I am a lucky teacher to be able to teach the amazing students in the Self-Contained Language-Based Program. This means that my students all display difficulties with reading and writing due to their specific disabilities. Some of these disabilities include speech and language delays, dysgraphia, and dyslexia. We use specialized multi-sensory techniques to allow these students to achieve their educational goals across every subject and follow a strict Orton-Gillingham based literacy program that supplements the Lucy Calkin's Reading and Writing Project program in order to meet the needs of these students.
These students all struggle immensely with the language but they never give up or give in to the frustration and manage to be performing on or near grade-level in all other subjects.
It is my job to help them bridge the gap in their language education as well as continue to push them to stay on grade level with all other subjects.
I greatly enjoy working with this special group of students and have never met a bunch of kids so deserving of the best we can offer them. And for them, that means using hands-on learning experiences as often as possible.
My Project
My students have language disorders, so why am I requesting math manipulatives?
Math manipulatives provide concrete and visual examples for students which allows them to see and touch the math in real life which in turn makes to abstract concepts more than just a concept.
A lot of teaching is based on language alone. I do, we do, you do. I show you a problem. I explain to you in words how to solve the problem. We do several hundred together. I expect you to do it independently. Obviously this is simplified and it works for most students. My students, however, have language delays and need to see and interact with concepts in a multisensory way before they can fully understand.
These math manipulatives will provide opportunities for the students to make math more real. Give them something to connect to and hopefully give them the tools they need to become life long mathematicians.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Gebele and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
