MODULE 6

ADAPTATIONS TO MEET INDIVIDUAL

LEARNERS NEEDS

LESSON 17:
PROMOTING POSITIVE BEHAVIOR AND
FACILITATING SOCIAL SKILLS

Objectives:
After studying the lesson, the students will be able to:
1. Know the practices that can be used to foster student relationships and communication.
2. Determine the ways that can be used to communicate effectively with students.
3. Describe the effective classroom arrangement practices.
4. Know the goals of misbehavior.
5. Identify the instructional strategies for problems behavior.
6. Define social competence.
7. Describe safer schools.

Introduction:
The classroom is a social environment., in which academic instruction must thrive. The
term social environment refers to the way that a classroom environment influences or supports the
interactions that occur among young children, teachers, and family members. A well-designed
social environment helps foster positive peer relationships, creates positive interactions between
adults and children, and provides opportunities for adults to support children to achieve their social
goals.

CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT
To create a classroom environment that supports positive social interactions, teachers need
to plan activities that take the following aspects into consideration.
 Group Size and Composition

Children should spend time every day in different kinds of groups. Groups of
various sizes open up different opportunities for social interaction and learning. Activities
suited to large groups include opening group circle time, story time, meal times, and outside
 time. Small groups allow more time for interaction with individual children and are ideal
for teaching new skills and providing feedback. Additionally, small groups offer more
opportunities for children to practice their language skills and for teachers to facilitate
children’s communication development.

Groups can either be made up of children with similar skills and abilities (i.e.,
homogenous groups) or mixed abilities (i.e., heterogeneous groups). Homogenous groups
are ideal for teaching targeted skills or skills that meet the particular needs of a subset of
children. Conversely, groups that include children with diverse skills and abilities provide
opportunities for all children to learn positive social skills and communication skills from
their peers. In this way, all children contribute to the classroom culture while also receiving
the support they need to interact with their peers and teachers in meaningful ways.

When considering group size and composition teachers should:

 Make sure children have opportunities to get to know each other and engage when
in groups, including snack and meal times, to promote interactions.
 Create activities that require children to work together and share materials.
 Provide visual supports to promote social interaction and independence. Some
children may not interact with their peers because they may not know what to do or
how to do it.
 Model, encourage, and teach positive social-interaction skills.
 Model, encourage, and teach problem-solving skills.
 Consider limiting the number of children allowed in a given area at one time.

 Teacher – Versus Child-Initiated Activities

A learning environment’s daily routine should include both teacher-initiated and

child-initiated activities. Teacher-initiated activities are those that the teacher plans and
leads, such as story time or a small-group learning activity. Generally, a child-initiated
activity is one that allows children to follow their interests and explore their passions. When
they plan activities for the social environment, teachers should:

 Take note of children’s preferred activities when they have the opportunity to
choose their own. Doing so can help teachers to identify the children’s areas of
strengths and interests.
 Recognize that children may demonstrate challenging behavior during teacher-led
activities that they find difficult, uninteresting, or overwhelming. Teachers can use
their knowledge of children’s preferred activities and materials and embed them in
activities that may be more challenging (e.g., If a child love trains, but does not like
to use any writing materials, provide pictures of trains for the child to color at the
writing center).
  Assign classroom jobs or responsibilities (e.g., plant water helper, animal feeder,
lunch cart pusher, table setter) to help children feel a sense of belonging.
 Make sure that every child has the opportunity to be a leader and a helper.
 Make sure that every child has frequent opportunities to answer questions, make
choices, or offer comments in a verbal or non-verbal way. For example, children
can indicate their song choice during group time in a number of different ways (e.g.,
speaking, pointing).

 Materials and Activities the Promote Interaction

Activities, games, and toys that require two or more children to participate have
been shown to promote social interaction. More, different types of materials promote
different types of play and social interaction. For example, a board game might lend itself
to a couple of children, a home-living area might be more appropriate for a small group,
and a game of duck-duck-goose requires a large group. When they think about what
materials and activities should be included in their classrooms, teachers should:

 Limit the amount of materials so that children have to share to promote social
interaction. Be careful not to limit to the point that children argue over them.
 Plan projects that can be done as groups or in pairs. For example, teachers can give
two children one large piece of paper to create a collage.
 Provide toys—such as dolls and building blocks—that are likely to encourage
social interaction.

Including Families
Another important aspect of designing the social environment is to build rapport through
frequent, open, and honest communication with families and by and making families and those
important to them feel welcome. Family members can include a child’s immediate family,
extended family, and others in the community or neighborhood that are important in the family’s
life. Family members can share information about the strategies they use in their homes and
cultures to promote social interaction. Teachers should listen to and incorporate parents’ beliefs,
as appropriate, into their instructional practices, including suggestions about how to encourage and
guide children.

More specifically, when they partner with families to design the social environment, teachers
should:

 Offer opportunities for family members (including immediate family, extended

family, and community members) to volunteer in the classroom.
 Provide opportunities for families to meet and connect with each other.
  Invite families to bring materials and share activities from their home and culture.
 Collaborate with families to support the development of their child’s social skills at
home.
 Include families in brainstorming and planning activities to meet a child’s individual
needs.

Including Children with Disabilities

Teachers also must ensure that young children with disabilities have opportunities across
the day to interact with peers and adults alike. Some children with disabilities might need extra
support to participate in the social environment. For these children, teachers might need to:
 Teach friendship skills, including how to ask a friend to play, share materials, and
give compliments. Teachers need to be intentional about teaching concepts of
friendships like reciprocity and managing interactions. To assist children in the
development of friendships, teachers might need to offer them instruction on how
to connect with their peers, as well as give them the time and support within play
activities to create these important relationships.
 Teach how to recognize emotions and to express them in ways that are socially
appropriate. Children who don’t learn to use emotional language have a hard time
labeling and understanding their own feelings, as well as accurately identifying how
others feel. Songs (e.g., “If You’re Happy and You Know It”), games, puppets, and
activities like feeling faces can all be used to support children learning about
emotions.
 Embed opportunities to interact with peers throughout the day. Teachers can supply
cooperative-use toys and materials to increase the opportunities for social
interaction. Cooperative-use toys are those that naturally lend themselves to two or
more children playing together. Some examples of cooperative-use toys include
balls, wagons, a pair of telephones, and board games.
 Use child preferences across the environment to promote social interaction. For
example, if a child with a communication delay has difficulty being understood but
enjoys the dramatic play area, she or he might be more likely to interact with a peer
during that activity. The teacher can support this child’s social interaction by
facilitating her or his communication efforts with peers during this preferred
activity.
o Know a child’s preferred playmates.
o Facilitate social interactions by matching a child with peers who share
interests or other similarities.
PRACTICES TO FOSTER STUDENT RELATIONSHIP AND COMMUNICATION
There are number of practices to cultivate good relationships with and among the students
you teach.
Get to Know Your Students
Students’ attitudes, beliefs, experiences and background influence their perceptions of
school and learning and how they approach their relationships with their teachers. Teachers who
get to know their students quickly can structure their teaching according to students’ interests,
background experiences and attitudes. By doing so, teachers show they care about their students
make connections between their students and teaching. Getting to know students by taking time to
talk with them (before school, between classes, during a conference and in small groups) is one of
the most powerful techniques for fostering positive relationships and creating an effective learning
community.
A good place to begin is by examining students’ individualized students’ individualized
education programs to determine their academic social goals. IEPs can provide helpful information
about those areas in which the student’s need support. Such areas might actually be prerequisite
skills for those behavior and social skills tasks that teachers expect from their students.
Teachers can also get to know their students through a variety of activities. Students can
complete an interest inventory, which consists of a series of questions geared for a particular age-
group. It can help teachers find out more about their students’ backgrounds, interests, and
perspectives.
Information from the interest inventory can be used to initiate discussions, help decide
which books to select for the reading center or for class literature groups, or identify a topic for
group work and research. Interest inventory answers also can provide important information about
students’ cultural backgrounds and experiences (Zakrzewski, 2012).
Use Motivational Practices
Implementing practices to motivate students is another way of fostering positive student
relationships. When designing or implementing instruction, it is important to focus on what
motivates students to perform well, whether academically, behaviorally, or socially. Those who
have been identified as gifted and talented may not be challenged sufficiently in inclusive settings
with the core curriculum. Enrichment activities provided in instructional or in basal textbooks can
be good sources of extra stimulation needed by those students who are gifted and talented. In
contrast, students with learning difficulties have experiences varying degrees of success and failure
with academic and social interactions during school years. These success and failures influence
their motivational levels for classroom activities and assignments.
Empowering students with new knowledge and the recognition that they can do it can go a
long way toward providing motivation and creating a positive learning community. In contrast,
students who exhibit performance deficits require different motivation to perform under certain
circumstances or with certain people. Some of the following motivational techniques may be
helpful for fostering a positive learning community:
1. Know you students’ name and use their names as often as possible.
2. Plan for every class; never try to wing it.
3. Pay attention to the strengths and limitations of each of your students. Reward their
strengths and strengthen their weaknesses.
4. If possible, set your room in a U-shape to encourage interaction among students.
5. Vary your instructional strategies; use lectures, demonstrations, discussions, case studies,
groups and more.
6. Review the learning objectives with your students. Be sure students know what they are
expected to learn, do, know etc.
7. Move around the room as you teach
8. Make your classes relevant. Be sure students see how the content relates to them and thee
world around them.
9. Be expressive. Smile.
10. Put some excitement into your speech; vary your pitch, volume, and rate.
11. Give lots of examples.
12. Encourage students to share their ideas and comments, even if they are incorrect. You’ll
never know what students don’t understand unless you ask them.
13. Maintain eye contact and move toward your students as you interact with them. Nod your
head to show that you are listening to them.
14. Provide opportunities for students to speak to the class.
15. Be available before class starts, during break, and after class to visit with students.
16. Return assignments and tests to students’ as soon as reasonably possible. Provide
constructive feedback.
17. Be consistent in your treatment of students.
18. Make sure that your exams are current, valid and reliable. Tie your assessment to your
course objectives.
19. Plan around 15 to 20 minute cycles. Students have difficulty maintaining attention after
longer period of time.
20. Involve your students in your teaching. Ask for feedback.
Meaningful activities relate learning to students’ interests and encourage them to become
actively involved in learning. Student-centered learning that engages students actively in the
learning process through the use of hands-on tasks, discussions and decision making. It is widely
supported as an effective means for teaching and learning (Powel, 2013). Creating exciting
learning experiences, such as class plays, group assignments, mock tv news productions of
historical events and field trips, encourages student involvement. Actively engaging students in
the learning process and helping them make connections to real-life situations increases their
motivation for participating in and completing activities (Neo, Neo & Tan, 2012).
Be Responsive to Cultural Differences
Demographic changes within our society mean that today’s classrooms include students
from diverse linguistic, ethnic, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds (US Census Bureau, 2010).
This rich heritage of diversity, coupled with a wide range of familial experiences, serve as strong
foundation for classroom instruction and has created a new context for teaching (Hernandez,
2001). Teachers should be informed about the social and behavioral norms of various cultural,
ethnic and racial groups. Teachers should examine their curricula and classroom literature to
determine if students can see themselves reflected in the lessons and can learn about themselves
and others. Fostering positive student relationship requires educators to be sensitive to the diverse
norms brought to classrooms so that they can understand the behavior of different groups and be
responsive to these cultural variations.
It is also important for teachers to understand behavioral patterns that are socially
acceptable in certain cultures so that they can avoid the risk of misidentifying students is possibly
having behavioral disorders. Teachers can learn more about their students through observation,
questionnaires and student-teacher conferences. They can ask students how they like to work
(alone or in a group), how large a group they prefer, how they seek adult feedback, how they feel
about being praised publicly and privately, how they respond to rewards, and how they are
disciplined. Student input will help teachers create student-centered activities. Teachers can learn
how students from diverse backgrounds perceive the rules and expectations imposed by the
teaching staff and the school. Additionally, it is important for teachers to understand how families
perceive school environments and the discipline of their children. Teachers can strive to integrate
these values and norms into a more cohesive learning community.
Conduct Student Meetings
William Glasser (1969) presented the classroom meeting as a way for teachers and students
to confront problems and issues constructively as a group. Through group participation and
ownership of issues, a positive climate can be created and positive relationships with students can
be fostered. He described three types of meetings that ae still widely conducted today:
 The open-ended meeting is for student to discuss how they would deal with possible
problems and take a “what would you do if ….” Approach to problem solving. This gives
teacher a chance to discuss hypothetical problems to help students think about possible
resolutions before problems come up.
 The educational/diagnostic meeting determines what students know and what they do not
know about a topic to be studied.
 The problem-solving meeting focuses on a problem exhibited in class that may be related
to the handling of materials, class procedures, or a specific student. Students are asked to
explain the problems they see, their effects and possible solutions. The meeting concludes
with an agreed-upon plan.
For older students, a peer-forum technique was first implemented more than 25 years ago
by Lewandowski (1989) as a means of for students to discuss issues and resolve problems. The
peer forum is a panel of students who have had trouble in school; these students have agreed to
talk with their peer group about how they handled these difficulties. Panel members discuss
problems they encountered in school and offer positive advice about how they handled their
problems. Additionally, panel members discuss strategies for being successful in school, such as
study techniques, counseling and how to access additional resources.

WAYS TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY WITH STUDENTS

Managing teacher behavior can facilitate the accomplishment of expected behavioral and
social skills tasks by all students.
Communicate Clear and Consistent Messages
Communication is a critical component of any classroom learning community. Poorly
articulated behavioral and social expectations and inconsistent ways of handling the results of
mixed messages detract from a positive tone in any classroom. Behavioral and social expectations,
and the consequences for following (or not following) them, should be communicated to students.
Consequences, both positive and negative, must be consistent if students are to take teachers’
messages seriously.
Explain the Rules and Consequences
Rules are necessary part of society this is true for the classroom as well. Rules provide
parameters, structure, and predictability. Rules set the limits. Without rules, students are left to
their own devices to determine the teacher’s expectations and guidelines for appropriate behavior
and social skills. Sometimes, teachers assume that students know how they are supposed to act in
class. Teachers can use a class meeting to involve students in establishing classroom rules by
asking them, “what rules do we need so that I can teach and you can learn in a safe classroom?”
Few tips for selecting rules (Canter, 2010):
 Four to six rules are enough; having too many rules makes it difficult to monitor
compliance
 State rules in a positive manner
 Select observable rules that apply throughout the day
 Involve students in setting the rules this is especially important for older students so that
they feel they have a voice in the decision making process.
Once rules are selected, they should be shared with the principal and students’ families.
The rules should also be posted. Rules should come with both positive recognition and
consequences. When students follow the rules, praise, special notices, privileges and other types
of positive recognition provide helpful reinforcement (Canter, 2010).
When rules are broken, consequences must follow. The following are the items to consider
when deciding on consequences:
  The consequence should match the infraction; that is the consequence must make sense for
the misbehavior or broken rule.
 The consequence should be something that the teacher can manage.
 Consequences should be applied consistently and as soon as possible after the infraction.
 Consequences should be communicated clearly to students.
It is necessary to teach rules. Rules must be explained, reinforced and reviewed regularly.
Teachers should work closely with special education colleagues regarding enforcement of rules
and logical consequences for students with disabilities.
Explain the Daily Schedule
Most people like to be informed about the schedule of events so that they know what to
expect during the course of the day, week or even vacation period. By communicating a schedule
to students, teachers can prepare them for what to expect each day; they will know what is going
to happen and be prepared for it. A classroom schedule establishes routines and communicates to
all students the activities of each day.
The teacher can develop a classroom schedule and post it for students to review throughout
the week. Several routines can be part of one week.
Provide Good Directions
If students understand what they are supposed to do, remember the directions, and follow
them, then the teacher probably has provided good directions. Tips for providing good directions
and communicating them effectively:
 Be concise; too many words may confuse students or difficult to remember
 State directions right before the activity
 Check student understanding of the directions

Describe Transition Procedures

Transition is the time when students are changing activities or classes. Often is less
structured time, so transition can be a challenging time for students who need structure as part of
their routine. Students may struggle with shifting from one activity to another either in the
classroom or across settings in the school. When students complete small group work, the
expectation is that they can return to their desks without problems.
Difficulties with transition time occur for a variety of reasons.
 Teachers do not pay enough attention to student movement in the classroom during
transitions
 Teacher has not clearly communicated expectations for student behavior during transitions
 Procedures that teachers use may not be the most effective ways for students to change
activities.
 Teachers communicate effectively during transition:
 Signal to students that it is time to finish their work soon they will be moving to the next
activity
 Gain student attention prior to the transition to provide directions for the transition
 Communicate the transition plan and behavioral expectations
 Praise students who follow the transition plan and meet the behavioral expectations
Use Specific Praise Judiciously
Specific praise is complimenting or verbally rewarding students for their accomplishments
providing specific praise is a very simple way to communicate behavior and social expectations.
Praise can serve as a reward for proper behavior and social interactions and as a reminder about
expectations for students. Specific praise is a form of attention and feedback that has been studied
for many years, and it has been shown to be very powerful in bringing about positive behavior in
classrooms (Haydon & Musti-Rao, 2011).
Important guidelines to consider using specific praise to promote positive behavior:
 Make the praise specific
 Consider the age of the student or students being praised
 Use praise judiciously

EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM ARRANGEMENT PRACTICES

Classroom is the stage on which the educational experience unfolds. It pays to plan the
setting thoughtfully.
Physical Arrangements
The physical arrangement of the classroom is an important component of effective
classroom management.
Considerations for designing the environment:
 Arranging activity-based centers in less distracting parts of the room can minimize
problems.
 The art center, however, should be placed away from students’ seats and quieter centers.
 Instructional supplies and materials for students could be stored away from students’ desks.
 Computer can be arranged in another section of the room.
Traffic Patterns
Traffic patterns, the path the students take to move about the classroom. Traffic patterns
make a difference, the arrangement of furniture and the location of instructional materials may
influence how students move bout the classroom as they go from large group to small group
instruction and from independent seatwork to the pencil sharpener.
 Tips that can help manage classroom traffic patterns:
 Separate instructional areas
 Provide adequate movement space
 Provide access to the most-frequented areas (Emmer & Evertson, 2008; Evertson
& Emmer, 2012)
Seating Arrangements
The types of activities and desired interactions should influence desk arrangements and
seating patterns, such as rows and groupings. In addition, specific students’ behavioral needs will
influence how the desks are arranged and where certain students’ desks are located in proximity
to the teacher and other students.
With –it- Ness
Teachers must be able to see all of the students all of the time to be aware of interactions;
this is referred to as with-it-ness (Pressman, 2011).
Importance:
 A lack of teacher awareness of classroom activities and student behavior can contribute to
misbehavior and social problems
 Nooks and crannies may offer students “private space”, but they limit teachers’ abilities to
be aware of classroom activities
 Teachers must have “eyes in the back of their heads”
Classroom Observation
Taking time to observe the environment, including traffic patterns, seating arrangements
and student interactions, will provide information about changes that may be needed. Through
observation, teachers can reduce behavioral problems and increase student involvement with those
students who tend to be quiet or uninvolved with their peers.

GOALS OF MISBEHAVIOR
Differing viewpoints about the causes of inappropriate behavior have influenced the
development of approaches and systems for managing it. if students are not successful in achieving
successful in achieving social acceptance, misbehavior occurs that can be annoying, hostile,
destructive or helpless. But students who believe that inappropriate behavior will garner an adult’s
positive attention are mistaken. The attention they get is negative. These students are desperately
seeking positive acceptance but do not know how to achieve it. They need to learn appropriate
prosocial behaviors – behaviors that are positive and that build relationships – to achieve the
acceptance they are seeking.
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES FOR BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS
Specific interventions must be implemented to promote positive behavior in the classroom.
Planned Ignoring
Planned ignoring, sometimes referred to as the ignore strategy, is the planned, systematic
withdrawal of attention by the individual from whom the attention is sought. This could be the
teacher but could also be a classmate. This is an appropriate intervention if the behavior is a minor
infraction that poses no threat of harm to others (Evertson & Emmer, 2008).
Guidelines to planned ignoring:
 Person who is doing the ignoring must be the individual whose attention is being sought.
It is important to know whose attention a student is seeking.
 Planned ignoring must be implemented consistently, even if the behavior or concern
increases.
Redirect Inappropriate Behavior
Redirection is the process of informing student that an error was made and asking the
student to describe the appropriate behavior. The student is provided an opportunity to demonstrate
the appropriate behavior with reinforcement. Redirection is an effective way to help a student stop
a problem behavior and receive further instruction on appropriate behavior in a relatively short
amount of time. Much like specific praise and planned ignoring, redirection is a helpful
intervention if the behavior is relatively minor and stems from the need to remind students about
appropriate behavior.
Contingent Observation
Problem behavior occurs during small group work or an activity when peers may be
reinforcing the student’s misbehavior. Peer reinforcement may result in increased levels of the
problem behavior. Contingent observation can be implemented in such situations if it appears that
the peer group is contributing to the problem behavior. The advantage of this intervention is that
the student can observe others participating appropriately in the group work, which can reduce the
loss of instruction. It is important to ensure that the contingent observation period is long enough
to make a difference but not so long that interest is lost in rejoining the group.
Criterion-Specific Rewards
Student earn privileges only as they reach desirable levels of the target behavior. This
intervention is used widely in schools. rewards are given to students who achieve designated levels
of improvement for a specific academic, behavioral, social skills. Rewards may include the
following:
 Tangible items such as foods, trinkets prizes
 Token reinforcers such as happy faces, stickers, or points toward a “payoff”
 Social reinforcers, such as praise, positive notes or positive calls to parents
  Activity reinforcers, such as a one-night no homework pass, 10-minutes of estra recess
Contracting
It involves setting up a written agreement between two parties that designates a targeted
behavior that needs improvement. This technique is sometimes necessary for students whose
problem behaviors do not seem to respond to other interventions.

SOCIAL COMPETENCE
Social competence means that a person uses social skills well enough to obtain positive
reactions and to reduce the likelihood of negative reactions from others. Being socially competent
means that an individual has the ability to perceive when and how to use social skills depending
on the situation and social context. The result contributes to acceptance by others.
Curriculum
Social skills curricula have been developed for elementary, middle and high school
students. This can be categorized into a variety of domains, such as communication skills,
problem-solving skills, getting along with others, and coping skills.
Ways to assess social skills:
 Provides information about students’ social behavior and how interventions are working
 Rating scales found in many social skills curricula can be used to determine which students
are exhibiting poorer skills than their peers.
 Sociometric and sociograms can be used to identify peer relationships in the classrooms
o Sociometric or peer-nominating techniques, help teachers learn about peer
relationships. Through the use of sociometric survey – a set of questions answered by
students regarding their perspectives on their peers – teachers can learn which students
may be popular, which may be rejected and which may be isolated within the classroom
or peer group.
o Sociogram – a graphic depiction of peer relationships – of the information gleaned
from the sociometric survey can help a teacher see quickly what relationship patters are
evident in the classroom
o Role playing is an activity in which students practice the desired behaviors under the
guidance of their teacher or counselor. Role playing is a combination of effective
teaching practices to teach skills and provides an opportunity for students to practice
with guidance.
o Coaching focuses on encouraging appropriate behaviors trough modeling and
feedback. Coaching can be used to teach many different social skills (Brooks, 2011). It
is an interactive process that facilitates self-directed learning by teachers or other
coaches providing guidance and feedback on appropriate behaviors in natural settings.
o Problem solving and decision making.
SAFER SCHOOLS
Guidelines for safer schools:
 Consistent rules, expectations and consequences across the entire school
 Positive school climate
 Schoolwide strategies for conflict resolution and dealing with student alienation
 High level of supervision in all settings
 Cultural sensitivity
 Strong feelings by students of identification, involvement and bonding with their school
 High levels of parent and community involvement
 Well-utilized space and lack of overcrowding

Bullying
Bullying has received national attention as educators strive to address this critical issue in
school. As White and Loeber (2008) noted, “bullying can create a climate of fear and discomfort
in schools and communities. Bullying is an intent on harming the victim and is one of the most
significant health risks to children (Raskaukas & Scott, 2011). Bullying can be physical, verbal or
psychological and occurs at grade level. The person doing the bullying attempts to assert power
and control over the person being bullied.
Strategies for all students can be implemented to address the bullying problem:
 Make bullying prevention and intervention part of the curriculum.
 Involve school administrators, teachers, families and the community.
 Work with the school counselor to identify effective strategies to handle and report acts of
bullying
 Sociograms can reveal students who are viewed less favorably by many classmates

Self-Assessment:
Answer the following questions:
1. What practices can be used to foster student relationships and communication?
2. What ways can be used to communicate effectively with students?
3. What are the effective classroom arrangements?
4. What are the goals of misbehavior?
5. How can safer schools be promoted?
 LESSON 18:
TEACHING LITERACY

Objectives:
After studying the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Know the issues related to written communication instruction
2. Identify the five components of reading
3. Identify the stages if the writing process
4. Determine the effective instruction and adaptations for reading and writing

Introduction:
Most students enjoy learning to read and write, and many young children enter
kindergarten with some and maybe even considerable literacy skills.

ISSUES IN EFFECTIVE WRITTEN COMMUNICATION INSTRUCTION

Many students who have reading problems also experience difficulties in writing tasks.
Over the past decade, written communication instruction has attained a prominent role in all
classroom settings. Elementary and secondary students with learning problems are unable to
express themselves successfully in written communication. Foundational skills such as spelling
and handwriting are also critical. The reader will likely view a paper that contains rich ideas and
vocabulary and is written in an engaging manner negatively if it contains numerous mechanical
errors and is barely legible (Santangelo & Graham, 2014).
Some students with reading and writing problems are identified as having dyslexia or
dysgraphia, respectively. Dyslexia, a language-based reading disability thought to affect 15% of
school-age students, in a lifelong condition found in people from all backgrounds. It tends to run
in families (Honig, Diamond & Gutlohn, 2008) and affects the following areas to varying degrees,
depending on severity:
 Learning to speak
 Decoding unknown words
 Recognizing words
 Learning letter-sound associations
 Memorizing facts
 Comprehending
 Spelling
 Writing
 Discriminating sounds
  Learning a foreign language
Dysgraphia is a writing disorder that causes problems with handwriting, spelling and
composition. From a syntactic and semantic perspective, students with dysgraphia use too many
words, omit word endings, omit words from sentences, write the wrong words, produce sentence
fragments and avoid complex sentences.

COMPONENTS OF READING
Teaching students is hard work and requires patience and perseverance. Below ae the
information about the areas of reading and the stages of writing.
Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness describes a variety of listening skills including rhyming, blending
and segmenting. Although technically, a skill that requires listening and speaking, phonological
awareness has long been studied in relation to reading, initially as auditory discrimination, which
is the ability to identify speech and other sounds, such as environmental sounds. When auditory
discrimination includes only speech sounds, it is the same as phonological awareness.
One type of phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, is the ability to segment, blend
and manipulate individual phonemes which are the smallest units of sound that influence the
meaning in words. Phonemic awareness is considered the most important type of phonological
awareness because it is related to phonics instruction, spelling, the ability to read and the alphabetic
principle – recognition that letters of the alphabet represent sounds in language.
Strategies for Teaching Phonological Awareness
 Teachers can have students play games like Simon Says
 Arranging the students in a circle and having them pass around a bag containing objectives
with consonant-vowel-consonant often called CVC names
Phonics and Word Study
Phonics is the teaching of letter-sound patterns so that students can identify unknown words
they encounter in text. The ability to read words quickly and effortlessly lets students recognize
words on sight. Good readers can also possess effective decoding strategies to decipher unknown
words. Word identification instructions consists of teaching sight word recognition and decoding
skills.
Strategies for Teaching Phonics and Word Study
 Assessment – use a sight words list to determine which words should be targeted for
intervention
 Instructional content – teach targeted words that most commonly occur in informational
text, literature and basal readers that students encounter during reading. Teach the words
before students read text containing these words.
  Instructional content – teach irregular words with common parts and similar sound
patterns
 Instructional content- teach separately words that have visually similar patterns
 Instructional content – teach a limited number of new words in each lesson
 Instructional materials – use flash cards for instruction and review
 Instructional delivery – focus student attention on all the letters ad sound s of irregular
words, including letters or letter combinations that do not follow common English sounds
or spellings
 Review/maintenance – include a cumulative review of key high-frequency words (two to
three minutes daily)
 Fluency – build fluency once words have been learned
 Progress monitoring – daily, at the conclusion of the lesson, review the words taught to
determine which were learned
Teaching phonic analysis is an important part of early reading instruction. Students must
establish a strong understanding of letter sound correspondence and combinations. They must also
be able to identify word parts such as phonograms, or rimes which are pats of a word to which
consonants or blends are added to make a word.
Reading Fluency
Reading fluency is the ability to read text accurately, quickly and with expression. The
ability to read with “speed and effortlessness” is what fluency is all about.
Types of reading fluency:
 Oral reading fluency is the combination of rate or how fast someone reads, accuracy or
how many words he or she correctly identifies
 Silent reading fluency is a combination of rate and comprehension
Reading fluency is an important skill for older readers who have to read large quantities of
material for school assignments. Repeated reading, the process of developing fluency through
multiple readings of the same passage, increases reading accuracy, reading rate and
comprehension.
Fluency is influenced by numerous factors such as content and purpose for reading and the
fluency expectations for oral and silent reading differ.
Strategies for Teaching Reading Fluency
 Practice reading words in isolation and text at their independent level
o Instructional content – select appropriate text
o Instructional delivery – model fluent reading or have a fluent reader do so
o Instructional delivery – teach students word identification skills to build
automaticity and obtain a core sight word vocabulary
o Progress monitoring – assess students’ oral reading ability at least biweekly
Reading Vocabulary
Vocabulary is knowledge of the word meanings. A person’s reading vocabulary is his or
her understanding of words, or word comprehension. When readers understand individual words,
they are better able to understand phrases and sentences.
Strategies for Teaching Reading Vocabulary:
Instructional content – teach students to use context clues to figure out meaning
Instructional delivery – integrate vocabulary instruction within the context of a reading
lesson
Instructional delivery – provide students with multiple opportunities to practice using
words they know
Instructional material – teach students to use reference materials
Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension requires interacting with text and extracting meaning from stories
or passages. (Honig, et.al 2008).literal comprehension deals specifically with the materials on the
printed page; inferential comprehension focuses on what is “behind the scenes” .
Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension:
 It focuses on teaching them to construct meaning before, during and after reading by
integrating text information with their background (Honig et.al., 2008)
 Collaborative strategic reading (CSR) – consists of four reading strategies- preview, click
and clunk, get the gist
o Should be taught in two stages – the teacher uses think-aloud ad modeling to
introduce the four strategies, followed by students practicing the strategies for
several days and students learn cooperative learning roles and then are divided into
small groups to implement CSR with minimal adult assistance

STAGES OF THE WRITING PROCESS

Instructional design features that promote success:
 Develop and activate background knowledge- pertains to reading comprehension, but
having prior knowledge of a topic is just as important in writing
 Discuss it – “it” stands for what good writers do
 Model it – teachers model strategies and ways to implement them
 Memorize it – use memorization
 Support it – monitoring student progress as they plan, draft, revise and edit
 Perform independently – teachers encourage students to apply what they have learned
  Engage in writing conferences – students can work together or with the teacher to plan,
draft, and revise their written product
Stages in Writing Process
Six (6) stages:
 Prewriting Stage of Writing – serve to help the writer win the competition by allowing
the student to do some constructive planning before he or she puts pen to paper to write a
first draft
Strategies for Teaching Prewriting:
o Using self-writing – encourages writing about the student’s own experiences
o Making lists – make different lists to find a topic to write about
o Writing literature – brainstorm the themes of the piece and then plan an original
work using one of the themes
o Brainstorming – a way to generate ideas

 Drafting Stage of Writing – the intent is for writers to simply translate their ideas into
written form.
Strategies of Teaching Drafting:
o Instructional delivery – use examples and non-examples to demonstrate effective
text structures – and the lack of it
o Instructional delivery – provide students with multiple opportunities to practice
writing effective sentences
o Instructional delivery – model how to write a variety of sentences in a paragraph

 Revising Stage of Writing – the focus shifts from the writer to the reader
Strategies for Teaching Revising:
o Instructional content
o Instructional activity – select several sentences from a passage
o Instructional delivery – model ways to ask the questions and revise a paper on the
basis of the answers

 Editing Stage of Writing – focus on ensuring that the written piece is grammatically and
mechanically correct
Strategies for Teaching Editing:

o Instructional materials – use checklists while they act as the first editor of their own
work

 Publishing Stage of Writing- determine that the paper is finished

 Strategies for Teaching Publishing:
o Instructional content – establish desirable habits such as short daily learning periods
o Instructional content – do not accept poorly written work
o Instructional delivery – continue to practice them beyond mastery
o Instructional delivery – evaluate their own handwriting
o Instructional delivery – teach handwriting skills explicitly

EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION AND ADAPTATIONS FOR READING AND WRITING

Reading and writing can be taught separately.
 Teachers can examine the instructional task of the lesson and any prerequisite skills student
need, and if students lack one or more prerequisites, make lesson adaptations such as
providing an alternate activity, changing the instructional content or materials, or using
flexible grouping strategies. Once the adapted lesson has been taught, teachers conduct
lesson-related assessments to ensure the student attained the instructional objective, that is,
learned what was taught.

Self-Assessment:
Answer the questions comprehensively:
1. What issues are related to written communication instruction?
2. What are the five components of reading?
3. What are the stages of the writing process?
4. How can teachers provide effective instruction and adaptations for reading and writing?

Reflection:
Explain why assessment is so critical in planning and implementation of teaching
literacy in reading, spelling and writing?
 MODULE 7
FACILITATING CONTENT AREA
INSTRUCTION AND STUDY SKILLS

LESSON 19:
TEACHERS ASSISTANCE IN DEVELOPING
STUDY SKILLS WITH STUDENTS WITH
DISABILITIES

Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Know how teachers help students with difficulty in study skills
2. Understand why some students struggle with academic tasks
3. Know the students with learning difficulties often need to be explicitly taught study
skills strategies

Introduction:
Students with special learning needs must be explicitly taught study skills, because many
have not learned how to strategically approach academic tasks in a way they that will help them
effectively gain and use information taught via text, lecture and media (IRIS Center, 2015). In
other words, they need to be taught effective study strategies, often referred to as study skills.
Study Skills Strategies
Several study skills strategies that can help students address their executive function
challenges and tackle academic demands in a more effective, planful manner.
Processing Retaining and Organizing Materials Selecting, Monitoring,
Information Recalling and Managing Time and Using Strategies
Information
 Graphic organizers Mnemonic strategies  Time management  Self-regulation
 Comprehension  Note-taking  Materials organization strategies
strategies

Note: Each of these strategies is discussed in detail in the IRIS Module “Study Skills Strategies (Part 2): Strategies that Improve Students’
Academic Performance.”
 Although effective study skills strategies are critical for academic success, for many
reasons students are seldom taught them. Perhaps chief among these reasons is simply that teachers
assume students already possess such skills, having picked them up in the earlier grades. For this
reason, study skills instruction improves the academic outcomes of all students, especially those
with LD and ADHD. Mary Anne Prater, whose research interests include instructional methods
for students with mild to moderate disabilities, discusses the importance of teaching learning
strategies in the general education classroom.
Models for Teaching Strategies

If students are to succeed academically, they must be able to use different types of study
skills strategies (e.g., comprehension strategies, note-taking). However, some students, especially
those with learning difficulties, need to be explicitly taught specific study skills strategies as well
as when, where, and how to use them. When he is able to use a strategy fluently, a student no
longer has to use his working memory to recall the steps of the strategy at the same time he is
processing the information being learned. To make sure that the student learns to use a study skills
strategy in an automatic or fluent manner, the teacher needs to use strategy instruction, instruction
designed to teach students the elements or steps for implementing strategies successfully.

To teach students with learning difficulties how to effectively use study skills strategies,
teachers should use a research-validated strategy instruction model. In fact, some research suggests
that the way in which students are taught to use study skills strategies might be just as important
as the strategies themselves. Effective strategy instruction typically includes the following:

 Explicit instruction: Teach the specific steps of a strategy and also discuss how, when, where,
and why to use the strategy
 Modeling: Demonstrate, while thinking aloud, how the strategy is used
 Guided practice: Provide ample opportunities for students to practice the strategy, making sure
to offer guidance and corrective feedback
 Independent practice: Allow students to use the strategy independently and continue to monitor
performance and provide corrective feedback
 Self-regulation strategies: Encourage students to be self-directed in their learning by teaching
them to use strategies such as self-monitoring and goal-setting
 Maintenance and generalization: Incorporate activities that encourage students to continue to
use the strategy and to use it in other settings

Two strategy instruction models that incorporate the elements listed above have been
proven to be effective for teaching strategies to students with learning difficulties.

 Self – Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) – scientifically validated framework for

explicitly teaching learning strategies to students. Within this framework, teachers also
provide explicit instruction on self-regulation strtegeis, helping students to learn self-
monitoring, self-instruction, goal-setting nd self-reinforcement.
 Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) – is based on a set of instructional guidelines that can
be used to effectively teach students a variety of learning strategies. Though each stage of
 the model focused on different instructional practices , each also involves the use of
advance organizers and goal –setting.

Considerations When Teaching Strategies

High-achieving students typically approach an academic task with confidence. They face
challenging assignments with the belief that they can complete them successfully. They are
engaged in learning and maintain their commitment to the task until it is complete. These students
typically find learning study skills strategies easy and are able to apply them when needed.
However, this is not the case for many students with learning difficulties who have experienced
repeated academic failures and who, by the time they have entered middle or high school, are often
disengaged and unmotivated. These students frequently have negative perceptions about their
abilities, and might be unmotivated or unwilling to learn study skills strategies even when teachers
discuss how doing so will improve their academic performance.

Self-Assessment:
Take some time now to answer the following questions.
1. Explain why study skills are important for a student’s academic success. Next,
discuss two reasons why teachers often do not teach study skills strategies.
2. List at least five differences often observed between high-achieving and low-
achieving students.
Reflection:

Imagine that you are a biology teacher. Devon, a high-school junior, seems bright
and articulate, but he is failing your class. You examine his cumulative file and find that, until
last year, he has been an average to above-average student. At that point, however, his grades
started to slide. In subsequent conversations Devon admits that he is discouraged. He says that
he is trying, but he just does not know how to improve.

a. Based on what you have learned in this module, explain one possible reason for this
academic change.
b. As a teacher, how can you help Devon improve academically?
c. What can you do to help motivate and engage Devon?
 LESSON 20:
WAYS TO FACILITATE MEMORIZATION
AND TEST TAKING

Objectives:
After studying the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Know the ways to facilitate memorization and test taking
2. Identify the problems student encountered with memory

Introduction:
Students need memorization skills to facilitate the learning of information. They will be
asked to memorize a great deal of information in various subject areas and to reproduce that
information on tests and in class discussions. Therefore, it is vital for students to possess strategies
that help them learn, store and retrieve information.

PROBLEMS STUDENTS HAVE WITH MEMORY

Students who have difficulty with memory may have deficits in encoding or registering
information in memory, in storing or consolidating information in long-term memory, or in
retrieving or accessing information from long-term memory. According to Glenda Thorne (Center
for Development and Learning), the following are the problems students have with memory:
Problems with Encoding Information in Short-term Memory
In order for information to be encoded in memory, it must first be attended to. Thus,
children who have deficits in attention often have trouble with this first memory process. Many
children and adults with attention deficits report that they have trouble remembering events that
took place within the past 24 hours. Students also often have “gaps” in their knowledge of basic
skills because they tune in and out in the classroom. They are often reluctant to engage in tasks,
such as schoolwork and homework, which require sustained mental effort. Even when children
with attention deficits attend to the appropriate information, they may only attend at a very
superficial level. Therefore, they fail to elaborate on the incoming information. They do not
activate prior knowledge and relate it to the to-be-learned information. For example, if a student
is reading about the Battle of New Orleans, he may fail to retrieve information he already knows
about war, New Orleans or Andrew Jackson from his long-term memory store. This failure to
sufficiently elaborate on incoming information often results in deficits in long-term memory
storage and retrieval.
Students who have deficits in encoding information in memory may have trouble
remembering directions or what they have just read. They may also have trouble remembering
what their teachers said during class lectures. Further, they may have trouble remembering what
others said during conversations. Their deficits may be more pronounced in certain sensory
systems or modalities, such as visual, auditory or kinesthetic. Most of the children I see in the
clinic who are having school problems have relative weaknesses in their auditory short-term
memory, and because much of the information that is presented in the classroom is presented in
an auditory/verbal format, this weakness leads to significant functional problems for them.

Often children who have encoding deficits fail to use memory strategies. For example, they
may not form visual images when reading. They may not “chunk” or recode incoming information
into semantic or meaningful units.

Problems with Working Memory

Deficits in working memory may be manifested in a number of ways in the school setting.
Students may have trouble with following through on directions even if they understood them.
They may have trouble with solving math calculation problems that involve multiple steps, such
as long division or problems in algebra, because in order to solve these problems they need to
access information about math facts from long-term memory while remembering what they have
just done and what they need to do next. They often have tremendous trouble with word problems
in math because they are unable to keep all the information on their mental “plate” while they are
deciding what information is most relevant and what process they need to use to solve the problem.
They may have functional problems with reading comprehension because they fail to remember
the sentences they just read while reading the sentence they are reading. Writing composition is
often an arduous task for them. It requires them to retrieve their ideas from long-term memory
while simultaneously recalling rules about capitalization, punctuation and grammar and writing
their ideas down. In class, they must remember what their teacher has said while taking notes.
They must remember the teacher’s questions while searching long-term memory for the answer.
If they are looking up a word in the dictionary, they must remember the word while looking it up.
Similarly, when they are answering questions in the back of their textbook chapters, they must
remember the question while searching the chapter for the answer.

Students who have difficulty with working memory also experience problems with many
higher order thinking tasks such as problem solving and comparing and contrasting ideas. When
solving problems, students must be able to hold the components of the problem in mind while
generating possible solutions and making decisions about which solution would be best. When
comparing and contrasting ideas, they must be able to hold the information about both
ideas/concepts in mind while making comparison between the two. Thus, the demands on working
memory not only for school children but also for all of us are endless.

Problems with Long-term Memory Storage

Deficits in the encoding process lead to problems with consolidation or storage of
information in long-term memory. Students who have deficits in long-term memory storage
frequently rely too much on rote memorization. This strategy may be adequate for keeping
information in short-term memory, but it leads to poor storage in long-term memory.

If we think of our memory as a network of connections, when we place something in this

network, it is best if we have multiple pathways to access it. One way to create multiple pathways
is to place the new information in several categories. For example, if the class is studying
alligators, a student who actively elaborates by categorization would think about the alligator he
saw in the reptile house at the zoo and would categorize alligators as reptiles. He might think about
the Honey Island Swamp Tour that he went on with his family and categorize the alligator with
“things that live in swamps”. Further, he may have eaten alligator soup and categorize it with
“unusual things to eat”. If new information is not categorized, there are not multiple pathways
through which to reach it, thus recall may be very slow and sometimes impossible.

Students who have deficits in long-term memory may also have trouble with recalling what
the memory research literature has called paired associates. Paired associates are two entities that
“hang together”. For example, a name and a face are paired associates. Other examples of paired
associates are states and their capitols, countries and their continents, language sounds and
language symbols, vocabulary words and their definitions and historical events and the dates they
occurred.

Additional storage deficits in the semantic memory system include problems with
remembering rules, such as rules of grammar, punctuation and capitalization. They might have
trouble remembering spelling rules or the rules for sounding out words.

Deficits in memory storage may be more problematic for information in

certain modalities or formats. We know that we have both auditory and visual short-term memory
systems. We are also able to store information in visual, spatial and visual-spatial format.

Deficits in categorization or storage of paired associates fall under the conceptual umbrella
of the declarative semantic memory system. Students who have deficits in memory storage may
also have trouble with storing information about events or episodes in their lives. For example,
they may have no recollection of what they ate for lunch earlier in the afternoon. They may not
remember that they went to the zoo while visiting their grandmother last summer.

Deficits may also occur in the storage of information in the nondeclarative memory system,
especially with memory of skills or procedures. For example, children may insufficiently store
the cognitive procedures for solving long division or algebraic problems in math. They may not
adequately store the motor procedures for writing letters, for tying their shoes or for riding their
bikes. These latter skills also involve the haptic or kinesthetic memory system.
Problems with Long-term Memory Retrieval
Children who have deficits in the retrieval of information from long-term memory more
often than not receive grades that do not match the time and effort they spend in study or preparing
for tests. These children and their parents frequently tell me that the students “knew the information
the night before the test, but could not remember it when taking the test”. Students who have
trouble with memory recall often report “test anxiety”. Test anxiety is also often a common
complaint of many students who have attention deficits. The two frequently co-occur.

The inability to rapidly and efficiently recall information from long-term memory when it
is needed may be associated with deficits in encoding and storage of information. Thus, any of the
problems discussed in the previous section – failure to categorize, failure to store paired associates,
trouble with the storage of rules, trouble with storing information presented in specific modalities
or formats, difficulty with storing information associated with life events or episodes and problems
with storing information for performing skills and procedures, both cognitive and motor – will
lead to deficits in memory retrieval. If categorization of to-be-learned information is weak, the
pathways through which to access this information will be limited and, thus, retrieval will be slow
and difficult. If one piece of information that “hangs” with another is unable to be efficiently
retrieved, school is likely to be an uncomfortable place to be in (e.g., a student remembers his
teacher’s face, but is unable to recall her name).

Often students who have trouble with recalling rules, especially those in written language,
may perform adequately when writing single sentences. However, when they are required to write
paragraph or story length text, their performance deteriorates. They misspell words, fail to place
punctuation where it belongs and/or do not capitalize words that should be capitalized. In fact, it
is often possible to differentiate storage and retrieval problems by examining a student’s work both
at the sentence and the paragraph levels.

Students who have trouble with the storage of information presented in specific formats
also have weaknesses with the recall of information in this same format. For example, a student
may be really good with remembering the names of all of the states and their capitols (paired
associates), but she may never be able to remember their exact location on a map because this
information is in a visual-spatial format. This same student’s recall may be greatly enhanced by
having her put together a big spongy puzzle of the United States or walk from state to state on a
big rug or carpet that has a picture or drawing of the United States on it, thereby engaging the
haptic or kinesthetic memory system. Some students have great memories of spatial arrays, but
poor memories of sequences of events, such as the chronological order of events in history.

Deficits in the recall of events or episodes may manifest themselves through failure to
recall what was said during social conversations or what was done while on a field trip. Students
who have problems with the recall of skills or procedures may forget or skip steps when solving
math problems. They might forget how to form letters when writing. Some of the children I work
with will ask questions such as, “How do you make the letter k” when writing.
 In addition to deficits in recall, students may have trouble with recognition of information
in memory. For example, some of the students I evaluate have trouble with math because they do
not, among other things, recognize patterns in math problems. Thus, every problem is like a new
problem to them because they do not see the similarities between the one they just solved and the
new one. This deficit is often associated with what some teachers and parents call “math anxiety”.
Children with pattern recognition problems may also fail to perceive reoccurring themes in stories.

Ways to Improve Memory Skills

You can help students improve their memory skills by (a) teaching them how to create
mnemonic devices to assist them in memorizing and recalling content, such as lists of information,
important people and steps in a procedure; (b) discussing how they can remember some
information by creating mental images – have them provide specific examples of images they
create; (c) teaching them to “chunk” related information for easier memorization and recall – this
necessitates discussing the concepts of compare and contrast; and (d) giving them opportunities to
recite information through verbal rehearsal – you can do this in student-mediated groups or in a
whole group setting. Clearly, if your students with special needs are to learn, retain and recall
content information, they have to know and apply strategies to facilitate these cognitive or thinking
process.

Teaching Memorization and Test-Taking Skills

Memorizing information in preparation for tests requires reviewing the material frequently
and committing it to memory. Memory strategies that enhance recall, such as listing, categorizing,
drawing, visualizing, alphabetizing, devising acronyms, applying mnemonic strategies and
creating associations are techniques that students with good study skills use.

There are several ways teachers can help their students become better test takers. Hoover
and Patton (2007) offered the following suggestions:

 Show students how to take different types of materials

 Explain different methods of study and types of materials necessary to study for objective
and essay tests.
 Review completed tests with students, highlighting test-taking errors
 Explore test-taking procedures with students, and explain different types of questions
 Identify and discuss key vocabulary terms found in test instructions such as compare,
contrast, match and evaluate
 Teach students general strategies to use when taking tests: review the entire test, know the
time allotted for test completion, recognize the point values of specific test items, read and
 reread the directions and test questions, identify key words in questions, and respond to
more difficult items after answering the easier items
 Teach students specific strategies to use when taking multiple-choice tests: know the
number and kind of answers to select, remember the question, narrow down the possible
correct answers by eliminating obviously incorrect ones, and record each answer carefully

Mnemonic

Mnemonic strategies can be helpful when preparing to take tests. For many students with
learning disabilities, retaining and recalling information is often a difficult task. As research has
demonstrated, one of the best ways to help students to overcome this challenge is by teaching
them mnemonic strategies, sometimes referred to as memory-enhancing strategies. Mnemonic
strategies use visual or auditory clues to help students make connections between their own prior
knowledge and new information.

Three Basic Types of Mnemonic Strategies

The following can help students remember information in different ways. When they select
a mnemonic strategy to help students learn and recall information, teachers should take into
consideration which type is most effective for the student and appropriate for the content being
learned.

Mnemonic Strategy Description

Keyword Method

Of all the mnemonic strategies, the keyword Students can use the keyword and a related
method is the most researched, and it is proven sentence, image, or interactive picture to
to be highly effective for students with remember new information. This method is
disabilities. Additionally, the method is highly effective for students with
perhaps the most flexible and can be used in a disabilities and is flexible enough to be
variety of content areas because it assists used in a variety of content areas.
students in recalling information by making an
association between two pieces of information
(e.g., English and foreign language vocabulary;
scientific terms and classification; people,
places, and events in social studies or history;
states and capitals; main ideas in content-area
reading). The keyword method consists of three
steps.
 Implementing the Keyword Method

Step Action/ Example

Explanation

Step 1: The teacher Vocabulary

Recoding selects a word: scow
keyword, a
familiar
Definition: a
word that
sounds large flat-
similar to bottomed boat
the with broad
vocabulary square ends
word or used chiefly for
term the transporting
student
sand, gravel, or
must learn.
This word refuse
needs to be
concrete so Keyword: cow
that the
student can
easily
picture it.

Step 2: The teacher Image of a cow

Relating must relate sitting on a pile
the keyword of sand in a
to the new flat-bottomed
information. boat with
This is square ends
typically
done using
an image
that shows
the keyword
interacting
with the
information
to be
 recalled. It
is critical
that the
keyword
interact
with the
information
to be
recalled
because it is
through this
interaction
that the
student
establishes
a retrieval
path or way
to recall the
needed
information.

Step 3: The student Retrieval path:

Retrieving must be
able to a. When
retrieve the presented
information with “scow,”
when think of your
needed. To
keyword
do this, the
“cow.”
teacher
often needs b. Remember
to teach the the picture
student a of the cow
retrieval sitting in the
path and boat filled
have the with sand.
student c. This will
practice it help you
several remember
times. that “scow”
means “a
large flat-
bottomed
boat with
 broad square
ends used
chiefly for
transporting
sand, gravel,
or refuse.”

Pegword Method

The pegword method involves associating a Students can use common rhyming words
number with a rhyming word (e.g., one = bun, for numbers (e.g., one = bun; two = shoe)
two = shoe) and linking that word to the and link these words to the information
information being learned. This method is being learned. This method is especially
especially useful for helping students useful for helping students remember
remember numbered or ordered information numbered or ordered information
(e.g., the order of the presidents and their
corresponding number, multiplication tables, a
given number of reasons for an event
happening in history). In the following
illustration, students are learning the planets in
the order from closest to farthest from the Sun.
The first three planets have been assigned
pegwords.

Mercury: 1 = sun; a picture of a thermometer

filled with mercury at the highest temperature
because it is next to the Sun.

Venus: 2 = shoe; a picture of a tennis shoe with

the brand name Venus.
Earth: 3 = tree; a picture of a globe hanging
from a tree.
Retrieval path:

a. When asked to list the planets in

order from closest to farthest from
the Sun, the student thinks of the
pegword for “one,” which is “Sun.”
b. The student remembers the picture
that contains the Sun (i.e., a
thermometer filled with mercury at
the highest temperature because it is
next to the Sun).
c. This helps the student remember
that Mercury is the closest planet to
the Sun.

First Letter Strategies

First letter strategies are a type of mnemonic in Students use the first letters of words in a
which the first letters in words help students list of items or steps to create another word
(acronym) or sentence (acrostic). These
recall information. These strategies can be
strategies can be especially beneficial when
especially beneficial when students need to students need to recall lists of information.
recall lists of information (e.g., the names of the
Great Lakes in social studies, classes of
vertebrae in science, order of operations in
math). Two common types are:

Acronym: A word whose individual letters

represent the first letter of each word in a list
of items or steps.

Example 1
HOMES is an acronym often used in social
studies class to help students remember the
five Great Lakes.
 Huron
Ontario
Michigan
Erie
Superior

Acrostic: A sentence or phrase in which the

first letter of each word represents the first
letters of the information to be learned. Below
are a couple of common acrostics.

Example 1
Music: Notes on the line of a treble clef (i.e., E,
G, B, D, F)
Every Good Boy Does Fine.

Example 2
Math: The order of operations (parenthesis,
exponents, multiplication, division, addition,
subtraction)
Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.

Self-Assessment:

Take some time now to answer the following question.

1. Imagine that you are a middle school social studies teacher. A number of your students are
struggling with basic study skills. You want to help all of your students to become more effective
learners.

a. You want to introduce a mnemonic strategy to help your students learn the first ten elements
in the periodic chart. Select the type of mnemonic strategy (or combination of strategies) you
would use for this task and explain why you chose it. Show how you would apply this
strategy for teaching the first ten elements of the periodic chart.