Cristina Nemeth MAT in Biological Sciences and Teacher of Students with

Disabilities

Student Teaching in 7th Science and 7th grade replacement Math

Students as Learners 8 students in Math

replacement

All have Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) under IDEA

They vary in their abilities: Learning Disabilities, ADHD, Behavioral Disorders, OHI

In replacement based on recommendations and discussions during IEP conferences as well as their academic levels based on their IEP testing.

2013-2014, Bloomfield Middle School reported 19% of total student enrollment includes students with disabilities.

Why replacement?

7th grade Math curriculum: Connected Math

Connected Math is an inquiry based curriculum that allows students to work in collaborative groups to problem solve. Discovering for themselves is intended to make math learning more meaningful.

To be effective for diverse learners, Connected Math requires vocabulary and reading comprehension instruction.

84 minute blocks every day.

Replacement class focuses on: Scaffolded Instruction Explicit Instruction Discrete skill building Behavioral

Expectations

Who am I as a dual educator? Creative, strategic teaching

Rigorous content needs to be broken down to make it accessible to all learners; Multiple means of representation and engagement:

CURR 509: Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners SPED 568: Universal Design for Learning CURR 505: Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences

Strategies are built into the content: This allows students to learn the content while mastering the strategy for use in other contexts.

TFL 1: Strategies with Dr. Goeke

Teach students how to learn.

Teaching learning strategies is a cognitive-behavioral approach that facilitates independent learning for students with memory and/or metacognitive deficits.

CUBESMnemonic device for cognitive retrievalBreak down word problems into steps

CUBES Explicit Instruction

Probe of five 7th grade level word problems; administered every 1-2 weeks

20 minutes every other day for the past 10 weeks.

Explicit Instruction on each step of CUBES: I Do, We Do, You Do

This strategy promotes independent learners.

Students are taking responsibility for their own learning by using the self-monitoring tools provided (i.e., prompt, manipulatives, etc.).

Strategic predictability reduces anxiety (when teaching a new strategy, teaching approach should be predictable).

Students are carrying strategies over to other contexts.

CUBES

EvidenceOne student’s growth over 7 data points.

Evidence: 8 Students Progress on Cubes (10 weeks of instruction)

EvidenceOne student’s use of CUBES on a Math Unit Test.

Reflection

Strategy instruction must be done to mastery. Two students will be moving to inclusion classrooms for 8th

grade, I wonder if they will be able to generalize this strategy to help them succeed.

The success of this strategy has really proved to me that strategy instruction is necessary for the rigorous content learning for students with LD.

You don’t need to lower your expectations; you need to deliver the content in creative, effective ways to make all students successful.