Curriculum Guides for Reading, Writing, Spelling, and Mathematics

 

Curriculum Guides for Reading, Writing, Spelling, and Mathematics

Introduction

A curriculum guide consists of practical ideas for teaching that can be used by instructors. It is written in a suitable format as practical teaching notes that can be used in the future. The following curriculum guide was designed for students with intellectual disabilities. The guide is meant to help teachers assist their students in improving their skills in areas of Reading, Writing, Spelling and Mathematics. It defines the learning strategies, objectives, task analysis and the assessment procedures that can be used in teaching. Curriculum guides are used to provide the principles for planning lessons for students with intellectual disabilities. They are used by instructors in the identification of strong and weak points of their students that assist them in the implementation of Individualized Education Programs.

Reading

1. Strategy

-Name Recognition

Goal

-To enable students with intellectual disabilities recognize their names in print.

Objective

-The main objective of adopting name recognition strategy is to enable students identify their names when harmonized with an image and print.

Activity

-In the first stage, instructors should use images with the students names imprinted on them. The teachers should request the students to identify the image that has their names. If all the students are in a position to identify their names, the teachers can remove the names from the images and let the students identify their names in print without the images.

Assessment Procedures

-As the students carry out their activities, the instructors will be looking at the students accuracy in carrying out the task of identifying the names paired with pictures. The instructors will also check whether the students will be in a position of identifying their names without the images.

Reference

A to Z Kids Stuff, (n.d.). Flower Names. Retrieved on May 28, 2010, from http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/reading.html

2. Strategy

-Making a Name Puzzle

Goal

-This is meant to give the student the assistance in learning how to match uppercase letters.

Objective

-The instructor’s objective will be enabling his students match uppercase letters in their names.

Activity

-The instructor will first write the students name on a piece of paper leaving blank spaces in between the letters.

-The instructor will show his students their names reading them aloud. He then points to each letter one at a time saying them aloud. He then asks his students to repeat what he has done.

-After pronouncing each letter aloud, the instructor will divide the letters on the paper by cutting them into individual strips. As the instructor makes a cut of each letter, he/she will say the name of each letter.

– The instructor mixes up the strips containing different letters and lets the student assist him in putting back the letters in the strip as they were before.

– The activity can be repeated several times until the students get to know the names of different letters.

Assessment Procedures

-The teacher will be observing the accuracy in the child’s ability to match letters that are found in their names.

Reference

Mahoney, L. (2009). Make a name game. Retrieved on May 28, 2010 from http://www.education.com/activity/article/nameactivity_preschool/

3. Strategy

-Reading Wall

Goal

-This is meant to enable the student identify familiar signs and symbols.

Objective

-The instructor’s core objective is to assist the student in the identification of familiar signs and symbols.

Activity

-The teacher will instruct his student to bring with them logos from home.

-The instructor will start by reading the names of logos placed on the classroom wall.

-The words on the logos can be reviewed by the students individually or in small groups.

-The teachers can review the names of the logos and then asks the students to identify the logos of their choice.

-This can be repeated by the instructor by asking the students to identify different until all students get to know the names of different logos.

Assessment procedures

-The teacher will be observing student’s ability to identify different signs and symbols. He does this by writing down the names of the signs that were correctly identified by the students.

Reference:

A to Z Kids Stuff, (n.d.), Reading Wall. Retrieved on May 28, 2010 from http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/reading.html

Writing

1. Strategy

-Sentence Construction

Goal

-This is to assist the student in learning how to make a complete sentence using the words, Who, What, When and Where.

Objective

-The instructors objective will be to let his/her students choose the words Who, What, When and Where and place them in the right order to come up with a meaningful sentence.

Activity

-Instructors should write down the words on a chart.

-Then, they should write names and words in-between the words Who, What, When and Where.

-Images should be created to accompany the words.

-Finally, the instructors should allow the students to choose the words Who, What, Where and When in a logical manner to come up with a complete meaningful sentence.

Assessment Procedures

-As the students carry out the mentioned activities, the teachers will be looking at the students capability to recognize and match words with their respective images representing Who, What, When and Where. They will also look at the student’s ability to make logical sentences using the given words.

Reference

Squiddoo, LLC, (2010), Writing Games for Kids, Retrieved on May 28, 2010, from

http://www.squidoo.com/writing-games-for-kids

2. Strategy

-Building Writing Muscle with Water Relay

Goal

-The student will be enabled to develop fine writing skills.

Objective

-The instructor’s objective is to help the student in the development of fine pre-writing skills.

Activity

-The instructor undertakes his activity outside the classroom.

-The instructor asks each student to have a water container and a sponge and he places a pitcher filled with water between the players.

-The instructor demonstrates the game to his students where they have to immerse the sponge in the pitcher. They have to run back and forth between the pitcher and their containers where they squeeze the water absorbed in their sponges into their containers until the container is filled up.

-The teacher will instruct his students that they will be competing amongst themselves to determine the student who fills the container before his/her opponents.

-The then asks the students to start the game by shouting to them to begin.

-The student who fills the container before the rest will become the winner.

Assessment Procedures

-The teacher will be looking at how each student grips the sponge and the student’s ability to squeeze the water out of the sponge.

Reference

Dal Fuoco, G. (2009). Build writing muscles with this water relay.  Retrieved on May 28, 2010, from http://www.education.com/activity/article/Water_Relay_Kindergarten

3. Strategy

-Prewriting Strokes Activity

Goal

-The student will be able to write using several materials.

Objective

-The instructor’s major objective is to enable the students copy letters using a variety of writing materials.

Activity

-The instructor will have different writing materials such as pens pencils and mark pens.

– The instructor will have his students copy the alphabetical letters on a piece of paper using different writing materials.

-The students can repeat the activity several times until they are in a position to write well using different materials.

Assessment Procedures

-The teacher will be looking at the student’s ability to copy the alphabetical letters on a piece of paper using a variety of writing materials.

Reference:

Virginia Department of Education, (2007). Virginia’s foundation blocks for early learning. Retrieved on May 28, 2010 from

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Instruction/Elem_M/FoundationBlocks.pdf

Spelling

1. Strategy

-Word Builder Game

Goal

-Students are taught by their instructors how to combine sound segments in order to come up with a word.

Objective

-The instructor’s main objective is to enable the students in the combination of different sound segments to come up with a word.

Activity

-Instructors open the website iknow.com for their students to start playing the game.

-The student is assisted by the instructor when playing the game and combines sound segments in making a word that has animated images matching it. Once the student combines the correct sounds that make the word, the whole word is pronounced by the system.

Reference

Iknowthat.com (n.d.). Word Builder Game. Retrieved on May 28, 2010, from Iknowthat.com

2. Strategy

-Exploring sounds

Goal

-This will help a student in the application of letter sounds to words in context.

Objective

-The instructor’s main objective will be assisting the student in the exploration of letter sounds and identification of letters that make the sound.

Activity

-The instructor will have to list different letters accompanied by sound on a chart.

-The instructor will have the students identify the letter in a word that makes a specific sound and underline it.

-The student will finally group the letters in an orderly manner according to the way the sound was represented.

Assessment Procedures

-The teacher will be observing the students ability to identify letter sounds and match the letters to the sounds. He will also be looking at student’s ability to group the words with similar letter sounds.

Reference:

Scholastic.com, (n.d.). Exploring sounds activity.  Retreived on May 28, 2010, from www.scholastic.com/dodea/Module_1/resources/dodea_m1_tr_blendseg.pdf

3. Strategy

-I spy

Goal

-This is to assist students in learning how to combine sound segments to make a word.

Objective

-The instructor’s objective is to assist students in combining different sound segments to make a word.

Activity

-The instructor gives a demonstration of the game to be played by the students.

-The students will have to play a variation of I spy by sounding out the names of the objects they will be observing.

-The students will have to combine different sound together in the determination of objects.

Assessment Procedures

-The instructor will be observing the students ability to combine different sounds to determine a word.

Reference:

Scholastic.com, (n.d.) I spy.  Retreived on May 28, 2010, from www.scholastic.com/dodea/Module_1/resources/dodea_m1_tr_blendseg.pdf

Mathematics

1. Strategy

-Enabling prompts

Goal

-The teacher wants the students to learn subtraction and addition in solving mathematical problems.

Objective

-The instructor’s main objective is to allow students identify the number eggs in a crate when some eggs are added and others removed.

Activity

-The instructor comes up with an image representing a crate of eggs.

-He then cuts-off a part of the chart representing a specific number of eggs and asks the students to count the number of eggs remaining.

-After the students identify the number of eggs left, the instructor glues back the cut-off part and asks the students to count the number of eggs again.

Assessment procedures

-The instructor will be observing the students ability to count all the eggs represented in the chart keenly without leaving some parts. Once the students give the right figures, they have an idea on subtraction and addition.

Reference

Developing Guidelines for Teachers Helping Students Experiencing Difficulty in Learning Mathematics Retrieved on May 28, 2010 from

http://www.merga.net.au/documents/RP572006.pdf

2. Strategy

– Memorization

Goal

-The student will increase the speed and accuracy in mathematical computations such as addition and subtraction.

Objective

-The instructor’s main objective will be to enhance students speed and accuracy when solving mathematical problems by memorizing the methods used in solving different mathematical problems.

Activity

-The instructors use a computer program where students practice the retrieval of addition and subtraction facts.

-A student copies the problem and answer from a written model on the computer program.

-The student covers the problem and answer, and then writes the answer from his/her memory.

-The student compares the original answer and problem to the one written from his/her memory.

Assessment procedures

-The instructor will be observing the student’s ability to solve the problem individually and come up with the same solution as the one copied from the computer program. The instructor will also be looking at the time spend by a student in solving the problem.

Reference

Mathematics Instruction and Assessment for Students in the Margins: Students with Learning Disabilities, Students with Mild Mental Retardation, and Students who are English Language Learners, Retrieved on May 28, 2010, from

http://www.necompact.org/Literature_review.pdf

3. Strategy

-Instructional approach

Goal

-This is to help students in creating a representation of a problem before solving it.

Objective

-The instructors main objective is to assist students in coming up with models representing the mathematical problem. The models are used in helping the student understand the problem before he/she attempts it.

Activity

-The instructor will use charts representing oranges to assist his/her students solve mathematical problems.

-The teacher will first give a demonstration on how to use the models to represent a mathematical problem. For instance, if the problem is addition, 3+2, the student should take two oranges and combine them with the three oranges to come up with a solution to the problem.

-The instructor lets the student give the mathematical problem representation using the provided models.

-This should be repeated several times by the students using different mathematical problems.

Assessment procedures

-The instructor will be looking at the student’s ability to represent mathematical problem using the given models before attempting the problem. This improves the student’s accuracy in problem solving.

Reference

Mathematics Instruction and Assessment for Students in the Margins: Students with Learning Disabilities, Students with Mild Mental Retardation, and Students who are English Language Learners, Retrieved on May 28, 2010, from

http://www.necompact.org/Literature_review.pdf

Conclusion

In conclusion, curriculum guide is essential for instructors who handle the mentally retarded students. It gives them a guideline in carrying out their teaching practice. It provides teachers with strategies, goals, objectives, activities ands assessment procedures that they can use when teaching their students to make their understanding easy. It is recommendable for instructors to make use of curriculum guides in the achievement of better and excellent results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

A to Z Kids Stuff (n.d.). Flower Names. Retrieved on May 28, 2010, from http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/reading.html

Developing Guidelines for Teachers Helping Students Experiencing Difficulty in Learning Mathematics Retrieved on May 28, 2010 from http://www.merga.net.au/documents/RP572006.pdf

Iknowthat.com (n.d.). Word Builder Game. Retrieved on May 28, 2010, from Iknowthat.com

Squiddoo, LLC, (2010), Writing Games for Kids, Retrieved on May 28, 2010, from http://www.squidoo.com/writing-games-for-kids