Anderson et al (2004) American Secondary Education 32. 19-36 gives six practices that have been shown to be most helpful for the student with language learning disabilities in the classroom.
- Mnemonic strategies: presenting strategies, keywords or facts that need to be memorize using mnemonics can assist the student in remembering. (ex. POSSE strategy developed by Englert and Mariage (1991) which is a metacognitive approach to studying. Predict, Organize, Search, Summarize, Evaluate).
- Visual and graphic organizers: guides the learner’s thinking as they fill in and build upon a visual map or diagram. It is best that some of these are consistent across the curriculum.
- Guided notes: teacher-prepared hand-outs that outline or map lectures, but leave “blank” space for key concepts, facts, definitions, etc. As the lecture progresses, you fill in the spaces with content.
- Class-wide peer tutoring: (CWPT) is a comprehensive instructional procedure or teaching strategy based on reciprocal peer tutoring and group reinforcement wherein an entire classroom of students is actively engaged in the process of learning and practicing basic academic skills simultaneously in a systematic and fun way.
- Linking current knowledge to new information: Create anticipatory sets and activate background knowledge, this facilitates the ability of all students to assimilate new information
- Reciprocal teaching: instructional activity in which students become the teacher. Provide students with problems, procedures, and materials and have them brainstorm ways to use what they have been given. This can be done with a wide variety of subjects or topics including reading groups, math problem solving, STEM lessons, experiments.
What strategies have you found helpful for the students in your classroom? Is there a particular mnemonic, graphic organizer, a template of guided notes or set up of your classroom that you feel supports the student with language learning difficulties?
Anticipatory Set can be good for gaining attention, Good Article
I currently teach at a private school where IEPs are not accepted. While it would be easy to say, “we have no IEPs so we must not have students with disabilities,” this is not true. There are students in my class with disabilities they just sometimes go unnoticed because unlike in a public school, teachers are not notified about this information or students needs since we do not have IEPs. I have found that what works best for students in my classroom is guided notes and ones that match exactly what I have up on the board. Even if I give my students guided notes, sometimes some will struggle if it does not match what they are seeing. For example, technology can be very unreliable sometimes so if I have guided notes set up and then have to switch my writing to the whiteboard because the smartboard is not working sometimes students will struggle with this and not know what to write where. I will then usually take my own copy and point to where on the notes they should be writing things.
I also find that peer tutoring is so helpful especially in a math classroom. Sometimes learning from their peers can make it easier because they don’t feel embarrassed to ask the teacher for help, or they hear the information in a different way. This strategy not only helps the student learning, but also the one teaching. Pairing up the right students with each other is crucial for this. On one hand you want the two students to have a good relationship, but you also want the time to be productive.
In my classroom I always have a “do now” that students work on right when they get to class or some teachers call it a “question of the day.” This question is always used to activate prior knowledge to bridge from old to new. I also find that when the old information has a good connection to the new information students are not as intimidated by the new information. I teach pre-calculus and some of these topics they have never seen before in math. Most of the topics however do relate in some way to something they have done before since math always builds on previous topics. If I introduce something new with something they already know it makes that connection and already makes them feel more comfortable about the topic.
When it comes specifically to students with learning language difficulties I find that sometimes cultural barriers come into play. My school takes in students from all over the world including places like China, Spain, Mexico, and more. These students come to us sometimes not knowing any English at all. Making them feel comfortable in the classroom is most important so their seating placement is always well thought into. I usually try to pair them with someone in the class who I think they might get along with or someone who I know will include them. Making a student feel comfortable and welcome is the first step in them being successful in the classroom. I also find that slowing down your speech when talking to them one on one can help a lot as well as showing than rather than just giving verbal directions. Visuals make all the difference.
This is real, sometimes technology does not work the way that we want it to. Excellent suggestions for back-up and I love your “do now” questions.
In my inclusion Social Studies classes, there are many strategies that I use to help my students learn complex content and stay organized. Social studies, along with a strenuous focus on vocabulary, examines multiple complex theories and events that we ask our students to analyze and then demonstrate their knowledge on. In order to aid students in doing this, a major strategy I use is guided notes, especially when the regular educator is going through a powerpoint. These powerpoints tend to be dense with vocabulary and concepts, and by providing these guided notes, I find that my students can focus more on listening to the teachers explanations and supplemental information rather than trying to jot down as much information as they can while trying to listen and stay caught up. Along with guided notes, graphic organizers such as Venn Diagrams when comparing events are extremely helpful to students. One specific graphic organizer I like to make for my students are graphic organizers that organize information but also are a visual representation of the content they are learning. For example, when my students were learning about Christianity, the graphic organizer I created was of a cross where each subsection represented a different subtopic. I like creating graphic organizers with visuals as well to appeal to all of my students.
In my transition classroom, I find that I use a lot of reciprocal teaching and like to link students prior knowledge to the new content we are learning. By allowing students to be in charge of their learning by reciprocal teaching, I feel that they can develop academically and socially as they use their critical thinking and problem solving skills and lead a learning experience, but also they can develop their language skills. They can do this through the implementation of the language they are learning about, and also by being able to think of ways to teach others in multiple ways. Activating students prior knowledge to engage them in learning new content is also KEY in building students knowledge. By creating a common ground, and then expanding on it, the content students learn is part of a story, rather than just a stand alone fact with no context.
I have found a lot of these strategies to be beneficial for students in the classroom. Personally, I think that graphic organizers are wonderful tools to aid students’ understanding. I also really like to incorporate graphic organizers into my own learning. I think that graphic organizers are such wonderful tools because they help individuals organize one’s thoughts, ideas, and or information. They are also wonderful when trying to connect prior knowledge to new information that is begin introduced. In addition to this, graphic organizers can be used to compare and contrast information or topics.
For instance, last semester I learned about this type of graphic organizer that was similar to a KWL chart but was called the RAN Chart Strategy. I really loved this tool and created my own RAN Chart and utilized it in a lesson to help a student collect and organize information about cheetahs in order to write a completed animal report. First, I chose to introduce and model the “RAN Chart” Strategy and work with the student to complete the “What I think I know” section of the pocket chart. This was very visual because she was placing the sticky notes with the information on the chart and viewing the information she had identified and collected from the text. I knew that the organization aspect was going to be a great visual tool to help her determine and refer back to the information that she had collected and move the sticky notes accordingly based on whether or not the information she thought she knew was accurate. She would then move the sticky notes into the “Oops.. I made a mistake” or the
“Yes, I was correct!” sections of the Ran Chart. This strategy was also kinesthetic since she was collecting the information and writing it down to place it into the corresponding section of the chart. Then, the student took the information that she had collected on the “RAN chart” and used this visual component to help her organize the information that she had collected into each of the corresponding chapters for the graphic organizer that was enlarged and displayed on the smartboard. She then took the sticky notes off of the “RAN Chart” and placed them onto the graphic organizer. She then organized the information based on how she wanted to write the paragraphs since the graphic organizer was numbered in order from 1-5. Finally, she used this enlarged visual display to write out the paragraph for her chapter of the animal report, Cheetah Babies. I think this strategy could be very beneficial for language learners because it helps one’s organize his or her thoughts. I also think if due to its visual and kinesthetic components, it could be an effective tool. I would implement this tool with language learners and also incorporate more visuals to aid understanding and use it to help teach vocabulary to students.
Morgan, I like how you spoke about what helps YOU as a learner! Very cool!
Great ideas!
In my classroom, I use a lot of the strategies mentioned above. In the english classroom, graphic organizers are huge. Students can organize their thoughts, what they are learning, what they already know and can organize their writing through a graphic organizer. I have also used a K.W.L. chart for students to organize and show me what they know. Charts where students can make comparisons are also helpful, especially if they are going to be writing an essay comparing two things. This also plats into how visuals can be useful to students. Graphic organizers are a great way to visualize their thoughts or have a visual representation of where they want a written piece or project to go. I also always try to provide visuals for my students, especially when introducing a new topic they are unfamiliar with. For example, I was going to be reading a gothic short story with my students and decided to show them a gothic short on You Tube to give them a visual of what a gothic is so they could visualize the reading.
I have often times utilized class wide peer tutoring. This becomes especially helpful in the english classroom because students can peer edit. I will give the students a checklist and questions to ask themselves as they are reading another students essay. This helps them have a visual of what they are looking for and a guide to help be an effective peer tutor.
I am a big supporter of linking content knowledge. I always try to make sure that all of the units I am doing for the year have some sort of linking factor. In this way, students always have some confidence in the content because everyone knows something and they feel that what we are learning has purpose because it is all building together to one greater purpose.
I also ofter group my students based on skills. This comes in handy because I do not simply factor in the who the low students and who the high students are. I take in consideration what skills my students have. Who will speak up the most, who is confident taking the lead, who is artsy, who dose not mind speaking in front of the class and more. In this way, I not only support the struggling student, but the shy students, the hands on students and more.
I have found graphic organizers to be the best tool in the classroom. It allows students a clear way to organize the content being covered and their thoughts. I have also found linking current knowledge to current events to be very useful. Knowing how it relates to the real world around us peaks students interests and gives them a real example to compare it to.
Reading all six practices mentioned in this blog, I agree are helpful strategies to include in my own classroom. Using the mnemonics tactic allows students to easily recall new information or procedural steps to make a connection to the strategy. In the past, I have used the mnemonic acronym R.A.C.E. to help students respond to text and provide evidence within their writing piece to support their answers.
R- Restate the question
A- Answer the questions
C- Cite evidence
E- Explain your Response
Often times, I would use a graphic organizer for teaching new vocabulary words introduced in a text. Usually, I would create or use variations of the same concept for introducing a new word for the students to complete on their own. The graphic organizer would direct the student to come up with a definition, antonym, synonym, sentence, and identify what part of speech for the word.
Typically, I used the guided notes strategy for categorizing key concepts for non-fiction text or informational report writing pieces. For example, the students in third grade write an animal report every year to research about habitat, food, hunting skills etc. Using the guided notes strategy makes it easier for the students to compile their information into different topics for writing their animal report.
Another strategy I use for retrieving background knowledge is the (are, have, and can) chart with my students. Its slightly similar to the KWL chart but, I found using this type of chart led to more student input about their knowledge background on a new topic discussed in class.
Learning new strategies and techniques taught in EDU 571 this summer session has expanded my toolbox of ideas to utilize this coming school year!
When writing, I provide my students with graphic organizers in different forms so that by the end of the year, during RICAS, they can create their own graphic organizer that makes the most sense to them. In third grade writing we talk a lot about R.A.C.E. (restate the prompt, answer the question, cite evidence, explain the evidence) and O.R.E.O. (opinion, reason, explanation/evidence, restate opinion). Throughout the year, the students will write these acronyms on the sides of their papers to remember to answer the prompt accurately.
I also incorporate experiments into the curriculum. I feel that this allows for a more memorable, hands-on learning experience. Within the experiments I make sure to group the students strategically and heterogeneously. Each person in the group votes for a specific job to do in the experiment. For example, job one would be to get/return materials, job two would be to set up ramp, job three would be to roll the marble, job four would be to measure how far the ball traveled, and job five would be to write the data and make sure all are doing their jobs. Each time we do an experiment, the students do a different job so that everyone is able to participate in a different way.
Another way that I help to support students with language learning difficulties is by activating prior knowledge. I do this by creating scenarios to get their minds engaged in the lesson. Children are full of different experiences and I think sharing those experiences allows for a richer classroom culture.
The use of reciprocal teaching (where the student becomes the teacher) was new to me. This year I hope to do more of this kind of teaching this year. During my student teaching, my cooperating teacher used Makers Space as a way to teach social studies and science. The students were highly motivated because they received materials and brainstormed ways to manipulate these materials. Then, the students taught the class about their creation. Another way my cooperating teacher used reciprocal teaching was in the use of literature circles. The students were grouped by reading levels and worked through different projects discussing important points together.
EDU 571 has taught me many strategies in helping students with language disabilities. I can’t wait to use these strategies this school year!
In my classroom I tend to use many graphic organizers to help my students organize their writing. I have a different graphic organizer for different types of writing: narrative, expository, persuasive, letters, and biographies. I find it helpful to use the same organizer each time so that students are familiar with the setup of the page and where different information needs to go. In past years, when I was long term subbing, I have even used graphic organizers for math. These would help some students keep their numbers lined up so mistakes would be less frequent.
Another strategy I use in my classroom is guided notes, although, until I read your blog, had no idea what I was doing had a name! Guided notes are helpful with my students because they don’t have to spend much time writing unnecessary words in order to get the concept of the lesson. Also, writing in key points are useful because most of the time they are vocabulary words that need to be remembered. Using these are helpful in keeping me organized as well. Because I teach in a school where the main focus is on behavior, it is hard for me to spend much time on whole group lessons. Guided notes makes it easier for students to listen for key information, then, when they become restless, we can stop and work on something else. The guided notes help remind me where we left off in the lesson.
In addition to graphic organizers and guided notes, I also try and use video clips from youtube. Many of my students are “addicted” to technology and providing them visuals that go along with a lesson is extremely useful in keeping their attention. This is also helpful in those who struggle with language. The visuals in the video clips help with understanding what the concept is about. Not too long ago I did a unit on the “Roaring Twenties” in which we learned about Henry Ford and the first assembly line. My students seemed confused about what an assembly line was and showing them a small clip on youtube helped their understanding.
I’m always searching for new strategies and I like the one you shared about reciprocal teaching. In my school, we have small class sizes (about 6 students per class) and I know some of my students would love to “be the teacher”. Again, I teach in a behavioral school and most of my students like to feel like they are in control. This not only gives my students an opportunity to construct meaning from a text, but also gives them a chance to feel like they are in control of their learning.
There are various strategies that I use in my classroom to help students be successful. One of my favorite strategies for all learners is the implementation of graphic organizers. I typically build my own graphic organizers based on the assignment at hand. I find that graphic organizers help students of all levels; whether it’s the high performing student who struggles with organization, or the average student who tends to have memory lapses. Having something that has a rational build for which students can fill with notes or information is invaluable. This particularly can help students with language concerns because often times pictures are incorporated that help supplement the instruction. Furthermore, the student who has language concerns will be able to refer back to the organizer, as opposed to whatever notes they may have potentially taken.
Another strategy that I use is fill in the blank notes. This strategy goes a long way, again, for all students. This strategy can help students who have various needs because it allows them to focus on what is vital, as opposed to trivial words that may cause them to misconstrue meaning. Furthermore, they allow students who are higher performing to hone in on key words, and perhaps take useful notes of their own. Often, I use these notes as a spot check and give credit in class for having them complete. These notes can help students with language concerns because they help students focus on key terms and ideas. This will help students sift through the plethora of information that is inevitably coming out of their teacher’s mouth =).
A final strategy that I used to use, and I would like to once again would be class-wide peer tutoring. I used to teach the Summit Learning program, and a part of this was a time called PLT. During this time, students spent much time working independently on content tasks. Often students struggled with this and wanted direct instruction from the teacher. In order to find a happy medium, I would give direct instruction, then allow the students to take their practice quiz. Based on the results, I would then pair students together based on their specific needs. I would direct students to resources that they could look at and student together. While students were working with one another, I would circulate the room to ensure that students were making the best of what they had. This final strategy was very useful for my students who were not strong note takers. I noticed that i was often putting the same students together, and when they studied they mostly excelled with flash cards. I think this type of strategy helps students with language concerns because you are able to work how to wish and rely on your strengths.
You have listed some good strategies here.
Having a small class of 7-10 students with myself, content teacher and two teacher assistants has really benefited the students this year and helped to facilitate some fun ways to teach. All of my students have IEPs and have a variety of disabilities. All of my students need intense academic support and social emotional support.
During the school year I have used a variety of strategies to support learning in the classroom. I am always using visuals (promethium board (technology), worksheets to show ideas with pictures ect and graphic organizers). Sometimes I use graphic organizers that are blank and fill them in with the students as we go along, but other times I use them as a fill in the blank where I fill in some information and leave some blank spots for the students to fill in as we go along.
The idea of classwide peer tutoring is easy most days due to small class size and support staff. Learning no strategies and concepts is fun and we have enough staff to break into small groups with 1 teacher per 2 students.
During math class students are taught a concept (usually in many ways) then we practice the concept together, then they do small group work and lastly they work independently to problem solve. As they work alone I walk around the room and help when needed. When students get a problem right and understand a concept they teach it to the class. My students love this and never say they do not want to come in front of class to teach. They feel so accomplished and special (which they are).
I spend a lot of time talking with students about personal likes, dislikes and their overall life. I use this knowledge when I can to build on linking what they know to new information being taught. This helps them build on concepts, makes them feel special that I remember about them and lets them share out to the class (building social skills).
Having a small class of 7-10 students with myself, content teacher and two teacher assistants has really benefited the students this year and helped to facilitate some fun ways to teach. All of my students have IEPs and have a variety of disabilities. All of my students need intense academic support and social emotional support.
During the school year I have used a variety of strategies to support learning in the classroom. I am always using visuals (promethium board (technology), worksheets to show ideas with pictures ect and graphic organizers). Some times I use graphic organizers that are blank and fill them in with the students as we go along, but other times I use them as a fill in the blank where I fill in some information and leave some blank spots for the students to fill in as we go along.
The idea of class wide per tutoring is easy most days due to small class size and support staff. Learning no strategies and concepts is fun and we have enough staff to break into small groups with 1 teacher per 2 students.
During math class students are taught a concept (usually in many ways) then we practice the concept together, then they do small group work and lastly they work independently to problem solve. As they work alone I walk around the room and help when needed. When students get a problem right and understand a concept they teach it to the class. My students love this and never say they do not want to come in front of class to teach. They feel so accomplished and special (which they are).
I spend a lot of time talking with students about personal likes, dislikes and their over all life. I use this knowledge when I can to build on linking what they know to new information being taught. This helps them build on concepts, makes them feel special that I remember about them and lets them share out to the class (building social skills).
I have found visual and graphic organizers to be very helpful in my classroom. Its great tool for reading and writing. I have found that doing completing a graphic organizer on the class about a book we have read before they are expected to complete a writing piece on it, improves their writing dramatically. I have also found guided notes to be a great strategy as well. Guided Notes are also great because it forces students to really listen to a whole class lesson and allows me to see what they thought were the important facts and aspects of it. It is a great tool that also allows me to see who may not have understood a lesson or who had a difficult time finding the important facts of a lesson.
I also like to use a K-W-L chart to see what, students in my class already know about a topic. I like to know what prior knowledge they have on a subject and have them write questions about what they would like to know about the topic. Then after reading the story I like to know what they learned. I also like to use the hamburger-writing organizer, where the buns are the topic and concluding sentence and the middle the bun and toppings are the details of your writing. Sometimes for my language learner students I will modify their graphic organizers and have them more so fill in the blanks with their details depending on the needs of the student. Having visual graphic organizers are especially helpful for these students.
Building a community of learners that support students with disabilities is an essential part to every classroom. There is a big responsibility on the teacher to be the one to foster and build this accepting, open and safe environment for every single one of the students in their classroom, especially for students with disabilities. In my own personal experience, I have seen great gains made between classmates and their acceptance levels of others that are different than them when they are all integrated. For example pairing students with disabilities with general education students for peer modeling or tutoring is a great way to not only reinforce topics they need help on but also include a social aspect where they are getting the opportunity to know one another and talk. Aside from the social aspect, another strategy I find help with supporting students with disabilities in my classroom is having graphic organizers, lists, and schedules for everything we are doing. The organizer make it less over whelming, the lists make them aware of the steps of things they need to do and in what order for that given task/lesson and the schedule is able to show them what to expect for the day so that there are no surprises that could set them off or shut them down from learning.
My students really benefit from graphic organizers. I love making organizers especially when I see that they make my students successful. While student teaching, I used to create PowerPoints and guided notes for my students. Within my guided notes, I asked questions and created activities within the notes to make it more interactive. I have seen guided notes where teachers just delete some words and students have to look at the PowerPoint and fill the words in. I don’t think this is very effective considering many times the teacher bolds or highlights the word that has to be written into the notes. Students probably don’t even read the slide because they are so focused on looking for specific words. Therefore, if I can make the guided notes interactive, at least I know the students have read the slides and listened in order to comprehend the material.
Last year, I also used reciprocal teaching in Math. This worked out great because I would have students in class that were on many different tasks due to their lack of attendance. Therefore, I would have sometimes 6-7 different projects going on in one class. I relied on the students who were consistently in my class to teach other students the material (I did not do this often but sometimes it was necessary so students were not off task). Not only did this benefit me, but it also demonstrated that the student understood the content and the other student who was learning was able to connect with the peer who was teaching. Sometimes, students can learn from each other more effectively. As teachers, we may assume the student knows certain steps, however, when peers teach each other, they teach how they know the material. If a student can teach the material, they definitely know the content.
There is not any specific graphic organizer I use to help students with language disorders. However, in the future when I create graphic organizers, use visuals, or reciprocal teaching, I will keep in mind how students with language disorders would benefit from them.
In my classroom I have used guided notes to learn new mathematical concepts. I have also used reciprocal teaching and activating background knowledge. I found that guided notes used sparingly are effective. When guided notes are used too often the children become bored and stop paying attention to the material. However, filling them out for ten minutes or less once per week was a great way to build notes to look back on when a student was stuck applying math concepts. This strategy has been the best to support students with language learning difficulties. The notes become a resource for them to look back on. Additionally, when filling out the notes they can stay on track with the class as the sentences are formed for them and they only have to fill in a word or two.
My students also liked reciprocal teaching. They were all engaged because they got to explore and try new strategies to problem solve. Doing this in a group setting helped to support my lower students as well.
I have found that the best strategy is activating background knowledge or connecting a concept to the real world. When I connect a new concept to an old one they have an easier time bridging their knowledge and it becomes something to refer back to in order to remind them of the details of the new concept. When I connect a new concept to their life or to the real world I find that my students are more engaged and can understand the new concept a bit easier. They like to see the concept has a place in the real world and is worth learning.
In my classroom, the use of mnemonic devices, graphic organizers and guided notes have helped my students tremendously. When I first began teaching, I knew of a few mnemonic devices for math but did not think of using guided notes of graphic organizers in math as I did not think of them in my content area. As I have grown as a teacher I have collaborated with my math colleagues and we have come up with many sets of guided notes that go with most content we teach. I need to work on this more with my Algebra 2 students as most of the content is process based. The special education teacher I have worked with for years has created some useful graphic organizers for the step by step processes learned in class and I have been lucky to have them and continue to use them every year. My students are now used to guided notes when they come to me as their previous teacher uses them on a regular basis, so I try to use them when possible but taking the time to create them for every section can be time consuming and I do not always have the time to do so. I know once I create them I will never need to again, I just need to begin the process so I will have them for the long run.
Some mnemonics I have used are PEMDAS (Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction) for order of operations and SOHCAHTOA (Sine=opposite over hypotenuse, Cosine=adjacent over hypotenuse and Tangent=opposite over adjacent) for trigonometry.
When it comes to graphic organizers in math, I use them for all my classes not just the inclusion classes I teach. They can help any student with a disability especially one with a language disability. As many of the words are complex, being able to see the step by step process on paper can help students have a better understanding of the process.
In the classroom, I find that fill in the blank/ guided notes/ graphic organizers, think pair share, and auditory as well as visual aids can be very beneficial to student learning. During my student teaching experience, I taught a junior level American History class that had 28 students who preferred to use the tools listed above on a daily basis to learn. Students would be engaged in the lesson but would not want to take notes the entire time because they would fall behind, so I was able to incorporate a graphic organizer with fill in the blank spots, matching, multiple choice, and some short answer. This format of the graphic organizer students enjoyed because it was in a test format so they would become accustom to questioning in the class that reflected questioning that could be on the test. This can be extremely helpful for those with a language learning difficulty as they have to write less and are not caught off track from writing, but instead engaging in the lesson and discussion as they only have to write a few things. Along with this, students completed graphic organizers where they were given a picture and had to describe or recreate a different drawing describing what was happening in the picture. This was a type of graphic organizer I found extremely helpful for language learning difficulties, as students were able to draw their own image of what they saw happening in the picture, or write what they saw in the picture. As a teacher, this gave me great feedback on who understood the concept and some students who may have been lost, as they were able to use their creativity to create a concept they could remember about a specific piece of information in social studies.
Along with graphic organizers/ fill in the blank/ guided notes, think pair share was also helpful for students with language learning difficulties. Students were asked a question about a topic that could have multiple answers or just one, and asked to think silently about what they thought the answer would be for 30 seconds to 1 minutes. This period of time helped students understand the question and try to think of an answer. The question would be given verbally, as well as on a piece of paper the class would be completing. Students would then turn to someone near or next to them, and share out their answers. As they are doing this, I would monitor the room for answers- encouraging students who got the question right, as well as trying to steer those who may be off track from the right answer or answers. Think pair share is able to boost student confidence to share out to the entire class, as two students are able to collaborate on their answers and reassure themselves that they are right.
Auditory and visual aids are extremely helpful for students with a language learning difficulty. There are multiple resources online to use including YouTube videos, GIFs, documentaries, talk shows, etc. that can give students a visual of the material as well as an audit response about the answer. This can help students process information better as they are able to see an image that goes will the language and connect the dots. Along with this, videos of historical events can portray what actually happened and help students to understand the true event. Auditory and visual aids, along with blank/ guided notes/ graphic organizers, and think pair share activities are very helpful in the classroom to support students with language learning difficulties.
Excellent strategies
I find graphic organizers, guided notes, peer tutoring, the jigsaw model, and visuals whenever possible to work best in my classroom for my students with language learning difficulties. If I can find a video that relates to the lesson, usually a 5 minute clip, I like to show that to help get the students into the lesson. I also use graphic organizers as much as possible because the students like things broken down step by step and graphic organizers really allow that to happen. I do peer tutoring and match my students up. I have one student with Autism who loves to work with one of my students who gets straight As and has a good educational foundation. This student is very good about working with my student with Autism, so I do peer tutoring with that student when we are pairing up students.
I also love to do the jigsaw model and let my students become experts on one piece of information and then they then teach their classmates. I usually split up the assignment giving students a workload to master that I know they can handle. This allows them to feel important and smart because they get to teach their classmates. They first start out in groups where the group works together to fill out a graphic organizer on their topic. I then have them rotate to new groups to teach the new group all about their topic and then learn about the other topics from their classmates. My students usually like this activity because they only have to read one piece, not the whole thing, and they get to move around the room.
In my classroom, I do a lot of guided notes as well with the students. A lot of my co teachers want my students write notes but with their disabilities it is not always realistic to expect them to handwrite all the notes themselves. They usually will shut down if they are asked to because it is so overwhelming for them and for some students hard to actually do. Therefore, I do guided notes and leave blanks for them to fill in. I take the notes the teacher will be giving the genera ed kids and make that into guided notes, that way everyone has the same information. I have also had the whole class do the guided notes at times too if the co teacher will allow it. I like this approach because they have to pay attention to the notes to find the missing word, they are still writing, but they also feel like they are winning as well.