I am called on to prepare for and/ or facilitate Functional Behavior Analyses on a regular basis. Often a team is feeling the pressure of finding a plan that works in a hurry, and in doing so perhaps we overlook some information that could lead to more success. A week ago, I arrived at a school to work with a team on an FBA to learn that the meeting had been postponed. As I reviewed the FBA form we use here in Cowley County with one of my new teachers, I was reminded that "student interview" is one of the ways to collect data, one we often overlook. Within a few minutes, the teacher had the student (KF) in hand, and we proceeded to do a student interview. Many interviews are available if you "Google it", and the one we used was very simple:
1. What about school works well for you? What are the best parts of your day?
2. What about school does not work well for you? What are the worst parts of your day?
3. What could adults do to make your days better?
4. What could you do to make your days better?
5. The team is working on a plan to help you be more successful. What do you want or not want to have in that plan?
K, a 5th grader, was a bit leery at first, wanting to know who would get to see his answers. We put the power of disclosure in his hands, letting him know we needed honesty from him. We would not share any answers without his permission. His answers were very revealing, and the more he talked, the better we were able to envision his difficulty in class. One surprising answer was that (using Zones language) he said he was almost frustrated in class, and when he slaps his hand on the dest he is moving into yellow. If he holds his hand up for help at that point and does not get it right away, it makes him mad. He will then have outbursts. If an adult calls him down for the outburst, he will get quiet and put his head down, but inside he has moved into red, he is boiling. When an adult approaches him at that stage, he will lash out physically and verbally.
Wow, what good information. Adults were not interpreting his head down as a signal for the Red Zone, and would often give him redirects. They were throwing gas on the fire and not even realizing it. I am not sure what plan will evolve, but the effort to interview this student will surely result in more success.
Sunday, January 28, 2018
Peer Power!
In considering the need for facilitating independence in our kids with special needs, and the tight-wire paras walk as they try to provide just the right amount of support, I was reminded of a time when I saw peer support at its best.
A.Z. was a 4th grader with significant needs, skills more typical of a 3 year old. His parents wanted him in a general education classroom, so he had a 1:1 para and some direct pull out instruction for services. Over 75% of his day was with his peers. One day when I was at that school for a coaching visit and learned that his para left because she was ill. The SPED teacher was working frantically to find someone to place in his room with him, so I went to the room to give her time to find someone. I quietly told the teacher that the para was not coming back that day and asked what I could do to help. She told me not to worry, that they had it covered. I then watched as she turned to his group to tell them that they would not have the help of a para for their math task, and that they needed to determine as a group which of A's goals he would work on during math that day. I looked on the wall close to them to see a small poster of "A's Goals", listing 1) recognize colors, 2) answer social questions with 2 or more words, 3) read environmental print, 4) listen to a story and answer 1 question about it. They put their heads together, then one girl pulled a set of markers out of her box. She gave them to A and told him that when they asked for a color, he needed to hand her the correct one. The group then proceeded in creating a large graph of some data they had collected the day before. A was very serious as he held the markers and selected one each time the group needed to change colors. It was obvious that they did indeed "have this covered" and did not need me.
How much power do we leave on the table when we do not ask peers to support each other? They have so much more flexibility in their problem solving than adults typically do, and the results can be amazing!
A.Z. was a 4th grader with significant needs, skills more typical of a 3 year old. His parents wanted him in a general education classroom, so he had a 1:1 para and some direct pull out instruction for services. Over 75% of his day was with his peers. One day when I was at that school for a coaching visit and learned that his para left because she was ill. The SPED teacher was working frantically to find someone to place in his room with him, so I went to the room to give her time to find someone. I quietly told the teacher that the para was not coming back that day and asked what I could do to help. She told me not to worry, that they had it covered. I then watched as she turned to his group to tell them that they would not have the help of a para for their math task, and that they needed to determine as a group which of A's goals he would work on during math that day. I looked on the wall close to them to see a small poster of "A's Goals", listing 1) recognize colors, 2) answer social questions with 2 or more words, 3) read environmental print, 4) listen to a story and answer 1 question about it. They put their heads together, then one girl pulled a set of markers out of her box. She gave them to A and told him that when they asked for a color, he needed to hand her the correct one. The group then proceeded in creating a large graph of some data they had collected the day before. A was very serious as he held the markers and selected one each time the group needed to change colors. It was obvious that they did indeed "have this covered" and did not need me.
How much power do we leave on the table when we do not ask peers to support each other? They have so much more flexibility in their problem solving than adults typically do, and the results can be amazing!
Friday, January 26, 2018
What’s a teacher to do???
When students seem “stuck”, making little to no progress ....
AMP IT UP!!
Amplify Intensity of instruction- Through diagnostic assessment and progress monitoring, become very focused on the barrier to the reading. Mini-lessons and conferences can focus on guiding the student around the barrier.
Amplify Sensory input- Simultaneous multi-sensory review of skills is the only proven method for helping dyslexic students to learn to be automatic enough with sounds and words to overcome their difficulty with reading. Students should learn written language through visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic channels. Spaced repetition should be used to help with memory.
Amplify Frequency of practice- Finding snippets of time for the practice of phonics skills, math facts, and sight words will lead to automaticity. Motivation for practice at home will reap quicker results.
Notes on Dyslexia:
- Recent research indicates that as many as 1 in 5 children have a form of dyslexia. This means every teacher will probably encounter several students in every class with this persistent barrier to reading success.
- The most successful approach to overcoming dyslexia is systematic phonics instruction paired with meaningful reading experiences. The phonics instruction should have simultaneous multi-sensory instruction of new skills, such as letter/sound relationships, blending sounds, knowledge of irregular sight words, and syllabication.
- Dyslexics are often mistaken to have lower thinking skills than their reading peers. Often this is not at all true. These students are often the best problem solvers, inventors, and creators. They need the chance to hear text on topics of interest, to read with support, and to discuss higher levels of text than they can decode on their own.
- Students will not “outgrow” dyslexia. They can learn strategies that will help them read, but they may never be good spellers, and fluency may remain out of reach. However, they can learn to understand complex text and succeed in conquering classes even at the college level. Some doctors are dyslexic, many entertainers and scientists are dyslexic.
- COLLABORATE with your academic coaches and your SPED staff, to include the Speech Pathologist. They have many resources and strategies to help you with these students.
Source: Shaywitz, S. (2003). Overcoming dyslexia: A new and complete science-based program for reading problems at any level (1st ed.). New York, NY: A.A. Knopf :.
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