Basic HTML Version
Support Materials
for
Students with
Special
Education Needs
IMPLEMENTATION
Supporting students
to use
learning strategies
Learning
strategies
assist
students
to be
aware of
the ways
in which
they
learn
and how
they
can
learn more
effectively. Learning
strategies
include both
cognitive
and metacognitive
strategies.
To use
learning
strategies
effectively,
students need
to be
able
to
select
an
appropriate
strategy
and
apply
the
strategy
in different
contexts
and
for different purposes
(Curriculum Corporation 2005).
Cognitive
strategies
Cognitive
strategies
are
plans
or
guides
that
support
students
to
complete
systematically
lessstructured
or
higherorder
tasks. Cognitive
strategies
are
involved
in
higherorder
processes
that
require
thinking,
planning,
processing
and
decisionmaking
(Westwood
2004),
for
example:
•
listening
and
•
writing
a
paragraph
or
constructing
a
text
(Curriculum Corporation
2005).
Examples
of
cognitive
strategies
that
students may
use
individually,
or
in
combination
to
complete
a
task
include:
visualising,
verbalising,
answering
selfgenerated
questions
or
teacher
questions,
scanning,
underlining
or
highlighting,
summarising,
using mnemonics,
using memory
aids,
using
visual
or
verbal
prompts,
notetaking,
rehearsing
(practice
through
repetition),
using
a
set
of
procedural
prompts
or
cues.
Cognitive
strategies
can
be:
•
general
(eg
a
planning
strategy
for writing)
or
•
specific
to
a
particular
task
(eg
the
‘i
before
e
except
after
c’
spelling
rule
or
a writing
strategy
for
producing
a
particular
text
type).
Learning
strategies
for
and
are
included
in
these
sections.
Teaching
strategies
that
support
students
to use
cognitive
strategies
include:
•
explaining why
a
cognitive
strategy
helps with
learning
or
is useful
•
explaining when
to use
a
cognitive
strategy,
eg
‘You
can
use
this
strategy
to help
you
plan what
you will write’
•
modelling
cognitive
strategies
in
small
steps
using
‘think
aloud’,
discussing
the
reason
for
each
step
(Zito
et
al. 2007)
•
guiding
student
practice
using
the
new
strategy
until
the
student
can
apply
the
strategy
without
error
•
providing
opportunities
for
students
to
remember
and
recall
the
strategy
before
using
it.
This may
involve
verbal
rehearsal,
eg
‘First
I …’,
etc.
•
providing
opportunities
for
students
to
use
a
strategy until
they
have
experienced
its
benefit
and
are
able
to
use
it
independently
(Graham
and Harris 2005b)
•
gradually
increasing
the
difficulty
of
examples
for
independent
practice
•
identifying
other
situations/contexts where
the
same
strategy
can
be
used, modified
or
used
in
combination with
other
strategies
to
assist with
generalisation,
eg
key
questions
for
a
narrative may
also
be
used
for
a
book
report
or
biography
•
promoting
the use
of metacognitive
strategies
to
support
the
use
of
cognitive
strategies
•
providing
to
assist
students
in
using
a
particular
strategy
22
Teaching
and
learning
cycle
English K–6