Academic Remediation

Getting away from the lock-step of age grouping

Abandoning Age-Tracking - Unwrapping the Gifted - Education Week Teacher.

Ironically, the grade-level, whole-class groupings apparently preferred by these teachers who bemoan ability-grouping are the most restrictive form of tracking, that by age.

For a century (-ish), schools have "tracked" students based on when they were born, not based on what they are ready and able to learn. "Born between September 1, 2003, and August 31, 2004? You belong to the Class of 2022." That is how it works in nearly every school in our country. It's tracking by age, but no one calls it that. Of course, many teachers, especially those of us in the realm of gifted education, recognize that age-tracking (particularly in the absence of any differentiation) does little to help schools meet the learning needs of gifted and advanced learners who are academically years ahead of their age-peers.

Inspirational Graduation Speech

It's worth joining Facebook to watch this video.

Facebook | Videos Posted by Project Eye-To-Eye: Intel Reader Inventor, Ben Foss, delivers Graducation Speech! [HQ].

I'm Getting more enthusiastic about the iPad daily

iPad apps I used during extended school year (ESY) « Speech-Language Pathology Sharing.

Recently, I posted Reasons why I love iPad for speech-language therapy. The top reason was the apps. iPad apps provide fantastic materials to address speech-language goals. During extended school year (ESY), I used several apps with my students for speech-language therapy. Below is a list of the iPad apps that I used including iTunes links, prices, descriptions, and *goals addressed:

Reading Rockets: Kindergarten Camp

Reading Rockets: Kindergarten Camp.

Our kindergarten camp runs every morning this week, from 9-11:30. Each day follows the same schedule: center time, group craft, snack, and read aloud (Monday's story: If You Take a Mouse to School) and playground. Highlights of the week include a visit to the cafeteria (Tuesday), a short bus ride (Wednesday), and a story read to the group by the principal (Friday). The kids divide up differently each day and by the end of the week, they will have spent a morning in each of the K classrooms.

Our kindergarten teachers use K camp as a way to get to know the kids and form classes for this year. While some of the K kids have a brother or sister already at our school, others are there for the first time. Some have been in preschool for three years, others never went. Some are reading; most are not. One by one during the week, the teachers bring a child into the hallway for a quick assessment. Measures of alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness will provide good information about literacy preparedness, as will measures of print knowledge and concepts. Good old-fashioned named writing tells a story also (see Chapter 2 of this report for an explanation of the skills and abilities linked to later outcomes in reading, writing, and spelling).

Fine Motor Skills, Handwriting, and Autism

I found a blog new to me at Psychology Today: Faith Brynie's Brain Sense.

In this post, she discusses a recent study:

This new study, published in the November 10 issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, identifies fine motor control as a root source of some of the problems categorized as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The study reveals that children with ASD may have difficulty forming letters without expressing problems in other cognitive, social, or sensorimotor domains.

Amy Bastian, who is corresponding author of the study, worked with a team of researchers to compare handwriting samples, motor skills, and visuospatial abilities of children with ASD to those of typically developing children. The researchers found that overall, the handwriting of children with ASD was worse than typically developing children. Specifically, children with ASD had trouble forming letters; however, in other categories, such as size, alignment, and spacing, their handwriting was comparable to that of the typically developing children. The researchers also found that motor ability, specifically for timed movements, was a strong predictor of handwriting performance in children with ASD.

Study

NEUROLOGY 2009;73:1532-1537

Children with autism show specific handwriting impairments

Christina T. Fuentes, BS, Stewart H. Mostofsky, MD and Amy J. Bastian, PhD

http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/73/19/1532

Other articles

• http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=107466
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120275194
• http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/aspergers-diary/200911/challenge-autism-researchers
• http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-interactive-world/200911/study-avoid

IEPs

I have been doing a lot of work on The Thinking Person's Guide to Autism, (TPGA)which has cut into blogging time here and at I Speak of Dreams.

Today's post at TPGA is on IEPs, by veteran special education teacher Daniel Dage.  His blog, The Life that Chose Me,  is worth studying for all parents of children in special education, no matter what your child's issues may be.