DeAnn Huinker, UW-Milwaukee Judy Winn, UW

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DeAnn Huinker, UW-MilwaukeeJudy Winn, UW
MilwaukeeMary Spidell, Milwaukee Public
SchoolsChris Guthrie, Elmbrook Schools WMC
Green Lake ConferenceMay 7, 2010

• Collaborative Practices of General Special
  Education Teachers
• Making a Difference in Students Mathematics
  Learning

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Presentation Objective WALT

• Objective
• Develop a stronger alliance between special
  education teachers and general education
  teachers.
• Investigate strategies that are showing promise
  in reaching the needs of students struggling to
  learn math.

• WALT (We Are Learning To)
• Collaborate with special education and general
  education teachers to plan and implement
  effective mathematics instruction.

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Alliance for Teaching Mathematics to Special
Education Learners

• Vision
• Improve mathematics performance for students in
  grades 4-8, particularly for students with
  special needs and for students who struggle, and
• Support a school culture for collaboration of
  general and special education teachers on
  improving math for all students

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Alliance for Teaching Mathematics to Special
Education Learners

• Goals
• To strengthen the mathematics content knowledge
  of general and special education teachers
• To enhance mathematics instructional and
  assessment practices, focusing on appropriate
  accommodations and modifications for special
  education students
• To increase collaboration on math instruction
  between general and special education teachers.

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Alliance for Teaching Mathematics to Special
Education Learners
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Alliance for Teaching Mathematics to Special
Education Learners

• 3-year project funded by WI DPI, Mathematics and
  Science Partnership Program, ESEA Title II Part B
•  17 credits over the 3 years
• 35 participants
• 17 special education teachers
• 12 teachers of math
• 2 special education diagnostic teachers
• 4 math teacher leaders
• 6 instructors
• Meet on Tuesday evenings during the school year
  and summers

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Vocabulary Activity

• Everyone will have a vocabulary card taped to
  his/her back.
• Move around the room asking each person a yes or
  no question to try to figure out the vocabulary
  word or phrase on your back.
• You may not ask the same person two questions in
  a row. 
• You have 10 minutes to try to figure out your
  word or phrase.
• When you think you know your word, find others
  who have the same word and form a group.

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Vocabulary Activity

• Inclusion
• Resource
• Support
• Parallel
• Accessibility
• Barriers
• Plans
• Station

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Three arrangements for math instruction for
students with disabilities

• Inclusion without special education support
• Resource/pull-out without regular education
  support
• Co-teaching
• There is not one best way to collaborate what is
  important is that there is collaboration.

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6 Models of Co-teaching

• One teach, One support
• One teach, One observe
• Station Teaching
• Parallel Teaching
• Alternative Teaching
• Team Teaching
• Source Friend, M.

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One teach, One support

• One teacher leads the lesson while one teacher
  moves around the room providing support to
  students as needed.

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One teach, One observe

• One teacher leads the lesson while the other
  teacher observes the lesson.
• Strengths
• Weaknesses

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Station Teaching

• Teachers work with students at different stations
  that students rotate through.
• Strengths
• Weaknesses

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Parallel Teaching

• Both teachers give the same lesson at the same
  time to different heterogeneous groups.
• Strengths
• Weaknesses

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Alternative Teaching

• One teacher provides instruction to the large
  group while the other teacher works with a
  smaller group of students.
• Strengths
• Weaknesses

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Team Teaching

• Both teachers share the instructional activities
  equally
• Strengths
• Weaknesses

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Alliance Participants

• We collaborate daily on what we need to work on
  the next day by discussing our thoughts on
  student achievement for that days activities
• Our conversations are mostly around management
  and the attainment of IEP goals at about the time
  the IEP is due. Occasionally we talk about
  content.
• We talk on a daily basis about concepts being
  taught in classroom. We work on assessments
  together

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Alliance Participants

• Talk about strategies we use what has worked,
  what hasnt, what they seem to understand.
• We meet at least once per month to discuss pacing
  and strategies
• We are collaborating to teach a small group of
  learners-primarily with cognitive disabilities.
  We just started collaborating but we expect 50/50
  share in teaching

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Essentials for Co-teaching

• Voluntary participation
• Time to plan together
• Mutual respect
• Administrative support
• Flexibility creativity
• Personal and professional compatibility
• Shared instructional philosophy

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Planning StrategiesAddressing Accessibility in
Mathematics

1. Focus on mathematics
2. Focus on students
3. Identify potential barriers
4. Brainstorm accessibility strategies
5. Share the strategies
6. Plan follow-up actions

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Planning StrategiesAddressing Accessibility in
Mathematics
1. Focus on the mathematics What are the mathematics goals? What are the tasks? What is most important for all students to learn?
2. Focus on students What are your students strengths and weaknesses?
3. Identify potential barriers What is the match or mismatch between the lessons mathematics content and the students strengths and weaknesses?
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Planning StrategiesAddressing Accessibility in
Mathematics
4. Brainstorm accessibility strategies What strategies would you use to meet students needs and enable them to reach the mathematics goals?
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Planning StrategiesAddressing Accessibility in
Mathematics
5. Share the Strategies What strategies would you choose for your student? What strategies would you use if you had all these students?
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The Problem
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The Activity

• Solve the problem
• Identify the Big Math Ideas for the problem
• Based on your tables student vignette, and using
  the provided planning sheet, identify
• The students strengths
• Potential barriers for the students
• How to make this problem accessible for the
  student
• Be prepared to share

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Accessibility Strategies

• -

Kevin
Read descriptions to him or seat him with strong reader Have him paraphrase descriptions once he hears them Have him highlight important information in the story and then match to graph Provide hints (Adapted from Brodesky et. al, 2004)
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Accessibility Strategies
Isabelle
-Allow Isabelle movement breaks during the problem. -Ask Isabelle to repeat or rephrase instructions given by the teacher -Have a secret code or signal between teacher and Isabelle to help tune her back in. -When working in a small group, ask Isabelle to be the record keeper to help keep her on task. Have Isabelle review her work and initial each step after she reviews it.
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Accessibility Strategies

Danny
Use a planning sheet Consider using only three graphs Consider a template for his response - Preview activity with Danny and review turn taking and listening skills (Adapted from Brodesky et. al, 2004)
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Accessibility Strategies
Sarah
Have Sarah paraphrase what she is to do Have her tell identify places on graphs showing slow growth of the plant Model linking one graph to the story and numbers for her -Have her use graph paper to graph one set of numbers - Give her written hints (Adapted from Brodesky et. al, 2004)
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Co-Teaching What is the literature telling us?

• Requires mutual respect, trust, commitment to
  planning and common philosophy
• Requires administrative support
• Requires TIME for planning
• Difficult if teachers did not select models
• Voluntary participants more favorable than those
  who are assigned
• Gets better over time
• (Reviewed in Friend, 2007 Mastroprieri et. Al,
  2005 Stivers, 20)

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Teachers speak out

• The special educator I work with says she doesnt
  really know the curriculum and is uncomfortable
  participating in instruction. Im not sure what
  she is supposed to do.
• The classroom teacher told me that I should not
  talk during instruction. He told me that after
  he finished, I could walk around and help my
  students. I feel like a teaching assistant.
• We never have a chance to plan, so it is not a
  real partnership.
• (M. Friend, 2007)

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Teachers speak out

• I knew this wasnt going to work after all, I
  dont have special education training. But I
  have to admit, its the best thing we have ever
  done for our kids. I could never go back to the
  old system.
• I never realized how much potential these
  students have. Theyre making more progress than
  I ever thought possible when I had them in the
  special education classroom.
• Why didnt we do this years ago?
• (M. Friend, 2007)

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Card Activity Wrap-up

• How could you differentiate this activity?
• Content
• Process
• Product

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Helpful website with many links to other helpful
websites

• Addressing Accessibility in Mathematics
  www.edc.org/accessmath
• This website has excellent planning tools and
  strategies as well as links to many other helpful
  websites.