Ablenet Equals - Math Curriculum for Differing Ability

Ablenet Equals - Math Curriculum for Differing Ability Compare Prices Equals is a special education mathematics curriculum designed for a range of disabilities. There are resources for teaching children with disabilities, like Touch Math, but this is probably the only curriculum designed specifically for children with serious differences. Its strength is the fact that it reflects the breadth of the mathematics curriculum most states cover in their standards. Its weakness is that it is somewhat unwieldy, and really needs the support of training and ongoing leadership from a curriculum specialist or coordinator. Assessment Divided into 12 Chapters the curriculum ascends from attending, to fractions, covering calculation, geometry, problem solving, and functional math skills. Designed to accommodate students from the severely disabled to the mildly disabled, the program can support students alongside typically developing students, possibly entering junior high with similar competencies to their peers. It can also help more severely disabled students to build a basic level of mathematical literacy, without perhaps the same level of skills. Equals provides its own assessment program with flip books and test booklets which can be easily administered and scored. The program also provides guidelines for matching scores to the place were a disabled student will need to begin the program. For children who have acquired some math skills, they may be able to start in chapter 3 or 6. For children with more serious disabilities, they may need to start at chapter 1, and may move more slowly through the curriculum. Differentiation Each lesson begins with a warm up, continues with exploration at the three levels (severe, moderate and mild disabilities.) Each lesson continues with Introduce and Connect which builds on prior knowledge, Teach, Problem Solving and Close, with the lesson presentation providing for each of the three levels. Each lesson is followed by problem solving, work stations (learning centers) and games. The program comes with a complete set of high quality math manipulates and materials. The materials include work mats, designed to structure instruction using the manipulates. Brightly colored and attractive, they provide a good alternative to pencil and paper, as well as accommodating different means of responding, from placing counters on the chart, to using eye gaze to identify the correct response. A printed set is included in the boxed curriculum set, but are also on the CD Rom provided by the publisher. The scope and sequence lay out the differences as well, suggesting a mildly disabled students needs three days to cover a lesson, whereas a severely disabled child might need three weeks to master the same material. Equals also provides strong materials to support functions skills, such as money, time and measurement. Resources The kit includes an attractive set of high quality materials to support instruction. Rather than cheesy, poor quality counters, the kit includes well made items available through Abilification. Obviously, Ablenet wanted to provide materials that should hold up and provide service for years. Which is good, since at $1,700 a kit, this is not cheap materials. The kit also comes with a CD Rom with printable resources: the work mats, the activity cards, all the paper resources required for the program. Obviously new, the CD is not easy to use. When you open the CD its hard to see which icon you should click on: I recommend files. The others require that you save the documents before you can open them. Im sure that this will be worked out in future editions, though its a bit of a challenge now. I hope your district is also willing to invest in a color printer for your desk. I know a lot of districts are trying to save toner costs by making everyone print to a shared laser printer, but these materials will be most attractive for visual learners if you can make them in color. Recommendation This is a great program for a district that is going to make the commitment to support the materials with workshops, training and trained curriculum specialists. Like Everyday Math, the materials provide lots of concrete support to help scaffold the cognitive challenges of math for disabled students. Like Everyday Math, teachers need to understand the different conceptual structures they are using to support deeper math understanding. This is also not cheap materials. At $1,700 a classroom, its a major economic commitment on the part of the district. Still, if a district uses the program to parallel the main curricular materials, it has the potential to bring mildly disabled students to a parallel place with typically developing students by middle school. The disadvantage of Touch Math is that it often locks kids into a single strategy for doing functional math. The strength of Equals is that it provides broad mathematical instruction. But buyer beware: it does not free a special education teacher from the need to collect data and be attentive to functional math skills, especially those needed to thrive in the community. So, if you think Equals may work for your district, and you can get the commitment of your special education director and the powers that be, contact Ablenet and check it out. Compare Prices

The Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife

The Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife Princess Louise Facts Known for:  sixth British princess named Princess Royal; daughter of King Edward VII, and granddaughter of Queen VictoriaDates:  February 20, 1867 – January 4, 1931Also known as: Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife, The Princess Louise, Princess Louise of Wales (at birth) Background, Family: Mother: Alexandra of Denmark (1844 – 1925): Alexandra, Princess of Wales, at the birth of Princess Louise, and later Queen Alexandra. Alexandra was the daughter of Christian IX of Denmark and his consort, Louise of Hesse-Kassel.Father: Edward (1841 – 1910), Prince of Wales, at the birth of Princess Louise, and later King Edward VII. Edward was the son of Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert.Siblings: Prince Albert Victor (1864 – 1892), George V (1865 – 1936), Princess Victoria (1868 – 1935), Princess Maud (1869 – 1938, Queen consort of Norway), Prince Alexander John (1871 – 1871) Marriage, Children: Husband:   Alexander Duff, 6th Earl Fife, later 1st Duke of Fife (married July 27, 1889, died 1912) Children: Alistair Duff (1890 – 1890)Princess Alexandra, 2nd Duchess of Fife (1891 – 1959): married Prince Arthur of Connaught and Strathearn, a grandson of Queen VictoriaPrincess Maud, Countess of Southesk (1893 – 1945): married Charles Carnegie, 11th Earl of Southesk Princess Louise Biography: Born at Marlborough House in London, the Princess Louise of Wales, she was the first daughter born after two sons.   Two more sisters arrived the following two years, and the three girls were rather close to each other in their youth, known for being very active though all became more shy and withdrawn as they grew up.   They were educated by governesses.   In 1895, the three sisters were among the bridesmaids at the wedding of their aunt, Princess Beatrice, youngest of Queen Victoria’s daughters. Because her father had two sons who could succeed him, Louise’s mother did not think that the daughters should marry.   Victoria, the sister who followed Louise, never did. Louise nevertheless married Alexander Duff, who was the sixth Earl Fife and a descendant of William IV through one of that king’s illegitimate children. Her husband was created a duke when they married in 1889, just a month after their engagement. Louise’s first child was a stillborn son, born soon after their marriage.   Two daughters, Alexandra   and Maud, born in 1891 and 1893, completed the family. When Louise’s eldest brother died in 1892 at the age of 28, her next eldest brother, George, became the second in the line of succession, after their father, Edward. This put Louise third in line, and unless Louise’s only surviving brother, then unmarried, had legitimate offspring, her daughters would be next in the line of succession – and they were, unless royal decree changed their status, technically commoners.   In 1893, George married Mary of Teck who had been engaged to his older brother, thus making the succession of Louise or her daughters unlikely.   Louise hosted the marriage of her brother. Princess Louise, after her marriage, lived quite privately.   Her father succeeded his mother, Queen Victoria, in 1901, and in 1905 bestowed on Louise the title of Princess Royal, a title reserved for the eldest daughter of a reigning monarch, though not always given.   She was the sixth such Princess Royal. At the same time, her daughters were created princesses and given the title of highness.   They were the only female-line descendants of a British sovereign to be given the title of Princess of Great Britain and Ireland. In December of 1911, on a trip to Egypt, the family was shipwrecked off Morocco.   The Duke became ill of pleurisy, and died the next month. His eldest daughter by Louise, Alexandra, inherited the title of Duchess.   She married a first cousin once removed, Prince Arthur of Connaught and Strathean, a grandson of Queen Victoria, and thus had the title of royal highness. Louise’s younger daughter Maud married Lord Carnegie in 1923, and was thereafter known as Lady Carnegie, rather than Princess, for most purposes.   Maud’s son was James Carnegie, who inherited the title of Duke of Fife as well as Earl of Sothesk. Louise, The Princess Royal, died at home in London in 1931.   She was buried in St. Georges Chapel, and her remains later moved to a private chapel at another of her resisdences, Mar Lodge in Braemar, Aberdeenshire.