Post-Break Behavior Tips:We've all had a week off to (hopefully!) rest! For many of our students, that week off of school means there was no structure at all with no demands being placed on them at all. The transition back to our highly structured school environment where we will be asking them to do work may result in a little difficulty transitioning back to school this week! To help our students transition back to the school mindset, this is a great mid-semester, mid-six weeks, post-break time to review your classroom expectations! This is also a great time for us as teachers to remind ourselves of the things that we can do to help our students to be successful behaviorally! Take a minute to review this infographic about behavior and how we can promote student success! Need Help?Don't we all?! There will not be an accommodation/modification help session this week; however, if you are working on a lesson, assignment, or test and need some guidance on your accommodations, please come by 112 or chat with that student's contact teacher! We are here to help! Upcoming Sessions:Tips from this WeekThis week, a few folks came by to ask questions about accommodations, and their questions were great! Here's what we discussed so you can benefit too! Simplified Vocabulary: This only applies to non-academic words, so the vocabulary words your class needs to know should still be included! If the student functions at a very low reading level, you can always supplement with a simplified synonym, example, or picture to help them know what the word means. The important thing with simplifying vocabulary is to know the level where your student functions, which means taking a look at the present levels section of their IEP paperwork. If you need help dissecting paperwork or making these changes, please ask for help! Chunking: When you're giving a test or an assignment, breaking the assignment into small pieces can serve a number of purposes. It can help ease anxiety and resistance to doing the work. It can help the students stay on task and on track. It can give you the opportunity to check in to make sure students are doing what they're supposed to be doing on an assignment. If you're doing a matching or fill in the blank section on a test, chunking can make it a little easier for the student to come up with correct answer simply because they're having to choose the answer from fewer choices. When chunking matching or fill in the blank, try to aim for 4-5 questions per section. It can also be helpful for attention span on a test if you chunk and mix the types of questions presented: Ex. give 5 multiple choice, then 5 matching, then 5 fill in the blank. This can be less intimidating for kids, and the slight change in the type of thought process needed for each type of question can help with focus! Chunking is your friend! And it's really easy to do! Test Length: When is a test too long? If you are giving a test that has more questions than there are minutes in a class period, then you definitely need to reconsider. While some students may be able to work that quickly, a great number of students need more time than that! For a slower-reading student, it can even be difficult to get through fewer questions in a class period. Keep in mind that there are quite a few students who read at lower reading levels or who have attention issues who do not receive a modified test, so please be sure to consider those students when planning your tests! A modified test should be 2/3-3/4 the length of your regular test. Also consider that if a test is open book or open notes that our students who have reading difficulties are going to have those reading difficulties on the test and in their notes. Please keep that in mind when determining the length of your open book/notes test! Scaffolding Steps: Have you see this accommodation and have no idea what it means? You're not alone! If you teach math, this might be a little easier to accommplish because you can demonstrate how to work parts of a problem or use highlighters to give reminders of where numbers need to go (as in examples shown previously this year). An easy way to scaffold steps for your students for any class is to include a reminder about what they need to do for that problem or question. Is there a formula they need to use? If there a rule they need to remember? Is there a mnemonic device/acronym your class has learned? A little note/reminder on the question can go a long way toward getting that student on the right track. This week:As you are working on your assignments for your students (daily work, tests, and projects), if you are unsure about how an accommodation should look or you don't know what to do, please come get help before or after school any day in room 112!
Let's talk it out! Let's figure it out! Let's do what's right for our kids! |