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Showing posts with the label classroom strategies

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...
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How to Meet the Individual Writing Needs of Your Students

With large classroom sizes, it is often challenging to meet the individual writing needs of each student. What makes it doubly difficult is the writing process involves a complicated synergy that requires students to physically write, type or dictate , implement rules of written language/spelling, as well as generate and organize ideas. Those are a lot of tasks that require attention, and every student comes with their own unique preferences and needs. So How Can a Single Teacher Manage the Writing Needs of Individual Students? I find that when most students receive a graded, written assignment, they rarely look past the number. However, sprinkled across their papers are colorful hints and suggestions on how to accomplish higher marks as well as personalized clues on how to develop greater mastery over the written word. The best way to meet the individual needs of your budding writers is to provide the metacognitive strategies, tools, and feedback so that they can consciously le...
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Teaching Inferences - 7 Fun Ways to Master Implied Meaning

Inferences or an implied hidden meaning is an abstract higher-order language skill that is challenging to teach and tricky for students to master. For many concrete learners, taking the leap into hidden meanings is both confusing and frustrating. Most students first come across inferences when reading books, but I like to prepare and teach my students how to make sense of implied meaning through images, metaphors, product names, games, and more.  7 Fun Strategies that Teach Students How to Uncover Inferences: Review magazine advertisements and search for hidden images and messages that lure buyers to purchase products. Look at the pictures, words, colors, backgrounds, expressions, layouts, and more. Encourage your students to find their own magazine advertisements. Ask them to cut out their five favorites and answer the following questions. 1) What are all the hidden messages in each advertisement that helps to sell the product? 2) Can you think of any other hidden message ...
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Accommodating Students with Dyslexia - 12 Strategies for Success

Students with dyslexia or symptoms of dyslexia often struggle in school. It is not that they have limited abilities. On the contrary, many have IQs in the above average or genius range. As a result, instead of a dumbed down curriculum, these students need to be challenged and they need to receive accommodations, modifications and multisensory teaching techniques to unleash their learning potential. What makes it difficult to accommodate students with dyslexia is that each student has their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Yes, two students with dyslexia don’t have the same pattern of cognitive processing deficits. In fact, there are a number of profiles that can lead to this diagnosis . In addition, there are a number of specific cognitive skills that can cause symptoms of dyslexia . Consequently, a successful remediation often requires a tailored, individualized approach. To tap into the quickest results, I have learned that one has to look at the specific cognitive difficul...
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Struggling Students - Energize the Body and Fuel the Brain

One of the most important things we can teach our children is that the food that we eat plays a vital role in our health and cognition. Unfortunately, we live in a consumer society and children are constantly targeted by large companies that entice them into consuming junk foods and drinks that are void of nutrients and are packed with harmful and addictive fillers. In fact, I continually see students that have poor diets consisting of processed foods, starchy entrees and sugary snacks. Sadly, if you even suggest changing diets to healthy options, many adamantly oppose, as they are hooked to this lifestyle. You can see that they are undernourished, because their skin coloration is often pallid and pasty, they have trouble focusing their attention, many are irritable, and most are struggling at school. That’s right, when kids do not consume healthy fats, vegetables, and other whole foods, it can lead to a whole slew of physical and mental challenges. What Can Be Done to Get the ...
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Routines - Stimulating Student Confidence and Productivity

Helping students establish positive, daily routines can be a lesson that will serve them throughout their lives. Instead of aimlessly floating from task to task, when students learn to create a structured schedule with intentions and goals, they can steer their way to high marks, navigate childhood stressors, and cultivate improved confidence and productivity. Creating Routines Throughout the Day: Establishing routines throughout the day, can help both parents and teachers maintain power and respect while providing kids the structure that they need. For this blog post, I will be focusing on a home routine, but many of these ideas and principles can be applied to the classroom. You’ll notice that I include positive intentions, affirmations, and gratitude as this can help nurture a positive attitude as well as a positive inner voice. Getting your children into the following habits can make mornings more manageable for all family members. You can pick and choose from the foll...
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PhotoMath and ModMath - Best FREE Apps for Struggling Math Students

Serving the needs of struggling math students can be challenging, and giving them the assistive technology tools for independent learning is vital. This week, I’m excited about sharing my two favorite, free math apps that can really change the playing field for students with ADHD, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, as well as those with graphomotor, visual processing, and spatial difficulties. Photomath: This FREE Android App and IOS App will knock your socks off! Open up Photomath in your smartphone or tablet, take a picture of a math problem, and Photomath will quickly provide the answer. Press the red arrow, and Photomath will display each step required to solve the problem.  Photomath Offers: Camera calculator that scans printed math problems and provides an answer. Camera calculator that also scans neat, handwritten problems. Step-by-step instructions on how to solve math problems. Manual, smart calculator with accessible math symbols. Graphs (NEW) Phot...
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Empower Dyslexic Students with Successful Tools and Strategies

Students with dyslexia require a  comprehensive approach  to learning and strategy based instruction, because many of these capable learners are not accommodated by traditional teaching methods. In addition to carrying the weight of their cognitive based weaknesses, these young learners work full tilt trying to make sense of taxing instruction. By the time they get home and have to complete their homework, most are mentally exhausted. As a result, taking away any down time and adding remedial lessons to an already weary and discourage learner can be enough to turn these kids off to learning altogether. How Can We Help Students with Dyslexia Learn the Core Skills and Strategies Needed to be Successful Learners? First, use a remedial program that is backed by time, testimonials and research. The Orton-Gillingham approach to reading is a well-established and researched approach that offers a multisensory, sequential, incremental, cumulative, individualized, and explici...
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