Education Assistance

Directions: Answer each discussion question in 150 words and each response in 100 words. The attached document can used as a guide.

Discussion Question 1: Identify one learning strategy you feel best meets the needs of students with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia or dyscalculia. Identify one instructional strategy that you feel best meets the needs of students identified as gifted. Explain why you selected these strategies and how you know they work.

Response 1:

Allecia wrote : A learning strategy that would be beneficial to all students, but especially students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, would be the strategy of "show and tell". According to Killian (2014), "telling involves sharing information or knowledge with your students and showing involves modeling how to do something". The majority of students will benefit from modeling, or a visual aspect to teaching rather than just listening to directions or content lecture. Modeling provides clarity and comfort as students take their first steps to complete a new task.

Incorporating classroom discussion, both large group and small group, as a learning strategy would be beneficial to those who are identified as gifted. Discussion between peers includes sharing diverse viewpoints and ideas to further understanding of content and also encourage creativity and critical thinking skills. This is especially true within my content of art. We take time weekly to do small group critiques and discussions about each student's work. This is time for me as a teacher to share my feedback, but also equally important, for students to share their ideas and feedback to take an art work to another level as well.

Response 2:

Wade wrote: it is not clear why the author of this DQ asks in the one instance about a learning strategy and then, in another, about an instructional strategy. Obviously, learning and instruction are not the same, nor are the strategies related to them the same. I suspect the author was just being careless in choice of language and that what we are going for here are instructional strategies in both instances. I do wish, though, that things didn't always have to be confusing.

Anyway...

RTI is an instructional strategy that I might use for students suffering from any kind of learning disability. RTI is great (n/a, n/a).

For gifted students, I would not use any instructional strategy per se. I would simply make sure to keep such students interested, engaged, and challenged. I could do this by increasing the difficulty level of assignments and/or by providing supplemental learning material.

Discussion Question 2: Research indicates that engagement is integral to a student’s mental readiness and motivation to learn. How might you go about noticing that students are not engaged? Explain a strategy that would help a teacher quickly monitor engagement and adjust instruction.

Response 1:

During instruction, there are some key things to watch for to see if students are engaged. If the lesson is teacher directed, students should be paying attention (consider body language - are they upright and following you with their eyes?), taking notes as needed, listening, asking good questions, reacting to lesson content, and answering questions. During student directed learning, students are engaged if they are reading critically, asking questions, explaining, evaluating, interacting with other students and more (Johnson, 2012). On the converse, if students are sleeping, not watching the teacher, and showing general lack of interest, they are likely not engaged in the lesson. Some effective ways to encourage student engagement is to incorporate games and activities that require participation, incorporate student interest into the lesson, and incorporate student choice into the lesson. I have found that this is something that I really enjoy about teaching - creating exciting and engaging lessons in my content area of art. Since being online, I have struggled, as I am sure most all other teachers have, to keep students engaged while teaching over Zoom. This period in education shows how essential in person learning with engaging and effective teachers truly is.