Chapter 10

This chapter was about how to make modifications and accommodations to create the best learning environment for students with disabilities, gifted and talented students, and students with linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. In the section about approaching science instruction for students with LD, the chapter talks about how it is hard to group these students into one group and say specific things will for sure be helpful. This is because students with LD have their own unique strengths and abilities, and like all students come to the classroom with their own background knowledge. I like that this section gives some suggestions that are generally supported for science instruction for students with LD such as intensive scaffolding and learning strategies.

The second part of this chapter i liked was the section on teaching learning strategies. I have heard a lot in my other classes about how students with disabilities often need and benefit from being taught learning strategies. The Makes Sense Strategies (MSS) model for teaching seems like an effective approach to me, even though I had never heard about it until reading this chapter. My favorite of the three points in this model is the one that states students should not waste time learning trivia. I would personally rather have my students work on actually being able to express a concept in their own words than to give textbook definitions by memory. The chapter explains that students with LD may also need similar explicit instruction to better understand how to read and use graphs. I like the chapters suggestion to use data of students' favorite foods to construct a bar graph and ask questions based on. This would be a good introduction or refresher on how graphs are created and used before creating one with scientific data. I Thought it was interesting the way the chapter explained how to teach students to use mnemonics. The pictures they used for explaining the different types of leaves would be helpful for myself if I had to remember them.

In the section about adapting learning materials for students with visual impairments, I thought of something I saw in one of my classes. One way to make things like printed pictures accessible to students with visual impairments would be to outline them with glue. So, when the glue dries, learners can trace the picture with their finger using the raised surface of the dried glue as an guide.