Eggs Eggs Everywhere

Alicia Kim and Tiffany Langbein

Mofications for Special Needs

Gifted, Learning Disabled

Lesson Modifications for Gifted Students:

One way teachers can extend or enrich the content they present is by asking open-ended questions. Such questions stimulate higher order thinking skills and give students opportunities to consider and express personal opinions. Open-ended questions require thinking skills such as comparison, synthesis, insight, judgment, hypothesis, conjecture, and assimilation. Such questions can also increase student awareness of current events. Open-ended questions should be included in both class discussions and assignments. They can also be used as stimulation for the opening or conclusion of a lesson.

Another strategy for lesson modification developed by Susan Winebrenner (1992) is to use Bloom’s taxonomy of six levels of thinking to develop lesson content. Bloom’s model implies that the “lower” levels (knowledge, comprehension, and application) require more literal and less complex thinking than the “higher” levels (analysis, evaluation, and synthesis). Teachers are encouraged to develop thematic units with activities for students at all ability levels. This strategy involves four steps. Teachers first choose a theme that can incorporate learning objectives from several different subject areas. Secondly, teachers identify 6 to 10 key concepts or instructional objectives. Third, they determine which learner outcomes or grade-level competencies will be targeted for the unit. Finally, they design instructional activities to cover each of the six levels of thinking.

Source: http://www.prufrock.com/client/client_pages/Modfying_Curriculum.cfm

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• Use an overhead projector with an outline of the lesson or unit of the day.
• Reduce course load for student with learning disabilities.
• Provide clear photocopies of your notes and overhead transparencies, if the student benefits from such strategies.
• Provide students with chapter outlines or study guides that cue them to key points in their readings.
• Provide a detailed course syllabus before class begins.
• Ask questions in a way that helps the student gain confidence. Keep oral instructions logical and concise.
• Reinforce them with a brief cue words.
• Repeat or re-word complicated directions. Frequently verbalize what is being written on the chalkboard.
• Eliminate classroom distractions such as, excessive noise, flickering lights, etc.
• Outline class presentations on the chalkboard or on an overhead transparency.
• Outline material to be covered during each class period unit. (At the end of class, summarize the important segments of each presentation.)
• Establish the clarity of understanding that the student has about class assignments.
• Give assignments both in written and oral form.
• Have more complex lessons recorded and available to the students with learning disabilities.
• Have practice exercises available for lessons, in case the student has problems.
• Have students with learning disabilities underline key words or directions on activity sheets (then review the sheets with them).
• Have complex homework assignments due in two or three days rather than on the next day.
• Pace instruction carefully to ensure clarity.
• Present new and or technical vocabulary on the chalkboard or overhead.
• Provide and teach memory associations (mnemonic strategies).
• Support one modality of presentation by following it with instruction and then use another modality.
• Talk distinctly and at a rate that the student with a learning disability can be follow.
• Technical content should be presented in small incremental steps.
• Use plenty of examples, oral or otherwise, in order to make topics more applied.
• Use straight forward instructions with step-by-step unambiguous terms. (Preferably, presented one at a time).
• Write legibly, use large type; do not clutter the blackboard with non-current / non-relevant information.
• Use props to make narrative situations more vivid and clear.
• Assist the student, if necessary, in borrowing classmates' notes.
• Consider cross-age or peer tutoring if the student appears unable to keep up with the class pace or with complex subject matter. The more capable reader can help in summarizing the essential points of the reading or in establishing the main idea of the reading.

Source: http://www.as.wvu.edu/~scidis/learning.html

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