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Showing posts with the label higher level language

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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Why Is Critical Thinking an Important Skill to Teach?

In order to teach our students to be critical thinkers , we must step out of the traditional pedagogical paradigm where learners are seen as blank slates that are dependent on their teachers and instead embrace and educational climate in harmony with many anthropological principles. Although andragogy refers to methods used in adult education, this approach offers a much better platform for teaching critical thinking. By embracing a new role as a facilitator, teachers can guide students to uncover intrinsic motivations, interest-based experiences, and problem-solving techniques. What is Critical Thinking? Critical thinking requires active learning and advanced reasoning skills. In addition, it involves rigorous questioning and analysis of ideas, assumptions, views, and values in an attempt to solve problems. Why is Critical Thinking Important to Teach? Critical thinking is a vital skill to teach because it nurtures self-directed learning and helps to train thoughtful a...
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How to Easily Teach Struggling Students to Follow Directions

Learning to follow both aural and written directions is a crucial skill for students to master. It is the foundation of learning and difficulties in this area can impact a student’s ability to focus, follow a sequence of steps, take notes, answer questions as well as show their knowledge on written assignments and even tests. What Causes Difficulties in Following Directions? Even if a student appears to be listening, it doesn’t mean that they will actually follow directions.  Once a student hears the information, the brain needs to make sense of the sounds, and weaknesses in attention, auditory processing, visual processing, reasoning, executive functioning, and language processing can block one's understanding.  So if students do not understand lessons, we can't expect them to provide the needed response. So What can be Done about This? The best solution is to exercise and strengthen the core cognitive skills. Students need to learn and practice the subtlet...
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9 Terrific Ways to Teach Inferences and Have Fun

Inferences or implied meanings are often subtle, hidden messages that can be challenging for many young learners to recognize and understand. They require abstract reasoning skills, and for concrete learners, inferences can seem quite perplexing. Most students first encounter inferences when discussing their readings, but I like to pave the way and introduce these ideas through images, metaphors, product names, games, and more. 1) Review magazine advertisements Lesson : Project magazine ads and ask your students to search for hidden images and messages that entice buyers to purchase the products. Look at the pictures, words, colors, backgrounds, symbols, layouts, and more.  Group activity : Encourage your students to find their own advertisements from magazines and newspapers. Ask them to cut out their three favorites and answer the following questions. What are all the hidden messages in each advertisement that helps to sell the product? Can you think of any oth...
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How Can I Improve My Higher Order Language Skills?

When concepts first move from concrete ideas to abstract ways of thinking, some students start to struggle for the first time. This can happen because they have weaknesses in higher order language skills. Higher order language skills , also called higher level language or metalinguistic skills, refers to advanced language processing. It requires abstract and deductive verbal reasoning skills and the understanding of advanced vocabulary and word relationships. But what are the common signs? You Might Have Higher Order Language Problems if: You have problems predicting outcomes. You have difficulties with implied meaning or inferences. You have problems with pragmatic or social language skills. You have difficulties expressing your ideas in words. You struggle with writing skills. You have problems with main ideas and details. You have difficulties understanding jokes, riddles, and humor. You struggle with writing summaries and paraphrasing. You have difficulties ...
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Teaching Inference Skills Can Be Fun

  Teaching students about how to make inferences can be challenging. Unlike most of the concrete learning that they encounter, this is an abstract notion. However, most students love the idea of finding or uncovering a hidden message. So, explaining that, like a detective, they can solve the secret code, students will find this both appealing and exciting. Here are four activities that you can do to help even the youngest of learners find joy in searching for inferences. Look through magazine images and see if you can uncover any hidden messages. When traveling look at billboards and see if you can point out any inferences. Look at the images on book covers and see what kind of hidden messages they might include that tell you a little bit about the story. When watching TV pay attention to the advertisements. What kinds of secret messages are implied? If you would prefer to use a 60 page workbook, with images, activities and games, you can always...
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