homework strategies for students with learning disabilities

Five Homework Strategies for Teaching Students With Learning Disabilities

Many students with learning or reading disabilities find homework challenging. Here are five research-based strategies that teachers can use to help students.

On this page:

Strategy 1. give clear and appropriate assignments, strategy 2. make homework accommodations, strategy 3. teach study skills, strategy 4. use a homework calendar, strategy 5. ensure clear home/school communication.

Homework is one aspect of the general education curriculum that has been widely recognized as important to academic success. Teachers have long used homework to provide additional learning time, strengthen study and organizational skills, and in some respects, keep parents informed of their children’s progress.

Generally, when students with disabilities participate in the general education curriculum, they are expected to complete homework along with their peers. But, just as students with disabilities may need instructional accommodations in the classroom, they may also need homework accommodations.

Many students with disabilities find homework challenging, and teachers are frequently called upon to make accommodations for these students. What research supports this practice? This article describes five strategies that researchers have identified that help students with disabilities get the most from their homework. They include:

• Give clear and appropriate assignments
• Make homework accommodations
• Teach study skills
• Use a homework calendar
• Ensure clear home/school communication

Teachers need to take special care when assigning homework. If the homework assignment is too hard, is perceived as busy work, or takes too long to complete, students might tune out and resist doing it. Never send home any assignment that students cannot do. Homework should be an extension of what students have learned in class. To ensure that homework is clear and appropriate, consider the following tips from teachers for assigning homework:

• Make sure students and parents have information regarding the policy on missed and late assignments, extra credit, and available adaptations
• Establish a set homework routine at the beginning of the year
• Assign work that the students can do
• Assign homework in small units
• Explain the assignment clearly
• Write the assignment on the chalkboard and leave it there until the assignment is due
• Remind students of due dates periodically
• Coordinate with other teachers to prevent homework overload

Students concur with these tips. They add that teachers can:

• Establish a routine at the beginning of the year for how homework will be assigned
• Assign homework toward the beginning of class
• Relate homework to classwork or real life (and/or inform students how they will use the content of the homework in real life)
• Explain how to do the homework, provide examples and write directions on the chalkboard
• Have students begin the homework in class, check that they understand, and provide assistance as necessary
• Allow students to work together on homework

Make any necessary modifications to the homework assignment before sending it home. Identify practices that will be most helpful to individual students and have the potential to increase their involvement, understanding, and motivation to learn. The most common homework accommodations are to:

• Provide additional one-on-one assistance to students
• Monitor students’ homework more closely
• Allow alternative response formats (e.g., allow the student to audiotape an assignment rather than handwriting it)
• Adjust the length of the assignment
• Provide a peer tutor or assign the student to a study group
• Provide learning tools (e.g., calculators)
• Adjust evaluation standards
• Give fewer assignments

It is important to check out all accommodations with other teachers, students, and their families. If teachers, students, or families do not find homework accommodations palatable, they may not use them.

Both general and special education teachers consistently report that homework problems seem to be exacerbated by deficient basic study skills. Many students, particularly students with disabilities, need instruction in study and organizational skills. Here is a list of organizational strategies basic to homework:

• Identify a location for doing homework that is free of distractions
• Have all materials available and organized
• Allocate enough time to complete activities and keep on schedule
• Take good notes
• Develop a sequential plan for completing multi-task assignments
• Check assignments for accuracy and completion before turning them in
• Know how to get help when it is needed
• Turn in completed homework on time

Teachers can enhance homework completion and accuracy by providing classroom instruction in organizational skills. They should talk with parents about how to support the application of organizational skills at home.

Students with disabilities often need additional organizational support. Just as adults use calendars, schedulers, lists, and other devices to self-monitor activities, students can benefit from these tools as well. Students with disabilities can monitor their own homework using a planning calendar to keep track of homework assignments. Homework planners also can double as home-school communication tools if they include a space next to each assignment for messages from teachers and parents.

Here’s how one teacher used a homework planner to increase communication with students’ families and improve homework completion rates:

Students developed their own homework calendars. Each page in the calendar reflected one week. There was a space for students to write their homework assignments and a column for parent-teacher notes. The cover was a heavy card stock that children decorated. Students were expected to take their homework planners home each day and return them the next day to class.

In conjunction with the homework planner, students graphed their homework return and completion rates. Another strategy that is linked to homework completion and improved performance on classroom assessments. The teacher built a reward system for returning homework and the planners. On a self-monitoring chart in their planner, students recorded each time they completed and returned their homework assignment by:

• Coloring the square for the day green if homework was completed and returned
• Coloring the square for the day red if homework was not done
• Coloring one-half of the square yellow and one-half of the square red if homework was late

If students met the success criterion, they received a reward at the end of the week, such as 15 extra minutes of recess. The teacher found that more frequent rewards were needed for students with emotional and behavioral disabilities.

Homework accounts for one-fifth of the time that successful students invest in academic tasks, yet students complete homework in environments over which teachers have no control. Given the fact that many students experience learning difficulties, this creates a major dilemma. Teachers and parents of students with disabilities must communicate clearly and effectively with one another about homework policies, required practices, mutual expectations, student performance on homework, homework completion difficulties, and other homework-related concerns.

Recommended ways that teachers can improve communications with parents include:

• Encouraging students to keep assignment books
• Providing a list of suggestions on how parents might assist with homework. For example, ask parents to check with their children about homework daily
• Providing parents with frequent written communication about homework (e.g., progress reports, notes, letters, forms)
• Sharing information with other teachers regarding student strengths and needs and necessary accommodations

Ways that administrators can support teachers in improving communications include:

• Supplying teachers with the technology needed to aid communication (e.g., telephone answering systems, e-mail, homework hotlines)
• Providing incentives for teachers to participate in face-to-face meetings with parents (e.g., release time, compensation)
• Suggesting that the school district offer after school and/or peer tutoring sessions to give students extra help with homework

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Bryan, T., Nelson, C., & Mathur, S. (1995). Homework: A survey of primary students in regular, resource, and self-contained special education classrooms. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 10(2), 85-90.

Bryan, T., & Sullivan-Burstein, K. (1997). Homework how-to's. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 29(6), 32-37.

Epstein, M., Munk, D., Bursuck, W., Polloway, E., & Jayanthi, M. (1999). Strategies for improving home-school communication about homework for students with disabilities. The Journal of Special Education, 33(3), 166-176.

Jayanthi, M., Bursuck, W., Epstein, M., & Polloway, E. (1997). Strategies for successful homework. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 30(1), 4-7.

Jayanthi, M., Sawyer, V., Nelson, J., Bursuck, W., & Epstein, M. (1995). Recommendations for homework-communication problems: From parents, classroom teachers, and special education teachers. Remedial and Special Education, 16(4), 212-225.

Klinger, J., & Vaughn, S. (1999). Students' perceptions of instruction in inclusion classrooms: Implications for students with learning disabilities. Exceptional Children, 66(1), 23-37.

Polloway, E., Bursuck, W., Jayanthi, M., Epstein, M., & Nelson, J. (1996). Treatment acceptability: Determining appropriate interventions within inclusive classrooms. Intervention In School and Clinic, 31(3), 133-144.

Adapted and reprinted with permission from the ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education (opens in a new window) .

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Thinking and Learning

Principle 1: Students’ beliefs or perceptions about intelligence and ability affect their cognitive functioning and learning

Students who believe that intelligence and ability can be enhanced tend to perform better on a variety of tasks and in problem-solving situations.

Sample tips for teachers

Teachers can foster student beliefs that their intelligence and ability can be developed through effort and by applying different strategies: 

• Positive messages about people with disabilities (or other demographic groups to which students belong) and self-affirming activities, may help counteract students’ negative self-perceptions due to stereotypes about factors such as their race or disability status, and may in turn increase academic performance. 
• Make sure the content of praise is tied to effort or successful strategies and not ability.
• Unsolicited offers of help by a teacher, especially when other students do not receive help, and sympathetic affect from a teacher following student failure can be interpreted by students as indirect and subtle cues about low ability.

Principle 2: What students already know affects their learning

Students come to classrooms with preconceived knowledge based on their everyday experiences, social interactions, intuitions, and what they have been taught in other settings and in the past. Accordingly, learning consists of either adding to existing knowledge or transforming or revising knowledge.

Teachers can be instrumental in achieving both growth and change in a targeted manner:

• Provide accessible instructional materials (e.g., audio books, assistive technology to support reading like screen readers) for students with disabilities that impact language and reading print.
• When considering why students were unsuccessful, teachers should encourage students to reflect on what worked and how to advocate for accommodations and tools they need to succeed (e.g., text to speech or tactile drawings). The reflection should focus on how to change their learning environment rather than negative attributes about the student.
• To identify misconceptions held by the student, teachers can engage their students in activities that tap into their curiosity and increase their interest in the topic by asking questions, defining, summarizing, synthesizing, applying concepts, and participating in hands-on activities.

Principle 3: Students’ cognitive development and learning are not limited by general stages of development

Student reasoning is not limited by an age or a grade level. Students are capable of higher-level thinking and behavior when (a) there is some competency for knowledge in the domain, (b) they already have some familiarity or expertise with a knowledge domain, (c) they interact with more capable others or challenging materials, and (d) in contexts with which they are familiar through experience.

In designing instruction, teachers can facilitate the advancement of student reasoning in the following ways:

• Encourage students’ reasoning in familiar areas—that is, in domains and contexts in which students already have substantial knowledge.
• Use groupings whereby students are placed in mixed-ability groups to allow for interaction with higher-level thinkers in learning and problem solving. 
• Teachers can gain information from family members that might aid in understanding students’ out-of-the classroom functioning and learning.

Principle 4: Learning is based on context, so generalizing learning to new contexts is not spontaneous but instead needs to be facilitated

Learning occurs in context. Contexts can consist of subject matter domains (e.g., science), specific tasks/problems (e.g., a textbook problem to solve), social interactions (e.g., caretaking routines between a parent and child), and situational/physical settings (e.g., home, classrooms, museums, labs). Hence, for learning to be more effective or powerful, it needs to generalize to new contexts and situations.

Teachers can support students’ transfer of knowledge and skills across contexts—from highly similar to highly dissimilar. This is best done by the following:

• Consult with the individualized education program (IEP) team, parents, and caregivers for appropriate goal setting, breakdown of learning steps, and strategies over time that work before introducing new methodologies and concepts.
• Build on strengths that students bring to a learning situation, thereby making connections between students’ current knowledge and skills and the teachers’ learning goals. 
• Acknowledge that each student with some disabilities might need sensory input and support to be successful in learning about multiple contexts.

Principle 5: Acquiring long-term knowledge and skill is largely dependent on practice

Practice is key to the transfer of information from short-term to long-term memory in at least five ways. Evidence demonstrates (a) increased likelihood that learning will be long-term and retrievable, (b) enhanced student ability to apply elements of basic knowledge automatically and without reflection, (c) skills that become automatic free up students’ cognitive resources for learning more challenging tasks, (d) increased transfer of practiced skills to new and more complex problems, and (e) gains often bring about motivation for more learning. 

Effective methods of implementing practice in the classroom include:

• Enhance the value of testing, or any kind of practice exercise, by conducting them at spaced intervals and giving them frequently.
• Design tasks with students’ existing knowledge in mind.
• Ensure student learning is reinforced during extended school breaks.
• Provide family members with concrete examples and activities to set test-taking expectations and to practice at home.

Principle 6: Clear, explanatory, and timely feedback to students is important for learning

Learning can be increased when students receive regular, specific, explanatory, and timely feedback on their work. Feedback is most effective for students with disabilities when it describes the gap between their current performance and the goal for their desired performance, and provides cues for how to close that gap.

• Feedback can be accompanied by relevant learning goals that tell students what they are (or are not) understanding and the strength of their performance. It is ultimately important that students with disabilities participate in and learn to set personal goals for their learning.
• It is useful to provide students with disabilities with guided practice in strategies that they can use to improve their work and reach their goals.
• Feedback is even more effective when it describes what students can do in the future when they achieve those goals.
• When students are learning a new task or struggling with an existing one, frequent praise following small degrees of improvement is very important, and when progress is evident, encouragement to persist can matter a great deal.

Principle 7: Students’ self-regulation assists learning, and self-regulatory skills can be taught

Self-regulatory (or executive function) skills, including attention, organization, self-control, planning, and memory strategies, enable students to learn efficiently and effectively. This principle is particularly important for teachers of special education students because many the diagnostic criteria for common disabilities include self-regulatory skills (e.g., inattention and impulse control are criteria for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)). These skills allow students to arrive prepared, follow instructions, attend to the teacher, and ignore distractions.

The classroom environment itself can also be organized to enhance self-regulation.  

• Break down tasks into smaller “chunks” and clearly spell out the criteria for successful task performance.
• Help students identify and evaluate short- and long-term goals for performance or consequences to their decisions.
• Use cues to alert students that important information will follow, especially when introducing a new concept.
• Gain additional strategies from family members of what works in the home environment that might be used within the school setting.

Principle 8: Student creativity can be fostered

Contrary to the conventional wisdom that creativity is a stable trait (you either have it or you don’t), creative thinking can be enhanced and nurtured in all students, making it an important outcome of the learning process for students and educators. Moreover, creative approaches to teaching can inspire enthusiasm and joy in the learning process by increasing student engagement and modeling real-world applications of knowledge across domains.

A variety of strategies are available for teachers to establish classroom environments that are conducive to creative thinking in students, including:

• Encourage openness to diverse perspectives during discussions, reinforcing that perspectives from all students are clearly valued and welcomed in the classroom.
• Orchestrate special classroom activities where rules are allowed to be broken or students can generate their own rules. Such activities might give students opportunities to experience creativity and teach them how to cope with novel and unexpected challenges.
• Be aware that highly creative students are often seen as disruptive; however, student enthusiasm can be channeled into solving real-world problems or taking leadership roles on certain tasks.
• Model creativity. Teachers are powerful models, and as such, they should share with students their own creativity—including the use of multiple strategies to solve problems across various aspects of their lives.

For further explanation and additional tips for teachers, download the full report .

Thinking and Learning Principles 1-8

Motivation Principles 9-12

Social-Emotional Learning Principles 13-15

Classroom Management Principles 16-17

Assessment Principles 18-20

Top 20 Principles for Students with Disabilities

All Top 20 Principles

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Homework Strategies for Students with Learning Disabilities

Up to ten percent of American students under the age of eighteen may experience some form of learning disability, meaning that it is extremely important that these students have the support that they need to succeed in an educational environment. It is common for students with learning disabilities to find homework frustrating and challenging, which can put a strain on students’ mental health, family relationships, and classroom dynamics. This guide aims to help students and their parents find effective strategies to make homework assignments easier and to help students learn, retain what they are learning, and build effective studying habits for the future. Source: homework.study.com

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Teaching Strategies for Students with Learning Disabilities

There are things that you as a writing teacher can do, so that you do not end up on these frustrated and misunderstood students' long lists of impatient instructors. There are ways you can help students compensate for learning differences and there are strategies you can teach them that will help them become more effective readers and writers.

Introduction

Guide focus.

• What are Learning Disabilities?
• Role of Formal Assessment

LD Students in Your Composition Classroom

Ld students in a writing center tutorial.

• Teacher Resources

Annotated Bibliography

Relevant web sites.

• Citation Information

Think about the first time you drove a car. Imagine yourself staring at all of the unfamiliar levers and knobs and pedals, at the panel covered with gages and numbers. Try to recall sitting frozen in the unfamiliar driver's seat, frantically going through all the steps you had to remember just to get the car out of the parking spot. It is hard for most of us to remember how overwhelming it was to process and recall all of those steps: to pay attention to the road, to remember the rules, drive the car, and to follow directions. There was also probably a very nervous and impatient instructor who couldn't seem to cover up her frustration at your clumsiness and your inability to remember all of the steps: for her, driving had become second nature.

Like driving a car, reading and writing are complicated processes; each requires numerous instantaneous and simultaneous steps, steps most of us complete without a second (or even a first) thought. Most of us probably cannot recall what it was once like to learn how to read and write, and certainly a great number of us never had to deal with another level of challenge, a learning disability that made these steps even harder to complete.

For many people with learning differences, the challenge of reading and writing are like having to learn to drive again every single day. The steps it takes to write that sentence or read that paragraph are not internalized, but rather feel like huge barriers between the student and the completion of an assignment. And you, the writing teacher, are like that frustrated instructor who cannot understand why this student cannot simply "drive" (or write, or read, or remember, or apply knowledge . . . ).

Because there is so much information out there on every kind of disability, every kind of assessment, and every kind of resource, I have chosen to focus this packet specifically on things that you can (with your limited time) do in your CO150/250 classroom or in your regular writing center tutorial. I will not talk about how to teach a class that is specifically for teaching writing to LD students, nor will I cover other types of classes (math, etc.). My focus is specifically on writing, and reading that leads to writing (see Lipson for a useful explanation of the connection between reading and writing for students with LD). There are also other excellent resources for using technology with LD students, which I will also not attempt to cover here. This packet will provide some background on the research done on learning disabilities, on the types of "common" learning differences, how you might be able to spot signs that a student has a disability, and finally, will provide some specific activities and strategies you may employ as a teacher or tutor. Everything that I have provided in this packet is an accumulation of extensive research. Rather than relying on one single source, I have chosen to offer a broad and collaborative overview of the research. The appendix activities have all been adapted from several different texts, as well as suggestions from experienced LD writing teachers. For more information on specific LDs, refer to the texts I have listed in my Bibliography and to the related Web links listed after the appendices.

What Are Learning Disabilities?

You have probably heard of learning disabilities. You probably have also heard of 'learning differences," "specific learning styles,' and "different learning abilities." Do all of these describe the same thing? The answer to this question is a difficult one to address. There are many numbers of perspectives on learning, different epistemological perspectives that shape these descriptions, and many different interpretations of these perspectives. The purpose of this paper is not to try to decide which is accurate, nor even to negotiate between them. I will offer a very brief summary of the different perspectives, but will then propose that despite the perspective on cause, effect, and "treatment," certain students are having trouble with reading and writing, and there are strategies out there that can make these activities, well, less "trouble." Neurological, developmental, hereditary, social. Do not think of this as anything to do with intelligence (in fact, opposite -- see yourself as helping a brilliant student be able to tap that brilliance)

The easiest way to think of learning differences is: something "which affects the manner in which individuals with normal or above average intelligence take in, retain, and express information."

Working Definition

One problem with the label "learning disabilities" encompasses a huge number of related and unrelated learning patterns, social and psychological problems, and in some of the research I found, also physical problems like visual and hearing loss. The easiest "types" of learning differences to describe are: dysgraphia "difficulty writing," and dyslexia, "difficulty reading." Dyslexia, generally, is a disorder that affects the student's ability to make sense of printed material (note that this includes the notes you write on the overhead and chalkboard!). Most of us think of backward letters when we think of dyslexia, but that one of the manifestations of more serious problems than switching "d" and "b." These reversals also work at the sentence level: "to go the store" for "go to the store," and at the conceptual level: the student might start with the "middle" part of what she wanted to say, then end a sentence with an unfinished sentence, the "start" of the concept she intended.

College Students with LD

Research has shown that more and more students with learning disabilities are entering college these days, so it is likely that as a CO150 instructor or a consultant in the Writing Center you will come one of these students; sometimes that student has just gone through formal assessment and are just starting to learn compensatory strategies; sometimes students have known about their learning differences since kindergarten and feels comfortable with using university resources; sometimes, in fact, you may never be able to tell (and they may choose not to tell you) that they have learning disabilities because they are able to compensate ("Tutor Training"). Often, however, students might not know that they have learning disabilities. They are likely to think that they are just stupid or slow, and have long since accepted that writing and reading are things that they just "can't do."

Informal Assessment

Rather than define learning disabilities by their causes, I will rather describe them by their manifestations: how can we recognize them? Assessment can be as simple as looking at spelling errors, and as hard as trying to assess whether your student is a sequential or spatial learner. However, you do not need to know complicated terminology in order to do an informal assessment, to realize that your student might indeed have a different learning style than others you have encountered. For the most part, informal assessment is about patience and trial and error.

Many students who have mild LDs will have found ways of compensating without ever realizing that they have made these changes. You will generally never know about these students' learning differences because they do not exhibit the same "evidence" in their writing. On the other hand, students with moderate to severe learning problems will probably not have been able to compensate themselves and their problems will manifest themselves in their writing samples. The following is a general description of external "signs" of LDs. For a more detailed list of "textual" symptoms, see attachments 3 - 5.

External Signs

Most of the time, CO150 students are freshmen or sophomores. However, students who have serious reading and writing troubles will often go against the advice of their advisors and will come to your class at the "last minute," i.e. as a second semester senior. Often, this student will have gone through a writing center tutorial, but will wait to sign up for composition several semesters after that tutorial is over. Writing Center consultants have the advantage of a copy of the student's CO150 placement exam (often the graders will mark the exam with "LD" if they suspect that the student might have one). Tutors, then, have the advantage of suggesting that students with possible LDs take the "LD section of CO150.

Obviously, writing center tutors will also have an advantage over classroom teachers in observing a student's process. In one-on-one tutorials, we can look very closely at the ways a student handles a reading or writing project. However, here are some basic "symptoms" to watch for in your writing classroom:

A student who already knows about his LD might have become comfortable with various resources and strategies, and might even have developed a positive perspective on his learning style. However, a student who has never been assessed and encouraged might be used to being called "lazy," and may act just that way in your class. This student might even act incompetent, immature, hostile, demanding or withdrawn. This may be the biggest challenge in front of you, because years of these socially enforced labels will work against you despite your attempt to draw this student out and convince him that he can be good students.

Often, this student will turn in late, incomplete, and/or poorly done work, but in response to a different sort of assignment suddenly excel. The cause of this might be that you have suddenly tapped into the strengths of this student's particular learning style. Take this as a sign, and perhaps give this student the opportunity to "explore" this strength more. For instance, if you give them a very different sort of assignment and they excel suddenly, you may have just tapped into one of their "strength" areas. However, and this is perhaps the most frustrating problem in trying to assess a student's needs, LDs tend to manifest themselves inconsistently. In any case, if you suspect that a student might have an LD, and you can find an opportunity to look at both the student's Process and Purpose, teaching strategies will be easier to apply. For instance, looking at how a student reads:

• Process: taking a look at the way a student goes through the process of reading. You can have the student read aloud (but be sure that you emphasize that you will not be evaluating or judging her), or have her read quietly as you pay attention to how long it takes her to read the text.
• Purpose: after the student has read the text, you can ask questions that will assess comprehension, questions that deal both with retention of content, and the student's ability to interpret, analyze, or personalize the content. (see attachments 3-5 for a list of potential questions, and for a list of possible symptoms to watch for).

The Role of Formal Assessment

This guide does not suggest that a writing teacher or tutor is in any way qualified to do a formal assessment of learning disabilities; we can spot potential problems and adapt our teaching activities to accommodate these, but we should not try to "decide" whether a student has a disability, and we are never to tell a student that they have one. Can you imagine the distress a student might experience if she is suddenly told that she has a "disability?" Can you imagine what might happen if you have misdiagnosed a student in your haste to help him?

On the other hand, if you find through your informal assessment that your student seems to have some of the problems I will list in this packet, it could be a tragic lost opportunity not to help that student get the compensatory strategies that might improve his or her academic and professional success. It can be such a relief for students who have struggled their whole lives to find that there are things that they can do to excel as students; they might be very appreciative that someone finally didn't simply think they were slow, or ignore the problem hoping that someone else would deal with it.

As you know already, teaching writing is a difficult, sometimes frustrating and sometimes rewarding, experience. We often have to wonder whether we are "getting through" to our students at all, and whether what we do is really making them more effective critical thinkers, readers, and writers.

Teaching writing to a student with a learning difference, who may not have easy "access" to the strategies and skills we are teaching, can turn moments of speculation into moments of absolute frustration.

Potential Frustrations

• Sometimes we will suspect that a student is struggling in our class as a result of a learning disability, but we don't feel like we have the extra time and energy to accommodate this student.
• Maybe we are scared to approach the student with something like this and hope instead that our regular teaching strategies will be enough.
• Or, we will try to help a student and find that he or she simply has no interest in being "accommodated."
• Finally, and perhaps the most frustrating experience for both teacher and student, a student might have come to grips with his or her LD and has the enthusiasm and dedication needed to learn and apply new strategies, but somehow nothing we do seems to work to make this student a better writer.

Coping Strategies

In his essay "Apprenticed to Failure: Learning from the Students We Can't Help," Steve Sherwood (an experienced writing teacher and tutor) describes an unsuccessful experience he had with an acknowledged student with LD: "Such failure leave bitter memories. They threaten our self-concept as benevolent and capable helpers" (50). He argues, however, that we can use these experiences to help us understand what we need to learn more about. Rather than remaining irritated by our own lack of time, energy, experience, and knowledge, we might find ways that we can learn from these students.

• We can listen to them and keep trying again, rather than despair that a certain strategy hasn't worked.
• We can try something else, and something else again, and something else again.
• We can try to have patience with ourselves and with our students.

Potential Difficulties

But how about those students who want nothing to do with your "special" help? First of all, you need to keep in mind that you are dealing with students who are going to have (or have had) a very difficult time in college (Hutto). If they are unaware that they might process information differently than their classmates, they will probably come to your class quite used to being (and expecting to be) misunderstood and ignored. Although you can do your best to make the accommodations possible within the time (and energy!) you have, you need to remember that:

• You will not ever be able to "fix" these students
• You cannot take responsibility for the student's success. Your motivation will not be enough for both of you. You can offer her a certain amount of accommodation, resources and strategies, but you cannot motivate a student who won't be motivated, and you cannot force a student to find help.

Student's Role

The reality of having to take a required writing class or even a one-on-one writing tutorial can instill fear in even the most successful of students. Writing is for so many a very intimidating activity; it is no wonder that students who have more difficulty reading and writing than their peers are simply resistant to the idea that they will ever become "good" writers.

Although students with LDs have been listening to and speaking English for almost as long as you have, their different learning styles have prevented them from being able to apply the "templates" these experiences provide for more standard learners. Often, they are not aware of the mistakes they are making, and cannot understand why they are being misunderstood.

They have been called lazy, dumb, and unmotivated, and they are probably frustrated, anxious, and insecure. They often rely on the things they are good at and repel those activities they are not (which tend to be just the sort of things we assign in composition classes). Often these students did all right in high school, but are suddenly having difficulty in college.

What does all of this point to? The reality is that these students will have to work harder than students with traditional learning styles; they have to be more mature college students, more organized, more focused, more self-motivated, more ambitious, and more consistent. If they fall prey to the temptations other students are allowed, they are much more likely to fall behind and drop out of college. It will also take them more time to complete assignments, and they will have to make that time during schedules equally as busy as their classmates.' Again, you can try to inspire this kind of enthusiasm, but you cannot provide it.

If you have pointed out the available resources on our campus, have done your best to accommodate the student in your class or tutorial, and have provided the strategies you think might help, it is up to the student to get formal assessment and to make use of the other resources available.

Teacher's Role

As I noted before, as teachers of composition we are in the perfect situation to help students with LDs. One of the reasons for this is that most of the problems these students have are in the process of reading and writing. Because much of our teaching revolves around these kinds of processes, much of what you do already in your composition class will be of use to students with LDs; you probably already emphasize the importance of drafting and revising, vital steps for students who cannot produce a "quick and clean" final draft in one sitting. You might also consider giving your class various "process" due dates, which will help motivate a student who has trouble getting writing done on time.

Peer workshop and response are also probably important parts of your pedagogy. However, students with LD can become very uncomfortable with peer responding. Sometimes they have a difficult time with proofreading and revising their own drafts, much less their peers' drafts. In addition, they might feel bashful about sharing their own rough drafts, which might have many proofreading and coherence problems. You can encourage students with LD to go to a Writing Center consultant for help working through a peer draft, or to do a pre-workshop tutorial on their own drafts. Or, you might have these students bring the draft into a conference with you. One experienced LD teacher suggested that, if these strategies do not help curb the student's fear of peer workshops, you might allow this student to be absent on the day of the workshop, with no penalty, or set them up with a regular writing center tutorial.

It is very difficult for a writing teacher/GTA, who already has very limited time, to give one LD student a lot of extra time. It is important for you to realize that you are NOT watering down the content of your class -- you are simply accommodating different learning styles that are generally ignored in traditional classrooms. In fact, most of the accommodations you can make in your classroom will be beneficial to all types of learners. On the other hand, it is going to be such a benefit to students with LDs if you give them extra office-hour time to work on strategies. You might also make them aware of the Writing Center where they can get more one-on-one attention. Most of the suggestions for accommodation that I will include here and in Attachment 1 are ideas that any teacher can employ without making huge adjustments -- good practices for any effective teacher. Attachment 2, then, offers you ideas that you can pass on to your students and strategies that they can employ on their own.

Students who have not been formally diagnosed and more acquainted with their learning process probably won't think to ask themselves why they are having trouble remembering what they have read, or writing an organized paper. Generally, a student will probably give up on an activity before "assessing" exactly what the "trouble" is. It is your difficult job, then, to "dig around" in that student's process and access the areas that are causing problems.

You are also in the unique position of having the student practice strategies over and over again. Remember, in one semester you are not going to be able to "solve" all of this student's problems. You may need to focus on one or two strategies that the student can practice and employ for the rest of his or her life. Note that you will probably need to discuss your plans with the director of the Writing Center if there are requirements for how many drafts the student writes in the tutorial.

• First, it is important to develop trust and rapport from the start - wait until you and your tutee are comfortable with each other before you try to informally assess his difficulties and find compensatory strategies.
• Learning disabilities are not constant or consistent. Therefore, you will need to be able to constantly watch, adapt, revise, assess, and ask questions. What might work one day is not guaranteed to be the best approach the next.
• Give your tutee constant feedback and opportunities to employ the strategies you taught in your tutorials.
• You have an advantage that classroom teachers don't have; you can get the student used to reading aloud to you. Something that might be humiliating to a student in a classroom might be easier if you have set up your tutorials as a "safe" place. The student can then practice reading outloud.
• acquire an understanding of various strategies available
• decide which might be the best for this student and this activity
• break down learning process into bite sized chunks
• decide which are the most important steps
• decide which order they should be in
• be able to explain the relation of each step
• be able to explain the purpose of the strategy

Appendix 1: Classroom Accommodations

Some of these strategies are things that you probably already do in your classroom--they benefit all kinds of learners. Some also require fairly simple additional accommodations for students who do not do well in standard classroom environments. I have geared these suggestions toward CO150/250; I have not included information about testing students, since we generally do not test students in our composition classes. However, Attachment 14 offers some advice for students facing a testing situation.

At the start of the semester:

• Let the class know that you will allow them to use tape recorder to record the class
• Encourage (or require) the use of a wordprocesser, spellcheck
• Let your students know about the Writing Center (give it a good ‘pump')
• Pick a reader that includes study questions
• At the beginning of the semester, provide a clearly written schedule of the class, your expectations, a time line, and the required readings for the class. Go through this whole class plan/policy verbally in class
• Make the student is aware of other campus support services and the kinds of resources at their disposal, such as

- textbooks recorded on tape

- student notetakers

Classroom activities/set-up:

• Provide written copies or detailed outlines of lectures or points made in class
• Be willing to break the class itself up into shorter activities (in other words, change gears once or twice to re-stimulate attention spans)
• Speak clearly, slowly, and with expression
• When giving a lecture or an assignment, offer the students several forms of the material. You might refer to an outline on an overhead as you speak, and also provide written copies of the assignments/materials (in other words, provide both verbal and written versions)
• Speak facing the class
• Avoid calling on students without warning    
• Explain technical or new vocabulary
• Start the class by reviewing the last class and giving an overview of what you are going to cover today. Then, at the end of the class, review the main points you covered
• When a student asks a question that requires you to repeat something you already said or was already in the reading you assigned, repeat the information patiently

Assignments :

• Break tasks into smaller parts, or help the student do this
• Provide students with examples of satisfactory and unsatisfactory work, with explicit reasons and criteria
• Leave space for notes on handouts so that they are easy to read, and so that students can write notes on the margins
• Try to allow students with LD both written and verbal feedback on assignments
• Allow for alternative measures; in other words, if a student has an extreme difficulty with collaborative work, allow her to work alone, etc. If you have noticed that a student has particular success with one type of activity, you might encourage the student to use this more often
• Provide students with a few prompts or questions that will guide their reading of a new text
• If you assign a reading, be sure to cover it in class; talk about the main points, and ask the students for their responses to the assigned questions/prompts. One effective device is to have them respond to the readings in journals or on notecards.
• Provide an LD student with more time on an assignment, but give her an enforced due date ("whenever you want to turn it in" will not work with many students who have trouble organizing their time).

Appendix 2: Strategies for LD Students in Writing Classrooms

• If you think you might have a learning disability, or you have been assessed already, do not hesitate to tell your teacher. Try to do this before or just when the semester begins so that the teacher can make any accommodations necessary
• Keep ONE calendar in which to record your assignments and due dates
• Set realistic goals for yourself
• Set a weekly timetable for yourself, and include the time you need to grocery shop, eat, do laundry, etc. Give yourself more time than you think you need to complete your assignments
• Attend all classes
• Have one or two people read through your final draft
• Use a 3-ring binder with loose-leaf notebook paper and colored notebook dividers in order to separate the different assignments you are working on in the class. Use a separate binder for each class
• Create a checksheet for each assignment you do. Include on this checksheet all of the requirements for the assignment, and then go through each category when you have finished the assignment (see Attachment 13)
• Try both recording the class and taking notes
• Take some time after your class to review what was covered and the assignments given
• Make note of any questions you have about the material in the margins of your notes
• Pick a place in the classroom where you can see the board clearly, hear the instructor, and where you are not likely to be distracted
• If you don't understand the purpose/objective of an assignment, talk to the instructor before trying to start it
• If you are having trouble keeping up even after using the above compensatory strategies, perhaps re-assess your academic load

Appendix 3: Assessment

These are some of the "symptoms" of LDs your student might exhibit:

• confusion of similar words, problem with multi-syllable words
• slow reading rate
• difficulty with retaining, comprehension, remembering
• difficulty picking out important themes or points
• skipping words or lines of printed materials
• difficulty reading for long periods of time
• difficulty with sentence structure, poor grammar, omitted words
• frequent but inconsistent misspelling errors
• difficulty copying from overhead, board
• poorly formed letters, spacing, capitals, punctuation
• difficulty planning and organizing a topic, putting thoughts on paper
• difficulty with proofreading and revision
• composition long and rambling or very short
• difficulty in varying sentence structure
• sentences in an illogical sequence
• writes and prints in the same document
• very slow writing
• writing off the lines
• difficulty with expressive, creative language

Study/Organization skills:

• poor organization and time management
• difficulty following directions
• poor organization of written materials
• turns things in late
• slow to start tasks
• inefficient use of library and reference materials

Other Signs:

• difficulty reading facial expressions, body language
• inappropriate, impulsive behavior
• has a hard time grasping subtlety
• spatial problems (cannot navigate a small class room, trips)
• quickly "overloads" and "shuts down"
• trouble sustaining attention
• hyper or hypo activity

Specific informal assessment results indicating problems in Summarizing/Revising

Summarizing

• inability to summarize from organizer chart
• not knowing how or where to begin
• inability to find main idea
• inability to separate main idea from supporting details
• inability to see connections between points
• inability to link reading to prior knowledge
• cannot understand context clues in text
• difficulty when asked to scan or discuss what is written
• difficulty identifying errors in own writing
• inability to use a dictionary successfully to check for errors
• different spelling of the same word
• inability to understand or use grammatically correct sentence structure

Appendix 4: Informal Assessment

Two approaches for Informal Assessment:

A. Questionnaire

If your student answers "yes" to 6 or more of these questions, you might take the next steps in encouraging the student to get formal assessment for reading difficulties:

(adapted from "Telltale Signs of a Learning Disability" by Hollybeth Kulick).

• Are you a slow reader?
• Do your eyes feel as if they are floating in your head when you read, or do the letters bounce around the page?
• When reading from a distance, do the letters seem to disappear?
• Have you known that you reversed letters or was it pointed out to you by a teacher?
• Do you remember what you have read ten minutes after you have read it?
• When reading do you have difficulty pronouncing words?
• When writing do you have difficulty putting your thoughts down on paper?
• Do you find that you cannot finish reading during class when the rest of the class has finished?

B. Possible approaches for informal assessment:

If you take a close look at both the student's writing/reading process and his or her sense of purpose, you can get a good idea of the kinds of trouble the student is having. For instance, if you are looking at the student's reading ability:

• Process: take a look at the way a student goes through the process of reading. You can have the student read aloud (but be sure to emphasize that you will not be evaluating or judging her), or have her read quietly as you pay attention to how long it takes her to read the text.
• Purpose: after the student has read the text, you can ask questions that will assess comprehension, questions that deal both with retention of content, and the student's ability to interpret, analyze, or personalize the content (see Appendix s 3 and 5 for a list of potential questions, and for a list of possible symptoms to watch for).

Appendix 5: Specific Symptoms of LDs

It might be useful, particularly for Writing Center consultants, to see the reference sheet the placement exam graders use to determine LDs in the CO150 placement exam essays.

A. Reverse letters

   1.     a. b for d, p for q

      b. "dig" for "big"

   2. Reverse adjunct letters

      a. "form" for "from"

      b. "clam" for "calm"

B. Confusion of similar sounding consonants

   1. /d/ for /t/, /p/ for /d/, /f/ for /th/, /m/ for /n/, /f/ for /v/

      a. "attentance" for "attendance"

      b. "imposder" for "impostor"

      c. "tranver" for "transfer"

      d. "assenble" for "assemble"

C. Confusion of similar words

   1. "hot" for "what"

   2. "where" for "there"

   3. "who" for "how"

D. Omission of syllables/letters

   1. "coarly" for "coarsely"

   2. "psychitrist" for "psychiatrist"

   3. "contempary" for "contemporary"

   4. "obvous" for "obvious"

   5. "peole" for "people"

   6. "epuiment" for "equipment"

E Addition of syllables/letters

   1. "occasionalally" for "occasionally"

   2. "symiphony" for "symphony"

F. Combination of errors

   1. "paricutaly" for "particularly"

   2. "ovbise" for "obvious"

   3. "relizse" for "realize"

   4. "electrice" for "electric"   

Appendix 6: Approaching a Student/Tutee about Potential LD

I noted that it is inadvisable to inform a person that he/she might have a learning disability. So how can we approach a writing student to do an "informal" assessment, or to let them know about the testing and resources available to them here at CSU? Authors from several sources offer these kinds of guidelines:

• Avoid the word "disability." It can be effective to talk to the student about different learning styles, and ask her what kinds of situations learning or writing make learning or writing difficult, and also when she feels most capable.
• It helps to be casual, conversational, and kind. You do not want to make this a "big deal," even if you think that this student's awareness of her potential learning difference could greatly change her ability to have success in college. The following are "lead-ins" provided by several of your colleagues:
• "There is a great place on campus that you can visit where they work with you to figure out your learning style, so you can start to use some different strategies for studying and writing that are best for you."
• "We all learn differently, only some ways of learning are seen as 'standard' and so classes don't always accommodate all of the different styles -- but you can find ways of compensating for this."
• "I am a very visual learner; I have to draw pictures of ideas, of new ideas, or outlines in order to get the most out them. You seem like you are more of an "hearing" learner, since you like to have things read aloud rather than written down."

Other suggestions:

• Meet in a private and confidential setting.
• Avoid jargon.
• Listen attentively and avoid talking too much.
• Keep note-taking down to a minimum; you don't want the student to feel like a case study subject.
• Follow the verbal and non-verbal cues the student gives you in order to determine whether you should continue with this approach.
• Avoid making any judgmental, or for that matter "remedial" comments.
• Be tactful, but honest.
• Ask open-ended questions.
• Remain relaxed and avoid defensiveness and sarcasm.

Attachment 7: Motivating Writers

Often, students who are used to being told that they are bad writers have very little motivating them to take the big steps toward learning writing strategies. Here are two ideas for motivating students to write:

Written Conversation:

In a tutorial, you have the opportunity to encourage the students' writing by having a written conversation. You might start by asking an easy and accessible question about something in which you know the student is interested, like "How is your team doing right now?" or "What did you think of The Simpsons last night?" The student then replies on paper, and you reply back with another question than will illicit an "easy" response.

Journal Writing:

You can use one of several different forms of journal writing with your tutee or student. The purpose of this journal is simply to get the student used to writing , so you might make an agreement that the journal is the student's private place to write. You might, on the other hand, try one of these other forms:

• Dialogue Journals: a two-way communication between you and your student. You can dialogue about casual issues, or talk about what you are doing in your session.
• Reading Response Journals: This is a great way for a student to generate ideas for writing about reading. You might give the student reading questions that she might respond to in her journal, or encourage the student to "freewrite" a response after she has read.
• Learning Log: This could be a place where your student writes about her use of the strategies you have taught her, the frustrations and questions she is having, and the successes she is experiencing. If you both agree that you will respond to these entries, be sure to emphasize that you WILL NOT evaluate this writing at all.

If your student is having a hard time getting started with the journal, even when you have offered suggestions for starting points, you might give her the following:

• Before you write, think of the kinds of things you have done that day.
• Make your entries brief if you like.
• Have a good-sized notebook on hand and something to write with.
• Choose the time of day that you feel most like reflecting and thinking
• Use all your senses as much as possible. Start with what you see and work through your other senses.

Appendix 8: Teaching Writing/Reading Strategies

Students with LDs often need to work in well defined steps. When you are teaching a student a new writing strategy, you can break up this teaching/learning process in the following ways:

Stage One: Introducing Strategies and Setting Goals

First you need to establish what goals you and the student have. What is it that the student wants to improve? What does the student have the most trouble with? Once you have established the goals, you will want to introduce the various strategies that can get the student to her goal. Explain the strategies slowly and clearly, then let the student decide which might be the most understandable or the most memorable, so that she might be able to employ it again on her own.

Stage Two: Preskill Development

You need to get the student up to the place he needs to be in order to use this strategy. For instance, if the student needs to learn how to use strategies to organize paragraphs, you will want to first make sure that he understands why paragraphs are used, how they are generally organized, etc.

Stage Three: Discussion of the Strategy

Explain the strategy in detail; its steps, its value, and when and where it might be used. You might explain this both verbally and visually.

Stage Four: Modeling the Strategy

Model the strategy using any prompts, charts, mnemonics or other aids that the student might find useful. Let the student watch you use the strategy step by step in a writing process. You can even work with the student to change the strategy, to make it easier to remember or use.

Stage Five: Providing Scaffolding

Help the student find ways to remember the strategy (for instance, if you are working on editing, have the student create a sentence that includes the mnemonic SCOPE -- see Appendix 13 -- : "To check the whole scope of my essay, I need to carefully edit)." Have the student reword the steps and purpose of the strategy in her own words.

Have the student try the strategy right then and there, then assign a writing situation where she will need to use the strategy at home.

Stage Seven: Feedback

Give the student definite feedback on his use of the strategy; be honest about the ways in which the strategy didn't work, and the ways the student might have implemented the strategy more effectively.

Stage Eight: Implement

Once the student has practiced and memorized this strategy, give her different situations where she can use it.

Appendix 9: Reading Strategies

Have the student bring the card to class or to the tutorial. She can use this card to refer to in class discussion, as well as a starting point for an essay. As a teacher or tutor, talk to the student about her quotes and how they illustrate the essay. Next, help the student see how these quotes and responses can be integrated into the construction of an essay.

• Go through numerous articles and have the student decide which information is "focus" information (important for the point of the articles), and what is "framing" information (analogies, digressions, metaphor, example, etc).
• title, author, source and page numbers
• selected quotes and page numbers that best illustrate the essay
• the student's response to the reading
• the first time to find only factual information (who, what, when, where, etc.)
• the second read could be in response to reading questions
• the third read could be to generate ideas for a writing assignment

You could help students with reading comprehension by giving them both "forward" and "backward" reading questions. The forward questions will help them focus their reading toward a certain purpose, and the backward questions allow students to review the text from various angles.

Learning Strategies for Adults by Sandra Crux (94-97), offers some very useful suggestions for reading strategies

a. the ConStruct Procedure:

• start with a rapid skimming of the text: look at the title, the subtitles, the first sentence of each paragraph, any illustrations, charts, etc. Then, start a diagram that includes the important information you have found
• next, do a more thorough reading of the text, this time reading to understand, but with no stress toward remembering points. Add any new important material to your diagram.
• Before beginning a third and forth reading, look over the diagram and make sure that it makes sense. Try to figure out what does not make sense and check back through the text to find this information.
• The final reading involves looking for more specific details, and anything that will fill out the diagram.

b. the Multipass Procedure: this strategy is for students who are required to do a lot of reading.

• Survey: quickly read the text only looking at titles, subtitles, etc. (same as above).
• Size-up: Use any questions/focus your instructor gave you, review questions that might come at the end of the reading, or decide on your own purpose for reading this text, and focus only on finding information that answers or responds to that.
• Sorting-out: Review notes you have made and check for any information that has not yet been answered or found.
• Predict: Try to predict what one section of the text is going to be about (you can do this by the subsections set up in the reading, or by paragraph).
• Read and Prove: Read the passage carefully and try to find evidence to prove your prediction. Repeat this for each section.

When teaching students to respond to texts, break the steps up so that the student can follow these steps each time she faces a reading-to-writing type of assignment. One way to break this up is:

Create a note card for the text, including quotes and notes.

• For what purpose was this written?
• What is the main thing the author wants to get across to me?
• What is the most important example in the text?
• Use the card to brainstorm ideas for a paper
• Organize thoughts into an outline
• Write at least 3 drafts, reading each 3 times before revising
• Conduct a self-evaluation of the draft
• Have at least 1 person read through the draft

Appendix 10: Writing Strategies

It is helpful to break any writing assignment up into separate "tasks." For instance, see Appendix 12 for a possible breakdown of a research project. For the most part, you can separate a writing task into 3 parts:

• Translating
• There are several different ways a student can plan a paper, including Brainstorming, Clustering, and Looping (see Stephen Reid's Prentice Hall Guide for a description of these strategies). You can also teach your student to use a graphic chart (there is a description of four types in Appendix 11). Try several of these charts to see which one works best for your student by having her brainstorm ideas on a topic.
• After she has found a strategy that works for her, have her refer to her chart and do some freewriting (if your student has difficulty with freewriting, have her make a list instead); at this point, encourage her not to worry about what she includes in her text. She will be able to decide what to include or exclude later.
• Next, have your student read through what she has done so far and decide what might be included and excluded from her essay.
• Have her then plan a new "action plan." At this point, have your student separate her plan into an Introduction, a Body, and a Conclusion:

         1. Introduction: Generally, an introduction includes

            a. necessary background on the topic

             b. the purpose of the paper (why it might be important to

            explore this topic)

            c. an overview of the main points that will be covered

          2. Body: the body of the essay is generally

            a. organized by point (and the order makes sense)

            b. clearly states each point

            c. offers evidence/details for each point

          3. Conclusion: make sure the conclusion

            a. is consistent with what is slated in the introduction

            b. explains the importance of issue addressed

Next comes the drafting step:

Translating:

Now it is time for your student to translate her chart into a draft. Some students might benefit from creating a more detailed linear outline before going on, and others will benefit more from a more detailed "pictorial" outline. For some students, once they have written a detailed outline the drafting is the easiest part of writing. However, most students with LDs have a very difficult time with this part of writing. Some students will need to freewrite again at this point, and then use a strategy like cutting the draft up and pasting it back together (see Appendix 11). Others will just need a lot of extra time and room for writing many drafts.

• Students may benefit from keeping a "drafting diary" where she can record revision questions she needs to ask herself, like "Do my thoughts follow each other logically and make sense?" and "Does each sentence say what I want it to say?" or "Have I left out any important information?" (see Appendix 13 for more revision and editing strategies). Most students with LDs should work with you to create an editing/proofreading check-list that they can use throughout their academic career.
• Some students might benefit from reading their essay into a tape recorder and then listening to the essay to find inconsistencies, errors, lack of coherence, etc.

Appendix 11: Organization Strategies

Students who have trouble with sequential organization might find some of these strategies useful:

• Have them draft as they normally would, then have them cut their draft up into what they determine as separate "points." Then work together to put them into a more logical order (the easiest way to do this may be to tape the pieces onto a large piece of posterboard). After a few times, they should be able to do this one on their own, although it does require extra drafting time.
• These "graphic organizers," adapted from Learning Strategies for Adults by Sandra Crux, (29, 93, 104-105) can be used as both reading-to-write strategies and as strategies to write about topics. Have the student try each one to find which will work best for him. Each one of these works well in the first stages of prewriting, and as a revision plan for a final draft:

Attachment 11a: Flow Chart (with activity idea)

               Central Theme

Main Points to be covered

1            2            3         4      

   Notecards containing facts go in envelopes below to be organized by topic

Envelope       Envelope       Envelope    Envelope   

1       2          3          4

This organizational chart is best placed on a large piece of cardboard or in the center of a piece of posterboard. Envelopes can then be stapled or pinned to the board. The student places 3 x 5 notecards that contain the different information into the appropriate envelope according to the way her topics are arranged.

Appendix 12: Breaking Research Papers Down into Steps

Research Papers:

• Choose a topic

-is your topic too broad or too narrow?

-is there enough factual information on the topic?

-are you interested in this topic?

-has your topic been approved by your teacher?

• Locate your sources

break your research down by each type of source you will find, including

   Internet sources

   Reference books

   Magazines/Journals

   Newspapers

   Books

   Experts

• Prepare Bibliography Cards

-prepare a separate card for each source you find. Include on each card

   The title of the piece

   Where you found it

   The author's name

   page numbers

-number each card in the right-hand corner and circle it for easy identification

• Prepare Note Cards

Use large note cards, and number these so that they correspond with the right bibliography card.

-Feel free to use more than one note card for each source, but be sure to number them.

-All notes should be in your handwriting, and each quote needs to be EXACT, and should be followed by the page number.

-write legibly, or type your notecards with a typewriter.

Prepare your paper outline (organize this by 'Intro,' 'parts of body' and 'conclusion.' See Appendix 10)      

      Title

I. Roman numerals for topics

A. Capital letters for subtopics

   1. Arabic numerals for details

    a. small letters for subdetails

-As you become more aquatinted with your topic, revise your outline with more specific information.

• Writing the Paper

- organize your notecards so that they are in the order of your outline

- Follow your notecards as you draft.

Appendix 13: Editing Proofreading Strategies

Many students with LDs have trouble both proofreading and editing their drafts. Since they often also tend to have more errors on their rough drafts, it is important for them to accumulate strategies that will help them clean up their final drafts. Here are a couple suggestions:

SCOPE is a mnemonic device to help students remember important steps in editing:

S - Spelling: Is the spelling correct?

C - Capitalization: Are the first words of sentences, proper names, and proper nouns capitalized?

O - Order of Words: Are the words in the right order?

P - Punctuation: Does each sentence end with a period, question mark, or exclamation mark? Are commas and apostrophes placed where needed?

E - Express Complete Thought: Is each sentence complete? Does each sentence have a subject and a predicate?

Check list for revising:

____ 1. My introduction clearly introduces the topic.

____ 2. The sub-headings help the reader understand the paper.

____ 3. The body of the paper contains all the facts needed.

____ 4. Each paragraph is written with a main idea.

____ 5. Every sentence and paragraph adds something to the paper.

____ 6. I have reread my sentences aloud to be sure they make sense.

____ 7. I chose the best words to explain my ideas.

____ 8. The conclusion follows from the facts.

____ 9. I corrected all the misspelled words.

____ 10. I capitalized all the appropriate words.

____ 11. I used quotation marks to identify all quotations.

____ 12. I reread the paper at least three times looking for ways to make it better.

____ 13. I numbered all the pages.

Sentence Level Editing:

For each sentence, ask the following questions:

1. Does the sentence state the topic?

2. Does the sentence add further information to the topic sentence?

3. Does the sentence follow a logical order?   

4. Does the sentence say what I really want it to say?   

5. Does the sentence sound right?

6. Does the sentence show what I really think?

7. Does the information sound credible?

8. Does the sentence summarize what has been said so far?

9. Does the sentence sound like a conclusive comment?

10. Will the readers see the importance of the sentence?

11. Will readers be interested in the sentence?

12. Will readers understand what I mean by the sentence?

13. Is the sentence clear and to the point?

14. Is the sentence connected to the previous one?

Appendix 14: Essay Test Taking Strategies

Although giving timed essay tests is not common practice in our composition classes, students are nonetheless apt to face these kinds of tests in other classes. Students who have visited the Resources for Disabled Students Office know that they can get extra time for these tests, but often students also need ideas for how to approach them, even with the extra time. Here are some ideas to pass on to your students:

Short answer/multiple choice:

• Relax through deep breathing
• Scan the entire test, searching for the part that appears to be the easiest for you.
• Read each question or prompt carefully. Place a check mark beside the ones you think you know and a question mark by the ones you think you do not know. First, complete all items you are certain you know. Practice this procedure on worksheets prior to the test day.
• To remember the answers, visualize yourself looking for the answer in the book, or picture yourself hearing the teacher give the answer in class, or close your eyes and mentally write the answer.
• Go back to the questions you do not know. Try the methods listed above. If you cannot remember the answer:

     -- eliminate the answers you know are wrong

     -- deep breathe to relax, and write or circle the answer you feel is correct

     -- look for the answer hidden in another uestion on the test.

Essay Tests:

Studying for essay tests:

• Spend some time DESCRIBING what you should do to get ready to study for the test.
• OUTLINE the five-day study plan.
• SUMMARIZE the things you should do when taking any test.
• PREDICT the way the questions on the test might be written. You might practice writing the test questions yourself.

Taking the test:

• Read and restate each item in your own words before attempting to answer it. In this way, you check to see if you understand it, and you make sure that you read ALL of the instructions.
• Decide if your answer needs to be long or just a few words. If your answer is going to be long, make a brief outline before writing your answer. This helps you organize your information.
• Answer all parts of the item.
• Write directly to the point of the item. This means that you must answer the question or statement and not write about something else you find interesting or happen to know about.
• Use pictures and diagrams to explain your ideas whenever it may be appropriate.
• Write neatly because teachers will not give you credit for something they cannot read.
• Proofread your answers for clarity, spelling, and grammar.
• When you are running out of time, quickly list the information you know about any remaining items so your teacher will see what you know. This may earn you partial credit.

Appendix 15: A Self-evaluation for Teachers

If you are not sure whether your classroom is conducive to successful learning, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I create a climate that welcomes each new learner?
• Would I feel welcome here if I were new to the class?
• Is the classroom safe?
• Are students encouraged or discouraged from making fun of each other or criticizing each others' choice of questions, their writing, or their manner of speaking?
• What is my comfort level with the ethnic, racial, and gender groups in my class?
• If I am uncomfortable with some groups of students, do I tend to overlook negative interactions among students?
• Do I avoid using analogies, metaphors, or jokes that might be offensive to some learners?
• Do I take complaints and concerns of learners seriously, rather than ignoring them?
• Do I show that I value the contributions of each student?
• Do I model the way I want my students to treat each other?

Appendix 16: Dyslexia and Dysgraphia

Dyslexia, generally, is not a "syndrome" but a multifaceted problem. For the most part, dyslexia affects the student's ability to make sense of printed material (note that this includes the notes you write on the overhead and chalkboard!). Most of us think of backward letters when we think of dyslexia, but there are more serious problems than simply switching the letters "d" and "b." These reversals also happen at the sentence level: "to go the store" for "go to the store," and at the conceptual level: the student might start with the "middle" part of what she wanted to say, then end with an unfinished sentence, the "start" of the concept she intended.

Students who have dyslexia tend to:

• have problems writing legibly
• have trouble writing in a straight line
• have trouble keeping their place on the page
• have trouble with long-term memory
• might have visual problems that cause the letters to dance around on the page

Dysgraphia:

The concept of dysgraphia includes any serious problem with writing, including spelling problems, coherence and organization problems, problems copying down what one sees, and the inability to write ideas down at all. A student with a form of dysgraphia probably has a hard time maneuvering the complicated process of writing. This student tends to:

• take a very long time to write a sentence, or even a word
• complain that she knows what she wants to say but can't seem to get it down on paper
• have poor handwriting
• write in fragments
• write incoherently (sentences have no particular order)
• write sentences with little syntactic complexity
• do very poorly on any timed essay tests or exams
• have difficulty copying text from the board, or to copy down lecture notes given orally

Crux, Sandra C. Learning Strategies for Adults: Compensations for Learning Disabilities . Middletown: Wall & Emerson, Inc., 1991.

This text offers specific strategies for adult educators for helping adults learn compensatory methods for their specific learning disabilities.

Dunn, Patricia A. Learning Re-Abled: The Learning Disability Controversy and Composition Studies . Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc., 1995.

This book is a must read for any teacher or student interested in looking into the many issues that contribute to the learning disability controversy. The author not only offers a brief overview of how LD studies and composition have grown up together, but also gives teachers numerous possible approaches for working with students with learning disabilities.

Gaskins, Jacob C. "Teaching Writing to Students with Learning Disabilities: The Landmark Method." TETYC. 22.2 (1995): 116-122.

This article lays out the basic principles of the Landmark Method of teaching writing to LD students.

Gunning, Thomas G. Assessing and Correcting Reading and Writing Difficulties. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.

This impressive text is mostly geared toward teachers of children with learning disabilities, but there are quite a few useful teaching and learning strategies that will apply to post-secondary students as well.

Hutto, Melanie P. "Adults Who Have A Learning Disability: A Guide for the ABE Instructor." 1995. ERIC . CD-ROM.

Although written specifically for ABE instructors, this guide provides numerous strategies that would be appropriate for any writing tutor.

Kulick, Hollybeth. "Telltale Signs of a Learning Disability." Denver: Blue Spectrum Press, 1980.

A fairly dated but still relevant overview of what teachers can look for to determine whether students might have a learning disability. Includes the "telltale signs," as well as questions to ask the students.

Lipson, Marjorie Y. and Karen K. Wixson. Assessment and Instruction of Reading and Writing Disability: An Interactive Approach . 2nd ed. New York: Longman, 1997.

This text offers a great mini-history of reading and writing theory and practice, and bases its own instructional models on a blend of cognitive and social approaches to learning. It leads writing and reading teachers through the process of assessing their own teaching methods as well as instruction in informal assessment.

Mather, Nancy and Rhia Roberts. Informal Assessment and Instruction In Written Language . New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995.

This text is a detailed instruction manual for teachers, particularly elementary school teachers, who are interested in informally assessing their students' possible learning difficulties. Although for the most part this text is not relevant for college students (the text is very specifically focused on children's writing samples), some of the reading comprehension strategies are perfectly applicable to any writing/reading teacher trying to help her students better understand and write about a text.

Merson, Martha. "An Ideal Student's Lack of Progress, or Snowshoveling in Unfamiliar Territory." Connections: A Journal of Adult Literacy . 5 Win 1995: 46-51.

Merson documents a "patient" teacher's approach to finding the best strategies for teaching reading and writing to a learning disabled student.

Pardes, Joan Rudel and Rebecca Z. Rich. "Teaching Writing to College Students with Learning Disabilities." Intervention in School and Clinic. 31.5 (1996): 297-302.

This article delineates a course to teach college students with learning disabilities how to become self-regulated learners in writing through strategies in prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing.

Plata, Maximino, et al. "Comparative Writing Performance of College Students With and Without Learning Disabilities." Journal of Research and Development in Education. 29.1 (1995): 20-26.

This article argues that holistic assessment can be used as a screening tool to find students who need additional assessment for learning disabilities.

Sherwood, Steve. "Apprenticed to Failure: Learning from the Students We Can't Help." The Writing Center Journal. 17.1 (1996): 49-57.

This article offers advice to writing center tutors who feel that they have failed in meeting the needs of students with learning disabilities. Sherwood argues that failure is a part of teaching, and can be used as learning tools to for re-evaluating and changing our tutoring strategies.

Smith, Judith O. "Self-Reported Written Language Difficulties of University Students with Learning Disabilities." Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability . 10.3 (1993): 1-10.

31 University students with learning disabilities were interviewed for their comments on the willingness of university professors to accommodate them and grant their requests.

Smith, Sally L. Succeeding Against the Odds: Strategies and Insights from the Learning Disabled . Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc, 1991.

A look at learning disabilities from the perspective of students and adults with various disabilities.

Stracher, Dorothy A. "Providing Strategies for Learning Disabled College Students: Continuous Assessment in Reading, Writing and Reasoning." Research and Teaching in Developmental Education. 10.1 (1993): 65-84.

This article describes a model program for potentially gifted learning disabled college students. This program both offers strategies for LD students and suggestions for tutors in in-depth training with their students.

"Tutor Training for Occupational Students With Learning Disabilities: PY95 Final Detailed Report." 15 Aug. 95 ERIC . Online. FirstSearch. 23 March 1998.

Although this source is specifically geared toward training tutors in occupational therapy, there are several great strategies for teaching writing and reading to adult learners.

• Sites to Promote Academic Success
• Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services Blog
• National Center for Learning Disabilities
• Learning Disabilities Association
• Internet Special Educational Resources

Heather Urschel. (2018). Teaching Strategies for Students with Learning Disabilities. The WAC Clearinghouse. Retrieved from https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/teaching/guides/ld/. Originally developed for Writing@CSU (https://writing.colostate.edu).

Note: Thanks to Lucas Gilbreth for the use of his essay, "Living with a Learning Disorder."

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Homework Strategies for Students with Learning Disabilities

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Clear Communication with the Teacher

It’s important that assigned homework is clear and appropriate for the student. If the homework is too difficult or too easy, it can cause challenges at home. If the homework assignment is unclear, then it makes things frustrating for children and adults. It’s important for parents and teachers to work together to monitor homework assignments and their completion.

Children in general need structured time for homework. The same is true for children with learning disabilities. It’s important that they know what’s expected of them and that they have a designated study time. Try to make sure that a parent or a tutor is available during the study time to monitor the child and to step in and help if necessary.

Organization

One of the challenges for many children with learning disabilities is getting and staying organized. They may struggle to create systems. Checklists, homework notebooks, and other systems can help a child write down the necessary information for each assignment. They need to learn to document the details as well as when the assignment is due. If you have a designated homework area, consider creating an environment that is organized to support your learner. It might include learning tools like calculators, pencils, and file organizers color coded for each subject.

Teach Self-Monitoring

Your child isn’t going to always have someone available to create systems for them or hold them accountable. They need to learn to manage these responsibilities themselves. Create an accountability chart that helps them stay on track. The chart might give stars for days with completed homework, blank marks for days that homework was not completed, and a checkmark if the homework was done but late. This type of system can also alert parents to potential issues. For example, if you notice that your child has had late homework three days in a row, you know that something’s not working.

Make It Fun

When possible, make homework something that your child doesn’t dread. Provide snacks, allow them to listen to music (if it isn’t distracting), and let them take breaks. If your child has a positive attitude about homework, it can reduce their resistance and potential struggle.

The most important homework strategy for parents with children who have learning disabilities is to have an open line of communication with the child’s teachers. When parents and teachers work together to create appropriate homework, children benefit.

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Ensuring That Instruction Is Inclusive for Diverse Learners

Using ideas from Universal Design for Learning with all students can make classrooms more welcoming for those with learning disabilities.

Humans have a tendency to fall into patterns of behavior. For teachers, that means that if we’re not careful, we begin to teach things the same way every year. This is comfortable for us, but it can result in a rigid curriculum that may not work for all students—and traditional classrooms are curriculum-centered already, not easily adapted to the differing needs of individual students. Instead, students are required to adapt to the curriculum.

As a special education teacher, part of my job was helping students who had a diagnosed learning disability access the general education curriculum, so I frequently found myself co-teaching with a math or English teacher. When students with learning differences are placed in the general education classroom, they often receive accommodations and services. However, when those accommodations are paired with—and constrained by—a traditional, rigid curriculum, the result can be the opposite of inclusion, in my experience.

Teachers in this situation may become frustrated because trying to accommodate each child individually creates a lot of stress and often an unmanageable workload. Another issue I saw at the middle school level is that despite teachers’ best efforts, students with learning differences often feel singled out, and as they get older they may reject accommodations in order to fit in—even though that means forgoing supports that could help meet their learning needs.

The majority of students need something different, but how can you design a curriculum that works for all students—and for the teacher?

In working together, the general education teacher and I would work out ways to flex and adapt our teaching styles to fit our students’ needs. As a team, we modified our instruction based on what worked and what didn’t. We used what we learned to design instruction that could change based on students’ needs.

All of this work was based on the well-known, flexible model called Universal Design for Learning , which can be used in any classroom to make instruction more accessible.

3 Ways to Implement Universal Design for Learning

1. Teach content in many ways: In a traditional classroom, planning for the lesson is done with the “typical” student in mind. Often, there is one way for all students to learn the material, such as a lecture or a slide presentation.

Instead, try to plan the lesson with all students in mind. Survey students to find out what they already know and questions they have about the new topic. Use that information to scaffold instruction and make lessons more relevant to students. You can also vary the methods that you use to deliver the direct instruction portion of your lesson—try showing a demonstration or video clip for one lesson, and have students participate in stations or listen to a podcast for another.

If possible, use more than one modality within a lesson, and think about supports that students may need for learning. If students are moving around the room, have clearly defined procedures and a goal at each learning center. If they’re listening to you or a podcast, it may be helpful to provide an outline where they can add notes or sketch visuals while they listen. If they’re reading texts, you can allow them to partner read or use technology to adjust the font and text size.

2. Provide choices to sustain student engagement: Allow students to choose an activity. For guided practice, they could decide whether to answer questions independently and receive feedback, play a game, do a role play, or practice in a group. To demonstrate their understanding of a concept, they could decide whether to create a poster or construct a model, write a paper, make a video or podcast, or do a presentation. Making choices allows them to relate to the content in a way that sparks their interest.

Teachers can often offer students other choices in the classroom, beyond instruction. For example, you may be able to provide flexible seating, allowing students to choose a quiet area of the classroom to finish up an assignment on their own, or to sit at tables for group work, or to grab a seat at a computer to watch a video, print a new worksheet, or read a digital textbook.

3. Provide accommodations for all students: Instead of providing accommodations only to students with an IEP or a 504 plan, think about accommodations that such students frequently need and make them available to all students.

For example, if you often have students who need a copy of the notes, using a site like Blackboard or Google Classroom to post each slide presentation and assignment makes it easier for everyone to access those materials. Students who are absent, lose their copy, or have trouble taking notes can use the online notes and documents. Having documents available online also makes it easier for parents, special education teachers, and paraeducators to help students without making extra work for the teacher.

Another example would be teaching students to use a free text reader like the Read and Write extension for Google Chrome or a voice-to-text tool like those available in Google Documents. Students may choose not to use them, but they’re a good option for students who happen to retain information better when they hear it or who have a disability that interferes with writing.

Universal Design for Learning allows instruction to become student-centered by creating a more welcoming and flexible classroom environment and a curriculum that is more accessible to all students. Flexible instruction should lead the student to be more personally accountable for their learning: Instead of the teacher expecting all students to learn in one way, the student sets their own goals for how they will learn the required material.

The student becomes an expert not just on the content but on how they learn. Once the content has faded from their memory, this is the skill that will allow them to acquire the knowledge necessary for whatever endeavor they decide to pursue.

Homework Strategies for Children with Learning Disabilities

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• Published on April 29, 2021
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7 Classroom Management Strategies for Students With Learning Disorders

Approximately  59% of students  diagnosed with special needs spend more than 80% of their school day in a general education setting. There are lots of benefits to structuring education in this way. Yet, it can also prove challenging when implementing classroom management strategies.

Students with learning disorders often have unique needs and learning styles. It’s is important to account for these when structuring lessons and procedures. Here’s how to recognize learning disabilities and create an effective classroom management strategy.

How to Recognize When a Student Has a Learning Disorder

You should be able to identify when one of your students might have a learning disorder. This is especially true when developing your classroom management plan.  Students with learning disabilities  often struggle with one or more of the following:

• Reading and/or writing
• Mathematics
• Coordination
• Short attention span
• Ability to follow directions
• Staying organized
• Telling time

Behavioral signs often accompany these difficulties. Students can display anything from extreme emotional outbursts to restlessness and general disruptiveness. Understand that age groups impact which  behavior management strategies  are most effective.

Classroom Management Strategies for Students With a Learning Disability

Having effective classroom management strategies in place helps mitigate disruptions and maximize learning. The following strategies are effective for both general and special education students.

1. Create an Inclusive Learning Environment

Developing a welcoming environment for students depends on your words and attitude. You are responsible for making your students feel safe, respected, and acknowledged. Do this by performing simple, friendly gestures throughout the day.

Greet your students at the door and check in regularly. Give them your undivided attention and use positive reinforcement instead of punishment.  Evidence suggests  that positive reinforcement techniques have greater success in molding class behavior.

Administrators and special education directors play a key role as well. They are instrumental in creating an inclusive learning environment. Learn how to create a  behavioral intervention strategy  for your school today.

2. Familiarize Yourself With Students’ Unique Rhythms

One important classroom management strategy is  getting to know your students . Figure out where their strengths lie and which areas they find challenging. Positively reinforce their strong points and be more intentional when teaching difficult topics.

It’s vital to understand where students with learning disabilities are coming from. You need to be aware of environmental triggers. These can include colors, noises, people, locations, and other stimuli.

Once you can identify what causes a student to lose focus, you can adjust and plan accordingly.

3. Intentional Classroom Seating

Create an intentional seating chart. Disruptions happen  two to three times  as often when students choose their own seats.

Placing students in rows is better than groups or circles for a few reasons. It provides students with their own space, so they don’t feel uncomfortable. It also keeps their attention directed forward.

Avoid seating students with attention disorders near windows or computers. Active screensavers or moving objects can draw their focus away from the lesson. This leads to disruptions down the road when students don’t understand the material.

Having assigned seating works for older age groups as well. It mitigates disruptions and distractions caused by friendly socialization.

4. Practice Consistency

Adding diversity to your lesson plan keeps students interested and engaged. However, all activities should fall into a structured lesson plan or schedule.  Behavior management studies  show that all students benefit from having a dependable routine.

Having constant variation or unpredictability can be destabilizing. This is even more evident in students with learning disabilities.

5. Encourage Social Interactions

Peer tutoring  is an effective tool in classroom management strategies. Pair students with learning disorders with cooperative peers to help them stay focused.

You will often find both students benefiting from the interaction. One receives extra help and guidance. The other studies the material in a different way by teaching it to their classmate.

Social interactions also extend to behavior modeling.  Losing your temper  will only make a tense situation worse and lead to more disruptive behaviors. Practice patience and model accountability.

Your students will respect you more if you are willing to admit when you were wrong or overreacted. Use this practice frequently in your classroom management strategy.

6. Understand the Importance of Visual Aids and Stimuli

Verbal repetition isn’t always the best way to get an idea across. Visual learners will benefit more from having information posted around the room.

Classroom rules should be visible at all times. They not only help visual learners but serve as a reminder to other students as well. It also allows you to reference the rules when broken or questioned.

Students with learning disabilities often have an affinity for certain stimuli. Computers, visuals, and colors are common sources of attraction. If this is the case, incorporate these elements into your lesson plan to maximize focus.

Be aware that other students might experience the opposite. They could find the bright colors intrusive, invasive, or loud. Consider this as you develop your classroom management strategies.

7. Be Flexible and Stay Abreast of the Latest Techniques

No two students are exactly alike, and no two days will be the same either. Adaptability is a key component of any successful behavior management strategy. Stay organized and plan for potential disruptions.

Keep educating yourself on the latest research and classroom management strategies. Enroll in a class to broaden skills or attend a workshop. At Insights to Behavior, we have over 60 hours of  training workshops  to expand your skillset.

Understanding Different Behavioral Management Strategies

Classroom management strategies change depending on the age and needs of your students. When working with learning disorders, you might need to change your teaching style.

It is impossible to accommodate every student’s needs 100% of the time. Utilizing different behavior management strategies and being willing to adapt is essential.

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It’s Time to Rethink Homework for Students With Disabilities

Editor's Note

If you’re looking for creative inspiration, check out the Daily Inspirations group on The Mighty.

I’m just going to say it: Homework is a thorn in the side of most parents raising children with disabilities. In case you haven’t experienced it, let me explain:

Other relevant stories: • What Does Meth Do to Someone Who Has ADHD? • Difference Between ADHD and Autism • ADHD Iceberg • What is ADHD?

You wake up in the morning ready to implement your well-crafted morning routine that includes the most efficient way to get your child clothed, fed, packed up, and in the car with the fewest moments of frustration, tears and conflict with siblings. Because school is hard for your child, making it through the morning routine and into the school building is your child’s first triumph of the day. During that school day, your child is faced with challenging tasks. There will be spoken language to process , pencils to grip, a body to keep still, transitions to initiate, social interactions to understand, and non-preferred academic work to complete.

Your child will probably be exhausted when they get to you at pick-up. This is understandable. They have just “left it all on the field” in the classroom. They need time to recover, to engage in preferred play, and to rest and reconnect with you. But before they can rest, some days your child will have a therapy appointment to work on emotional regulation, language skills, motor skills, or sensory needs.

What happens when they get home? There is more to do. There is homework. Your child does not yet work independently so you are now their teacher, except you don’t have a degree in special education. Not only are you trying to help your exhausted child, you are also trying to cook dinner, pick up a sibling from dance, and return a work call because you left work early to be home with your child after school. You are exhausted, too. Does this sound familiar?

So, why are we giving homework to our students with disabilities? There are many costs, but are there any benefits? I think there can be — if we first determine a student’s readiness for homework and we then plan to support them. Here’s how.

The Need for Play

Some schools in America have begun doing away with assigning homework before fifth grade due to the developmental need for play and movement. Elementary-aged children are still learning through play and need time for unstructured play or structured arts, music, or sports time after school. A school day’s-worth of academic learning is enough at this age and young children need time outside to move their bodies, free time to recover from the demands placed on them, and quiet time to be alone with their thoughts or to connect with their family.

Prior to being developmentally ready for independent work, I believe the only homework that should be assigned is nightly reading with a parent, adult family member, or older sibling. Reading with someone builds connection, imagination, and social comprehension skills that create feelings of security and confidence, which both lead to a love of learning.

Why Children With Disabilities May Not Be Homework-Ready Alongside Their Same-Age Peers

For children with anxiety surrounding academic work due to a learning disability, attention difficulties, or sensory overload, they are often exhausted from the school day. A child’s optimal time for focusing and learning may not be 4:00-6:00 pm, much less 7:00-9:00 pm. If a child is fighting or refusing to do homework, there is a reason. As parents and educators, we must pay attention to these patterns of emotional distress, figure out the cost and benefit of homework, and collaborate with teachers on a plan for the most supportive learning experience, either in the classroom or at home.

When Are Students Ready for Homework? Focus First on Executive Functioning Skills

The benefit of homework is in the extra practice that leads to the mastery of a concept, either academic or organizational, and higher confidence of that skill when the student returns to school the following day. While the benefit of homework in the elementary years is often to master reading, writing, and math skills, homework for fifth graders and beyond should focus on executive functioning. In order to complete homework independently, students must have solid executive functioning skills .

Our executive functioning encompasses our planning, organizing, initiating, attending, shifting focus, and execution of tasks. We need these skills to turn our ideas into plans and our plans into actions. Our executive functioning, located in the frontal lobe of our brain, does not fully develop until our mid-20s . When we assign homework to pre-teens and teenagers without also teaching them how to organize and execute the work, we are doing them a huge disservice.

A Warning About Middle School

Most children shift from needing a parent to sit down with them to complete homework to completing it on their own sometime between third and fifth grades. However, children with learning disabilities , ADHD , anxiety , and/or autism spectrum disorders may not be able to work independently for several more years, which can lead into their middle school years.

When the load of middle school homework increases before a child’s ability to work independently, we are met with frustration from the child and their parents. Many parents have found it helpful to ask your child’s IEP team for modified homework where teachers can assign the amount of homework they know the student is capable of completing independently. More challenging tasks that could help the student grow, such as long-term projects and reports, can be assigned with the student’s need for support in mind, such as shorter deadlines on smaller portions of a project to teach time management.

Teach a Work/Life Balance

After graduate school, I remember the relief I felt when I didn’t have homework anymore. Now, I go out of my way to plan healthy boundaries in my own life so I don’t bring work home. Shouldn’t we be teaching children how to have healthy boundaries around work and play? Shouldn’t we be teaching them how to balance work completion and time with family and friends? All children would benefit from these lessons; however, our differently-wired children are our most vulnerable to this work/life balance and their discomfort is demanding we change the system for them.

When homework is assigned in the same way for everyone, we ignore the fact that each student has a different amount of gas in their tank. Some have fuel for homework at the end of the day and some just do not. When we ask students to keep working after school when their tank is on empty, we likely damage their love of learning and fill them with dread for tomorrow.

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Dr. Emily King is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Raleigh, North Carolina. She received her Ph.D. in School Psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill and previously provided school-based mental health services in Houston, Texas. Dr. King has worked with children and families for over 15 years and specializes in Autism, ADHD, and anxiety. She is also the mother of two energetic boys who are her best teachers. Follow Dr. King's blog "Parenting...on your own path" at www.dremilyking.com/blog or on Facebook @dremilyking and Twitter @emilywkingphd.

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Homework and students with learning disabilities and behavior disorders: a practical, parent-based approach

Affiliation.

• 1 Department of Educational Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 84112.
• PMID: 7806956
• DOI: 10.1177/002221949402700901

This article provides a limited review of the effects of homework on students with disabilities, the essentials of effective homework programs, and variables that affect home-school partnerships. The emphasis is on students with learning disabilities and behavior disorders who are at risk for academic failure and poor school adjustment. The authors introduce the University of Utah Homework Partners series, which highlights three homework packages: a cooperative learning teams-based approach for classrooms, a package to train parents to be positive academic tutors for their children, and a systematic program to train parents in effective homework practices. The latter package is the major focus of this article because it emphasizes home-school partnerships for students with disabilities. Sanity Savers for Parents: Tips for Tackling Homework is a training program that teaches parents how to assess, design, and troubleshoot an effective in-home homework program for their child. The overall emphasis of this program is on practical interventions that are positive and motivating and include a home-to-school link to maximize the generalization of effects for students with learning and behavior disabilities.

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• Practical recommendations for using homework with students with learning disabilities. Patton JR. Patton JR. J Learn Disabil. 1994 Nov;27(9):570-8. doi: 10.1177/002221949402700904. J Learn Disabil. 1994. PMID: 7806959
• Homework practices of students with and without learning disabilities: a comparison. Gajria M, Salend SJ. Gajria M, et al. J Learn Disabil. 1995 May;28(5):291-6. doi: 10.1177/002221949502800504. J Learn Disabil. 1995. PMID: 7775848
• Making homework work at home: the parent's perspective. Kay PJ, Fitzgerald M, Paradee C, Mellencamp A. Kay PJ, et al. J Learn Disabil. 1994 Nov;27(9):550-61. doi: 10.1177/002221949402700902. J Learn Disabil. 1994. PMID: 7806957
• Homework for students with learning disabilities: the implications of research for policy and practice. Cooper H, Nye B. Cooper H, et al. J Learn Disabil. 1994 Oct;27(8):470-9. doi: 10.1177/002221949402700802. J Learn Disabil. 1994. PMID: 7989851 Review.
• Learning disabilities. Lyon GR. Lyon GR. Future Child. 1996 Spring;6(1):54-76. Future Child. 1996. PMID: 8689262 Review.

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Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Examining the lived experiences of educators using different levels of support for teaching math to students with learning disabilities in math computation and problem-solving for teachers at public cyber charter high schools in the northeastern united states: a transcendental phenomenological study.

LeeAnn E. McCullough , Liberty University Follow

School of Education

Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)

Mary Catherine Strickland

cognitive load theory, specific learning disability, math computation, math problem-solving, Sweller, learning theory

Disciplines

Mathematics | Special Education and Teaching

Recommended Citation

McCullough, LeeAnn E., "Examining the Lived Experiences of Educators Using Different Levels of Support for Teaching Math to Students with Learning Disabilities in Math Computation and Problem-Solving for Teachers at Public Cyber Charter High Schools in the Northeastern United States: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects . 5880. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5880

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the lived experiences of educators using different levels of support for teaching math to students with learning disabilities in math computation and problem-solving for teachers at public cyber charter high schools in the Northeastern United States. The theory guiding this study was Sweller’s cognitive load theory, as it explained the learning process of students with learning disabilities and how educators developed instructional methods that complement the learner’s needs. The central research question was, “What is the lived experience of 9-12th-grade mathematics teachers in supporting students with differing learning abilities in math computation and problem-solving?” This study design was based on the transcendental phenomenological methodology of Moustakas (1994). The participants included 12 high school cyber teachers of general and special education students with specific learning disabilities in math computation and math problem-solving. Data were gathered through a journal prompt, individual interviews, and focus groups. The data analysis identified trends in the data and highlighted the successes and failures of various approaches used in the classroom. Three themes emerged from the study: enhanced engagement and learning environment, cognitive load and assessment strategies, and supportive and inclusive instructional practices. This study uncovered educators' lived experiences using personalized instructional strategies, interactive and adaptive technology, and instructional design approaches to reduce learners’ cognitive load. This research provided insights into high school educators' experiences using these methods of teaching math in cyber classrooms to students with disabilities.

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Autism Learning Disabilities

Understanding Autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects how individuals interact with others, communicate, learn, and behave. It is typically diagnosed in early childhood, with symptoms often appearing within the first two years of life [1] . The disorder encompasses a broad spectrum, ranging from low functioning to high functioning, with each person exhibiting a unique pattern of behavior and level of severity.

Autism Spectrum Overview

Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by challenges in social interaction, communication, and restricted and repetitive behaviors. Individuals with autism may experience difficulties in understanding and responding to social cues, engage in repetitive movements or behaviors, and have specific interests or routines. The spectrum encompasses various diagnoses, including autistic disorder, Asperger's syndrome, and pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS).

It's important to note that autism is a lifelong condition, but with appropriate support and interventions, individuals with autism can lead fulfilling lives and achieve their full potential. Access to resources and services is crucial for individuals with autism to enhance their quality of life and promote their overall well-being.

Prevalence of Autism

Autism spectrum disorder affects people of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the estimated prevalence of autism in the United States is approximately 1 in 54 children [2] . It is more common in boys than in girls, with a ratio of about 4:1.

The prevalence of autism has been on the rise in recent years, although it is unclear whether this increase is due to improved diagnosis and awareness or to an actual increase in the number of individuals with autism. Ongoing research and studies are continually refining our understanding of autism and its prevalence.

By understanding the broad overview of the autism spectrum and acknowledging its prevalence, we can work towards creating a more inclusive and supportive environment for individuals with autism. Providing resources and services that cater to their unique needs is vital in helping them thrive and unlock their potential.

Resources and Services for Adults

As individuals with autism transition into adulthood, it is vital to have access to the necessary resources and services that can support them in various aspects of their lives. These resources can help individuals with autism lead fulfilling lives, enhance their independence, and overcome challenges they may face. In this section, we will explore some key resources and services available for adults with autism.

Support Networks

Building a strong support network is crucial for individuals with autism. Organizations like Autism Speaks provide valuable resources and information for adults with autism, including guidance on therapy options, employment support, housing resources, safety in the community, and transitioning to adulthood. These networks offer a sense of community, connecting individuals with others who understand and can relate to their experiences.

Support groups and online communities can also provide a platform for individuals with autism to connect, share their stories, and seek advice from others who have faced similar challenges. These networks can be a valuable source of emotional support, encouragement, and guidance throughout their journey.

Therapy Options

Therapy plays a crucial role in the lives of individuals with autism, helping them develop essential skills and overcome challenges. Autism therapy encompasses a variety of approaches tailored to the unique needs of each individual. Some well-known therapies include Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), speech therapy, occupational therapy, and social skills training.

The choice of therapy will depend on the individual's specific needs and goals. It's important to consult with professionals to determine the most suitable therapy options. For up-to-date statistics and information on autism therapy, refer to our article on autism therapy statistics . Additionally, with the advancements in technology, telehealth options are becoming increasingly popular, providing convenient access to therapy sessions from the comfort of one's home. Learn more about telehealth options for autism therapy in our article on autism telehealth options .

Housing and Employment Support

As individuals with autism transition to adulthood, housing and employment support become essential considerations. Organizations like Autism Speaks offer valuable resources and toolkits to assist in the housing search, explore housing options, understand residential support, and secure funding for housing. These resources help individuals and their families navigate the complexities of finding suitable housing arrangements that cater to their specific needs.

Finding meaningful employment is another important aspect of adult life. Employment support services can assist individuals with autism in seeking job opportunities and providing resources for job seekers and employers. It is important to consider an individual's social functioning skills, intellectual abilities, and interests when matching them with suitable employment opportunities. Some individuals may require varying levels of support in the workplace, ranging from initial coaching to ongoing supervision.

By accessing the various resources and services available, individuals with autism can receive the support they need to navigate adulthood successfully. Support networks, therapy options, and assistance with housing and employment contribute to enhancing the quality of life for adults with autism. It's important to explore these resources and services to ensure that every individual with autism has the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Characteristics of Autism

To better understand autism and its impact on individuals, it is essential to explore the behavioral patterns and levels of severity associated with this neurodevelopmental disorder.

Behavioral Patterns

Each individual with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibits a unique pattern of behavior. These behavioral patterns can manifest in various ways, affecting social communication and interaction, as well as presenting restrictive and repetitive behaviors.

Social communication and interaction behaviors: People with ASD may experience difficulties with nonverbal communication, such as maintaining eye contact, understanding gestures, and using facial expressions. They may struggle with developing and maintaining relationships, finding it challenging to engage in reciprocal conversations and share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with others.

Restrictive and repetitive behaviors: Individuals with ASD often display repetitive actions, such as repeating specific movements or phrases. They may adhere strictly to routines and rituals, finding comfort and stability in predictability. Additionally, they may exhibit intense interests in particular topics, focusing intensely on these subjects. Sensory sensitivities are also common, with some individuals experiencing heightened or diminished responses to sensory stimuli.

Levels of Severity

Autism spectrum disorder encompasses a wide range of characteristics and levels of severity. The impact of ASD can vary significantly from person to person, ranging from low functioning to high functioning.

Low functioning: Individuals with low functioning ASD may face significant challenges in various areas of life, including communication, social interaction, and daily living skills. They may require substantial support and assistance in navigating everyday tasks.

High functioning: Those with high functioning ASD often exhibit fewer limitations in communication and social interaction. They may have average or above-average intelligence and possess unique talents or exceptional skills in specific areas. However, they may still require support in certain aspects of life, such as managing sensory sensitivities or navigating social situations.

It is important to note that the severity of ASD does not necessarily correlate with an individual's intelligence or potential. With appropriate support and interventions, individuals with autism can lead fulfilling lives and make significant contributions to their communities.

Understanding the behavioral patterns and levels of severity associated with autism lays the foundation for developing effective interventions and support systems that cater to the unique needs of individuals on the autism spectrum. Early diagnosis and access to appropriate treatments and services are crucial in maximizing the potential and well-being of individuals with ASD [1] .

Diagnosis and Early Intervention

When it comes to autism, early diagnosis and intervention play a crucial role in supporting individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Recognizing the early signs of autism and obtaining a diagnosis at a young age can pave the way for timely interventions and services that promote optimal development and learning.

Early Signs of Autism

The signs of autism spectrum disorder often become apparent early in a child's development, particularly when there are delays in language skills and social interactions. It's important for parents and caregivers to be aware of these signs and seek medical evaluation when necessary. Some common early signs of autism include:

• Delayed or limited speech development.
• Challenges with social interactions, such as difficulty making eye contact or engaging in reciprocal conversation.
• Repetitive behaviors, interests, or movements.
• Sensory sensitivities or preferences, such as being overly sensitive to certain sounds or textures.

It's important to note that the presence of these signs does not confirm a diagnosis of autism. However, if you observe these behaviors in your child, it is advisable to consult with a healthcare professional for further evaluation.

Importance of Early Diagnosis

Early diagnosis of autism is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, it allows for early access to interventions and treatments that can support the child's development and address specific challenges associated with autism. Research has shown that early intervention can significantly improve outcomes for individuals with autism, helping them develop critical skills and reach their full potential [1] .

Secondly, an early diagnosis provides an opportunity for families to access appropriate resources and support networks. This includes connecting with therapists, educators, and support groups that specialize in working with individuals with autism. These resources can provide guidance, strategies, and therapies tailored to meet the unique needs of individuals with autism and their families.

Lastly, an early diagnosis helps to create awareness and understanding of autism within the community. It allows for the implementation of inclusive practices in educational settings and promotes acceptance and support for individuals with autism. By raising awareness and destigmatizing autism, we can foster a more inclusive society that celebrates the diverse strengths and abilities of individuals with autism.

If you suspect that your child may have autism or if you are an adult seeking a diagnosis, it is recommended to consult with a healthcare professional or specialist experienced in assessing and diagnosing autism spectrum disorder. Early diagnosis and intervention pave the way for a brighter future, enabling individuals with autism to thrive and unlock their full potential.

Autism and Learning Disabilities

When discussing autism, it's important to understand that autism is not classified as a learning disorder. Instead, it is categorized as a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects the way individuals process sensory input and interact with the world. However, autism can impact the learning process, sometimes in ways that are similar to learning disabilities. Let's explore the distinction between autism and learning disorders, as well as the overlapping characteristics.

Distinction from Learning Disorders

While autism affects learning, it is not a learning disorder itself. Autism is a non-curable condition that lasts a lifetime. It is important to note that autism does not directly impact intellectual ability. With appropriate treatment and supportive care, individuals with autism can achieve high levels of functioning, even if their social skills and nonverbal communication skills are not fully developed.

Learning disorders, on the other hand, are specific neurological conditions that directly interfere with an individual's ability to comprehend, write, read, retain information, and control motor skills. Common learning disorders include dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and dyspraxia. These learning disabilities share some characteristics with autism, but they are distinct conditions [5] .

Overlapping Characteristics

Although autism and learning disorders are distinct, they can share some common characteristics. For example, individuals with both autism and learning disabilities may experience difficulties with:

• Processing and understanding information
• Communication, including verbal and nonverbal skills
• Executive functioning, such as planning, organizing, and problem-solving
• Sensory processing and integration

It is important to recognize that each condition is unique and may require different approaches for intervention and support. While individuals with autism may benefit from specific therapies and adaptations tailored to their sensory needs and social skills development, those with learning disabilities may require specialized educational strategies and interventions.

Understanding the distinction between autism and learning disabilities is crucial for developing appropriate interventions and support for individuals with these conditions. By recognizing the overlapping characteristics and implementing targeted strategies, we can unlock the potential of individuals with autism and support their learning journey effectively.

Assistive Technology for Autism

Assistive technology (AT) plays a crucial role in supporting individuals with autism in their learning journey. By utilizing various tools and resources, individuals with autism can enhance their learning experience and overcome challenges they may face. In this section, we will explore the impact of assistive technology on learning and the use of sensory regulation tools for individuals with autism.

Impact on Learning

Incorporating the use of technology, such as iPads and other tablets, into the daily learning experiences of individuals with autism can have a positive impact on their achievement levels. These devices provide interactive and engaging educational opportunities, allowing for personalized learning experiences. Research has shown that the use of assistive technology can improve certain skill deficits, such as reading and spelling, in individuals with learning disabilities, including autism [6] .

Assistive technology tools for individuals with autism can include:

• Visual schedules and timers: These tools help individuals with autism better understand and manage their daily routines and activities.
• Communication apps: These apps allow individuals with autism to express their thoughts and needs effectively, promoting communication and social interaction.
• Educational software and apps: These resources provide interactive and multisensory learning experiences tailored to the unique needs of individuals with autism.
• Social skills training apps: These apps help individuals with autism develop and practice social skills, including turn-taking, conversation, and nonverbal communication [7] .

By utilizing assistive technology tools, individuals with autism can enhance their learning, improve their independence, and experience success in academic tasks.

Sensory Regulation Tools

Sensory challenges are common among individuals with autism and can result in over- or under-responsiveness to sensory input. To help regulate their sensory systems, individuals with autism can utilize various sensory regulation tools. These tools aim to provide sensory input that promotes calmness and focus, reducing anxiety and improving attention.

Some examples of sensory regulation tools for individuals with autism include:

• Trampolines and swings: These tools provide opportunities for movement and sensory input, helping individuals with autism regulate their sensory systems and improve their focus.
• Sensory brushes: These brushes are used for deep pressure and sensory stimulation, assisting individuals with autism in managing sensory sensitivities.
• Noise-canceling headphones: These headphones help individuals with autism reduce auditory distractions and maintain focus in noisy environments.
• Weighted vests: These vests provide deep pressure and proprioceptive input, promoting a sense of calmness and body awareness.

By incorporating these sensory regulation tools into daily routines and learning environments, individuals with autism can better manage sensory challenges and optimize their learning experiences.

Assistive technology and sensory regulation tools are valuable resources for individuals with autism, supporting their learning and overall well-being. It is important to consider the specific needs and preferences of each individual when selecting and implementing these tools. Working closely with healthcare professionals and educators can help ensure that the assistive technology and sensory regulation tools are tailored to meet the unique needs of each individual with autism.

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Report: Designing Online Courses for Students With Disabilities

Research from the Center for Higher Education Policy and Practice identifies six ways to improve accessibility in online education through intentional design principles.

By  Ashley Mowreader

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Students with disabilities say they prefer online courses, but there some considerations for providing accessible online education that staffers should keep in mind.

Seventy-Four/iStock/Getty Images

In 1990, the Americans With Disabilities Act gave students with disabilities the right to reasonable accommodations in higher education, but many colleges were not structured with disabled students in mind, creating systemic barriers to student success.

Prior research has found students with disabilities prefer online learning . Inside Higher Ed ’s 2024 Student Voice survey, conducted by Generation Lab, found among students with a physical disability (n=197), 30 percent preferred online asynchronous courses. Those with a learning disability (n=254) preferred in-person or blended coursework.

Online education, when designed well, has the potential to promote access for students with disabilities as well as achievement and completion for these learners.

A recently published white paper by the Center for Higher Education Policy and Practice at Southern New Hampshire University (CHEPP) highlights obstacles in online education for students with disabilities and some of the ways institutions can aid disabled students’ educational pursuits.

More Reading

CHEPP’s paper is one of a series about learner-centered design in distance learning that provides insight and ideas for higher education practitioners looking to reform online education. The upcoming third paper will focus on the importance of belonging. Read more from the series here.

The background: Students with a disability are less likely to attend college , earn a degree and be employed full-time than their peers without a disability.

While colleges and universities continue to invest in programs and initiatives that uniquely serve students with disabilities , it is also important to make academics accessible to all kinds of learners.

“Higher education must make changes to increase college attainment for learners with disabilities by investing in robust accommodations and expanding accessible multimodal higher education program offerings with universal design for learning, among other impactful, evidence-based practices,” according to the report.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent stay-at-home orders required higher education to shift course delivery online, which brought a renewed awareness to the challenges students with disabilities face, including gaps in technology and particularly a lack of online availability of student services such as accessibility offices. During this time, there was also an increase in students who registered with disability services for accommodations related to psychological disorders .

Starting with students in mind: Across higher education, students with disabilities are often left out of data gathering around persistence and completion, which hinders advocacy work, because there is less evidence of gaps in support.

“Instead of learners with disabilities being an afterthought, their needs should inform higher education design,” the report’s authors wrote. “When systems are built to serve all learners, they serve everyone better.”

The report points to the curb-cut effect as one example of when a physical accommodation —in this case, for people who use wheelchairs—can benefit more than just disabled people, such as those using strollers and bikes or others who needed help to access a sidewalk.

Many college students with disabilities are unaware of how to advocate for themselves in receiving accommodations, as well, which can lead to some students not registering with their college’s disability services or having accommodations that don’t meet all their needs. This lack of self-identification can further harm data collection and reporting that could be used to guide institutional priorities.

An accessible institution should focus on holistic student supports to provide learners with equitable agency, academic engagement and overall experience, according to the report. “In doing this, institutions will ensure that learners with disabilities have what they need to not only persist and complete their academic programs but also fully belong in their college communities alongside their peers, with and without disabilities.”

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Enhancing access: The report pulls from interviews with practitioners, students and advocates as well as the available literature to offer six key elements of accessible online education.

• Transparent availability of resources and access to the disability office. A 2023 survey by Tyton Partners found just over half (56 percent) of students were aware of accessibility and disability services at their campuses, despite almost all (96 percent) administrators, advisers and faculty saying such support offices existed on their campus. Offices should aspire to proactively reach out to students prior to their first course, training staff on disability inclusion and making connections between students and professors to remove barriers. Easy access to and timely response from these offices can also promote student persistence and success. Frequent communication to the whole campus about available resources and clear messaging about how to contact the office can help bridge knowledge gaps.
• Universal design for learning principles embedded throughout course and program design and delivery. A UDL framework promotes learning among all student groups, because everyone learns differently. One example is implementing choice in assessment or providing additional time for students to complete a test. UDL can help reduce students’ needs for additional accommodations because the course is already focused on accessibility for all learners.
• Centralized systems and consistent use of technology across departments. In an online environment, providing a consistent student experience requires a single platform for students to access materials and course information, submit assignments and communicate with faculty and staff. When selecting new technologies, accessibility should be part of the criteria, as well.
• Continuous improvement processes and feedback channels. Students’ needs and disability status can change throughout their postsecondary experience, so institutions should establish a robust feedback channel that allows students to engage regularly with the disability services office and engage with faculty and staff about how accommodations are working.
• An institutional accessibility committee and governance policies. An oversight committee that meets regularly to evaluate compliance, receive feedback and ensure students’ needs are being met can help maintain a well-functioning disability service system. This committee could be a third party or various stakeholders throughout the institution representing different perspectives and departments.
• Regular engagement of faculty and student services professionals. Faculty members interact with students the most frequently and are often the implementers of accommodations for students with disabilities, requiring them to be proactive and responsive to needs. Institutional leaders can help support this work by providing resources to assess syllabi, ensuring materials are accessible or creating guidelines for a course.

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