Resources

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

  • An image of a finding the main idea strategy

    Finding the Main Idea

    Updated August 31, 2023 A commonly used reading comprehension strategy is to teach students how to find the main idea. But why does this strategy work?  To support students’ understanding and to help lessen students’ cognitive demands, the research recommends that educators explicitly teach students about text structure. What Works Clearinghouse offers recommendations for improving

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  • Research Writing Process: Organize, Outline, and Draft

    March 1, 2023 The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) report titled Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively asserts that “Effective writing is a vital component of students’ literacy achievement, and writing is a critical communication tool for students to convey thoughts and opinions, describe ideas and events, and analyze information” (Graham et al, 2016, p.1).  

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  • Student Perspectives on Executive Function

    Interview conducted by Lauren Murphy and Kaia Cunningham April 22, 2022 Building positive, productive, and trusting relationships with students is a cornerstone of effective teaching. Just as our personalities and lived experiences shape and inform our teaching persona, students also bring their histories to the classroom. Part of student history incorporates the intersection of their

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  • Study Skills: What Are They?

    Study skills are defined as the management of time, materials, and information and/or language.  Study skills are often equated with the organization of physical materials like binders, desks, lockers etc. They are also frequently associated with a student’s ability to study for and perform on tests or other assessments. Although these skills are absolutely a

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  • Technology to Support Study Skills

    January 19, 2017 The term “study skills” refers to the management and organization of time, materials, and information. Study skills topics range from time management and organization to utilizing specific strategies for comprehending material. Instruction in study skills can incorporate the physical organization of materials, as well as the organization of information through note-taking templates.

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  • A boy takes notes at a desk

    The Two-Column Method of Note-taking

    Updated February 26, 2023 Academic proficiency requires students to manage the many language demands inherent in school. As students move from learning to read to reading to learn, systems to help students organize the information that they encounter are not only essential for students with specific learning disabilities, but can be beneficial for all students.  

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  • Study Skills: What to Know

    October 27, 2020 Study skills are defined as the management of time, materials, and information and/or language.  Study skills are often equated with the organization of physical materials like binders, desks, lockers etc. They are also frequently associated with a student’s ability to study for and perform on tests or other assessments. Although these skills

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  • Cognitive Load and the Learning Management System (LMS)

    By Lauren Murphy and Kaia Cunningham October 27, 2022 Collectively, we have over 20 years of experience teaching secondary school, and we’ve taught a variety of classes: literature, psychology, history, writing, and study skills. This year is unprecedented. We find ourselves filled with apprehension, and much of the familiarity and routine that we have both

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  • Strategies to Support Students with Learning Differences in the COVID-19 Educational Landscape

    by Dr. Mandi Davis Skerbetz November 11, 2020 As a society we are working to pivot and develop new routines due to the impact of COVID-19. The world of education, which historically is resistant to change, has been forced to evolve. Educators have been in a race against time to develop new learning environments and

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  • The Language Box and Technology

    September 28, 2020 There are so many factors to consider when deciding what technology to utilize, especially in the context of supporting students with language-based learning disabilities (LBLDs) and those who have weaknesses in executive function. Students with LBLDs may benefit from the multimodal and interactive format that many of these tools offer. However, the

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  • Interactive Notebooks for Social Science Classes

    By Abby Cain February 20, 2020 The primary way that information is conveyed in most social science classes is through reading, and mine is no different. I assign students a reading on a topic, they read it, and then in class, we discuss it, sound familiar? Over the years, I’ve stopped using a history textbook

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  • A man speaks to a classroom of boys

    Study Skills: Materials Management

    In order for students to become independent and competent learners, they need to possess strong study skills. In other words, they need to understand and use strategies to help them manage their time, materials, and language. Many students diagnosed with a specific learning disability (SLD) benefit greatly from direct instruction in study skills, including methods

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  • Strategies for Teaching Question Types

    by Deirdre Mulligan October 7, 2021 There are two main principles that I try to keep at the forefront of my mind when planning and developing lessons and working with my students. #1, I try to set the students up for success, and #2, I never assume anything. To set them up for success, I

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  • Strategies for Teaching Question Types

    by Deirdre Mulligan December 12, 2019 There are two main principles that I try to keep at the forefront of my mind when planning and developing lessons and working with my students. #1, I try to set the students up for success, and #2, I never assume anything. To set them up for success, I

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  • Study Skills and Academic Competence

    Learn more about the relationship between study skills and academic competence. This academic journal article from The School Psychology Review outlines the importance of identifying evidence based strategies to help students improve their study skills.

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  • A boy reading in a classroom

    Metacognition and Reading Comprehension

    “Creating and improvising opportunities to involve students in the learning process allows students to become aware of how they learn and why certain skills benefit them. As a result, students are more motivated and more likely to apply those skills when working independently. In short, an included student becomes an invested student who is eager

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  • BLOG SERIES: Helping Students with LBLD Experience Academic Success

    See all of the blog posts that are a part of this series

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  • Multiple Intelligence Theory

    Understand the true meaning of Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory. Edutpoia reports on the widely cited and often misunderstood multiple intelligence theory.  The article asserts that that although it is true that students do learn differently, there is not one way that students learn best and that presenting information in multiple ways is what truly benefits

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  • Study Skills in Early Elementary School: Teaching Time Management

    March 19, 2019 This post is part of a series about helping students with LBLD experience academic success. Read Lauren’s other blog posts: Organization of Materials Vocabulary Instruction Strategies and Activities Assigning and Working through Research Projects by Lauren Guerriero Another big take away that I have learned and been able to implement into my substantially

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  • Study Skills in Early Elementary School: Organization of Materials

    February 13, 2019 This post is part of a series about helping students with LBLD experience academic success. Read Lauren’s other blog posts: Teaching Time Management Vocabulary Instruction Strategies and Activities Assigning and Working through Research Projects by Lauren Guerriero My name is Lauren Guerriero, and I currently teach in a language-based, substantially separate, second-grade classroom

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  • International Dyslexia Association

    Explore the International Dyslexia Association’s website. The site includes valuable resources and helpful background information about dyslexia.

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  • The Myth of Learning Styles

    Understand more about the myth of learning styles. The Atlantic Monthly outlines and discusses the past and current research on the theory of learning styles and draws new conclusions on how to best support all students in the classroom

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  • Note Taking Apps

    Explore this list of note taking apps from Understood.org. This list highlights 11 apps that can help students with the note-taking process.

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  • A visual representation of a Shakespeare story board

    Drawing and Acting to Support Reading Comprehension

    This Mind/Shift article outlines how teachers can use drawing and acting to support reading comprehension. Using multiple modalities to help students visualize what they read can assist them in understanding and connecting with difficult texts, such as Shakespeare. 

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  • A young boy writes in a notebook

    The Myth of Learning Styles

    Read this insightful article on the myth of learning styles. Education Week’s Keith Lambert, Education World Associate Contributing Editor, wrote a response to the letter many prominent psychologists and neuroscience professors penned to The Guardian. Lambert doesn’t contradict the content of the letter, but instead examines the evidence and makes suggestions about how educators can refocus their energies to help students

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  • Digital Reading Strategies

    Understand digital reading strategies. KQED and Mindshift explore how to make digital reading more effective for students. Research suggests that reading on paper provides a more in-depth understanding of material, but studies also show that digital reading is here to stay. Devin Hess of the UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project outlines ways to adapt current

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  • Effective Study Techniques

    Learn about effective study techniques. KQED and Mind/Shift outline the results from various comprehensive studies on how people retain information and discuss the best universal methods for studying.  

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  • Student Outcomes of Teaching Executive Function and Study Skills

    March 1, 2018 by Kaia Cunningham When we think of our most successful students, we often imagine individuals who not only have a deep grasp of the content they learn in school, but also are able to easily organize their binders and computer files, able to effectively manage their time, and able to demonstrate a

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  • Support Memory in the Classroom

    Learn more about how to support memory in the classroom. This article from Edutopia discusses well-known studies on cognition and asserts that students must connect new information with previously learned material to help them remember what they learn. The article also offers 5 strategies to aid memory.

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  • Effective Study Strategies

    Learn effective study strategies that have been proven to help students truly understand material as opposed to simply memorizing information for the short term. This article also outlines the importance of helping students learn to contextualize valuable study strategies so that they independently use these strategies in a variety of learning situations.

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  • Executive Function and Reading Comprehension

    Learn about the important connection between effective reading comprehension and executive function skills. This Edutopia article, adapted from Kelly B. Cartwright’s Executive Skills and Reading Comprehension: A Guide for Educators, outlines how the purposeful teaching of executive function skills and reading comprehension can help students develop into strong, active readers.

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  • Visual Note taking

    Learn about the effectiveness of visual note taking. Sherrill Knezel writes for Ed Week about her personal teaching experiences helping a student with learning disabilities use visual note-taking skills to manage with the pace, volume, and complexity of note-taking in high school.

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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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  • Boy tired of study and sleeping near the clock

    Basic Time Management Skills

    Being able to tell clock time is different from understanding the concept of time. Many students can read the clock perfectly well, but when asked to estimate how long an assignment will take, they can seldom provide an accurate answer. While some grossly underestimate the time required and set themselves up for disappointment and frustration,

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  • A teacher and student on the floor learn new vocabulary

    Importance of Explicitly Teaching Vocabulary

    Gain a deeper understanding of the importance of explicitly teaching vocabulary, particularly for students with learning disabilities through reading this comprehensive report from the Council for Learning Disabilities. This detailed compilation explains why teaching vocabulary is essential, answers common questions about teaching vocabulary, and offers templates and researched strategies to effectively teach vocabulary.    

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  • The Master Filing System

    Materials Management The best way to teach materials management is for a school, or a team of teachers, to settle upon a system by which students will organize their school materials — books, papers, pencils, equipment, etc. The system should be designed to account for everything students need to participate in the school day and do

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  • Executive Function: Activation Routines

    Several Outreach resources are related to six aspects of executive function: activation, focus, effort, emotion, memory, and action.1 In addition, we’ll continue to organize the resources in relation to Landmark’s Six Teaching Principles™. This resource focuses on strategies to activate students toward successful task completion by exploring reference tools, working on time management, and cueing students to empower them

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  • A hand holds a pencil over a notebook

    Social Emotional Learning and Success

    Learn about the connection between social emotional learning and success beyond high school.  Emmanuel Felton, for The Atlantic Monthly, writes about the impact of the educational hot topic: social and emotional learning. He highlights schools whose focus on self-management and relationship skills has led to a dramatic jump in college completion rates. He also discusses

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  • Edutopia

    Explore Edutopia, the George Lucas Educational Foundation website. This site features articles and resources on many popular topics in education.

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  • Teach Effective Study Skills

    Katrina Schwartz, writing for Mind Shift, highlights the results of several studies done on how to teach effective study skills to students. The most useful and practical strategies were ones that spiraled back to previously learned concepts, as well as strategies that helped students to see the connections between topics. In addition, study time was most effective when

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  • A silver pen on a piece of torn sheets of paper

    Skill Based Writing Instruction

    Katrina Schwartz, writing for Mind/Shift, outlines research, data, and testimonials about the benefits of teaching students to write using explicit skill based strategies that start at the word and sentence level and systematically work up to complex essays. She references research by Nell Scharff Panero and the popular Atlantic Monthly article: “The Writing Revolution.”  

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  • Children reading on an ipad with a teacher assisting them

    Accessible Technology Across Grade Levels

    April 13, 2017 How to Choose Technology With a variety of technology options available for classroom use, it can be difficult to know what to choose and when to incorporate it. Joy Zabala’s SETT Frameworks provide helpful documents to aid teachers in determining if a technology is appropriate, as well as help them to consider

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  • Young boy with a thought bubble and an apple on his desk

    Metacognition and Self-Awareness

    This LD@school resource explains the importance of teaching metacognitive strategies to students with learning disabilities. Teaching students to think about their own thinking strengthens their understanding of how they learn, which can lead to greater ownership of the learning process. The page also includes a compiled list of strategies and templates to promote metacognition.

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  • Growth Mindset Resources

    Education Week curated this excellent and useful collection of resources related to teaching growth mindset in the classroom.

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  • A young man reading a book with his lower half of his face covered with a book.

    7 Strategies to Support Reading Comprehension

    Reading Rockets outlines seven strategies to help support reading comprehension, including ways to encourage metacognition and support study skills. This web site also includes downloadable templates and links to other resources related to reading comprehension.

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  • Three female students sitting outside reading a book

    Collaborative Strategic Reading: Get the Gist

    Continuing with Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR), this resource will examine the third step in the process: get the gist. While preview occurs before reading, both click & clunk and get the gist occur during reading. Essentially, get the gist refers to understanding the material and being able to identify who or what the reading is about (the topic) as well as

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  • A young child playing with a tea pot

    Executive Function and Self-Regulation

    The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University outlines the link between executive function and self-regulation, focusing on how these skills can develop in children.  They call particular attention to the importance of explicitly teaching executive function skills to young children. The overview video can be viewed by clicking the button at the top of

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  • a young woman reads and takes notes

    Finding the Topic

    What is the Topic? One way to find the topic in a reading selection is to see whether one word is repeated in the paragraph. As you count, it is important to consider whether the author is using any synonyms for a word that might be the topic. A synonym is a word that has

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