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CONGRATULATIONSWelcome to Utah Virtual Academy! We are so happy that you and your student have come to our school. We are excited about the opportunity that we have to work with you and your student.
The real fun is about to begin!
At this point, you have a student who currently has an IEP. Your student has some special needs. You as the learning coach know this student better than anyone. You are now the expert that is going to be teaching them. We are here to assist and support you in the education of your child.
Before we get started, let’s review a little bit of the organization of traditional brick and mortar schools and UTVA.
In a traditional brick and mortar school, we have…
-Teaches whole class-Subject expert-Follows the core curriculum
-Writes up and maintains IEP’s-Expert on teaching individual skills.-Teaches what is written on the IEP
-Implements the IEP in a general education setting.-Collaborates with the SPED teacher to help the students be successful
The General Education Teacher
Duties
The Special Education Teacher
Duties
The Paraprofessional
Duties
Take a minute to become familiar with the different roles and duties in a traditional school.
At UTVA, we have….
-Teaches whole class-Subject expert-Follows the core curriculum
-Writes up and maintains IEP’s-Expert on teaching individual skills.-Teaches what is written on the IEP
-Implements the IEP in a general education setting.-Collaborates with the SPED teacher to help the students be successful
Click on the arrows to learn more
The General Education Teacher
Duties
The Special Education Teacher
Duties
The roles and duties at UTVA are similar, but there are some differences!
The Learning Coach
Duties
What’s the difference?
You, as the learning coach, are the largest predictor of the success of
your student.
If you are committed to this process, then your students will make progress.
Learning coaches responsibilities include:
Taking attendance Presenting the lessons Keep progress upBehavioral problems Access the technology Set up scheduleAccommodate assignments Follow through with assignments Collaborate with the teachersAttend outings with students Setting goals K-mailing teachersHelping students attend Elluminate Understanding the content Re-explaining lessons when neededProblem solving learning issues Troubleshooting technology issues Dealing with a disability
All while promoting learning, independence and self confidence for your child.
Feeling Overwhelmed?
Don’t be! The entire staff at UTVA is here to help. You just need to understand that the process will be carried out with you as an ACTIVE PARTICIPANT.
Special Education Services at UTVA may be carried out a different way than previous schools that you have attended.
We use more of a COLLABORATIVE approach to help the student succeed. Think of it like going to see a doctor.
Going to the Doctor Special Education services at UTVA
Now that you are the expert, you will face many situations every day! You will face many challenges with your students. As the expert, the way you handle
these situations will help to determine your success. Here is an example of some situations you would face.
Situation #1:
You are working with your student on their history assignment. Your student has been working very dutifully all day. You ask them to read the chapter and ask them to answer the questions at the end of the chapter. Your student decides to read the chapter aloud. You listen as you fold a batch of laundry. Your child reads the chapter with ease. Then you give them time to answer the questions. When you come back to check the answers, you see that your student got 1 question out of 5 questions right. When you ask them the questions orally, they are still unable to answer the questions.
What would you do??
THE PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS
There is a process that you can follow that will help you solve these and other problems that you encounter as you are teaching your student. Here is an overview of
the process.
Take note of your results. Contact your SPED teacher and let them know what you
tried and how it works.
Situation #1:
You are working with your student on their history assignment. Your student has been working very dutifully all day. You ask them to read the chapter and
ask them to answer the questions at the end of the chapter. Your student
decides to read the chapter aloud. You listen as you fold a batch of laundry.
Your child reads the chapter with ease. Then you give them time to answer the
questions. When you come back to check the answers, you see that your
student got 1 question out of 5 questions right. When you ask them the questions orally, they are still unable to
answer the questions.
To help solve this problem, you can use the following process:
Let’s apply this problem solving process to our situation.
Step 1: Notice that the student is struggling.
A score that is considered as mastery is 80%. Because this student scored a 20%, this
indicates that they have not mastered this content.
Step 2: Ask, “Is this an academic problem or a behavioral problem?”
In this case, there is no behavioral problems that are noted. The student is working hard. This shows that the problem is mostly likely
academic.
Step 3: Since it is academic, pinpoint the skill area that is
struggling.
Since you heard the student reading their chapter aloud, you know that this student can read. However, there is an issue with
your student understanding what they read.
Step 4: Choose an accommodation
In this case, you decide that you are going to have the student take notes by writing down
one thing from each paragraph that they read.
Step 5: Collaborate with SPED teacher
Click here to walk through this process step by step.
Could be…does this happen frequently? Does your child have something else that they could be
thinking about? If this is a continual problem, it could be a sign that the
student is struggling.
STEP 1: Identify that the student is struggling
This is probably the easiest step in this process. You know when your student is struggling. In most cases, you know your
student better than anyone else. Your job is simply to recognize that.
However, sometimes kids will mask their struggles with behavior issues. This is where
knowing your student will help.
Some common signals that a student is struggling:
- Taking a long time to work on an assignment, but not getting a lot done. - Frustrated body language such and hands in hair. - Getting a lot of problems incorrect on assignments. - Easily distracted and not working on an assignment. - Belligerent about assignment or school in general.
Some common signals that a student is struggling:
- Taking a long time to work on an assignment, but not getting a lot done. - Frustrated body language such and hands in hair. - Getting a lot of problems incorrect on assignments. - Easily distracted and not working on an assignment. - Belligerent about assignment or school in general.
This is easier than you think. Practice with these students. Which of these students are probably struggling?
Absolutely! His body language shows us
that he is struggling. Time to get him some
help.
Maybe…or maybe the child is bored. Look for some
other signs.
Plain and Simple:The only way you are going to be able to recognize if a student is struggling
is to be PRESENT. You need to be ACTIVELY INVOLVED with your student, your general education teacher and your special education teacher.
You need to be IMPLEMENTING the curriculum with integrity, constantly ASSESSING your students needs, and CATCHING MISTAKES EARLY. If
you can do these things, your child will have a successful year at UTVA.
THIS IS NOT A PROCESS THAT YOUR STUDENT CAN DO ALONE. They need the guidance and support
of YOU, their learning coach.
STEP 2: Ask: “Is this a behavioral problem or an academic problem?
You may wonder why this would matter What is the difference between an academic problem, and a behavioral problem? The difference lies in how you respond.
Possible signs of an academic problem
-large number of incorrect problems. -Taking excessive amounts of time to complete a task. -Struggling with reading aloud. -Struggling with basic math facts.
Possible signs of a behavioral problem
-Daydreaming, increased time not on task. -Inappropriate language -Not completing work that you know that a student knows how to do. -Comments about how the child hates school, a subject, and sometimes even you.
You need to decide “Is this something that the child CAN’T do, or is this something the child WON’T do?” If it is a can’t do – it is an academic problem. If it is a won’t
do – chances are it is a behavioral problem.
1. Academic
2. Behavioral
3. Academic
4. Academic
5. Behavioral
You try…decide if the following problems are academic problems (can’t do) or behavioral
problems (won’t do).
1. Your child is struggling to complete his math homework because he doesn’t know his multiplication facts.
2. Your child stands up after working for an hour and slams his book down on the floor.
3. Your child read the assignment to himself and scored a 20% on the assessment.
4. For your child’s writing assignment, they are supposed to write a paragraph. After 30 minutes, your child is still writing. He has completed 2 sentences, and is still working on forming each letter.
5. You think that your child is working, but they have spent 30 minutes looking out the window.
Click here to check your answers.
STEP 3: Pinpoint the skill that the student is struggling with
This sounds easy enough. If a student doesn’t know their math facts, you are going to work on math facts. TRUE!! But simply by looking at the grade it one area, doesn’t necessarily tell you the skill that a student is struggling with.
But academic areas are interrelated. They overlap. That means that reading is going to affect your math scores. Writing is going to effect your history scores. Math is going to effect your science score.
Non-core classes, such as history, science, music and art involve all 3.
So the question becomes…what is the real problem? Is their reading effecting their performance in math? How
can you tell?
So how can you tell what the problem area is?
This is where you get to become the detective. You are going to do some diagnostic testing. That is a fancy word for “Guess and Check”.
If you think that a student is struggling because of reading
ability, have the student read the
passage aloud to you and record how he read. Did he read
slow? Did stumble as he tried to read the
words? How accurate is he?
Have the student explain how they g0t
their answer to a math problem. Listen to them
describe what they did. You can usually tell if they missed a
problem because they didn’t understand the procedure, or if they are struggling with
their facts.
On a worksheet, have the student
answer the questions orally to you. You will learn whether
they understand the concept, and they are struggling to
write their response, or if they just don’t
understand.Typical skills that are problematic in other academic areas: Reading decoding -Sounding out words Reading comprehension Math computation -Facts and basic operations Math procedures Writing conventions -Spelling, punctuation, capitalization Composition-Writing down complete thought that makes sense.
STEP 4: Choose an appropriate accommodation
So what is an accommodation? Click on the following link to watch a video about what accommodations are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLEBS4soa20&feature=related
Summary: An accommodation is anything that you do with your student that is different from what the other students are receiving. Here are some examples of appropriate accommodations.
- Allowing extra time to do assignments- Reading an assignment aloud to a student- Using a calculator- Shortened Assignments
What is an appropriate accommodation and what is not?
An accommodation is NOT telling the student the answer, or doing the assignment for the student.
Think about it this way…would you expect a blind student to read a book with printed words?
Would you expect a student in a wheelchair to run a mile with his class?
Nope…no one would expect students to do this.
The same goes for students with non-physical type of disabilities. You are not going to expect a student with severe dyslexia to read grade level material at
the same speed as the rest of the class. Nor are you going to expect a student with processing disorders to complete tasks in the same amount of time as the
rest of the class. This doesn’t mean that a student CAN’T understand the information, they just can’t access it on their own without a change in
presentation or application.
An accommodation allows the students to PARTICIPATE and have ACCESS to the regular curriculum.
Examples of Appropriate Accommodations:Change in Schedule: -Change the order of classes taught in the day. -Take several breaks during the course of the day. -School at a different time of day.
Change in Setting: - Change the room that the schooling is held
- Move the computer to a setting with fewer distractions. Change in Delivery of Services:
- Read the text aloud to the student - Use text to speech software - Use of a study guide to focus instruction.
Change in Response: - Extra Time to complete assignments - Use of a calculator to solve facts instead of writing out the answer. - Type written assignments - Use of a scribe to write answers for them. - Ability to use notes on assessments.
All accommodations are NOT created equal. You want to start with the ones that use the LEAST amount of support first. If they do not work, then you can start moving toward more intensive accommodations.
REMEMBER: It is easy to cross the line and support your student TOO much. An appropriate accommodation does not allow YOU TO DO the assignment for the student, it allow the STUDENT TO DO the assignment with support.
This is hard for students, and you are setting them up to fail. This could lead to increased frustration in completing school work at all.
Depends! For a younger student this could be an appropriate
accommodation, however, for an older student, this is laborious and
not an efficient way to solve problems.
PERFECT! You are not using the calculator instead of the math procedure, you use it as a tool to
help complete the procedure. You will continue to work with your SPED teacher on basic
facts.
Try again, your student will get extremely frustrated and
fatigued in this option.
Select the appropriate accommodation for use with the following scenarios:
Your student has trouble figuring out his math facts
Your student has trouble with spelling and grammar on writing assignments
Your student is reading the material fluently, but can’t answer comprehension questions about the passage.
You have the student figure out every problem on the assignment using only a paper and pencil
You let the student use a calculator for the facts, but still have them work through the procedure.
You let the student use their fingers in order to solve their math facts.
You leave the students writing alone and let him
submit it with all mistakes.
Go through and identify and correct all the
spelling errors.
You let your student type their writing in
WORD and use spell check to correct errors.
Have the student be able to look back at the passage to find the
answer.
Have the student read the passage again
aloud.
Tell the student to go back and reread the
passage over again until
they know the answers.
By correcting everything for the student, you are not
teaching the student anything. You want to lead the student to eventually be independent.
This is a great idea. WORD will help the student be more independent, but it will also
help them identify errors.
This is a great skill to teach students. It might take some teaching in the beginning, but once a student knows how, it
becomes a life skill and leads to independence.
If the student didn’t succeed reading it the first time, doing it
again will probably yield the same result.
This will lead to the frustration of the student. Eventually,
this student will just “give up.”
STEP 5:Collaborate with SPED teacher and share the results of the accommodations.
You are an integral part of this process. If you completed this process in it’s entirety, you have learned some valuable information about your student.
You have learned: -Their strengths -Their struggles -Whether or not accommodations helped to alleviate the problem
In order for your child to benefit the most from their time with the Special Education teacher, they need to know what you just learned. The Special Education Teacher needs to know: #1 – What skill the student was struggling with. #2 – What the accommodation was #3 – The result of the accommodation – did it work?
Collaboration is the key to making sure this process that you just followed isn’t for naught.
The learning coach did an excellent job not getting
frustrated. She didn’t take it out on the student that he didn’t
perform well the first time. She chose another time to come back
to work on it.
The learning coach does eventually come back to provide an accommodation of reading to
the student.
The major issue here is timing. The learning coach didn’t catch the area of
need quickly enough to help the student benefit from the accommodation. In this
example, we don’t know if the score went up from redoing the assignment so many times, or if it went up because he had the
accommodation.
The learning coach also never stopped to assess what skill the student was
struggling with. Was it comprehension? Or could they not read the passage?
At this point, we do not know if the learning coach collaborated with the special education teacher about the
incident.
THAT’S IT! You have made it through the whole process. Now try this scenario. Tell me what this
learning coach did wrong in this example. A learning coach is working with a student. They are working on a history lesson. After about a five minute lesson presentation by the learning coach, the learning coach walks away leaving the student to complete the assignment. The student finishes the assignment and takes the assessment. He scores a 40%. The learning coach says, “That’s okay. We’ll try it again tomorrow.” The next day the same situation occurs. This time the student scores a 60% on the assessment. At this point the learning coach decides she should sit with her student and read the assessment to him. The student scores 80% and passes the lesson.
What are some things that the
learning coach did well?
What are some things that the
learning coach could have done better?
Scenario #2:
It is the first day of school. You have prepared for this day. You have all of your lessons ready to present.
You start your schooling day. At first things are going alright. Your
student finishes his reading and math. You pause to eat lunch. After
lunch you call him back to work on science. Your student stops and
says, “You can’t make me.” What are you going to do?
Let’s try another situation:
Step 2: Is this problem behavioral or academic?
Probably Behavioral!!In this case, the trigger was asking him to do work, which he refused to do. He didn’t even attempt it. At this point, this
would classify as a “won’t do.”
Step 1: Notice that the student is struggling.
Although it is easy to chalk this up to a “typical kid response”, it is important to recognize some trends. This happens on the
first day of school, start to watch and see if the trend continues.
Step 3: Look for what happened directly before the event. Test your
theory to see if the child will respond.
Look for the antecedent or trigger. This is something that when presented with it again, the student will usually respond
the same way. In this case, it could be “after lunch” or it could be science. A good idea would be to take data another
day. Maybe try science in the morning, or see how they respond the next day after lunch.
Step 4: Set up a behavioral contract with the student with reinforcers
Although it may sound fancy, a behavioral contract is a clear plan for students in which there is a desired behavior
outlined, positive and negative consequences are determined, and data is kept to see if the student did follow
through.
Step 5: Look at your results, and collaborate with SPED teacher.
Did it work? What does your data look like? Share your results with your SPED teacher and revise plan if needed.
Feeling a bit overwhelmed? Click here to examine this process more closely.
STEP 1: Notice that the student is strugglingSTEP 2: How can you tell if a problem is a behavior
problem?Behaviors are a little different. Most are easy to recognize.
However, there are behaviors that are not so visible.
As a learning coach, how will you recognize these behaviors. They will not be hard to spot as long as the
learning coach is INVOLVED, PRESENT and INVESTED in schooling your child at home.
Examples of problem behaviors: - Throwing books - Throwing a tantrum - Shouting at learning coach. - Noncompliance
Examples of problem behaviors: - Throwing books - Throwing a tantrum - Shouting at learning coach. - Noncompliance
Less visible problem behaviors: - time off task - non-responsiveness - easily distracted - withdrawn
Less visible problem behaviors: - time off task - non-responsiveness - easily distracted - withdrawn
Step 3: Pinpoint the behavior that you want to work on
You can’t address every behavior problem, all the time. Otherwise, we would accomplish anything. Kids are kids, and have the right to act like
kids. Just like most things, you need to learn to pick your battles.
How do you choose behaviors that are important enough to address, and those that aren’t? May I suggest a series of questions.
#1 – Is the behavior threatening the safety of myself, the student, or others that may be present?
#2 – Is the behavior impacting the student’s learning?#3 – Is the behavior one that will impact the student’s ability to
function in a real life situation?#4 – Is the behavior one that shows a lack of respect?
This becomes a hierarchy. Start with the behaviors at the top of the list. Those are the behaviors you want to tackle first.
Once you identify the problem behavior that you want to work on, what do you do next?
ABCs…Identifying Problem Behaviors – and their consequences
#1 – Observe the behavior until you see the behavior 4-5 times#2 – Watch for the what happens directly before the problem behavior occurs. This is called the antecedent. Record what you see on a paper.#3 – Record the details of the behavior that occurs.#4 – Record what happens directly after the behavior occurs. This is the
consequence.
I suggest using a simple table to record the information:
Antecedent Behavior ConsequencesStudent is given a math problem
The student yells, “I am not going to do that.”
The student gets into a fight with their parents. The student doesn’t do their work at this time.
The student is given a science assignment.
The student yells, “I hate school. This is so stupid.”
After 5 minutes of arguing, the student refuses to do anything and doesn’t do their work at this time.
The student is given the same math problem from earlier.
The student yells, “Why do I have to do this? I never have to do it in real life?”
The student did the work, but only with the learning coach sitting next to him prompting every problem.You use this data to help make decisions of what to do.
So what do you do with all of this information?Look for patterns in the data you keep.
- What behaviors are recurring? - Are the antecedents similar? Are the same behaviors setting a
student off?- What about the consequences? Are the students getting a
consistent result? The consequences will give you a better understanding of what might be motivating your student.
Let’s look at the table from the previous slide:Antecedent Behavior Consequence
sStudent is given a math problem
The student yells, “I am not going to do that.”
The student gets into a fight with their parents. The student doesn’t do their work at this time.
The student is given a science assignment.
The student yells, “I hate school. This is so stupid.”
After 5 minutes of arguing, the student refuses to do anything and doesn’t do their work at this time.
The student is given the same math problem from earlier.
The student yells, “Why do I have to do this? I never have to do it in real life?”
The student did the work, but only with the learning coach sitting next to him prompting every problem.
Possible patterns:
Antecendent: The student is acting out in Math and Science. Maybe this could have something to do with numbers.
Behavior: The student consistently shouts out to start a fight with the learning coach.
Consequence: The student doesn’t have to do work unless a learning coach makes him do it, or the work he does is delayed.
You try: Given the data in the table, what patterns do you recognize?
Antecedent Behavior ConsequenceThe student is given a reading assignment to complete.
After about 5 minutes of reading, the student starts looking at the window.
The learning coach redirects the student back to the reading assignment and reads the passage with the student.
The students is given some math problems.
The student completes the first row of problems accurately then starts flipping her pencil.
The learning coach redirects the student back to their work. This happened 3 times before the student finished their assignment.
The student is given a history assessment to complete.
The student clicks through the assessment and scores a 0%.
The learning coach redirects and sits with the student while they take the test. The student scores 100%.
Click on the appropriate box to match your answers with mine.
Antecedent
Every time a student is given an independent
assignment, the behavior occurs.
Behavior
Although the behavior is all slightly different, they are similar in that they are all avoiding the task given
them.
Consequence
In each situation, the student gets attention
from the learning coach. This suggests that
attention is important to the student.
Step 4: Setting up behavioral contractBy now, you have some data. You know the problem behavior, you know what is
triggering the behavior, and you have observed what the student gets because of the behavior. Now you are going to set up a contract.
Sounds official? Don’t worry, it’s not so bad!There are many different types of contracts. But they all have some
commonalities.
Every contract has 4 things:1- Desired Target Behavior2- Way to measure the target behavior3- Positive Consequences if the behavior occurs4- Signatures of you and the student.
Sample Behavioral ContractJoey will say kind words, or nothing at all when given a homework assignment or completing an assignment. This will be measured at the completion of each assignment. If Joey completes the assignment appropriately, he will be able to play his Wii for 10 minutes until starting the next assignment. Student___________________ Learning Coach_____________
Let’s look at these steps a little closer.
Couple of problems with this one. First,
tell the student what you WANT
them to do. Second, the word
“mean” is not definable.
This one is VERY descriptive. This would
be a great description for an older student. For younger students, you might want to address
behaviors one at a time.
This is a great description. It tells
exactly what you want Anna to accomplish.
This one is not descriptive enough. Tell
us what Sienna SHOULD do.
This is a good description. It shows
what the student should do.
The word “NOT” kills this one. Tell her what you want her to do, not what you don’t want her
to do.
GREAT! This is positive and it states
what the student should be doing.
This is positive. However, define happy. What is
happy? What does it look like? This one needs
more detail.
First: Define the Target BehaviorYou already know the problem behavior. So on the contract, you are
simply going to state what you WANT the student to do. Be sure to use positive behaviors that you can define. Click on the boxes that are positive examples of defining the target behavior.
Kara will be happy.
Tyler will stay on task, consistently
working on his assignment.
Haley will not kick people when she
gets mad.
Bryson will quietly read the story for his
lesson.
Sienna will not get angry.
Anna will complete her assignment
with 80% or better.
Owen will get up in the morning, get dressed, eat breakfast and start the school day at 9:00.
Alayne will not be mean.
There are four excellent examples of definable target behaviors. If you found them all, click the “next”
button.
Next: Identify the way you are going to keep track of data
Some behaviors only need to occur once before a student gets a consequenceie. Sally will complete her assignment with 80% accuracy.
Some behavior you will want to reward every so often.ie. John will stay on task with his eyes on the paper until he completes the assignment.
For these behaviors you may need to keep a tally or a chart to keep track of how often the desired behavior occurs.
Things to remember:1- Make sure to choose a behavior
you can “catch”. You don’t want to promise the universe, and not be able to follow through.
2- In the beginning, you want to make sure you are reinforcing
EVERY time the behavior occurs. Otherwise, no significant change
will occur.
Then: Identify the Positive Reinforcers that will occur with target behavior Positive Reinforcement – Bribery or not
The next step is to identify the good things that will happen if the behavior happens.
Positive Reinforcement IS NOT BRIBERY! Nor am I suggesting that it should be. This is not bribing your student with some big ticket items such as cars, Wii games, motorcycles or anything of the sort.
The most effective reinforcers:-Letting the child chose what subject to work on next.-Positive time with learning coach such as reading a story, coloring, or
other non-school related activity.-A quick break in between subjects or classes and do a preferred
activity. (ie. Read a book, play a Wii game, take a nap).-Completing a desired activity after the day is done.
Remember, you are looking for something positive to reward good behavior
As much as I wish this weren’t the case, it is. You want to focus on the positive, but you can’t ignore the consequences either. Make
the consequences clear and quick. Let the kids help choose their own consequences. This
gives them ownership in the consequences as well.
Correct! You do need to address the negative
consequences, but you don’t need to dwell on them. Make it simple and concise, but focus on the positive. This is where the
major changes occur.
What about negative consequences? Do you include those in a behavior contract?
You decide…pick one!
Yes No
Remember, you want to be CLEAR, CONSISTENT, and CONSICE.
Negotiation: Working with your student
Students are very good at telling you what you want. Use their input to help you design a contract. Talk about the behavior you need to see, and what appropriate consequences are.
Students can be harder on themselves at time. Make sure that the consequences are appropriate, and something that is meaningful to them.
Once you both agree, make sure that you write up the contract and BOTH sign it. This shows that both of you agree to the contract, and are willing to follow
through with the consequences thereof.
Summary of a Behavior Contract
It’s sounds overwhelming. But the process is simple. If you get the student to own the problem, and know the consequences, they will do better.
Click on the following link to watch a quick summary video of a behavior contract.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd9yxMcYMRg
Now your done! Implement the plan and see how it goes. Share your results with your SPED
teacher.
-There was no analysis as to why the problem behavior was occurring.-The learning coach needs to state the DESIRED behavior in the contract.-She did not negotiate with the student especially with the reinforcers.-A new bike is a huge reinforcer, and should not be used for the completion of this goal.-The learning coach didn’t refer to the contract again. She didn’t follow through.
-The learning coach did identify the problem behavior.- She did know to draft a contract.-She did have the student sign the contract, and posted the result.
Now try this one…See if you can identify things that this learning coach did well, and somethings that they could improve on:
A student is constantly throwing tantrums when given a request to complete school work. The learning coach knows the problem behavior. She decides to write up a contract. Her contract looks like this:
Joey will not throw tantrums during school time. If he does not, he will get a new bike. If he throws tantrums he will get sent to his room for a time out.
Student ___________________________Learning Coach _____________________
What did the learning coach do well?
What does the learning coach
need to improve?
The learning coach has the student sign the document. She hangs it on the fridge with other documents, and never refers to it again. The problem behaviors continue.
It is the second week of school. Your student no longer wants to get out of bed in the morning. When you finally get them out of bed, all they can say is “This is too hard.” They lay their head on the table. Your student finally agrees to attend his Math class via Elluminate. Math class is usually your student’s best class. Today’s math class is about solving word problems. He gets to the computer, and stares at the screen. He does not answer questions, he does not text any messages, or responds in any way. After his Elluminate session is over, you decide to present the lesson that goes along with the Math Class that he just attended. He watches you read through and do a problem. Then you assign the work he needs to do. After 10 minutes you return to see that he hasn’t completed anything. He responds that it is just too hard. You decided to switch subjects, and maybe reading would be a better way to start the day. Your student struggles to read through the assigned stories. He is laboriously sounding out every letter, and many of the words you have to tell him. After reading the whole story, your student answers comprehension questions about the passage with 40% accuracy.
Situation #3: What would you do??
Academic Behavioral
Do you think that this problem is academic or behavioral?
GREAT!! Although some of these characteristics may be similar to behavior, the fact that the student struggled with the reading in solving math as well as in reading his assignment indicates that his reading may be affecting his performance in all of his classes.
Good try! Although a student giving up can be a sign of behavior struggles, in this case there is a clear trigger that reading is setting off the behavior. Let’s address the academic issue first, and see if the behavior improves.
It is the second week of school. Your student no longer wants to get out of bed in the morning. When you finally get them out of bed, all they can say is “This is too hard.” They lay their head on the table. Your student finally agrees to attend his Math class via Elluminate. Math class is usually your student’s best class. Today’s math class is about solving word problems. He gets to the computer, and stares at the screen. He does not answer questions, he does not text any messages, or responds in any way. After his Elluminate session is over, you decide to present the lesson that goes along with the Math Class that he just attended. He watches you read through and do a problem. Then you assign the work he needs to do. After 10 minutes you return to see that he hasn’t completed anything. He responds that it is just too hard. You decided to switch subjects, and maybe reading would be a better way to start the day. Your student struggles to read through the assigned stories. He is laboriously sounding out every letter, and many of the words you have to tell him. After reading the whole story, your student answers comprehension questions about the passage with 40% accuracy.
What would you do??
What skill is affecting this student’s performance?
Math Computation Reading Comprehension
Reading Decoding
Although the student struggled with math, he usually does very well, this suggests this may not be the only area of concern today.
Although the student struggled to understand, you need to ask why he doesn’t understand. This student can’t read the words and that is affecting his comprehension.
CORRECT!The students inability to read is affecting his performance in Math and Reading Comprehension.
What would you do??
What is an appropriate accommodation for a student who is struggling with reading decoding?
Read the assignment aloud to the student
Reword and summarize the lesson into your own words.
Have the student read the assignment aloud and then quietly to himself before preceding with the lesson.
Don’t jump the gun! By doing too much, you are taking away too much of the student’s learning. Only accommodate in the area the student is struggling in.
CORRECT!This is a great place to start. If the student is struggling with decoding, this should be a great place to start!
If a student can’t read it, it doesn’t really matter how many times they read it alone. They need you! They need accommodations. They can’t do it alone.
IT WORKED!! After reading the problems to the student, the student started to do his math problems. As the learning coach, what are you going to do next?
Keep reading the text aloud to your student in
all areas
Let the student start working on his history
lesson alone.
Contact your child’s SPED teacher and share the results.
Just reading to your student will help them get through the curriculum, but it doesn’t address the need that they still don’t know how to read. Contact your SPED teacher to set up a plan of where to go from here.
If a student is struggling with reading, reading another subject isn’t going to help. They will need accommodations. Contact your SPED teacher to set up a plan of where to go from here.
CORRECT!!Your SPED teacher is equipped with ways to address the problems, and knows when and how to accommodate your students. They can help you find balance in this process. Talk with your teacher to set up a plan.
Telling the difference between academic and behavioral issues can be very difficult. To learn more about this,
click here.
How can you tell when the behavior is covering the academic struggles?
When a student doesn’t understand something, it is very common for them to act out. Sometimes it is just easier to act out than ask for help.
But that can create a problem for learning coaches. How are you going to handle it. Are you going to treat it like an behavior problem? Or are you going to treat it like an academic one?
If there are elements of academic and behavior together, and the behavior is not
significant enough to put a student “at risk”, then start by focusing on the academics first. Once the academic problems are addressed, many of the behaviors will disappear on their own.
Situation #4: Now you are a pro..try this problem.
Your student has always struggled with his math facts. They have always slowed him down as he has tried to do his Math assignments. He is a 6th grader, but he is placed in 4th grade math. He is working on adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. He has been working, but he hasn’t accomplished many problems. After 40 minutes he has only completed 5 problem. Your student gets frustrated. He picks up all of his books and throws them across the room, shouts “I hate this. I’m not doing it anymore!” and storms out of the room.
Is this problem academic or behavioral?
Trick Question!! The truth is, it’s both. This happens often. Normally, you would give preference to academic
problems first, however, there are some safety concerns as well. So we need to address both issues.
Solving the academic problem Solving the behavioral problem
We need to address both issues at the same time. Try to fill out these steps on your own, then click the box to check your
answer.
Step 1: Identify the Problem
Step 2: Identify the appropriate accommodation
Step 3: Collaborate with your SPED teacher with
results.
Step 1: Identify a behavior
Step 2: Identify reasonable reinforcer and set up behavioral
contract.
Step 3: Record your results and collaborate with your
SPED teacher.
How do you balance this all at once? Click the arrow to look at this process more closely.
This one is simple: This student has shown a consistent struggle with his math facts.
You can think of two accommodations. You can either allow the student to use a
multiplication chart or a calculator. This student hasn’t used a calculator much, so you take a few minutes to teach them how to use one and proceed with the lesson.
Kmail or call your SPED teacher and let them know how using a calculator worked. Did the
student understand how to use the technology? Was it successful?
Throwing books across the room is a behavior that threatens the safety of the student and others. This one needs to
be addressed.
You decide that taking a 10 minute break from work would be reinforcer for this student. You
set up a contract stating the desired activity, the positive reinforcers and the negative
consequence if the behavior does not improve.
Kmail or call your SPED teacher and let them know how using a calculator worked. Did the student understand
how to use the technology? Was it successful?
How do you handle both behavioral and academic problems at the same time?
Especially when safety is an issue, you need to address behaviors. These behaviors need to be addressed first, before anyone gets hurt. Even with dangerous behavior, behavior contracts are an easy way to help this behavior.
In this situation, negotiation with the student is very important. Let them participate in setting the positive and
negative consequences. Then they will have more ownership in the problem.
Just as before, you may notice that the behavior is masking a bigger problem. Once you start addressing the academic problems, you may see a drastic change.
Even when you have more than one problem you are addressing, the idea is that you want the student to have students be successful in both academic and
behavioral goals. The goals need to be within reach and measurable. Don’t expect all behaviors to magically disappear immediately. But you do want to
see a decrease in negative behavior.
That’s it. You are now an expert in how to deal with problems that may arise with your student. Here are
some final recommendations:
#1 – Keep it simple. The more simple your plan is, the more likely it is to be successful.
#2 – Keep it positive. If you lose your cool, you are giving your student permission to lose their cool as well.#3- Continue to talk with your SPED teacher. Your SPED teacher is here to
help you! You can’t ask too many questions. Make sure to let your SPED teacher know what is working, and what isn’t working so well. They can help you tweak the program if needed, and you can give them valuable information to work with your student.
#4 – Make sure that you get a break too! This is an intensive process. Even the most committed of learning coaches can get overwhelmed by teaching a student with disabilities. Make sure to take care of
yourself too. This will help you to provide the best education for your student.
You are ready to go. There is one last problem for you to solve. Click the “Next” button to finish the problem.
Situation #5: Final TestFor this final situation, I would like you to write down your answers to the questions and send them in an email to [email protected].
Your daughter has been working really hard on a writing assignment for her English class. She keeps writing down a few words, then she erases what she wrote. You are supervising your student from a distance. Your student has struggled for a half an hour and although she has written and erased a lot, she doesn’t have a single sentence to show for it. Without saying a word or making a noise, she puts down her pencil and gets up and goes to her room. She stays there for the rest of the day. You try to get her to come out for lunch and again for a snack. She doesn’t come out until dinner time.
#1: Is this an academic or behavioral problem?
#2: Detail what you are going to do to address the academic problems if there are any?
#3: Detail what you are going to do to address the behavioral problems if there are any?
#4: Describe what you will do with the results.
