Paula Said:

What are some good lesson plans for a 2nd grade oppositional and defiant child specifically math & eng?

We Answered:

You need to incorporate your behavioral modification plan into your academic instruction.

With a child with severe behavior problems, the behaviors must be remediated before it is possible to bring the child into a "normal" special ed instruction/curriculum format for LD, SLI, etc.

Task analyze your student's behavior needs...it looks like you're already working on attentiveness. However, your time segments appear to be too long at this point to shape his behavior. Also, you need additional reinforcers besides the one game he likes.

I have one young lady with severe behavior, that is currently on a 5-minutes-on-task, 5-minutes-free-time schedule (we'll be building to 15 minutes on-task slowly over the next year or so... one minute at a time...currently she independently parks it for about three minutes without direction...after a couple of months at this).

It also sounds like this student gets what he wants when he's off-task...attention from you! Are you a Mom? If so, do you remember your kids at age 2? Are you in a a room where things can get wrecked in relative safety for you and him? If that's the case, after you have explained how to do the assignment, seat yourself directly in front of the exit to prevent him from taking off on you, get a good book for yourself to read, and wait him out. Make sure all toys, materials, etc. have been locked away, so the room is bare except pencil, paper, and textbook (yawn...boring...nothing to mess with...much). It's very possible its going to be temper tantrum time! If he gets physical with you or does behavior of severe risk to himself, use your Mandt training to restrain him but don't make a big deal out of it. (If you don't have Mandt training--liability issues, you can't physically restrain him...talk with your administrators about what to do if he gets physical with you). As soon as he calms down, give him a brief re-direct ("Remember, two problems/a paragraph/etc., then we have a little game time."), and stay parked in front of the exit.

Creation of rewards (constant direct attention from teacher) games:
To tie the state standards into the behavior program, look at what your target desired replacement behaviors are, and come up with direct activities that incorporate those behaviors. For example... for a child to do seatwork, they must...

1. Stay in their seat.
2. Orient themselves on the paper.
3. Identify the assignment's requirements.
4. Apply newly instructed skills to the assignment.
5. Use their pencil for completing the assignment (rather than as a toy).
6. Cause minimal damage to paper and textbooks.
7. Stay on-task until the assignment is completed.
8. Report assignment completion in a socially acceptable manner.
9. Avoid social interaction while working on the assignment; only interacting with peers or teacher for re-teaching support.

Start with #1...staying in your seat. Now, let's say you're teaching skip counting. Start with 2x. Set up 4 chairs, in 2 pairs. You do this in one pair of seats, while the student does this in the other. Have the student sit in one, then the other, quickly, while skip-counting. "Two...(bounce to next chair)...Four!...(bounce back to first)...six...(bounce)..." Then for 3x, use 3 chairs each... Who says you need to go to the gym to stay in shape?

Now your next goal is to get that bottom to stay in a chair longer, so for your next skill, come up with a time duration measure and use it (adding numbers = adding SECONDS)... For example: He has to sit for as long as he wishes, while you time him, then after you get two measures of seconds, you add the numbers together, and he has to check your work. If he correctly identifies whether you got it right or not (by giving you the correct answer whether or not you were wrong), he gets a little reward (stamp on a stamp sheet, etc.)....

Remember, these are REWARD games for doing seatwork....but they are still using his "free" time for instruction.

See where I'm going?

Good luck!

Rodney Said:

Any good lesson plans for 5th grade math having to do with measurement?

We Answered:

The best advice I can give about teaching a child is to show them how the subject is related to real life. For example, to teach fractions, cut apples or cupcakes into wedges, and teach from there. If doing lengths and measurements, give each child a 6-12" ruler, and have them measure things in their classroom and/or environment - pencils, pencil boxes, chalkboard erasers, their own shoe, their lunchbox, I could go on, but you get the idea.
Good luck to you, ma'am! And have a great week!

Marcia Said:

Any suggestions for innovative, fun lesson plans, pertaining to grade 10 applied math?

We Answered:

Make the lesson something they can relate to.

If the kids in your area are big music fans, try applying your lesson to the music business -- percentage of record sales to tell who's got the biggest fan base, etc. Use specific examples of current popular music labels and acts.

If they're more into movies, try calculations of which movie/actor/actress will win the Oscars based on how many votes each one got (when each vote counts as a different percentage).

One that always worked for me was MONEY. Give them a problem involving their own (pretend) money, and suddenly math becomes a lot more personal ;)