Tara

1. Graphic Organizers: Graphic organizers are especially helpful in the special education classroom, primarily for students with learning disabilities. According to "Graphic Organizers-Using Graphic Organizers as Study Guides. Help Visual Learners Study Effectively with Graphic Organizers," by Ann Logsdon. Graphic organizers are simply visual diagrams of ideas on paper. Teachers and students use them to create visual models of ideas presented in students' textbooks, classroom lectures, or video such as films and documentaries. Graphic organizers are great study guides that provide a visual map of ideas and their relationships to each other. They can be essential tools to aid students in organizing their thoughts and having proof of doing so. These are links to help you understand and use them in your classroom. They can be printed off from these links. They are helpful study guides for most students, but especially beneficial for students with expressive/receptive language disorders and language processing deficits. Thought Organizer Link:(Help to formulate ideas, familiarize oneself with concepts and study) [|Thought Organizer] Essay Organizer Link: (Great for outlining papers.) [|Essay Organizer] KWL Charts:(what you know/what you think you will learn/what you learned) [|KWL #1] [|KWL #2] "Interwrite" Graphic Organizers Tutorial: (technology inclusion!) []

2. "Handwriting Problem Solutions:" This is something that can be incorparated into a curriculum for students with writing disabilities. It's a writing system that allows students to complete age-appropriate writing tasks. It has been shown through it's "low-tech and high-tech" modifications to increase self-esteem and performance for a number of students with a variety of disabilities. There is a website and a resource guide for educators to follow. The students can use this system in the inclusive classroom. One downside of this product is that one must purchase it for around 40 dollars.

[|Handwriting Problem Solutions] Testimonials: [|Testimonials]

3. "The Assignment Routine:" This curriculum modification is for teachers in the regular middle school classroom to use to ensure she is teaching inclusively. It can also be used for students that just need help with assignments that they are required to read a text and complete written work afterwards. The teacher asks what is the relevance of the assignment, what the student needs, what they like, etc. This website gives the necessary steps for a teacher to do to ensure that the assigments are scaffolded appropriately. Research shows this is a good modification for the reg. ed. teacher.

The steps: [] Visual tools for the steps: [|Visual Help] [|#1]

4. The culturally diverse curriculum: The websites that were uncovered on this topic were quite vast. With the growing cultural differences in society there is an even greater call for teachers to recognize them and include them in their classrooms. The diverse classroom is one that acknowledges differences, is equitable, engaged(constructivist), and meaningful. In order to connect with our students we need to understand how to teach them. The three main parts to this curriculum overhaul are "implications for action, obstacle to action, and different points of view." This website provides many resources to achive this aspiration. The primary website I chose has a 16 step process, educational works written for this topic, total school reform strategy, illustrative cases, and several websites for organizations on the topic. Each step is called an element. They include the element's topic, it's main idea, its goals/stratgies, the implications for action, obstacles to action, and the different points of view. It seems that after watching the cases, that this reformative technique is highly effective. Only twelve steps are included for your use.

Main site: [|main link] The Elements: [|#1] [|#2.#3] [|#4] [|#5] [|#6] [|#7] [|#8] [|#8. #9] [|#11][|#12]

There is however some negative sides to using this method. Because it is a complete curriculum revamp it requires much time, effort, collaboration, reading, etc. In spite of this, the positive things that come from it are quite rewarding.