How can I help students that are "at risk" in my classroom?

Question

Just looking for some ideas.. thanks!

Answer 1

what grade?  what subject(s)?

Answer 2

I would definitely rely on on collaborating with your team members, especially the special educator(s) and counselors to brainstorm some strategies that can be in place for these students. Without knowing them, it's unclear what you could specifically do. Seek out the advice of others in formulating a plan to assess these students in order to determine what will work.

Answer 3

Do the things they talked about in education school.

Do them. Math games and manipulatives, Books on tape. Integrated units, real science experiments. Get them on the internet. Use informal assessments and essay tests.

    Direct instruction doesn't work- shut thy trap!

    Worksheets turn them into zombies... don't bother.

    Textbooks usually suck!

    Round robin reading?

   What does this mean? sixty to eighty hour work-weeks for starters, then things will come naturally.

Answer 4

First inform the parents.

THen, follow the laws concerning this.

IDEA law, 'individuals with disabilties education act' --

this is the federal law that mandates special ed in public schools.

This law mandates that either parent or school can request an initial full educational evaluation to determine if a child can qualify for special ed services. This is under 'initial evaluations'  section 300.503

Also, under this law in 'child find', any school that SUSPECTS a child of having a disability has to do this evaluation, with the parents written agreement of course.

ALL schools say that before a child can have an evaluation the child has to have the RTI, response to intervention, to see if a child can improve with this.

There are many things wrong with this -

1. The interventions given are most likely not 'scientifically researched based' and therefore will not help the child.

2. Unless a child is in special ed, the school is not legally required to help with problems anyway, so this RTI is very short lived, if even done at all.

3. NOWHERE in IDEA law sections 300.503 'initial evaluations' and under the 'child find' section does it say that the child HAS to do RTI FIRST.  

4. So when a parent or school requests an initial eval to see if child can qualify for special ed, if the school does anything OTHER than this eval, it is ILLEGAL and a STALL TACTIC.

Answer 5

What age/grade are the students?

There are some good universal strategies you can use:

*differentiated instruction

*provide students with graphic organizers

*use outlines for taking notes; provide partially completed ones for some students

*give choices for how students demonstrate their knowledge

*allow students to work together

Check out websites that cater to LD students for good ideas:

schwablearning.org

ldonline

Also research Mutiple Intelligence for more ideas.

Good luck and thanks for being a teacher who wants to help the difficult students instead of getting rid of them.

Answer 6

If they don't have an IEP, refer them for evaluation.  I would make sure to speak with parents prior to referral, though, as it may come as a shock to them and you want to make sure you begin building trust from the get-go.  If they already have IEP's, it depends on what their struggles are.  Are they "at risk" due to low socioeconomic background, gang activity, etc, or behavioral and/or learning issues?  I am a huge proponenet of looking at behaviors.  Behaviors can mean aggression (hitting, kicking, etc), non-compliance (saying "no" when asked to do something, refusing to do homework, etc), off-task and non-attending behaviors (not paying attention, talking off-topic in class discussions), etc.  Behaviors always have some sort of function.  For example, denial of a preffered item or activity, to esacape a demand situation, response to sensory overload, etc.  Here is more information:   http://www.shapingbehavior.com/images/Fu... .  You may suggest to the IEP team that an FBA should be conducted.

If the child has sensory regulation issues, (not being able to sit still in class, afraid of noises, difficulty with handwriting), refer the child for a sensory integration assessment.  If the child has organizational difficulties, refer the child for an executive functioning assessment.  If the child has difficulty making friends, refer the child for a social skills, Theory of Mind and pragmatics speech assessment.  If it seems like the child is not hearing or absorbing what you say, refer him/her for an auditory processing assessment.

Not knowing how the child is at risk, I cannot comment on specifics but hopefully one of the above areas of need will help!

Answer 7

First of all, use best practices in your classroom.  These will help all the children, not just the "at risk" children.  Don't just say something.  Show them in different ways:  say it, show an example, and let them do it.  Also, be very consistent.  State the rules and the consequences... and follow through every time.  Most of the time, "at risk" students just need an extra step.  I'm a special educator who gets to go into many "regular" classes and I see how these teachers could make minor changes which would make major differences.  If you are making the kids take notes, make copies for those who have problems.  Or, you can print out cloze form notes... where you leave blanks that the kids have to fill in.  This way they don't get bothered with trying to "catch up" with the rest of the class.  Figure out what you want the kids to learn... is it about the science concept or is it how to take notes.  

Lastly, be sure that you truly care.  Kids will jump through hoops when they think that you care!!!!

Answer 8

Change the classroom!