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Educational Strategies: Reading Programs, Individual Instruction and Differentiation: An Overview. By Liana Chandler (Bach EC, M.T & M. Ed. Sp.)

24/5/2015

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These educational strategies are available to build on your child’s strengths. Understanding these strategies can help you work with the school to figure out what’s right for your child.  Learn more about the educational strategies you’re most likely to encounter.

Reading Programs: What You Need to Know

Reading programs are designed to close the gap between what a student knows and what he’s expected to know.  They target reading skills and in many cases, students are removed from their regular classroom and taught in another setting.

Many students require extra help. For example, only 35 percent of year fours students are proficient readers (reading at grade level), according to the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress.

What to Look For in a Reading Program

When evaluating reading programs for your child, be aware that not all programs are effective. Solid reading programs:

  • Are research-based, using proven teaching methods
  • Teach step-by-step without skipping over content
  • Are conducted at the student’s pace
  • Offer regular reviews and practice exercises to reinforce learning and practice applying new knowledge
  • Include a way to assess what the student has learned and whether he’s ready to move ahead
An effective reading program is taught by a professional teacher with special training.  This is important for all kids, including those with learning and attention issues.  Be sure to ask the school if your child’s Learning Support teacher has this training.

What to Watch Out For

For best results, avoid reading programs that teach your child the material in the same way he was taught the first time around.  That will likely just frustrate him.  Also avoid programs that allow too many kids in the group.  The idea is for your child to get more individual attention than is possible in a large class.

Instructional Intervention: What You Need to Know

If your child is getting help in school, you’ll no doubt hear the term intervention. A lot of people use this word loosely, to describe any sort of help a child gets. But intervention has a very particular definition.  Knowing what the term means puts you in a better position to understand the help your child is getting in school.

What Is an Instructional Intervention?

An intervention is a specific program or set of steps to help a child improve in an area of need.  Kids can have many needs.  If a child is acting out, a school may offer a behavioral intervention.  For subjects like reading or math, there are instructional interventions.  (These are sometimes called academic interventions.)

Interventions have some key elements:

  • They’re intentional—aimed at a particular weakness.
  • They’re specific and formal.  An intervention lasts a certain number of weeks or months and is reviewed at set intervals.
  • They’re set up this way so you and the school can monitor your child’s progress with an intervention.
Here’s an example of what an intervention can look like for a child who’s struggling in a general education classroom:

Marcia is in year 1. She lacks basic math skills and doesn’t recognise numbers from 1 to 10.  But she hasn’t been evaluated for special education.  Her school schedules an hour of small-group instruction each day to help her catch up. Every week, her teacher checks on her progress.

Here’s an example of what an intervention can look like for a child who has an IEP and is getting special education services:

Jeff is in year 5 and has dyslexia.  He has issues with decoding and phonological awareness.  The IEP team decides to give him 30 minutes of multisensory reading instruction three times a week.  Every month, his reading progress is monitored.

Interventions are formal but they can be flexible too.  For example, if a particular program isn’t helping a student, the school may change it.  Or the school may use a stronger intervention.

This might mean increasing the amount of time a student receives reading support each week.  Or it might mean getting more intense support—such as moving from small-group to one-on-one help.

An Intervention Is More Than a Strategy

People sometimes confuse strategies with interventions.  But there are important differences.

A strategy is a set of methods or activities to teach your child something.  An intervention may include strategies.  But not all strategies are interventions. The main difference is that an intervention is formal, aimed at a known need and monitored. A strategy, by contrast, can be informal and is not always tracked.

Here’s an example of an instructional strategy:

Ms. Tomlin’s year 2 class includes many kids with attention issues.  To keep her entire class engaged, Ms. Tomlin often uses movement to teach math.  She’ll assign each child a number or a plus or equal sign.  Then she’ll have the students move around to form equations.

An Intervention Is Not an Accommodation

Interventions are also sometimes confused with accommodations. These aren’t the same thing.

An accommodation is a change to the environment that gives your child equal access to learning.  For instance, let’s say your child has trouble reading.  One accommodation could be text-to-speech software that reads aloud to your child. This might not improve your child’s reading, but it will help her access the content in books.

Sometimes the distinctions aren’t clear.  You may see interventions combined with accommodations.

Differentiated Instruction: What You Need to Know

In any general education classroom, there are students with various learning styles.  Some learn best by reading and writing.  Others prefer to watch a video, listen to a recording, or dig into hands-on activities.  Differentiated instruction is a way of teaching that matches a variety of learning styles.

What Is Differentiated Instruction?

Teachers who use differentiated instruction tailor their teaching approach to match their students’ learning styles.  All the students have the same learning goal.  But the teaching approach varies depending on how students prefer to learn.

Instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach, a teacher uses a variety of methods to teach.  This can include teaching students in small groups or in one-on-one sessions.  Carol Ann Tomlinson, an educator who has done some of the most innovative work in this area, says there are four areas where teachers can differentiate instruction.

  • Content: Figuring out what a student needs to learn and which resources will help him do so
  • Process: Activities that help students make sense of what they learn
  • Projects: A way for students to “show what they know”
  • Learning environment: How the classroom “feels” and how the class works together
Why Is Differentiated Instruction Used?

Differentiated instruction “shakes up” the traditional classroom, says Tomlinson.  Students have “multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn,” she explains.

Forty years ago, Tomlinson says, the focus was on individualized instruction.  But teachers discovered that creating an individual learning plan for each student in a class wasn’t realistic.  Differentiated instruction, on the other hand, uses several learning approaches.  But it doesn’t require an individual approach for each student.  All students have access to the curriculum in a variety of ways. This makes the whole learning experience more effective.

How Differentiated Instruction Works

Differentiated instruction can play out differently from one classroom to the next—and from one school to the next. However, the key features of this approach are:

  • Small work groups: The students in each group rotate in and out.  This gives them a chance to participate in many different groups.  A group can include a pair of students or a larger group.  But in all cases, it’s an opportunity for students to learn from each other.
  • Reciprocal learning: Sometimes the student becomes the teacher, sharing what he’s learned and asking questions of his peers.
  • Continual assessment: Teachers regularly monitor students’ strengths and weaknesses (in both formal and informal ways) to make sure they’re progressing well in their knowledge and mastery of schoolwork.
Differentiated Instruction and Special Education

A teacher uses differentiated instruction to give every student multiple paths to learning. That includes students who have Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).  It doesn’t replace the goals and objectives in a child’s IEP, instead, the teacher personalises her teaching to help the student meet those goals and objectives.

What to Watch Out For

Critics say differentiated instruction doesn’t work in every classroom.  If there are too many students in a class, or if the teacher isn’t experienced with this approach, the classroom can become distracting and chaotic.

Learn more about teaching strategies and techniques that help struggling learners.  And find out more about the difference between individualised instruction and differentiated instruction.

 

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What is dyslexia: What to look out for.  By Liana Chandler (Bach EC, M.T. B-12, M.E. Sp. Ed)

16/5/2015

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A dyslexic learner is like a car that runs on diesel rather than petrol.  The problem with our education system is that it fails dyslexic learners by trying to fill their tanks with petrol.

There is an obscene amount of rubbish out there that generates fear in parents and portrays dyslexia as a disability. 

The education system tests the ability of a student to regurgitate information and read and write quickly but it doesn't test knowledge.

Children with dyslexia will fail those tests because they don't measure their ability to solve problems and think laterally which is what they are good at.

Dyslexic individuals tend to think in pictures rather than words and receive information in a different way to "neuro-typical" thinkers.

It is estimated that one in 10 Australians has dyslexia and it is often misunderstood and un-diagnosed, despite being initially identified more than a century ago.

Dyslexia is not a problem only experienced by children and teenagers.

An adult dyslexic may find that they get frustrated at themselves and may experience periods of intense anger and/or depression at what they perceive as their own failure to achieve their goals. Increasingly, jobs require the individual to pass exams often involving reading, math and writing. This can cause anxiety, stress and result in the person failing or avoiding the job completely.

Characteristics of Dyslexics

The following lists are some of the characteristic traits and behaviours that a dyslexic child will exhibit. The symptoms can vary from day to day, minute to minute. The most consistent things about these traits are the inconsistency – one day the symptom is present the next it is not.
   
Generally

Family history of learning problems.

Isn't behind enough to be helped in the school setting.

Test well orally, but not in written tests.

Not reading at age level but appears bright/intelligent.

Displays behaviours to cover problem (class clown, disruptive, teacher's

pet, quiet).

Labelled as lazy, dumb, careless, immature, or "not trying hard enough".

Easily frustrated and emotional about school, reading or testing.

Talented in art, drama, music, sports, mechanics, story-telling, sales,

business, designing, building, or engineering.

Difficulty maintaining attention; loses track of time, seems "hyper".

Learns best through hands-on experience, demonstrations,

experimentation, observation, and visual aids.

Has difficulty with math.

Poor short term or working memory.

Poor memory for sequences, facts and information that has not been

experienced.

Seems to "Zone out" or daydream often.

Excellent memory for experiences.

Visual learner. Thinks primarily in pictures not in sound.

Difficulty putting thoughts into words verbally or in writing.

Mispronounces or transposes words.

Confused by verbal explanations.

Clumsy.

Feels dumb.

   Reading

Initially had trouble or still has trouble with sight words (eg was, what, is,

the).

Difficulty catching on to phonics or sounding out words.

Lacks awareness of the sounds in words, rhymes or sequences of syllables

(e.g. what is the last sound in the words "what", "action", "fun").

Tends to confuse words that look alike (e.g. was/saw, for/from, who, how,

house/home).

Reads and rereads with little comprehension.

Reading or writing shows repetitions, additions, transpositions, omissions,

substitutions, and reversals in letters, numbers and/or words.

Uses the pictures or context of the story for cues.

Difficulty decoding unfamiliar words.

Tends to lose his/her place when reading (tracking problem).

Mis-reads or omits small words (for, of, with an, it) and word endings

(-ing, -ed, -ly, -s).

Mistakes and symptoms increase dramatically with confusion, time

pressure and emotional distress, or poor health.

Can do math but has difficulty with word problems.

Confuses words with similar spelling (slat/salt, slime/smile).

  Vision and Spelling

Complains of dizziness, headaches or stomach aches while reading.

Confused by letters, numbers, and/or words.

Complains of feeling or seeing non-existent movement while reading,

writing, or copying.

Seems to have difficulty with vision, yet eye exam doesn't reveal a

problem or diagnosed with tracking problem.

Spells phonetically and inconsistently.

Trouble copying from classroom board.
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Thanks, Mum: Quotes From Celebrities With Learning and Attention Issues.   By Liana Chandler (Bach EC, M.T & M. Ed. Sp.)

9/5/2015

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Celebrities often credit their mothers with steering them toward success.  For some stars with learning and attention issues, Mum’s support was essential.  See what these celebs have to say about their mothers.

Channing Tatum

ADHD and dyslexia made school hard for Tatum.  But the actor’s mother encouraged him to learn outside the classroom.  “My mom said, ‘Be a sponge.’  And so I’ve learned more from people than I have from school or from books,”  he says.
--T: The New York Times Style Magazine


Keira Knightley

Even as a young child, Knightley wanted to be an actress.  But her dyslexia made it difficult to read and recite lines.  To encourage her, Knightley’s playwright mum gave her a copy of the screenplay for Sense and Sensibility, which she’d worked on with actress and screenwriter (and Knightley’s idol) Emma Thompson.  Knightley’s mother told her, “If Emma Thompson couldn’t read, she’d make … sure she’d get over it, so you have to start reading, because that’s what Emma Thompson would do.”  And it worked!
--The Guardian


Ryan Gosling

As a child, Gosling was diagnosed with ADHD and had trouble reading.  He was bullied at school and didn’t have any friends until he was a teenager.  Concerned, his mum homeschooled him for a year. Shortly afterward, he began acting.  Of his 2006 Oscar nomination, Gosling says, “It meant a lot to me because it meant a lot to the people that I love.  Especially my mother … she’s been fighting [for me] since I was born.”
--Entertainment Weekly


Muhammad Ali

Growing up, the boxing champ had trouble reading and spelling.  He has dyslexia and says he barely graduated from high school.  But that didn’t stop his mum from supporting his dreams.  “My mother once told me that my confidence in myself made her believe in me.  I thought that was funny, because it was her confidence in me that strengthened my belief in myself.  I didn’t realize it then, but from the very beginning, my parents were helping me build the foundation for my life.”
--The Soul of a Butterfly


 

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ADHD in Children. By Liana Chandler (Bach EC, M.T & M. Ed. Sp.)

3/5/2015

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Children with ADHD show signs of inattention, hyperactivity, and/or impulsivity in specific ways. These children:

  • Are in constant motion

  • Squirm and fidget

  • Do not seem to listen

  • Have trouble playing quietly

  • Often talk excessively

  • Interrupt or intrude on others

  • Are easily distracted

  • Do not finish tasks

    How Is ADHD Diagnosed?

    Though your child may have some symptoms that seem like ADHD, it might be something else.  That's why you need a doctor to check it out.

    There is no specific or definitive test for ADHD.  Instead, diagnosing is a process that takes several steps and involves gathering a lot of information from multiple sources.  You, your child, your child's school, and other caregivers should be involved in assessing your child's behaviour.  A doctor will also ask what symptoms your child has, how long ago those symptoms started, and how the behaviour affects your child and the rest of your family. Doctors diagnose ADHD in children after a child has shown six or more specific symptoms of inattention or hyperactivity on a regular basis for more than 6 months in at least two settings.  The doctor will consider how a child's behaviour compares with that of other children the same age.

    A doctor will give your child a physical exam, take a medical history, and may even give him a noninvasive brain scan.

    Your child's primary care doctor can determine whether your child has ADHD using standard guidelines which says the condition may be diagnosed in children ages 4 to 18.  Symptoms, though, must begin by age 12.

    It is very difficult to diagnose ADHD in children younger than 5. That's because many preschool children have some of the symptoms seen in ADHD in various situations.  Also, children change very rapidly during the preschool years.

    In some cases, behaviour that looks like ADHD might be caused instead by:

  • A sudden life change (such as divorce, a death in the family, or moving)

  • Undetected seizures

  • Medical disorders affecting brain function

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Bipolar disorder

    3 Types of ADHD in Children

    Doctors may classify symptoms as the following types of ADHD:

  • Combined type (inattentive/hyperactive/impulsive). Children with this type of ADHD show all three symptoms. This is the most common form of ADHD.

  • Hyperactive/impulsive type.  Children show both hyperactive and impulsive behaviour, but for the most part, they are able to pay attention.

  • Inattentive type. Formerly called attention deficit disorder (ADD).  These children are not overly active.  They do not disrupt the classroom or other activities, so their symptoms might not be noticed.

    ADHD Treatment Overview

    Treatment plans may include special education programs, psychological intervention, and drug treatment.  Learn as much as you can about the options and talk them over with your child's health care provider so you can make the best plan for your child. 

    Studies show that long-term treatment with a combination of  medications  and behavioural therapy is much better than just medication treatment, or no specific treatments in managing hyperactivity, impulsivity, inattention, and symptoms of anxiety and depression.  Those kids treated with both ADHD drugs and therapy also had better social skills.

    Drugs for Childhood ADHD

    A class of drugs called psychostimulants (or sometimes just stimulants) is a highly effective treatment for childhood ADHD. These medicines, including  Adderall , Vyvanse,  Concerta , Focalin,  Daytrana ,  Ritalin , and Quillivant XR, help children focus their thoughts and ignore distractions.

    Another treatment used to treat ADHD in kids is nonstimulant medication.  These medications include Intuniv, Kapvay, and Strattera.

    ADHD medicines are available in short-acting (immediate-release), intermediate-acting, and long-acting forms.  It may take some time for a doctor to find the best medication, dosage, and schedule for someone with ADHD.  ADHD drugs sometimes have side effects, but these tend to happen early in treatment.  Usually, side effects are mild and don't last long.

    Behavioural Treatments for Children With ADHD

    Behavioural treatment for children with ADHD includes creating more structure, encouraging routines, and clearly stating expectations of the child.

    Other forms of ADHD treatment that may benefit your child include:

  • Social skills training. This can help a child with ADHD learn behaviours that will help them develop and maintain social relationships.

  • Support groups and parenting skills training. This includes support for the parents and helping them learn more about ADHD and how to parent a child who has ADHD.

    What Treatment Is Best for My Child?

    No single treatment is the answer for every child with ADHD.  Each child's needs and personal history must be carefully considered.

    For example, a child may have undesirable side effects to a medication, making a particular treatment unacceptable.  If a child with ADHD also has anxiety or depression, a treatment combining medication and behavioural therapy might be best.

    It's important to work with a doctor to find the best solution for your child.

    The ADHD Coach

    Coaching is a relatively new field in the treatment of ADHD in children.  ADHD coaches are meant to help children achieve better results in different areas of their lives by setting goals and helping the child find ways to reach them.  A child, however, must be mature and motivated enough to work with a coach.

     

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    About ALA

    The Australian Literacy Academy (ALA) is a private English tutoring centre in Castle Hill, NSW dedicated to helping children of all levels and spectrums reach their full potential in the area of literacy: reading, writing, spelling, comprehension and speaking and listening.

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About Us
Australian Literacy Academy is a private English tutoring centre dedicated to helping children of all levels and spectrums reach their full potential in the area of literacy: reading, writing, spelling, comprehension and speaking and listening. We provide tutoring at our Castle Hill centre and online
tutoring to children of all ages across Australia.


www.australianliteracyacademy.com.au

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Australian Literacy Academy (ALA)
Private English Tutoring Castle Hill
Unit 12
7 Anella Avenue 
CASTLE HILL NSW 2154 


T:  (02) 9191 7336
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