Self-Selected Reading involves much more than just allowing students to quietly flip through books. You can use this time to expose students to a variety of text types and genres that they might not otherwise encounter. This could be the first step toward a lifelong love of reading. Research Comprehensive literacy instruction in your… Read More The Choice is Theirs: Allowing Students to Select Texts
News You Can Use: Teacher Direct
The goal of Teacher Direct is both to provide new instructional resources and to help make teachers aware of professional development and grant opportunities, as well as other information of special interest to teachers and their students. VDOE staff has created instructional resources and established Teacher Direct as a way to provide a more… Read More News You Can Use: Teacher Direct
Encouraging Writing in Early Childhood
One approach that is simple to implement and inclusive of children with and without disabilities is called Big Paper. Big Paper involves seating small groups of children around a large piece of bulletin board or butcher paper that is placed across a table or on the floor. Research Learning to write is a complex… Read More Encouraging Writing in Early Childhood
Writing Opportunities: Finding Your Student’s Pencil
Before a student can become a successful writer, we must first find his ideal pencil. Many teachers make the assumption that a student without the physical ability to hold and manipulate a writing utensil is not ready for writing instruction. Many students are able to use a writing utensil such as a pencil, pen, crayon,… Read More Writing Opportunities: Finding Your Student’s Pencil
Achieving Positive Outcomes through Meaningful Instruction
Developing children’s interests during the preschool years is particularly important so that they learn to extend their ability to focus and maintain attention at an early age. Planning for children to spend sustained time with focused content and prioritizing the quality of learning experiences over the quantity of topics covered, is recognized as a developmentally… Read More Achieving Positive Outcomes through Meaningful Instruction
AT Tools for Writing
Speech-to-text, also known as speech recognition, is replacing word processing and word prediction. Recently, it has improved dramatically and is usually a built in feature with new products (i.e., tablets, smartphones, TVs, cars, and glasses). Research Studies show that students who use assistive technology to support writing demonstrate an improvement in their writing skills… Read More AT Tools for Writing
Choosing Responses to Support a Change in Student Behavior: What Are You Thinking?
Functional behavioral assessment (FBA) is an effective approach to collecting data, identifying the function of student behavior, and using that knowledge to design proactive and preventative student behavior support plans. Function-based thinking (FBT) is a foundational component of FBA and is defined as a “quick and systematic way of thinking that informs the selection of… Read More Choosing Responses to Support a Change in Student Behavior: What Are You Thinking?
