| Subject: Re: strategies for teaching |
Author:
Keith
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Date Posted: 14:01:22 12/15/10 Wed
In reply to:
jan
's message, "strategies for teaching" on 05:32:28 11/19/10 Fri
All great suggestions. Now many people know any tools they can use that may help. Remember there are three aspects that a LD student needs to succeed.
One is to address the lecture part so the student takes in the information in an appropriate manner. The second is teaching study skills that work specifically for that individual. And, the third is testing skills. Not just how to understand how to take test better and better, but also what types of test allows the student to best be able to demonstrate his/her knowledge of the subject. I have found open ended oral questions are best. Ask the student what can you tell me about this, what is this, how does that work. The student should be able to answer orally as well. This allows them to address the question fully, as well as to make the reasoning for their answer understood. Simply put, explain it in its proper context.
Each of these will take a trial and error approach so to find what actually does work for each person. Were most may assume something works just because some book said so, is not fallowing through with making sure if it works or not.
As far as notes, I find it would be much easier for a teacher to write their notes to the class on an over head projector. Then when finished, they can take the clear plastic sheets they wrote the lector on, and make a copy of them for the student. It would be even better if the teacher already had their lector planed out with prepared notes of what she wanted to cover, and made hand outs for the student before the class. Then the student can focuses on what is being taught and not have to put all their attention on just taking notes. This can be done not just for the LD student but also for the whole class.
For the teacher to save money on supplies, they can post online their notes the day before class, so students can down load it themselves. This will allow students to read over the notes and be prepared for what the teacher may discuss in class. Not saying all students will, but if they chose to, by already over viewing the next day lecture, the student will be more familiar with what will be covered and quicker to gasp the new information. At the same time, the student a take the notes and put them on MSN Word. This allows the student to quickly and easily organized the information in a manner that is more meaningful to them. Such as using different fonts, bold, underline, italic, color coding, highlighting, page breaks, and boxes so to help separate different information as well as draw attention to different steps, and key phrases.
I had found when reading information in a text book, the focus should not be so much if the student can read or not. Most can read very well, but their insecurities of constantly making failing grades makes them insecure to read. Making them feel in some way they keep missing something.
I have found the much more effective method is to teach them how to read and skim for relevant information. Many times the LD student thinks they must have missed something, so they read more and more in-depth, trying to understand and memorizes every single thing in the book. They are taking a broad approach which some would say is not a focused approach to what is considered relevant. They also become way to specific in what they are looking for, when most questions are asked in a general since. Many questions on a test can be thought of as over generalized. Were if you are looking at absolutes and extreme specifics, your response would usually be correct, yes, but incorrect on the exam, due to it not being the answer the teacher was looking for.
By learning how to skim for information, it allows the student to read the book similar to how the teacher, or test generator does, and by doing so, also allows the student to see the information in the same way. When using this approach, you will be able to see the material the same way, which will allow you to draw the same conclusions. The test questions are usually written to reflect this approach, and by doing so, the student will be able to clearly understand the perspective, were and how the teacher formulate the question I the manner they did.
This will also help a student learn how to quickly and precisely get the information so they can create flash cards. The key information should be short statements, basically looking for a key word, with a short key definition. I know many of the A students enjoy using flash cards. I prefer a variation of this, which to me is much more quicker and convent. I like to make a list of the key words and their definitions on one page. This way I can quickly skim the information, a cheat sheet, which I use as a study sheet. While at the same time, I can play around with how I have the material typed out so to make it more meaningful and easier to read.
I may underline just a few key words in the definition as one example. By doing this, I know when I see these key words in my answer selection on a test, that only the correct answer would have these few key words. If the name of the defined word is too big and not part of my vocabulary, I will find ways to break the word down to smaller words, so I can understand how to pronounce and spell the word better. I will put a back slash or dash between each portion of the word, so separate it while still knowing it is the name I need to memorize. I do this because for me, it was not so much the definition that was difficult to remember. The definition was a string of words that were strong together in a meaningful manner, with each word helping me remember the phrase. But a new word, had no support to help me remember. There were not means of me to make any association to this word so to remember how to pronounce and spell it. But by breaking it down, I was able to make associations with words I already had in my vocabulary, and already knew how to spell.
Another way of remembering a new word is to think of visually keys to associate with the word. This is a skill I am still trying to develop, but when I had friends suggest one for me, for one of the words I was trying to remember, I had always remembered the word from then on. An example of what most people may find difficult to remember would be the Radial Nerve of the arm. If I hold my thumb up to my ear like I am talking on a radio/walky talky it would remind me that the nerve ran on my thumb side of my hand. By remembering this, it also told me the opposite nerve, the Ulna Nerve must be its opposite. Meaning the Ulna Nerve is located on the opposite side of my hand, the pinky side. Another example would be the word Supination and Pronation. You can write the words Sup-in-ation or Sup i(n-ation), Pro-nation. To remember both meanings, I was explained to imagine my hand. Supination sounds like Soup-in-ation, or almost like Soup-In-Action. I would imagine holding a bowl of Soup in my hand, with my palms up. Supination would be the action of turning my hand up word. So, the very word also describes a visual content of what my hand is doing. Once I know what one words is, the opposite word should have its opposite meaning. Palms down would be Pronation. I would imagine with practice and making a game of word associations, mixed with a visual mental image should be come easier and easier like any other skill, with practice and over time. As the student practices this skill with each new word, you both can play a game to who can come up with one first, and then who can come up with the best one. When you find a great mental image to associate the meaning name with, memorization would becomes so much easier, and quicker.
When focusing on study skills repetition is one of the best methods. This does not mean the student needs to be focused for hours on end. That is because when looking at a person’s memory, we find when giving a string of say words, numbers, and letters that a person tends to only remember the beginning or end. It reflects our short attention span. I find it by mutable shot sessions during the memorization phase works best. Say about 5 minutes of going over everything quickly. The goal is not to memorize everything on the first several tries. That time is more to only familiarize the person with the definitions, names and such. After say 5 tries they will start to make connections. Little aspects will become more and more familiar. After 10 tries, they will feel they know most of the material, but much of it may be on the tip of their tongue. Around the 15th time, the student should have most of the information down, with the focuses being primarily on the few they are still working on. You can see how the student starts to learn more and more definitions with each try. As the student started to know each one clearly, you can remover it from the list you are repeating through. Every once in a while you will put the whole list together so to review, and make sure the previous definitions are not forgotten. But, for the most part the list should continue to shorten once the student feels they know each specific definition.
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