Instructional Strategies for Faculty

Tips for Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities

(& helpful for all students)

ALL SUBJECTS

Communication and Connection

Add best ways to contact you to syllabus, announcements or Module 0 in Canvas, & post on your web page
Hold office hours, consider varying time of day, and explicitly say you can schedule individual meetings (private discussion of disability issues, if class schedule conflicts)
Give typical response time for Canvas messages, emails (2 days)
Provide opportunities for students to talk with you and feel comfortable (assign an office hour visit, spend time in STEM Center, HUB, ILC)
Share your strategies for success in college, challenges you’ve overcome and how

Organizing Your Course

Consistency in where you put things in Canvas (HW, due dates, lecture slides)
Consistency in schedule (quizzes every Tues, HW released Mon & due Fri)
Flexibility with boundaries (two free passes for late HW)
Opportunity for recovery with learning:

Quiz re-takes
Fixing incorrect exam Qs gets partial credit
Dropping one test, or replacing the grade with the final exam grade

Include many opportunities for students to demonstrate learning in different ways, such as frequent quizzes or short writings/discussions, credit for homework, multiple smaller exams

Syllabus

Make easily available in an online and a printable version (email a PDF to every student, link on Syllabus tab in Canvas, add link in Module 0)
Provide assignment release & due dates, test (including final) dates for the full semester
Consider a quiz on syllabus content (grade policy, course requirements)
Include office hours and contact info
Explain how to talk privately with you
Include disability/accommodations statement (see FIG). Add note saying that you encourage students with disabilities to see you after class or during office hours to discuss accommodations
State clear requirements, grading, due dates, test dates
Include final exam date

Start of Semester

Emphasize your availability (connection leads to success)
Assign office-hour visits so students get to know you
Normalize and de-stigmatize seeking help, needing accommodations
Limit and/or give advance notice of changes
Provide information and skills for success in the course: syllabus review, syllabus quiz, best ways to use text, tutoring, other resources for class
Keep students’ disabilities confidential

Room Arrangement

Front seats: best for students who are distractible and have processing challenges
Back seats: best for students who need to move due to behavioral movement issues, back problems that require standing, etc.
Exits: Vets, students with PTSD, anxiety, panic disorder may need quick access to exits

Instructional Strategies

Be patient
Start class with brief review; review basics and key points frequently
Use multiple modalities (visual, auditory, tactile)
Give concrete examples when possible
Record lectures, provide lecture notes, have a class note taker, post notes online
Write on board, use color-coding
Intersperse lecture with brief hands-on practice; Interactional strategies
Allow time to write/take notes
Give lessons on note-taking for the class, explanations of how you organize your lectures

Provide study strategies for different types of course content

Point out what’s important in lecture & text; query students and model how to tell what’s important
Remind students of overall class goals and how lecture fits in
Demonstrate study strategies that work best for the subject
Normalize and de-stigmatize having questions, have patience with repeated questions
Bring in a prior student to talk about how the course material has helped them and share study strategies and resources they used
Model hand raising (Joe McCullough's approach: hand up, "What questions do you have?" Wait a full five seconds
Students who ask questions are those who are engaging with the material
Facilitate study partners, study groups, staying on campus to study
Encourage use of tutors, test accommodations, other ASC services

Student Response/Processing Time & Social Anxiety

Send out questions before class or share on board or with a handout at the beginning of class (“today we will be examining these topics and questions”)
Write questions or items for discussion on board in advance
Plan with a student about when they will take a turn
Plan a check-in with eye contact or with direct asking. Or, say you'll be next or we'll have you do the 3rd one.
Ask a question; repeat it
Provide advance notice (If Anna needs more processing time, say, "I have two questions, 1st I'm going to ask John this and then I'm going to ask Anna that”)
If students have anxiety about speaking out in class, give them chances to prepare in advance to read aloud, share from homework, or have a question or something written out already. Have them do more of their sharing in small group activities.
Allow private oral reports in your office for students with severe anxiety
Allow student to make a video presentation in place of a live one, or allow them to sit with microphone facing forward while talking through a slide presentation

Homework (HW)

Suggest students divide long assignments into sections, do one section at a time
Give instructions orally and in writing
Assign problems that have answers in back of book
Explain how HW fits larger class goal
Count finished HW in overall grade
Include question styles/formats that parallel test questions
Review common HW errors & corrections
Return graded HW so students can benefit from feedback, invite office hour as needed
Discuss how the text is organized, how students can best read for success
Release HW far in advance (at least one week but more is better) to allow students with significant life responsibilities and intermittent disabilities to stay ahead and recover

Quizzes and Tests

Give review/study guides; general concepts with sample problems
Provide many quizzes and short tests to allow practice with material, provide opportunity for success, & base grades on many grades over semester
Allow sample tests or work sample questions in class
Make the first question of each test something important but easy, to reduce anxiety and allow the experience of success
Prepare students for multiple presentations of concepts/problems on tests
Reduce visual clutter—include white space
Group similar problems together
Return tests with corrections/feedback so students can learn from their for errors and prepare better for the next test
Give extra credit opportunities

Accommodations and Tests

Give advance notice of exam changes (dates, chapters, subject)
Test Accommodations
Require ASC Accommodations Form before giving accommodations. Check your MyASC for Faculty portal.
Do your instructor Proctoring Agreement and add tests into MyASC for Faculty at the beginning of the semester. Be ready when the proctor contacts you.
Discuss options for students to ask questions during exam.
Make a plan with students on how to handle quiz accommodations so they don’t miss class time (start quiz earlier than class start time or take it after class)

Bonus Points for Universal Design

Audio or video record lecture, include speech to text for printed notes or have a note-taker for everyone
Avoid timed tests
Use accessible open text resources
Provide information in multiple formats (say it, show an image of it, have students write about it or talk about it)

TIPS FOR STEM INSTRUCTION

Implement Growth Mindset/Mathematical Mindset Teaching Approach1

Provide “open” tasks or problems with an emphasis on multiple pathways to address or solve them; “low floor” and “high ceiling” tasks
Allow opportunities for creative sharing of ideas and methods for finding solutions
Explicit growth mindset messages

Normalize different incoming experience & skill levels, and be clear on any pre-requisite expectations
Provide an equation sheet or a list of equations on exams to allow students to identify which ones to use and how without having to memorize them
Explain everyday life examples of when and how certain math and physics concepts apply and what the equations are measuring
Provide visuals that demonstrate the formulaic solutions when possible
Use color on the board and on slides to represent certain themes or to differentiate different types of problems
Provide silly visuals for each symbol that helps to call attention to what it represents

TIPS FOR ENGLISH & WRITING COURSES

Allow flexibility of reading/writing assignments for students with trauma and potential for triggers (and add an explicit note about this in syllabus, “If you are uncomfortable with the content of any reading/writing assignment, please speak with the instructor about options at least a week before the due date”)
Be cautious about common trauma triggers and always warn students at the beginning of the semester about the expected content in a class so they can opt for a different section if needed
Normalize different incoming experience & skill levels, and be clear on any pre-requisite expectations
Require students to submit outlines and drafts and give them grades to credit them for these steps and feedback to use to compose a final submission
Provide sample essays/poems from prior students and point out your feedback on them
Require that students use the writing tutors early in the semester
Offer a flexible writing assignment and a requirement to meet with you to plan it early in the semester to provide an opportunity for connection and their motivation to work on something meaningful and motivating to them

¹Boaler, J., Dieckmann, J., LaMar, T., Leshin, M., Selbach-Allen, M., Pérez-Núñez, G., & , (2021). The Transformative Impact of a Mathematical Mindset Experience Taught at Scale. Frontiers in Education, 6, 784393.

Dweck, C. (2007). Growth Mindset.

Here is a link to a google doc with the strategies: Instructional Strategies for Faculty Links to an external site.