Whole Language Exercise
Motivating students to read and write when their ability is low is one of the major challenges faced by the special education teacher. Mosaic can help us in this task by providing students the opportunity to write their own "home page" where they can tell about themselves, display their best work (portfolio), and provide links to sites which reflect their interests. In order to create their home pages, they have to use a wide variety of cognitive skills to perform a real task. First of all they need to accurately write a HTML document (woe to the person who omits a quotation mark or !). They practice self-monitoring metacognitive skills. They need to evaluate their work to create a portfolio. They need to explore, find, and select their own favorite sites. They need to use language to communicate to others. Writing their own homepage can help develop pride as students present themselves to a world audience. U>All children, with the aid of assistive technology can produce quality work. Scanners, draw programs, word processors with spell checkers and grammar programs, voice activated computers, adaptive writing tools and a plethora of other devices help our students to become handicapable.
Writing can also be encouraged by having students maintain a learning diary. They can explain what they did in class and link it to the actual work or tell where they have it stored. A typical entry might be "We did page 25 in our math book today. I learned how to find Omega of something. You change the number into a mixed fraction and then multiply by Omega. I got an 83%. After we graded it I put it in my math folder." The learning diary can then serve as a learning enhancer by having the student explain the task and the rule to achieve it.
The portfolio students create for their homepage can also help us in tracking their I.E.P. (Individualized Education Plan) goals. When the parent comes in for a conference, they can see the growth exhibited by their child. If students set goals in a contingency contract, they can create links to the work which fulfills their contact and thus see the progress they are making.
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