It is going to be difficult to get your students to meet state
standards on the tests. I do have some suggestions but it may be a
lot more work than you want to do but I have been to numerous
workshops that recommend these strategies for all kids. The kids like
many of them.

1. Give your kids a copy of the notes. Many high school kids cannot
take notes, listen and learn at the same time.
2. If you can use power points with pictures. LD kids love pictures
that simiplify the learning.
3. Tell stories to help kids remember. Example: George Washington
is the father of our country but he never had children of his own.
Tell the kids that Ben Franklin was a great statesman but he was also
admired by the ladies. This makes history human for the kids. When
you teach about the Civil Rights movement, bring in the book "Black
Like Me". You don't have to read the book but tell the kids what
happened in the book. My students were fascinated with what i told
them and I had black students in my class as well as Hispanic and
white, non-Hispanic.
4. Have the kids use colored paper and make books for events:
Example; The American Revolution
Page 1 Causes
Page 2 Leaders of the Colonies
Page 3 Leaders of England
Page 4 Major Battles
Page 5 Results of the War
5. Using the notes you gave the students, give them an assignment or
activity. Make a flip book for vocabulary. Illlustrate an event.
5. When you review for the tests, you give, make a review sheet. Do
the review sheet with the kids. Spend a day playing a game with the
review sheet. Make your test from the review sheet.
6. When you do maps, you draw and label the maps as they might look
on the test or download maps from released tests. Many LD kids cannot
draw maps. Let them color the map. I have found that many kids still
do not understand or know that water is always blue and land is never
blue. Many kids also need practice in coloring maps to stay within
the lines. You will find that many kids work looks like that of a
first grader because of eye hand coordination problems.
7. Do a lot of work orally. Do a lot of repetition and review.
Hope this helps.
8. Also, for time fillers and homewok, I use US history Shorts and
World History Shorts. These are notebooks published by PCI with basic
information that is on the standardized tests. Our general ed teaches
use these papers too.

On 6/28/09, Jo wrote:
> Actually, no you still aren't clear enough to find a specific
> strategy that will work because, as I said, this is a big
> umbrella. The causes for an SLD in written expression, reading
> comprehension, organizational skills, etc that are either in a
> general education setting with support or without vary. While one
> student may have deficits with different types of memory, another
> may have deficits in visual processing skills or auditory
> processing skills, or have ADHD to name a few. Some may have more
> trouble getting the information in and storing it, while others may
> have trouble getting the information out to show that they know
> it. Some may take it in and file it incorrectly.
>
> While I do understand your frustration, how you deal with each
> student needs to be different. What will work with one won't
> necessarily work with the other. It is all dependent on the
> student and that students individual needs. That is why so many
> special education students across the years have failed. Even
> though they have an IEP, there really is no 'I' about it.
>
> Here is an example regarding what I am saying. I remeber a teacher
> at my school who complained for 6 months because her student wasn't
> making any progress because she (special education teacher to boot)
> kept giving this student visual aids like all other kids because
> she felt that all kids with a reading disability had auditory
> problems and needed to emphasize the visual. She moaned and
> complained that the student didn't try because he didn't respond to
> what she was doing. Turned out that his problems were primarily
> visual in nature. She found out after calling mom in to talk about
> the lack of progress, motivation, and failure to do the work
> presented (in a method the student didn't understand).
>
> I'm not saying that you are blaming any of your students. I want
> to be very clear regarding that. My example only goes toward using
> the wrong method with a student with a disability.
>
> Sorry if I sounded crass. I didn't mean to offend, but the fact
> is, without knowing the specifics of the disability and trying
> different methods with a student, you cannot tailor a strategy to
> help the student. You also cannot find one thing that will work
> with most. Sounds like you are not being properly supported or
> trained to deal with the specific students disabilties.
>
> Hopefully your special education staff will have more knowledge
> regarding the weaknesses that each student has, but if my school is
> any example, good luck with that. I say, start with finding out
> what the disability is (visual, auditory, memory, processing,
> motor, language, etc) From there you can build better strategies
> for each student.
>
> On 6/28/09, Max wrote:
>> Let me be more explicit. I'm not referring to cognitively
>> disabled students, nor emotionally disturbed students, nor multi-
>> handicapped students. I am referring to those students with one
>> or more areas identified in their IEP---written expression,
>> reading comprehension, organizational skills---that identifies
>> them with a severe learning disability. These students would be
>> in inclusion classes with or without a SLD tutor or intervention
>> specialist with them in the regular classroom. These students
>> will be expected to perform at levels of performance on state
>> tests comparable to regular ed students (although certain
>> accommodations would be permitted---a reader, extended time, a
>> scribe, etc.).
>>
>> Now, hopefully I've made myself a clear as possible. Does
>> anyone have strategies that have proven successful in getting a
>> significant percentage (greater than half) of your SLD students
>> to pass a state mandated social studies achievement test
>> (preferably in grades 5-9)?
>>
>> Max

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