Hyeshin Kim #8
Strategy Matrix: Organize Needs & Interventions
Disability: Emotional Disturbance
Student’s Strengths: The student has good understanding of academic materials and is very creative.
Common Disability Characteristic
His academic performance is overall
above average, some subjects being one
of the tops in class. However, he still has
room to develop vocabulary as he
sometimes struggles to express himself
which makes him frustrated and triggers
his anger.
Although the student understands and
grasps academic goals in class quickly,
sometimes the first one in class, he is not
interested in learning and has little
motivation.
The student has short attention span
compared to his peers.
The student has difficulty waiting for his
turn to speak. He usually blurts out
answers without raising his hand or does
not wait to be called on after raising his
hand.
The student has difficulty expressing his
anger and frustration in a healthy
manner. Instead he chooses to throw
objects, tear up paper, or hit anyone
nearby.
Although he hates and gets very angry
when others lie to him he frequently lies.
Evidence-based Strategies
Academic
Using LINCS vocabulary strategy is a direct way to teach new words. Using his
creativity, he would not only enjoy making up sentences using new words and drawing
pictures to go with the sentences, the whole process including knowing the dictionary
meaning and making his own definition for words would definitely help him remember
the words for future use.
For words he frequently wishes to use but forgets, sticky notes strategy would be great
because he can always refer to the notes on his desk easily before it frustrates him.
The student loves to play games like many of his other peers. Therefore, playing
academic games in class would quickly motivate him in learning.
Choice board allows the student to choose the method of showing his understanding of
academic materials. This way he can choose the method of his interest to keep himself
on task. For instance, he can choose to draw an illustration of what we learned instead
of writing a paragraph and sometimes even vice versa when he feels like it.
Social / School Skills
With his high academic knowledge, he would enjoy having PALS time in class. He
would love being the coach because he knows most of the material and because being
the learner in the process is a natural step it would not frustrate him. Because he enjoys
the process he would not know that time flew by.
Students with short attention span have a hard time sitting still in one place for a long
time. By including movements in teaching the student would feel more engaged and
less forced to keep still. This would enhance his attention span. Also doing few
stretches and a body shake would change the atmosphere and refresh both his mind and
body to continue staying on task afterwards.
Having cooperating learning groups would help develop skills he usually does not use
much such as keeping time, encouraging his peers, and managing supplies. In addition,
occupied by his own role in the group he would naturally be more generous to let the
speaker of the group talk, and also because he would not want anyone else to take his
job he would be more careful not to take over the speaker’s job of speaking. He would
also eventually understand that he would also get the chance to be the speaker.
Think-Pair-Share is a great way for the student to share his thoughts because everyone
is given a chance to say what they think about a topic or a question in pairs. Once he
has had his turn to say what is in his mind he would be more generous to let others
speak for the “share” part of the process.
Behavior / Organization
Playing the “Good Behavior Game” reinforces explicit rules in the classroom. The
student behaves better when rules are pointed out and he sees consistency of rules and
fairness among everyone in class.
The student is capable of observing and evaluating his own behavior when he is not
upset. Therefore, teaching self-regulation would benefit him to remind himself of
appropriate behaviors in class. This is also an independency skill that he could apply
anywhere and anytime, one that could benefit him for a life time once he grows in the
habit of doing it.
Positive self-talk is another life-time independency skill that would be benefit him if he
can grow a habit of doing it. Every morning, he could look at himself in the mirror and
tell himself what an amazing person he is and how even though teachers may
sometimes say things he does not want to hear it can not change the fact of who he is.
Therefore, there is no need to lie. Teaching positive sentences that he could say every
time he is tempted to lie can also prevent him from lying more frequently.
Every time the student is inspected of prevailing his temptation to lie or attempting not
to lie, a praise note can be given to the student. This will be an encouragement for his
effort which can be kept a secret between him and the teacher. He would trust his
teacher more because he knows the teacher would not address his weakness in front of
the class on top of the teacher’s awareness of his effort.