Purpose: Narrative interventions are a class of language interventions that involve the use of telling or retelling stories. Narrative intervention can be an efficient and versatile means of promoting a large array of academically and socially important language targets that improve children's access to general education curriculum and enhance…

Preliminary research shows promise for the use of supported electronic text (eText) combined with explicit instruction in facilitating comprehension for students with intellectual disability. Researchers used a multiple probe across participants design to evaluate effects of supported eText including explicit instruction on measures of vocabulary,…

In many mathematics classrooms, the teacher provides "worked examples" to demonstrate how students should perform certain algorithms or processes. Some students find it difficult to generalize from the examples that teachers provide and cannot apply what they have learned in new situations (Watson and Mason 2002). Instead, teachers might…

The acquisition of receptive and expressive language skills by students with autism and developmental disabilities (DD) is often delayed, thus making the process of communicating with others challenging. Some students develop language skills incidentally through conversations with their families and peers, but others require instruction in…

Problem solving allows students to use what they know to achieve a goal when no solution is apparent. Traditional educational models evolved from an earlier system, based on rote memorization and designed to produce employees for industry. The workforce of tomorrow must move beyond rote learning by both applying current knowledge and using…

Supported electronic text (eText), or text that has been altered to increase access and provide support to learners, may promote comprehension of science content for students with disabilities. According to CAST, "Book Builder" (TM) uses supported eText to promote reading for meaning for all students. Although little research has been conducted in…

This study investigated the results of employing shared story reading during literacy instruction for participants with severe and multiple disabilities. This intervention was conducted in an effort to improve independent responses made by participants with severe and multiple disabilities within a small group on a task analysis during shared…

In schools and classrooms across the country, educators are working to raise the achievement of all students to ever-higher levels. Yet, often missing in discussions about how to raise academic performance is the "way" in which individual students go about learning. One aspect of a student's approach to learning is his or her use of learning…

Although this article is reprinted from a 1978 issue of "Arithmetic Teacher," its content is relevant to today's conversations about the roles of conceptual understanding and procedural fluency in the teaching of mathematics. This article attempts to advance and demonstrate the proposition that moves in teaching mathematics can serve as a basis…

Many students with disabilities continue to struggle with understanding what mathematics means. They memorize basic facts or step-by-step mathematical procedures without understanding the underlying concepts related to the problems. Thus, instruction designed to help students understand the meaning of the mathematics that they are learning in…

A yearlong experimental study showed positive effects of a professional development project that involved 19 urban elementary schools, 180 teachers, and 3735 students from one of the lowest performing school districts in California. Algebraic reasoning as generalized arithmetic and the study of relations was used as the centerpiece for work with…

Four nine year olds with mild mental retardation received training on the meaning of idiomatic phrases. All children demonstrated learning and an ability to understand the learned idioms when presented in unfamiliar contexts. Children were able to generalize their receptive learning to an expressive task with varying levels of success. (Author/JDD)

This study compared discovery and expository methods of teaching lip-reading skills to 26 college students with normal hearing. No significant differences were found in method effectiveness. Training in consonant-vowel syllables was somewhat maintained four weeks later but did not generalize to word identification skills. (Author/DB)

Many of the most talented authors and artists of the past and present have shared their thoughts and their gifts with young children through picture books. Many picture books allow young children to explore important ideas and to stretch their minds far beyond rote memorization. Young children absorb knowledge at a very rapid pace. In an age of…

Defines a generalization as "a descriptive statement of broad application indicating a relationship between two or more concepts." Argues that successful teaching about generalizations can only occur when students understand the relationship between concepts and facts. Discusses four issues and four approaches related to teaching…