Scaffolding Strategies to Support Learning Disabilities

We will begin the session with the theoretical background of how differentiation of instruction and learning can support students who have learning disabilities. Next, we will explore how to incorporate differentiation into practice to support students in the classroom based on the principles of Universal Design for Learning. How can lessons and learning activities be designed to support students with diverse learning needs to reach the next step in the learning process in a way that is integrated into learning and available for all students? The goal of the session is to help teachers to think about how they can take a step into differentiating instruction to help students to take a step into learning a new concept or skill. We will explore ways to adapt activities and assignments to help students be open to be emotionally and cognitively open to learning. We will look at ways to embed development of fine motor skills into assignments, scaffolded approaches to project work, and using text features and graphic organizers to pull out key ideas in reading material.