Turning Lessons into Puzzles

There are few times during the day when I have a chance to teach all five students because there is so much pullout. Social Studies and Science are fun subjects to teach because I am able to be a little more creative. For the past week we have been focusing on geography and Louisiana state facts in social studies. I decided to create a word search using the Dolch sight words that came with the unit. I find it really interesting how completely engaged all of the students become when they are asked do a word search. My students with Autism always find the words in the order they appear on the list. Because they are so good at these types of puzzles I decided to try something different. I gave them a chart of information and questions. I wanted to see if they would be as engaged in this as they are with the word searches and big floor puzzles. 

Interestingly I found that my students with autism showed little interest in this type of puzzle or information search. Maybe it was to much for them to handle at once. I think next time I will modify the activity to allow for more opportunities to respond and receive praise, then gradually increase the difficulty. Two of my other students really enjoyed learning how to read the chart. It took a while for them to grasp the concept but once they did they couldn't wait to tell me their answers. I also want to try and use the promethean board that is in the room to make it more interactive. This way I can incorporate movement maybe some team building skills. I also think that this could be another way to engage my other students because they enjoy the computer so much. 

I would really like to try something like this when Im teaching reading. During reading time I am one-on-one with a student teaching the DI reading program. Lately his attention has been everywhere but with me and the material I am trying to teach him. He is a student with autism who is very limited verbally. I want to add some type of picture, word matching game to catch his attention and increase his vocabulary.  But I'm not sure how that will go because he does not like change in his routine. Unfortunately this coming week we are PARCC testing so I won't be able to try it out until next week because reading is in the morning and that is when we are testing. 

Dealing With High Levels of Student Anxiety

I recently started a new job a few weeks ago taking over for a teacher that went on maternity leave for the remainder of the year. The class Im in is an inclusive special education classroom with five students. Some of the students that I work with have very high levels of anxiety associated with their disability. One of my students with Autism gets very anxious about everyday classroom tasks and has a tendency to obsess over things that are stimulating to him, such as the computer. In my class schedule there are multiple opportunities for students take a break from instruction. Sometimes those breaks are not effective enough have I have to do some different soothing techniques that you might use with a younger child.

My experience working with students with Autism was limited until I moved to Baton Rouge. I have been working with this group of students along with their classroom teacher implementing behavioral interventions for about three semesters. So I'm very familiar with their behaviors. I have been using music and movement to help with my student with his anxiety. The calming techniques that I use the most are holding his hand and moving them in a circular motion in the air while speaking or singing softly to him. Another thing I do is stick to the schedule a much as possible because that helps with his anxiety. I would really like to try some of the other strategies that Zadina talks about in her book, but because my students education is so individualized its hard to implement one strategy for everyone.

My view on the research of plasticity and my students.

As I was reading chapter one I was not surprised by the research on plasticity it just reassured what I had previously thought. You know the phrase "we learn something new everyday", well I have always believed this to be true. I see it a lot with the students that I work with. I was doing some research on joint attention in children with Autism and most of the research that I found stated that the best time to teach or improve joint attention in students with Autism was between the ages of around 18 months and 4 years old. However, in reality being able to teach those skills at that age in the school system is very rare mostly because the students are not diagnosed until much later for numerous reasons. The teacher that I was working with (and continue to work with) was teaching two of her students with Autism specific joint attention skills. We worked with this specific student on increasing eye contact with teacher when prompted. Because of the time limit I was not able to progress as far as I wanted to.    
                                                                                                             
This year I will be working with the same students as the teacher goes on maternity leave and after being in the classroom a few times I noticed and big difference in this students rate of attention. The classroom teacher also showed me data that he was improving. This students rate of improvement was slow but there definitely was growth. This just proves to me that the brains always changing and growing.

Now the question about whether my students believe that intelligence is fixed is kind of tricky. I believe that younger students especially those with a positive educational experience believe that they  as equally intelligent as their peers. As students reach adolescence they tend to focus more on competition between their peers. Again in this situation I think that previous educational history and classroom environment can effect a students view on intelligence. I also think that culture plays a roll in student's believes on intelligence. Before I came to Baton Rouge I taught in a low income urban culturally diverse neighborhood of Minneapolis, MN. The demographics of the school were about 10% Caucasian, 40% African American, 30% Hispanic and 20% Asian (predominantly Hmong). I found that my caucasian and Hmong students viewed intelligence as something that can be changed where my african american students and hispanic students saw it as something that was fixed.

I think as teachers we have a large influence on changing how our students view their educational abilities. Praise goes a long way!