There are many simple modifications which can be made to assist students with disabilities in the regular classroom. Many of them are not that time consuming and can make a world of difference. The list below includes a few of the ideas that have helped the students I work with.

1. When independent work is presented, try to give it to the student in small “segments”. For example, a test or worksheet could be folded in half. The student could be asked to do the first half and then come up for further directions. This prevents the student from feeling rushed or overwhelmed with the amount of work given.

2. Allow extra time (within reasonable limits) for students who have difficulty. Also, reducing the length of an assignment is sometimes a good idea.

3. In your lesson plans, note in italics (or mark with a highlighter) the objective you want the student to master. His or her objectives do not need to always be the same as the rest of the class. Look at the students IEP (Individualized Education Plan) so that you know what objectives need to be covered. For example: The whole class might be expected to write a paragraph about something they learned. A student with mild mental retardation in your class might be expected to write 3 facts she/he learned. A student with fine motor problems could write some; you or a peer helper could take dictation on the rest.

4. Present information visually (overhead projector, posters, pocket charts, chalkboard) and auditorally. Whenever possible, tie in a hands on component as well. I had a teacher who threw a koosh ball to a student if he wanted them to answer a question. It helps to keep everyone focused! Doing this will help all the students in your class; they each have their own unique learning style after all.

5. Have students do simple exercises before writing (pushing palms of hands together, pushing down hard on a desktop, squeezing and relaxing fists).

6. If a student cannot do what everyone else in the class is doing, modify worksheets. For example, imagine most students are doing subtraction with regrouping in class. Cut the problems out of the worksheet and use the rest of the original as a “frame”. Create some problems appropriate to the students level (double digit subtraction with NO regrouping, subtraction facts to 18) and paste them onto the modified original. After you copy it, the student has a worksheet that looks like everyone else’s; but he or she can do work at their own level.

7. Have a large variety of multi-level reading books in your classroom. A listening center is also a “must have”. Have parent, high school and other volunteers put some of your textbooks (relevant chapters) on tape so that students with disabilities may have these cassettes as a tool.

8. Use story maps and other graphic organizers to assist students with writing tasks. Advance organizers (outlines) can help students search for meaning when they read. Make up a chapter outline and give it to all the students. It teaches them to attend to the important points in a chapter.

9. Use color coded index cards in a file box to keep track of your students’ objectives and modifications. The students names should not be on these cards!!! By color coding, you have the information handy without violating confidentiality. If you need to, ask the special education teacher to help you find this information in the students’ IEP’s and PPT minutes.

The families of undergraduates can borrow a minimum of $57,500 in federal Stafford loans.[1] Standard repayment for that level of debt equals approximately $660 per month, burdening young borrowers and constraining career choices. At no new cost, Congress can limit Stafford loan payments to 5 percent of post-college income so that young people “pay as they earn.” Graduates would no longer be dissuaded from low-paying public service occupations. And those who attempt but do not complete a post-secondary degree program and land in low-paying jobs would be protected from crushing student loan debt. To finance the plan, Washington could increase government outlays by approximately $3 billion per year or shift the current in-school Stafford student loan interest subsidy into an improved post-graduation, income-contingent repayment benefit. Students would continue to be free from loan payments while in school, but interest would capitalize.

Pros: Inspiring to youth (50 percent report career choices are constrained by student loan debt); middle class appeal; income-contingent repayment long favored by economists and higher education policy wonks over the in-school interest subsidy.

Cons: Work disincentive; very high earning graduates will pay more per month, although not more over the long term, than under current law; suggested in-school interest offset is a benefit President Reagan unsuccessfully proposed to cut (use of the in-school interest subsidy as an offset can be characterized as ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’).

(2) Intern Scholarship Program

Each year, approximately 10,000 students cycle through Washington, DC as unpaid interns. They are overwhelmingly white and upper-income and often come from politically connected families. Congressional offices and others benefit from their unpaid labor. Interns receive an educational experience that bridges the gap between academia and practice and in addition get a leg up in accessing entry-level jobs upon graduation. Funded as a set aside through Congressional office management and administration allocations or as a separately authorized program, a modest stipend of $1,000 to $2,000 a month for low-income and minority interns would offset foregone earnings, help with expenses, and broaden access to public service. Funds could be directed to each Congressional office to sponsor Pell Grant eligible and minority students or driven to university-sponsored Washington internship programs with demonstrated records of expertise and experience in housing, placing, providing educational programs for, and overseeing Washington interns.[2]

Pros: Supports expanded opportunity and diversity in public service; bridges the gap between academia and practice; low cost; tangible, constituent deliverable for Members of Congress.

Cons: Small idea; Congressional offices can support an intern scholarship program with existing staff funds; creates another small federal education program.

(3) A “College Fund” for Every Student

Fifty states offer tax-preferred 529 College Savings Plans that primarily benefit upper-income families with disposable income to make tax-preferred contributions.[3] To make 529 accounts more progressive, however, several states including Michigan and Colorado, have instituted initial deposit, matching, and other features that encourage low-income family participation. Congress could build on these efforts by creating a personal “College Fund” for every needy 8^th grade student nationwide. Accounts cost as little as $25 a year to establish and could be seeded with federal GEAR UP funds, early Pell Grant funds,[4] or advance payment of the refundable American Opportunity Tax Credit.[5] As a default, all public funds should be placed in interest bearing, 100 percent secure Treasury bonds. In providing federal student aid early and through the mechanism of progressive 529 College Savings Plans, policymakers would heighten college aspirations, improve academic seriousness in high school, and leverage the benefits of tax-deferred growth. The 529 platform would act as a magnet for additional college savings, facilitating supplemental contributions by families, employers, religious groups, philanthropic organizations, and others. As per current law, 529 funds are dispersed only for post-secondary education expenses – at whatever age they’re incurred – and can be transferred to dependents.[6]

Pros: “Post-partisan” appeal to moderates; substantial support from investment houses; powerful financial literacy platform for high school students; facilitates early college awareness and academic seriousness in high school; relatively small cost.

Cons: Bad economic environment to propose investment accounts; short time frame to enjoy compounded interest; fails to counter problem of runaway tuition.

(4) Bailout Accountability

With attention diverted by the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program, little known is that Congress passed a separate, major student loan bailout law for the banking industry as well.[7] The student loan bailout gives the Education Department temporary authority to buy loans made by private lenders. In statute, Congress left the purchasing authority general in nature. In turn, the Bush administration gave lenders: a “put option” guaranteeing the sale of federal loans to the Education Department at an above market clearing price; a sweetheart line of federal credit as per “forward purchasing agreements” with a federal subsidy payment and federal guarantee against default on top as per underlying current law; and a commitment to purchase student loan asset-backed securities via a “commercial paper conduit.” To date, the Department has issued no regulation governing reciprocal lender responsibilities. Congress should require lenders wishing to participate in the student loan bailout to agree to a series of warrants and covenants, such as: (1) limits on executive compensation and dividends; (2) a financial stake in participating for-profit companies like Sallie Mae and Nelnet; (3) limits on predatory private student loan marketing (e.g., lenders should have to make every reasonable effort to encourage borrowers to exhaust low-cost federal student loan options prior to assuming expensive private student loan debt); and (4) non-discrimination in lending against various sectors of higher education (JP Morgan Chase, for example, should no longer be able to deny federal student loans to community college students).[8]

Pros: Protects taxpayers against fleecing; leverages student loan bailout funds for broad public interest; protects students against unnecessarily high interest private loans.

Cons: Places new demands on a fragile banking industry; lenders will oppose and threaten to exit the student loan business.

(5) College Accountability

Students and families know it’s critically important to go to college to get a good job, but they’re limited in their ability to value a degree from any particular institution. Published rankings like those of US News & World Report pay significant attention to inputs and the top 10 percent of colleges and universities, but relatively little to outcomes and the vast majority of schools. The Department of Education can help. Congress recently required colleges to report their average net price after financial aid. A private website, Payscale.com, lists starting and mid-career salaries for over 300 institutions of higher education nationally. And the Department of Education knows the percentage of students leaving every institution who default on their student loans. Require the Department to expand and put the data together into a well-publicized value index, highlighting the best bangs for the buck and the biggest lemons. Or simply create a “lemon list” of schools that families should be warned about as risky financial investments. Similar to prescription drug advertisements and political campaign commercials, Congress could require a buyer beware warning prominently accompany all lemon college marketing materials. Example: “Warning: One in two Acme College borrowers defaults on a student loan within three years of separation from Acme College. Acme graduates earn an average starting salary of $22,000 a year. Be careful before assuming substantial amounts of student loan debt to attend Acme College.” To avoid being identified as a lemon, schools will be less quick to raise tuition and more interested in making sure their students get good-paying jobs.

Pros: Consumer-oriented; cracks down on shoddy trade schools of which there are many examples; difficult to vote against a lemon law for higher education.

Cons: Ex ante uncertainty as to which schools the Education Department will place on a lemon list; trade schools will portray the proposal as elitist; all college trade associations will portray the proposal as reducing higher education to an economic calculation; art and music schools will be at a particular disadvantage.

(6) Open University

Approximately 5 million adult workers displaced by global trade will need education and retraining over the next 10 years. There are millions of additional adults who have some college, but no degree-many of whom would like and should be encouraged to complete their studies. Modeled on Great Britain’s 40-year-old and well-regarded Open University, Congress could seed a non-profit American Open University that provides low-cost, quality online education to undergraduate and graduate adult learners everywhere. Students would benefit from the flexible higher education course times and offerings associated with distance education programs. An American Open University would need to be seeded with $100 million over five years to begin operation and guarantee students access to financial aid. (Five years in, accreditation would attach, thereby enabling students to access the main federal financial aid programs.) Priority should be placed on proposals that partner with existing, accredited colleges and universities.

Pros: Future-oriented, big idea; appeals to working class and professional adults wanting or needing to go back to school for undergraduate or graduate training; successful model in the existing Western Governors University started by Governors Roy Roemer (D-CO) and Mike Leavitt (R-UT); low cost.

Cons: Traditional higher education community will oppose competition claiming inadequate quality assurance and duplication of both for-profit University of Phoenix and non-profit university distance education offerings (e.g., University of Maryland); United States Open University failed in 2001 when British financing was pulled before the school was accredited-a problem avoided here with seed financing.

Moderate Alternative: American Open University grant funds could instead be distributed to existing state colleges and universities to develop and expand distance education course and degree programs. Priority would be given for programs directed at degree and certificate completion for those adults with some prior college credit. This moderate alternative removes most of the traditional higher education community’s expected opposition, but reduces visionary appeal.

(7) Debt Swap

In May 2008, Congress raised federal Stafford loan borrowing limits by $8,000 per student in order to provide a better option for those otherwise reliant on expensive private student loans. The increase in federal loan limits, however, only applies to new borrowers. Existing, out-of-school borrowers continue to be burdened by expensive private student loan debt with interest rates that reach in excess of 20 percent per year, far higher than unsubsidized federal Stafford loans that carry a 6.8 percent fixed interest rate. Moreover, unlike private student loans, federal Stafford loans come with deferment, forbearance, and other pro-borrower repayment options. Congress could make new federal Stafford loans available to all borrowers (out-of-school or in-school) who have existing private student loan debt and untapped Stafford loan eligibility up to the current federal borrowing limits. Old borrowers would have to use new Stafford funds to pay off existing private loan debt. The resulting “debt swap” would ease the financial burden associated with private student loans for existing borrowers and infuse liquidity into the private student loan market. A typical working or middle class borrower with $8,000 in private student loans would cut their average interest rate in half and save over $2,000 in interest payments over the life of a typical student loan.

Pros: Middle class deliverable at no taxpayer cost (in fact, unsubsidized Stafford loans generate a small amount of savings due to a windfall profits provision associated with the Federal Family Education Loan program and the structure of the Direct Loan program); approximately 10 million borrowers eligible to receive help.

Cons: Adds default exposure to federal books; moral hazard; relatively small amount of debt relief ($8,000) for borrowers; private student loan prepayment hurts fragile banks.

(8) Supplemental, Class-Based Affirmative Action

There are more legacies enrolled at elite institutions of higher education than low-income students. Only 8 percent of Harvard students, for example, are Pell grant recipients. Congress could authorize a $50 million incentive grant program for institutions of higher education in support of class-based affirmation action programs that supplement race-based preference policies. Schools would be free to use funds to develop supplemental, class-based affirmative action programs and provide financial aid in support of increased low-income student enrollment. A class-based admissions preference comparable in value to the more common legacy preference would increase low-income student enrollment at elite institutions by more than 50 percent, according to a recent Mellon foundation report.

Pros: Defensive measure in response to anti race-based affirmative action state ballot initiatives; appeals to white, working class Democrats and non-liberal elites (e.g., New York Times’ David Brooks and former Princeton President William Bowen are supportive); low cost; offers follow through to Obama’s Philadelphia speech on race.

Cons: Embraces identity politics; divisive; significant political problem with respect to low-income minority students: either they benefit twice (getting both a race and class based preference), which race-baiters may portray as Obama “taking care of his own” or low-income minority students are allowed to benefit only once, which the civil rights community could portray as a betrayal of race-based affirmative action.

(9) Target Aid on Needy Middle and High School Students

The federal government provides approximately $146 million a year in campus based aid to the 48 wealthiest private universities in the nation while dramatically underfunding the TRIO and GEAR UP early intervention programs for low-income secondary school students. The 48 wealthiest private institutions of higher education (one percent of the nation’s total number of colleges) control over 50 percent of the nation’s total post-secondary education endowment wealth. Each has an endowment in excess of $1 billion. The eight Ivy League colleges alone, which receive $35 million a year in federal campus based aid, account for one-quarter of nation’s post-secondary education endowment wealth. These super wealthy institutions should fund campus based financial aid out of their own ample resources. They already enjoy generous support from the Internal Revenue Code as non-profit entities. Saved federal funds should redirected toward the TRIO and GEAR UP early intervention programs. In the future, should overall resources for federal higher education programs grow markedly, at that time the billion dollar plus endowment colleges should be eligible to receive Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, Federal Work Study, and Perkins loan capital infusions. Until then, scarce dollars are best directed to the neediest students unable to access support elsewhere.

Pros: No cost; TRIO and GEAR UP have big constituencies and are popular with groups representing racial minorities and low-income communities; targeting of education funds tends to enjoy bipartisan support.

Cons: Targeting can be portrayed as limiting access for poor students to elite institutions and “robbing Peter to pay Paul;” endowment wealth at elite schools is down due to the economic crisis; effectiveness of TRIO and GEAR UP have been questioned.

(10) Pell Grants, Not Refundable Tax Credits

There are at least 12 separate tax expenditures in support of higher education, almost none of which redound to the benefit of low-income families and community college students. To remedy that incongruity and promote college access, President Obama proposed a new, refundable American Opportunity Tax Credit that would be larger than and replace the existing HOPE Scholarship tax credit. Refundable tax credits, however, are difficult to administer, arrive long after tuition bills are due, and are not guaranteed to be spent fully on education expenses. Moreover, in the case of the HOPE credit, qualified education expenses do not include room and board expenses and are reduced for each dollar in Pell and other grant aid received. In the absence of reforming and consolidating all of the education tax credits, deductions, and other tax benefits, low-income students are best served by an increase in the maximum Pell Grant. Congress should continue the higher education tax credits for middle-class families, but in lieu of refundability grow Pell Grant funding. All Pell funds are dedicated to and spent on education needs. They’re available for tuition, textbook, and room and board expenses and available when college bills are due.

Pros: The Pell Grant is popular with the higher education community and a proven program; shifting the refundable element of the proposed tax credit into Pell facilitates the Obama campaign promise to ensure Pell funding keeps pace with tuition growth.

Cons: Tax credits hold more bipartisan appeal than increased spending; future Pell funding is already growing as per the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

[2] Existing internship programs are sponsored by Boston University, the University of Southern California, University of California Los Angeles, and George Washington University, among others.

[3] More than 7.3 million accounts exist with some $50 billion invested in a combination of government bonds and private securities.

[4] While a member of the U.S. Senate, Vice-President Joe Biden sponsored an Early Pell Grant demonstration program incorporated into the 2008 Higher Education Act reauthorization.

[5] Parents of middle-class 8^th grade students who make an early contribution with disposable income to their child’s 529 College Savings account should be able to claim their tuition tax credit immediately upon deposit rather than subsequent to a tuition payment.

[6] Disbursement of President Obama’s tuition tax credit funds can be conditioned on proof of community service as per the Obama-Biden campaign proposal.

[7] The one-year Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA), passed in May 2008, was extended for a second year during the fall of 2008.

[8] Even if all 2,000 private and non-profit suppliers of federal loans went out of business because of economic concerns and aversion to the proposed warrants and covenants attaching to ECASLA, there is still zero danger that students would ever go without access to federal student loans. The Department of Education maintains its own federal loan delivery system, the Direct Loan program, which offers the same loans at the same interest rates as the bank based alternative. Further federal law establishes for the Federal Family Education Loan program, a “lender of last resort” backup system where federal capital is advanced to 35 guaranty agencies nationally so they can issue federal loans in the event of an emergency. In other words, the underlying ECASLA student loan bailout law is not and never was necessary to ensure continued student access to and participation in the federal college loan program. It was necessary, however, to ensure continued operation of a number of banks participating in the federal student loan program.

Unfortunately, human laws change; people change as new technologies, new rights and new systems are introduced to meet the insatiable needs of an ever growing internationally connected society. The rapid transformation of agricultural societies into industrial villages; of mono-lingual socio-cultural tribes into cosmopolitan communities; and of self-sufficient economies into multi-laterally controlled markets have in effect altered the way people think and act. Consequently, people have become willing and unwilling participants to drastic adjustments in the dynamics of human interaction. Society has unwittingly turned people’s lives into the influence of non-conventional ideologies spurred by mass media, industrial development, socio-economic and geo-political mergers and the increasing dominance of multinational corporations in world markets. Eventually, the world is overrun by pride, power and greed. Lives falter and the weak are crushed; but the one most nagging question is never raised. How does the way I live my life affect the way other people live theirs? There is an urgent need to reflect and redirect our value systems and find ways to the abatement in the proliferation of apathy by a changing world. It is from this context that teaching social responsibility in the language classroom seeks to pursue what is morally and ethically correct and fulfill what is deemed right for the welfare of a greater number of people and the protection of man’s habitat.

Doing what is right is the language teachers’ response to the demands of an evolving society where needs are as diverse as individual concerns are. It is the language teachers’ noble contribution to the simple premise that while people everywhere are different because of their race, religion and culture and their political and economic backgrounds, people have similar desires and aspirations for humankind. Universally, people share the same hopes about how their lives should rise beyond economic gains and how the world treats them and gives them positive expectations for the future of their children. The language teacher stirs up the learners’ sub-conscious self to conscientiously acknowledge that one’s intrinsic and extrinsic persuasions are bound by one’s universal accountability to humanity; that one’s actions may directly or indirectly have an influence on another person’s happiness, health, safety and comfort.

Indeed, the teaching profession has always placed itself at the forefront in the pursuit of righteousness; and in molding individuals into responsible citizens. A catalyst for change, teachers have assumed an extraordinary role in revealing man’s innate decency and worth; accordingly, teachers take on an ethical and a moral obligation to seek out moments where students’ values can be clarified; their negative feelings be mollified and converted to something productive; and their uncertainties resolved. They undertake the noble tasks of creating and recreating, of forming and nurturing individuals as world citizens that are open and sensitive to the social demands of a global community and responsive to social issues, either internationally or at the local level. After all, Bertrand Russel once extolled the teachers’ role in sustaining order in society as “guardians of civilization”.

Issues and problems that beset the human race are concerns that should not be attended only within established institutional structures but also inside and outside the confines of the language class. The language class is a rich venue for the development of both the cognitive and affective domains of learning which are vital in counteracting the scourges of narrow ambitions, contracted nationalism, of evil subterfuges of man against man, and apathy. Further, researches have shown that social and emotional skills are necessary elements for the successful development of thinking and learning activities. The processes that have been considered as pure reasoning and academic are now considered to be integrative of the learners’ cognitive and affective capabilities. Effectively promoting emotional competence is the key to helping language learners acquire the skills, attitudes, values, and experiences that will motivate constructive behaviors, make responsible and thoughtful decisions and seek out positive opportunities for growth and learning. The language teacher therefore shares in the responsibility of ensuring that the choices students make are informed choices based on the best information and insights available, and a genuine concern for the welfare of humanity and anything that encompasses its existence.

Paulo Freire (as cited in Lewis, 2003) saw the necessity of providing people the opportunity to understand where they are situated in their society by giving them basic education. Such opportunity helps them become productive contributors to the transformation of their society. He wrote:

Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.
Language learning is one area in education where participation in the transformation of the world can best be explored. Initially, the four language skills serve as channels for communication. The plain fact that the ability to read and write opens up many opportunities to someone who got the skills heightens the influence language learning has on the investigation of social concerns. Scholars like Bertrand Russell, Paulo Freire and Alfred Adler believe that social change can be achieved mostly when people are liberated from the restrictions of illiteracy and ignorance. One’s effective use of language gives one ample space to grow, and grow creatively. As learners articulate their feelings and points of view and plan specific actions to instigate positive responses on topics that interest them, vocabulary use and language structures are strengthened. Allowing students to collaboratively dissect and investigate a social issue among their peers using their own experiences and observations maximizes the manipulation of the language. Such exercises empower the students to be responsible for their own learning. In effect, the language class is a fertile ground in generating productive use of verbal communication geared at comprehending the nuances of man’s social nature. It provides a venue for teachers and students to see the world in different perspectives and be able to examine and reflect upon how this diversity strengthens or disintegrates the social fiber that binds them with humanity. As they hone their linguistic and social competencies, students are encouraged to cultivate in themselves a sense of respect, tolerance and sensitivity to disparities in race, culture, religion and ideologies.

Dying Pasta

First you will need to be able to manipulate the pasta and color it to fit your theme or artistic needs. Here is the basic recipe:

Materials Needed:

Rubbing alcohol
Food colors
Noodles, uncooked

Method:

1.Pour alcohol into large bowl and add food color.
2.Note: the more food coloring the brighter the pasta.
3.Add pasta, stir and let set until desired color.
4.Spoon out, using slotted spoon, onto newspapers.
5.Spread to dry (about 2 hours).
6.Then use for your favorite art project.

Some Simple Ideas

Now that you have the materials, it’s time to get crafty! Try these projects on for size:

Pasta People

Materials Needed:

A couple different types of pasta and dried beans, like spaghetti, macaroni, tiny tube pasta, long tube pasta, wagon wheels, long spirals, tiny shells, wagon wheels
A piece of construction paper
White glue

Method:

1.Glue the pasta to the paper using white glue.
2.Have the kids arrange the pasta on the paper before gluing (to make sure that they have room for the whole body on the piece of paper).
3.You can use just about any type of pasta (or dried beans) for the body parts. Experiment with different variations.

Pasta Jewelry

Materials Needed:

A piece of string about 40 cm long
Pasta pieces that you can thread string through

Method:

1.Color about ten to fifteen pasta pieces. Use different colors and/or pasta shapes if you like. Leave to dry.
2.Thread the pasta pieces, one at a time, onto the piece of string. When the string starts to get full with pasta, tie both ends of the string together to form the necklace.

Macaroni Noodle Frame

Materials Needed:

Macaroni or other small pasta
1 – 3 X 3 terracotta tile
Glue
Paint
Plate stand
Black permanent marker
Small flowers
Ribbon

Method:

1.In the center of the tile, draw the shape and size of the picture with the marker.
2.Apply glue to the border of the area you outlined, leaving the center empty.
3.Apply macaroni/pasta.
4.Let it dry (for about 30 minutes).
5.Paint.
6.Once dry, you may apply flowers or ribbon to decorate.
7.Place picture in the empty center.
8.Place tile on plate stand for display.

Have Fun

One of the cool things about pasta is that there are so many different choices and variations. You can control the color of the pasta very easily by adding more or less coloring, and it is a fun way to teach your kids about the different colors and what results if you mix them together. It is a great medium both cooked and uncooked, and cost just pennies per child! So the next time you think about creating a craft, bring out the old spaghetti noodles and start creating some fun!

One of the reasons that many parents have serious reservations about both TV and the Internet is that they both contain and screen content that may be wildly inappropriate for children. But by taking steps to make the Internet (in particular) a safer place from your computer, and by supervising online and TV-dependent learning, especially for younger kids, these technologies can really develop the educational resources available from your home “classroom.”

Talk Your Child Through Rules for Content Safety

Obviously there are parental controls that can be established on both the TV (for families who subscribe to pay-for services like Sky these are especially easy to access) and online. It’s highly likely that you will want to switch these services on – they’re easy to use and will help you ensure that your children avoid inappropriate material while hunting for educational material. But even more important – and arguably more effective – is talking to your child about the dangers online and on TV, and about why you are taking steps to protect him or her.

It’s important that you explain to your son or daughter that you trust them and their activities, but that sometimes situations beyond their control can put undesirable material in their path. Some extremely important rules that you should discuss include making it clear to your child that they should never physically meet anyone they “meet” online, and do not give out personal information online. Talk about the TV channels they are allowed to watch, and those that they are not.

Online Learning Forums

Online learning forums (often known in the US as ‘tutoring centers’) can be a really useful Internet resource for your home-schooled child. They may offer online games with an educational basis, as well as interactive activities. Some, such as the learning websites run by the BBC, are free; otherwise, mainly operated in the US, require a subscription. You may feel these are a worthy investment if the material works well for your child.

Learning about Current Events

The Internet and TV can prove exceptional resources for your home schooled child to learn about current affairs and events going on across the world. It’s a good idea to avoid unsupervised watching of programmes like the news, not least because it provides a wealth of educational opportunities if you are on hand to answer any questions that crop up from issues on the news such as war, economic concerns or human interest stories.

• does paxil and dexatrim max interact

Learning Through the Television

For younger children especially, there are a wide range of learning programmes available; some are screened in schools. Programmes such as BBC’s Newsround, a kids-directed news programme, can help your child to learn more about the world around them. Older children might benefit from Open University TV programmes, which are broadcast late at night so you may want to record these for your child to watch at a more convenient hour. These can all prove a useful and interesting addition to the home schooling education schedule.

Other home schooling parents will be able to talk you through local laws and/or regulations and facilities for home schoolers, as well as help you to deal with specifically local representatives of agencies such as the Local Education Authority.

Support groups can be an opportunity to gain support from other home educating families, and help your children and you avoid feeling isolated. Other families may be able to help on issues such as choosing a curriculum, and sharing resources such as textbooks or science equipment.

Support groups can help build children’s social skills – they see you with other parents, there are new children from them to get to know.

Finding or Starting a Home Teaching Support Group

First it is a good idea to contact a big home education support group like Education Otherwise, or, for Scottish home schooling families, School House. They will try to find you a local group or may be able to give you a list of local home schooling parents who might want to start a group if there is not one in your area.

Otherwise, you may want to consider starting a support group for local home schooling families. If so, the first step is to consider what kind of support group you would most benefit from. Different kinds of support groups include:

• Small informal groups lozol where parents can meet over a chat and coffee and children can share toys and play together – usually best for young homed schooled children, and your base will probably be one member’s home, or several members home on a rotating basis.
• A more formal, structured support group viagra and aortas which provides activities for the children to carry out, which may change every time there is a meeting. Some of these groups organise arts and craft activities, others focus on sports, or music, or arranging visits and field trips – going in a group can involve a booking discount, and can be followed up by group discussion.
• Another type of group has a more specifically academic intention, where the support group helps children to study together, or work on group projects. One parent might take turns in leading the session, or the children could get on with it independently.

• Organising the First Meeting

  Contact a group like Education Otherwise to gauge interests levels and advertise your new support group, or put an advert in a local shop or newspaper. Then, it’s important to be organised at the first support group meeting, since this will set the tone for future meetings and the success of the group.Write down all attendants’ names, phone numbers and/or email addresses and talk about ideas for the future shape of the group – do other parents want to see organised activities, informal meet-ups, etc. Talk about the regularity of the group – every week, or every month? Also finances – will there be a group kitty, or individual payments for specific events?. Then make a date for the next meeting!

Choosing a Curriculum Between 11-16

Many home schooling parents decide not to use a specific curriculum during primary school age education, but equally as the child grows older, many opt to find one to follow during middle school learning to prepare for qualifications like GCSEs. In America, some states insist on home schooling parents using a curriculum. In the UK, this is not the case, but there are some curricula available for sale, most of which follow the National Curriculum. Home schooling parents can choose between following one curriculum, following no curriculum, or picking and choosing between the options from various text books by following a child’s specific interests.

If you do want to find a curriculum for your middle-school aged child, research the options at your local library, educational book shop or online. With children aged ten or eleven at the start of the middle school curriculum, it’s a good idea to discuss with him or her the course options. Ask the book supplier for samples before ordering a large batch, or look through those that a fellow home schooling family might be using.

Take into consideration your child’s learning style – a child who learns best through drawing, for example, might prefer a graphic-based textbook and curriculum to one with dense writing. Check out second hand book shops, online and in high streets, for good deals on books. Some companies which provide curricula include InterHigh, for children between 11 and 16, which provides about three hours a day of online tuition, and ACE, an American study course which is available with some parts adapted for a European education.

Motivation Tips for Children Aged 11-16

Organise the teaching area so that lots of learning options are easily available, such as inspiring books and magazines, arts supplies, science equipment like thermometers and magnets, writing and drawing supplies, a telescope, globe, maps, etc. Make frequent trips to the library to ensure there are always new books around.

Organise the learning schedule around your child’s interests and hobbies, such as learning science using insects on a woodland walk, or discovering measurements and fractions while baking a cake. Occasional treats can be useful as a motivational aid, but don’t make this a regular practice because the motivation will be temporary, and this hinders the development of a self-motivated learner, which the home schooling education often encourages.

Always be very enthusiastic and encouraging, which will help ensure that the child knows their education is progressing and they are developing. Some home schooling parents like to write a daily schedule or ‘to do’ list on a black board to help ensure a set amount of ‘learning time’ is completed every day, but it’s important to also know when to allow playtime: when the child’s interest and energy is wilting, learning will not be efficient.

A lesson plan is usually a written document made by a teacher, or in this case home teacher. It sets out the objectives of a session of learning and describes how that objective will be met, including the lesson’s activities, timings, possible break periods, etc. A lesson plan therefore takes a topic or curriculum and breaks it down to fit an element of that curriculum into a more manageable time slot. Some home schooling families swear by lesson plans.

These structured ways of managing a child’s education can help both home schooling parents and their children to relax during the tutorial process as both feel that the educational progress is going on. As well as avoiding concerns about the ‘correct’ pace of learning and ensuring that a child can complete a certain subject or exam syllabus, for example, within the available period of time. Having lesson plans can also be useful as a source of proof that the home schooled child is receiving an education if a representative of a Local Education Authority (LEA) asks for some this kind of evidence, which can occur in some areas.

Do note, however, that just as many home schooling parents detest lesson plans! These parents usually believe that home education is a way to instigate the philosophy that all learning about life is a form of education, and that learning can be picked up just as much on a supermarket trip to pick up onions as sitting down at a desk with a textbook. This method of schooling, sometimes known as ‘unschooling’, would not usually involve lesson plans as these heighten the distinction between everyday life and a taught, or learnt, education.

Flexible Lesson Plans For Home Schooling

Within home schooling, many parents find a chief benefit to be the individualisation of lessons and tutoring to each child, so it’s important that a lesson plan does not become so important to a parent that following its guidance becomes the most vital part of the lesson. Keep in mind at all times that the lesson plan is supposed to facilitate learning rather than become an end in itself. In addition, lesson plans should also remain flexible so that if its time estimations are wrong – because, for example, a child is struggling with one particular topic or making especially good progress in another, then move away from the lesson plan.

Since a further benefit of home learning are the opportunities to visit exhibitions, museums, visiting speakers, etc., during the educational process, it’s a good idea to build lesson plans around these events, for example having a physics lesson plan for the day after a visit to a science museum can bring up ideas when they are fresh in the mind.

Making a Lesson Plan

This section of the article will talk through making a sample lesson plan for a literature lesson. There are also a wide range of lesson plans available on the Internet for free, as well as in books, teaching guide books and from paid suppliers (see elsewhere on this website for the article about buying lesson plans) so parents can gauge more about lesson plans.

The first step to making a lesson plan is to list the objectives of that lesson. A lesson plan for a literature lesson on Golding’s ‘The Lord of the Flies’, for example, might have these objectives:

• taking from and zovirax dizziness benadryl

• Understand the nature of literary symbolism
• Understand and identify pathetic fallacy
• Talk about character development
• Improve critical writing ability.

Next the parent would consider the lessons timings, which would depend on the child’s reading rate, the amount of book to be read, the available time, the child’s general attention levels, etc.

Next the lesson plan would identify key chapters to read, highlight, discuss, and so on, and then an activity, such as making a dictionary of critical terms for literary study. Finally the lesson plan might also include a title for the tutor to organise written work, such as ‘write a further chapter on ‘The Lord of the Flies’ – how do the children adapt to be back at home?

It’s very unlikely that home teachers will be able to have laboratories as equipped as a school’s science lab, but parents can still make the most of kitchen science, online demonstrations through sites such as You Tube, and similar resources to help their homed schooled child to understand science in an active and interesting way. There are also a myriad of ideas for experiments that can be carried out at home. This article looks at the opportunities and teaching ideas for science in a home school environment.

Teaching Science as the World Around Us

Break down the ‘big ideas’ of science being biology, chemistry, physics, etc. and instead help your child to see biology as living things, humans, plants and animals, chemistry as the study of the elements of the world and how they mix and come together, and physics the study of the world’s forces and the rules of the universe.

Encourage children to ask all those ‘why’ questions – why cars move, why tables do not, why radiators are hot, and snow is not – every time a home schooled child asks these kinds of questions take the opportunity to talk through the answer, looking it up together if necessary, from a science textbook, the library, Internet or a reference source. This kind of active learning and intellectual curiosity will make a good scientist!

Encouraging Scientific Thought

Encouraging children to ask questions of the world rather than accept its incomprehensiveness can boost their science ability: help them to propose an answer to their question, then experiment to find out whether his or her answer works in reality. Set up experiments to answer their questions – when they start thinking about what substances are needed for growth, for example, you could plant garden seeds, some with water, sun and soil, some with one of these elements missing – the process will show what plants need to grow, and you can then study further about what plants use these substances for.

Playing with Kitchen Science

Fun experiments in the kitchen with normal store cupboard ingredients can instigate challenging thoughts and scientific enquiries from kids. Some ideas include making ‘burping pots’, crystals, self-inflating balloons and invisible ink. Look in kitchen science ‘how to’ books in libraries and on the Internet to find out more. Here’s an example of how to make invisible ink and what to talk about – ‘the science stuff’ – afterwards:

Introduce the child to the concept of invisible ink by talking about how spies communicate, or how useful it would be to send secret messages to a friend. Then carry out the promise by making invisible ink. First write a message with a paint brush dipped into a generous helping of lemon juice directly on to a piece of paper. Then let the lemony message dry – it will then appear to be a clean piece of paper, with any message invisible to the naked eye.

To re-produce the message on the writing paper, place the secret message paper on a piece of baking parchment, and put bake it in an oven preheated to one hundred and eighty degrees celsius. Monitoring the paper throughout, bake it for around five minutes – when the paper comes out of the oven, the message should be visible and possible to read all over again.

The reason behind this is that the lemon juice’s sugar content turns the liquid brown when it is heated, while in the meantime the paper stayed white so the brown became more visible. These kind of experiments put the fun back into science and are a great way to capitalise on the freedom of home education.