Much of the work I do in helping my students to read can be found at http://www.readerswithautism.com/.  Don’t let the title of the blog mislead you:  the comprehension interventions I’ve designed and discovered work with almost all students with mild-moderate learning disabilities, and can be customized to accommodate all sorts of learning needs.  

            Our Readers with Autism blog focuses primarily on the work we do in my classroom to support comprehension in reading fiction. 

            But that, of course, is not the sum total of reading instruction required to bring our kids to grade level.  From time to time, I will share ideas and instructional units and strategies that can be found in the most demanding classrooms.  I invite you to share your ideas and practices too, so that we can all become better at what we do.

autism · autism spectrum · demanding classroom · high expectations · hyperlexia · learning disabled · reading comprehension · rigor · rigorous instruction · Sara Finegan · special education · standards

By Sara Finegan

           When I first started teaching, I thought that the school’s Speech /Language Pathologist was pulling kids out of the classroom once or twice a week to work on things like stuttering, lisps, and other impediments.  It was several years before I caught on to the fact that more and more kids these days, both in and out of special education, have expressive and receptive language deficits, which is quite different from my initial perceptions.

            That was back when I had no idea what the different types of learning disabilities were.  (Isn’t it odd that in the entire body of coursework we follow to get certificated in special education, most of us are never explicitly taught what each of the disabilities are?  When was the last time you discussed the nature of “Specific Learning Disability” or “Non-verbal Learning Disorder,” or “auditory memory weaknesses”?  It’s the weirdest thing, and one that if we’re smart, we’ll address on our own by doing simple research and talking to our Speech/Language and Psychology experts.) 

Language deficits defined 

            Expressive language deficits mean that a child experiences difficulty retrieving and using the words and grammar necessary to convey ideas.  Receptive language deficits means that a child struggles to understand language, the meaning of words, and the intent of the speaker.

            I have a theory about these deficits; that they involve both biological and sociological factors.   Hear me out.

             Think about the generation we’re working with.  Both parents generally work at least one job, sometimes two.  In-depth conversations, where adults model interactive communication and their thinking processes as they address world and family issues, conflict, and decision-making, tend to be less frequent and often non-existent when the family schedule is filled with activities, work, and time constraints.  What passes for conversation in many of our homes is really just direction-giving and reporting-out:

• “Put the eggs in the fridge and watch your brother.”
• “Get dressed.  You don’t want to be late for school.  I don’t have time to drive you.”
•  “You pick up Timmy today, right?  I have to work late.”

            For kids who already have difficulty with language, this is not a scenario designed to support improvement.  Kids don’t have much opportunity to talk and be engaged in discussions.  Parents don’t have time to think aloud or model how they think about what they do, read, or see on TV.    As a result, an area of need quickly becomes and remains a weakness which impairs not just communication, but learning.

             These deficits are rather unobtrusive and you won’t notice them right away, often not until it’s time for a child to talk or write about what s/he is learning.  Even then, if you accept language like “he got some stuff at the store” instead of “while he was at the store, he bought three oranges and a can of tomato sauce”, you’re not going to be pay much attention to it.

            And there’s the key:  Too many of us accept vague language and do not demand specificity and the use of powerful vocabulary, because we either don’t realize what’s going on, or don’t have time to figure out how to change things, or figure that expressive and/or receptive language deficits are something the Speech Pathologist is going to handle. 

Demand specific and powerful vocabulary 

            In a demanding classroom, specific vocabulary is taught and used, word choice is emphasized, and instruction provides daily opportunities to talk meaningfully and practice expressing and understanding one another in every subject area. 

            I’ll be writing about some things that have worked in my classroom.  I want to hear what you do as well.  It’s good to have a library of terrific ideas to pull out and select from each year.

demanding classroom · expressive language · high expectations · language deficits · learning disabilities · learning disabled · receptive language · rigor · rigorous instruction · Sara Finegan · special education · speech pathology · standards · vocabulary

By Sara Finegan

         If we knew as much about math disabilities as we do about reading disabilities, we’d be in far better shape in this country. Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand educators and researchers have been exploring all aspects of difficulty with numbers for a long time. I don’t notice a whole lot of interest among American researchers, and as a result, we are unfocused and less-than experts when it comes to math instruction in the special ed classroom.

          I’m the first to admit that I don’t know a lot, and that I am slow to educate myself. This is probably because I wasn’t much good with math myself as a student, and I still have the residue of my frustration and insecurity flowing through my veins.

         Still, I’ve come to actually like teaching math, and have lately been having more success than failure in developing strategies that work in my classroom. In my school district, kids take benchmark assessments every 6-8 weeks in math to ascertain their progress and status with regard to the standards.

         For the first time last year, most of my students scored at Basic level or above after the first math benchmark exam.  We also made our way all the way through the fourth and fifth grade math standards – in our own time, and in our own way.  This year, 12 of 14 of my students are in general education math at their own grade level.  I’m not sure yet how well it’s working, but at least we’re giving it a try.

My two mentors. 

         I owe pretty much everything about my approach to math to two skilled colleagues. 

          Greg Roy, the sixth grade teacher at the elementary school that has been my home away from home for the last five years, introduced me to “friendly numbers” and “decomposing big numbers” and base tens. Leading our staff development in math, he taught me how to think about numbers and operations in a new way.

          He continues to give me simple explanations for concepts that seem too complicated for me to teach. And he trusts me enough now to have handed over half of the sixth grade general education class to me for math this year.

         Leatrice Roberts was for many years a District Math Resource Teacher in San Diego Unified School District until budget cuts eliminated her position. She’s now in her own classroom and doesn’t have as much time to help guide my thinking about math, but I can always reach her by email. And before the financial meltdown forced our district to wipe out the entire math department, she spent hours in my classroom learning about learning disabilities and brainstorming with me about ways to teach new concepts and skills.

         If not for Leatrice, I would not have overcome my fear of teaching kids about decimals: she walked in and did a one-hour lesson that opened up all of the doors for us and jump-started a comprehensive unit in which the kids became inspired by math.

Just another brick in the wall.

         I envision (and I’m sure this is not an original train of thought here) math as a long brick wall. (when I was in school, I think I bruised my head on it more times than not). Each brick is an important skill. The more loose or missing bricks we have, the more unsteady the wall. Most students in Special Day Classes are missing a lot of bricks, and the ones that are in place are precarious, at best.

 So what are these bricks?

         The bottom row is all about math facts.

• Knowing what makes ten and what ten minus any number is.
• Knowing what makes twenty and what twenty minus any number is.
• Knowing what makes one hundred.
• Multiplication facts.

         Math facts fit into an area of math reasoning called numeracy, which has to do with understanding the value , use, and place of numbers.

         Low numeracy is a highly-prevalent math disability that is pretty much unspoken in the U.S. In England, they know all about it and are developing ways to help kids and adults with coping strategies.

         We don’t really know why so many people don’t grasp the basic math facts. And it really doesn’t matter why, now, does it? What’s important is how we teach those facts or, if a student cannot internalize them, what strategies we can teach him or her to use to move on: what mortar, so to speak can we use to strengthen this level of the math wall?

         Another row of the brick wall has to be the language of math. There’s a whole vocabulary of math that one must know in order to be able to do things like set up a numerical equation from a word problem, or just figure out what a word problem is asking.

         This vocabulary is part of math reasoning, and you can bet that math reasoning is yet another skill set that is tenuous, at best, in kids with learning disabilities.  I’m just starting to explore the language of math. Well, not the language itself, but how to blend it into my instruction and get my students to embed it in their skill sets.

         Part of the reason that understanding the language of math is important is that it helps us to visualize what’s going on in a problem and grasp what the question is all about. Consider this word problem:

Ms. Finegan bought 92 Halloween pencils – the kind with sparkly purple and orange ghosts on them, and erasers in the shape of skulls. She wants to share them equally with her 18 students. How many will each student receive?

         If you don’t know that the words “share equally” mean that each student is going to get the same number of pencils, you aren’t going to be able to draw a picture or diagram of the problem, which I think is really important, though not crucial, to developing math reasoning.

         And if you don’t know that “share equally” implies division, you, like most of my students last year, you aren’t going to have the foggiest idea how to proceed with this problem whether you can draw or not.

         So many of our students not only don’t know the basic math vocabulary but have receptive and/or expressive language disorders that sometimes math instruction seems incredibly daunting. It’s much easier to throw a worksheet in front of students and teach them the rote solving strategies we learned growing up than it is to force the language through the lesson, to talk and talk, and model, model, model. But it’s that talking and talking that is going to develop math students.

For my next few posts about math instruction, I’m going to focus on these basic numeracy skills. We’ll move on to higher-level reasoning later in the year.

demanding classroom · high expectations · learning disabled · low numeracy · math disabilities · math language · number sense · rigor · rigorous instruction · Sara Finegan · special education · standards

By Sara Finegan

          One of the cornerstones of demanding classrooms is that planning is done backwards.  When we begin our thinking by focusing on what we want the kids to be able to do at the end, we are already setting high expectations, and  high expectations are key.

          In a way, backwards planning is easier than the traditional way we think of developing instruction.  Doing it the old-fashioned way is discouraging:  if we start by focusing on what the kids can’t do, and see the destination as an uphill journey, we’re exhausted before we take our first step.  It’s no way to teach, and for a  child, it’s no way to be taught.

What do I want them to be able to do?

          Begin, therefore, with a list of what you want your students to be able to do at the end of a given unit of study.  For example,

•  I might want my students to be able to write a reading response that includes a summary, a description of the problem or a character, and a paragraph or two describing the child’s  connection to the story. 
• Or I might want my students to be able to add negative numbers fluently and with a minimum score of 80% on a given assessment. 
• Perhaps I want my students to be able to describe the plot features of a text. 
•  Maybe I want my students to be active participants in a literature circle.   
• Perhaps what I want is for my students to successfully complete a science notebook write-up that describes the purpose of an experiment, observations, methodology, materials, hypothesis and conclusions according to a standard rubric.

 Aim high.   

          Aim for the existing standards for any student at grade level.

          Once you know where you’re going, it’s time to take a look at what skills are required in order to get there. 

•  What does one need to be able to do in order to write a reading response? 
• What does a child need to be able to do in order to add and subtract negative numbers?  
• What does my class need to know in order to give me an accurate description of the plot features of a given story? 
• What skills does writing a grade-level science assignment entail?

Make a list. 

          Check it twice.  And then break it down some more.  By this I mean, piece apart all of the different sub-skills that are needed in order to achieve the items on your list. 

In order to write a summary paragraph, a student needs to be able to:  write complete sentences; learn to use his or her own words to describe what happens in a passage; organize facts in sequential order; keep track of who did what in a story; understand the main idea. 

In order to talk about a story in a literature circle, students need to:  know how to develop ideas as they read; jot down thoughts while they read; know how to raise topics in discussion; take turns; add on to someone else’s ideas; listen reflectively; listen responsively. 

          Don’t worry too much about getting everything broken down to the smallest degree.  There will be plenty of time for tweaking your skills list later, as you make discoveries with your students.  I’ve never been able to predict every single skill that is needed in order for my kids to accomplish something; I always end up adding a concept and then finding ways to teach it mid-stream.  That’s part of the excitement of teaching.

What can thhey already do?

           Once you’ve dissected the skills and concepts, it’s time to focus on your students.  Take a look at them with an objective eye:  What are they already able to do?  What are they close to mastering, just needing another push? 

           Obviously, our students aren’t a homogeneous lot, and some students have more skills than others for any given lesson.  Pay attention to that, and make a mental note about the ones who are further ahead – you will want to use them as peer mentors as  you go.    Your students are some of the best tutors, and most inspirational teachers in your classroom.

          At this point, you will need to start planning your instruction in detail.  Take one small piece of the puzzle at a time, and think about how you can bring your students to competency:  what strategies can you use to provide them with appropriate opportunities to learn?    Notice that I am using the plural:  strategies.  You will want to teach the same skills in a variety of ways to accommodate different learning styles, learning needs, and to reenforce the concepts repeatedly.

          As I tell my student teachers:  go forth and think.

backwards planning · demanding classroom · high expectations · learning disabled · lesson planning · rigor · rigorous instruction · Sara Finegan · special education · standards · teaching strategies

By Sara Finegan

Sara and Richard Finegan

There’s a misconception among many in the field of education about special education.  To many, “learning disabled” means “unable to learn” or “limited learning capacity.”  The focus is on the “dis” part of “disability” instead of the ability part.  They ask the wrong questions:  “how smart is he?” rather than “how is he smart?”

We’re all guilty of this to some extent, and the result is that in more cases than not, the special education classroom is one where the learning is “dumbed down” and expectations are too low to inspire growth.

When this happens, our students become dependent on us for learning and information rather than independent thinkers.  When we lower our expectations because of assumptions about learning capacity or processing strengths, the kids learn not to think hard, think deeply, or use their strengths.

When kids aren’t taught to rigorous standards and to use and master important skills, they begin to abdicate responsibility for learning.  We cripple them  by modifying our expectations when what we should really be doing is  strengthening them by modifying our instruction to move them forward.

Over the course of the last decade, I’ve taught all kinds of students, from those with emotional disabilities to language deficits, cognitive and processing deficits, autism, and everything in between.  My long-time aide, whose three children are in  general education classes, informs me regularly that our classroom goes deeper and works kids harder than many general education classes in our district.  Certainly, we don’t require less than they do in terms of the quality and quantity of work from our students.

My students work hard, and I expect them to meet the State standards in every subject area.  My job is to figure out for each student how to get them there.

When I talk about having a demanding classroom, I’m not referring to the students.  I’m referring to my teaching.

This blog is intended to share the instructional strategies and practices that we use in our classroom, and to demonstrate how running a demanding classroom promotes the kind of intellectual growth and development of skills that students with mild to moderate learning disabilities need in order to be successful independent learners.

Your comments and questions are welcome as we embark on this journey.

demanding classroom · high expectations · learning disabled · rigor · rigorous instruction · Sara Finegan · special education · standards