Hammill Institute on Disabilities

Concepts from ContentAuthor(s): Adel NadeauSource: Learning Disability Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 4, Cultural Pluralism (Autumn, 1983), p. 535Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1510542 .

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APPLICATION OF RESEARCH AND THEORY

IN THE CLASSROOM

LDQ Ofelia Miramontes

This country's rich multicultural and multilingual community offers all of us a unique opportunity to share and grow. For those who appreciate this diversity, individual and group differences are seen as assets rather than deficits.

The teachers from California and Colorado who share the following instructional ideas, strategies, and techniques specifically geared toward limited-English proficient students hope that their contribu- tions will add to and support those already used by teachers committed to providing all students an equal opportunity to benefit from the educational process.

OFELIA MIRAMONTES is a Title VII Bilingual-Special Education Project Resource Teacher in the Boulder Valley School District and a Ph.D. candidate at Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, CA.

CONCEPTS FROM CONTENT Social studies content lends itself well to the

development of specific concepts or themes. Any social studies topic (e.g., the Colonial period, the Civil War or customs around the world) can be divided into subtopics and dis- cussed and written about as suggested below.

1. Vocabulary is developed around a central idea. In an oral discussion of the concept students use known vocabulary and learn new words related to the topic. The discussion also gives students a chance to develop their thoughts and provides the teacher an opportuni- ty to check their level of understanding.

2. A group story is written on the chosen topic with each student adding different pieces of information. In this manner the topic is developed at the students' comprehension level.

3. The story is read and copied into social studies notebooks.

4. Students may select another topic on the same theme and write individual stories. Words and ideas from the group story serve as catalysts for this process, and spelling vocabulary is developed from theme words used by the students.

This alternative social studies approach calls for a student-generated plan within a given struc- ture.

- Adel Nadeau San Diego City Schools

GETTING THE PICTURE A visual literacy approach to developing

language skills is an excellent way of engaging upper-grade students having difficulty with ir- regular verbs. Swing and slide, for example, may seem like simple words, but their irregular form often poses problems for English-speaking children as well as students learning English as a second language.

Older students may be helped to learn the use of the present and the past tense of irregular verbs by having them (a) prepare a slide show that graphically illustrates irregular verbs to younger students, and (b) create a simple worksheet for the troublesome verbs and use it as a study sheet and a test for classmates.

Preparing the slide show requires an in- stamatic camera and a roll of 126 film. The class

Volume 6, Fall 1983 535

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