Navigating Nonfiction
Nonfiction text holds a prominent place in most classrooms today. Helping students feel successful with nonfiction text includes helping them learn the common features of nonfiction text, putting exciting and interesting nonfiction text in their hands, and helping parents understand their role in developing these skills. Learn about these topics, and more, in this month's newsletter!
How to Read Nonfiction Text
Kids love to read about real people, places, and events. Nonfiction books present real information in engaging and interesting ways. However, most kids read a lot more fiction than nonfiction, so spend some extra time helping your reader learn how to navigate a nonfiction book.
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Aliens Are Coming! Okay, not really. But read this!
Aliens Are Coming! is just one of many nonfiction books that have features that attract readers, help them learn about a topic, and invite further thinking and exploration. This article helps teachers understand and share the features of these new nonfiction picture books, a genre that is exploding in both quantity and quality.
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Take a Walk Through Text Features
Used correctly, the text feature walk is a very powerful tool for teaching kids about the features of a text. This useful article provides tips for teaching students to "walk" through a text as a way of setting the stage for reading. Authors also provide a helpful list of common text features that can be taught explicitly.
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October is LD Awareness Month
Does your child have learning and attention issues such as dyslexia, ADHD, auditory processing disorder or problems with executive function? You're not alone — LD.org represents a community of 60 million people. Share these resources from the National Center for Learning Disabilities with friends and loved ones whose children or students are struggling with LD or related issues.
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Expert Advice: My daughter has trouble comprehending written questions on tests. What should I do to help?
Question: My 12th grade daughter has been diagnosed with ADHD, slow processing, and executive function disorders. Her biggest problem is that she continually misinterprets written questions, especially on tests, which she typically fails. Do you know what causes this and how to remedy the problem? She is failing most her classes because of failing the tests.
Answer: Many students with executive function disorder also have learning disabilities related to this disorder. Such disabilities might include a "reading fluency" or a "writing fluency" problem.
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Glossary Term: Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA)
A problem-solving process for addressing student problem behavior that uses techniques to identify what triggers a given behavior(s) and to select interventions that directly address them.
Featured Resource: Apps for Kids with Special Needs
Search and browse for the perfect app using this comprehensive review guide from Friendship Circle of Michigan, a non-profit organization that provides programs and support to the families of individuals with special needs. Categories include educational, speech and language, communication, scheduling, games and more. You can also subscribe to a weekly digest of what's new.
Find apps >
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Learning Store Resource: Discovery School: Intermediate Writing — On Sale!
From drafting, editing, and publishing to organizational strategies to the variety of forms and purposes of writing, teach your middle schoolers the strong fundamentals of writing. This video introduces students to writing narrative accounts, autobiographical compositions, business letters, technical compositions, responses to literature, and more.
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Calendar Check-in
Looking for information about what's happening this month? Check out our October 2013 calendar.
35th International Conference on Learning Disabilities
October 24-25, 2013
Austin, Texas
The Council for Learning Disabilities presents the 35th International Conference on Learning Disabilities at the University of Texas at Austin this month. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Sharon Vaughn.
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Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek)
December 9-15, 2013
Computer Science provides a foundation for virtually any career — everybody can benefit from learning the basics. An "Hour of Code" program is just one of many different events planned for CSEdWeek.
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Research and News
Federal Government Shutdown; Education Department Still Able to Make IDEA Funds Available But Uncertainty Ahead
From the Council for Exceptional Children: While schools are mostly funded through local and state sources, we know that school districts rely on federal funding to share in the cost of providing early intervention, special education and related services, and any threat to this funding further exacerbates an already tight budget situation. Stay in touch with the CEC and other organizations to understand how this budget crisis could affect those who receive IDEA funds.
Learn more >
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Clueless on Common Core
In two new national polls aiming to capture the American public's view of the state of K-12 education, one finding is clear: Most of those surveyed know little to nothing about the Common Core State Standards. But in trying to glean what the public and parents think about another key issue in public education — standardized testing — the two polls generated strikingly different views.
See infographic >
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