Archives: New on the website

One of the most effective ways to engage students in even the most dry subject matter is to answer their unspoken question: Who cares about this? It’s a valid question, and it’s one all teachers should be able to answer, no matter the curriculum objective.

On Monday, January 10, we hosted a web conference in which educational consultant Linda Robinson discussed creating assignments that answer the perennial question “Who cares?” Having students examine curriculum objectives from the perspectives of real-world professionals yields rich, rigorous challenging learning for all students, and has particular benefits for gifted learners.

The session was the latest in our series of web conferences on differentiating instruction, and an archive of the session is now available.

Our next web conference, on Feb. 7, will focus on the recently published article “Strategies to Include Students with Autism in the General Education Setting,” by Susan Flynn. For the web conference, the author will be joined by autism teacher Maureen Ostrander from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Participants will have an opportunity to ask questions about teaching students with autism in inclusive classrooms. The conference is free and space is still available, but registration is required. See the differentiation web conferences page for more details and to register.

We’ve just published the latest article in our ongoing series about differentiation. In “Inclusion Strategies for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders,” author Susan Flynn discusses effective teaching strategies and modifications for teaching students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in the inclusive classroom.

The article includes media enhancements that share examples of visual communication techniques, examples of social stories to help students understand appropriate behavior in social contexts, and a sample form to help teachers understand and prevent challenging behaviors.

On Monday, February 7, we’ll host a web conference in which participants can bring their questions about teaching students with autism. Registration is open and space is still available. See the differentiation web conferences page for more information and to register.

The latest article in our ongoing series about differentiation has just been published. In “Who Cares?: Using Real-World Perspectives to Engage Academically Gifted Learners,” author Linda Robinson advocates designing assignments around the concerns of real-world professionals as a way of deepening the learning of gifted students.

Embedded throughout the article is a series of videos, sample assignment documents, and a slideshow featuring student work. In the videos, teachers in elementary, middle, and high school discuss their successes with this approach and the variety of students — not just gifted learners — who benefit as a result of adopting real-world perspectives.

On Monday, January 10, we’ll host a free web conference with Linda Robinson and veteran teacher Molly Patterson, during which participating teachers can bring their questions to the experts. Registration is open and space is still available. See the differentiation web conferences page for more information and to register.

The archive from the most recent web conference in the series “Reaching Every Learner: Differentiating Instruction in Theory and Practice,” is now available. This web conference focused on the article by NC State professor Dr. Edward J. Sabornie, “Managing and Improving Behavior in Inclusive Educational Environments.”

The session featured Dr. Sabornie, who shared six guiding principles for creating a personal behavior management system in the classroom. Dr. Sabornie also addressed questions about common behavior issues, including students who explicitly refuse to do work, students who have difficulty keeping their bodies still, and more.

Stay tuned: We’ll soon publish the next article in the series, “Who Cares?: Using Real-World Perspectives to Engage Academically Gifted Learners,” by Linda Pigott Robinson of CONNECTIONS-NC, Inc. Registration is open for the free web conference with Linda Robinson to be held on Monday, January 10, 2011 from 3:30-4:30.

We’ve just published the latest in our series of articles about differentiated instruction. In “Managing and Improving Behavior in Inclusive Educational Environments,” Dr. Edward J. Sabornie of N.C. State University presents research-based best practices in classroom behavior management.

Dr. Sabornie writes, “In today’s diverse public school classrooms, where pupils with various types of disabilities, English language learners, and at-risk students with attention problems and disruptive behavior are educated side by side, effective classroom management and discipline control have never been more important.”

The article presents strategies that are effective for all students, addressing issues such as spatial arrangement, classroom rules, classroom climate, positive reinforcement, and how to decrease inappropriate behavior without using punishment.

Registration is open for the free web conference with Dr. Sabornie to be held on Monday, December 6, 2010 from 3:30-4:30. See the differentiation web conferences page for more information and to register.

The archive from the most recent web conference in the series “Reaching Every Learner: Differentiating Instruction in Theory and Practice,” is now available. This web conference focused on the article by Dr. David Martin, Dean Emeritus of Gallaudet University, “Deaf Learners and Successful Cognitive Achievement.” The session featured Dr. Martin as well as Dr. Mary V. Compton, Associate Professor at UNC Greensboro; and Kathy Metzer, Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Guilford County Schools. Both Mary V. Compton and Kathy Metzer appear in the videos associated with the article.

In the archive, you’ll see these three experts in the field of deaf education discuss the conditions that contribute to success for deaf students in inclusive settings. The presenters offer insights into cognitive skill acquisition and leveling the playing field when it comes to testing, as well as concrete advice on how to make inclusion work for deaf students. As the participants note, many of these suggestions prove to be useful in working with English language learners in addition to deaf learners.

Stay tuned: We’ll soon publish the next article in the series, “Managing and Improving Behavior in Inclusive Educational Environments,” by Dr. Edward J. Sabornie of North Carolina State University. Registration is open for the free web conference with Dr. Sabornie to be held on Monday, December 6, 2010 from 3:30-4:30.

We’ve just published an inquiry-based unit for high school earth and environmental science, “Inquiry-based exploration of human impacts on stream ecosystems: The Mud Creek case study,” by Christine Muth and Leslie Brinson of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and Emily Bernhardt of Duke University. In this unit, students explore the impact of human activity on the health of streams in urban and non-urban settings. Students mimic current scientific research by measuring physical, chemical, and biological indicators of stream health.

The case study on which the unit is based involved Mud Creek in Durham, North Carolina, but instructions are provided for various settings. Depending on available time and resources, students may do field work in any urban stream; teachers can mock up classroom-only experiments; or teachers may provide students with data from the Mud Creek study to analyze.

Video demonstrations of various activities, including instructions for chemical measurements, are included.

Bigger than your students think. Big enough to hold the United States, China, India, Japan, and much of Europe — and you can see it in a fascinating new map of the continent.

Creator Kai Krause explains:

In addition to the well known social issues of illiteracy and innumeracy, there also should be such a concept as “immappacy,” meaning insufficient geographical knowledge.

A survey of random American schoolkids let them guess the population and land area of their country. Not entirely unexpected, but still rather unsettling, the majority chose “1-2 billion” and “largest in the world,” respectively.

Even with Asian and European college students, geographical estimates were often off by factors of 2-3. This is partly due to the highly distorted nature of the predominantly used mapping projections (such as Mercator).

A particularly extreme example is the worldwide misjudgment of the true size of Africa. This single image tries to embody the massive scale, which is larger than the USA, China, India, Japan, and all of Europe … combined!

The map is available under a Creative Commons license, and it’s now available through LEARN NC as well.

(Hat tip: Good magazine.)

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve published the second article in our year-long series about differentiated instruction, “Deaf Learners and Successful Cognitive Achievement.” Author David Martin, Ph.D., is a prolific author and dean emeritus at Gallaudet University, the world’s only university for deaf persons. In the article, Dr. Martin asserts that, under appropriate conditions, deaf students can succeed in inclusive settings. He includes a list of ideal instructional conditions for deaf students in the inclusive classroom.

Video

The article includes a series of videos featuring interviews with Dr. Mary V. Compton, a professor in special education at UNC-Greensboro; Kathy Metzer, teacher of the deaf at Monticello Brown Summit Elementary; and Martha Overman, interpreter at Monticello Brown Summit. Interview excerpts paired with classroom footage provide insight and practical suggestions for educators teaching deaf students in inclusive classrooms.

Web conference

On October 25, we’ll host a web conference featuring Dr. David Martin, Dr. Mary V. Compton, and teacher of the deaf Kathy Metzer. Registration is free. For more information on this and other web conferences in this series, see the differentiation web conferences page.

Archived web conference

Our September 27 web conference on creating tiered assignments was a great success! Author and educational consultant Linda Robinson and veteran teacher Anne Hawkins shared their experiences and suggestions for implementing this strategy equitably. If you weren’t able to join us, you can watch the archived session.

Stay in the loop

From time to time throughout the school year, we’ll send email updates about this series to interested educators. If you’d like to receive these emails, please contact Lesley Richardson.

Last year LEARN NC ran a blog called Special education: Telling facts from fiction, in which our Pittleman Fellow, Kris Zorigian, considered common “myths” about special education and offered strategies for classroom teachers. As part of our continuing work on differentiated instruction, we’re adapting and expanding those blog posts into articles for the LEARN NC website. The first article, “Social skills,” was published today. Look for more in the coming weeks.