Learning Communities session 1: Low Incidence (Elementary) spotlight

Low Incidence (Elementary) Learning Community Celebration

Five Core Areas of Learning
Our Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) Learning Communities (LC) are well underway. Several of our LCs focus on the learning needs of students in Low Incidence classes. Our Low Incidence LC sessions follow the 5 Core Areas of Learning as the overall guiding principle. The 5 Core Areas of Learning are: Physical Development (Motor Skills), Communication & Language, Functional Academics (Literacy and Numeracy), Daily Living, and Social & Emotional.

Demonstration of how a “Communication Book” can be used and created on an IWB.

Communication and Language - Functional Academics
Our first LC focused on Communication and Language and the Literacy portion of Functional Academics. During this LC session suggestions of ways to use the IWB to facilitate these concepts were shown to the teachers. Aspects of functional literacy and various ways to communicate through the IWB were demonstrated from the concrete to the more abstract. Teachers had an opportunity to explore various ways to access the IWB, while wearing both a student and a teacher hat. Another powerful aspect to these sessions was their eagerness to share experiences from their classes and how the IWB engaged and motivated their students. Several teachers commented on how valuable the LC session was and how they appreciated that the LC session focused on the exceptionality needs of their classroom by providing examples and suggestions that were relevant to the learning needs of their students.

Two Learning Community teachers collaborating to create an activity on the IWB.