Instructional Strategies to Increase Accessibility
© Education Development Center, Inc. 2007 Addressing Accessibility in Mathematics
Helping Students Understand Tasks Promoting Understanding through Discourse
  • Reword directions or questions
  • Have students paraphrase directions and questions
  • Provide visual and auditory directions
  • Preview vocabulary
  • Have students highlight key information
  • Change context to make it more familiar or appealing to students
  • Show examples of the finished product
  • Have students work in pairs or small groups
  • Use cooperative learning
  • Keep class discussions short and focused
  • Provide timely and constructive feedback
  • Check in frequently with students
  • Use questions, prompts, and hints
Helping Students Access Math in Varied Ways Helping Students Manage Tasks and Organization
  • Build on students’ prior math knowledge
  • Make connections across math topics
  • Move from concrete to representational to abstract
  • Use multiple representations
  • Provide additional examples
  • Offer manipulatives
  • Use technology strategies
  • Use visuals like charts or projected images
  • Offer alternative ways for students to show what they know
  • Provide kinesthetic learning opportunities Building Student Independence
  • Reformat handouts to provide more workspace
  • Reduce amount of copying
  • Provide a checklist
  • Provide time management cues
  • Set up a notebook organizational system
  • Provide project organizers to help the students keep track of tasks
  • Offer tools such as highlighters and postits to help students focus
Building Student Independence Adjusting Tasks to Student Needs
  • Offer timers to help students with pacing
  • Teach highlighting and color-coding
  • Use “think alouds” and other metacognitive strategies
  • Teach and model strategies for:
    • Organization
    • Self-questioning and self-monitoring
    • Problem-solving
    • Memory (such as mnemonics)
  • Clarify expectations (use rubrics)
  • Adjust level of difficulty
  • Use friendlier numbers
  • Break complex tasks into smaller parts
  • Adjust amount of time for tasks
  • Adjust amount of work
  • Create multiple versions of a problem, in order to offer alternatives to a range of learners
  • Adjust pacing to optimize attention
Providing Tools and Handouts Creating a Supportive Environment
  • Provide study guides with key information to reduce copying and note-taking
  • Offer calculators and multiplication charts
  • Provide resource sheets
  • Provide templates for tables, graphs, writing, and other tasks
  • Use graphic organizers
  • Provide practice problems
  • Provide a word bank with key vocabulary words and visuals
  • Post and reinforce classroom expectations
  • Post homework assignments in a consistent location
  • Seat students strategically, based on needslike vision or hearing. Seat distractible students away from windows or doors.
  • Use nonverbal signals to cue attention or behavior
  • Use consistent and familiar routines
  • Provide easy access to manipulatives, templates, and other tools in the classroom
 
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