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Edwin S. Ellis

Watering Up the Curriculum for Adolescents with Learning Disabilities, Part II: Goals of the Affective Dimension

This article addresses issues associated with common pedagogical practices that impede effective development of adolescents with learning disabilities. It also outlines goals, principles, and techniques for “watering up” curriculum and instruction so that intrinsic motivation, internal locus of control, academic and social self-concept, self-esteem, a sense of competence and confidence, an “attack” attitude about challenging tasks, willingness to take risks, and sense of personal potency are fostered.

Edwin S. Ellis

Watering Up the Curriculum for Adolescents with Learning Disabilities, Part I: Goals of the Knowledge Dimension

Many accommodations, though designed to ensure success of adolescents with learning disabilities in content area classes, water down the curriculum by reducing opportunities to learn and emphasizing memorization of facts. This article explores how watering up the curriculum to create “thought-full” classrooms can facilitate achievement of learning and development of deep knowledge structures.
Voice of America

A Way to Help Students Before They Fail

More schools are using a process called Response to Intervention (RTI) to see if a child might have a learning disability. Response to Intervention provides specially designed instruction for children who have scored low on general tests. The students are tested — sometimes as often as every week — to measure progress. Those who improve after the instructional intervention go back to their normal classroom activities. Those who do not improve receive additional testing to confirm the presence of a disability.
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