Page 25 - IM_Algebra1_FL Print Sample.pdf

Assistive Technology. Assistive technology can be a vital tool for students with learning disabilities, visual-spatial needs, sensory integration, and autism. Assistive technology supports suggested in the materials are designed to either enhance or support learning, or to bypass unnecessary barriers. Physical manipulatives help students make connections between concrete ideas and abstract representations. Often, students with disabilities beneTt from hands-on activities, which allow them to make sense of the problem at hand and communicate their own mathematical ideas and solutions.
Visual Aids. Visual aids such as images, diagrams, vocabulary anchor charts, color coding, or physical demonstrations, are suggested throughout the materials to support conceptual processing and language development. Many students with disabilities have working memory and processing challenges. Keeping visual aids visible on the board allows students to access them as needed, so that they can solve problems independently. Leaving visual aids on the board especially beneTt students who struggle with working or short-term memory issues.
Graphic Organizers. Word webs, Venn diagrams, tables, and other visual supports provide structures that illustrate relationships between mathematical facts, concepts, words, or ideas. Graphic organizers can be used to support students with organizing thoughts and ideas, planning problem solving approaches, visualizing ideas, sequencing information, or comparing and contrasting ideas.
Brain Breaks. Brain breaks are short, structured, 2–3 minute movement breaks taken in between activities, or to break up a longer activity (approximately every 20–30 minutes during a class period). Brain breaks are a quick, eWective way of refocusing and re-energizing the physical and mental state of students during a lesson. Brain breaks have also been shown to positively impact student concentration and stress levels, resulting in more time spent engaged in mathematical problem solving. This universal support is beneTcial for all students, but especially those with ADHD.
Practice Problems
Each lesson includes an associated set of practice problems. Teachers may decide to assign practice problems for homework or for extra practice in class; they may decide to collect and score it or to provide students with answers ahead of time for self-assessment. It is up to teachers to decide which problems to assign (including assigning none at all).
The practice problem set associated with each lesson only includes topics that are the focus of that lesson. However, distributed practice (revisiting the same content over time) is more eWective than massed practice (a large amount of practice on one topic, but all at once). Because of this, we recommend that teachers construct practice assignments
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Course Guide Algebra