Akau,+Christina,+Inclusion+Strategies+in+Math

My name is Christina Akau and I was born and raised in Makawao, Maui. I love the sunshine and being outdoors! My hobbies include hiking, surfing, and snowboarding. My favorite thing to do is visit places I've never been before.


 * Education and Career Goals?** Teaching was actually my Plan B in my career choice. Becoming a flight attendant was my Plan A. I figured that I finish schooling and receive a teaching degree first, then apply for flight attendant positions. The more I pursue my learning in teaching Elementary Education the more my goal to become a flight attendant fades. My goal within the next year is to graduate from Southern Oregon University with my Bachelors degree in Elementary Ed and then move back home to Hawaii to gain my Masters in Teaching.


 * Greatest Fear about being a teacher?** My greatest fear about becoming a teacher is not being able to connect with all of my students. There were many teachers that I did not connect with but hopefully through every student I teach I can make some small difference. Another small fear that I have about becoming a teacher is not having a well-managed classroom.


 * What brings me Joy?** My friends, family, animals, sunshine, and waves!


 * Did you ever experience a time when something was extremely difficult to learn**? There are many times when I have difficulty learning specific topics. Majority of the time I become very frustrated and worried whether or not I will pass the class, but in the end everything seems to pull through. Usually addressing the teacher or peers about the issue will solve the difficulty. As a future teacher, I plan to stress the importance if any student is in need of extreme help to address me to help them get past that difficulty.


 * Gain?** I want to gain the differences in the different types of disabilities and their affects in the learning environment and the different strategies to help students move past the difficulties in learning and succeed.

Inclusion strategies in math are modified instruction and design to meet students’ academic and behavioral needs. Inclusion strategies in math and any other subject matter are important because it helps students achieve their academic goals. A specific learning disability in mathematics is dyscalculia. Students with dyscalculia have a neurological problem and have difficulty in working with numbers, confusion about math symbols, difficulty with basic facts, mental math, telling time, and so forth. I think the reason why I chose this topic is because I take slight interest in math over other subjects.
 * Intro to Topic:**

1. Remember that a child with a math disability is not answering incorrectly due to lack of attention or focus. Taking a long time to answer a question is simply part of the disability. As a teacher, you should make use of all available manipulatives whenever possible, provide examples of a problem already solved, and give samples of how to use the math in the real world. 2. In order for students to develop their innate number sense, and a working knowledge of the above concepts, they must have a great variety of interactions with their environment, exploring and manipulating, comparing, arranging and rearranging real objects and sets of objects. 3. One of the earliest concepts to be developed is classification. 4. The four major components of a modified version of reciprocal teaching are: clarifying, questioning, summarizing, and planning. Students are separated into groups and their is one students assigned the role of leader. The leader instructs all other group members on the four components. 5. There are five ingredients to create an inclusive math community: 1) build an inclusive mathematics community 2) make the mathematics explicit 3) expect and support students to work independently and take responsibility 4) link assessment and teaching 5) promote collaboration
 * Top 5 things learned:**

http://inclusionstrategies.wikispaces.com/Math+Team 5/5 This website is actually a wiki page that has multiple resources on how to differentiate instruction in mathematics.This resource provides many other links of inclusion strategies and tips.
 * Top Resource:**

[] 4/5 This website lists a few implications teachers can use to help students learn important concepts and skills in mathematics. [] 3/5 This website is a case study that “analyzes teachers strategies in assisting students with learning disabilities to understand the complicated conceptual strands of mathematics.” [] 3/5 [] 2/5 This is an article offers strategies specifically for students who struggle with reading and comprehending math. One example of a strategy is reciprocal teaching. For accommodations on reciprocal teaching lesson on mathematical word problems is having another group member read the problems aloud. A dictionary should always be provided for any member to look up words. Another accommodation is having a chart of questions available that can help a student that has difficulty coming up with questions to elicit the key parts of the word problem. [] 5/5 This website gives insight on how to build an inclusive mathematics community in the classroom. [] 4/5 This website contains videos on a variety of lesson plans on instructional procedures in math and other subjects. This technology based lesson plans can be used individually by a student, as a whole class, or for a teacher. [] 5/5 This website contains many lesson plans and math activities. It is not directed towards strategies to help students with disabilities, but it contains many math ideas and lessons that could be altered. [] 3/5 This website shares a basic understanding of what math disabilities there may be. It also provides the reader with tips on how to teach students with disabilities.
 * Resources:**