Ed+Spec+Sev.

Welcome to BTSA. I am glad you are getting involved in our new paperless system. If you have any questions, please email me. Barbara Schulman schulmanb@svusd.org

= How are you attempting to engage all your students? (please post directly below) = DeLandB - I have been trying several strategies to engage my students. I have been using the Rick Morris idea with the cards to call on students randomly and keep all students engaged. I also allow students to use white boards when answering a questions. This allows all students to answer the question. I can also check for understanding. I use many visuals and hands-on activities when teaching and get my students up and moving when approriate. It is important with our students that are more severe to have them engaged in the lesson as much as possible by answering questions, completing tasks, or solving problems.

Brittany -- I am so glad that you are using Rick Morris' techniques with students from your population. I wish everyone who is a teacher could get this training. Thanks for responding. Barbara Schulman

Brittany- I agree with you, using visuals, hands-on activities and moving while teaching allows students to become engaged in learning. Those are excellent best practice teaching strategies that we should all use daily within our classrooms. - Elaine

DHunt - If we work in large or whole groups, my students tend to disengage. So we often break a task down into smaller chunks, with each group responsible for finding part of the answer. For instance, if we are going to Ruby's for lunch, one group works on the bus information, one group looks up the menu online. My students are most engaged when they are working towards a specific outcome, i.e., learning to count out $5 so they can order lunch at Ruby's. I find it difficult to engage all students in whole group activities: their attending and listening skills put them at a disadvantage. If I need to do whole group activities, I will use Kagan's cooperative learning strategies to try to get as many students involved in the lesson as possible.

Denise. Thanks for the information. I don't know much about Kagan's methods, but will learn more as we work togther this year. Thanks Barbara

Denise - I agree that working in large groups with our students is difficult. I like how you break the students into groups and have a special "job" for each group. This seems like a great way to keep all students engaged. I never thought of doing it this way. I always break my students into small groups and do the same activity with each group. I think I may try your idea the next time I work with my students in small groups. Great idea. Thanks -- Brittany

Barbara - I don't know much about Kagan's methods either. I am excited to hear more about them. Denise seems to have some good new ideas. - Brittany

Ashley- My students are so young that they become easily distracted and require a lot of prompting when working on a given task. I have found that my students work best during rotations and when in small groups. Everything needs to be hands on with my kiddos and rotations are the best way to do this because it allows the students to be actively engaged when working at their table and by the time they become disengaged it is time to rotate to another station.

Hi Ashley, I agree with you about how 15 minute rotations work well for students that are easily distracted. My classroom is set up to rotate every 15 minutes. Even though the Structured Teaching Classroom (STC) is set up with desks in quiet workspaces, the students still find something to become distracted with. -Elaine

Elaine-I work with students with M/S autism in a structured teaching classroom. Engaging students within the scheduled classroom activities, while practicing communication and social skills is very important. __Social Skills__ During our circle time I am currently working with all students in greetings. Once they have mastered greeting me without a prompt, I will gesture for the student to greet another student in the circle. __Communication and Participation during Calendar__ During group, all students have an opportunity to assist with the calendar activities, including forecasting the weather. Most of the students seem to really enjoy this time of participation.

Barbara- Glad everyone can discuss ideas on these pages. That is the entire idea behind it. Glad we can share. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Connie - During our BTSA meeting we were shown a technique where the teacher raises her hands and lowers them when we want the students to respond in unison. At the time I didn't think much of it. I teach kids with Autism and we work in small groups most of the time because they need one on one work in order to keep their attention. There are times when I have them in whole group, like the other day when I was showing them a power point about the Byzantine Empire. I found it very interesting when I was making it, but it was before lunch and I was losing them. I decided to use the "raise and lower hand technique". They needed to listen to me in order to know what to do and then they had to look at me in order to know when to do it. It worked! I will be using this technique whenever I need their attention.

Connie, I'm glad you found a technique that works for your class. Most students in my class only listen when spoken to directly and in close proximity. In group discussions or lessons, they don't pay any attention to what others students are saying, therefore, I believe that they are missing important information, as well as not demonstrating important listening skills that they will need for the future. Since my students work best under competitive situations, I began giving points to the team members that were able to repeat the last person's comment, rather than points for answering their own question correctly. It has worked out so well that I have written it as a goal for some of my worse offenders. -DHunt