OSMOSIS JONES - He's one cell of a guy!

Osmosis Jones is a popular Hollywood movie shown in many science and health classes. And with the wonderful technology we have, the internet can help our students. Here is a wonderful site called, The Internet Movie Database. This can be used in all content areas. The site has a search engine. You can search by movie tittles, companies, characters, and more! You can find photos, trailers, plot summaries, and even cast overviews.

I think the trailers are wonderful. It provides some background knowledge in pictures to what they've been learning in class. For students who struggle remembering the movie, the trailers can be used as a review.

The photos can be printed by right clicking on the picture and saving it on your computer. Depending on the level of your student, the pictures can be used for sequencing or triggering memories to write a sentence about an isolated event in the movie. They can even be used by mildly impaired students to get them started in the writing process of a summary or report.

Please remember that your school has to purchase copyright permissions to use movies in your classrooms.

Communication Tip - Time

Many special education students, especially those who are challenged with autism and cognitive impairments, can learn to tell time literally. However, their language impairments make this skill a huge challenge in the community and in general education classrooms.

The test will start at quarter after one.
For a student with a language impairment, a quarter represents a coin. Rather saying "quarter after one", try saying "one-fifteen".

You have 15 more minutes until you go to lunch.
For a student with a language impairment, elapsed time is an advanced skill. Rather than saying "you have 15 more minutes", try saying the exact time. "At 12:30 you will go to lunch."

The American Revolution in Pictures

Students who struggle with academics often learn by seeing and doing. There are some great history sites that history teachers around the country know of. Now let's take it one step further using them for the pictures to tell the stories. Use pictures of people and events. Students can make a time line with the pictures. When testing knowledge, students can match the picture to the correct event. Here are just some of the pictures that can be used by students.



The History Place

The American Revolution

Paul Revere






Paul Revere's Ride












George Washington








George Washington takes commend of the Continental Army.

















The signing of the Declaration of Independence.








The Declaration of Independence is read from the east balcony of the State House in Boston, Massachusetts.

Question Words

Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?

Many students with disabilities have trouble answering questions because they don't know what kind of answer they are looking for. Although this is commonly worked on in special education classrooms, having a clue sheet will decrease anxiety and increase comprehension. This clue sheet can be placed in a classroom folder, binder or an agenda. It can even be made into a poster on the wall.

Who? (person, animal, cartoon character, etc.)
When? (time: calendar time, clock time, a year, an era, etc.)
Where? ( place: inside or outside - Examples are in the kitchen, at school, in Florida)
Why? ( because.....)

What is a tricky one. You have to look for other clue words.

What happened to... (event)
What time are we going to... (time)
What will he do to help.... (do... an action/verb)

How is another tricky one. You have to look for other clue words.

How do you.... (list the steps you have to do... actions/verbs)
How many.... (a number)

Setting the stage for Middle School History - Part 2

Before beginning a history class, develop a basic concept by using personal time lines. Ask the student to make his/her own time line of his/her life. Keep the time line in a class folder, binder, or agenda. When it's time to start a new chapter or read a time line from the textbook, review the personal time line first.

Setting the stage for Middle School History

General education students come to middle school history with prior knowledge which we know to be important for ongoing learning. Many CI students who enter general education history classes, do not have a good concept of country and state. Before learning about another country or even the history of our own country, they need to develop this concept. Here is a lesson I have developed for CI students. You will need a map of the United States and a globe for this lesson.

MEET YOUR COUNTRY

Key Words

country - A part of the world with it's own borders, people, and leaders
USA - The United States of America
world - It is round. All of the land is divided into countries.
globe - A round map of the world
president - The president is a leader of a group of people.

Your country is called the United States of America. We call it the U.S.A. or the U.S. for short like a person named Kimberly may be called just Kim. The United States of America has 50 states. You live in one of those states.

The U.S.A. is a big and powerful country in our world. The world is round. We can see all of the countries in the world on a globe.

The President of the U.S.A. is the leader of our country. The people who live in our country vote for our president. You have to be 18 years old to vote.

The president is a very important leader. He has a lot of important things to do and decisions to make for our country. He has to work with other leaders in other countries to keep our world working well and peacefully.


What did you learn?
(Clue words are highlighted.)

1. What is the name of our country?
2. How many states are in the United States of America?
3. What can you see on a globe?
4. What is the short name for the United States of America?
5. Who is the leader of the United States of America?
6. How does a person get to be the president?
7. What does the President of the United States of America do?


Extension Learning

1. What is the name of your state?
2. Have you ever been in another state? If yes, which one?
3. Using a copied map, color your state red. Color all of the other states green. Color all of the water blue.

Reading Graphs in Social Studies

Here is a sample of a modified 7th grade assignment. Students with even mild cognitive impairments have trouble generalizing new vocabulary and thinking of the question in words they understand. Instead of reading a graph from the textbook to find information, students could just get more familiar with the concept of population. Some students may be able to gain some information but not be able to answer sophisticated questions. Many students with mild cognitive impairments have been exposed to graphs. This is just a sample. It will need to be adjusted to each teacher's assignments and textbook. Note: When making your assignment, allow for a lot of space to write answers. Consider using a bigger font.


World Population Growth

What is population?
Population is the number of people in a place.

Rewrite each question.

SAMPLE: What is the population at my school?
How many people are in my school?

What is the population in Michigan?

What is the population in the United States?

What is the population in the world?


Look at the graph. Remember in math how we look at a graph before we answer the questions. We ask ourselves, "What do I already know about this graph?" That's what you need to write down about the population graph.

If we are going to run out of space in our world, what do you think countries should do?

Now ask your teacher the last question or find the answer in your book.