Why Bother?

YOUR TURN

• Brittany• Ashleigh• Tyler• Brandon• Kevin• Isabella• Trey• Maggie

1. Read your student profile.2. Using the Student Work

Tool, write down the students strengths and weaknesses as it relates to the task.

3. What question(s) might you have about the student’s current ability?

4. What question(s) might you ask to determine understanding?

Concept adapted EDC.org, 2004.

What kinds of strategies would be good match to the math goals and

students’ strengths and needs?

1. Talk at your table about your strategy preferences. (You may choose 3 strategies)

2. Be prepared to share with the whole group.

Brittany works well with concrete tasks, such as making patterns with tiles. However, she tends to focus on individual cases and has trouble making generalizations and remembering procedures. She also has difficulty making connections, so each problem looks new to her. Often, she doesn’t know how to get started so she looks blankly at the page and waits for the teacher to help her. When Brittany knows what to do, she works very slowly, but in an organized way.

Ashleigh is able to clearly express her math ideas in writing and in class discussions, however much of it is incorrect. She knows some of her multiplication facts, but has difficulty moving from whole number concepts to fractions. When Ashleigh copies from the board or a book, she often makes mistakes and sometimes she writes one line on top of another. She makes frequent computational errors because she misaligns numbers and misinterprets symbols, such as plus and minus signs.

Tyler rarely shows up to class with a pencil or his math book. He can spend an entire math period looking for a blank piece of paper or his homework. When he is solving a multi-step problem, he has difficulty organizing his work on the page and ends up writing all over the paper. This makes it hard for him to keep track of the steps and check his work so he makes frequent mistakes. Tyler also has difficulty managing his time and often doesn’t complete his assignments. During class discussions, he is an active participant and is quite articulate about expressing his math ideas.

Brandon feels overwhelmed when there is a lot of text on a page because he has difficulty with reading comprehension, particularly when there are a lot of math vocabulary terms. He often gets confused by the wording of directions, and thus is unsure of what he is being asked to do. He is too embarrassed to ask for help in class because the other students all seem to catch on right away. Brandon is more comfortable when things are presented visually. He often draws pictures as a way to figure out the solutions to problems.

Kevin has difficulty staying on task. He is inattentive and yells loudly when he wants assistance. He demonstrates good number sense and does well on class assessments; however he rarely completes in-class work. He has difficulty following written directions and demands to have them repeated orally. He can be a distraction to other students in the room. Kevin is in danger of failing, although he has above average intelligence.

Isabella recently transferred to your school. She speaks very little English so assessing her math skills has been difficult. She attempts all tasks; however her limited vocabulary makes work difficult. When presented with a computation problem, she is able to arrive at the correct answer and frequently uses an open number line. She likes to draw and seems to be able to translate work with manipulatives to classroom tasks.

Trey’s desk is a mess. He rarely turns in assignments because he can’t find his work. Numerous attempts to help with organizational skills have failed since Trey is “a creature of habit”. When he has a multistep problem to solve, he tends to lose track of the steps, gets confused, and not finish the work. Trey often manages to get by because he has an excellent memory for math facts and vocabulary. He sometimes misses social cues so his classmates do not like to work with him, even in a small group.

Maggie is articulate and likes to talk about her own ideas, especially when she works in a small group. Her papers are neat and well-organized. Maggie thinks she knows more math than actually exhibited and has difficulty seeing how previous learned informed can be transitioned to new tasks. She sees manipulatives as a way to display her artistic abilities, therefore keeping her on task when completing hands on activities can be difficult.

Implementation

1. How will you implement the strategy?Will you use the strategy from the start or keep it in your “back pocket?” Which students will you use it with? All? Some? A few? One?

2. If there are co-teachers, what roles will each one play in implementing the strategy?

3. How will you gather evidence on whether the strategy is helpful for student learning?

Evaluate and Revise1. What happened when you

implemented the strategy?2. Based on the evidence you

collected, how helpful was the strategy for students? Why?

3. What might you do differently? Why?

Your Next Steps

1. Complete a student profile for a specific student by week 4. (You will do this every month.)2. Complete the Co-Planner for a lesson and continue throughout the year.3. Make a video of a lesson by week 4.

Your Next Steps cont.

4. Send video to Shannon Frey at the University of Louisville along with a copy of the lesson plan.

Shannon FreyData CoordinatorCollege of Education and Human DevelopmentDepartment of Special Education, Room 158Louisville, KY 40292

Why Bother?