Learning+Profile


 * Grade-Level Profile and Differentiated Learning **

As you probably know, Simsbury has an above-average population of special needs students. Out of 83 sixth grade students, 13% have some type of special education needs. About half of these students have learning disabilities. The remaining students may fall into the following categories: Autism, speech impairments, emotional disturbances and intellectual disabilities. Due to this fact, every effort has been made to include differentiated learning options into this project. Listed below are several ways we can incorporate differentiated learning into this unit.
 * When introducing the lesson, ask the students what their most difficult travel experience was. Encourage all to participate in the discussion.
 * When developing student groups, pair up stronger students with those that may need a little more help.
 * Utilize the indicated books with lower or easier reading levels.
 * Utilize the indicated web sites that have easier reading levels or offer other features such as audio narration.
 * Have a special education paraprofessional work with a student one-on-one to select an image for their group's presentation.
 * Develop an alternative, easier worksheet of questions to be asked about the images for the final narration.
 * Have the student narrate and record the title page and student credits of the presentation.
 * Have the student draw a covered wagon or pioneer family, then have him or her write a caption that can be used for the narration script.
 * Have the student copy a poster or advertisement from history and use their version for the image in the presentation.
 * Have the student take the lead in presenting the PhotoStory file. He or she can stand at the Smartboard and open the file.
 * Have a special education paraprofessional work with a student one-on-one to navigate the classroom wiki.