Lisa Dieker 0:08
Welcome to Practical Access. I'm Lisa Dieker.
Rebecca Hines 0:11
And I'm Rebecca Hines. And Lisa, I know you've got something new for us today, what are we talking about?
Lisa Dieker 0:17
Well, we're gonna start kind of tackling some aspects of what's called the high leverage practices and special education for teachers. And we're going to break apart a couple of these because they're complex. But today, we're just going to talk specifically see if I get that word out about being consistent. So I'm gonna throw that went right to you. And I do think we're trying to talk a lot about math and science, but I'm pretty sure, consistency is consistency, its consistency.
Rebecca Hines 0:44
Absolutely. So at least I'm going to start with consistency, especially thinking about something like math and science. I'm going to start with thinking about how we asked students to respond to our teaching in terms of organizing their own information. And I think often we assume kids come with skills, especially at the secondary level, they they're coming with note taking skills, they're coming with an idea of how to do something. And I'm, I'm gonna pitch first for the idea of setting up some very consistent note taking patterns, where we, as teachers, cue kids, it's time, you know, let's make sure we get this down. Let's make sure we do this. So so one thing we might do is make sure we're verbally cueing students, when we are talking about something that is noteworthy. And I've recently really been looking at, you know, a variety of note taking styles, I don't, I don't presume to think every student needs to do exactly the same way in the spirit of UDL, maybe two different ways of note taking, but explicitly teaching these skills. And having kids practice in the first one is the old tried and true Cornell notes. Some people hate Cornell notes, but I feel like it gives you a nice, graphic organizer. And it can be used in conjunction with my second recommendation, which is sketch noting. And sketch noting is simply just literally what it sounds like. It's using words and images to get across your notes. But if you set those up as Cornell notes, and that's kind of in your body, but you've still got your keywords over on the left and your summary at the end, that's a nice consistent note taking strategy that I could easily teach kids to do.
Lisa Dieker 2:34
So I'm going to piggyback on that because we are talking about consistency. And I think we need to be consistent when you need to take notes. And when you're supposed to listen, I think that's something really important in the math and science. You know, I like to when I present, hey, I'm going to give you my notes at the end right now just listen to jot down the things that are important. But I think in general, there's a lot of the when I don't think any student does well, but specifically students with disabilities, when I don't know when the labs gonna happen, I don't know when the test is going to happen. I don't know when. And we don't want to make anxiety but add some images, add some pictures show kids where to do the lab at 10. And 11. I don't care if they're 12. They're two or they're 20. I think college students like to know when we're going to do things and adding as images. And within that lab, what are you going to do? What's it going to look like taking some pictures? You know, and I always say teachers are really busy. Can't you really bright students that are bored at the end of class that can you go through the lab tomorrow and take some pictures of what you're going to look like at each station? And then I'll just add to that last piece and throw it back to you Becky, you know, I think we need consistency to with homework and technology. And so you know, when are we going to give it What's it gonna look like I you know, this, this, it's this way this week. And it's that way, that's really hard. And as kids get to the upper grade levels, and every teacher wants to do it free form their own way. I love freedom of teachers, but it's not good for kids. And I think that same thing goes with technology. I think the biggest mistake we've made in this country is everybody's got a device. It's now time to personalize it. individualize it. So when we go into math and science, if I need a calculator that's got a large print that speaks to me, is that set up on my computer? Or do I just not even know that's there? And so I would really encourage everybody, as we, you know, are in the classroom in math and science to say what is it that this computer can do for you? Specifically, I'm colorblind, I can't see the periodic elements tables, colorblind. Yeah, but I can read the labels. Well, but if the label doesn't speak to me, maybe I can't read the labels. It's that kind of personalization, I would encourage. And if you're not tech savvy are friends out there. You got students who are and if they're over the age of birth, they're old enough to do some tech individualization. So those are some of my consistent thoughts.
Rebecca Hines 4:47
Yeah, I think those are great thoughts, especially in terms of technology, so maybe to promote that really consistent environment. Maybe it starts with take 30 seconds to get your device ready. Maybe it's starts with something very specific, I set a timer, I say, take 30 seconds to get your note page organized or your computer program organized. But it's that kind of intention and that kind of thing I'm used to hearing as a student. So now I know to snap to it and get prepared for what's coming next. And at least, my final thought on the consistency part is the procedures, which is whether it's setting up note taking or setting up our devices, whatever our procedures are, and again, at any age level, we have to remember not all students are great at you know, they don't come in naturally organized. So if your expectation is that we're sitting a certain way on this day, or doing something specific, I need to be able to see exactly what the expectation is. And I also need to practice it. So literally working with kids at any age level, I would, if I said that, we were going to move our desks in a circle to do something, I would say you've got 30 seconds to get your desks in a circle. Let's practice it before we start, and I would set a timer, I would give him 30 seconds. And I'd say that's nobody, you know, we did not all get into the circle. So let's try it again. And we would do it until I was sure they all knew exactly what I was expecting. So you can scale that up to the academic side, you can scale it up to lab procedures in a science classroom. But rehearse, rehearse, rehearse procedures, if we want a good consistent setting.
Lisa Dieker 6:36
Well, I'm gonna piggyback right on that and just stretch it just a teeny bit, but I love what you said, because to me math and science, practices in special ed should be about discourse. If a student doesn't speak, we need their their communication device set up with a math and science terms. You know, it's planning, but it's it's saying this is a community of learners. And you can't be in a community without roles. There's speed limits for a reason. There's, you know, etiquette on the sidewalk for a reason. And so making sure that what two things one, we have that consistent structure, so kids can thrive in it. And they're, they're individualized and personalized. But the second one is to remember math and science is about solving a problem. And you don't learn math and science if somebody solves all your problems for you. So paras teachers, parents, peers of kids with disabilities tend to want to sweep in and solve the problem. From our viewpoint on practical access, we want to remind you kids need a chance in math and science to fail on their own. Getting a math problem, right, is not getting the right answer. It's understanding how you got the right answer. And so sometimes we're looking for the right, but most of the time in math and science learning occurs when you fail. And guess what, when you fail in math and science, you also learn how to fail in life. And I think that's what we really want to remember is natural peer supports, peer supports that are very specific, don't to their homework for them. Don't do the math problem, invite them to discourse and make sure we let kids help themselves instead of someone helping them all the time.
Rebecca Hines 8:11
And that consistent environment includes all of those elements. And understanding that when we have repeated and consistent actions as teachers, whether it's the way we respond to student failure, whether it's the way that we grade, whether it's the way that we assign notes, any of those things, the more consistent we can be, the more consistent our students will be.
Lisa Dieker 8:35
All right. Well, thank you for joining us for this consistent topic on Practical Access. You can send us any questions you might have. We love to answer questions from teachers on our Facebook page, or on our Twitter @accesspractical
.png)