Accommodation Ideas

1. Accommodation Ideas For Middle and High school teachers

2. Prioritize Objectives • Language objectives • Know their level of English proficiency. • Address the content being learned. • Emphasize key vocabulary. • Content objectives • Choose a few for in-depth focus. • Reduce non-essential details. • Focus on the concrete first, then the abstract.

3. Be a Cultural Observer • Consider their perspective • Consider their background and upbringing due to their culture • Accept where they are at, period. • Seek to move them to a place of success in our “academic culture” • Broaden their worldview!

4. Watch your Language! • Consider the words, slang and idioms you are using as you speak to your student • Ask questions that are not YES / NO • Take adequate care, when writing test questions and other such written prompts, not to become verbose beyond reason for this tends to stumble many • Don’t use cursive

5. Academic Word List • For you English Teachers: • Most common words in academic texts in college that are not technical terms specific to subjects • Arranged into subgroups by prevalence • These words usually never taught in school, just have to be known and used (See the email I will send for the words in order)

6. modify instruction • Interactions with • You as teacher • Other students as learning community • The course material (vocabulary and content) • The skills

7. Teach Skills and Strategies • Organizing • Summarizing • Analyzing and Evaluating • Inferring • Taking notes • Previewing • Skimming and scanning

8. Scaffolding • Tap background knowledge & experience • Use visuals, videos, diagrams, etc. • Use gestures and hand signals • Find patterns and schema to stick it to • Take away as language builds • Let’s try an example in Spanish!

9. Quality Questioning • Serve as a hook to the lesson intro • Can make all the difference • Promotes higher order thinking skills • Engaging and personalizing • Make use of Socratic Seminar method and step back as the “expert” or “moderator”

10. Ancillary Material from your Textbook Series Check with your department or district rep for samples and ideas about what is out there… …here are a few samples.

11. Reconsider text book usage • Written above most students’ reading levels • Too busy, bulky and full to be clear • Focus mostly on visuals, diagrams, etc. • English teachers: Build content and vocabulary through alternate sources since ELA standards do not specify particular works

12. Texts and Readers Written for English Language Learners (& Low Readers) • Check out some samples: • Longman Science • Gateway to Science • Land, People, Nation • America’s Story (Vol 1 & 2) • Longman Basic Mathematics • Graded readers (biographies and novels) • All American Stories (short stories) • Graphic Novels

13. Make it Physical • Muscle memory is a strong factor in learning and retaining knowledge • Many kids are kinesthetic learners… or at least just really antsy! • Let’s try it out on a couple passages…

14. Model and Demonstrate • Let’s make a vocabulary Graphic organizer: • First try- words only • Second try- words and actions

15. Manipulatives • Cards with synonyms and antonyms to position around cards of key vocab terms • Cut ups of steps of a math problem to re-arrange into the proper order • Flashcards for element symbols and polyatomic ions • Pictures to match with key names, places from history unit

16. Kagan Strategies and Improv Games for Interaction • Great for building classroom culture, respect, teamwork, participation • Can be used for introductions, practice, review and when you have a few extra minutes left in class • Also great when you’re in a rut… just try one out! (See the email I will send for the activities listed)

17. Visuals and Pictures

18. Graphic Organizers and Mind Maps

19. Audio and Video • www.youtube.com • www.oneplacesc.org (ETV Streamline) • iTunes Podcasts and iTunes U

20. www.OnePlaceSC.org • ETVStreamline • KnowItAll • Discus • Discovery • Thinkfinity • ITV • PBS Teacher

21. Google Activity Searches • Type in what you’re looking for and add words like “game” or “practice” or “quiz” • Ex: “irregular past tense verbs game”

22. Wikipedia… simplified! www.simple.wikipedia.org

23. Collaborative Tools on Web 2.0 • Wikis- www.wetpaint.com • Nings • Blogs- www.blogger.com • Vlogs • Podcasts- using Window Movie Maker • Many can be done on Blackboard or on a variety of sites free for educators

24. Peer Tutoring and Group Work • Student with similar language/culture background can be helpful • Student willing to help (don’t over-use!) • Groups with mixed ability levels • Groups with clear roles for each member • Groups lower affective filter

25. i- TPSi Groupings • i= Individual engagement at lesson start • T = Total Class presentation • P = Partners work together on activity • S = Small team for more collaboration • i= Individual activity to show comprehension

26. Tailor assessments • Assess what you taught • Be creative and think outside the paper and pencil box (since there won’t be any copies next year anyways!)

27. Problem-Based Learning • Engaging • Real-world issues & relevance • Collaborative • Uses higher order thinking skills (creating, evaluating, analyzing)

28. Foldables • Creativity • Kinesthetic & tactile • Great for review

29. Portfolios • Show development over time in vocabulary, content and skills • Individualized and specific to need • Allows you to see where needs are • Demonstrate accomodations easily! • Do you have an examples you have used?

30. Lingo Bingo • Fold paper 4 times in half to make 16 boxes • Students write vocab word in each box • Begin definition with highest difficulty then scaffold until all find out the right word • Great for “review”