Pat Murray, from Greater Latrose High School in Latrose, PA uses power writing as a technique to help transfer information from short term to long term memory. She suggests that students power write about what they’ve learned for 3 minutes immediately following a 15 minute lecture. Visual learners could also add stick-figure drawings to provide memory cues and enhance what they write.

Power writing can also be used as a way to improve writing skill. Mr. Smiddy, of Staunton Elementary, defines power writing as “a method of writing designed to improve students’ writing through a three step process.

The beginning step teaches word power, sentence power (structure) and basic paragraph structure.

The middle step focuses on stronger paragraphs with elaboration.

The advanced step combines what students have learned into a multiple paragraph essay” For more power writing tips and techniques from Mr. Smiddy, check out his website.

Visual Demonstration

1. The Brain – the intro: like the brain, the intro “controls” the body of the essay (especially point out ‘thesis’)

2. The Heart – body paragraph: at the “heart” of the essay are the body paragraphs.

3. The Feet – conclusion: like your feet,the conclusion leads you to somewhere new (i.e. new idea, insight). Also students should be able to answer the question “so what?” (Why is this information important?) by the time the essay has reached the feet. –

Visual

Quack! SAT Vocab Success!
This educational video set has earned high praise for it’s ability to blend an irreverent sense of humor with an “educational assisting program designed to beef up students’ language skills before taking the SAT test.” ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Auditory

Who hasn’t had a song stuck in their head, at one time or another? Using the naturally catchy nature of tunes to have your students leaving your classes humming the answers to next weeks test seems to sell itself. The following are a couple of links that offer educational songs for download. There are songs for all grade levels as well as subjects.

SongsForTeaching.com

HaveFunTeaching.com

KidsKnowIt.com

Kinesthetic

The following was an idea suggested to me by Megan Taylor of Ozark, MO, as a method for getting physical learners to take hold of abstract ideas. kinesthetic spelling: Use your body as the letters on the line. For example: “Political” – P-stand, o-sit, l-stand, i-sit, t-stand, i-sit, c-sit, a-sit, l-stand. When an entire class spells out a word and performs this, it also adds a visual and auditory dimension to the idea.

Last Friday, I did my “Differentiated Instruction Strategy Blast” seminar at Gilmanton  School. Not only was a treated to breathtaking foliage on the way to this New Hampshire town, I spent the day with a motivated, positive staff who truly care about helping their students succeed.

Here’s the first indicator: The front tables filled up first! When I saw that happen I knew that I was in for a great day! Ok, it’s true, we presenters are partial to people who are willing to brave the front row.

• For students to build vocabulary skills at home, suggest to parents that they turn on the closed captioning on tv.

• Use the sign language alphabet to have students practice spelling words. We used it very successfully with special education students in grades 4-8. One first grade teacher plans to use it as a center. Idea contributed by Amy Small

• A great website for building vocabulary and doing a good deed is www.freerice.com – grammar, foreign languages, multiplication, vocab, science elements. Idea contributed by Erika Langlais

• For pictures to connect to vocabulary for visual vocabulary review cards, try  http://www.makebeliefscomix.com  –  This site is a wonderful tool for teachers and students alike!

• Lastly, here is a a free online tool that has the potential to meet the needs of more than just the students with learning disabilities for whom it was intended. Read the Words — http://readthewords.com “Originally designed for students with disabilities, ReadTheWords accepts multiple input formats such as MS Word, PDF, or html for users to create readings. Output is a synthesized speech file in one of fifteen voices that can be heard online, downloaded, saved, and shared. If you download the toolbar, you can convert text in a web page to speech without having to go to ReadTheWord.com”

Behavior Management Cue Card Approach!

Here’s a way to quietly cue students to choose positive behavior. Use a cue card! 

Behavior management cue card instructions:

     1.     Print out this card or your own version of the card.

2.     Choose your method:

a.     Tape a card on the upper right corner of each student desk.

  i.      Laminate the card

  ii.      Use clear shipping tape to secure it to the desk

b.     Hang it from a lanyard around your neck or keep it in your pocket

  i.      Laminate the card

  ii.      Punch a hole in the top of the card to hang from a lanyard

3.     Explain the card to the students:

a.     You might explain, “I want to use a system to help students stay on track without embarrassing students by saying something out loud. I also want a way to praise students and let them know that I’m pleased with good behavior and choices without causing embarrassment. So, I’m going to use this card to let you know my expectations or give kudos – quietly. Here is an example of the card and what the pictures mean.”

b.     Explain what each picture means.

c.      Explain that you do not expect students to say anything in response.

d.     Explain how you will use the card.

e.     When a student needs to be redirected, simply walk quietly up to the student.

 i.       Make eye contact – and preferably smile. The point is to minimize the possibility that a power struggle will ensue.

 ii.      After eye contact is made with the student, point to the picture that sends the message that you need to deliver.

iii.      Do not wait for a response.

iv.      Turn around and walk away.

v.      If a student chooses to say something in response to a redirection, they are inviting a power struggle.

vi.      Avoid taking the bait if at all possible. Turn and walk away and wait to see if the student complies.

f.       When a student earns praise, simply walk up to the student, make eye-contact, smile and point to the ‘praise’ picture.

i.      Do not wait for a response.

ii.      Turn around and walk away.

Be generous with your praise. Students should receive 5-7 positive statements from the teacher in ratio to each negative comment.

Teachers, do you have a website? Start a blog or better yet, use Edublogs.orgto BE your blog Using Edublogs also allows you to involve your students in the blogging process. Having students blog is an excellent way to improve their writing skills, and showcase their work and ideas. It’s also a wonderful forum for teachers to share best practice strategies on a “website” with other teachers. Do you have strategies for Inclusion, Co-teaching, Differentiated Instruction that can help other teachers? Be a blog author and share. Who knows what doors that may open up for you and your students. It’s a wonderful way to pay it forward.
Technorati Profile

I recently presented a workshop in Schnecksville, PA. The participants’ challenge was to create a song to help students memorize test taking strategies. They all did such a wonderful job with their rhymes, songs and mnemonics that I wanted to share them with all of you. The memorization & test taking strategies they’ve included are from the book, Umm… Studying? What’s that? By Shivahn Fitzell

The following rhyme explains how to approach multiple choice questions on a standardized test:

First do the easy.

Then do the tough.

Quickly guess the difficult stuff.

Focus on multiple choice, they say later come back to do the essay.

Cross out answers that don’t make sense.

You’ll be done in no time, w/out being tense.

Watch your time and you’ll be fine.

Easy first, then the worst.

Guess the rest try your best.

Multi-choice then your voice.

Please don’t shirk, check you work.

Easy

Difficult

Guess

Multiple choice

Essay

Cross out wrong

Starring: Donna Barone, Tammy Weaver, Carissa Capwell, Kathleen Teay, Brent Herzog.

To the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star….

Calculate the time you need.

If you do you will succeed.

Easy questions first, they say

Difficult next is the best way

Multiple choice before essay

Guess the rest and end your day.

Time                               (draw a clock)

Easy                              EZ

Difficult                        E=Mc2

Guess                            ????

Multiple choice            ABCD

Cross out                       XXXX

To the tune of Frere Jacques….

Calculate time, calculate time

Easy first, easy first

Do the harder questions next

At the very end just guess

Then you’re done, have some fun!

Time for testing, time for testing

Easy first, easy first

Then we do the hard ones

Quickly guess the others

Then cross out, then cross out

How to manage time.  To the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat…

Try the easy questions first

Don’t waste too much time

Spend more time on harder ones

And you will do fine

Save the essay for the last

You can make it fun

List ideas before you start

Write a sentence for each one.

R.T.I is the practice of providing high-quality instruction and intervention matched to student need, monitoring progress frequently to make decisions about change in instruction or goals and applying child response data to important educational decisions. (NASDSE, 2005)

Why do it? IDEA 2004 provides for the use of RTI as part of the process to determine eligibility for learning disabilities.  Today, school districts are facing the challenge of sorting out what RTI should look like and how it might be best implemented.

How do we do it?

To Get There in Practice: We Need to Do Three Things:

1. Adopt a three tier intervention system structure.
2. Use a problem-solving method to make decisions within the multi-tier model.
   • Is there a problem and what is it?
   • Why is the problem happening?
   • What are we going to do about it?
   • Did our intervention work?
3. Use scientifically validated teaching practices to the greatest degree possible.

This sounds simple, right? Well, changing our teaching practice is never simple. There is much theory at present about R.T.I. and few simple, common sense and practical strategies. I’ve researched some of the best online resources to support your efforts to implement Response to Intervention in your school or district.

The following links give you 12 outstanding resources to support Response to Intervention in your school or district.

1)    http://www.aimhieducational.com/Books/CogentCatalystPublications.html Click on Products & scroll down to RTI Posters

These two posters create a visual flow chart of how Differentiated Instruction, Response to Intervention, Marzano’s Strategies & Susan’s best-practice strategies and techniques are connected.Administrators are saying, “Finally, I have a visual that helps my teachers to ’see’ how all this fits together. This demonstrates how the process can work!”

2)   http://www.ideapartnership.org/report.cfm?reportid=238

3)   http://www.interventioncentral.org/

4)   http://www.lehigh.edu/collegeofeducation/mp3/links/links.htm

5)   http://www.nasdse.org/projects.cfm?pageprojectid=23

6)   http://www.nrcld.org/research/rti.shtml

7)   http://www.osepideasthatwork.org/toolkit/index.asp

8)   http://www.ncpublicschools.org/ec/development/learning/intervention/

9) http://www.ncpublicschools.org/ec/development/learning/intervention/rtimaterials

10)  http://www.wested.org/nerrc/rti.htm

11)   http://www.jimwrightonline.com/php/rti/rti_wire.php

12)   http://www.w-w-c.org/