leonia high school andrew rodriguez leonia, nj strategies...

Strategies for Special Education

Andrew Rodriguez

Leonia High School

Leonia, NJ

andrewr.rod@gmail.com

rodriguez@leoniaschools.org

What can you do in your classroom to ensure that all of

your students are able to access the mathematics?

Strategies Summary

Strategy 1:

Things to think about when planning your units

Strategy 2:

Checklists (problem solving, self-monitoring)

Strategy 3:

Ways to support student discourse

Strategy 4:

Types of manipulatives

Strategy 5:

General supports that you can provide

Strategy #1: Planning

• Purpose: Why? Where are we going with this?

• Relevance/authenticity: Can I make connections to this? Where? How?

• Alternate assessment:Project, portfolio, journal, presentation

Strategy #1: Planning

Strategy #1: Planning

Strategy #1: Planning

Strategy #1: Planning

Strategy #1: Planning

Conceptual art (inspired by Sol Lewitt)

Strategy #1: PlanningAlgebraic expressions & equations in a restaurant context

Strategy #1: Planning

For the day-to-day, here are some ways to mix up independent or partner practice:

• Mild, medium, spicy levels of exercises

• Tarsia puzzles

• Speed dating

• Pictionary

• Taboo

• I have…, who has…?

• Partner drawing/describing (sitting back-to-back)

Strategy #2: Checklists

• Students may need frequent reminders about routines, expectations, etc.

• Checklists support student independence

• There’s more student agency and ownership when students create these lists independently, with you, or as a class

Strategy #2: Checklists

Table cards

Strategy #2: ChecklistsStamp charts

(note: off task stamps are used sparingly and are dependent upon individual child… and kids eventually do stamps for themselves as year goes on)

Strategy #2: ChecklistsSelf-monitoring checklists

(highly suggest that you make them with individual students)

Strategy #2: ChecklistsSelf-monitoring checklists

Strategy #3: Supporting discourse

Sentence frames“I think that…”

“My idea is similar to ____’s because…”

“I (dis)agree with ____ because…”

“I still don’t really / I understand why ___ is the solution/works because ___.”

“I found out from ____ that…”

“My solution is incorrect because I originally thought ___, but when I talked to ____, it made me think ___” “I made ___ type of error because ___”

Strategy #3: Supporting discourseText2MindMap.com ---> create concept maps

Strategy #3: Supporting discourse

Graffiti discussions

Strategy #3: Supporting discourse

Think

Write

Pair

Share

Reflect

Strategy #3: Supporting discourse

Annotation symbols

• Borrow from humanities colleagues and tweak for your class.

• The symbols can be used for… (not limited to these, obviously)

– Agreement/disagreement

– Confusion

– Wonderings

– Questions

– Conjectures

– Extensions

Strategy #3: Supporting discourse

Visual word walls

Strategy #3: Supporting discourse

Post-it Notes

for

discussion, questions, and reflection

(from either you or the student)

Strategy #4: Manipulatives

Pipe cleaners and Wikki Stix

Strategy #4: Manipulatives

Play-Doh

Strategy #4: Manipulatives

Play-Doh

Strategy #4: Manipulatives

Pretzels,

Spaghetti,

Cheez-its,

Marshmallows… …any type of food, really…(particularly for Taboo and

Pictionary)

Strategy #4: Manipulatives

AngLegs

Image from: https://www.enasco.com/product/TB21288T

Strategy #4: Manipulatives

nlvsm.usu.edu

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

(must be on a computer that runs Java)

Strategy #5: General reminders

• Give specific places for students to express thinking—such as text boxes or lines:

• Chunk directions into understandable bullet points (with spaces for text boxes for each question)

• Model, model, model

• Graphic organizers

• Leave white space on the page – don’t cram a ton of words and don’t write long paragraphs

• Have students summarize and rephrase directions

• Color

• Goal setting

• Journaling as a way for students to reflect, summarize, outline

• Traffic light cups for self-assessment and questions

Strategy #5: General reminders

Tailor everything to the individual student!

(And be sure to follow the guidelines in the student’s IEP. ☺)

Want to discuss any of these ideas in more detail?

Send me an e-mail!

andrewr.rod@gmail.com

rodriguez@leoniaschools.org