Examples of Overall Difficulties

• Difficulty understanding relationships between concepts

• Difficulty generalizing or making connections between new material and acquired knowledge

• Difficulty seeing the big picture and how things relate to each other

• Problems understanding and evaluating opinions/views of others

• Problems troubleshooting and figuring out how things work

• May appear confused with task demands

Overall Strategies

• Define relationships and connections between ideas in a concrete way

• Compare new concepts to previously learned ones

• Provide opportunities to sort, classify, and categorize

• Use demonstrations with a think-aloud procedure followed by guided practice with feedback

• Make use of graphic organizers to assist in unifying information and breaking information apart

Accommodations

• Provide an outline of content to be covered in the lesson

• Allow sufficient time for review and practice, as well as time to share and discuss ideas

Examples of Math Difficulties

• Problems of a variety of concepts including number sense, estimation, fractions, integers, etc.

• Difficulty applying math skills taught

• Difficulty with determining the best solution to a word problem

• Difficulty representing numbers or problems in a variety of ways

Math Strategies

• Model problem solving through talking aloud

• Teach math mnemonic strategies that specifically identify the steps for solving problems

• Teach patterns and relationships such as skip-counting or patterns on 100s chart to help learn multiplication facts

• Attach a number line to desk to help with number sense and pattern recognition

• Specifically teach the way a number or problem can be represented

• Provide manipulatives in order to help make information concrete and less abstract

• Have students explain their strategies when problem solving to expand solving options

• Require the student to show their work

Examples of Reading Difficulties

• Poor inferential/predictive skills

• Weak ability to grasp the main idea

• Struggles with evaluating a writer’s point of view and purpose

Reading Strategies

• Use graphic organizers to help summarize information

• Model self-monitoring skills while reading, demonstrating how to stop and ask oneself if materials/words have been understood

• Teach cues for identifying main ideas such as looking for transition words

Examples of Writing Difficulties

• Struggles with the establishment of a purpose and perspective when writing

• Difficulty organizing thoughts in a manner that will effectively communicate ideas

• Weaknesses with creative writing

• Difficulty taking the perspective of one’s audience

Writing Strategies

• Use graphic organizers to help sequence information for effective communication

• Model brainstorming for generation of ideas

• Explicitly teach about genres and writing to an audience

• Present models of good writing with guidance in determining why the writing was effective for its purpose