Embedded formative assessment

Embedded formative assessment looks at our increasingly complex world of the 21st century and demands that we must concentrate on increasing educational achievement by increasing the quality of the teachers in our schools. Author Dylan Wiliam makes a case for the important role of formative assessment in increasing teacher quality and student learning. While there are many possible ways to develop the practice of serving teachers, attention to minute-by-minute and day-to-day formative assessment is likely to have the biggest impact on student outcomes. Wiliam's view of formative assessment differs from the popular view in that he regards formative assessment as a process rather than a tool.

Interested? Check out this title by emailing us at cedir@indiana.edu, or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Mobile App Monday -- Glucose Buddy

Need to monitor your blood glucose level or that of someone in your care? Try Glucose Buddy-Diabetes Helper. This app is a data storage utility where users can manually enter glucose numbers, carbohydrate consumption, insulin dosages, and activities. Then view all of your data on your free glucosebuddy.com online account.

Want to learn more? Visit: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/glucose-buddy-diabetes-helper/id294754639?mt=8

The Blind Advantage

Losing your vision is scary. But when first-year teacher Bill Henderson found out that was happening to him, he didn't take the advice others gave him--to get out of the field of education. In The blind advantage: How going blind made me a stronger principal and how including children with difficulties made our school better for everyone, Henderson takes his readers on his journey through deteriorating vision into blindness, and how he persevered in maintaining his career and even getting to the head of the class!

Want to check it out? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Beyond the Label

Got a child who is struggling with a learning disability or a behavioral disorder? Beyond the label: A guide to unlocking a child's educational potential can help. This book explains how to recognize the warning signs of a potential learning problem and also where to turn for help. It discusses what an accommodation is and how it can help your child. Issues such as attention, concentration, visual perception, emotional functioning and more are also discussed.

Check out this title by emailing us at cedir@indiana.edu or by using worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

My Dyslexia

My dyslexia is the moving story of Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winner Philip Schultz. As a child, Schultz always felt as if he was being relegated to the "dummy class" in school, where he was largely ignored. Many years later, his oldest son was diagnosed with dyslexia, and Schultz wondered whether he might also have the same condition.


Want to check it out? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu, or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Mobile App Monday - iSign

Looking for an app for American Sign Language? Try iSign. The developer boasts this app contains over 800 signs in an animated format so that the user can see the movement necessary to make the words.

For more information on this app, visit: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/isign/id288858200?mt=8

Assistive Technology for people with Disabilities

Assistive Technology for People with Disabilities, Second Edition, provides a focused look at devices and software that can help people with disabilities live more independent lives. This second edition includes new research and content across the lifespan that address current developments in the field.

Want to know more? Check out this title by emailing us at cedir@indiana.edu, or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

New titles for educators

CeDIR has a couple of new titles for educators in the library:

How to co-teach: A guide for general and special educators
This book offers basics of co-teaching, thoughts on what each teacher brings to the relationship, how to become a co-teacher, general communication advice, and more!

Implementing the framework for teaching in enhancing professional practice.
With its clear definition of the elements of good teaching, the framework for teaching, designed by Charlotte Danielson, is used by educators around the world for professional preparation, recruitment and hiring, mentoring and induction, professional development, and performance appraisal. This action tool can guide you in applying the framework in your own classroom or school and strengthening your professional practice with proven strategies.

Email us at cedir@indiana.edu to check out either of these titles.

Language and Reading Disabilities

From the book description:

"Now more than ever, increased attention has been given to students achieving adequate levels of reading proficiency. Maintaining its strong clinical and research basis, the third edition of Language and Reading Disabilities successfully keeps pace with the rapid changes in our knowledge about language and reading disabilities by providing readers with the most up-to-date advances in research and instruction in reading disabilities. This edition continues to cover a wide variety of theories by comparing and noting the similarities and differences between spoken and written language. This text is broad-based in its coverage of identification, assessment, and treatment of reading and writing disorders." 

Want to check it out? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu, or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Group Music Activities for Adults

Having trouble finding music therapy resources for adults with disabilities? Group music activities for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities can help. This sourcebook contains 100 age-appropriate group music activities with instructions and adaptations to best fit your group. This practical resource also includes an accompanying CD and sheet music for the beginning therapist or the seasoned veteran.

Want to check it out? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu or try worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Reducing Obesity in Youth with Disabilities

24acorns.org

The rate of obesity among adolescents aged 12 to 19 years has more than tripled over the past three decades, and the rate among children ages 6 to 11 years has more than doubled. While that sounds like a staggering figure (and it should), consider that the rates of obesity are even worse among children and adolescents with disabilities. Reversing the U.S. obesity epidemic requires a comprehensive approach that uses policy and environmental change to transform communities into places that promote healthy lifestyle choices for all. To help communities, the CDC initiated the Common Community Measures for Obesity Prevention Project to identify a set of strategies that communities and local governments can use for obesity prevention. The 24 strategies created using the expert panel process are divided into six categories: 1) strategies to promote the availability of affordable healthy food and beverages, 2) strategies to support healthy food and beverage choices, 3) a strategy to encourage breastfeeding, 4) strategies to encourage physical activity or limit sedentary activity among children and youth, 5) strategies to create safe communities that support physical activity, and 6) a strategy to encourage communities to organize for change.

The strategies for the prevention or reduction of obesity have been developed from an evidence-base of research that typically excludes participation by people with disabilities. Our “Adaptations to Community-based Obesity Reducing National Strategies” (ACORNS) website is part of a grant funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) to promote more inclusive community-based obesity prevention programs that represent the needs of youth and young adults with disabilities. The obesity-prevention strategy adaptation portal, www.24acorns.org, was created so that persons with disabilities, teachers, clinicians, researchers, policy makers, and more could have a place to contribute their input on how to best adapt the CDC’s obesity-prevention strategies to be inclusive. There, you can submit your suggestions for physical, cognitive, or cultural adaptations to any of our 24 featured strategies.

For more information about the project, contact Jessica Madrigal via email at Jmadri1@uic.edu or via phone at 312-355-5295.

Psychosocial aspects of disability

Psychosocial aspects of disability: Insider perspectives and counseling strategies is a textbook for students and rehabilitation counselors that provides insight into the everyday lives of people with disabilities. Sixteen people with different disabilities give first-hand accounts of their life experiences. With these narratives are guidelines and strategies for counselors, including "do's and don'ts." The book also discusses sociological and societal perspectives toward disability and ongoing treatment issues and ethical dilemmas for counselors.

Interested? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu to check out this title or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Mobile App Monday - Community Sidekick

Looking for a way to track the location of someone in your care who wants to be independent? Community Sidekick can help. This app sends an automated email message with a map link to show a person's location providing the caregiver a virtual tour of the trip. It also provides an easy way for the user to send a quick email message to the caregiver or person who is monitoring the trip.

To learn more about this app, visit: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/community-sidekick/id413107872?mt=8

Nowhere to Hide

Looking for help with kids with learning disabilities? Nowhere to hide: Why kids with ADHD and LD hate school and what we can do about it might be just what you're searching for. Author Jerome Schultz draws on his background as a neuropsychologist, educator, and consultant to discuss how parents and teachers can bring about changes in school and at home to reduce the education-related stress that can impact kids' academic learning, social skills, behavior, and brain function. This book not only offers a new way to look at why kids with ADHD and/or LD struggle at school but also provides strategies to help overcome the obstacle. It also includes tools such as rating scales, checklists, and printable charts.

Interested? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu to check out this book. Or use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Statistics on kids with disabilities

Looking for statistics on school-aged children with disabilities in metropolitan areas? The U.S. Census Bureau has released the 2010 American Community Survey Briefs that contains loads of information. From disability status by type to disability rate, it's included in the brief. Take a look at the entire report at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/acsbr10-12.pdf

Welcome 2012!

Happy New Year! We're back in full swing at CeDIR with not only a new month but a new year. As we look forward to this leap year, let's also take a look back at the new items CeDIR received last month. Check out the What's New page at: http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/index.php?pageId=2317