6S1:Use strategies to support and enhance communication skills of individuals with exceptional learning needs.
Something I learned this semester in 802A is the importance of communication, not only in reading and writing, but in mathematics as well. Incorporating a time for discussion in each of my daily math lessons, whether with one student in particular or with the whole group, is a new strategy that I believe is an imperative piece to effective learning for my students. However, communicating ideas and thoughts is also a very difficult skill for most of my students, therefore I had to use strategies to support their communication skills. To do this, I created something I called, "thinking beads," that was simply a piece of string with five wooden beads on them. Each bead represented a question the student could think in their heads as they problem solved as a form of inner language that caused them to think about their learning. The beads forced my students to stop and think about what they are doing, how they are doing it, if they really understand the concept, or if they are being challenged enough. As my students moved the beads from one end of the string to the other, they went through the questions in their head. The beads encouraged my students to ask questions and discuss their learning with each other rather than just answering questions I ask during the lesson.
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Additionally, in a class discussion on 11/30/12, we talked about how important it is to label content and use vocabulary that can be applied to the content students are learning as a means to support communication. For my first grade math group, we use cards that connect symbols and vocabulary in order to support student understanding of terms and symbols they have never seen before. These cards are always available during instruction to encourage students to use math vocabulary during math time.
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