Teaching children with mild disabilities to read can be a challenging task for even the most seasoned teacher. In order to be successful, teachers need to be knowledgeable about the big five of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000). While the ultimate goal of reading is…

Students with mild disabilities have a difficult time recording notes from lectures. Accurate note taking is important because it helps students understand the content from lectures and notes serve as a document for later review. In this article, the author describes what teachers can do before, during, and after the lecture to help students…

This article discusses the difficulties students with mild disabilities can have with note taking. It begins with a vignette and then describes how teachers can modify their lectures and how they can teach note-taking techniques to students. The two note-taking techniques described are strategic note taking and guided notes. (Contains references.)…

A study examined the effects of Venn diagram strategy on the literal, inferential, and relational reading comprehension of 26 high school students with mild disabilities who exhibited poor reading comprehension. Students who were taught the Venn diagram strategy demonstrated gains in both literal and relational comprehension measures. (Contains…

Thirty-nine high school students with mild disabilities and poor reading comprehension were trained to use either student-generated or expert-generated cognitive organizers to improve literal and inferential reading comprehension. Following training, both groups exceeded the reading comprehension performance of a control group, and students using…

Fifteen middle school students with mild disabilities and poor reading comprehension were taught to independently create cognitive maps from reading passages. Comparison with a matched control group indicated that students who were taught the cognitive mapping strategy demonstrated substantial gains in both literal and inferential comprehension…

Discusses using cognitive frameworks to help students who have mild disabilities or are at risk transfer and retain information. Explains development of study guides, story/critical thinking maps, and cognitive organizers and addresses teaching students how to use cognitive frameworks. Provides illustrations of study guides and cognitive maps. (CR)

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a four-step phonological awareness strategy on the reading skills of nine third-grade students with learning disabilities or educable mental retardation. Results indicated students made substantial improvement on measures of blending and segmenting sounds, pronouncing words, auditory discrimination, and…