Supporting Students with

Thanh NguyenEdsc 310 - Instructor: Ellen Kottler

What types of Special Needs are there?Students today come from a wide range of cultural backgrounds and having a variety of learning abilities and learning styles. Teachers are likely to have students in their classrooms with different kinds of disabilities, including:

• Learning Disabilities• Intellectual Disabilities• Behavior Disorders• Autism• Neurological Impairments• Hearing Impairments• Visual Impairments• English Language Learners

Inclusion Strategies For Secondary Classrooms Ensuring Students Understand

Instructions• Keys: 1. Gain Students’ Full Attention2. Provide Written and Oral Instructions3. Repeat Instructions4. Chunk Instructions5. Solocit Tell-Backs and Show-Mes

Gain Students’ Full AttentionWhy is this a good strategy?Attention is ensuredConfusion is eliminated when we have students’ attention

Students with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have learning disabilities on various types of attention:• Executive attention• Selective attention• Sustained attention• Orienting attention

Provide Written and Oral InstructionsProviding oral and written instructions helps students with ELN succeed.

Why is this a good strategy?Perception improves with multicoding of informationConfusion is eliminated when perception is supportedSequencing is facilitated when students both hear and see instructionsFrustration is reduced when students understand what they are supposed to

do

Poor auditory perception need written directions.

Poor visual perception need oral directions.

Repeat InstructionsRepeating directions is an effective key for increasing students’ ability to carry out assignment correctly.

Why is this a good strategy?Sequencing is facilitated when students have more than one opportunity to

listen to steps of an assignmentConfusion is eliminated when students are repeated exposed to directionsMemory is enhanced by multiple exposuresFrustration is reduced when confusion is eliminated.

We repeat directions at least once, and sometimes twice, for a total of three exposures.

Chunk InstructionsChunking: means to combine small, meaningful units of information.Why is this a good strategy?Confusion is eliminated when students are not overwhelmed with inputMemory is enhanced when smaller numbers of items must be rememberedFrustration is decreased when students know exactly what to do

Chunking makes instructions easier to remember by reducing the memory load.

Solocit Tell-Backs and Show-MesWhy is this a good strategy?

Confusion is eliminated when students know exactly what to doMemory is enhanced when students repeat back or demonstrate instructionsMetacognition is increased when students know that they know what to doFrustration is eliminated when confusion is eliminated

We need to stop asking ”Do you understand?” and start to using Tell-backs and Show-Mes