Lifeskills teacher needs reading/math curriculum

[lifeskillsteacher]

Hi,

I am looking for a reading and math curriculum for students with IQs in the 40-55 range. I am a lifeskills teacher for students 11-15 years old. The majority of my students are operating on a kindergarten academic level (most of them could be past a kindergarten level easily, had they been exposed to an academic curriculum rather than a life-skills curriculum).

Up until now, the district has only endorsed Edmark for our reading curriculum. I do think Edmark has been extremely successful as a sight word curriculum; however, I also recognize that the majority of my students could also benefit from phonics instruction. We tried a pilot program with Saxon Phonics (because that is what the district already uses for resource/pull-out students), but the questioning procedure was too wordy and complex for most of my students. It relied heavily on auditory memory, which tends to be a weak area, as opposed to visual memory. As far as our math curriculum, it has been "make up your own, it needs to be individual to each child".

Are any of you home-schooling students within the 40-55 range? What curriculum worked for them? I am trying to recommend a curriculum to our district (again), and they will basically adopt any program I recommend since I am the only junior high lifeskills teacher in the district.

Thanks! :)
Kelly

[Ottakee]

I have 2 kids in this range.

http://www.roadstoeverywhere.com/3RsPlusRead.html and www.iseesam.com are the reading books that I have used to teach my last 2 kids to read. They are designed for younger kids but if you call the pictures cartoons your kids are likely to enjoy the books.

My 13dd with an IQ that is a 38 overall is now reading at a mid 2nd grade level and progressing everyday. It has been a LOT of work but it is working.

This program would take 10 minutes or so a day 1:1 with the students but you likely have an aide, right? My 20ds with an IQ of 55 can read at a 3rd/4th grade level.

Check out the first link and look on the left for the UK link---my 13dd's story is there under Ottakee's children.

If you could get these kids reading at least on a 1st/2nd grade level they could use some of the high interest/low level books on history, social studies, etc. Once she was reading at a late 1st grade level, I started her on ACE (school of tomorrow) paces but those are Christian based and likely not allowed where you teach.

Math is very tough. We are using ACE math but I still don't feel like I have THE program for her. She has been learning much more by USING the skills---gathering eggs and dividing them evenly with her sister, selling the eggs for $1.50/dozen, earning $1/week helping at the barn, etc. She has learned her calendar skills, some time, etc. as well just in everyday life.

[Cadam]

I don't have a lot of experience with reading programs. I think The Ordinary Parent's Guide to teaching Reading is straight forward and easy to use. It isn't what I would call multi-sensory but it has the benefit of being scripted so with very little effort any volunteers would be able to use it.

For math I recommend Math U See (mathusee.com) whole heartedly.

It is multi-sensory and highly hands on. Everything can be done with manipulatives and made concrete so they don't have to have the ability to do abstract concepts. The program stays with one concept for the whole book and builds in small steps through each lesson. The scope and sequence is vastly different from other programs but if you look at it I think you will understand why he choose to set it up this way.

The creator of the program has 4 sons. One has Downs Syndrome and he discusses how he teaches math to this child in one of the dvds. The first day or two, or more, he just does the problems over and over without requiring anything of the child. He builds the problem, says the problem and writes the problem. After a while his ds will start doing parts of the problems and take over more and more until he is doing the work himself. This curriculum is heavy on the basics and easily self paced. The dvd's help the teacher understand the methods of the program and why it works this way. I have used all of the elementary levels so let me know if you have any questions.

[Mandamom]

second using Math-U-See which is what we use at our school for learning disabilities, of which some students do have lower than average IQs.

[Erin's Mom]

For Reading I have been using Stevenson learning skills. This program uses multisenory and mnemonics. My down syndrome son has done extremely well with this program. In the past I too have used memorization of words but he would most times forget two weeks later unless there was a picture along with the word. With being gone so much over the summer I figured I would have to start over at square one with stevenson's just like I have with other programs if we took time off for vacations or such but when we started back this past fall he remember the sound each letter makes and his blending and saying the word were even better than when we stopped for the summer. Even his dictation of the letter sounds and spelling words has been so much better. Of course not everything works for everyone.
www.stevensonlearning.com (http://www.stevensonlearning.com)

Good Luck and have a wonderful day
Debbie

[cillakat]

<I don't have a lot of experience with reading programs. I think The Ordinary Parent's Guide to teaching Reading is straight forward >>

It will not work with reading disabled/dyslexic kids or kids w/IQ's in that range.

I second Ottakee's recommendation for the 3R's books
http://www.roadstoeverywhere.com/3RsPlusRead.html

Or Dancing Bears:
http://www.prometheantrust.org/startreading.htm


Touch Phonics is also a *fabulous* phonics program....f a b u l o u s. Pricey though so want to have district support and purchasing power;p

http://www.epsbooks.com/dynamic/catalog/series.asp?seriesonly=8800M

I haven't looked at developmental/direct instruction math programs but perhaps this would be helpful?
http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/specconn/main.php?cat=instruction&section=main&subsection=di/math


:)
Katherine

[cillakat]

here are some math ideas (not a starting point, but perhaps at some point)
http://www.epsbooks.com/dynamic/catalog/series.asp?subject=76S&subjectdesc=Math&series=2551M

this thread has helpful math ideas:
http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=625218#post625218

I'd also consider montessori math activities for numeration and teaching facts.

:)
K

[LNC]

My son's iq is in that range. He is in a TMD (trainably mentally disabled) classroom.

He uses a combo of DI Reading Mastery (with a resource teacher - 30 min. day) and Edmark with his special ed classroom teacher - 30 min. day. He uses Touch Math, with daily calendar work in the classroom. He uses Handwriting Without Tears in his classroom. HTH!

These are similar programs that I used at home when he was homeschooled.