As professional educators, we are constantly in search of powerful strategies that have a tangible impact on student learning. Given the limited amount of instructional time we have to work with students who struggle with learning challenges, we must also be mindful of how we choose to spend those precious instructional minutes. While the 21st Century World has provided us with unprecedented access to a vast number of resources on effective pedagogy, many teachers struggle to pare that professional advice down to a practical number of highly impactful strategies.

Researchers such as John Marzano, John Hattie, Karen Harris and Steve Graham have attempted to address this concern by identifying highly effective, evidence-based

practices through their own meta-analytical research. Meta-analysis is the statistical examination of a collection of individual studies. The effect size of these studies indicates the level of impact that particular strategies have on student learning. Generally accepted guidelines for interpreting effect size (ES) would be as follows: ES of .2 = a relatively small

impact ES of .5 = a moderate impact ES of .8 or higher = has a large

impact. Here’s an example of the kinds of

things educators can learn from meta-analyses. One very revealing meta-analysis in secondary education (Scruggs, Mastropieri, Berkeley, Graetz, 2010)

serving districts in

Volume 5, Issue 10, June 2016 Page 1

Show Me the Strategies! What are the Evidence-Based Strategies for Students with Disabilities?

By Denise Jaffe & David Luhman, Special Education School Improvement Specialists

RSE-TASC REPORTER LOWER HUDSON REGIONAL SPECIAL EDUCATION TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT CENTER

Inside this issue: Evidence-Based Strategies 1

RSE-TASC Workshops 2

Community Events 3

School Tool 3

Bright Spot 4

Contact Information 4 (cont. on pg. 3)

“What you see

and what you

hear

Hmmm… want a better understanding

of what different effect sizes mean?

A short video created by John Boniello,

RSE-TASC Specialist, uses simple

stick figures to demonstrate effect

size: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=6uYNVCy-8NA&feature=youtu.be

School-Wide Systems

Transition June

Transition in the IEP: Indicator 13

Self-Review, 6/6

CAN*DO Consortium—Career

Exploration for Students with

Disabilities, 6/8

July

Preparing Students for

Employment, 7/12

August

Graduation Options, 8/16

Leadership July

Developing Core Instructional

and Behavior Supports—For

Administrators, 7/13

Individualized Educational

Planning and the CSE Process June

Development and Measurement of

Effective IEP Goals (2-Day), 6/10 &

6/15 *WAIT LIST*

August

Developing Quality IEPs that

Improve Outcomes for Students

with Disabilities (2-Day), 8/23 & 24

To Register for our Regional Workshops Please go to www.pnwboces.org/catalog to register online. Click on the down arrow next to the box that says “Click one or more

options…”, then select RSE-TASC and click “Search”. Scroll down the webpage until you see the workshop in which you are

interested and then click on its name to see details and enroll.

What’s Coming Up in Summer 2016? Lower Hudson RSE-TASC Regional Trainings

What Works for Students with Disabilities

RSE-TASC REPORTER LOWER HUDSON REGIONAL SPECIAL EDUCATION TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT CENTER

Volume 5, Issue 10, June 2016 Page 2

Instructional Practices July

Explicit Instruction: Providing

Access to Curriculum for

Struggling Students (3-Day),

7/12, 13 & 14

August

Specially Designed Instruction

for ELLs (3-Day), 8/16, 17 & 18

Language Acquisition vs.

Learning Disability, 8/24

Literacy for English Language

Learners: What’s Different?,

8/25

Community Events Using Standards to Support All

Aspects of Literacy—Webinar; 6/1/16, HVRBE-RN at SW BOCES, www.swboces.org

Integrated Co-Teaching for English Language Learners; 6/2/16, HVRBE-RN at SW BOCES, www.swboces.org

WRS Introductory Workshop; begins 6/7/16 OR begins 8/22/16, The Hudson River Teacher Center (HRTC) at PNW BOCES, www.pnwboces.org/catalog

Accelerating ENL and SWD Learning with Imagine Learning, 6/8/16, LHRIC at SW BOCES, www.swboces.org

School Refusal: Special Focus-Depression, Anxiety & Learning

Differences; 6/10/16, Guidance & Child Study Center (GCSC) at PNW BOCES, www.pnwboces.org/catalog

Using Scaffolding, Formative Assessment and Feedback to Support Student Learning—Webinar; 6/14/16, HVRBE-RN at SW BOCES, www.swboces.org

Wilson Level II Advanced Strategies for Multisensory Structured Language Instruction (Group Mastery) Workshop; begins 6/27/16, The HRTC at PNW BOCES, www.pnwboces.org/catalog

Neuro-Linguistic Programming; Part 1; begins 7/11/16 Part 2: begins 7/25/16 Part 3: begins 8/15/16 The HRTC at PNW BOCES, www.pnwboces.org/catalog

Response to Intervention in the Secondary Classroom; 7/14/16 AND/OR 7/15/16, SW BOCES, www.swboces.org

ADHD and Learning Disabilities—Classroom Interventions and Instructional Strategies; begins 7/19/16, The HRTC at PNW BOCES, www.pnwboces.org/catalog

Pyramid Model: Strategies to Promote the Social & Emotional Competence of Young Children and Address Challenging Behavior, 3 Modules, 7/12, 7/16, 7/19, 7/23, 7/26, & 7/30/16, Connect the Dots New York Professional Development Site, Ossining, connectthedotsny@gmail.com.

Mark you calendar!

RSE-TASC REPORTER LOWER HUDSON REGIONAL SPECIAL EDUCATION TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT CENTER

found two categories of interventions to be particularly impactful on student learning: mnemonic strategies and explicit instruction.

Mnemonic strategies, or memory aids, were found to be highly effective and generalizable across academic content settings (ES=1.47). Many educators are familiar with the classic use of mnemonics like PEMDAS to recall the order of operations in math or ROY-G-BIV to memorize all the colors in the spectrum. However,

effective mnemonic strategies are not used just for rote memorization of facts. Fluent recall of content area vocabulary should be seen as an important part of increasing (not replacing) student capacity for building deeper conceptual understanding (Putnam, Deshler & Schumaker, 1992). Mnemonic strategies can also be used to recall and apply learning processes. One example of this would be the DISSECT word identification strategy. The POW+TREE and RAFT strategies

support students with remembering key steps in the writing process. The LINCS strategy helps students memorize and recall new content vocabulary. (See School Tool above.)

Explicit Direct Instruction was also shown to have a very substantial impact on the learning of students with disabilities (ES=1.68). EDI is a collection of instructional practices that combine together to create well-crafted lessons that explicitly teach grade level skills and

(cont. from pg. 1)

(cont. on pg. 4)

School Tools: Exploring Evidence-Based Strategies

Volume 5, Issue 10, June 2016 Page 3

20Types,3;#pubsearch

Learn more about the strategies discussed in our lead article here!

Mnemonic Strategies to Teach Your Students

PEMDAS — for remembering the order of operations in math: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra-

basics/core-algebra-foundations/algebra-foundations-order-of-operations/v/more-complicated-order-of-operations-example

DISSECT — a word identification strategy: http://www.ncset.org/publications/viewdesc.asp?id=720

POW+TREE — a writing strategy: http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/pow/cresource/q2/p04/

RAFT — a strategy for remembering key steps in the writing process: http://www.readwritethink.org/

professional-development/strategy-guides/using-raft-writing-strategy-30625.html

LINCS — a vocabulary strategy: http://www.wappingersschools.org/cms/lib01/Domain/839/LINCS%20Strategy.pdf

Want to learn more? If you clicked through the information above and found your appetite whetted for learning more about evidence-based learning strategies, here are some more sites to explore: The Iris Center at Vanderbilt Peabody College has a full section on

evidence-based student learning strategies; http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/ebp_summaries/

The What Works Clearing House has Practice Guides that identify evidence-based learning strategies: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Publications_Reviews.aspx?f=All%20Publication%20and%20Product%

Wondering what PEMDAS,

DISSECT, POW+TREE,

RAFT and LINCS are??

This School Tool will

help you find out!

Volume 5, Issue 10, June 2016 Page 4

(cont. from pg. 3)

RSE-TASC REPORTER LOWER HUDSON REGIONAL SPECIAL EDUCATION TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT CENTER

content. Components of a well-designed lesson include: a clear objective, activation of prior knowledge, a description of the lesson’s importance, concept development, guided practice, independent practice and lesson closure. In an effective EDI lesson, teachers consistently explain, demonstrate, model and then check for student understanding (Hollingsworth and Ybarra, 2009).

Patti Slobogin, Director Leslie Zedlovich, Jr. Administrative Assistant Felecia Morris, Sr. Office Assistant Pamela DiCioccio, Workshop Specialist Regional Trainers: John Boniello, Bilingual Special Education Specialist Kit Casey, Transition Specialist Sara Fienup, Behavior Specialist Dale Langley, Behavior Specialist Erin Leskovic, Preschool Behavior Specialist Laurie Levine, Regional Special Education Specialist

Ann Narcisse, Regional Special Education Specialist Stephanie Wozniak, Transition Specialist Special Education School Improvement Specialists (SESIS): Randy Ascher, Yonkers City Schools Andrew J. Ecker, Putnam Northern Westchester Fran Fernandez, Special Act and Approved Private Schools Denise Jaffe, Southern Westchester Barbara Kestenbaum, Rockland David Luhman, Southern Westchester John McCabe, Special Act and Approved Private Schools Martha Trujillo-Torp, Yonkers City Schools

RSE-TASC Staff—Contact us at 914-248-2289

It is of the utmost importance that we provide students with disabilities access to rigorous and challenging curricula. Given the high expectations that continue to anchor student learning in our state, it is good to know that educators can use meta-analytical research to select effective, evidenced-based strategies that consistently and reliably improve student learning.

Bright Spot!

What instructional practices supported this student success? Teachers incorporated the following EDI strategies into daily instruction: Providing a “bullet-proof” definition of the word “question”; Providing clear definitions of “open” and “closed” types of questions; Checking for understanding by frequently questioning students and calling

on non-volunteers; Asking students who have mastered the concepts to provide support to

students who have not yet mastered them; and Providing explicit, timely and specific feedback to student responses. What can we learn from this Bright Spot? Students can learn complex skills when teachers incorporate simple but

specific practices consistently during instruction that ensure students 1) have a clear understanding of objectives, and 2) receive frequent opportunities to practice while receiving corrective feedback!

Our Bright Spot this month comes from Fred Santoli, Coordinator of Curriculum & Assessment at Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES. Fred has been supporting teachers in the Fox Meadow program in using Explicit Direct

Instruction (EDI) strategies to increase high school students’ ability to ask higher order questions.

What did the students achieve? Students in the 11th grade US History class are asking and answering higher-order analysis and evaluation

questions related to quotes about the Cold War.

References: Hollingsworth, J. & Ybarra, S., Explicit Direct

Instruction, The Power of the Well-Crafted, Well-Taught Lesson, (2009).

Putnam, M.L., Deshler, D. D., & Schumaker J. B. (1992), The investigation of setting demands: A missing link in learning strategy instruction. In L. Meltzer (Ed.) Strategy assessment and instruction for students with learning disabilities: From theory to practice. Austin, TX : Pro-Ed.

Scruggs, S. E., Mastropieri, M. A.,Berkley, S., Graetz, J. E., (2010). Do Special Education Interventions Improve Learning of Secondary Content? A Meta-Analysis. Remedial and Special Education, Nov/Dec, Vol. 31, 6 437-449.