Resources

These resources were created and/or collected by Outreach staff to assist you in better understanding how to teach students with LBLD.

  • A boy in a striped shirt sits at a table while a teacher helps him

    Provide Models

    Updated February 27, 2024 The fifth principle of Landmark’s Six Teaching Principles is to provide models. The use of models helps us learn efficiently and effectively. From infancy onward, we all need models to learn new skills. Infants’ babbling mimics the sounds of caregivers and lays the foundation that enables them to develop spoken language.

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  • Study Skills to Support Language in the Math Classroom

    April 14, 2021 Students with language-based learning disabilities benefit from strategies to assist in the management of language demands across all subjects. Typically, study skills, the management of time, materials, and language, is a skill set assumed to be reserved for subjects like literature and social science. Language arts and history teachers regularly use interactive

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  • Developing Number Sense with Number Strings

    By Avery McNiff April 14, 2021 What are Number Strings? A number string is a series of carefully structured and related math problems that develop an understanding of number relationships and operations (Fosnot & Dolk, 2001). The practice engages students in problem solving and provides opportunities for students to participate in math discourse.  Number strings

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  • Use Multisensory Approaches

    At the most basic level, our brains perceive stimuli through the five senses—seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. Studies show that most people learn best and retain the most information when  ideas are presented in a multisensory fashion. Novice teachers are often advised to let the wisdom of Confucius guide their planning: “I hear and

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  • Math Collaboration for Online Learning

    Explore how to inspire math collaboration for online learning. Watch this Edutopia video that demonstrates a four step activity to help engage and connect students in a math classroom.  

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  • A person working over a math worksheet

    Math as a Language

    Children with learning disabilities are not necessarily deficient in mathematics due to an inability to grasp spatial tasks or estimate quantity. Their difficulties often lie in language dysfunction. When teaching mathematics, treat their difficulty as a manifestation of a language-based learning disability. Students may have poor decoding (reading) skills or expressive or receptive language difficulties.

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  • Adapting Elementary Math Instruction to the Online Classroom: Multimodal Strategies for Engagement

    By Avery McNiff May 28th, 2020 Upon hearing that Massachusetts schools would remain closed beyond April 6th, I scrambled to recreate some semblance of a classroom in my home. I ordered a whiteboard, easel, Time Timer, math cubes, dry erase pockets, and a printer. When the items arrived, I excitedly set up my space as

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  • What to Know: Dyscalculia

    December 19th, 2019 The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) defines dyscalculia as, “a specific learning disability in math. Children with dyscalculia may have difficulty understanding number-related concepts or using symbols or functions needed for success in mathematics” (Horowitz, Rawe, & Whittaker, 2017, ch. 1).  The ability to acquire arithmetic skills without being explicitly taught

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  • Dyscalculia: What to Know

    December 19, 2019 The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) defines dyscalculia as, “a specific learning disability in math. Children with dyscalculia may have difficulty understanding number-related concepts or using symbols or functions needed for success in mathematics” (Horowitz, Rawe, & Whittaker, 2017, ch. 1).  The ability to acquire arithmetic skills without being explicitly taught

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  • Dyscalculia in the Classroom

    Learn more about dyscalculia in the classroom. This video, produced by the National Center for Learning Disabilities, featuring Dr. Sheldon Horowitz explains the many elements and the many misconceptions tied to this common learning disability.

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  • Youcubed

    Explore the youcubed website.  This site is dedicated to empowering teachers to understand and use the latest research to teach math.

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  • Mathematical Mindsets

    September 23, 2019 Jo Boaler, a British education author and a professor of mathematics education at Stanford Graduate School of Education, has completed extensive research on how we learn math from early infancy through adulthood. By studying parts of our brain where math facts are held and manipulated, she concludes that many of the methodologies

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  • Making Math Instruction “Stickier”

    by Dan Grimm

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  • Dyscalculia

    Explore Understood.org’s resources related to understanding dyscalculia.  The page includes the definition of dyscalculia, a video, and other links to support students with dyscalculia.

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  • Dyscalculia

    Understand more about dyscalculia by exploring the dyscalculia.org website. This page contains research, resources, and other valuable information about dyscalculia.

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  • Algebra I with Number Sense: an LDA Presentation

    April 19, 2018 Brigid Houlihan and Maura O’Riordan, both Landmark High School math teachers, presented about their class “Algebra 1 with Number Sense” at the 2018 Learning Disabilities Association (LDA) of America conference. Number sense is a student’s ability to be flexible with numbers, understand their relationship to one another, and apply them in real-world situations.

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  • LD Online for Math

    Explore this LD Online web page dedicated to providing math resources to teachers.

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  • A hand on a key board

    Modeling Writing in Content Areas

    Providing models or templates for students does not mean doing an assignment for them. Models allow students to see what the teacher’s standards and requirements look like in a finished product, and offer them a point of comparison for their own work. Models can come in many forms: oral examples of participating in a discussion;

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  • Dyscalculia Fact Sheet

    Learn more about dyscalculia with this dyscalculia fact sheet from understood.org. This web site also includes relevant links to other resources related to dyscalculia

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  • Image of the website LD Online

    LD Online

    Explore the LD Online website  to gain valuable and practical resources to support students with learning disabilities and ADHD.

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  • Using Appropriate Technology to Access Curriculum

    May 18, 2017 Technology Review While there are a variety of technological tools that can be used to aid students as they access curriculum, technology should never replace skill instruction. Teachers should be intentional about which programs and apps they choose to incorporate, as well as how they plan to utilize them within their lessons. Technology

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  • A student uses a multiple modalities to learn a skill

    Categorizing as Practice and Review

    Practice and review help students develop automaticity. Automaticity enables students to focus their attention on applying knowledge and skills in complex situations. While worksheets and drills provide practice, another activity that students enjoy is categorizing cards. This multisensory strategy for review and practice is flexible enough to use across the curriculum. Students can practice with

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  • A teacher stands in front of a chalk board and speaks with students

    Ensure Automatization through Practice and Review

    Automatization is exactly what it sounds like—the ability to perform a task without conscious effort. From tying our shoes to scanning the headlines, we depend on automatic skills to get us through our days efficiently. Imagine what mornings would be like if we could not automatically shower, dress, eat, make coffee, and get to work. We’d

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  • A student holding a pencil explains his thinking

    Include Students through Reflection and Evaluation

    Including students in the learning process, whether through explaining the purpose of an assignment, asking for ideas, or having students assess their own learning, helps them to become more engaged in their education. This resource shares ideas for how to guide students in evaluating and reflecting on their work. These self-assessments help them set goals for

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  • A teacher works with students around a table

    Include Students: Subject Strategies

    As the spring arrives and we begin to prepare for the conclusion of the year, we should continue to think about ways in which we can include our students in the learning process. Can they help determine ways to review material? What about having them make a portfolio of their best work from the year?

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  • Students and a males teacher conduct a science experiment

    Micro-Unit and Structure Tasks

    A bumper sticker that appears occasionally reads, “Assume Nothing.” While we don’t need to buy into its cynical view of the world, it does remind us that we often assume a lot about what our students know and what they can do. Poor work quality from students with learning disabilities most often reflects their lack

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  • A teacher helping a student while other students in the background have their hands raised

    Micro-Uniting Units

    Students often have difficulty managing language, connecting concepts, and staying focused on the goals of a content unit. As a first step toward increasing student success, teachers can break units or chapters into manageable language and concepts and teach each piece step-by-step, further micro-uniting these components as needed throughout the instructional process. Sharing the unit

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  • A female student with her hand on her chin smiles

    Provide Opportunities for Success

    It’s December. Class work has progressed from review to new material.  Homework is getting harder.  Some of your students may be struggling. Our mission is to empower students through their teachers.  Landmark Outreach shares thinking and strategies that support all students’ efforts to become independent learners and develop a strong sense of self-efficacy. At the

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