Scaffolding for Students with Behavioral Concerns

Transcription

1 Scaffolding for Students with Behavioral Concerns Off Task Behaviors reducing distractions, providing structure, and teaching selfregulation skills. Seat the student away from those students in the classroom who create the most auditory and visual stimuli. Provide the student with shorter tasks which do not require extended attention in order to be successful. Gradually increase the length of the tasks as the student demonstrates success. Provide the student with clearly stated expectations for work completion. Provide the student with samples of work, which may serve as models for acceptable levels of accuracy and quality. Have the student maintain a chart representing the number of tasks completed and the accuracy rate of each task. Provide the student with a schedule of daily events; prevent lag time when the student is free to engage in excessive and unnecessary movement. Give the student opportunities to work in various positions such as sitting, standing & floor work. Pre-determine a signal between you and the student when he/she exhibits inappropriate off task behavior and requires a physical cue to get back on task. Impulsive Behaviors Provide the student with clear, simply stated explanations, instructions, and directions so that he/she knows exactly what is expected. teaching students Make certain the student has an adequate amount of activities scheduled in order to prevent the likelihood of how to monitor and impulsivity. control their impulsivity while Teach the student to think before acting. Teach the student to self-monitor their behavior by asking limiting their themselves questions such as; What is the best choice I can make in this situation. opportunities to act impulsively. Reduce the opportunity to act impulsively by limiting decision-making. Gradually increase the opportunities Virginia Beach Public Schools 1

2 for decision-making as the student demonstrates success. Provide the student a routine to be followed when making decisions. Teach decision-making strategies; give the student a visual reminder of those strategies. Allow natural consequences to occur in order for the student to learn that persons who take turns and act in a deliberate manner are more successful than those who act impulsively. Interfering Behaviors setting clear limits and teaching students how to regulate themselves to stay within those limits. Provide the student with extension activities if they complete their work early, they must stay engaged otherwise interfering behaviors would prevail. Teach the student when it is acceptable to politely interrupt others i.e. an emergency. Emphasize the behaviors you want exhibited by the student; remind them of how to listen to others. Deliver directions, explanations, and instructions in a clear and concise manner in order to reduce the number of questions asked. Evaluate the appropriateness of the task to determine: difficulty of task, length of task for task completion. Call on the student when they are most likely to be able to respond correctly. Virginia Beach Public Schools 2

3 Scaffolding for Students with Writing Difficulties Writing Difficulties finding alternatives so that writing limitations do not interfere with learning while improving their writing skills. Allow more time for written tasks including note taking, copying, and tests. Allow students to begin projects or assignments early. Encourage learning keyboarding skills to increase the speed and legibility of written work. Have the student prepare assignment papers in advance with required headings possibly using a template either copied or on computer. Provide a partially completed outline so the student can fill in the details under major headings. Allow the student to dictate some assignments or tests. The scribe should be writing what the student says verbatim. Then allow the student to make changes, without assistance from the scribe. Remove neatness or spelling as grading criteria for some assignments, or design writing assignments to be evaluated on specific parts of the writing process. Teach the student how to use abbreviations during note taking opportunities. Have the student develop a repertoire of abbreviations and keep them handy in a notebook for note taking situations. e.g. b/c for because. Teach students to use icons (including Kaplan) for note taking and brainstorming ideas. Reduce copying aspects of work; for examples, in math, provide a worksheet with the problems already on it instead of having the student copy the problems. Allow students options for note-taking: bullets, jot lists, highlighting, photocopies of teacher or peer notes. Provide extra structure and intermittent deadlines for long-term assignments. Develop cooperative writing projects where different students can take on roles based on their strengths and contributions to the group project; use partner writing. Offer the student an alternative project such as an oral report or visual project. Virginia Beach Public Schools 3

4 Reduce the copying elements of assignments and tests. For example, if students are expected to answer in complete sentences that reflect the question, have the student do this for three questions that you select, then answer the rest in phrases, words, or drawings. Grade different assignments on individual parts of the writing process, so that for some assignments spelling doesn t count, for other, grammar. Establish levels of expectations for quality handwriting performance, and require the student to correct or repeat assignments until the expectations are met. Provide the student opportunities for handwriting practice and give positive reinforcers for improving skills. Make certain that all educators who work with the student maintain consistent expectations of handwriting quality. Model character interview as a pre-writing strategy. Offer choices for pre-writing activities; have a range of methods for students to choose from for pre-writing. Tape record responses especially when written expression is not a lesson goal. Allow for a variety of presentation modalities; especially when written expression is not a lesson goal. Introduce students to a variety of graphic organizers. Explain the appropriate uses for the graphic organizer. Over time, a variety of graphic organizers should be made available to students so they may choose the most appropriate one for the task and to meet their needs. Teach research skills explicitly: skimming, summarizing, paraphrasing, outlining, and organizing ideas. Teach students how to use technology in their research: highlighting and color-coding text on-line, copying and pasting for taking notes, using editing features on software, creating tables and graphs, cutting and pasting a variety of graphics, tables, charts, graphs, maps, text boxes, and text. Virginia Beach Public Schools 4

5 Scaffolding for Reading Comprehension Reading Comprehension helping students develop a range of comprehension strategies and encouraging the active use of those strategies. Make a list of main points from the student s reading material, written on the student s reading level. Have the student verbally paraphrase material that has just been read in order to assess comprehension. Have the student outline, underline, or highlight important points in the reading material. Have the student tape record what he/she reads in order to enhance comprehension by listening to the recording. Have the student identify a word each day, which he/she does not understand, have the student use that word in a sentence throughout the day in various situations. Encourage the student to read material with many illustrations and a limited amount of print. Gradually decrease the number of pictures. Incorporate listening skills/techniques as part of the daily routine (e.g., listening center, teacher reads to student, student reads to another. Check for understanding of first, next, and last by having the student tell what happens during daily events in first, next, and last. Have the student read a passage more than once, emphasizing comprehension rather than speed. Teach students to visualize information as if it were a movie, and then play it back mentally when he/she needs to verbalize it. Have the student read progressively longer segments of reading material in order to build comprehension skills. Provide student with frequent checks for understanding of written material. Include predictable reading books in the class library. Predictability can make books more appealing to Virginia Beach Public Schools 5

6 struggling readers and build confidence. Make certain that the reading demands of all subjects and assignments are within the ability level of the student. If not, modify or adjust the reading material to the student s ability level. Label objects and activities in the classroom to help the student associate words with tangible aspects of the environment. Teach the student to use context clues to identify words not understood. Anticipate new or difficult vocabulary words and teach them in advance of reading a selection. Provide the student with a variety of visual teaching materials to support word comprehension (e.g., pictures, charts, graphic organizers, films). Virginia Beach Public Schools 6

7 Scaffolding for Reading Decoding Reading Decoding The focus here is on finding alternatives so that limitations with decoding skills do not interfere with learning while improving their decoding skills. Student dictates answers to a proctor or assistant who records the answers. Student dictates answers to a scribe or tape recorder to be later transcribed. Student audiotapes responses. Provide student with audiotapes of textbooks, student follows text while listening to tape. Provide alternative books with similar concepts at an easier reading level. Provide summaries of chapters in graphic format. Provide summaries of chapters in an audio format. Use peer readers. User highlighters to emphasize essential information. Using Grolier online, highlight most important text. Include graphics and rich pictures to help students interpret text. Shorten the length of assignments that require reading. Chunk text into shorter segments and allow additional time with teacher checkpoints along the way. Assess student abilities based on knowledge of information not the student s ability to read content. Teach student to use picture cues when reading level is higher than skill level. Use reading materials with high interest and low vocabulary. Virginia Beach Public Schools 7

8 Reduce the amount of information on the page, isolate important information through visual cueing. Outline reading material for the student using words and phrases at his/her reading level. Make available for the student a learning center area where a variety of information is available in content areas (e.g., films, slides, videotapes, taped lectures, etc ). Tape lectures in order to provide an additional source of information for the student. Use content clues to identify words and phrases he/she does not know. Have the student read high interest signs, advertisements, notices, etc, from newspapers, magazines, movie promotions, etc., placing an emphasis on phonics skills. Provide opportunities for students to practice active learning at the chalkboard by having students, hear, write and read words. Use United Streaming to replace text. Post concept maps, essential questions, and enduring understandings. These are short and help students focus on the big ideas. Have PVC phone reading available for students to hear themselves reading aloud. Virginia Beach Public Schools 8

9 Scaffolding for Written Expression Written Expression teaching a range of techniques that encourage creative production, while developing their technical writing skills and planning ability. Use picture cues during writing activities if the student is struggling to come up with a topic for a writing activity. Have the student write a sentence or paragraph describing events in a favorite comic strip, have the comic strip in front of the student while writing. Have the student tell you their story before writing it down on paper, focus the student on creating one thought at a time on paper building each sentence into a paragraph. Provide the student with very clear criteria of acceptable written work; have a checklist available regarding the main components of successful writers. Make groups of cards based on student interest containing subjects, verbs, adjectives etc. Have the student combine cards in various ways to construct sentences. Give the student a series of correct and incorrect sentences have them identify the incorrect items orally and then allow the student to trash the sentence. Encourage the student to write about topics they find of interest, give the student groups of related words about the topic, and have them write sentences based on the related words, then organize into a paragraph. Have the student complete an outline or use the software Inspiration to complete a graphic web or outline of the writing project. Give the student time limits on completing certain sections of a writing assignment. Check for student understanding. Have the student type the assignment, print out the assignment before spell and grammar check. Then go back and make the corrections, have the student compare their two writings. Require the student to proofread all written work and reinforce the components of good writing for expressing his/her thoughts. Assign the student to a peer model for writing; assign the students to work together on a writing project. Virginia Beach Public Schools 9

10 Have the student use sentence strips that are color coded to work on building skills to encourage use of the correct writing format. Identify the qualities a good writer possesses, have the student self evaluate on each characteristic of the writing process. Have the student read aloud and correct written work in chunks rather than the entire assignment at one time. Reduce the length requirements of written assignments, stress quality over quantity. Grade different assignments on individual parts of the writing process, so that for some assignments spelling doesn t count for other grammar etc Develop cooperative writing projects where different students take on roles such as brainstormer, organizer of information, writer, proofreader, and illustrator. Provide extra structure and intermittent deadlines for long-term assignments. Coach the student through the stages of the assignment. Offer the student differentiated alternatives for projects such as oral reports or a visual project. Provide the student with a rubric to define the expectations of the final project. Virginia Beach Public Schools 10