By Sara Finegan

Now that I’ve got the standards identified and turned into tamed beasts, I turn my attention to the resources I’m going to need to teach them.  This is where I become a sleuth, poring through books and magazines and the internet to find materials to use in the classroom.  The following are some of the places I’ve used to build a bank of resources for use in my classroom and to support IEP students in the general education environment as well.

•  English Language Learner resources in your district

Most districts don’t have a ton of lower-level reading materials that can be used in  conjunction with grade-level science and social studies units.  Some, however, have materials for English Language Learners, and those should be grabbed by you whenever possible and used as a part of your instruction.  Second Language learning materials use simplified text and have more visual resources than the general ed texts we have in our classrooms.  If your district has them, find them and get at least one set.

• Visit the book room for primary grade materials

Most schools have a book room or closet containing books that teachers can use at a variety of levels.  One of my schools had a small walk-in closet with shelves full of baskets of leveled books as well as books by topics.    Another one had an entire room with bagged sets of books at each level.  Some were to be used for Extended Day Reading or Intersession classes, but all were available to any teacher who wanted to go through them.

I started at the lowest level and moved my way up, pulling books at every level that were related to anything I was teaching or that my general ed colleagues would be teaching.  I was initially surprised at how much was available from the primer level on up about things like rocks, magnets, landforms, stars and planets, plants, the food chain, and habitats.  I was even more surprised to find books about famous people at even the lowest grade level.

The unit bins that I’ve left for my third, fourth and fifth grade gen ed colleagues to use next year with their inclusion students have books for kids at every reading level.

• Discarded materials

When I first started teaching at the school I am now leaving, my principal didn’t give me the current texts for social studies, language arts, or science.  What she did do was introduce me to the book room at our school, where we had, for many years, an enormous library of discarded textbooks at every grade level.  I was encouraged to take whatever I wanted, and I did.

Discarded text?  you may ask. How exactly does an older version of the fourth grade social studies curriculum help teach my kids who read below grade level?  Hah!  The following are some ways that I have used discarded texts:

• I cut out illustrations and maps from the pages of discarded social studies and science textbooks and paste them on index cards.  In some cases, I label the photos/maps and use them as visual cues for the kids as we are teaching.  In other cases, I put the labels on a separate card, and we use entire sets of cards as sorting  cards.  This is how I got a bunch of pictures of prominent people in the early history of the U.S., and now my kids can play a memory game, matching portraits to names.

• Some social studies textbooks in my district have full-page illustrations that are great for laminating and using in a variety of activities.  I found three old California history texts that had a full-page illustration of each type of resident of California.  I cut them out of the book and laminated them, and now we have an easy-to-read, completely labeled picture of a Spanish explorer, a California Native, a Mexican Ranchero, A Gold Rush Miner, and a Railroad builder.  I can create questions for kids to answer using the illustrations, or let kids use them to write sentences, among other activities.

• Textbooks from lower grades often have stories or information that applies to standards at higher grades.  I found a short and easy story about a pioneer child in a primary grades language arts textbook that my own students can use as we learn about westward expansion.  There was a nice little story about the American flag in an old first grade book that I cut out and laminated for my students.   On more than one occasion I’ve found texts I can use for upper grades science instruction in a kindergarten or first grade book.  You just never know! 

• Districts don’t just discard textbooks; there are a variety of other books and materials that become outdated and can be culled for use in differentiated instruction.  In past years, I’ve been able to find timelines to post in my room for history units, supplementary math workbooks to use, graphic organizers, maps, two globes,  posters, and games designed to use with specific textbook activities. 

• Other teachers have given me old story books they no longer use, and that’s how I’ve obtained a goodly number of Native American tales, easy biographies of scientists, books about farm life to use in colonial and pioneer units, fiction stories about fish to use in an ocean habitat unit, and picture books about stars and the solar system to use in science instruction.  I recently found a whole booklet a fellow teacher, at the kindergarten level, had given me about Native Americans.  It had been part of a Thanksgiving unit or something, but it contained a plethora of things I could use in American history at levels all of my students could read.

All kinds of books can be recycled and re-used in any classroom, if you’re creative enough. 

• Teaching materials you can purchase

Awhile back, when I had some extra money for my classroom, I purchased several books of reading material at the second and third grade levels for my kids in the fourth, fifth and sixth grade.  They were put to great use in our reading instruction.   I discovered later that they are also terrific for science and social studies.   In the second  grade reading book, I found short biographies of American leaders, five short texts about plants and plant life, three short pieces about stars, the sun, and galaxies, and about eight pages of text about different aspects of the human body.  All of them provide basic information with comprehension questions to answer, and all of them became parts of my different unit resources for social studies or science.

The third grade book had stories about ocean life, pieces about landforms (mountains, lakes, rivers), and short biographies of famous Native Americans.  Once again, perfect for our upper elementary social studies and science units!

As I was rummaging through my storage bins, I found some first and second grade level readers theater books I’d purchased at around the same time.  To my surprise, they had a bunch of short scripts that could be incorporated into our units of study:  one was about the solar system, one was about Johnny Appleseed, one was about the water cycle, and one was about Plains Indians.  Perfect!

Our local 99 cent store often has things I find useful.  I’ve gotten coloring books that have fairytale characters,  space and solar system pictures, and plants and flowers that can be incorporated into low-level literacy or science unit bins.  I’ve also found playing cards of the different American states, which are fabulous to use in US history.

I wouldn’t spend a lot of money on these kinds of materials, but if you find anything at used bookstores, discount stores, or yard sales, snap them right up.

• The internet:  materials to download

I have spent hours surfing the net for materials I can use with my students.  There are millions of websites with millions of things you can download or copy for free.  Most of my sorting card photos come from google images – the copyright laws allow you to use them in the classroom so long as you don’t disseminate them elsewhere.   I’ve gotten short stories and easy reading texts about science and social studies we have used for years.  I’ve pulled easy-to-read fairy tales and printed them out for kids to use.  You would be surprised at how much free stuff is out there that can be used directly or used to create other materials for our students.

I found a great site that described the different kinds of houses that Native Americans lived in, complete with pictures.  I printed out information on each type of housing on separate sheets of paper to be used in small groups or the document camera.  Even though the text may be too difficult for some kids to read on their own, it can be read aloud to them.  Then, I copied each of the photos and printed them to be used to sorting cards.  Now my students, who will be learning about how Native Americans in each region of the U.S. lived, will be able to match the pictures to the names of the houses, and thus demonstrate what they’ve learned.

• The internet:  materials to download for a fee

Whenever possible, I try to get what I need for teaching without paying anything out of my own pocket.   However, there are a variety of websites that have materials that are available to members who pay a small fee.  Over the years, I’ve purchased one-year memberships and downloaded everything I could before allowing my subscription to lapse.  I now have, saved on my school computer, my home laptop, and a flashdrive, an enormous library of materials that I can pull out as needed.

Enchanted Learning is a teacher website that provides materials and activities, mostly for k-3 levels, on a huge variety of topics.   The fee to join is less than $30, I believe, and  for that money, I’ve gotten booklets, worksheets, and activities related to math, science, social studies, and literary genres.  They form an integral part of my resource bins for both my own classroom and gen ed inclusion:

• The fifth grader with severe cognitive impairment can make a weather words wheel and learn several new sight words.
• The  student reading at grade 1 can learn about famous American leaders by reading easy books about George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Cesar Chavez, and  Martin Luther King.

One thing I love about Enchanted Learning is that each thematic unit has activities that cross strands of the curriculum.  Thus:

• Kids can practice alphabetizing lists of words related to units about the solar system, Christopher Columbus, the weather, seasons, and mammals.
• When we study analogies, kids can practice using facts or ideas related to science or social studies units.
• Similes and Antonym matching sheets are available for most of the science units I’m preparing.

I’ve gotten more than my money’s worth from Enchanted Learning, and no, they have not compensated me for this endorsement at all!

School Express is another one of those fabulous websites with hours of downloading fun.  By joining this year, I was able to obtain thematic units on a variety of science and social studies topics – everything from landforms to the Revolutionary War to a biography of Thomas Edison.  The text isn’t at most of my students’ levels, but it can be read aloud in most cases and provides an alternative or supplement  to the even harder social studies textbooks.   Each thematic unit has a fun activity booklet from which you can pull things for kids to do.

School Express also has e-workbooks with  very low level math and literacy learning opportunities.  I’ve gotten series of booklets to use in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division activities, phonics materials, grammar resources, and vocabulary support.  My library of writing prompts for sentences, paragraphs, and narrative stories has been greatly enhanced.  I added to my resources for the fairy tale genre unit by downloading all of the fairy tales in booklet form that kids can read and color.  All in all, this is a terrific site, and again, they have not rewarded me in any manner and have no idea that I’m recommending them on this blog.

Awhile back I purchased a one-year membership to Reading A-Z, an online teaching resource site that has leveled booklets you can download.  I downloaded everything I could at the lowest levels, and now I have them, permanently, to use.  Initially, they became an integral part of my guided reading instruction resources, as the stories could be easily copied and then used and re-used.  Later, I realized how many of them, both fictional and expository, can be used in conjunction with science and social studies instruction.  For example:

• The story about a salmon became part of the bin on Indians of the Pacific Northwest as well as the Rivers Habitat unit bin.
• Booklets about pond life include, at level A, “Pond Animals”, level B, “Pond Life”, Level D, “The Busy Pond”, and Level I, “Life at the Pond”.

Reading A-Z costs a little more than the other sites, but it provides enough materials make it worth the cost in many cases.  If you can get your school to reimburse you, more’s the better.  (And yet again, they have not compensated me in any way for this mention.)

accessing grade-level · accommodations · grade-level standards · lesson planning · modifications · resources · rigorous instruction · science · social studies · sorting cards · special education · teaching strategies

By Sara Finegan

Having special needs in the classroom doesn’t mean that you lack the ability to learn; it means that you learn differently.   It’s not about how smart a child is; it’s about how he or she is smart.

For years, educators and parents believed that students with cognitive impairments and other moderate-severe disabilities were not well-served by inclusion in general education classes.  It was a natural extension of this philosophy to decide that these children also couldn’t follow the general education curriculum.    At first glance, this makes sense; it is only when one pauses to look more carefully that one sees the distortions.

It’s certainly true that a child with cognitive impairments, who can’t read independently cannot read the science textbook and keep a science notebook like his or her gen ed peers.   There’s no doubt that a child who has limited verbal capacity can’t write a five-paragraph essay about the Sioux Indians, or read and understand the Mayflower Compact.

But that doesn’t mean that the kids aren’t able to learn about and demonstrate their understanding of Native American daily life or the Pilgrims’ ordeal in the New World.   You don’t have to be able to read to access text.  You don’t have to be able to write to show what you know.

This year my class had the gift of accepting a fourth grader with autism and mild cognitive impairment into our five-six combo class.  Jack (name changed to protect the fabulous and amazing) had no  choice but to learn about Ancient Greece and Rome with us.  To be sure, he couldn’t use the text book the way the others could, and he didn’t have the ability to make connections between the Greek and Roman forms of government and the current U.S. political system.

• But he could, and did, read fables and do a report on them.  He could, and did, handle the tallying of votes as we explored democracy.
• He could, and did, learn all about the different Greek gods and goddesses and served as the go-to expert when we played Jeopardy!
• He could, and did,  learn 25 vocabulary words related to the units of study.
• He could, and did, create a power point presentation about Harry Potter (ok, not related to social studies or science, but still!)

There’s an ongoing debate, albeit a quiet one, about whether someone like Jack really would be better off learning about Ancient History when he might be, instead, learning independent living skills and the kind of reading and writing he will have to do as an adult.   I confess that I don’t know.  What I do know is that I have never been able to determine what a child’s capacity actually is, and thus have not been privy to knowing what he or she will be able to do as an adult.    Jack came to me unable to do anything independently and very averse to trying difficult things.  By the end of the year, he was actively engaged with other kids in the class, participating in all of our lessons, and doing things nobody had thought he could.

All it took, besides my amazing aide Tamara, was a little planning time.  OK, a lot of planning time.

And there’s the rub: preparing materials and activities for kids with moderate-severe disabilities to access the gen ed curriculum is extremely time-consuming.   As far as I know, there aren’t pre-built units available on the market to use; you must be creative and innovative.

This kind of instruction can be provided in both special ed and general ed classrooms.  If you are designing it for a general ed classroom then it also has to be structured around the gen ed teacher’s time-frame, teaching style and structure, and areas of emphasis.   I suppose you can develop a generic set of tasks and materials, but if we’re serious about teaching every child at his or her level, then we need to provide our kids with special needs with work that makes sense.

And once you’ve created a resource bank to use, you can’t stop there.  You must constantly be building upon it, adding to it, revising, and customizing it to fit the needs of each child.

The task may seem daunting.  For some, it may appear to be an impossible responsibility.   But I think that, if we understand the proper methodology to use, we can, slowly but surely, create for our students and our gen ed colleagues a workable system that allows all of us to engage in the job of teaching in new and exciting ways.

autism · general education · Inclusion · learning styles · lesson planning · modifications · multiple intelligences · science · social studies · special education · teaching strategies · unit planning

By Sara Finegan

         I post on a lot of message boards about learning disabilities and autism, and I also get a lot of emails from people who are following my blogs.  One of the most frequent topics is:  how a teacher told a parent that a student “doesn’t have reading comprehension.”

         Naturally, the parents want to know what to do. 

         The problem, of course, is that reading comprehension isn’t something you “HAVE” or “GET”, as in purchasing at a store or obtaining through a tutor.  You can’t put it on and take it off like a sweater, and you can’t keep it in the fridge until you need it.

         Reading comprehension is all about a reader’s relationship to text, and is based almost entirely on his or  her engagement and interaction with the piece being read.  It’s the relationship.  Relationship, relationship, relationship.

         Thinking of it in terms of a relationship leads me to the next step, which is to ask whether, when a friend discusses  a relationship that is flawed or failing, we simply let him or her  say “it’s not good” and leave it at that, or whether we start probing and asking questions to try to piece out what’s going on (or not going on).

         If you’re the kind of person who runs a demanding classroom, that’s exactly what you do.

What is this relationship with text made up of? 

         What behaviors does one see in a good relationship with text?  I’m ready to talk about a few, and will post more at another time.

         We’ll start with fiction and narrative.  (The relationship a reader has with informational, non-fiction text involves some different behaviors, so that will be the topic of another post.)  Research has shown that good readers of fiction do a number of different things when they read: 

• They visualize what they are reading about.  Like a movie in one’s head, a good reader sees what the text is describing.  This helps the reader enter into the world of the story, and leads to all sorts of other behaviors we like to see.
• They make inferences based on what they’re reading.  Good readers know that, in the best stories, the author shows you what’s happening instead of telling you directly, and they are able to infer ideas, feelings, and motives, not to mention facts, from what the author does with words.
• They ask questions as they read.  Lots of questions, knowing that they will find the answers in the story as it moves along.  This is done especially when they are trying to figure out what is going on, but also when they are thinking about things like character motives, and the conflict in the story.
• They use their background knowledge (personal, and from other stories they’ve read, as well as knowledge about the genre) to make predictions.  A good reader is going to know in a fantasy novel that there is going to be a struggle between good and evil, and that magical or fantastical creatures are probably going to play a role in the battle.  A good reader is going to use her personal knowledge of what it’s like to be the youngest in the family to predict how a baby sister may react during a family holiday. 
• They make connections between their own experiences and feelings and those of characters in the book.  They also make connections between world events and issues and people and events in the book.  And they make connections between stories, comparing one character in a book to a character in another book, etc.
• They check for understanding, pausing periodically to make sure they know what’s happening, and going back and re-reading if it’s unclear to them.

         It is our obligation as teachers to investigate, when a child clearly isn’t understanding what she or he is reading, what behaviors the child is engaging in, and what reading behaviors are weak.  It is based on this information that we can devise interventions that work, supports that help the child begin to make meaning from text.

         In a demanding classroom, the staff pays attention to each reader, keeping notes or logs about conferring sessions, guided reading interactions, and other data that will help them determine what skills to teach next. 

          In a demanding classroom, the teacher can, with pretty good specificity, explain to parents and colleagues what particular areas of need the child has with regard to his or her relationship to a book or story. 

          And in a demanding classroom, a report at a parent conference that “Johnny doesn’t understand what he’s reading” is followed immediately by  “and I have observed him and conferred with him, and I think here’s what’s going on and what our next steps should be.” 

For more of my posts on reading comprehension teaching strategies, see our other blog, Readers With Autism: http://readerswithautism.com .

autism · background knowledge · connections · demanding classroom · fiction · high expectations · inferences · inferencing · learning disabilities · learning disabled · narrative · predictions · questioning · questions · Reading · reading behaviors · reading comprehension · relationship · relationship with text · rigor · special education · standards · teaching strategies · understanding · visualization · visualize

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 · special education · standards · teaching strategies