Help for the Struggling Student Ready-to-Use Strategies and Lessons to Build Attention, Memory, and Organizational Skills

by Gold, Mimi

• ISBN13: 9780787965884
• ISBN10: 078796588X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-17
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

Here is a unique picture book of learning solutions for teachers who are trying to help students struggling in three main areas of learning attention, memory, and organization. For each area, it identifies specific problems such as difficulties with left to right scanning (an attention problem), presents an observed student behavior, explains the problem, and provides strategies and visuals to correct it, including illustrated worksheets.

Author Biography

Mimi Gold (Masters in Human Development) is the school program coordinator for children and adolescents who are hospitalized in the Rehabilitation Departments of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Georgia. In addition, she works as an educational consultant, advising families and schools on special services, cognitive therapy, and instructional strategies. For more than two decades, her work has focused on meeting the special needs of students with learning disabilities.

Table of Contents

About This Resource	p. v
How Students Learn
Learning Styles	p. 1
What Should We Understand Before Attempting to Help a Struggling Student?	p. 1
What Is a Learning Style? Why Is It Important?	p. 1
What Is the First Step in Identifying a Student's Learning Style?	p. 2
What Kinds of Behaviors Indicate a Preference for Seeing, Hearing, Touching, or Moving?	p. 3
How Can We Begin to Interpret Our Observations of a Student's Learning?	p. 4
Thinking Styles	p. 6
How Can We Observe Differences in Thinking Styles?	p. 6
The Synthesizer	p. 6
The Analyzer	p. 7
How Can We Identify Synthesizers and Analyzers in School Tasks	p. 7
How Can a Student's Ability Level Affect His or Her Thinking Style?	p. 8
Do Students Have to Learn Using Only Their Personal Learning Style?	p. 9
Strategies	p. 10
How Are Strategies Different from Learning and Thinking Styles?	p. 10
What Can Strategies Do for a Struggling Student?	p. 10
What are Some Observable "Glitches" and Their Corresponding Strategies?	p. 11
Difficulty Recalling Specific Word Meanings	p. 11
Difficulty Differentiating Between Similar Letters	p. 11
Difficulty Retaining Ideas When Writing Paragraphs	p. 11
How Do We Teach a Strategy?	p. 12
How Do We Use the Strategy Sections of This Book?	p. 13
Attention-Enhancing Strategies
What Does It Mean to "Pay Attention"?	p. 15
How Are the Attention Strategies Organized?	p. 16
Consistent Left-to-Right Scanning	p. 17
Worksheets: Consistent Left-to-Right Scanning	p. 21
Left-to-Right Scanning of Letters	p. 26
Worksheet: Scanning Parts of Letters in the Alphabet	p. 30
Pictographs for Remembering Difficult Letters	p. 32
Worksheets
Letter Reversal Drawings	p. 36
Inverted Letter Drawings	p. 41
Scanning for Specific Letters with Mixed Sets	p. 48
Scanning of Words	p. 60
Worksheets
Simple Word Scanning for Younger Students	p. 62
Complex Word Scanning for Advanced Students	p. 69
Tracking Rows of Print	p. 76
Top-to-Bottom Scanning	p. 79
Worksheets
Top-to-Bottom Scanning for Beginning Level	p. 83
Top-to-Bottom Scanning for Intermediate Level	p. 90
Sleeve for Top-to-Bottom Scanning	p. 96
Margin Scanning	p. 98
Page Layout Scanning	p. 100
Skip It ... Come Back Later	p. 102
Covering Items to Reduce Distraction	p. 103
Tracing to Improve Accuracy	p. 105
Talk It ... Audibly	p. 108
Marking Items	p. 110
Snake Your Paper	p. 112
Memory-Enhancing Strategies
What's Involved in Being Able to Remember?	p. 115
How Are the Memory Strategies Organized?	p. 117
Verbal-Learner Strategies
Rehearse Important Words in Instruction	p. 118
Worksheets: "Rehearsal" Practice	p. 122
Thinking Out Loud to Solve Problems	p. 127
Worksheets: Using "Talk It" Strategy in Subtraction with Next-Door Houses	p. 132
Highlighting Key Words in Reading	p. 136
Quickie Study List from Highlighted Text	p. 141
Visual-Learner Strategies
Draw Meaning Illustrations for Vocabulary	p. 145
Worksheet: Vocabulary Study List	p. 148
Word Shape Boxes for Reading and Spelling	p. 150
Worksheets
Letter Models with Ground Lines	p. 155
Practice with Comparing Word Houses	p. 158
Previewing Illustrations to Predict Reading Content	p. 162
Previewing Content in Chapter Reading	p. 167
Paired-Memory-Learner Strategies
Double-Digit Number Reading for Reversals	p. 170
Worksheets
Ready-to-Use Number Strips for 20s through 90s	p. 177
Ready-to-Use Hundred Number Grid	p. 180
Ready-to-Use Number Cards for "Teen" and Regular Numbers	p. 182
Drawing the "Bossy Teenager"	p. 185
Finding the "Teen" Numbers	p. 187
Spelling Checking Through Reading Recognition	p. 190
Multimodality-Learner Strategies
Trace, Cover, and Write for Study	p. 194
Worksheets
"Trace, Cover, and Write for Spelling"	p. 199
"Trace, Cover, and Write for Vocabulary"	p. 201
Association Strategy for "Stinker" Spelling Words	p. 203
Worksheet: Creating Spelling Associations	p. 211
Association Strategy for New Vocabulary	p. 213
Worksheet: Creating Vocabulary Associations	p. 219
Organization-Enhancing Strategies
What's Included in Being Able to Organize Learning?	p. 221
How Are the Organization Strategies Organized?	p. 223
Reading Strategies
Letter Sounds for the Alphabet Through Picture Tracing	p. 225
Worksheets
Ready-to-Use Pictures for Regular Letter Sounds	p. 236
Ready-to-Use Pictures for Letters with Two Sounds	p. 240
Digraph Letter Sounds Through Picture Tracing	p. 243
Worksheet
Ready-to-Use Pictures for Digraph Letters	p. 248
Breaking Words into Smaller Chunks	p. 250
Worksheets
Ready-to-Use Set of Cards for the Six Basic Vowel Patterns	p. 259
Ready-to-Use Sorting Task for Vowel Chunk Patterns	p. 262
Ready-to-Use Illustrations for the Diphthong Vowels	p. 267
Math Strategies
"Going to the Bank" Script for Multiplication	p. 269
Worksheets
Multidigit Multiplication	p. 276
Visual Layout for Long Division	p. 279
Model Problem for Checking Long Division	p. 283
Worksheet
Model Problem for Checking Division	p. 286
Recipe for Long Division	p. 288
Written-Language Strategies
Comic Strip Story Planner	p. 291
Worksheets
Comic Strip Story Planner	p. 296
Paragraph Writing Guide	p. 298
Visual Organizer for General Written Topic	p. 300
Worksheet
"WH" Visual Organizer	p. 305
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