Pennsylvania S Special Education Paraprofessionals What S New for 2014-2015

Pennsylvania’s Special Education Paraprofessionals What’s New for 2014-2015

All trainings 4:00-6:00PM

9/24/2014 The Paraprofessional’s Role in Supporting Students in Reading for Meaning (2 hours)

To gain meaning from text, students must be able to determine what information or message the author is trying to convey. The process of interacting with text at deep levels of understanding presents challenges for many students with disabilities. This session will provide paraprofessionals with strategies they can use to support students in building the skills needed to reach deeper understanding of fiction and nonfiction text. Strategies will support concepts addressed in the PA Core Standards for English and Language Arts (ELA) across all content areas and grade levels, including determining main idea and details, citing evidence in text to answer questions, and summarizing key information.

10/8/2014 Using Technology to Support Students in Reading and Writing (2 hours)

This session will explore available technologies that can help students who struggle with reading text and writing tasks to engage in those activities in nontraditional ways in order to make progress in the general education curriculum. This session will describe universally designed accommodations built into modern operating systems and the role paraprofessionals play in supporting students towards greater independence through the use of technology.

• 10/22/2014 Supporting Students with Vision or Hearing Loss (2 hours)

Students with sensory impairments have unique learning needs, which require the staff supporting them to have a clear understanding of both the disability and the individualized supports for each student. Paraprofessionals will be presented with an overview of the types of medical conditions related to sensory impairments and the educational implications of each. In addition, participants will learn specific strategies for supporting students with sensory loss in the educational setting.

• 11/5/2014 Supporting Instruction for Students Who Are Deaf-Blind: An Introduction to Combined Hearing and Vision Loss (2 hours)

This training will help paraprofessionals understand combined hearing and vision loss and how this impacts the education received by students who are deaf-blind. This session will review the unique challenges that students with combined hearing and vision loss experience, as well as present strategies for instruction and more effective communication.

3/11/2015 Pennsylvania’s System for Assessment for Accountability (2hours)

This session will provide participants with a description and supporting details of the assessments that are administered in Pennsylvania to all students. Each assessment has unique qualifications that define who is eligible to be assessed and the content that will be tested. This session will examine these qualifications and provide participants with tips for supporting students during the assessment.

•3/25/15 Supporting Students in Mathematics Using the Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) Approach (2 hours)

Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) is a sequence of instruction that has been proven to promote the conceptual understanding of mathematics. This session will demonstrate how to use concrete materials and representations to support students’ use of the abstract to represent mathematical concepts. The session will include demonstrations of elementary and secondary mathematics concepts.

•4/15/15 Credential of Competency Standard #3: Individual Learning Differences: Cultural Considerations (2 hours)

This session will focus on the skill and knowledge areas contained in Standard #3 of the Special Education Paraprofessional Credential of Competency Checklist: Individual Learning Differences, as well as Cultural Considerations concerning the child, family and educational professionals. This session will provide insights regarding the role of paraprofessionals as they support students in culturally diverse classrooms.

•4/29/15 Credential of Competency Standard # 5: Learning Environments and Social Interactions: Creating Positive Classrooms

(2 hours)

This session focuses on the skill and knowledge areas of Standard #5: Learning Environments and Social Interactions. Discussion will include ideas for classroom management (i.e., use of routines, use of choice, promotion of positive relationships, and use of reinforcement systems). This session will also present strategies to promote student self-advocacy and use of appropriate social skills.