Welcome to another online addition of the Arizona Promising Practices forum. For those new to this service, each issue, which will now be sent to you on a regular basis, will focus on: (1) Recommended National Educational Websites; (2) A Local or Arizona Website/Practice of Importance; and (3) One promising practice article in condensed form. We welcome your recommendations for improvement to this forum or suggestions on future topics (these will be wide ranging to if nothing in this update interests you, hold on for future editions!) The Arizona Promising Practices Forum and website, www.azpromisingpractices.com is a FREE resource of the Arizona Department of Education.

Mary Urich, ACPE Director murich@mail1.ade.state.az.us

In this issue we focus on Promising Practice Research geared toward assisting with the recent No Child Left Behind Legislation. The first part deals with Motivation for Students with Disabilities and the second with Tips for Parents to help children prepare to learn. Both pieces of research offer practical suggestions that can be implemented and shared among staff.

But first:

National Website focusing on Promising Practice - The Hand in Hand Organization (www.handinhand.org) offers practical tips on building positive working relationships between teachers, parents, and students. Their research is practical and effective in helping bridge communication gaps between educational partners.

Arizona Website of Importance - The Center for Indian Education based out of Arizona State University focuses on quality partnerships and building understanding of Native American education and studies. Check out their website at http://www.ed.asu.edu/cie/

Promising Practice Research and Tips

Impacting Motivation for Students with Disabilities: Strategies that Work

by Margo A. Mastropieri
and Thomas E. Scruggs
George Mason University

Motivating your students is critical to helping them succeed.

Five key factors to motivating students is:

-Create a supportive, organized classroom. These classrooms welcome all students and elicit positive peer support. Students are encouraged to say positive things about their classmates. Even negatives need to be stated in a positive, encouraging way. Also, they are organized and “student friendly.”

-Maintain an appropriate difficulty level. Assignments and tests must be challenging but not so difficult that students become discouraged. Monitor the difficulty level. As students' abilities grow, the difficulty level should increase.

-Keep work meaningful and relevant. Use concrete examples, relate the information to students' personal experiences and allow students to have input.

-Teacher enthusiasm goes a long way in motivating students. Using a rapid speaking rate, expressive gestures, and animated facial expressions keeps students' attention and motivates them to learn.

-Be sure that student success and failure are attributed to the things students can control. Students do well or poorly on a test based on how well they studied. Help students develop good study skills and tie success to these skills. Don't let them attribute either their positive or negative success to luck.

Bottom line, make learning as interesting as possible for the students. Students learn more when they enjoy what they are doing.

Tips for Parents in Preparing Children to Learn

·        Get your children ready to learn. Let them know that school is interesting and important, and that parents are valued partners.

·        Talk with your child's teachers. Establish a personal relationship. They need your help and have as much to learn from you as you do from them! A quick phone call or a meeting at school or at your home can tune both of you in to ways to help your child do well in school.

·        Attend events at your child's school. Back-to-school nights and teacher conferences, sports events and school plays -- all give you a chance to get to know your child's teacher. Plus, your child will swell with pride when you make school visits.

·        Be prepared. Find out about your child's teachers, classes and the school rules. Know what type of homework is assigned, how often and how long it should take to complete.

·        Talk often with your child about what is happening at school. Ask specific questions about school work, teachers and activities.

·        Create a good learning environment at home. Support learning through everyday activities with your child. Read with your child. Check homework. Limit television and video games.

·        Observe and listen. Compare your child's progress with others by looking at work displayed in school. Peek in the classroom -- see if the children are happy and alert. Read school bulletin boards and talk with your children's friends to get a bigger picture of what is going on at school.

·        Ask teachers for advice. They know about child development and they spend a lot of time with your child.

·        Provide teachers with information. Changing family circumstances like divorce, illness or the death of pet can upset a child's learning.

·        Ask your employer to support education. Family-friendly policies such as flextime, extended lunch hours, and compressed work weeks give employees a few hours during the school day to get involved in school activities. The hours away from work can be made up by staying at work late or coming in early.

·        Volunteer. Ask community members to volunteer too. The involvement of adults improves schools. Every school activity should be done enthusiastically.

·        Get involved in parent-teacher organizations and school reform. Learn how your school board works. Help teachers and administrators set rules. Ask a teacher, principal or another parent for advice on how you can participate.