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This study used a multiple baseline across participants design to examine the effects of self-monitoring and active responding on the reading comprehension of three high school seniors with learning disabilities and significant attention problems. The self-monitoring intervention required the participants to read a story and stop reading at three pre-determined places in the text. At each stopping point, the participants used a form to record the answers to five questions focusing on narrative story elements (e.g., Who are the main characters? What is the setting?). Reading comprehension was measured by (a) number of story facts the participants were able to recall and (b) number of correct responses on a 10-item reading comprehension quiz. Findings demonstrated a functional relation between the self-monitoring intervention and reading comprehension performance. (Contains 1 table and 4 figures.)

Research indicates that student achievement improves when teachers provide opportunities for active engagement. Guided notes have been suggested as a way to increase active student responding during teacher-directed lectures. The purpose of this review was to summarize research on the effectiveness of guided notes. Specifically, we sought to synthesize the research examining (a) the effectiveness of guided notes on various outcome variables and across different ages, (b) procedural variations in guided notes implementation, and (c) the social validity of guided notes. Results indicated that guided notes are an effective and socially valid method for increasing note-taking accuracy and improving academic performance, particularly for school-age students. Recommendations are made for everyday classroom practice and for future research. (Contains 3 tables.)

Self-management skills are critical to achieving academic success, yet students with disabilities often fail to execute these skills because they have not learned appropriate strategies. After a thorough review of the professional literature, several conversations with educators, and observations of students, the authors identified many effective self-management tools. Given that students are ultimately responsible for applying these strategies, the purpose of this article is to provide students with 20 self-management strategies that they can use to improve the quality and quantity of their academic work. Certainly, educators and parents will need to teach students how to apply these strategies, but with proper instruction (i.e., modeling, opportunities for practice, and continuous feedback), students can begin to take more and more responsibility for their own academic outcomes. This list is not exhaustive but represents a range of options that can be used across a variety of settings and skills.

Determining what constitutes good writing is difficult, though many say they know it when they see it. Although this approach may have support in the literature, there are other efficient and valid ways to assess students' writing. To obtain a complete picture of a student's writing skills, it is important that teachers take a balanced approach to assessment. Specifically, teachers should use a variety of assessments: (1) formal and informal; (2) snapshot and whole-piece; (3) process and product; and (4) timed and untimed. Because students with disabilities struggle with written expression, they especially need frequent, effective instructional feedback to improve their writing. For teachers to provide feedback on writing, students must write. If students are writing as frequently as they should be, whether one teaches 30 first graders or 150 sophomores, it can be a daunting, aversive task to evaluate all their writing. This article provides teachers with 20 manageable ways to assess their students' writing skills. Teachers can use any or all of these 20 ways to assess student writing over time.

This column provides brief summaries of transition-related articles published in 2008 in other professional journals. The 70 articles included descriptive, experimental, and qualitative research as well as program descriptions, conceptual papers, and practitioner pieces. All areas of Kohler's (1996) Kohler, P. D. (1996). "Preparing youth with disabilities for future challenges: A taxonomy for transition programming." In P. D. Kohler (Ed.), "Taxonomy for transition programming: Linking research and practice" (pp. 1-62). Champaign, IL: Transition Research Institute. Taxonomy for Transition Programming were addressed: family involvement, interagency collaboration, program structure, student development, and student-focused planning.

Vacations may have detrimental effects on maths and spelling performance, but the findings for reading are less conclusive. The purpose of this study was to analyse the effects of summer vacation on early literacy skills of young children. Participants included rising first and second-graders, most of whom were at-risk, struggling readers. No evidence of summer setback was evident for this sample of children; in fact, gains in reading (or, recoupment of any losses) were more common in children performing at lower levels than for those with higher scores at the end of the school year. Our outcomes are different from those reported by other researchers. We explain this with attention to the content of our comparisons, the grade levels investigated and measures used to assess performance, and discuss implications for future research based on our findings.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of self-graphing on the writing of 3 fourth grade students with high-incidence disabilities. Measures of written expression included total number of words written and number of correct word sequences. During intervention, students self-graphed their total number of words written in response to a timed story starter. A functional relationship was found between the self-graphing intervention and the total words written and number of correct word sequences. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

When students become involved in the process of developing their own Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), they have the opportunity to practice many of the essential self-determination skills they need in school and in life. Unfortunately, students are often excluded from this process, and their presence at an IEP meeting does not necessarily mean that they are actively participating. Students may be left out of the process because teachers are not familiar with the concept of self-determination or are unsure how to use the IEP process to support the development of self-determination skills. The IEP process typically has four stages: planning, drafting, meeting to revise and finalize the draft, and implementing the program. However, when involving students, an additional stage must be added at the beginning of the process to provide students with the necessary background knowledge and a rationale to facilitate their active and meaningful participation. This article describes 20 simple ways to involve students in the IEP process. (Contains 3 figures.)

Researchers and practitioners have emphasized the importance of teaching self-determination skills to students with disabilities for more than a decade. One major barrier to teaching self-determination in recent years has been teachers' not knowing how to focus on reading, writing, and mathematics and simultaneously teach self-determination skills. Thoma, Nathanson, Baker, and Tamura found that the majority of teachers they surveyed taught self-determination only informally and had never heard of published curricula and instructional methods for teaching self-determination. With higher stakes for demonstrating academic skills, teachers and districts need models of how to integrate other relevant skills into teaching the important academic content. A dual focus on self-determination and academic skills is crucial for all students' success. In response to these concerns, the authors developed a model to help practitioners integrate self-determination skills into the general academic curriculum. Planning worksheets guide teachers through the process and can be applied to instructional decision-making for an individual student or for a group of students. The model is designed for teachers to begin using immediately, even before they have adjusted their individualized education programs (IEPs) to match the model. However, the process is recursive: Eventually, when teachers become more comfortable with the model and when they more fully involve their students in the IEP process, they will more naturally develop IEP goals that make this process even easier. (Contains 6 figures.)

Setting meaningful individualized education program (IEP) goals and objectives is one of the challenges that special education teachers face. In written expression, this task is even more difficult. Not only is assessing writing a subjective and difficult endeavor, but writing itself is a complicated task. Because many students with disabilities struggle with written expression, these skills should be targeted for instruction, but it is unrealistic for teachers to create IEP objectives for each skill area. Teachers need to know how to prioritize each students' written expression deficits, and they need access to measures that are efficient indicators of overall writing performance. Curriculum-based measurement (CBM), an alternative to informal observation and standardized testing, is one tool teachers can use to assess academic skills, develop meaningful IEP objectives, and target instruction. This article provides teachers with information about CBM, various measures for written expression, and how to use those measures in assessment and throughout the IEP cycle (i.e., setting goals, informing instruction, monitoring progress, and sharing performance data). (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

Proficiency with written expression is critical for students' academic success. Unfortunately, writing presents a challenge for both students and teachers. Recent data suggest that many students in U.S. schools fail to meet even the most basic writing standards. And even when students receive effective (i.e., evidence-based) writing instruction, they often struggle with the generalization (i.e., transfer) of skills to other writing tasks, genres, and purposes and with maintaining skills over time. This article provides teachers with strategies for promoting generalization of writing skills in each stage of the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

Creating single-subject (SS) graphs is challenging for many researchers and practitioners because it is a complex task with many steps. Although several authors have introduced guidelines for creating SS graphs, many users continue to experience frustration. The purpose of this article is to minimize these frustrations by providing a field-tested task analysis for creating SS graphs using Microsoft[R] Office Excel. Results from the field test are presented and the task analysis, which includes steps for creating a variety of SS graphs, is provided. The article includes various illustrations, a list of prerequisite skills, tips, and troubleshooting items.

The current standards-based reform movement, which emphasizes teaching academic skills to all students, holds promise for students with disabilities. However, there is concern that this movement's sole focus on academic skills will leave less room for teaching self-determination skills. One possible solution is to identify interventions that can teach self-determination and academic skills simultaneously. This study investigated the effects of such an intervention (i.e., GO 4 IT ... NOW!) with 12 middle school students with high-incidence disabilities. The findings showed a functional relationship between the instruction and (a) students' abilities to articulate Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals in writing and (b) paragraph-writing skills in students' IEP goal paragraphs.

To promote student success, both in school and beyond, teachers must not only address academic skill development but also help their students become self-determined individuals. The importance of self-determination is implicit in special education legislation. Findings from postschool outcome studies also support the inclusion of self-determination instruction for students with disabilities: Students who have high levels of self-determination achieve greater success after they exit high school. Additionally, students with disabilities who have strong academic skills are more successful upon leaving high school. Therefore, both these areas are important for teachers to address. Teachers need to find the most efficient ways of delivering instruction in these crucial skill areas. Using children's literature to teach a broad range of skills to students with disabilities is one way to address this issue. This article provides teachers with several strategies they can use to promote both self-determination and literacy skills through the use of children's and adolescent literature. Included are examples of activities, a list of recommended children's books, and suggestions for classroom accommodations. (Contains 2 tables.)

Current research and legislation show a need for special education instruction to be more closely aligned with general education curriculum and develop strategies that support the development of self determination skills in students with disabilities. The present study embeds self-determination skills of writing annual goals and objectives in the language arts goal of writing a paragraph. GO 4 IT...NOW!, a self-regulated writing strategy, was used with four high school students with disabilities. Paragraphs written about IEP goals were scored for content and quality. Data were also collected on quality scores for daily paragraphs and student satisfaction with learning the strategy. Results showed a functional relationship between GO 4 IT...NOW! instruction and increase in IEP content and quality scores. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)

Although federal special education legislation and the self-determination movement have promoted and increased students' attendance at their Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings, students' active involvement in the IEP process remains limited. This study used the "Self-Directed IEP" with five students identified with a variety of disabilities to increase participation in their IEP meetings. The results indicated a functional relationship between the implementation of the "Self-Directed IEP" and increased student participation in IEP meetings. Furthermore, students were able to generalize their newly acquired skills to their real IEP meetings.

We conducted a review of the literature to investigate interventions designed to increase students' involvement in their individualized education program (IEP) process. Sixteen studies were identified and analyzed in terms of six variables: purpose, participants/setting, design, dependent variables, independent variable, and results. Our findings suggest that students with widely varying disabilities can be actively involved in the IEP process. Our results also indicate that both published curricula designed to teach students skills to enhance their participation prior to IEP meetings and person-centered planning strategies are effective in increasing students' involvement in their IEP meetings, as substantiated through direct observation; scores on measures of self-determination; and/or feedback from participants, parents, and teachers. We discuss the results in terms of implications for practice and research, the need for future studies to assess the impact of student participation on students' daily lives, and the need for institutions of higher education to prepare teachers to include students in the IEP process.

We conducted a review of the literature to investigate interventions designed to increase students' involvement in their individualized education program (IEP) process. Sixteen studies were identified and analyzed in terms of six variables: purpose, participants/setting, design, dependent variables, independent variable, and results. Our findings suggest that students with widely varying disabilities can be actively involved in the IEP process. Our results also indicate that both published curricula designed to teach students skills to enhance their participation prior to IEP meetings and person-centered planning strategies are effective in increasing students' involvement in their IEP meetings, as substantiated through direct observation; scores on measures of self-determination; and/or feedback from participants, parents, and teachers. We discuss the results in terms of implications for practice and research, the need for future studies to assess the impact of student participation on students' daily lives, and the need for institutions of higher education to prepare teachers to include students in the IEP process., Self-determination is defined as "the ability to identify and achieve goals based on a foundation of knowing and valuing oneself" (Field & Hoffman, 1994, p. 164). Self-determination, and the related [...]

AbstractThis study underscores the critical role of mental representation and advanced reading comprehension in solving mathematical word problems. Proficient problem solvers create nuanced mental models of problem situations, while less successful ones rely on simpler translations. Advanced reading comprehension aids in navigating the complexity of word problems, including element sequencing and semantic relations. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a self-questioning strategy on four elementary students’ comprehension of additive problems. These students were trained to ask questions that helped uncover semantic relations in problems. Results showed significant improvement in their ability to interpret these relations and apply the self-questioning method to comprehend two-step additive problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to examine the effectiveness of Reading RACES (RR), a computer program designed to deliver a repeated reading intervention with culturally relevant passages. Specifically, this study examined the effects of RR on the oral reading fluency (ORF) and comprehension gains for first-grade learners in an urban setting and whether these gains would generalize to novel, generic passages. Five first-grade African American students at risk for reading failure were selected to participate in this study. Results indicated a functional relation between the use of RR and student gains in ORF and comprehension. All students who participated in this study demonstrated moderate to substantial gains on their ORF and comprehension on practiced passages. In addition, the data showed reading skills generalized to novel passages and maintained even 1 month following intervention. These findings extend the previous research base for RR. Limitations and future implications will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effects of a reading racetrack game on acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of sight words for four kindergarten students who are deaf. The game consisted of placing sight words around a racetrack board and prompting the participant to read the words. A multiple probe design across word sets demonstrated a functional relation between the intervention and the participants' acquisition of vocabulary to 100% mastery on at least three consecutive sessions for each participant. Three out of four participants maintained most of the sight words acquired for 2–4 weeks after intervention and generalized reading the words to another presentation format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students with disabilities trail behind their peers without disabilities while in school, as well as in post-secondary outcome areas. Given that self-determination and enhanced academic skills are associated with improved post-school outcomes, one possible solution is to identify interventions that teach self-determination and academic skills simultaneously. This study investigated the effects of GO 4 IT . . . NOW! strategy instruction on expository writing skills of five high school students with low-incidence disabilities. Using a multiple-probe-across-participants design, the authors measured the effects of strategy instruction on quality of expository paragraphs and quality and content of individualized education program (IEP) goal paragraphs. Results indicated a functional relation between the intervention and improved paragraph writing. Limitations, suggestions for future research, and implications for practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]