Teaching a Child with Special Needs at Home and at School: Strategies and Tools That Really Work!

© 2016 Judith B. Munday M.A. M.Ed.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-3880-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-3881-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016906411

WestBow Press rev. date: 5/19/2016

Contents

Foreword

Dedication

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Section 1 Foundations of Instruction

Chapter 1 Effective Instruction

Principles of Direct Instruction

Key Elements of Effective Instruction

Effective Presentation

Present the Lesson Objectives First

Link New Learning to Prior Learning

Answering Questions Correctly and Frequently

Use Examples That Are Not Confusing

Follow an Orderly Sequence

Continuously Analyze Student Performance

Use Unambiguous Language

Effective Practice

Guidelines for Providing Guided Practice

Fading Attention during Practice

Provide Specific Feedback

Summarize the Lesson at the End

Summary

Chapter 2 Four Essential Skills in the Learning Process

Stage One: Acquiring Information

Tips to Help Your Child Acquire What You Say

Stage Two: Organizing Information

Sorting and Organizing Activities

Word Sorting for Dyslexic Students

Graphic Organizers Make Information More Visual

Stage Three: Storing Information

Active Learning Helps to Store Knowledge

Facilitating Active Study

Active Study for Math

Autism Spectrum Students and Active Learning

Additional Activities for Storing

Stage Four: Retrieval of Information

Strategies that Help Retrieval

Improve Retrieval with Effective Practice

Retrieving Vocabulary Definitions

Retrieving Spelling Words

Flash-Cover-Write Spelling Practice

Give Effective Feedback

Summary

Resources

Chapter 3 Choosing and Using Curriculum

A Note for Parents

A Note for Classroom Teachers

The Importance of Appropriate Curriculum

Effective Curriculum

Effective Curriculum Presents the Lesson Objectives First

Effective Curriculum Links New Instruction to Prior Learning

Effective Curriculum Provides Opportunities for Meaningful Practice

Effective Curriculum Uses Unambiguous Examples

Effective Curriculum Follows an Orderly Sequence of Instruction

Important Elements of Curriculum

Teacher Edition

Scope and Sequence

Answer Key

Page Appearance and Layout

Pacing Instruction

Practice and Application

Support for the Student

Personal Preferences

Learning Styles

Multisensory Factors

Challenges When Choosing Curriculum — Reading

Know Your Student’s Reading Level

Determining the Grade Level of Reading Material

Using Data about Reading Levels to Guide Your Decisions

Availability of Helps for Reading Comprehension

Challenges When Choosing Curriculum — Math

Mixed Problems in Practice

Building New Skills on Prior Learning

Final Thoughts on Choosing Curriculum

Chapter 4 Accommodations and Modifications

Individualizing Curriculum

Overview

Making the Curriculum Fit Your Child

Part 1. Accommodations

Accommodations to Presentation

Accommodations for Auditory Learners

Audio Books

Accommodations for Kinesthetic Learners

Accommodations for Visual Learners

Visual Support with Graphic Organizers

Using Technology for Accommodations

Accommodations for Reading

Accommodations to Printed Materials

Accommodations to the Setting

Accommodations to Pacing of Instruction

Accommodations for Assessments

Additional Accommodations for Assessments

Alternatives to Objective Tests

Examples of Performance-Based Learning and Assessment Activities

Assessing Performance-Based Learning

Part 2. Modifications

Modifications to Presentation

Modifying Reading Instruction

Modifying Math Instruction

Modifying Written Work

Summary

Section 2 Students with Special Needs

Chapter 5 Language-Based Learning Disabilities

What Are Language-Based Learning Disabilities?

Background

Causes of Language-Based Learning Disabilities

Could My Child Have Language-Based Learning Disabilities?

Timothy’s Story

Now Think About Your Own Child

Start at the Beginning

Review Your Answers

The Evaluation Process

Resources

Chapter 6 Students on the Autism Spectrum

High-Functioning Autism and Asperger’s

Prepare the Learning Environment

Support for Difficulties Due to Limited Language Skills

Planning and Scheduling

The Learning Process for the Child on the Autism Spectrum

Acquiring Information

Acquiring Vocabulary

Processing and Sorting Information

Forming Connections

Reading Comprehension Challenges for Students on the Autism Spectrum

Comprehension Challenges and Literal Thinking

Remembering and Retrieving

Storing Information

Retrieval

Strategies for Teaching and Testing

Dealing with the Five W Questions

General Teaching Recommendations for ASD Students

Strategies for a Successful School Day

Resources

Chapter 7 Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, and Dysgraphia

Dyslexia

Recent Research

Indicators of Dyslexia

Early Warning Signs

Later Signs

Dyslexia’s Characteristics

What Should You Do If You Suspect Dyslexia?

Strategies for Teaching Students with Dyslexia

Give Frequent Breaks from Reading Tasks

Teach Word Families

Practice Fluency to Increase Comprehension

Technology Support for Dyslexic Readers

Text-to-Speech Software Reads Text Aloud

Dyslexia Font Software

Color Filters for Reading

Improving Reading Comprehension

Using Hi-Interest/Low-Vocabulary Books

Dyscalculia

What Are the Warning Signs for Dyscalculia?

Reasons to Suspect Dyscalculia

Helping Students with Dyscalculia

Providing Support

Dysgraphia

Characteristics of Dysgraphia

Helping Students with Dysgraphia

Speech Recognition Software

Resources

Section 3 Effective Teaching Practices

Chapter 8 Teaching and Study Strategies

Keep Your Student Engaged

Self-Monitoring Strategies

Studying for Memorization

Flashcards

Reading Strategies

Use Books at the Right Reading Level

Read the Questions First

Implementation of Read the Questions First

Studying with Word Families

Vocabulary Study

Two-Column Sheet for Vocabulary Study

Word Study Arrays for Vocabulary

Spelling Strategies

Multi-Sensory Approach for Spelling

Learning to Spell with Sounds

Spelling with Letter Sounds

Flash-Cover-Write for Studying Spelling

Syllable Division to Study Spelling

Math Strategies

Using a Calculator

Practice to Mastery

Repeated Practice

Correcting Sloppy Math Work / Weak Fine-Motor Skills

Solving Uneven Column Alignment

Handling Number Reversals

Teaching Regrouping/Borrowing

Difficulty with Number Fact Recall

Use a Number Line

Mnemonics: Tools to Help Memory

Provide Examples of New Problems

Math and Graphic Organizers

Chapter 9 Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy: A Teaching Tool

How to Apply Bloom’s Taxonomy for Special Needs

Using Bloom’s Taxonomy

Transforming Higher-Level Questions

A Sample Assignment

Using Dr. Dalton’s Version of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to Enrich Learning Tasks

Chapter 10 Graphic Organizers

A Helpful Way to See Information in Visual Form

How to Use Graphic Organizers for Study

Graphic Organizers for Language Arts

Graphic Organizers Improve Writing

Steps to Create a Prewriting Graphic Organizer

Sample Lesson to Introduce Graphic Organizers

Using Graphic Organizers for Science

Summary

Chapter 11 Assistive Technology

Assistive Technology for Special Needs

Technology Benefits and Limits

Types of Assistive Technology

Reading

Text to Speech

Audio Books

Written Language Technology

Math Technology

Evaluating Educational Software

Document Your Student’s Need for Assistive Technology

Obtaining Expensive Assistive Technology

Resources

Section 4 Student Assessment

Chapter 12 Evaluating Student Work

Evaluating and Assessing Achievement

Written, Oral, and Performance Evaluations

Accommodations and Modifications on Assessments

Using Assistive Technology to Adapt Tests

Adaptations for Testing Students with Language-Based Limitations

Adapting Written Language Assessments (General)

Adapting Compositions for Reluctant Writers

Adaptations for Other Test Responses

Adapting Fill-in-the-Blanks Responses

Adaptations for Math Evaluations

Using Performance-Based Assessments

Giving a Book Report Using a Performance-Based Assessment

Portfolio Assessments

Chapter 13 Using Rubrics

Rubrics Explained

Assigning a Grade Using Rubrics

Advantages of Using a Rubric

Directions for Using the Handwriting Rubric

Guidelines for Using Rubrics

Resources

Chapter 14 Writing a Student Education Plan

Where Do You Start?

Start with Present Levels of Performance

Choose Priorities for the Student

Narrow Down Your List to Four or Five Essential Areas

Write Annual Goals

Write Short-Term Goals

Add Accommodations and Modifications

Summary

Section 5 Seeking Professional Help

Chapter 15 Is It Time To Seek Professional Help?

Early Intervention Is Important

Review Your Teaching Practices

Look at the Curriculum

Look at Your Student

Physical Causes

Vision

Hearing

Birth Weight

Inventory Your Child’s Present Performance

Seeking Professional Help

Benefits of a Diagnostic Evaluation

The Assessment Process

Keep Careful Records

What about Testing from the Public School?

Summary

Conclusion

Appendix

Resource Websites, Books and Software

Background Information

Graphic Organizers and Rubrics

Teaching Methods and Software

Autism Spectrum

Resources for Parents

Resources for Professionals

Graphic Organizer Examples

Rubric Examples

Summary

Graphic Organizers

Rubrics

My Personal Journey as an Educator

Early Experience with Direct Instruction

Moving Beyond Direct Instruction Training

What Is My Teaching Approach?

Endnotes

Foreword

Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Every one of us needs friends to support us on our journey, and this is especially true when you are teaching a child with special needs. Judi Munday can be that friend. Using her knowledge, experience, and passion, she will come alongside you and help you on your journey.

Judi and I first met when she taught a course for parents of special needs children on SchoolhouseTeachers.com, the curriculum site of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine and the site where I now work as the executive editor. Judi has always demonstrated incredible knowledge of her subject, gained from decades of teaching, speaking, and supporting families like yours. She goes beyond the process of simply relaying information, as any encyclopedia can do, by taking the knowledge she has gained, mixing in a generous helping of personal experiences and relatable stories, shaping the entire batch into something beautiful, and serving it like a friend who has invited you to share a loaf of freshly baked bread.

I have learned a great deal from working with Judi. Her ability to understand the struggles of special needs learners and relate them to the parents and teachers who work with them is incredible. It takes a special gift to be able to comprehend the experiences of another and understand their struggles when they aren’t the same struggles you have faced yourself. It’s an even rarer gift to be able to clearly explain these struggles to individuals who have not had to overcome them. Judi handles this with an ease and grace that continues to amaze me.

The reason Judi wrote this handbook is so that you will not have to teach your special needs child alone. She wants to come alongside you. Let her lift you up and encourage you on your journey as she has so many families before. Don’t try to face these struggles on your own.

You are never alone.

Bonnie Rose Hudson

Executive Editor, SchoolhouseTeachers.com

www.WriteBonnieRose.com

Dedication

This book is dedicated first and foremost to our Lord, Jesus Christ. It has been through HIS enabling that I have been granted the privilege to work with so many special people. I also want to dedicate this book to the many struggling students and their parents whose openness and honesty have taught me so much as they shared their stories, their struggles, and their successes. Without their support and prayers, this book would never have been possible. Finally, I must dedicate it to my loving, caring, and praying husband and the rest of my family.

It is my prayer that this book will plant seeds of hope landing on fertile ground, bringing forth good fruit in the lives of those who read it.

Preface

And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

2 Timothy 2:2

When I enrolled at Regent University’s School of Education in 1981, I saw this Scripture etched in stone above the door to the classroom building. It became a clarion call to my heart that has remained to this day, and this book is the fulfillment of God’s call upon my life. I completed my second master’s degree in special education at Regent where I learned from godly instructors. In the years since then, I have also learned from my students and their parents. Now, I have the opportunity of paying it forward. I seek to teach you what I have learned so that you may teach others also.

This practical and easy-to-use handbook is for those who teach students with special needs at home and in school settings. It is a guide for parents of children with learning disabilities, high-functioning autism, and Asperger’s syndrome. I chose to limit myself to these topics, because they most closely reflect the students I have served. I believe this book can also serve as a resource for those who teach in private schools, Christian schools, or public schools.

The book does not address children who have behavioral or emotional disorders, sensory integration disorders, severe autism, and/or physical challenges. Although they certainly fall under the large umbrella of special needs, I have had little experience working with these students. For the same reason, this book does not address topics such as developmental delays that can be caused by many different factors, such as genetic causes (e.g., Down syndrome), or from the complications of pregnancy or birth, such as prematurity. There are numerous wonderful resources online for these students, such as woodbinehouse.com and nathhan.org. Because so many wonderful resources are already available, there is no separate chapter to specifically address Attention Deficit Disorder. It would be like trying to reinvent the wheel. Nevertheless, you will find numerous teaching strategies throughout the book that you can implement to meet the needs of a student with Attention Deficit Disorder.

In 1999, I took early retirement from teaching in the public schools and began my educational consulting business, HIS Place for Help in School. At that time, God placed a burden placed upon my heart to meet three goals: I was to educate, encourage, and equip those who have the heart to teach children with special needs. That is what I have set out to do with this book. I want to educate you by sharing background information and important research about different learning disabilities. I hope to encourage you by sharing the possibilities for success for you and your child and by helping you to gain the confidence that you need to meet your child’s needs. Perhaps most importantly, I am going to equip you with many effective and easy-to-use teaching strategies and tips that I have gleaned from extensive research, special education conferences, and my own teaching experience. In this book, I am making available to you the best of what works so you can effectively help your student with learning challenges.

I selected and adapted the tools and teaching strategies in this book from a large number of resources and professional journals. The strategies were field-tested while I worked in public, private, and Christian schools, and when I tutored homeschool students. I modified some strategies to make them easier to use and refined others so they would be fail-proof for parents teaching at home. Almost every chapter lists appropriate resources that you can read to further your knowledge or that you may want to incorporate into your teaching situation. For professional educators, I include endnotes and references that will enable you to investigate topics of particular interest.

In order to be inclusive, the odd-numbered chapters have male references. All the even-numbered chapters use female references except for Chapter 6 (Students on the Autism Spectrum). In all cases, please apply the information to your own child.

If you are teaching a child who has special learning challenges, I wrote this handbook for you! I want to help you succeed in the challenging task you have undertaken — helping special students. It is my prayer that this guide will enrich your teaching experience and bring many positive changes to your special child’s learning progress.

You chose this book because you wanted help, and that is what you will find here. So let’s get started!

Judith B. Munday

Chesapeake, Virginia

January 2016

Acknowledgments

I can hardly begin to acknowledge all those who have been instrumental in bringing this book project to fulfillment since it was first laid on my heart 10 years ago. When I conceived of writing this book, it was my original intention to reach out to the growing numbers of parents who have chosen to teach their child with special needs, because I realized that it would be physically impossible for me to spend time with each parent who called asking for my help. Although I have had consultations and phone calls with hundreds of families, I know there are still many more who need to learn how to effectively teach children with complex learning needs. I continue to receive phone calls from parents who are overwhelmed by the frustrations of teaching a student whose unique needs surpass what they know how to provide. As I browse online web pages and read of the difficult situations facing many teachers of special needs students, I am reminded of my own classroom experiences many years ago and my longing for someone to guide me. This book is meant to extend help to those families and school teachers that I will never get to meet.

This book would have never reached completion without the unwavering support and practical help from my husband, John. His love, grace, and patience have been essential in allowing me to spend all the time I needed to complete this work, even as housework and everything else took second place. He is an eagle-eyed editor and hard-working proofreader. I am thankful that he was able to help me through this long process. God spared his life following a near-fatal fall in 2013, and I believe he did that so we could continue our life together as a strong team in making this book happen.

I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my friend, Mary Scarlato, for her keen insights and for her continued efforts to bring me to a higher level of professional excellence. Her edits and keen eye for details have been priceless. I must also thank my colleague, Kathy Kuhl, for her very targeted and supportive feedback. She held my hand and showed great patience in answering my questions as I plunged into the book writing process. She also provided many valuable edits and suggestions that have helped me along the way. Bonnie Hudson, Executive Editor of The Old Schoolhouse Family Education Magazine, supported me by her encouragement and guidance as I crafted many articles for the online curriculum website, SchoolhouseTeachers.com. Several of those articles became an important part of this book. I appreciate her wisdom and caring. There are many other unnamed friends who have gone beyond the call of friendship, and their help has encouraged me as well.

A special word of thanks to Dr. Joan Dalton, whose gracious permission made it possible for me to share one of the significant teaching tools I have ever used. Her version of Bloom’s Taxonomy has transformed the teaching efforts of so many of my clients. I am grateful to her for creating this tool and her willingness to allow me to share it with you in this book.

Although I spent a very brief season of my early academic life as a graduate student at the University of Illinois in the 1960s, I cannot refrain from acknowledging the powerful and lasting impact of a man of enormous genius and extraordinary skills as an author, an innovator and a highly effective teacher. Siegfried Engelmann’s perspectives on sound and effective instructional practices and curriculum have truly shaped my entire career and helped improve the educational outcomes for too many students to count. I am forever thankful for the year I was able to spend watching him work with young students who caught his excitement and contagious enthusiasm for learning.

I have learned so much from my family as they work to homeschool all ten of our grandchildren, and I appreciate their generously sharing their experiences and their love for me. I see in their lives the precious fruit that comes from parents who are dedicated to excellence. I especially thank my son, Brandon, for his assistance in converting images into the correct formats, and graciously and patiently rescuing me from computer disasters. I am grateful to my daughters-in-law, Beth and Sara, for their feedback and helpful suggestions. My daughter, Sarah, who actually loves to do editing, spent many hours squeezed from homeschooling her own children to do proofreading. Her comments and perspectives have greatly improved the quality of the book.

I also owe a debt to the many prayer warriors who have upheld me during this writing process. Only God knows who all of them are, but I have been so very blessed by their faithfulness.

Introduction

Teaching is a big job – even when you have a degree in education. Teaching a typical student takes a great deal of work. There are numerous subjects to cover, plus extracurricular activities and recreational events to work into an already busy schedule. Teaching a student with special needs is an even more amazing challenge. I know from personal experience how daunting that task can be. You must include all of the essential elements of schooling while addressing so many additional and mandated concerns. When you, as a parent or as a classroom teacher, take on the responsibility of teaching a child with special needs, you undertake a task that continually will challenge and stretch you. Nevertheless, you must wholeheartedly commit to doing what is best for your student.

I greatly admire the courage, zeal, and dedication that parents providing home-centered education and all teachers show in their determination to educate a child with special needs. Unfortunately, sometimes dedication may not make everything turn out well for the student. I see on various Facebook groups the struggles facing public school teachers who work with children with special needs. I continually receive phone calls from parents who tell me they need help with struggling learners. They have done everything they know to help their child, yet the child continues to struggle. I have heard many frustrated mothers confess, I feel I have failed my child. Please let me reassure you. After helping hundreds of families, I can testify that the teaching parent has almost never been the primary reason for the learning challenges of a struggling student.

If you have felt inadequate for the job you have undertaken, I want to offer you both encouragement and hope. This book is filled with strategies and teaching ideas designed especially for you, the parent or teacher of a child with special needs. Even if you implement only a few of these teaching strategies and tips, you will strengthen your teaching skills and significantly improve your learner’s opportunity to make progress. In fact, these strategies and teaching tools are so effective that they will improve your ability to teach any student, not just a student with special needs.

This book contains the same information I share with my clients, many of whom had endured years of frustration before seeking my services. Although they initially lacked the specific skills to help their child, once they started to implement the teaching strategies and recommendations in this book, those same parents reported back to me later that their struggling learner had begun to achieve academic success. I know, as you gradually implement these strategies, you will see your child achieve more progress – not only because you have a better understanding of why your child has been struggling, but also because you will finally know what works.

Since your student may not struggle with every known special needs category or syndrome, I begin with the assumption that you are not seeking to become an expert in the entire field of special education. In this book, I have chosen to focus primarily on students with specific learning disabilities and students with high-functioning autism or Asperger’s syndrome. Even limiting myself to those two groups, I found it impossible to describe how differently those special needs might manifest in an individual child. Since I could not address all possible special needs students or topics, I limited my book to provide teaching strategies applicable to the most commonly occurring learning needs.

You are about to embark on a journey towards teaching success. Since every journey has a beginning and a destination, let’s go to the starting point. I have divided this book into five sections plus an Appendix, where I include numerous printable examples of many of the helpful teaching tools you are going to learn about in this book.

In Section 1, I begin by sharing the basic principles for effective instruction that I have gleaned from reading, research, my personal experience, and up-to-date literature in the field of education. From there, I introduce you to a framework of the four key skills necessary for learning. A student must acquire, process, remember, and recall new information. In Chapter 3, we move on and introduce the most important characteristics to look for as you select curriculum for your student. In Chapter 4, I provide you with many practical options for adapting curriculum to ensure it is a good fit for your child.

Section 2 takes you further on your journey as we examine several frequently occurring areas of special needs: language-based learning disabilities, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, high-functioning autism, and Asperger’s syndrome. You will learn about recent research findings, the characteristics and warning indicators to look for, and teaching strategies and tools that are most appropriate for each area of special need.

Section 3 is where you will learn an abundance of easy-to-use teaching strategies and what to do to support your struggling learner. I organized the strategies in these chapters by academic topics. You’ll find specific teaching suggestions to address some of the most frequently occurring challenges, such as reading comprehension, learning math facts, and studying vocabulary.

Because I want you to be equipped with a complete toolkit of effective strategies, I also devote an entire chapter to assistive technologies that are helpful for students with various special needs. You will also discover the benefits of using graphics organizers for multiple learning tasks. Finally, I introduce you to alternatives to paper-and-pencil schoolwork by exploring the enjoyable world of learning activities called performance-based tasks.

Section 4 is where you delve into tasks of evaluation and assessment. I will share how to assess your student’s projects and learning activities by using a tool called a rubric. You are also going to learn about writing an individualized student education plan (SEP) that will have reasonable annual goals. The SEP will enable you to maintain an ongoing assessment of your student’s progress.

In Section 5, Chapter 15 focuses on seeking professional help. Here I share what you need to know to decide whether your student needs a professional diagnostic evaluation. I added this because sometimes you need to seek a professional evaluation to determine the root causes of a student’s learning challenges.

Throughout the book, you will notice that I revisit several topics, but I did this in order to weave them into different contexts wherever the information is appropriate. This process of weaving new information together with prior knowledge produces better long-term learning. It also will help you locate the information you seek in several targeted locations.

In the Appendix, you will find a list of resources to support you as a teacher, and that educate you about special needs topics. The books and many internet websites relevant to special education were all correct at the time of this publication. I have also provided you with a useful selection of graphic organizers discussed in Chapter 10 that you can copy and/or adapt. I have also provided several examples of scoring rubrics as discussed in Chapter 13. You are welcome to reproduce these, but if you wish to distribute them in any way beyond your personal use, I request that you ask me first.

Finally, I include a narrative of my professional journey, starting with my introduction over fifty years ago to the formal Direct Instruction approach to teaching. My career in education began when I was a graduate student in a very secular setting. It continued after I met Christ in 1972 and began to grow in my Christian faith. I wanted to reflect on my education and teaching experiences in light of God’s Word. I hope you will be interested in learning how Direct Instruction’s highly researched and proven instructional principles shaped my personal approach to teaching and equipped me to help many struggling learners. As you read about my journey, you may be prompted to reflect on those events, people, or materials that have shaped your own personal teaching practices.

In 1999, I started my educational consulting business for students with special needs, and I called it HIS Place for Help in School. It has been HIS Place since I met with my first client, and it remains so today.

Section 1

Foundations of Instruction

Chapter 1. Effective Instruction

Chapter 2. Four Critical Skills in the Learning Process

Chapter 3. Choosing and Using Curriculum

Chapter 4. Accommodations and Modifications

Section 1 is where you will begin your journey. In Chapter 1, you will learn the key principles of effective instruction that I first learned in the late 1960s from Direct Instruction, a proven and effective instructional program. In Chapter 2, you will learn the four essential skills of the learning process that every student needs for success, and you will discover how to relate those to your child’s needs. In Chapter 3, I will teach you the principles of making wise curriculum choices based on your child’s individual strengths and weaknesses, not on his age-appropriate grade level. In Chapter 4, you will learn how to recognize specific characteristics of your child’s curriculum that might be limiting his progress. Perhaps more importantly, you also will learn how to make the necessary changes to you teaching and to instructional materials to ensure they fit with the way your child learns best.

Chapter 1

Effective Instruction

Principles of Direct Instruction

Prospective clients often ask what teaching method I use. Until recently, I have always described my approach as somewhat eclectic and mostly based upon my training in the formal "Direct Instruction" program developed in the 1960s at the University of Illinois. (I will explain more about Direct Instruction shortly.) Writing this book prompted me to reexamine my teaching approach because I want to communicate it to you as faithfully as possible. In order for you to appreciate where I came from and the significance of my teaching approach, I begin with a brief history of my journey to become an educator of students with special needs. I believe you will appreciate the importance of each step along the way. The full story of my personal journey is included in the Appendix.

Soon after I became a Christian in 1972, I was led to understand that I was not going to fulfill God’s call on my life by traveling a neat or straight path. Instead, I sensed the Lord showing me that my personal journey would take me through various kinds of teaching situations before I reached His destination for my life. At the time, it seemed unsettling, but my career certainly followed the zigzag path that the Lord promised me. In my thirty-plus years of teaching, I have worked in private schools, Christian schools, and public schools, tutored several hundred homeschooled students, and taught at the university level as an adjunct instructor. I have spoken at numerous conferences, given workshops, written many articles for my own website and for SchoolhouseTeachers.org, and contributed a major chapter for a statewide home educators’ manual on the topic of special needs.

My journey to becoming a teacher of children with special needs began in 1967 after I graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in French secondary education. Immediately after graduation, I enrolled at the university’s graduate School of Education seeking a master’s degree in special education. I had learned about a new experimental preschool where Dr. Carl Bereiter and Siegfried Engelmann were implementing a specific teaching approach Engelmann had developed called Direct Instruction. It differed significantly from other traditional playschool preschool programs because each class was intensive, rapidly paced, and focused only on academic skills. I was eager to be part of making a difference in the lives of these culturally disadvantaged children. As a graduate student trainee in the Direct Instruction preschool, I learned to present scripted lessons following a precise instructional design. Some days, those scripts came to me still damp from the mimeograph machine after being quickly edited by Engelmann or another team member! I learned to use hand signals to initiate group responses, to carry out rapidly paced lessons, and to carefully monitor my students’ performance to ensure learning mastery. Those early practices of the original Direct Instruction program are still part of the DI programs in use today, and schools work under the guidance of the National Institute for Direct Instruction. Whenever a school adopts the formal Direct Instruction program anywhere in the nation, it must maintain quality control, and a trained DI team regularly monitors the implementation of the DI program so that student outcomes will be consistent everywhere.

Years of research data have consistently demonstrated that the original Direct Instruction principles developed by S. Engelmann are still highly effective for an increasingly diverse range of students. Direct Instruction’s current educational programs and curricula been proven to be effective in helping students from multiple socioeconomic groups and multiple grade levels, and they also help students who have various kinds of disabilities.¹ Science Research Associates Inc. (SRA)² carries more than fifty of their curricula and other products. Direct Instruction programs help not only preschool children but also high school students, adults, teachers in English as a Second Language (ESL) programs, and students with special needs.³

Many years after my graduation from the University and raising our three children, I began teaching full time. The DI practices I had learned became the foundation for practices that I implemented in teaching students with special needs. While I could not incorporate all the prescribed components of formal DI (such as teaching with scripts), I did follow the essential instructional principles that I will be sharing with you in this chapter.

To avoid any confusion with the more precise and tightly sequenced teaching practices of the formal Direct Instruction program, I will use the term effective instruction to describe what works to produce positive educational changes for any child—not only a child who has special needs. You can easily incorporate the same effective instructional principles right into your own teaching situation. They have the potential to reshape and expand the way you view your role as a teacher. Best of all, not only is this kind of teaching truly effective, but also it does not require you to spend extra time preparing lessons. Now that I have given you some background, you can begin to learn what works and improve your teaching skills.

Key Elements of Effective Instruction

Effective Presentation

Effective presentation techniques should be a foundational component of a teacher’s toolkit of skills when teaching. Your goal is to help the child reach his potential as he learns with maximum efficiency. At its best, effective instruction results from a careful analysis of what your learner is required to learn, a logical development of the sequence of information followed by the selection of appropriate instructional materials, and finally setting prioritized teaching objectives (or desired outcomes). Many elements of effective instruction have been researched by numerous educators and been in use for a long time. Given the importance of well-designed instruction practices, let me share what it takes to make your instruction highly effective.

Present the Lesson Objectives First

An effective instructor presents lesson objectives before a lesson begins. That means that when you introduce a new lesson, you should first state what you are going to teach. Can you imagine going to a meeting where the group leader presented all the details of a project, but he forgot to explain what he wanted you to do with all his information? I suspect that when your student does not see the point of a lesson before you teach it, he feels equally lost. It does not require an elaborate introduction. You could phrase it as "Today, you are going to learn about.…" Or, if your child is to learn to do a new skill, you might say, "Today, you