I am a beginning special education teacher in an inner city school. I teach 1-3 grade. I need good lessons.?

Question

I'm looking for some good lessons to teach kids who can barely read or write. Does anyone know of any good books or websites that I can go to to find lessons that will intrigue them, and make them pay attention? School is coming up, and I'm in need of some help!!!

Answer 1

Bring all your materials to LIFE! You can use books such as, "Kat Kong," and "Dog Zilla," by Dave Pilkey...allow the kids to retell the story through art...any medium...they can act it out, draw it, paint it...whatever.

Use the book three or four times...repeat...have them use a Thesauras for words in the book to change the story, but not the meaning.

Have them write small paragraphs in the beginning but after they read it, use art to describe it, read it again, use the thesauras for spelling words, have them then write a longer paragraph.

Repeat ...repeat...repeat...the kids who acted the story out, can then draw...the kids who drew, can then act...

Eventually they are going to know a LOOOOOOOONG list of spelling words, be able to write the story perfectly describing what happened, and then you can put this in their portfolios!

As long as they are creating...they will be engaged!

-alli (Also a new SE inner city school teacher!)

Answer 2

I hope you have a basic curriculum to work from!  Do you teach the kids separately or do you help supplement their regular class lessons?  Are the children LD, ED, or cognitively challenged?  It makes a difference.  The right intervention at this level can work wonders (I am NOT trying to scare you).  Your district should have people available to support you and give you guidance.  Where are you?

Here are a couple of excellent websites to get you started.  email me if you would like to.

Good Luck!

http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/cu...

http://www.naset.org/

http://specialed.about.com/od/teacherstr...

Answer 3

One free web site that I use a lot of is http://www.learningpage.com/  .  You can also check out http://www.sitesforteachers.com/.  This has hundreds of web sites you can use with a lot of them being free.

Answer 4

I would contact my mentor teacher to find out if there are state or local lesson plans and curriculum sequence.  If there are lesson plans available, it may not be an option for you to have free range in lesson planning.  

I would recommend in finding a common social studies or science theme to build your first month of study around.  This would also help with decorating your room.

Also check out the kids behaviors that put them with you.  Usually it will be best to set up a very clear behavioral expectation system from day one.  Plan your procedures very carefully and teach them what you expect from day one.  Start your lessons there and then do reminder time everyday for the first month.  

Check out DonorsChoose.org, too!  Great site you can do immediately!