Handout for Presentation (Tuesday 11/29)

Common Learning Disabilities in Middle School

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the problem of learning disabilities within middle school students. It is sometimes difficult for some students in the classroom to learn and keep up with the other students in the class. This is often a sign that a learning disability is present. There are many learning disabilities that exist today, and more research is being done which is causing the list to expand. Three major learning disabilities that parents and teachers tend to come across are dyslexia, anxiety disorders, and autism. This paper will discuss the definition of each disorder, causes, typical behavior, social issues, and investigate strategies to help these types of students succeed in the classroom.

BRIEF OUTLINE

Intro
Learning disabilities include students who perform poorly in some subject
• Classifications include: cognitive, academic, physical, behavioral, and communication
• Audience of the paper: parents and teachers
• Three major learning disabilities are dyslexia, anxiety disorders, and autism
• These children can lead a normal life with help from parents and teachers

- Dyslexia
• Definition: Impaired reading ability as well as trouble recognizing meanings of pictures and objects
• Cause: Genetic, or caused by an injury to the head/brain
• Behavior: Weaknesses in following instructions, reading, writing, spelling, organization, etc.
• Social issues: Low self esteem, susceptible to bullying
• Helpful strategies: Chunking, mnemonic devices, using rhythm or rhyme, read aloud, etc.

- Anxiety Disorders
• Definition: Excessive fear, worry, and anxiousness related to different situations
• Cause: Can be genetic, or the happening of a traumatic event in the child’s past
• Behavior: Constant worry, easily tired, obsessions, compulsions, tense, irritable, unstable, etc.
• Social issues: Children may be socially withdrawn, shy, suffer from discrimination, victimization, etc.
• Helpful strategies: Modeling, rewards, routine, organization, extended test time, timely feedback, etc.

- Autism
• Definition: A neurological disorder that causes a wide array of developmental disabilities
• Cause: Biochemical imbalance in the brain caused by birth trauma, head trauma, or a genetic accident
• Behavior: Noisemaking, rapid blinking, rubbing smelling and licking things, rocking, spinning, etc.
• Social issues: Reduced social interest, don’t understand social information, fear of change, etc.
• Helpful strategies: Routine, arrangement, use concrete objects, set structure, stay on task, etc.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED

- About research…
• I like books better than computer based articles
• You don’t have to quote all of the information that you get from a source. Paraphrasing is good
- About writing…
• My writing style has remained pretty much the same (organized, coherent)
• I learned to locate a field conversation
• I consolidated information from multiple sources and cited the sources in one citation

WHAT I'LL USE IT FOR

- Required credit for graduation
- Writing piece/ research project for a Master’s program application
- Writing piece/research project for a teaching job application

New abstract

This paper explores the problem of learning disabilities within middle school students. It is sometimes difficult for some students in the classroom to learn and keep up with the other students in the class. This is often a sign that a learning disability is present. There are many learning disabilities that exist today, and more research is being done which is causing the list to expand. Three major learning disabilities that parents and teachers tend to come across are dyslexia, anxiety disorders, and autism. This paper will discuss the definition of each disorder, causes, warning signs/typical behavior, social issues (if any), and investigate strategies to help these types of students succeed in the classroom.

abstract

ABSTRACT

It is sometimes difficult for some students in the classroom to learn and keep up with the other students in the class. This is often a sign that a learning disability is present. There are many learning disabilities that exist today, and more research is being done which is causing the list to expand. Four major learning disabilities that parents and teachers tend to come across are dyslexia, anxiety disorders, autism, and ADHD. This paper will discuss the definition of each disorder, causes, warning signs/ typical behavior, social issues (if any), and strategies to help these types of students succeed in the classroom.

Is this okay?
Do I need to add or change anything?
If so, what?

Peer Editing Summary

I got some pretty useful feedback yesterday in class. The first advice I was given was to create an introduction to my topic. I need to make some kind of pre-information that states my thesis, and sets up what I will be talking about.

Next, I need to discuss why I chose the certain disorders that I did. I will put in my paper reasons such as: these are the most common disorders that teachers see in a classroom, and disorders that I can give good specific strategies to help the students.

Most importantly is to get more sources. I only have about one or two sources for each disorder I discuss. I need to get information from different sources. I plan to get this information from scholarly articles, and possibly more books.

Some feedback that was positive is that my paper flowed well, and that I have a lot of detailed information that makes sense, and works well together.

Further research

I did a great deal of research today, but only on autism. I found tons of stuff on it and it made me think that I could write most of my paper about autism instead of a bunch of different disorders.
I'm still thinking about the idea, we'll see how it plays out once I start writing about it. I may get a few more ideas.
The major concern I have right now with my paper is making it specific and narrowing down exactly what I would like to talk about. It's definitely a work in progress.

Meta-Reflection on Research

So far I have...
-gotten 5 books from the library. All of which are extremely helpful to my research.
-4 Scholarly journals that I still need to read thorugh
-One very in depth E-book that I plan to use a little later in my reading.

Sources that I need to work on finding are...
-reliable stories about students with the types of disorders I am writing about.
-interviews with professionals/educators/parents in the field of research I am working on.

Mendeley

I have been playing around with Mendeley and I really like it. It is very convenient to just be able to drag your research into the desktop. So far I have four good sources (scholarly journals). Two are causes of autism and ADHD, and two are behavior of children with autism and ADHD.
As of now, my plan of action is to write as many pages I can with the help of these sources. If my writing does not reach 5 pages I will research more about autism and ADHD. These two disorders will be my starting point. I plan to see how writing about these turns out, and if the writing is good.