Students with ADHD, dyslexia and other learning challenges often get inconsistent support in the classroom. IBM, Understood for All, and the National Center for Learning Disabilities are helping to change that.

Learning & attention issues get AI support

One in five children in the U.S. has a learning and attention issue.Students with dyslexia, ADHD, or other learning disabilities often receive inconsistent support in the classroom, which can lead to a lifetime of difficulties. Students with learning and attention issues are only half as likely as their peers to enroll in a four-year college. They are three times as likely as their peers to drop out of high school, 50 percent more likely to be involved in the criminal justice system, and twice as likely as their peers to be unemployed.However, when given the proper support, students with learning and attention issues can be just as successful as their peers.Understood for All and the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), with support from IBM, worked with educators across the country to create math content designed to give teachers easy-to-use strategies that work for all students &#8212; but are especially effective for students with learning and attention issues.Most U.S. children with learning and attention issues spend at least 80 percent of their time in general-education classes. Inclusive classrooms have benefits, but these students often go without the individualized support they need to thrive. Tools such as Teacher Advisor can be a huge boon for teachers, who must meet the needs of all learners in their classrooms.Teacher Advisor is a free online resource that uses AI to quickly get educators the resources they need, saving them precious time in planning their lessons. More than 15,000 elementary and middle school teachers have embraced the platform since it launched in September 2017.

Using artificial intelligence to provide teachers with the right resources to best support students with learning and attention issues.

&ldquo;Teacher Advisor with Watson has made my transition to fourth and fifth grade enjoyable instead of intimidating. This school year, I am so excited to teach my students and learn alongside them.&rdquo;
&#8212; Ulana Ainsworth, special education teacher, Curtis Guild Elementary School in Boston, MA

Educators stay ahead of the class with online tool

After teaching kindergartners with learning disabilities for four years, I&rsquo;m now educating fourth and fifth graders from diverse backgrounds and with a range of learning styles.This is the kind of challenge I live for. But it’s also pushing me to get up to speed quickly on grade-level subjects I’ll be teaching for the first time &#8212; especially elementary math.Having to transition from teaching basic numbers to helping students understand things such as fractions can be difficult and overwhelming. Fortunately, a new free tool by the IBM Foundation called <a href="http://teacheradvisor.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Teacher Advisor With Watson</a> has helped me make this adjustment. It&rsquo;s simple, easy to use and saves me a ton of time.I first used the tool to understand fourth and fifth grade math standards. When students enter a grade level, some might be ahead, some might be behind, and some might be right in the middle. That&rsquo;s the trickiest part of teaching &#8212; understanding where kids are coming from and helping them move forward.Teacher Advisor generates plentiful activities, lessons and strategies to fit a range of student abilities and learning styles. I can type in what I&rsquo;m looking for and it instantly brings up resources. And the quality of the content is strong. Typically, it takes a lot of research to make sure your lessons work for all students, but Teacher Advisor generates instruction guidelines and shows lots of activities and videos to make the lessons more interactive.One of the most important things I&rsquo;ve learned as a teacher is to adapt lessons to the students. The part that I like most about this online platform is that I can break apart the standard, the content or the lesson to make sure I&rsquo;m serving the needs of each and every child in my classroom. I can find fun, engaging methods to help students who may initially have trouble comprehending a lesson. I can also search by concept and easily move across grade levels, making the tool useful for new and veteran teachers.Before Teacher Advisor, I spent so much of my nights and weekends searching online for lesson plans, or checking sources across various websites. Now I just go to Teacher Advisor, type in the math concept I&rsquo;m looking for, and I have complete, credible resources at my fingertips.Now that I&rsquo;m using this tool, I can&rsquo;t imagine going back to teaching without it. It has streamlined a process for me that used to take hours down to minutes.Teacher Advisor with Watson has made my transition to fourth and fifth grade enjoyable instead of intimidating. This school year, I am so excited to teach my students and learn alongside them.Ulana Ainsworth is a special education teacher at Curtis Guild Elementary School in Boston, MA.

IBM&rsquo;s Teacher Advisor helps a special education teacher make the leap to teaching 4th and 5th graders

Nothing matters more to student success than the teacher. So IBM worked with educators to create Teacher Advisor, a web&#8211;based resource that uses IBM Watson to help teachers plan lessons that better meet the needs of their students. Teachers can choose from more than 8,000 lesson plans, in&#8211;person activities, and classroom strategies &#8212; all vetted by educators and math coaches.

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Learning & attention issues get AI support

Educators stay ahead of the class with online tool