How to Survive and Thrive at Parent-Teacher Conferences [Premium]

How to Survive and Thrive at Parent-Teacher Conferences [Premium]

by | Jan 8, 2023 | , , , , , ,

Some teachers find parent-teacher conferences the most stressful part of their job so it’s best to keep that in mind before you head off to the meeting. I remember we had “good” meetings and “bad”. The good ones seemed so easy – sit back and be presented with student work and positive comments. But there were also hard ones, frustrating ones, and depressing ones. People react to conflicts and crises in different ways – so that there can be psychological minefields for everyone involved in parent-teacher conferences – the parents, the teachers, and the students…and it all seems to go by so fast. BRING SOMEONE If you’re a single parent, bring someone with you – whether it’s a friend, fellow classroom parent, or relative. If […]

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Dyslexia and Math: Knowing Why [Premium]

Dyslexia and Math: Knowing Why [Premium]

by | Dec 18, 2022 | , , , , , ,

It’s been estimated that almost half of dyslexic individuals will also be dyscalculic (Wilson et al., 2014), but dyscalculia is less likely to be assessed or formally identified in school, leaving students to flounder on their own.   WHY IS DYSLEXIA COMMONLY ASSOCIATED WITH MATH LD? Experts still debate why there is such significant overlap, but at least one recent study found that spatial difficulties were especially associated with students with dyscalculia or those with both dyslexia and dyscalculia. Besides spatial factors, difficulties in sequencing, trouble with symbols, working memory overload, and rote math fact retrieval are all difficulties commonly seen among dyslexic students and those with dyscalculia. What is not particularly common among dyslexic students is difficulty with math reasoning – in fact for […]

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The Power of the List [Premium]

The Power of the List [Premium]

by | Dec 11, 2022 | , , , , , , , ,

For many of us, hearing about a new technology, app, or software can result in mixed feelings. We may have hope about better organizing and simplifying our lives, but also have reasonable worry about a difficult learning curve, a complicated interface, or any number of problems that can prevent us from reaping the benefits of whatever thing we are hoping might help. Enter – the simple list. If you have a weak short term or working memory, but great long-term memory and you don’t like reading lots of extra text, then lists may be the perfect productivity tool for you. Putting something down on a list can offload your working memory, but also have the benefits of reinforcing the big picture, while never losing sight […]

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Not Over Hurdles, But Around Them

Not Over Hurdles, But Around Them

by | Dec 9, 2022 | , , , , , , , , , , ,

If you have moderate to severe dyslexia, chances are that you’ve encountered many obstacles on path to higher education and career. The farther one gets in education, the more one can recognize that much of education deals with writing about things rather than doing them. If you can find a program that is more hands-on and real world problem solving, you may have hit the jackpot; if not, you may have heard the lecture that some thing that you want to do is impossible or out of-reach, but it may not be. You may need to find your way around a hurdle and not over it – like others of your peer group. Spiky profile dyslexics may find themselves getting A’s in physics, science, and […]

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Reading Beyond Level

Reading Beyond Level

by | Dec 8, 2022 | , , , , , , , , , , ,

Don’t restrict students to decodable readers. It’s a little like trying to feed an elephant one blade of grass at a time.   Reading decodable books has an important place in structured literacy programs for dyslexic students, but recently some in the reading community have been calling for “phonics-only” or “phonics-first” and this is not a good idea. Recently Emeritus Literacy Professor Timothy Shanahan from the University of Illinois at Chicago has also called these policies as overreach. From his recent blog post: “The National Reading Panel report (2000) is oft cited as the major support for phonics instruction. We found (I was a member of the panel) that explicit, systematic phonics instruction helped students to become better readers – based on a meta-analysis of […]

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Language Teaching and Dyslexia: What About Exceptions to the Rules? [Premium]

Language Teaching and Dyslexia: What About Exceptions to the Rules? [Premium]

by | Nov 6, 2022 | , , , , , , , , , , ,

The English language is especially difficult to learn if you are dyslexic – because about half of its words are not predictable by simple rules. So what to do? WORD FAMILIES Learning similar words in similar groups can be motivating for students because they learn many words at one time. Dyslexic students tend to be good at recognizing patterns, so approaches like these are well-suited toward dyslexic students. One site for word family lists can be found here. DON’T OVERSIMPLIFY THE RULES Problems usually arise when students are taught an oversimplified rule like “a silent e makes a vowel say its name”. The rule works for words like bake, bike, nose, and cute, but it doesn’t work for words like have or dance. The worse […]

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Building Spatial Talents [Premium]

Building Spatial Talents [Premium]

by | Oct 23, 2022 | , , , , , , , , , , , ,

“…Spatial reasoning has been key to numerous scientific advances, such as the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA and the epidemiological research using maps to discover the true source of cholera outbreaks. It is also essential to many 21st-century careers, particularly in science and engineering… But are we able to see and support these particular kinds of talent in our classrooms?” — Lakin and Wai, Phi Delta Kappan   What are spatial talents? In short, they are talents that involve visualizing objects and places in 3d and being able to manipulate them at will. These are talents that seem rich within the dyslexic community, but may be overlooked or neglected in conventional school activities. It’s an important strength set to recognize because it tends […]

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Managing Too Much Information in Math with Card Sorts and Categories [Premium]

Managing Too Much Information in Math with Card Sorts and Categories [Premium]

by | Jun 4, 2022 | , , , , , , ,

Too often math classes start off with a lot of math problem-solving that can result in students in getting lost. Sometimes the problem is that math explanations overload working memory; other times, students struggle because they can’t listen for understanding at the same time they are trying to take notes, leaving them to figure out what was being taught in math after they get home.   THE SEA OF MATH PROBLEMS Often students may find themselves in a sea of math problems. They may have followed the reasoning when concepts were first introduced, but quickly find themselves drowning in dozens and dozens of problems that confuse them in terms of the different ways they are solved.   CARD SORTS FOR MATH EXAMPLES AND NEW VOCABULARY […]

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Math Strategies Instead of Drill [Premium]

Math Strategies Instead of Drill [Premium]

by | Mar 27, 2022 | , , , , , , ,

In the many years Brock and I spent testing and listening to dyslexic students at every level of education, we often heard first hand accounts of how they learned how to tackle difficult subjects and bypass school-related challenges. As research studies bear out (for instance, see Kirby’s study of dyslexic university students), many dyslexic students in higher education have arrived at where they are because they are deep learners, savvy about how they learn best, and strategic in how they approach school.   Brain-Based Reasons Why Math Strategies Are Better for Dyslexics Than Drill But there is also neurobiological evidence that supports why strategies may be a superior route for dyslexic learning compared to drill or simple repetition. By now, anyone who knows about brain […]

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Getting a Sense for Numbers [Premium]

Getting a Sense for Numbers [Premium]

by | Dec 6, 2021 | , , , , , , ,

For many, math is a somewhat mysterious subject. From an early age, some students may stand out from others in their mathematical ability whereas others don’t and some may seem to have bewildering difficulty with even basic aspects of numbers and math quantity. The last decade has seen significant advances in our understanding of individual learning differences when it comes to math. If you are a teacher, tutor, or parent working with a student with math challenges, understanding the basic extent of the difficulty will help guide you about knowing how to help.   POOR NUMBER SENSE Poor number sense is a problem noticed at the very start when children begin working with numbers and quantities. A student may memorize how to count (“1,2,3,4…”), but […]

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Storytelling in Math for Dyslexia [Premium]

Storytelling in Math for Dyslexia [Premium]

by | Nov 17, 2021 | , , , , ,

In our book, The Dyslexic Advantage, storytelling is a strength that we discovered after all our in-depth interviews and study of dyslexic people. Cultivation of this super power might seem obvious for creative writing or entrepreneurship or other aspect of workplace role, but it should also be used and developed in subjects like math.   I remember talking with a middle grade student who was having troubles in math. I asked her if she was having trouble with word problems because the reading challenges are greater with these types of problems. “No,” she said. In fact, she found that word problems were the easiest – it was the straight number problems that were the most difficult. Dr. Candace Walkington has been on a quest to […]

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