Laura Hedin

Self-Regulated Strategy Development Instruction for Expository Text Comprehension

acquisition of reading skills demonstrate inefficient application of reading strategies and poor background knowledge (Baker & Brown, 1984). In addition, they often lack the metacognitive strategies required to comprehend texts, not only in language arts/literature classes, but also in the content areas. Knowing this, Ms. Smith began her reading session by asking Olivia, a fourth-grade student with a learning disability in reading, to complete a reading self-efficacy questionnaire (Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997).

Comprehension Strategy Instruction for Two Students With Attention-Related Disabilities

Many students struggle to maintain the attention needed to comprehend while reading. One 4th-grade student and 5th-grade student, both with poor comprehension and attention-related disabilities, were taught to use a proven systematic reading comprehension strategy, TWA (Think Before Reading, Think While Reading, Think After Reading), when reading science passages. TWA consists of 9 strategies: State Authors Purpose, What I Know, What I Want to Learn, Adjust Reading Speed, Reread, Link Knowledge, Identify Main Idea, Summarize, and State What I Learned. Students received scaffolded support throughout the intervention and learned to self-monitor and self-reinforce their reading performance. Both students’ reading comprehension improved during and after lessons when compared with performance before instruction. TWA appeared to help these students regulate their strategy use and sustain attention during reading.

Cue Cards: A Self-Regulatory Strategy for Students with Learning Disabilities.

General and special educators have used many instructional strategies to help students with learning disabilities (LD) succeed in school. One of those strategies is cue cards. As a vehicle for supporting evidence-based practices, cue cards help students (a) learn academic and behavioral steps, principles, procedures, processes, and rules; (b) organize their approach to a task; (c) monitor their performance; and (d) become more independent learners. This article describes how teachers can develop and use cue cards to promote these self-regulation skills for students with LD.

Promoting Active Involvement in Today's Classrooms.

Abstract Use this potpourri efficient, research based instructional approaches to engage all students, promote interest and variety in learning and teaching, and provide immediate and continuous informal assessment data.

Classroom Assessments That Inform Instruction

The accountability movement in education has caused school administrators and teachers to think differently about how they report, interpret, and use student assessment data. For example, legislative measures such as No Child Left Behind require school officials to report how all students are progressing toward established standards typically measured by state and district tests (Goertz and Duffy 2003). School officials may use results from such high-stakes tests to determine whether students should progress to the next grade, attend summer school, or earn a high school diploma (Deshler and Schumaker 2006); how district funds will be used (Fuchs, Fuchs, and Capizzi 2005); and how teachers will be evaluated (U.S. Department of Education 2003). In addition to analyzing student scores on state and district tests, teachers are revising their day-to-day classroom assessment practices. No longer can teachers wait until the conclusion by Greg Conderman and Laura Hedin

Differentiating Instruction in Co-Taught Classrooms for Students with Emotional/Behaviour Difficulties.

Students with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) are increasingly receiving more of their instruction in the general education classroom where they have access to a rigorous curriculum and a highly qualified teacher. In some cases, a co-taught classroom (one in which a general educator and a special service provider equally co-plan, co-teach, and co-assess) can provide many benefits to students with EBD, especially if co-teachers differentiate their instruction. This article provides an overview of co-teaching and illustrates how co-teachers can differentiate instruction for students with EBD in co-taught classrooms for students ages 9–18.

Shared Promises and Challenges of Coteaching: General-Special Education and Mentor Preservice Partnerships

Coteaching has two important but different applications in schools. First, coteaching between in-service general and special educators provides support for students with disabilities included in general education settings. Second, coteaching between cooperating or mentor teachers and their student teachers provides support for student teachers in developing their professional competencies. Using the term coteaching to describe these two applications often confuses teacher candidates as well as university and school personnel. Therefore, teachers, school administrators, and university personnel need clarification and understanding of these two applications including (1) their purposes, (2) positive outcomes, (3) factors that facilitate their success and (4) barriers that prevent success. In this descriptive article, the authors reflect on these two coteaching applications and their implications for teacher educators. The authors draw illustrations from recent studies in the research literature and their own experience in higher education with current coteachers and preservice teacher candidates. The authors conclude that though the two applications of coteaching differ in some aspects, they hold promise for informing and enhancing each other.

Two Co-Teaching Applications: Suggestions for School Administrators

Abstract The authors describe two widely used co-teaching applications, explain their similarities and differences, discuss implications of each, and offer suggestions for school administrators.

Differentiating Study Guides.

Study guides are a popular and frequently student-requested instructional support developed primarily by upper elementary, middle, and high school teachers to help students navigate through a course of study. With the increase of the number of learners with diverse needs in general education classrooms, teachers need to be mindful of various ways to differentiate study guides, that is, make adjustments that maintain the integrity of student outcomes while offering choices and respecting each learner’s background knowledge, skill-level, interests, and learning preferences. Specifically, teachers can differentiate study guides by adjusting questions and content, providing different kinds of study guides, allowing students to demonstrate knowledge in different ways, reinforcing student efforts, and allowing students to use classroom materials and space in various ways. This article presents ways teachers can apply the components of differentiation to maximize the use of study guides in inclusive classrooms.