When you look out at your classroom I know that you know what your students know and what they don’t know they know…you know? But now, we’re looking at a computer screen into the vast internets and I don’t know about you…but I don’t know anymore.

Last fall I wrote this blog post after a keynote with John Stevens, and shared how important it is that we give all students the math they deserve. Well, now we are here during the COVID-19 Pandemic and many teachers are looking for ways to effectively facilitate remote learning for their students. Issues with access and equity immediately come to mind, especially when it comes to students with higher needs.

This tweet from John Stevens prompted me to reach out to one of the best in the business when it comes to serving students with higher needs, my colleague Mike Mann. He’s a high school educational specialist that has been teaching students with higher needs for over 14 years, he’s credentialed in both mild/moderate and moderate/severe disabilities, holds a Master’s in Education…oh, and people seem to like him since he was voted Teacher of the Year a few years back. I reached out to Mike and asked him what his thoughts were on how math teachers could best support students with higher needs and Mike definitely had some wisdom to share.

So, my hope is as you read this, like me, you’ll consider the perspective of a teacher that’s been in the special education classroom for over a decade and that some of the strategies we share here are helpful to you and your students.

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Here are a few things to consider: 

How would you help your student if he/she were sitting right next to you in your classroom? 

If the answer generally falls under the practice of: ¨I address their questions on an as needed basis and work through problems together step by step until they demonstrate understanding,¨ then you are probably finding it hard to provide them instruction remotely. After all, in the classroom setting you know exactly what is going on as the teacher. There is nobody better to break down quadratic equations because you’ve been brushing up for weeks making sure you have Unit 5 ready to go. The issue with this approach is that the student becomes over reliant on YOU. So, now with this virus shutting down our schools, you are not right next to them and their parents become the new you. In a healthy way, this exposes some great opportunities for growth as teachers for when we return back to the classrooms. Providing students help in the classroom will always be an important role for us as educators, but for students with higher needs, help isn’t enough… they need strategies! 

To keep it simple, let’s categorize strategies into two departments: Teacher Strategies and Student Strategies.

Teacher Strategies

Break up Steps – breaking up a big problem into smaller mini-problems allows students to find success earlier in the lesson.  For example, if we are asking students to solve a quadratic, maybe our students would find success practicing some of the prerequisite skills prior to the task of solving a quadratic: solving linear equations, finding factors of numbers, factoring quadratics. Let’s give them something accessible to start with so that they can build to the big tasks.

Keep it Short/Brief – You probably have an awesome lesson planned out. After about the first 12-15 minutes, you have now lost the attention of the majority of your higher needs students. What are the most important items your students need to know for today? That should be what we deliver to them. You know when you pick up a Cheesecake Factory menu and can’t decide what to order? Yeah, too much information can be overwhelming and overloading to the student. 

Use Real-life Examples – Connections that students can make within their working memory are more easily accessible when they can visualize themselves or someone else in a problem. If there is a real-life example to be shared… SHARE it!  You know, like all the numbers and graphs that are coming from this pandemic. There are some awesome stats problems, exponential function problems, area under the curve problems, or something about toilet paper that can become the real-life example we are literally living.

Incentivize – Do we not all work for something? I mean, would you come to work if your principal told you all teaching jobs were now volunteer based? Maybe you’re “that teacher” and would show up for a couple of weeks. However, after you realize your own children at home have nothing to eat and the debt collectors keep calling every hour, you will probably stop coming. We need to position students with higher needs in a place that gives them a reason for achievement. If you are sitting there thinking, “what about their grades, isn’t that a good enough reason?” Well, I don’t know. You tell me. Has it been?

The incentives need to target their interests. Remotely, how cool would it be for a student to receive a message from their teacher that said, “Hi Sally, I hope you and your family are safe and healthy during this school dismissal. I know math must be more difficult for you at home without my direct help, which is why I’m excited to have a surprise for you when you get back for completing the work I’ve been assigning through Google Classroom. Will you please give me your top three favorite places to eat? Thanks!”

Student Strategies

Organization – Workbooks, worksheets, etc. need to be clutter free. If students learn to organize their notes, classwork, and homework then they are able to keep the focus on learning objectives with less attention on other executive functioning stressors. If they’ve mastered this in the classroom, great! At home, they should be able to have structure in their tasks, even if provided online. If you knowingly have students that struggle with organization, LABELING will be a huge benefit for students while they’re not in the classroom. Over label if you have to, it’s okay. This is a simple way that will not take teachers a lot of time while making all the difference in the world for students that need assistance keeping up with WHAT they are expected to do. Ultimately, this is a student based strategy because they will need to be able to apply these practices with or without a teacher present, but it is helpful to guide students until they can fully take ownership of being organized.

Color System – This could easily go into the organization category. However, it is too special to be generalized. It needs a category by itself. Pretty simple here. Students learn to use black to write down the problem, blue for step one, green for step two, blue for step three, green for step four, and red to record the answer. The colors chosen are up to the student, but ultimately this also makes it much easier for the teacher to see where in the problem the student “went wrong.” And even if you’re running all your assignments online right now, students can snap a picture and upload their hand-written work.

Utilizing Technology – Students love being on their phones and electronic devices that have video. There are so many good resources available to them. You want to hear something crazy that might give math teachers a mild heart-attack? What if we introduced a completely new section in our math books and our first communication to them was something like:

Okay students, we are going to learn about inverse functions. Here’s the deal, you’re going to do some research on it. I want you to Google and/or YouTube the snot out of this stuff.

Ultimately, you will use class time at home to execute TWO TASKS. One, DEFINE an inverse function. Two, determine how to FIND and VERIFY an inverse function. Rules: Make up any type of problem you’d like relating to inverse functions. Feel free to even use the same problem you found on a YouTube video. Oh, and one more thing, I almost forgot. You will be demonstrating these two tasks in front of the class, so come prepared.”

Do we believe students with higher needs can accomplish such a task? Why not? They might have to watch more videos, use more resources, and practice more problems, but instead of trying to memorize their notes or work within the box they’ve been provided, you just unlocked a scavenger hunt for them and set them free to discover math for themselves, while eventually being able to get guidance and correction from you as the teacher later. 

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My collaboration with Mike Mann on this topic has improved my teaching pedagogy and changed my perspective on my students in amazing ways. What I appreciate most about Mike is that not only is he well versed in the law surrounding special education but also in the students he serves and the strategies that best support them. His heart is in the right place, his students are blessed to have him as their advocate, and we are so fortunate to have Mike on our campus.

Let’s continue this conversation!

I truly believe that this teaching thing is better when we work together. What has worked well for you? What are some things you are trying? What would you add to this list of strategies to adequately serve students with higher needs? Drop your suggestions in the comments below.

~PV