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In an increasingly digital world, the elementary school students of today who learn to program will be positioned to re-imagine and build the future. As educators, it is essential to consider how such an important skill is made accessible for a diverse range of students, including those diagnosed with learning disabilities. In this article, the authors build on previous work conducted to connect computer programming to science learning. In Hansen et al. (2015), the authors described an engaging activity that challenged fourth-grade students to program a digital story or animation depicting science content such as how volcanoes form or the stages of chemical reactions. The authors now revisit the same activity through the lens of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and discuss how the activity was adapted to support the learning of children with learning disabilities in the classroom.

This randomized control treatment study investigated the role of generative paraphrasing interventions on word problem-solving (WPS) accuracy in English language learners (ELL) who were at risk for math difficulties (MD). One hundred and forty-two third-grade monolingual and English language learners were randomly assigned to either an untreated control group or one of three treatment conditions: paraphrase question ("Restate"), paraphrase relevant information ("Relevant"), and paraphrase all propositions ("Complete"). Results showed that the "relevant" treatment condition improved WPS accuracy for monolingual and ELL children's accuracy relative to the control and restate condition. There were, however, no positive advantages on the transfer measures (knowledge of problem-solving components, calculation) for ELL children with MD. In addition, the magnitude of posttest outcomes on the problem-solving measures was substantially smaller for ELL children with MD than for children without MD. Although the results overall support the notion that generative learning improves problem-solving accuracy, ELL children without MD are most likely to benefit from its application.

The purpose of this study was to examine effectiveness of paraphrasing interventions on mathematics word problem-solving accuracy in third grade children (N = 72) at risk for mathematics disabilities (MD). Three instructional conditions directed students' attention through paraphrasing, via writing, to different propositions within word problems. Students were randomly assigned to one of four intervention conditions: paraphrase question propositions (restate), paraphrase relevant propositions (relevant) and paraphrase all propositions (complete) or an untreated control. A mixed ANCOVA indicated that paraphrasing relevant and complete propositions significantly increased posttest accuracy when compared to the control and restate condition. Results from the study provide support for the effectiveness of paraphrasing interventions that directs students to restate/paraphrase propositions of mathematics word problems relative to the control condition.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of explicit, direct, and generative strategy training and working memory capacity (WMC) on mathematical word problem-solving accuracy in elementary schoolchildren. In this study, children in third grade ("N" = 82) identified as at risk for math difficulties (MD) were randomly assigned (within classrooms) to one of three treatment conditions that explicitly directed students' attention to different propositions within word problems--paraphrase question propositions (Restate), paraphrase relevant propositions (Relevant), and paraphrase all propositions (Complete)--or an untreated control condition. A significant treatment by covariate design indicated that generative strategy outcomes were conditional on the level of pretest WMC. A clear advantage in posttest problem-solving accuracy and solution planning was found for the complete generative condition relative to the control condition, but this advantage was conditional on setting WMC to a high level. Although no significant treatment advantages were found for solution accuracy when WMC was set to a low level, treatment advantages relative to the control condition were found for measures of schema activation. The results indicated that the effectiveness of generative strategies among children at risk for MD was directly dependent on the level of WMC.

This study investigated the role of generative strategies and working memory capacity on word problem solving accuracy in children with math difficulties (MD). Within classrooms, children in Grade 3 with MD ("n" = 69) were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: paraphrase question propositions (Restate), paraphrase relevant propositions (Relevant), and paraphrase all propositions (Complete), or to an untreated control. An additional control group included children without MD ("n" = 22). Mixed regression modeling showed that generative strategies significantly improved posttest scores for children with MD compared with the control condition, but outcomes were related to the type of dependent measures. The Relevant and Complete treatment conditions improved problem-solving accuracy, the Complete condition improved problem component identification, and the Restate and Relevant conditions improved operation span performance when compared with the control conditions. Only the Relevant and Complete generative learning treatments allowed children with MD to catch up to children without MD, but the results were moderated by working memory capacity.