|
Best Practice in Using Technology in Special Education
Meet Christine Butler
 Christine
Butler teaches the Self Contained Learning Disabilities class
at Springfield Elementary School. Her students range from first
through fourth graders and the severity of disabilities varies
from student to student. Use of technology has become integral
to the the students' daily schedule. Programs such as Excel,
PowerPoint, and Word use animation, sound, and
graphs to attract and hold the students' attention longer than
traditional teaching methods. All of the programs stimulate and
maintain the interest level of these special-needs students.
Christine Butler's Best Practice Strategy:
Using Microsoft Excel to motivate students
with Minute Math and track classroom behavior.
Lesson Plan Overview:
To motivate students to practice math skills, Christine teaches
her students to enter their daily Minute Math scores (one-minute
of math drill and practice) into Excel. She instructs
her students on how to highlight and select their information
for the graph (e.g., math scores for the week). Using the chart
wizard, Christine shows her students how to create an appropriate
graph (column, bar, or line) for the data. The students then label
the graph and print graphs of their weekly math scores. These
graphs are displayed in the classroom to motivate the students
to improve their math scores.
Additionally Christine uses Excel as part of her classroom
management system. She equates compliance with behavior rules
with a numerical value and tracks her students' behavior with
a visual graph. According to Christine, the Excel graphs
allow her students to visually track their progress in math and
their improvement in behavior. The Excel graphs displayed
in the room motivate the students to improve their scores in math
and in classroom behavior.This innovative lesson addresses the
IEP goals and objectives for varied grade levels 1-5 and the curriculum
standards of interpreting information from graphs.
Lesson Plan
Minute Math Directions
Excel Minute Math Graph
Behavior Chart
Excel Behavior Graph
Student Math Samples
Classroom Management Samples
|
