Strategies for Independent Learning Education 525

Self-advocacy skills can be taught to students of all ages and disabilities

How can you effectively teach independent learning strategies in class? Learning strategies are techniques, principles, and rules that enable a student to learn to solve problems and complete tasks independently Similar to study skills For students to use learning strategies independently, they must first learn to perform them accurately and fluently

Steps for teaching effective learning strategies 1. Assess current strategy use What is it that the students use to help them learn? (memory, handouts, projects) 2. Clarify expectations What do you want the students to do in long division?

Steps for teaching effective learning strategies (2) 3. Demonstrate use of the strategy Talk aloud while performing the skill (think of Rachel Ray); present positive and negative examples; ask frequent questions to check understanding 4. Encourage students to memorize strategy steps Ex: KWL chart, SQ3R, long division

Steps for teaching effective learning strategies (3) 5. Provide guided and independent practice Do practice items/problems with the students 6. Administer posttests Watch the students use the strategies

We have to teach the student how to do the strategies… We have to teach the student how to do the strategies….we don’t want to give them a fish, we want to teach them how to fish

Learning Strategies Let’s talk about a few…

CAPS STRATEGY C. Who are the characters? A. What is the aim of the story? P. What problem happens? S. How is the problem solved?

CAPS STRATEGY (2) What is it and which curricular area would you most likely use it with.

CALL UP STRATEGY CALL UP is a strategy for taking lecture notes that has the following steps (Czarnecki, Rosko, & Fine, 1998): C Copy from the board or transparency A Add details L Listen and write the question L Listen and write the answer U Utilize the text P Put in your own words

CALL UP STRATEGY (2) When would you likely use this strategy? What preskill do students need to know for the CALL UP approach?

POSSE STRATEGY Another reading comprehension strategy is POSSE (Englert & Mariage, 1991). This strategy includes many reading practices that have been shown to aid reading comprehension, such as graphic organizers, test structures, stimulation of student background knowledge, and self-monitoring. The steps in this strategy are as follows:

POSSE STRATEGY (2) P Predict ideas O Organize the ideas S Search for the structure S Summarize the main ideas E Evaluate your understanding

POSSE STRATEGY (3) Elaborate on this: What are the 5 steps

Self-Monitoring Students watch and check themselves to make sure that they have performed targeted behaviors Ex: students can keep track of number of talk outs in class Self-monitoring can be applied to any learning strategy

Self-Instruction Learners are taught language to guide their performance Students are taught to ask themselves through a task -

Self-Questioning A form of self-instruction in which students guide their performance by asking themselves questions Ex: give students an editing check-list Have I capitalized all of the letters at the beginning of a sentence?

CBM Not to be confused with CBA (curriculum based assessment) that we already talked about CBM - cognitive behavior modification - self graphing steps; super nanny; stickers, color changes

Self Reinforcement Saying “good job” to ourselves

The keyword method for teaching in content areas: is a mnemonic device that associates the new word with a word that sounds similar and an illustration that is easy to remember

MNEMONIC KEY WORD METHOD Helps with vocabulary words or concepts that are abstract or difficult to remember. A type of reconstructive elaboration. Make abstract more concrete.

MNEMONIC KEYWORD METHOD (2) THREE STEPS Take unfamiliar word or concept Choose a familiar word that is acoustically similar and can be readily visualized 3. Form a link between the unknown word and the key word ex: habitat…speculation

MNEMONIC KEYWORD METHOD (3) Requirements for list items: 1. Must be related to the heading. 2. Must be short 3. Must be accurate. 4. Must be useful 5. Must not be repetitive. 6. Must be parallel to other items 7. Must not make the list too long.

FIRST LETTER MNEMONICS STRATEGY (2) STEPS FOR MAKING AND MEMORIZING LISTS: Step 1: Look for cues. Step 2: Investigate the items. Step 3: Select a mnemonic device using “FIRST” Step 4: Transfer the information to a card Step 5: Self-test

FIRST LETTER MNEMONICS STRATEGY 3) STEPS FOR DESIGNING A MNEMONNIC DEVICE Step 1: Form a word Step 2: Insert a letter (s) Step 3: Rearrange the letters Step 4: Shape the sentence Step 5: Try combinations Example: