Monday, May 2, 2011

Strategies for Independent Learning: Chapter 10

Strategies for Independent Learning
Self- Advocacy: An important part of self-determination or the ability to make decisions and direct behavior so that the desired goals are achieved.
Being able to work independently is a skill that has become increasingly important as more and more students are expected to meet state and federal standards.
Learning Strategies: Are techniques, principles, and rules that enable a student to learn to solve problems and complete tasks independently.
Controlled Materials: Are generally materials at the students reading level, of high interest, and relatively free of complex vocabulary and concepts.
Encourage students to reinforce themselves and to take responsibility for both their successes and their failures.
Reciprocal Teaching: Is way to teach students to comprehend reading material by providing them with teacher and peer models of thinking behavior and then allowing them to practice these thinking behaviors with their peers.
INDEPENDENT LEARNING STRATEGIES facilitate parts of a differentiated curriculum. Emphasis is placed on student negotiation and modification of tasks, and on students pursuing these tasks with greater independence.
This can be achieved by
  • Preparing in advance options for the students to select as part of a unit's work (with options set at variable levels, involving different skills and appealing to different learning styles),
  • Encouraging students to choose the option they felt was most relevant - with this involving teacher input to facilitate student awareness of the match between the options and the student's talents and needs,
  • Encouraging students to suggest and pursue variations to the suggested options if they can present them as viable options to the teacher,
  • Encouraging students to work in groups if appropriate to the task (and, where this is done, encouraging cooperative group skills),
  • Encouraging students to seek out appropriate resources independently, and
  • Encouraging students to seek out and utilize working environments conducive to the task (for example, the "recital performance" based task involved moving outside and the analytic discussion based option involved moving to another room or an "independent learning center" - see below).

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