIENCE: General ed and inclusion teachers.
“COMPARE, CONTRAST, COMPREHEND: USING COMPARE-CONTRAST TEXT STRUCTURES WITH ELLS IN K-3 CLASSROOMS.” M. Dreher & J. Gray, The Reading Teacher October 2009. Understanding text structures can benefit young learners, especially English-language learners. [Everywhere you see ELL, think LD. Students with learning disabilities generally have difficulty with language, so what works for students with ELL often works for students with LD.] The authors address 3 issues: how to teach students to identify the compare-contrast text structure and use it to support comprehension; how to use compare-contrast texts to activate and extend background knowledge; and how to use compare-contrast texts to help students expand and enrich their VOCABULARY! Compare-contrast charts for teacher modeling, guided practice and independent practice are included. (These charts are adaptable for older students.)
TARGET AUDIENCE: General and special ed content and inclusion teachers at the elementary level.
“REASONING AND SENSE MAKING. WHAT DOES A NEW POLICY PUBLICATION FOR HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATICS HAVE TO DO WITH YOU AND WITH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MATHEMATICS? EVERYTHING! LEARN WHY.” W. G. Martin & L. Kasmer, Teaching Children Mathematics December 2009/January 2010. Reasoning: process of drawing conclusions, logical deduction of conclusions from given information. Sense making: developing understanding of a situation, context or concept by connecting it with existing knowledge. In this article, the authors discuss why and how to develop both of these in elementary students—because one day soon, they will be attacking high school math.
TARGET AUDIENCE: General and special ed elementary and middle school math teachers.
“FROM CALCULATING TO CALCULUS.” J. Steckroth, Teaching Children Mathematics December 2009/January 2010. When his elementary task for preservice teachers became an excursion across grade levels, this former secondary school teacher gained appreciation for how closely connected elementary school multiplication is to the algebraic thinking of secondary mathematics. “Elementary school mathematics is not elementary at all; it is the cornerstone for all the mathematics that students study.” A good article for all of us to read.
TARGET AUDIENCE: General ed and special ed elementary and middle school math teachers.
“SELF-TALK: STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS IN MATH.” N. Corral & S. Antia, Teaching Exceptional Children March 2002. (An oldie, but a goodie!) Attribution theory says that people who experience failure often attribute that failure to bad luck or task difficulty. So if a student is failing math, in his/her mind the problem is that math is just too hard. So why try? One way out of that morass is the use of positive self-talk. These authors show you how to use this strategy successfully.
TARGET AUDIENCE: Any teacher who works with students who are caught in the failure cycle.
“INCREASING ALL STUDENTS’ CHANCE TO ACHIEVE: USING AND ADAPTING ANTICIPATION GUIDES WITH MIDDLE SCHOOL LEARNERS.” A. Kozen, R. Murray, & I. Windell, Intervention in School & Clinic March 2006. Content area teachers have little time for direct teaching of reading skills. This article directs teachers in the design and use of anticipation guides, a prereading strategy designed to concurrently increase students’ content knowledge and reading comprehension. The authors also offer suggestions for instructional adaptations to facilitate this strategy’s use with general, inclusive and special education settings.
TARGET AUDIENCE: All secondary content area and inclusion teachers.
