Skip to main content

100 Powerful Learning Specialist and Educational Therapy Materials

This week I wanted to tell you about my online store, Good Sensory Learning. I’m Dr. Erica Warren, and I established this site so I could share all the materials that I have created over the last 20+ years as a learning specialist and educational therapist. When I first began my private practice, Learning to Learn, I had great difficulty finding fun and multisensory materials for my students that were effective and engaging. So back in 2005, I made it my mission to design and distribute high-end, remedial products as well as memorable, motivating lessons that bring delight to learning. If you would like to try a free sampling of my activities , CLICK HERE . How Are the Products Organized at Good Sensory Learning? You can download my Free Printable Catalog or you can browse the site using the grey “search all products” bar in the top right of any page with keywords such as dyslexia, working memory, and executive functioning. What’s more, drop down menus in the red banner allow you t...
Post a Comment

8 Powerful Strategies for Teaching Main Ideas and Details

Main ideas and details are fundamental, core concepts every elementary student needs to master. It is the foundation of reading comprehension, writing and the organization of ideas. In fact, mastery of these abstract concepts can even help students improve memory, note taking skills and enhance their understanding of lessons.
Main Idea and Details strategies
What are Main Ideas and Details?
Main ideas are the most important central concept or claim that can be expressed visually in writing (often as a thesis or topic sentence) or orally in conversation. Details are single ideas that illustrate a point, explain a concept, or otherwise support the central idea. Details can be facts, descriptions, examples, quotations, or anecdotes.

How Can the Mastery of Main Ideas and Details Improve Student Learning?
  • By understanding and utilizing the concepts of main ideas and details, students can make a conscious effort to organize and manage their learning. This can assist them with:
  • Reading: Understanding main ideas and details helps students improve reading comprehension, and it can also help them conceptualize the overall schema.
  • Writing: Mastery of main ideas and details helps students organize thoughts, so they can support the central idea and illustrate claims.
  • Memory: Organizing one’s understanding of concepts into main ideas and details makes it easier to encode and then retrieve information at a later date.
  • Note Taking: Utilizing main ideas and details when taking notes can help to keep notebooks organized and easy to navigate.
What are 8 Fun Ways to Teach this Important Skill?
  1. Make a list of 5 to 10 very different main ideas. Under each main idea list three supporting details. Now place all the main ideas and details onto their own index cards. When working with students, have them sort the 3 details under the correct main idea.
  2. Give your students 5 to 10 very different main ideas. In groups, ask them to come up with a list of five details that could go under each main idea.
  3. Place main ideas on a beach ball or balloon. Pass the ball around and ask the students to read the main idea that they first see when they catch the ball. Then ask them to come up with a supporting detail.
  4. Think of a main idea. Give one detail and see if the student(s) can guess the main idea. If not, give them another detail and let them guess again. Continue providing details until they figure out the main idea.
  5. Make a series of web diagrams that illustrate main ideas and 4 to 8 related details. Now delete some of the information, so that the students have to fill in the blanks. See image to right.
  6. Ask students to color code readings. Whenever they see a main idea, ask them to highlight this central concept with a specific color. Then ask them to underline all the details with the same color. When they see a new main idea, ask them to repeat the process but with a different color.
  7. Place main ideas and details onto about 10 to12 blank foam dice. Have the student roll the dice. Can they find any main ideas and supporting details that go together? If so, ask them to organize the dice and explain their reasoning. You can grant them a point for each of the dice that they are able to properly categorize.
  8. Write a series of main ideas onto cards. Then collect visual representations of details and print or paste them onto cards. For example, if you use the main idea transportation, you can have a picture of a car, plane, boat… Ask the students to place the image cards under the correct main idea.
Ready-Made Materials:
If you would like to learn more about how I teach these lessons in a fun and multisensory way, check out these ready-made digital downloads:
Would you Prefer to Watch a Video of this Blog?  
Cheers, Dr. Erica Warren
Dr. Erica Warren is the author, illustrator, and publisher of multisensory educational materials at Good Sensory Learning and Dyslexia Materials. She is also the director of Learning to Learn and Learning Specialist Courses.

· Blog: https://learningspecialistmaterials.blogspot.com/
· YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/warrenerica1
· Podcast: https://godyslexia.com/
· Store: http://www.Goodsensorylearning.com/ & www.dyslexiamaterials.com
· Courses: http://www.learningspecialistcourses.com/
· Newsletter Sign-up: https://app.convertkit.com/landing_pages/69400

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

88 Assistive Technology Tools for Struggling Learners

Making sense of the complex weave of assistive technology devices and applications for struggling learners can be a confusing and frustrating chore. This blog talks about 15 different types of assistive technology that can benefit struggling learners with links to my favorite tools. For a more comprehensive discussion of these technologies  CLICK HERE Comprehensive Technologies: Don Johnston Inc. - $. Kurzweil 3000 - $   TextHelp - $ ClaroRead - $ Planning, Time Management, and Organization: iStudies Pro - Free/$ - Remember the Milk - Free - RescueTime - $ Strict Workflow  - Free - Wunderlist - Free - Text to Speech: AnyBook Personal Reader - $ Audible.com - $ IntoWords - $ NaturalReaders - Free/$ Project Gutenberg & Librivox - Free Raz-Kids - $ Read & Write for Google Chrome - Free/$ Read OutLoud - $ Snap&Read Universal - $ Voice Dream Reader - Free/$ Voice Typing - Free Speech to Text: ...
Post a Comment
Read more

100 Powerful Learning Specialist and Educational Therapy Materials

This week I wanted to tell you about my online store, Good Sensory Learning. I’m Dr. Erica Warren, and I established this site so I could share all the materials that I have created over the last 20+ years as a learning specialist and educational therapist. When I first began my private practice, Learning to Learn, I had great difficulty finding fun and multisensory materials for my students that were effective and engaging. So back in 2005, I made it my mission to design and distribute high-end, remedial products as well as memorable, motivating lessons that bring delight to learning. If you would like to try a free sampling of my activities , CLICK HERE . How Are the Products Organized at Good Sensory Learning? You can download my Free Printable Catalog or you can browse the site using the grey “search all products” bar in the top right of any page with keywords such as dyslexia, working memory, and executive functioning. What’s more, drop down menus in the red banner allow you t...
Post a Comment
Read more

List of Reasonable Accommodations and Modifications for Students with Learning Disabilities

Getting the best reasonable accommodations for struggling learners with disabilities can be a challenge.  The list of possible options is rarely made available to parents, so many remain unaware of the diverse options.  The first step is the understand the difference between reasonable accommodations and modifications.  Accommodations vs. Modifications? The United States clumps accommodations and modifications under the term reasonable accommodations, but other countries, such as Canada make a distinction between the two. An accommodation describes an alteration of the environment, curriculum format, or equipment that allows an individual with a disability to gain access to content and/or complete assigned tasks. Since accommodations do not alter what is being taught, instructors should be able to implement the same grading scale. Some examples of accommodations include: preferential seating, audiobooks, and speech to text technology. A modification describes...
Post a Comment
Read more