see wk4a

Week 4 – Assignment

· Due

 

Mar 8 by 11:59pm

 

· Points 9

 

· Submitting an external tool

IEP Lesson Development Using Evidence-Based Strategies

We have been working with Huang throughout this course. As we continue to develop his IEP, an important component of developing this plan is to identify the EBP strategies that can be used to target each goal and objective of the program. When EBP instructional strategies are determined, they can be incorporated into lesson design and planning.

Instructions:

· Select one of the goals that you developed for Huang in Week Two.

· Use the 

What Works Clearinghouse (Links to an external site.)

 or some other source to find an evidence-based strategy for teaching the selected goal.

· Create a sample lesson plan that can be provided to Mr. Franklin that targets the selected goal for Huang and other classmates using differentiation strategies to individualize the lesson, as well as accommodations and/or modifications. You may use one of these provided formats (

Lesson Plan Sample 1

 or 

Lesson Plan Sample 2

) or use a format that you are already familiar with using.

The IEP Lesson Development Using Evidence-Based Strategies paper

· Must be two to three double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the 

Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)

.

· Must include a separate title page with the following:

· APA heading/page numbers

· Title of paper

· Student’s name

· Course name and number

· Instructor’s name

· Date submitted

· Must use at least two scholarly sources in addition to the course text.

· The 

Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.)

 table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.

· Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

· Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

· Recommend using APA level headings to organize your work.

Universal Design for Learning Lesson Plan

Teacher(s): _________________ Date: _______________ Subject: _________________

Materials Needed: Make sure you have all of your materials collected and organized so your lesson will flow smoothly. If you are
presenting this lesson collaboratively, make sure you know who is responsible for what.

Lesson Objective(s): State your objectives behaviorally. For example: Given (state the condition under which the students will
perform the objective), the students will (state an observable student behavior) with (state the criteria here – a statement that specifies how
well the student must perform the behavior) accuracy. An example of a behavioral objective is: Given an unlabeled diagram of the solar system,
the students will label the nine planets and the sun with 80% accuracy.

Standard/Benchmark/Indicator: Are you aligning your lesson with district or state standards?

Anticipatory Set: How are you going to motivate your students…assess or review prior knowledge…introduce your topic…organize
your lesson for students?

Multiple Means of Representation: How are you going to present your content so that it meets the needs of all
students…is the information represented in different ways? For example, utilizing guided notes and graphic organizers in addition to a lecture
format or having several books that represent different reading levels.

Multiple Means of Engagement: How are you going to provide multiple pathways for students to actually learn the
material presented? Practice, or active mental/physical engagement, is required by students to make real learning happen. For example, some
students may benefit from small group learning opportunities; others may require more focused practice with precise feedback, while others
might benefit from working independently. Some students will need to write, others will need to talk through ideas before they understand,
while others may need to physically represent what they are learning.

Multiple Means of Expression: How will students demonstrate what they have learned? Again, the creation of many
paths is key. Some students are good test-takers, while others are not. Tiered assignments, oral exams, building a model, making a video, using
portfolio assessment are examples of alternatives to traditional paper/pencil tests.

Sample Lesson Plan – Accessing the Common Core for Students with Disabilities

Accommodations:
Strategies:
Technology/Equipment:

Accommodations:
Strategies:
Technology/Equipment:

Special Education Teacher: General Education Teacher: Teaching Assistant: Teacher Aide(s):	Class: Date:
Standards to be addressed: Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS): Career Development and Occupational Studies (CDOS) :
Topic and Context:
Objective (Learning Target):	Verb:	Context:
Special Considerations (Accommodations, Modifications, Assistive Technology, Strategies): Student Name Student Name
Necessary prerequisite skills: Assessment of prerequisite skills:
	Explicit Core Instruction	Specially Designed Instruction
Introduction: – objective – learning target – key vocabulary Connect to previous learning	Objective (Learning Target): Activate Prior Knowledge: Vocabulary: Connection to previous learning:	Accommodations: Strategies (Learning and Teaching Strategies): Technology/Equipment:
Active Teaching/ Modeling/ “I Do”: – Demonstration – Think Aloud – Provide model &/or rubric	Description of “I Do”: Exemplary, Model or Rubric:			Accommodations: Strategies: Technology/Equipment:
Guided Practice/ “We Do”: Provide time for: – Small group work – Discussion – Teacher/ student observation & feedback Assess before moving to independent practice	Practice Activity with teacher corrective feedback: Materials: Check for understanding:
Independent Practice/ Application/ “You Do”: Multiple practice opportunities to ensure success (90%)	Task/Materials for independent practice:
Lesson Closure	Summary:	Accommodations: Strategies Technology/Equipment:

Last Updated: June 24, 2014

New York Department of Education. (2014). Sample lesson plan: Assessing the common core for students with disabilities. Special Education. Retrieved from:

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/commoncore/samplelessonplan.htm

Library

 

of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Henley, Martin, 1943-

Characteristics of and strategies for teaching students with mild disabilities / Martin Henley, Roberta S. Ramsey, Robert F. Algozzine. — 6th ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-323-45488-6

ISBN-10: 1-323-45488-8

1. Learning disabled—United States. 2. Mainstreaming in education—United States. 3. Behavior modification—United States. I. Ramsey, Roberta S. II. Algozzine, Robert. III. Title.

LC4705.H46 2009

371.9—dc22

2008022251

Executive Editor and Publisher: Virginia Lanigan

Senior Editor: Ann Davis

Editorial Assistant: Matthew Buchholz

Production Editor: Gregory Erb

Cover Designer: Linda Knowles

Composition Buyer: Linda Cox

Manufacturing Buyer: Megan Cochran

Photo Researcher: Katharine S. Cebik

Editorial Production Service: Marty Tenney, Modern Graphics, Inc.

This book was set in Times by Modern Graphics, Inc. It was printed and bound by Hamilton Printing. The cover was printed by Phoenix Color Corporation/Hagerstown.

Copyright © 2009, 2006, 

2002

, 

1999

, 1996, 1993 by Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458.

Pearson. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by Copyright and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding permission(s), write to: Rights and Permissions Department, 501 Boylston Street, Suite 900, Boston, MA 02116, or fax your request to 617-671-2290.

Pearson® is a registered trademark of Pearson plc

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Photo credits appear on 

page 436

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		10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
www.pearsonhighered.com	ISBN 13: 978-1-323-45488-6 ISBN 10: 1-323-45488-8

CHAPTER SEVEN

LEARNING AND TEACHING

ADVANCE QUESTIONS

Answer the following questions as you read this chapter:

1. How will you implement a response-to-intervention (RTI) program?

2. How does student perception influence attitudes about school? How does a developmental perspective help teachers understand their students?

3. What is student-centered learning? What are some things to consider when implementing student-centered learning?

4. What is the connection between direct instruction and effective school research?

5. How does a teacher differentiate instruction to fit each learner’s needs?

6. What is the purpose of precision teaching?

7. How can students learn for a lifetime by using learning strategies?

8. How can recent research on brain function improve teaching?

9. What types of assistive technology are accessible to classroom teachers?

10. What is a “functional curriculum”?

11. How does a teacher determine which instructional approach to use?

12. What does current research state about math and reading?

IGNETTE: JERRY WILLIAMS AND ANN BROWN

At the beginning of the school year, a classwide screening test in reading was administered to the 1st-grade classrooms at Jefferson Elementary School. Both Jerry Williams’s and Ann Brown’s scores fell below the school’s cut-off level used to identify students at risk for reading failure. RTI was initiated. Jerry, Ann, and several of their classmates were monitored for 5 weeks to determine if they could succeed with the school’s reading curriculum, which consisted of a well-known basal reader series. Their teacher, Mr. Singh, used curriculum-based measurement to see how well they did. Both Jerry and Ann were found unresponsive to Tier 1 general education and in need of additional support.

Mr. Singh met with the Williamses, and the Browns, Jerry’s and Ann’s parents. He explained to the parents at both of these meetings why the school was concerned about their child’s lack of reading progress. The parents were asked to give written consent so that their children could enter Tier 2 of the school’s RTI program. Parents received a written intervention plan that provided details about the intervention program. The selected intervention was phonemic awareness instruction. Jerry and Ann received tutoring “four times each week for 45 minutes each session for 8 weeks.”

Progress monitoring was done weekly. The parents received a report that included graphs of their child’s progress every 2 weeks. The graphs enabled the parents to “see” the individual progress being made by their child. They were told that they could ask questions about the progress reports at any time. The parents also were told that they could request a formal evaluation if they thought their child might have a disability and need special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Jerry made good progress. He was determined to do well and he returned to Tier 1 general education. The Williamses were told that the school would continue to monitor his progress on a weekly basis. They were assured that if Jerry did not continue to progress as expected he could reenter the Tier 2 phase again.

Ann’s parents, the Browns, requested information and materials that they could use at home while their daughter received the preventative tutoring on Tier 2. Ann’s mother worked with her every school night for half an hour on phonological sounds, letter-sound recognition, and sight word recognition. Mrs. Brown used flash cards, adapted learning cards, and word games. Still, Ann continued to have many of the same reading difficulties.

Mr. Singh met with Mr. and Mrs. Brown to explain their concerns about Ann’s lack of response to Tier 2. The possibility of a learning disability was discussed. Mr. Singh explained that if Ann continued to fall behind her classmates, she might have to repeat 1st grade. The school principal asked for written consent to conduct a special education screening to gather more information about Ann. Testing measured Ann’s language-processing skills. An above-average score on an IQ test and an age-appropriate measure of adaptive behavior ruled out a mild intellectual disability. Several classroom observations, along with progress monitoring records of Ann’s performance in Tier 1 and Tier 2, were added to the information pool. A multidisciplinary school team including a school psychologist, reading specialist, special education teacher, and Ann’s general education teacher, Mr. Singh decided that Ann met the federal criteria for a specific learning disability and she was eligible for special education. The team developed an IEP for Ann. Written consent was provided by the Browns for special education services to begin. At this point, Ann entered Tier 3 where a special education teacher began a more intensive intervention program with her.

The special education teacher, Mr. Jackson, worked with Ann in a pull-out program for an hour each day, both one-to-one and in small groups. He utilized an intensive phonics approach that focused on letter-sound associations, letter-sound correspondence, and graphophonemic relationships. Ann’s progress was monitored twice weekly and the Browns were provided a written report each grading period. The graphs in the monitoring reports showed the parents the progress that Ann was making in reading. Mr. Jackson enhanced Ann’s special education program by adding 20-minute computer software reading sessions, three times a week. Ann’s mother and father continued to work with her at home to supplement and to reinforce the special education services she was receiving.

Ann’s progress continues to be monitored and reported to her family. If Ann’s reading level improves sufficiently, the school team will meet to determine whether Ann might discontinue special education services and receive all reading instruction in the general education 1st-grade classroom with continued monitoring.

1. Do you know how to implement an RTI program for your students? Tell what happens at the different tier levels.

2. Can you explain why Jerry was put back into the monitoring phase for general education? What instructional methods would you recommend for him?

3. How was Ann identified as having a specific learning disability? (Refer back to Chapter 5.)

4. Which instructional methods and techniques could Ann’s special education teacher use? Which instructional methods and techniques could her general classroom teacher utilize? TODAY’S SCHOOLS

Each morning, 55 million students troop off to school. They arrive on foot, in cars, and in an armada of yellow school buses. Bells ring; children file into classrooms; the teacher closes the classroom door, calls for attention, and another school day begins. What happens next? Other than sleeping and watching television, no activity demands as much of adolescents’ time time as school. Even though teachers and students spend almost a thousand hours together each year, our knowledge about what transpires inside classroom walls is fragmentary.

Some teachers spend most of their day standing or sitting in the front of the classroom. Their primary teaching tools are lecture, texts, workbooks, and worksheets. Other teachers appreciate the need for students to be active learners. These progressive teachers mix student-centered learning with direct instruction. They are flexible and are more adept than “frontal teachers” at modifying their instruction to meet the needs of individual students. Teachers who vary their teaching methods are more successful than those who depend on one or two “tried-and-true” ways of teaching.

Proactive teachers generally are more receptive to innovations. They are ready to try new interventions and programs like the RTI program. Having special education teachers bring in special teaching methods and ideas is not threatening to these general education classroom teachers. They welcome the special innovations and skills that these teachers add to their classroom. Inclusion thrives under the auspices of proactive classroom teachers.

SPEEDBUMP—Did you have any teachers that fit the proactive mold? How were they different from other teachers?

Ask any teacher what schools are for, and you are likely to get a variety of answers ranging from the basic—“Schools are to teach skills for life”—to the enthusiastic—“Schools are to help kids learn about themselves and the world around them.” However, what do the students who, from ages 5 to 18, spend 12,000 hours in classrooms think about school?

Student Perceptions of School

Noyes and McAndrew (

1971

) interviewed students throughout the country and asked them, “What are schools for?” A typical response was:

We go to school because it is the law. They make you stay until you are sixteen, and by then you may as well go on since you probably only have another year or two anyway. The point of it, I guess, is to get a diploma so you can go to college. (

Noyes & McAndrew, 1971

, 321)

The overall perception of the students in this study was that the purpose of school was preparation for college. Students did not view school as a place that would meet their personal needs. They gave different versions of the same theme—figure out a way to get through school with the least resistance.

In elementary school, White found that student and teacher perceptions about the purpose of school differ. Whereas teachers value the content of the curriculum, students pay more attention to teacher judgments of their work. In the words of one student:

… you have to have a half-inch margin on your papers … you put the headings on the right not on the left, and line it up … the cover should be felt if you want an A … you can’t hand in papers that aren’t neat, she’ll really mark you down… you have to write out “remainder” or it’s wrong. … (

White, 1971

, 341)

Students measured their progress by grades rather than what they learned. When he was a special education teacher, one teacher had a straightforward reminder regarding the importance of grades to students:

The director of our program had accepted the teachers’ recommendation that we substitute descriptive evaluations for grades. The students participated in assessing their learning. Students met with the teachers to determine if their work in each subject showed improvement. Peter and I had a conference at my desk about his progress. “Do you think your reading has improved?” I asked him. “What do you mean?” he replied. “You know, are you getting better at reading?” I asked. “How should I know,” Peter said, “you’re the teacher. It’s your job to give me a grade so I’ll know if I’ve learned anything.”

Peter’s comment illustrates the distance between teacher and student perspectives about school. Students are not connected to their learning in the ways adults imagine. They learn the rules of school and how to get by, but curriculum as adults understand it does not have the same meaning to students. Whereas teachers want students to learn, students want to get the teacher’s approval, receive good grades, and enjoy the company of their friends. Sometimes they are excited about learning; sometimes they are bored. At all times, students realize that their fate is essentially in the hands of the teacher. Some students cope with the inequality of power and perform at a level that will satisfy both teacher and parents. Others fall by the wayside. These failures are eventually classified as students at risk, school dropouts, or students with mild disabilities.

SPEEDBUMP—Do you agree or disagree with this analysis? Can you think of any ways that you perceived school differently than your teachers? How about now in your college classes?

What are the characteristics of classroom life that create such a discrepancy between how teachers and students view learning? It should come as no surprise that students view grades as the purpose of their school experience. From the time they receive their first report card until they take the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) in high school, students continually are reminded of the importance of grades. Tests are as indigenous to life in schools as chalk, blackboards, and textbooks.

Some teachers’ efforts are best characterized as test rather than curriculum driven. These teachers teach to improve test scores rather than to stimulate a love of learning. As long as school-based quizzes and national achievement tests continue as the key measure of success in school, students will concentrate on grades as their most important goal.

Child and Adolescent Development

“What did you do in school today?” When a father asked his 6-year-old daughter Margaret this question, she answered, “Well, we had lunch in the cafeteria, we lined up for the bus, and we had folder work on Thursday and we had fun together, me, Brian, all my friends.” She added, “That’s not all but I forget the rest.”

Margaret’s response illustrates another major difference between the way in which teachers and students view school. When she thinks about school, Margaret considers its most gratifying aspects—lunch, friends, and a side reference to her studies, “folder work.” Children are not miniature adults. There are significant developmental differences between teachers and their students. One developmental distinction is in perceptions of goals.

While adults take the long view, students look at the future from short range. Teachers are concerned with distant goals; students are concerned with here and now. For a 5-year-old, 20 minutes is an endless wait. Summer for a 12-year-old seems to extend into the distance, an uninterrupted progression of sunny days and steamy nights. To the freshman and sophomore, high school appears as if it will never end. Time limits have slight meaning to teenagers who perceive themselves as immortal.

Within this context of time without end, parents and adults pound away at such themes in high school as “You need to learn math in order to get a good job,” or they tell primary-grade children, “If you finish your work in 20 minutes, you will get free time at the end of the week.” Each of these messages leaves a faint impression on students who are unable to fathom the mystery of work today for tomorrow’s reward. Child and adolescent development lend weight to Einstein’s view that time is relative. Discipline, grades, and learning are fundamental classroom issues that teachers approach as long-range preparation for work or college, while youngsters jolt forward one day at a time with eyes cast on more substantial concerns, such as watching the clock hands on the wall slowly creep toward dismissal.

SPEEDBUMP—Do you remember staring at a clock waiting for school to end for the day? Name three things you can do when you become a teacher to make school work interesting for your students.

Developmental differences between students and teachers are accepted and valued in many early childhood programs, but teachers and administrators sometimes lose track of child and adolescent development. This neglect by school personnel creates a gulf between teachers and students that can have dire consequences. To paraphrase Robert Sternberg (

1990

), ignore students’ developmental differences at our peril—and theirs.

Part of growing up is learning to take on the perspective of those who are older. Primary-school–aged children learn to be less egocentric as they acquire the ability to perceive a situation from another’s point of view. Students in elementary school are here-and-now oriented. It isn’t until adolescence that students can begin to consider future goals.

Developmental needs dictate priorities to students, and these priorities can put a student in conflict with adults. For the teenager, relationships, intimacy, and getting a driver’s license are major concerns. Adolescence is a time of “grandiose ascension.” Teenagers fly high above the mundane matters of the everyday world as they experience new mental and physical abilities they never imagined they would possess (

Bly, 1990

). Many teenagers perceive parents as old fashioned and too strict. When bad things happen, teenagers are reluctant to face them head-on. Denial is a useful defense mechanism for skipping over the hardships of a family’s divorce, a mother’s addiction, or a father’s neglect. This is why depression and drug abuse are such developmental hazards for adolescents. Adolescents are more likely to act out their emotional struggles than to reflect or talk to others.

In high school, acceptance by one’s peer group can be more pressing than getting homework done. The teenager confronts the social dilemma of breaking free from the bonds of adult authority at precisely the same time that parents and teachers are demanding responsible behavior. This pulling in opposite directions usually leaves both adults and adolescents perplexed. Even though developmental changes are at times baffling, these changes help explain why the meaning of school is interpreted differently by teachers and students (

Hersch, 1998

).

STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING

In his widely acclaimed book A Place Called School, John Goodlad (

1984

) laments the lack of vigor in U.S. classrooms. He describes some teachers as frontal teachers. By this he means they seem rooted to the front of the room, where, like ship captains, they oversee all classroom activity. In describing the culture of school, Goodlad characterizes the teacher as a virtually autonomous person who controls almost every aspect of classroom life. Students labor alone, solitary figures in groups, with little to say about how they spend their days. Many students, Goodlad said, engage in a narrow range of passive behaviors such as listening to the teacher, writing answers to questions, and taking tests or quizzes. Goodlad was not the first educator to describe public schools as havens of autocracy that demand conformity. Demands for changing schools to be more student centered seem to provide a counterpoint to reform recommendations that insist teachers get back to the basics. For every statement about empowering teachers, such as Hunter’s direct instruction model, there is the inevitable reaction to empower students.

SPEEDBUMP—Why avoid becoming a “frontal teacher”?

Glasser (

1985

) argued that schools should become more responsive to student needs. According to Glasser, student apathy and unwillingness to participate in classroom activities is a direct response to student impotence. As an illustration, Glasser pointed out that no one has to coerce students to work hard at extracurricular activities. Yearbooks, science fairs, athletics, and debate clubs represent a few manifestations of activities that students engage in with enthusiasm. Glasser maintained that the opportunity to exercise control of extracurricular activities increases motivation and involvement. He articulated four student needs that schools should strive to fulfill in the classroom (1985):

1. Students need to belong. They need to feel a part of a larger community and to feel that they are valued by the group.

2. Students need power. They need to make decisions and have responsibilities.

3. Students need freedom. They need to feel self-reliant and in control of their own destiny.

4. Students need fun. They need to have joy and humor, and they want to work for personal satisfaction.

Notice that none of these needs relates to specific parts of the academic curriculum; rather Glasser is focusing on deeper, developmental needs. It’s at the developmental level where student-directed and teacher-directed advocates split. Teachers who formalize student-directed learning in their classrooms assume a developmental view of education. Preschool education is the only sector of public education that holds to a strong developmental outlook. Once students begin 1st grade and continue through middle and high school, developmental views on how young people learn and what their psychological needs are get mired in a curriculum logjam (

Elkind, 

1986

). Teachers wilt under the pressure to get a student “ready” for the next grade. Achievement tests, basal readers, and an endless array of workbooks provide the grist that students must grind their way through in traditional, curriculum-centered classrooms. In high school, the winds of curriculum pick up pace as teachers bend to pressure to prepare students for graduation and college entrance requirements. The pressure to pass standardized achievement tests increased with the passage of the NCLB.

In a student-centered classroom, it is unlikely that students would select the same topics mandated by the school system for each grade. Here lies the dilemma for the student-centered teacher.

What the priority specific curriculum requirements that are best taught through teacher-directed lessons, or student-centered activities that may overlook content measured in standard tests of achievement?

A negotiated solution is workable. Teachers can merge both approaches. Direct instruction on the periodic table is more likely to grab a student’s attention after a few experiments in a chemistry laboratory. Classroom discussions about the pros and cons of Roe v. Wade can provide the same insight into the judicial system of our country as that covered by a mundane chapter in a social studies text. Cooperative learning projects can cover the same content as a lecture on algebraic equations.

Student-centered classrooms look different than teacher-directed classrooms. Furniture is arranged to enhance student conversation in small groups; cooperative learning and peer tutoring are commonplace. Myriad objects for concrete learning experiences are arranged on tables. While students work, the teacher moves about the room encouraging, providing feedback, and giving directions. Some students are engaged in small groups; others work independently. Work schedules are arranged to allow students to study different topics at the same time. Rote learning, drills, and passive materials such as worksheets and dittos are shunned.

A common misconception of student-centered classrooms is that they are unstructured. A visitor to a student-centered 4th grade might observe the following scene. Adults and students are scattered throughout the room. In one corner, a parent volunteer is listening to three students take turns reading. Along the perimeter of the room, students in pairs are working at several tables that are labeled “math center,” “science center,” “art center,” and “writing center.” In another corner of the room, a student is playing a math game at a computer. Two students are cleaning the gerbil cage. Four students are sitting on pillows and reading library books in the “quiet corner.” A student teacher is standing in front of the blackboard reviewing fractions with a group of five students. Finally, the visitor spots the teacher in another corner. Around her is a group of seven students. She is doing a phonics lesson. The room is a beehive of activity. People are talking and walking about. Everybody is busy.

To the untrained eye, the scene may appear disorganized, but there is a complex structure that holds everything together. A student-centered classroom requires a well-thought-out plan for moving students from one center to another; materials and themes at the centers need continual refurbishing; volunteers need direction; student progress must be monitored; and the daily schedule must ensure that all students have a blend of direct and indirect learning experiences. A teacher in a student-directed classroom must be capable of supervising several simultaneous activities. The following models incorporate one or more principles of student-centered learning.

SPEEDBUMP—As you read through these student-centered approaches, make a list of those that resemble teaching methods used by your teachers when you were in elementary or secondary school.

Brain-Compatible Instruction

Educators’ efforts to solve the mystery about how students think and learn has in the past been hampered by one critical element: an inability to study the human brain in the process of thinking. With the advent of technologies for direct observation of brain function, the brain slowly is giving up its secrets, and the ramifications for educators is enormous. Consider the following information gleaned from the research on brain function and schooling.

■ Students who utilize flash cards for learning will do better if the card is round. A circle is the most recognizable shape. Circular cards allow students to focus better because the round shape is less distracting than squares or rectangles (

Barron, 2000

).

■ Movement is the only experience that unites all brain levels and integrates the right and left hemispheres of young students. Movement increases heart rate and circulation. It provides students with a spatial reference in the classroom, which improves memory. Movement promotes the release of noradrenaline and dopamine. These energizers keep students alert and enhance attention (Barron, 2000; 

Jensen, 1998

).

■ Thematic instruction improves learning by helping students to identify patterns and build on prior knowledge. Integrating curriculum areas such as the study of rain forests by combining mathematics, music, biology, and geography into a unit helps students learn more effectively than teaching each of these subjects in isolation (

Wagmeister & Shifrin, 2000

).

■ Abstract ideas are developed by connecting concepts to students’ personal experiences. This helps students link new information into preexisting neural patterns. For example, a teacher introduced a lesson on ratios by having students make juice from cans of concentrate (i.e., three cans of water for each can of juice) (

Westwater & Wolfe, 2000

).

■ Analogies, similes, and metaphors enhance learning by linking abstract concepts and visualizations. For example, the terms million, billion, and trillion have no referent in direct experience. Creating visual analogies makes the numbers comprehensible. For example, a 4-inch stack of tightly bound 1,000 dollar bills would equal a million dollars. A stack that was a city block long would equal $1 billion (Westwater & Wolfe, 2000).

■ The brain is not wired for long attention spans. Attention is focused in short bursts. Initially, attention lasts for about 18 seconds. The optimum sustained attention span is roughly equivalent in minutes to the age of the student. A 1st grader’s attention span is 6 minutes, 6th grader’s 12 minutes, and high school seniors 17 minutes. Individual lessons should include a variety of components, for example, teacher presentation could be followed by student discussion, seat work, group project, and feedback (Jensen, 1998).

SPEEDBUMP—The previous points are interesting but not everyone agrees with them. What do you think? Do a Web search and see if you can find some interesting new facts about how the human brain learns.

The brain consists of approximately 100 billion neurons. That’s a big number that is difficult to grasp. Sylwester explained, “There are about 100,000 hairs on the average human head, so that all of the hair in a population of a million people would be about as many neurons as you have in your brain” (

Figgis, 1995

). However, individual neurons are not the site of most brain activity. It is the connections that develop between neurons (500 trillion by age 10) that powers human thought. Think of individual computers running software on neurons so small that 70,000 could be contained on the head of a pin (

Kotulak, 1996

). Now connect all of these computers via the Internet and you have an idea of the exponential brain power produced by neural networks. These neural networks are cultivated by experience. As students mature, patterns develop that link neural networks residing in different locales within the brain. It is this chunking or binding of neurons that we refer to as thought. The cultivating and pruning of these pathways goes throughout life. Sylwester compared the neural landscape to a jungle “where different kinds of neurons and neuronal pathways competed randomly to survive, the way that particular trees or insects do. The message, then, is: for schools to match these messy minds of ours there should be more open-ended work for kids, more conversation, more liveliness—indeed more passion” (Figgis, 1995, 2).

Emotions and Learning

Within the past decade, scientists have learned more about the brain than in the previous 100 years. Gradually, the fields of neuroscience and education are finding common ground. One of the major insights is recent revelations about how emotions affect thought and learning. These findings are particularly relevant to the education of students with mild disabilities because so many of these students have experienced failure in classrooms. Far more neural fibers project from our brain’s emotional center up into the logical/rational areas of the brain than the reverse (

Sylwester, 2000

). A brain that is faced with a perceived threat is likely to “downshift.” This is a biological response that focuses the brain on only what is necessary for survival. When students feel threatened by academic material that carries with it a high anxiety quotient, “… their brains perseverate, continuously repeating thoughts or unresolved emotional issues” (

Caine, 2000

, 59). Anyone who can recall his or her mind going “blank” when confronted with a difficult test question has experienced the downshifting that is commonplace among students who are chronic underachievers in school.

Fatigue, frequent illness, distractibility, and defiance are some of the classroom behaviors observed in “downshifted” students. Students who are exposed to a steady regimen of threatening academic work develop “learned helplessness” or habitual avoidance habits. Creating a sense of community and fostering positive relationships in the classroom is one method for countermanding the brain’s “downshift” orders. Fostering communal bonds relieves stress and helps students to feel emotionally secure in the classroom. Music, art, drama, and sports help relieve tension and give students opportunities to experience success.

SPEEDBUMP—Read the last paragraph again. Do you agree with this concept of downshifting? Can you think of some ways emotions influence your ability to perform? For example, do you ever experience test anxiety?

One teacher worked as a consultant in alternative high school. Students were placed in this program because of severe behavior problems. Getting these young people to attend to academics and to take responsibility for their behavior was a major chore, yet, while playing basketball during recess, these same recalcitrant youths helped each other, managed frustration, and relished the competition. After each game, there were smiles, sweat, and satisfaction. The physical education teacher observed that “they seem like different kids!” At least for some of the students who attended this alternative school, the basketball court was a welcome stress reliever from the classroom.

Emotions are unconscious responses spurred by chemical reactions to environmental stimuli. Cortisol, which is released by the adrenal glands, activates a defensive reaction to stress. A stressful school climate can elevate cortisol and eventually destroy hippocampus neurons that are associated with learning. Activities that put students in positive learning states include class discussions, journal writing, stretching, panel discussions, mind-mapping, reflecting, listening to music, dancing, and games (Jensen, 1998). Endorphins are a group of peptides that regulate emotions along the pain-pleasure continuum. They increase euphoria and decrease pain. Exercise, positive social contacts, fun, camaraderie, and a joyful classroom atmosphere activate endorphins and help students tackle difficult academic tasks.

Emotions also play a key role in memory retention. Classroom simulations, presentations, role playing, drama, projects, and group collaborations tie learning to emotional contexts, thus enhancing retention of information (

Sylwester, 

1994

). Unexpressed emotions inhibit learning. Students need opportunities to link their feelings to classroom content. Drama, classroom discussions, singing, writing, music, and drawing help build neural connections and inhibit the release of chemicals that interfere with learning such as cortisol, adrenaline, and vasopressin (Jensen, 1998). Emotions direct attention, and attention leads to better learning (

D’Arcangelo, 2000

). Students who are emotionally involved will learn better than students who are emotionally uninvolved from the content presented. Even mildly stressful situations (e.g., studying for an impending test) support learning better than a neutral state.

Multiple Intelligence

According to Gardner (

1983

), there are eight types of intelligence that students acquire as they mature and interact with their environment: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. Multiple intelligence theory explains the rich diversity of abilities that individuals demonstrate in society. Gardner’s concern related to schooling is that two types of intelligence are emphasized—linguistic and logical-mathematical—at the expense of the six others. Students who demonstrate strengths in linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence have a distinct advantage over other students, who may be just as intelligent, but are unable to demonstrate their abilities within the traditional curricula. The lack of attention to individual differences between students is demonstrated by one-size-fits-all teaching methods. Gardner said, “What I argue against is the notion that there’s only one way to learn how to read, only one way to learn how to compute, only one way to learn about biology. I think that such contentions are nonsense” (cited in 

Checkley, 

1997

, 10).

SPEEDBUMP—If President George Bush, the architect of No Child Left Behind, and Howard Gardner sat down for a cup of coffee, do you think they would agree about how to improve schools?

Multiple intelligence emphasizes student movement. Rather than spending prolonged periods of time sitting at desks, students are up and moving around the room. They are engaged in learning stations, group projects, and small-group instruction. Open-ended learning activities that have practical uses such as student-directed newspapers and research activities are highlighted in the multiple intelligence classroom. There are opportunities for socialization as students learn together in pairs or small, cooperative groups. Teachers put a premium on student reflection. Right-and-wrong answers are not as relevant as the thinking processes that lead students to a particular conclusion. Music, art, and dance are prized as an end and a means to help students explore their own unique forms of expression. Above all, the multiple intelligence approach respects the different ways in which students learn. Many educators have embraced the multiple intelligence perspective, yet the theory has its critics as well. The primary criticism is that Gardner’s theory is lacking empirical validation and that despite different ways of learning there are some intellectual skills such as critical thinking, information gathering, and presenting one’s ideas that all students need to learn.

The following illustration from a high school social studies class illustrates one teacher’s approach to incorporating multiple intelligence methods in her lesson (

Lambert, 1997

, 53). At the end of a unit on early American history, students were allowed to choose presentation formats. The student projects included:

■ Writing and performing skits about the Lewis and Clark expedition (verbal, linguistic, and interpersonal intelligence).

■ Painting watercolors of birds and other wildlife for a project on John J. Audubon (visual-spatial intelligence).

■ Creating a working telegraph (logical-mathematical and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences).

■ Developing a board game (visual-spatial intelligence).

■ Delivering a eulogy on Davy Crockett (interpersonal intelligence).

■ Role playing a historical figure and speaking to the class in character (intrapersonal, verbal-linguistic, and visual-spatial intelligences).

Identifying students’ learning style is a good beginning for instruction, but teaching is not a mechanical activity. Teachers cannot fit students to instruction like so many eggs nestled in a carton. To some extent, all students need control over their environment, as well as teacher-directed whole-group instruction and assistance in how to learn.

SPEEDBUMP—Michelangelo said that a block of stone contained the statue. He revealed it by chipping away the unnecessary stone. Can you connect Michelangelo’s view to teaching and multiple intelligence?

Rather than emphasizing the “right” way to teach, learning style literature underscores the fact that students are different. Student learning style is a unique blend of individual development and life experience. Teachers who understand learning styles respect the capabilities of their charges. The literature on learning styles provides a sharp contrast to the traditional school norm of student conformity to a single standard of instruction or behavior. As John Holt remarked, “Children are not only extremely good at learning, they are much better at it than we adults are. As a teacher it took me a very long time to find this out” (

Holt, 

1977

, 232). By utilizing an array of instructional models, the teacher builds a bridge between the student and the curriculum. Research on multiple intelligence and learning styles helps us to grasp the complexity of learning and to appreciate the need for teachers to remain flexible when deciding how to teach individual students.

TEACHER-DIRECTED MODELS

Trying to find the best way to teach is a major goal for educators. Educational journals brim with debates about which system of instruction is most effective for teaching reading, math, writing, and appropriate behavior. The search for the best way to teach is tied to many factors. Among these are local leadership, politics, economics, and public support. Education is more like law than like medicine. Absolute cures for educational ills are almost nonexistent. Rather, like law, education must change and adapt to the needs of society; for example, educational policy is shaped at the local level by superintendents, who are hired by school committees. School committees are elected by voters in the community. Consequently, introduction of educational change, along with the necessary budgetary adjustments eventually must have public support.

Each of the following instructional models has been used successfully with students with mild disabilities and nondisabled students. None is foolproof. The selection of a specific instructional model should come after a careful review of educational goals, school-wide resources, and student need.

Direct Instruction

Direct instruction, also referred to as mastery learning, refers to a variety of carefully sequenced, teacher-directed methods. The research of Rosenshine and Stevens (1984) indicated that when teachers follow a hierarchy of instructional steps in their lessons, low-achieving students increase achievement in basic skills.

Direct instruction utilizes teacher demonstration, guided practice, and feedback. According to Larivee (

1988

), direct instruction includes:

1. Teacher demonstration—Provide clear, controlled presentations of new material. Model each step of the material to be learned.

2. Guided practice—Follow the demonstration, ask questions, and check student understanding of material.

3. Feedback—Circulate among students as they work on independent activities related to the new material. Provide corrective feedback on their work. Use frequent cumulative review.

The work of Madeline Hunter and her instructional theory into practice (ITIP) instructional model is an example of a direct instruction program that has been implemented in thousands of schools throughout the country. Hunter stated that teachers were first and foremost decision makers and teaching decisions should be informed by educational research. Hunter’s ITIP system divided teaching into practical lists and sublists that teachers follow as they make decisions about how and what to teach. Hunter organized the teaching act into seven components:

1. Knowledge of human growth and development

2. Content

3. Classroom management

4. Materials

5. Planning

6. Human relations

7. Instructional skills

These components identify the kinds of decisions a teacher makes minute-by-minute in the classroom. Hunter encouraged teachers to use data from learning situations to augment teaching decisions and increase student mastery. Hunter summarized her approach in an interview with Mark Goldberg, “… all of the 5,000 decisions a teacher makes every day fall neatly into three categories: what you are going to teach, which we call a content category; what the students are going to do to learn it and to let you know that they’ve learned it, which we call a learning behavior category; and what you as the teacher will do to facilitate and escalate that learning, which is called a teaching behavior category” (Goldberg, 1990, 41).

In their summary of direct instruction for students with mild disabilities, Bickel and Bickel (1986) noted, “Effective teachers take an active role in creating a positive, expectant, and orderly classroom environment in which learning takes place.” Teachers’ control time management, signal when academic work will begin, maintain a group focus, expect students to be accountable, and provide a variety of instructional tasks. Direct instruction is based on teacher control of instruction and close supervision of student work. It has produced good results in teaching basic skills, and raising standardized test scores. Critics maintain that direct instruction stifles student initiative and doesn’t teach higher-level thinking skills. Critics also express concern that direct instruction undercuts motivation by reinforcing student dependence on the teacher (Knapp, Turnbull, & Shields, 1990). The following instructional models are teacher directed, and incorporate one or more principles of direct instruction.

SPEEDBUMP—What teaching goals are best suited for direct instruction and which are best suited for student-centered learning? If you can answer this question, you will be well on your way to a successful teaching career.

Multisensory Instruction

Many students with mild disabilities have severe reading problems. Within the field of learning disabilities, multisensory approaches to teaching reading are well regarded. Multisensory instruction is based on the premise that the more senses involved, the more efficient the instruction. There are many specific reading programs that incorporate multi-sensory approaches. These programs are often referred to as VAKT instructional methods. This acronym is formed from the first letter of the words visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile. “To stimulate all of these senses, children hear the teacher say the word, say the word to themselves, hear themselves say the word, feel the muscle movement as they trace the word, feel the tactile surface under their finger tips, see their hands move as they trace the word, and hear themselves say the word as they trace it” (Lerner, 2000, 430).

The Orton–Gillingham method is perhaps the best known VAKT instructional approach. This approach was developed during the 1930s by Samuel Orton. Three colleagues of Orton’s, Anna Gillingham, Romalda Spaulding, and Beth Slingerland, worked closely with him to develop a reading instruction program that could help dyslexic students. The focus of the program is to teach sounds and letter names. This phonetic approach is teacher directed and carefully sequenced. Orton’s approach was primarily tutorial, Slingerland added a whole-class instruction element for dyslexic students, and Spalding extended the VAKT approach to students without disabilities. Spalding’s objective was to prevent reading problems (Farnham-Diggory, 1992). The durability of the VAKT approach to reading is testimony to its usefulness with students with mild disabilities and high-risk learners.

The Wilson Reading Program is closely related to Orton–Gillingham. Students learn encoding and decoding skills through a 12-step, sequenced program. Specifically, the Wilson method focuses on phonological awareness, phonology, and total word structure. The Wilson reading approach is designed for learners after grade 3. A distinctive feature of the Wilson method is a sound tapping system to help students differentiate phonemes.

The linking of decoding skills with multisensory learning activities provides a strong basis for remediation of reading problems. VAKT-type reading programs present a systematic approach to correcting reading difficulties that are neurological-based auditory processing problems that appear as problems related to phonemic awareness, decoding, and encoding.

SPEEDBUMP—Multisensory instruction is deeply ingrained in special education practice. Some techniques go back 50 years or more and are associated with such pioneers in special education as Marianne Frostig, Sam Orton, and Maria Montesorri.

Differentiated Instruction

A teacher differentiates his or her instruction by making adaptations that fit each learner’s needs, styles, and abilities. Educators utilizing differentiated instruction are acknowledging that students learn at different rates, that they have different learning styles and strengths, and that they differ in their ability to think abstractly or understand complex ideas. Students can explore the same concept or topic; however, each student needs to have the learning experience tailored to increase his or her learning success. This means that in differentiated instruction, teachers make adaptations in one or more of the following ways:

■ Content—what you want students to know and be able to do

■ Process—how students are going to learn the content

■ Product—how students demonstrate what they have learned

■ Resources—the media from which students learn (Benjamin,

2003

; Instructional Philosophy and Strategies, 2003)

The role of the teacher in a differentiated classroom is that of a planner and facilitator of learning. Teachers give students as much responsibility for their own learning as they are able to manage. Specifically, teachers:

■ Assess students’ needs and abilities in a variety of ways (e.g., observation, student conference, diagnostic test of a skill).

■ Interpret assessment data to determine students’ learning needs and styles.

■ Design a variety of ways that students can gather information and explore ideas (listening, reading, viewing—resource-based learning).

■ Develop a variety of ways that students can express and share their own information and ideas (e.g., orally, in writing, through a visual representation such as a collage or graphic organizer).

■ Provide a variety of options for teacher evaluation and student self-assessment.

■ Offer students choices as often as possible (1) in their learning arrangement (e.g., working independently or in a group); (2) in the ways that they will learn about the concept and the resources they will use to gather their information and ideas (e.g., print resource—fiction or expository; nonprint—audio, video, human); and (3) in the ways that they will express, share, or present the ideas and information to others (e.g., oral presentation, visual chart, role play, video production).

■ Keep records to chart students’ growth related to the curriculum objectives and concepts being developed. (Instructional Philosophy and Strategies, 2003, 11)

In summary, teachers and students are essentially both learners. Even though teachers may know more about the subject matter than their students, teachers continuously are learning about the diverse ways in which their students learn. Teachers assess students’ attainment levels and readiness skills for learning in a variety of ways. Teachers design learning experiences based on their understanding of students’ needs and interests. They then present the material in a differentiated manner, and reassess to determine what individual students have learned.

Some new as well as experienced teachers experience difficulty in planning lessons and in adapting their teaching methods in order to allow for differentiation. In addition, many teachers fail to provide a variety of instructional activities for their diverse group of students. Most of these teachers are “teaching to the middle” in their respective classrooms, without addressing the wide range of student abilities at both ends of the continuum—the accelerated learners and the slower learners. The emphasis in these classrooms is in “keeping everyone together” rather than differentiating instruction to meet individual attainment (Holloway, 2000).

Carol Ann Tomlinson (2000) states that educators can recognize differentiated instruction by the following classroom characteristics (p. 2):

■ Teachers begin where the students are.

■ Teachers engage students in instruction through different learning modalities.

■ A student competes more against himself or herself than others.

■ Teachers provide specific ways for each individual to learn.

■ Teachers use classroom time flexibly.

Teachers are diagnosticians, prescribing the best possible instruction for each student.

SPEEDBUMP—Great ideas, but kind of overwhelming, don’t you think? Don’t worry about it; as a teacher you never stop learning.

Task Analysis

Task analysis is the process of breaking down a learning task into its component parts and teaching each part as a distinct skill. It often is used by sports instructors in teaching such activities as tennis, golf, and skiing. The premise that a hierarchy of subskills underlies mastery of a learning task (e.g., to win a tennis match, to shoot par on a golf course, to ski expert slopes) is the pedagogical foundation of task analysis. By arranging skills in a hierarchy, each skill builds on the next. Task analysis is a sequenced, systematic approach to teaching, which provides opportunities for evaluation of each subskill. When using task analysis, the teacher will need to:

1. write a behavioral statement about the learning task (e.g., to be able to divide three-digit numbers with 90 percent accuracy)

2. design an outline of the learning task broken down into a hierarchy of subskills

3. evaluate the student’s abilities in relationship to each of the subskills before instruction

4. select materials and procedures for teaching each subskill

5. provide feedback to students about subskill development

6. evaluate acquisition of each subskill through systematic monitoring

Students generally have some prior knowledge and skills when they begin instruction. Teachers who use task analysis define the task that the student will perform, state the conditions under which the task will occur, and show the criterion measurement required for mastery. Task analysis identifies a sequence of skills needed to perform a task successfully; criterion measurements identify whether the student possesses the necessary skills or knowledge for that task. The level of performance that is acceptable is the criterion level, and it is often specified on the student’s IEP.

Through task analysis, the teacher can plan learning activities in the order in which they need to be learned to reach mastery as indicated on the student’s IEP. (See Chapter 8 for a description of IEP development.) The criterion set for determining mastery of the behavioral objective can be measured by using criterion-referenced testing, or some other informal, curriculum-based type of assessment.

SPEEDBUMP—Task analysis has been used for years by teachers working with students with moderate to severe disabilities.

Precision Teaching

Ogden Lindsley observed that learning can be enhanced by frequent, self-recorded responses on standardized charts. He encouraged teachers to concentrate on rate of responses instead of percentages of correct responses. Lindsley recommended that teachers teach their students to record their own rate of learning on standardized charts (Lindsley, 1990).

Lindsley designed precision teaching around a framework of behavior modification developed by B.F. Skinner. This framework consists of six basic components:

1. By assessing daily performance, teachers can directly measure performance and monitor learning.

2. Calculating rate of response (i.e., the number of correct responses per minute) establishes a consistent measure of behavior.

3. A standard chart format provides a visual display of performance patterns.

4. Definitions of behavior are descriptive and functional.

5. Analysis of instruction is ongoing.

6. The emphasis is on building appropriate and useful behavior, rather than focusing on doing away with undesired or inappropriate behavior.

Jamie is a 5th-grade student at Somewhere Elementary School, U.S.A. Five days a week, Monday through Friday, Jamie reads aloud, answers math problems, and spells words dictated by her teacher. Each of these tasks is timed, and Jamie plots her own scores on separate graphs for reading, math, and spelling. A line is extended from the points where other scores have been plotted (Figure 7.1). This procedure enables her teacher to visually track Jamie’s learning rate. Jamie and her classmates are participating in precision teaching. Their teacher is measuring their learning performance daily. By seeing the changes in students’ learning each day, Jamie’s teacher, and others who utilize precision teaching, can adjust their instructional plans as needed. (White, 1986)

FIGURE 7.1 Precision Learning Chart

image

Contributed by Wolking (

1991

).

When students like Jamie are assessed daily, their changes in performance from one timed assessment to the next guide instruction. The more frequently the timed assessments are made, the more often decisions can be made about the effectiveness of instruction for an individual student. Timings are done each day, thus students have sufficient opportunities to demonstrate skills.

Educators traditionally look for accuracy in student responses. Daily timed assessments provide the data to measure both the accuracy and the rate of learning. Wolking (1991) provided the following description of Jamie:

At the beginning of this unit of study, Jamie answered 20 subtraction fact problems in a minute. She got 13 correct and made 7 errors. Twelve school days later she answered 47 subtraction facts in a minute. On this timing, she got 45 correct and made 2 errors. The learning line for her correct responses showed that she was improving at a rate of 65% per week. The learning line for her error responses showed she was reducing her errors at a rate of about 70% per week. Overall, Jamie’s correct responding has improved by 246% (from 13 to 45 per minute correct), and her error responses have decreased by 250% (from 7 to 2 errors per minute) in just twelve school days.

Precision teaching requires plotting scores on a chart so that changes in student learning can be tracked. This chart is a ratio or logarithmic scale, and referred to as the standard acceleration chart. The logarithmic scale displays performance values that are recorded as number of responses per minute. When scores are plotted, an individual’s pattern of learning can be seen by drawing a line through the dots. This line of connected points is called a learning line. Generally, the steeper the learning line, the faster learning is occurring. Conversely, the more horizontal or flatter the learning line, the slower the rate of learning. The chart is called a standard or acceleration chart because the same rate of learning is always displayed by the same slope. Lindsley (1990) recommended students self-monitor by plotting their own data on standardized charts. Two innovative self-monitoring approaches are countoons and software spreadsheets.

Countoons. Daly and Ranalli (2003) use countoons to teach self-monitoring skills to students. They contend that young children can learn to count and record their own behaviors, and seem to enjoy doing so. “When you teach children to do the counting and recording themselves in your classroom, you are teaching valuable skills in self-control, as well as freeing up the time devoted to managing the child’s behavior for instruction” (p. 30).

Countoons include a simple cartoon representation of a student’s appropriate and inappropriate behavior, a reward contingency, and counting frames for recording data. The representations include a picture of the student doing the appropriate behavior and a picture of the student doing the inappropriate behavior (see Figure 7.2). Any behavior that can be described so a student can count it and that can be pictured simply in a cartoon frame can be used for a countoon. A place is provided for students to circle the number of times they demonstrate the behavior. A “consequence frame” pictures the reward.

There are various ways of creating recording devices for these countoons. A teacher can make a sheet of counting frames that can be copied and cut up so new frames can be added to a countoon for daily data collection. The teacher also can use a file folder and draw the countoon directly onto the inside of the folder. Some teachers use the computer software program Boardmaker (

2001

) to make countoons. Self-management techniques like countoons appeal to general education teachers who teach in inclusion settings. Both academic and social behaviors can be successfully counted, thus building and reinforcing appropriate behaviors and shaping new ones.

FIGURE 7.2 Countoons

image

Source: Daly & Ranalli (2003). Reprinted with permission.

SPEEDBUMP—Getting a student to assess his or her own progress improves the student’s accountability—that’s a bonus.

Software Charts. Gunter, Miller, Venn, Thomas, and House (2002) state that “recent simplifications of computer technology software packages have the potential to make it easy for students to record and graph data regarding their academic or social behavior” (p. 30). Gunter and associates used the Microsoft database software Excel and adapted it for self-monitoring by students.

Gunter et al. (2002) outlined the following self-monitoring steps:

1. Identify the academic or social behavior, the data-collection process, and the extent to which the student can contribute to the data-collection process. For gathering data, students can grade their own worksheets and graph the scores. To determine rate such as words read correctly per minute, an audio recording could be made and someone could provide this data to the student for recording and graphing.

2. On the desktop of a classroom computer, a folder can be created for each student. Within each student’s folder are files for different academic areas and for social skills. For example, a student can open his folder labeled Manuel Torres’s Data and in it find Excel files for subjects like reading, spelling, and math. Each file contains a teacher-generated Excel spreadsheet with an embedded graph for which the student records his or her data.

3. A desired “celebration” line is calculated. The celebration line allows the student to see if the recorded performance meets the criteria necessary to master the objective in the designated amount of time. This visual feedback is important for determining if criteria have been met.

Countoons and software charts promote self-monitoring. The benefits of doing this have been noted over the last 30 years. Moxley (1998) states that self-monitoring by students: (1) provides a clear picture of performance; (2) gives immediate feedback in a clear, visible manner; (3) involves students in selecting behaviors to monitor; (4) enhances communication with parents; and (5) promotes intracomparisons within one’s own skills repertoire rather than encouraging intercompetition with peers.

Learning Strategies

A 12-year-old given the task of remembering a list of objects (e.g., milk, bread, soda, candy) might repeat the words several times in order to commit them to memory. Learning strategies (also referred to as cognitive strategy, cognitive behavior modification, and meta-cognitive skills) are mental schemes for memorizing, solving problems, planning, or organizing (Pressley & Harris, 1990). Many individuals independently learn these strategies in the normal course of development; others never acquire these strategies on their own. The lack of learning strategy development may be the basis for many of the learning problems encountered by students with mild disabilities.

Alley and Deshler, practitioners in the field of special education, identified learning strategies as “… techniques, principles, or rules that will facilitate the acquisition, manipulation, integration, storage, and retrieval of information across situations and settings” (

1979

, 13). These authors support the need to teach students how to use learning strategies to improve comprehension and retention of classroom content. Equally important is teaching students how to generalize learning strategies outside of school.

SPEEDBUMP—What are your learning strategies? Can you describe things you do that help improve your own academic progress?

The adage “Give me a fish, and I can eat for a day. Teach me to fish, and I can eat for a lifetime” summarizes the goal of this approach. The intent is to teach students skills that will allow them not only to meet immediate requirements successfully but also to generalize these skills to other situations over time. (Alley & Deshler, 1979, 13)

Learning strategies help students learn to cope with mild disabilities by providing them with a set of directions for improving their ability to learn. Pressley and Harris (1990) present the following guidelines for using learning strategies to improve reading comprehension (p. 13):

1. Summarize the story. Dialogues and classroom discussions enhance memory of plot and characters.

2. Construct an internal visual representation of the story. This procedure can be enhanced through art activities.

3. Relate student experience to a story.

4. Make up questions about the story while reading.

The teaching of learning strategies begins with the teacher modeling the strategy. Students might be assigned an essay, for example, and the teacher would begin by demonstrating how to write an intuitive outline (see Figure 7.3). The purpose of the intuitive outline is to get ideas out before listing them in a sequential outline. An intuitive outline is completed by a student brainstorming by herself. She begins by placing the theme or main idea in an oval, and then writes each idea associated with the main thought on lines that branch out from the center. As a new idea comes to mind, it is added to an existing branch or a new branch is started. Just as a tree branches out spontaneously in different directions, the intuitive outline grows to accommodate the natural progression of ideas. This learning strategy (sometimes called webbing) can help solve common problems such as writer’s block or test anxiety.

Another example of a learning strategy is mnemonics, a system of memory training that helps students remember important concepts by associating ideas to visual stimuli. A student might remember key principles of the U.S. Constitution, for instance, by going for a memory walk down his street and mentally “picking up” due process from the delicatessen, freedom of the press from the newspaper machine, and the right to bear arms from the department store mannequin.

FIGURE 7.3 Intuitive Outline

image

Mann and Sabatino (1985) recommend the following steps for incorporating a learning-strategies approach in the classroom:

1. Describe the strategies needed to solve a classroom problem. (One way to do this is through task analysis; break the solution down into specific steps.)

2. Measure a student’s use or nonuse of strategies.

3. Help students implement selected strategies and adjust and revise as needed.

4. Monitor how well the strategy is working.

5. Motivate students to use the strategy.

Selecting the best strategy is a key element in utilizing the learning-strategy approach. Scott (1988) recommends teaching problem-solving skills demonstrated by successful students. She identified concentration, independence, reflection, self-direction, active learning, and persistence as core learning strategies students with mild disabilities could learn to improve their classroom performance. Scott presented a variety of activities to teach each learning strategy to a student. For instance, concentration can be taught by playing chess or other games. Reflection could be taught by having students count to ten before they give an answer.

Story Grammar Marker. A story grammar marker (SGM) is a hands-on manipulative for teaching text structure for oral and written expression. The SGM is designed to be held by the student and teacher while telling, retelling, and writing stories. It is visual, tactile, and kinesthetic, making it a three-dimensional graphic organizer. Use of this tool provides students and teachers with a common language that connects language and literacy.

Narrative elements of character, setting, problem, feelings, plans, actions, and consequences are represented by icons along a linear linguistic braid. For example, a star represents the “setting” since sailors at night, when lost, look to the stars to see where they are and what time it is. A heart represents the “feeling” of the character relative to the problem and plan (Figure 7.4).

FIGURE 7.4 Story Grammar Marker

image

Source: The Story Grammar Marker® is a registered trademark of MindWing Concepts, Inc. and may not be reproduced in any form. Copyright © 1994, 2008. The Story Grammar Marker® patent issued. Braidy™ the StoryBraid, U.S. patent pending. MindWing Concepts, Inc. and logo are the registered trademarks. ThemeMaker™, Story Grammar Marker® and Braidy™ the StoryBraid, are U.S. registered trademarks of SGM Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

The teacher can use the SGM with the entire class or a small group to discuss the plot of a story, an episode in a book chapter, a personal experience, or a historical event. When a teacher or student touches an icon, that element of the story is discussed. Connections are made linguistically and visually between the character/setting and the problem (initiating event); the problem, feelings, and plans (critical-thinking triangle); the plans and the actions/attempts; and the attempts and the direct consequence or end of the story.

The visual, tactile, and kinesthetic nature of the manipulative makes it an ideal tool for a variety of learners. The SGM manual contains reproducible maps that serve as graphic organizers modeled after the SGM manipulative. Posters, magnets, an oral/writing activity book, a manual of developmental lessons, a series of card decks, and the ThemeMaker for expository text round out the materials currently available for this link between language and literacy.

Learning strategies teach students how to learn by helping students to organize their thinking and teaching them thinking skills they will use throughout their lives. However, one should be cautious about jumping too quickly on the learning-strategies bandwagon. Much of the seminal work in this area has been conducted under experimental conditions that are unlike classroom conditions. Further research will provide insight into how to teach learning strategies that students can use in different settings; how to integrate learning strategies into the curriculum; and how to design texts to support strategy instruction (Harris & Pressley, 1991).

Instructional Scaffolds

Students come into classrooms at different levels of understanding and skills inherent in academic subjects. Thus, the learning process is a very personal and individual experience for students, as they construct their own meanings and expand their understanding (Instructional Philosophy and Strategies, 2003).

Instructional scaffolding describes a process in which teachers and students work together to design and to provide support as needed. In fact, instructional scaffolds may be designed for individuals (or for groups) to assist them in learning new skills. Teachers learn to anticipate possible difficulties that students might have. As they move about the classroom and work with students on a one-to-one basis, teachers plan which instructional scaffolds might work with individual students on a temporary basis as they learn the new skill. This may include mini-lessons or breaking down the task into subtasks or steps. It also might include the use of prompts or cues for a temporary period of time. Instructional scaffolds can be designed to help students learn how to identify main ideas and supporting details, ask questions, cooperate in groups, predict, infer, summarize, do research, solve problems and so on (Instructional Philosophy and Strategies, 2003). The scaffold support is given temporarily—only as long as needed. Then later, support may be given at another point in the learning process.

TECHNOLOGY

Technology is commonplace in most classrooms. The passage of the Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1988, referred to as the Tech Act, is largely responsible for this utilitarian outcome. The Tech Act was designed to enhance the availability and quality of assistive technology (AT) devices and services to all individuals and their families throughout the United States (

Behrmann & Jerome, 2003

; 

Blackhurst & Edyburn, 2000

).

IDEA uses the same definitions for assistive technology as the Tech Act. IEP teams are required by IDEA to consider whether the child requires AT devices and services. Technology meets another emphasis of IDEA which is access to the general education curriculum for all students with disabilities.

The terminology can be confusing to a teacher who is trying to find the best way to match students with appropriate assistive technology for individual needs. The U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (2002) made the following distinctions for the terms assistive technology, assistive technology devices, and assistive technology services. Assistive technology (AT) is defined as any tool that helps a student with a disability perform a functional task more easily or more successfully. Assistive technology devices are tools that are provided by school districts when assistive technology services are requested in an IEP. It is stated in IDEA, Section 300.5, that the AT devices include

… any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability.

AT services are defined in IDEA as any service that directly assists a child with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device. AT must be considered for all students who have an IEP. The AT services that apply to the classroom teacher, whether a general educator or a special educator, include

… assessment of needs for AT, acquiring AT devices, modification and maintenance of AT devices, coordination of other services related to AT, teaching students and their families to use AT devices, and providing training to professionals who will deliver services to that child to improve functional capabilities. (IDEA, Section 300.5)

AT devices may be categorized as no technology, low technology, or high technology. Any assistive device that is not electronic is called no technology or no tech. Examples would be teacher-made games and learning tools. Electronic devices that do not have highly sophisticated computer components are referred to as low technology or low tech. Examples would include electronic audio or voice-recording instruments. High technology usually features high-tech devices with a computer and software arrayed to perform multiple functions (Behrmann & Jerome, 2003).

Special education literature and professional journals are proliferate with ideas and suggestions about technology available for use with special needs students. The following high-technology AT devices were selected from a review of current literature, for possible usage with students in general and special education classes.

WebQuests.  Good teachers use many different strategies to teach students who come to the classroom with differences in readiness, interests, and learning profiles (

Albemarle County Public Schools, 2003

). When differentiating instruction based on readiness, the learning goals remain constant for all learners; however, learner support, complexity of tasks, and instructional materials are varied according to the individual needs of students. WebQuests are one means of differentiating instruction based on interest. A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity. Teachers can show students how to obtain information from resources on the Internet. Within this process, students can learn how to pursue individual interests while working within common content parameters. Last, students’ learning profiles are multidimensional and include individual learning preferences. Utilizing multimedia and learning centers in the classroom helps to provide information in multisensory and multiple intelligence formats.

Technology can be employed in the process component of differentiated instruction. The process component is “how students learn the content.” The following example is given by Albemarle County Public Schools (2003, 2). Differentiated instruction by process may look like this:

Some students will be using a traditional print encyclopedia to complete a research task in a classroom, while other students use Internet bookmarks collected by the teacher, and still other students use a multimedia encyclopedia that provides audio support. Each of these learning centers may provide the students with the information necessary to answer the question “What are the three branches of the United States government?” but in very different ways.

SPEEDBUMP—Don’t forget how valuable the Web is for lesson plan research.

Widgets.  Miller, Brown, and Robinson (2002) describe how teachers might use what are called “widgets on the Web” as a computerized support tool in the classroom. They state that this type of computerized tool is “… easy to use, appeals to students, helps them [the students] learn abstract concepts, and can be found on the Internet” (p. 24). What are widgets? The authors describe them as small computer programs that are created using an authoring software program, and can be stored on CDs or accessed via the Internet.

Widgets are mediation software programs developed to be used by the teacher when interacting with a student in a learning task.

In order to create and develop these widgets, teachers need to consider: (1) what concepts they are teaching; (2) what they need to effectively teach these concepts; and (3) what the student characteristics are that would affect the design. Widgets can be used in an individualized manner or projected onto a screen for group instruction (e.g., an LCD projector). They can be paused during instruction to demonstrate, model, or add further elaboration. The authors state that widgets can be designed to tailor what the students need in contrast to programmed computer software that is controlled and sequenced. This instruction can be developed for a broad range of skills and abilities, thus making it appropriate to use with students who have mild disabilities and need instruction tailored to their unique learning needs.

Get Ready to Read.  The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) has launched a new interactive reading game for preschool children. The program is designed to help preschool children build the literacy skills they need to become successful readers. Gus, the famed rabbit of the PBS Emmy Award–winning show Between the Lions, is the lead character.

According to the NCLD (2003), all it takes is Internet access and a click of a mouse to join Gus and his friends in a series of interactive reading games. 

GetReadytoRead.org

 is the website for Get Ready to Read!, a national early literacy program developed by the NCLD. The goal of this program is to ensure that all children are equipped with the fundamental skills necessary for learning to read. Families who do not have Internet access can take their children to the public library and access it for free.

Teach How to Learn

Assistive technology (AT) can encourage students in many areas of instruction. In a paper presented at the Annual Council for Exceptional Children Convention in Denver, Colorado, Lahm, and Morissette (1994; cited in Behrmann & Jerome, 2003) outlined six areas: organization, note taking, writing, academic productivity, access to reference and general education materials, and cognitive assistance. In their ERIC Digest publication, Behrmann and Jerome (2003) offer some ways in which teachers can incorporate AT into these six areas as they instruct students. The following is a summary of some of their suggestions. (Refer to examples of accommodations, modifications, and strategies in 

Chapter 8

.)

Organization.  Both low-tech and high-tech devices can be utilized for teaching students organization of thoughts. Low tech includes manual outlining, color coding, and highlighting. Flow-charting and webbing are also low-tech devices. High-tech, graphic, software-based organizers also can be used to accomplish organization of thoughts. Graphic organizers provide students with the means to reconfigure brainstormed ideas and color code and group them in ways that visually represent their thoughts. Color-coded text options and outline capabilities in some word-processing programs are useful to students who have difficulty sorting and sequencing thoughts and ideas (

DO-IT, 2002

). Another high-tech device is the outline function of word-processing software that allows students to set out major ideas or topics and then add subcategories of information.

Note Taking.  Supplying students with copies of structured outlines in which they can fill in information is one no-tech way of assisting students with note taking. Low- and hightech methods include videotaping class sessions; sending class notes to students via e-mail; sending Web-cam photography across the Internet in order for students to see and hear what is happening in class; translating print-based notes to voice by using optical character recognition (OCR) software with a voice synthesizer; and using notebook computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or portable word-processing keyboards to help students with the mechanics of note taking.

Writing.  Grammar and spell-checkers, dictionaries, and thesaurus programs help with the mechanics of writing. In the writing process, teachers can make suggestions about wording on students’ word-processor disks. When computers are networked, students can read each other’s work and make recommendations for revisions. Being able to customize their writing with a variety of fonts, graphics, and pictures helps with general motivation to write.

Academic Productivity.  Software- and hardware-based tools can be used to assist with academics. For example, iPods can be separate, multifunction devices or part of a computer’s software. Productivity in calculating categorizing, grouping, and predicting events can be enhanced by computer spreadsheets, databases, and graphics software. Productivity in note taking, obtaining assignments, accessing reference material, getting help from experts, and communicating with peers can be assisted via computers, the Internet, and PDAs. Today’s students are increasingly sharing documents, using instant messaging, and transferring documents to each other as e-mail attachments.

Access to Reference and General Educational Materials.  Internet communications allow students to engage in interactive learning experiences away from their present learning environment. Students can be taught to access electronic multimedia encyclopedias, library references, and online publications. Information can be made accessible to students through multimedia tools. Multimedia use of text, speech, graphics, pictures, audio, and video in reference-based software is useful in meeting individual learning styles of students (DO-IT, 2002). E-books can motivate students to read. The computer reads each story page aloud, and highlights the words as they are read. Fonts and colors can be changed. Word definitions and pronunciations of syllables can be accessed by additional clicks of the mouse. When a student clicks on a picture, labels appear, with verbal pronunciations of the labels obtained with another click of the mouse. Electronic dictionaries and thesaurus add word definitions. These books are available in multiple languages. This aspect is helpful to students who are acquiring or being exposed to a second language.

Cognitive Assistance.  Many of the assistive technologies just described can be combined with instructional programs to develop and improve cognitive skills. Students can be prompted through PDAs, pagers, and Internet software to remember assignments and important tasks or events. Students can use these to develop to-do lists, and take and retrieve notes.

Both special educators and general education teachers recognize the need to create and tailor instructional materials for students with special needs. Each person with a disability is unique. The challenge is to identify supportive AT that is most beneficial for each learner. Assistive technology is a major avenue for accomplishing this goal (

NATRI, 2006

).

FUNCTIONAL CURRICULUM

If students with mild disabilities are not anticipating pursuing a postsecondary education, a more practical, applied curriculum may be needed. A functional curriculum includes life skills and teaches them both in the classroom and in the community. When using this approach, basic academic skills are reinforced in a practical manner. For example, math could include paying bills, budgeting, and balancing a checkbook. Reading can be related to assembling appliances, cooking, or home repair. Community-based instruction takes students beyond their traditional textbooks and classroom instruction into the community where they learn skills firsthand and have the opportunity to apply those skills in real-life situations. Generally, as students with mild disabilities reach middle and high school years, their needs must be evaluated and their curriculum planned accordingly. Polloway and his colleagues (

1989

) offer the following suggestions for curriculum planning for students with learning problems:

1. Adult referenced. The content should be based on a top-down focus, reflecting curricula alternatives based on successful community adjustment rather than from an elementary-oriented focus upward.

2. Comprehensive. Curricula offered to students should include a broad range of topics: generally, a combination of academics, vocational training, social-skills development, and life-skills preparation.

3. Relevant. Students at the secondary level need meaningful programs. A student who can relate academic concepts to his or her own experiences is more apt to understand and then apply the concept.

4. Empirically and socially valid. Students must acquire skills that are valuable to them personally, appropriate for the communities in which they live, and meaningful to other members of that community.

5. Flexible. Curricula must be flexible enough to accommodate a wide variety of diverse student needs as well as the uniqueness of different community settings.

6. Community based. Much of the training should occur out of the classroom and in actual community settings to increase the probability that skills will generalize across settings and conditions.

Instead of emphasizing arithmetic problems on worksheets, a functional curriculum teaches budgeting and shopping skills. Although reading often is treated as an isolated subject, a functional curriculum would teach reading throughout the school day by using such everyday materials as newspapers, magazines, and job applications. Apprentice programs, in which high school students spend time in the community working with “mentors” in trades and business, are examples of functional programs that integrate school with on-site job training. Teachers who are successful in implementing functional curricula begin by asking the question, “What do I see this student doing 5 years from now?”

SPEEDBUMP—Because it is based on everyday experience, a functional curriculum works with students who can’t make a connection between school work and learning valuable skills.

The Adult Performance Level (APL) curriculum (

Figure 7.5

) developed at the University of Texas is an example of a functional curriculum. It contains 42 life-skills objectives organized under five major categories: consumer economics, occupational knowledge, health, community resources, and law. The program ranges from elementary to high school and includes reading, writing, speaking, problem solving, interpersonal relationships, and computation skills. Examples of tasks in reading/consumer economics for each level are as follows: elementary—look for ads in the newspaper for toys; junior high school—read an ad for a sale and find the name of the store, location, phone number, and price of the item; and high school—read and compare prices of grocery store ads. The purpose of the curriculum is to develop student competencies necessary for survival in daily life (

Patton et al., 1989

).

Everyone must ultimately function in a community setting, regardless of the level of schooling pursued or accomplished. This means that life-skills preparation is important for all students at all levels of schooling. Many students figure out skills they need as adults through experience. Students with mild disabilities do not have the ability to problem solve or learn accidentally; therefore, they need to be taught more directly and purposefully (

Brolin, 1989

; 

Kokaska & Brolin, 1985

; Patton et al., 1989).

FIGURE 7.5 APL Model of Functional Competency: Examples of Tasks (Junior High School)

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COMPREHENSIVE TEACHING

As long as teachers view direct instruction and student-centered learning as philosophical opposites, the debate about which is the best way to teach will continue indefinitely. A 10-minute slide show on the history of U.S. education would resemble a dance with strobe lights. Following every slide of students frozen in their seats listening to the instructor, there would be a slide picturing students spread around the room involved in different activities. Since the early 1900s, the educational pendulum has traced a well-worn track back and forth between direct and student-centered instruction. Teachers who are capable of integrating both approaches into their lessons on a daily basis can attend to the demands of curriculum without forsaking the developmental needs of their young charges.

Glickman (

1987

) draws a distinction between “effective” schools and “good” schools. Effective schools sponsor teacher-directed learning, narrowing the academic focus. Students are taught in large groups from prescribed instructional objectives. Reviewing, demonstration, checking for student understanding, and frequent tests are standard procedures. Glickman asks the question: Should there be more to school than Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) scores? And, if a school is effective, does that necessarily mean it’s a good school? To illustrate his point, Glickman (1987) relates the following story.

A special education teacher recently told me that she had asked her supervisor for permission to take her students on a five-minute walk to a grocery store to observe transactions at the check-out counter. The supervisor immediately asked, “Which specific objectives will this walk accomplish?” The teacher replied, “I don’t know. I simply want my students to see transactions involving real money. Besides, getting out of the classroom for a while would be fun.” Responded the supervisor, “I’m sorry. If it’s not one of our curriculum objectives, we don’t do it!” (p. 623)

Glickman’s point is well made. His concern about the overemphasis of one instructional strategy to the exclusion of others is shared by many educators and researchers. Moreover, Ronald Brandt (1990) observes that teachers have difficulty making changes in their teaching style “like so many compliant windmills on a Kansas prairie.” A more comprehensive view of instructional strategies is needed to help teachers integrate seemingly disparate teaching methods.

Harris and Pressley (1991) note that student-centered and teacher-directed strategies are false dichotomies. Students do indeed need opportunities to construct their own knowledge (i.e., student directed), but that does not obviate teacher-directed lessons. As Harris and Pressley (1991) point out, students will direct their own thinking even when exposed to direct instruction.

… children engaged in the rehearsal of mathematics operations may construct new procedural forms, such as arithmetic shortcuts, while practicing. As students develop skill and proficiency, they do not do exactly what they have been taught. This construction of personalized learning has been well recognized among (learning) strategy researchers.

Another element in the discussion of the merits of teaching methods is the uneasy hypothesis that teachers gravitate toward instructional strategies that reflect their personalities. Claudia Cornett (1983) observed that teachers tend to choose instructional strategies based on their personal educational philosophies. The research in this area is thin, but there is ample anecdotal evidence that authoritarian teachers prefer teacher-directed strategies, while student-centered strategies are preferred by teachers who have a developmental view on teaching and learning. More research in this area might produce some uncomfortable insights. While researchers labor to determine the effectiveness of specific strategies and college professors promote strategies based on their utility, it may be that teachers select instructional strategies based on conscious or unconscious personal preferences!

Strong and a small group of colleagues (1990) created a framework to integrate five different instructional strategies: ITIP (Hunter’s model of direct instruction), learning strategies, student learning styles, cooperative learning, and reading and writing in content areas. Each member of the group identified a basic operating principle that represented the core premise of an instructional strategy. They called these core principles their “declaration of interdependence.” From teacher-directed ITIP, they derived the principle that teachers’ decisions should be based on verified educational research. From the learning-strategy approach, they highlighted the need for teachers to incorporate reasoning skills in lesson designs. From the research on student learning style, they emphasized flexibility in using a range of instructional strategies. Cooperative learning underscored the social dimension of learning; that is, the sum total of learning in a small group will surpass the learning each student could accomplish working alone. Finally, from the reading and writing across the curriculum literature, they highlighted the need to appreciate the artfulness of teaching.

In order to make use of Strong’s integrative model, teachers need to understand how each system works, have knowledge of the learning characteristics of students, and have administrative support for experimentation. Any time a teacher tries something different in a classroom there is an element of risk. Change is anxiety provoking, and schools are organizations (some would say bureaucracies) that have many built-in mechanisms that resist change. Schedules must be adhered to; school norms must be followed; and principals have most of the power. In a school where teacher-directed learning is the norm, the teacher who attempts to set up student-centered activities is risking failure and ridicule. Without administrative support, teachers must struggle in isolation against the odds. Only in schools where innovation and experimentation are valued will teachers succeed in providing the best of all worlds for their students.

The notion that there is one best way to teach is naïve and limiting. Voluminous research that documents that students have different ways of learning should give any teacher reason to pause before wholeheartedly adopting one method of classroom instruction to the exclusion of others.

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COMPREHENSIVE TEACHING
As long as teachers view direct instruction and student-centered learning as philosophical opposites, the debate about which is the best way to teach will continue indefinitely. A 10-minute slide show on the history of U.S. education would resemble a dance with strobe lights. Following every slide of students frozen in their seats listening to the instructor, there would be a slide picturing students spread around the room involved in different activities. Since the early 1900s, the educational pendulum has traced a well-worn track back and forth between direct and student-centered instruction. Teachers who are capable of integrating both approaches into their lessons on a daily basis can attend to the demands of curriculum without forsaking the developmental needs of their young charges.
Glickman (1987) draws a distinction between “effective” schools and “good” schools. Effective schools sponsor teacher-directed learning, narrowing the academic focus. Students are taught in large groups from prescribed instructional objectives. Reviewing, demonstration, checking for student understanding, and frequent tests are standard procedures. Glickman asks the question: Should there be more to school than Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) scores? And, if a school is effective, does that necessarily mean it’s a good school? To illustrate his point, Glickman (1987) relates the following story.
A special education teacher recently told me that she had asked her supervisor for permission to take her students on a five-minute walk to a grocery store to observe transactions at the check-out counter. The supervisor immediately asked, “Which specific objectives will this walk accomplish?” The teacher replied, “I don’t know. I simply want my students to see transactions involving real money. Besides, getting out of the classroom for a while would be fun.” Responded the supervisor, “I’m sorry. If it’s not one of our curriculum objectives, we don’t do it!” (p. 623)
Glickman’s point is well made. His concern about the overemphasis of one instructional strategy to the exclusion of others is shared by many educators and researchers. Moreover, Ronald Brandt (1990) observes that teachers have difficulty making changes in their teaching style “like so many compliant windmills on a Kansas prairie.” A more comprehensive view of instructional strategies is needed to help teachers integrate seemingly disparate teaching methods.
Harris and Pressley (1991) note that student-centered and teacher-directed strategies are false dichotomies. Students do indeed need opportunities to construct their own knowledge (i.e., student directed), but that does not obviate teacher-directed lessons. As Harris and Pressley (1991) point out, students will direct their own thinking even when exposed to direct instruction.
… children engaged in the rehearsal of mathematics operations may construct new procedural forms, such as arithmetic shortcuts, while practicing. As students develop skill and proficiency, they do not do exactly what they have been taught. This construction of personalized learning has been well recognized among (learning) strategy researchers.
Another element in the discussion of the merits of teaching methods is the uneasy hypothesis that teachers gravitate toward instructional strategies that reflect their personalities. Claudia Cornett (1983) observed that teachers tend to choose instructional strategies based on their personal educational philosophies. The research in this area is thin, but there is ample anecdotal evidence that authoritarian teachers prefer teacher-directed strategies, while student-centered strategies are preferred by teachers who have a developmental view on teaching and learning. More research in this area might produce some uncomfortable insights. While researchers labor to determine the effectiveness of specific strategies and college professors promote strategies based on their utility, it may be that teachers select instructional strategies based on conscious or unconscious personal preferences!
Strong and a small group of colleagues (1990) created a framework to integrate five different instructional strategies: ITIP (Hunter’s model of direct instruction), learning strategies, student learning styles, cooperative learning, and reading and writing in content areas. Each member of the group identified a basic operating principle that represented the core premise of an instructional strategy. They called these core principles their “declaration of interdependence.” From teacher-directed ITIP, they derived the principle that teachers’ decisions should be based on verified educational research. From the learning-strategy approach, they highlighted the need for teachers to incorporate reasoning skills in lesson designs. From the research on student learning style, they emphasized flexibility in using a range of instructional strategies. Cooperative learning underscored the social dimension of learning; that is, the sum total of learning in a small group will surpass the learning each student could accomplish working alone. Finally, from the reading and writing across the curriculum literature, they highlighted the need to appreciate the artfulness of teaching.
In order to make use of Strong’s integrative model, teachers need to understand how each system works, have knowledge of the learning characteristics of students, and have administrative support for experimentation. Any time a teacher tries something different in a classroom there is an element of risk. Change is anxiety provoking, and schools are organizations (some would say bureaucracies) that have many built-in mechanisms that resist change. Schedules must be adhered to; school norms must be followed; and principals have most of the power. In a school where teacher-directed learning is the norm, the teacher who attempts to set up student-centered activities is risking failure and ridicule. Without administrative support, teachers must struggle in isolation against the odds. Only in schools where innovation and experimentation are valued will teachers succeed in providing the best of all worlds for their students.
The notion that there is one best way to teach is naïve and limiting. Voluminous research that documents that students have different ways of learning should give any teacher reason to pause before wholeheartedly adopting one method of classroom instruction to the exclusion of others.

CHAPTER EIGHT

INSTRUCTING STUDENTS WITH MILD DISABILITIES

ADVANCE QUESTIONS
Answer the following questions as you read this chapter:

1. How do best instructional practices for students with mild disabilities compare with those used with general classroom students?

2. What is the difference between allocated time, engaged time, and academic learning time?

3. How can teachers help students to improve organizational skills?

4. What are some instructional accommodations that might be utilized in the general education classroom to teach academic subjects like math, reading, and spelling?

5. What are some testing and grading accommodations? Why is cooperative grading productive?

6. What are appropriate guidelines for assigning homework?

7. What is curriculum-based instruction? What are curriculum-based goals and objectives? How are they used effectively?

8. What are some guidelines for writing individual education programs (IEPs)?

9. What is an educator’s tool kit? Name items that might be helpful to have when teaching students with special needs. Would these items also be used beneficially with regular classroom students?

VIGNETTE: SHIRLEY ALLEN

It was 3:00 a.m. and Shirley Allen was tossing and turning. Instead of sleeping, she was worrying about the conversation she had with Mr. Kane that afternoon. After 2 years of successful 4th-grade teaching, her principal had asked her to participate in an inclusion program beginning with the new fall term. Shirley considered all the additional responsibilities she would be taking on. Her head buzzed with questions. How could she adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of her special education students? Which best teaching practices could she utilize with both general and special education students in an inclusive classroom? What changes would she make in how she used instructional time? How about grading and homework; should she be consistent with all students or make adjustments for the special needs students?

She was going to be responsible for helping develop individual education programs (IEPs); how was she going to do that? Fortunately she had listened to old professor Moriarty’s warning at the end of her undergraduate course in mild disabilities. “Don’t sell your text back to the bookstore at the end of the semester,” he said. “Someday you are going to need it.” Well, the time had come. Shirley got up and rummaged through the cartons she had stashed in the back of her closet. After 15 frantic minutes, she found the text. She breathed a sigh of relief and slowly turned the pages—ah, so many fond memories, the yellow highlighting provided iridescent testimony to her hard-earned A in the course. She found the chapter on instructing students with mild disabilities and began reading. The guidelines for dealing with classroom organization, grading, homework, and IEPs were clear and practical. Half an hour later, she closed the book with a smile. Apprehension was replaced with excitement over the challenge of setting up her inclusion program. “I can do this,” she thought as she wearily padded back to bed and dozed off.

Many teachers have tossed and turned at night trying to figure out the solution to difficult educational problems. There is a saying, “you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.” Whatever problems faced by a teacher, he or she can be sure that others have faced similar challenges—and that others have found solutions. Within the pages of this chapter, there are many useful ideas for adjusting instruction to meet students’ individual needs. Although your immediate concern might be remembering this information for a test, don’t be shortsighted and discard this information after the course is over. Someday, like Shirley Ann, you will have a class of your own. This book and other resources such as professional organizations, the Internet, and fellow teachers are all there to lend support. So, when you think about the challenges of teaching students with mild disabilities for this course, also keep in mind that you are preparing for your future. Here are some questions to get you started.

1. Do you think Shirley Ann was overreacting to her new challenge?

2. What are some instructional practices that benefit both general education and special education students?

3. Should grading and homework assignments be the same or different for students with and without disabilities?

4. What is a teacher’s responsibility in terms of continuing professional development?

5. What is the best source of helpful ideas when trying to figure out educational problems?

BEST TEACHING PRACTICES

There is a common perception that students with mild disabilities require instructional strategies that are distinctive from effective general classroom teaching methods. This assumption is based on past practices that characterized the formative years of special education. Just as medicine is geared toward treating diagnosed disorders, past practices in special education were focused on matching an educational treatment to specific types of mild disabilities. There were special instructional approaches to learning disabilities and different approaches for students with mild intellectual disabilities. Students were placed in special education programs based on the assumption that there was something intrinsically wrong with them and that special education instruction would help remediate learning problems symptomatic of specific disabling conditions.

Although some mild disabilities, such as dyslexia, are individually derived, many mild disabilities are the result of a variety of overlapping issues. Poverty, lack of school readiness skills, dysfunctional families, disorganized classrooms, and a mismatch between instruction and learner needs all contribute to a cycle of school failure that can result in a special education placement.

Jenkins, Pious, and Peterson (1988) wanted to determine how students with mild disabilities were different from other students. The researchers analyzed differences between students identified as learning disabled and students identified as underachievers. They compared the instructional levels, learning rates, and learning styles of each group. They found more similarities than differences between the two groups of students. Students with and without disabilities had identical achievement levels. Individual students in each group demonstrated considerable overlap in learning rate and instructional level.

SPEEDBUMP—Do you remember from earlier chapters that identifying mild disabilities is a tricky business. When students are struggling in school it is difficult to be absolutely certain of the cause of the problem.

There are now two discrete sets of instructional methods: one set for use with “special” students and another set for use with “nondisabled” students. As used here, instructional methods refer to basic instructional processes, such as the development of behavioral objectives, curricular-based assessment procedures, task analysis, the arrangement of antecedents and consequences, and open education/discovery learning methods. While some methods need to be tailored to individual characteristics and needs, few, if any, can be clearly dichotomized into those applicable only for special students or only for regular students, (

Stainback & Stainback, 1984

, 103)

Best teaching practices for general education students are often best teaching practices for students with mild disabilities. The reverse has been found to be true as well. Both classroom and special education teachers have at their disposal instructional strategies to facilitate the learning of students with and without mild disabilities.

When we talk about students with mild disabilities, underachievers, and other hard-to-teach students, qualitative distinctions among groups are difficult to detect. The challenge for educators is to implement instructional strategies that can change school failure to success for all students.

Time Management

Data about time management are based primarily on research in general education classrooms. Researchers are interested in discovering how learning is influenced by teachers’ use of time. Rich and Ross (1989) found that teachers are allocated approximately 55 percent of the classroom day for instruction, but only half of that time, or 25 percent of the entire day, is utilized by students engaged in learning tasks. The researchers learned that out of an entire school day only one-fourth of the time is spent learning.

SPEEDBUMP—Does the last sentence come as a surprise?

Jacob Kounin’s (1977) research on classroom organization in elementary and secondary schools bears testimony to how time is wasted in classrooms. Kounin noted that many teaching behaviors disrupt lessons. He used such terms as thrusts, dangles, truncations, and flip-flops to describe common time wasters. Thrusts refer to intrusions in lessons. Principal announcements over the loudspeaker are an example of thrusts that interrupt lessons and make it difficult for teachers to get back on track. One inner-city school teacher was so distracted by PA announcements that his first action of the new school year was to disconnect the speaker from his classroom wall! This minor act of rebellion nearly cost him his job.

Teachers often leave a lesson in midair, for example, when a visitor comes to the classroom door. Students may be left with a perfunctory remark like “I’ll be out in the hall for a minute. Turn to 

page 36

 in your workbooks and complete the problems.” Kounin called this abrupt change a dangle. It is the rare group of students who would not take a teacher’s momentary absence as an invitation to relax and catch up on some classroom gossip. The ensuing reprimand upon the teacher’s return usually wastes more time and creates an unpleasant mood. After such an incident, teacher and students are hard-pressed to rejoin the lesson with their original enthusiasm.

Teachers flip-flop when they reverse direction in a lesson. Flip-flops may be fostered by strategically minded students who would rather hear how Mrs. Jones spent her summer vacation on Cape Cod than hear a lecture on the mollusk family. Teacher anecdotes turn into tangents and digressions, which entertain both teacher and students while instructional time is sliced into smaller pieces. When teachers flip-flop, students with mild disabilities can become confused. This confusion might be misinterpreted as a lack of attention to the lesson. The teacher who begins a lesson on multiplication of fractions and then realizes that some review in fractions is needed, may move back and forth too abruptly for students to keep track of the central ideas. Students with weak listening or attending skills will be unable to follow the teacher’s train of thought.

Truncations occur when a teacher abruptly ends a lesson and moves to something else without alerting students to the change. The conclusion of a lesson and transition to the next topic is one of the most critical parts of instructional time. Many behavior problems occur because of disorganized transitions. Dealing with classroom disruptions is a major time waster. By moving smoothly from one lesson to the next, the teacher diminishes management problems and focuses students’ attention on the next lesson.

SPEEDBUMP—Write the previous terms in your notebook and observe how many examples you encounter during a week of classes.

Kounin found that teachers who were able to maintain a group focus were most successful in using instructional time. These teachers were able to monitor the entire class without being distracted by minor incidents that could cause the entire class to become diverted, like stopping a class discussion because there is a piece of paper on the floor or because someone isn’t paying attention. Such teachers demonstrate “with-itness” and “overlapping.” They are able to work with an individual student without losing track of the rest of the group. Students describe a teacher who demonstrates “with-itness” as having “eyes in the back of her head.”

Academic Learning Time

Berliner (1988) defines academic learning time as “time engaged with materials or activities related to the outcome measure being used (e.g., an end-of-unit or achievement test), during which a student experiences a high success rate” (p. 15). When teachers evaluate students specifically on subjects in which students were engaged, academic learning time will improve. If this sounds confusing, let’s look at it from a different point of view.

Suppose a 6th-grade teacher allocates 60 minutes a day to whole-language instruction of reading. She has selected this teaching method because she gets higher student involvement. At the end of the year, the school system administers a standardized reading achievement test. There is a vocabulary section in which students are required to give the meaning of solitary words. Also included are timed reading comprehension sections, which include paragraphs of increasing complexity. The test favors students with strong phonetic skills. Her students are going to do poorly on this test because it is measuring a different set of skills than they were taught. If academic learning time is to improve, then curriculum, instruction, learning, and evaluative measures must mesh. The amount of time a student spends demonstrating a specific skill is important to school success. Teachers who are able to monitor student progress through observation, pre- and posttesting, informal testing, and student portfolios are most effective in enhancing academic learning time. This procedure is called curriculum-based assessment. (Refer to the section later in this chapter.)

Materials that are too difficult impede academic learning time. This is a particularly nettlesome problem for teachers of students with mild disabilities. What do you give a 15-year-old, street-wise, inner-city youth, who is on a 1st-grade reading level to read? How do you reteach fundamental math concepts to 18-year-olds who need manipulative materials? One solution is high-interest library books (perhaps with brown paper on the covers) for reading and functional activity lessons (measuring, check writing, grocery budgets) for mathematics. Students who have failed with the traditional basal texts are not going to improve through drill and repetition with similar materials.

To improve academic learning time, students require opportunities to practice skills in novel situations. They need to see how skills can be demonstrated and generalized to other settings. It doesn’t help to teach students to read if they never pick up a book to read for enjoyment or if they don’t know how to read the classified section of the newspaper. Berliner (1988) illustrates the interrelationship between allocated time, engaged time, and academic learning time:

If 50 minutes of reading instruction per day is allocated to a student who pays attention about one-third of the time (engaged learning) and only one-fourth of the student’s reading time is a high level of success, the student will experience only about four minutes of ALT [academic learning time]—engaged reading time at a high success level. Similarly, if 100 minutes per day is allocated [to] reading for a student who pays attention 85 percent of the time and is at a high level of success for almost two-thirds of the time, that student will experience about 52 minutes of ALT. (p. 17)

There are many reasons why students experience lesser amounts of academic learning time. Distractibility, inadequate study skills, emotional problems, disorderly classrooms, and disorganized instruction are samples of the reasons academic learning time is minimal for students (

Copple et al., 1992

; 

Kane, 1994

; 

WestEd., 2000

). Students with mild disabilities are placed in double jeopardy when they are pulled out of their classroom for special education services. Unless the resource room teacher is duplicating materials and instructional strategies utilized in the general classroom at the time of the student’s absence, academic learning time will be lost day after day, week after week, month after month. This is a strong argument for inclusion.

SPEEDBUMP—The authors sincerely hope that by this time they have debunked the myth that the best place for students with mild disabilities to catch up academically is in an alternative special education classroom.

Selecting Instructional Materials

Teachers are faced with difficult decisions about which instructional materials to select for students, especially those with mild disabilities. When given the choice, Ramsey (1988; 

1995a

) discovered that teachers most often select instructional materials with which they were trained to use and thus are more familiar to them. Materials that are more comfortable to their teaching style are more readily selected; availability also is important in their selection.

Smith (1983) maintains that the most appropriate materials for a teacher to use with students who have learning problems are those that

■ have a logical, hierarchical sequence of instructional objectives

■ are adaptable to a variety of learning styles (e.g., adventurer, ponderer, drifter)

■ cover the same objectives in multiple ways

■ pretest to determine where teaching should begin

■ have a built-in evaluation mechanism for determining mastery of instructional objectives

■ allow students to proceed at their own rate and skip objectives they have already mastered

■ have reinforcement activities

To this list, Ramsey (1995a) adds a few additional criteria for the selection of instructional materials. Readers tend to be more interested in reading stories when they see pictures and other illustrations that are representative of themselves, their friends, and their families. Identification with one’s culture, gender, and age is important. Likewise, content and vocabulary need to be at each student’s reading level.

Teacher and Student Communication

Effective teaching depends on good communication between teacher and students (

Jones & Jones, 1986

). The communication process may break down if the message cannot be heard, understood, or is misinterpreted. When any of these happen, communication exchanges are disrupted.

By using effective communication skills, a teacher has more assurance that the intended message is getting across to the students. By being a model of a good listener, a teacher can help students learn to listen and respond appropriately to others. Attention is the prerequisite to listening, followed by clarity and the ability to ask probing questions.

SPEEDBUMP—The National Association of College and Employers 

2007

 survey indicated that good communication skills is the number one attribute employers look for in college graduates. (

www.naceweb.org

)

Attention.  For some students, special techniques are employed to gain and hold their attention (

Morsink, 1984

; 

Jones & Jones, 1981

; 

Ramsey, Dixon, & Smith, 1986

; 

Stephens, 1977

). For instance, the teacher might first call the student by name when asking a question to ensure attending by that individual; conversely the teacher can ask the question before calling the name of a student to create greater interest or anticipation from members of the group. Selecting students at random to answer questions helps to keep everybody alert and listening. Enthusiasm and keeping lessons short and interactive assists in maintaining the attention of those students with attending problems. Some students may be better able to focus their attention when environmental distractions are eliminated or at least reduced and nonverbal signals can be used to draw students’ attention to the task. Attending skills can be taught through games that encourage active listening. Arranging the classroom so that all students can see the teacher helps direct attention to the appropriate location. Finally, by paying close attention when students speak, teachers become good models for attending skills.

Clarity.  Teachers can improve the clarity of their communication in many ways (

Gloeckler & Simpson, 1988

; 

Lewis & Doorlag, 1987

). One is to give clear, precise directions. Teachers can simplify verbal directions by using shorter sentences, familiar words, and relevant explanations. Asking a student to repeat directions or to demonstrate understanding of them by carrying out the instructions is an effective way of monitoring clarity of expression. In addition, clarification can be achieved by the use of concrete objects and multidimensional teaching aids, and by modeling (i.e., demonstrating) what should be done in a practice situation.

Finally, a teacher can clarify communications by using a variety of vocal inflections. The use of intonation (i.e., stresses on certain words or sounds) and juncture (i.e., spacing of words) can add clarity to a message. For example, pausing before stating key words or stressing those that convey particular meanings helps students.

In situations involving behavior and feelings, the more immediate the feedback, the more helpful it is. Disturbing situations should be discussed as they occur. For example:

Buddy’s father is a salesman and travels during the week. One Sunday evening, he told Buddy all the things that had bothered him during the weekend. His dad did not feel that Buddy had been glad to see him on Friday evening, and he thought that Buddy spent too much time with his friends instead of with him on Saturday and Sunday. Buddy felt that he was being “dumped on” and that his good traits were overlooked, so he withdrew and pouted. Communication ended and nothing was really resolved between Buddy and his dad during that encounter.

Had Buddy’s father talked with him throughout the weekend as things occurred, perhaps his feelings of being left out of his son’s life could have been assuaged. Had Buddy known how his father felt earlier, he could have reassured him by doing something special with him.

Johnson (

1972

) gives several suggestions that teachers can use when providing feedback. First, give a student only the amount of feedback that he or she can understand at that time. Overloading a student with feedback reduces chances that the feedback will be used. Second, describe what happened rather than making judgmental evaluations about the situation. For instance, “You need to be sure to pronounce clearly the words at the end of your sentences,” rather than, “You don’t make a good public speaker.” Last, give objective feedback; avoid moralizing. Do not make personal judgments about statements made by the students or their behavior. Instead, give the students descriptive feedback; for example, “Johnny, the rule says you need your pencil and paper ready to begin work,” rather than, “You always forget your notebook!”

Questions.  Berliner (1979) noted that the cognitive thinking level of the questions that teachers ask typically is low rather than high. For example, a lower-level question asks for a literal answer, such as “Who was the first astronaut?” A higher-level question requires a student to apply knowledge, analyze and synthesize information, or make evaluations and interpretations. For instance, “Why do astronauts weigh less in space than on Earth?” requires students to apply their knowledge of gravity. Both lower- and higher-level cognitive questions are relevant and are needed in classroom learning; however, teachers may need to focus on asking more higher-level questions.

Asking lower-level questions encourages student participation and builds factual knowledge. From these bases of knowledge, higher-order questions stimulate and facilitate the development of more sophisticated thinking, such as analyzing or evaluating an idea. In the long run, students achieve considerably more when their thinking is heightened and expanded.

Regardless of the level of a question, Belch (

1975

) suggests strategies for improving teachers’ questioning skills.

1. Ask questions that require more than a yes-or-no response.

2. Allow sufficient time for students to deliberate the question.

3. Reword or restate questions when students fail to respond or respond incorrectly.

4. Challenge student responses in a professional way. Avoid giving “put-downs” or other belittling responses.

5. Direct questions to all students and not just to volunteers or the brighter ones.

6. Try to sequence your questions. Encourage students to use logical thinking and build one question on another, or build one question on the answer given to a previous question.

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are specific instructional organization tools that have been used successfully with students in both regular and special education classrooms. These students have learning needs that span across a continuum, yet most are expected to learn the same content as their peers.

Many textbooks and curriculum guides provide reproducible graphic organizers; however, Baxendell (2003) states that often these contain too much information for some learners. He suggests using computer drawing programs or Inspiration 6 (a computer program for creating graphic organizers), in order to design and customize graphic organizers to meet the specific needs of students. To make a main-idea-and-detail chart, Baxendell says to identify the main idea as the central concept and place the details off center. By doing so, the students have a visual reminder of the hierarchical relationship between the concepts. The same approach is used for cause-and-effect diagrams and sequence charts. The use of arrows, lines, and numbers assists students in seeing the flow of ideas. By labeling the relationships and concepts, students can better understand and internalize particular content.

Sequence charts can be used to display the chain of events in various academic areas. Baxendell (2003) states, “We use them in reading to review the key elements in a story, in writing to organize ‘how to’ paragraphs or short stories, and in social studies to create time lines” (p. 50). Students can be assisted in visualizing steps in math multistep word problems or calculations, as well as procedures in scientific experiments. Baxendell also uses the sequence chart in pre- and post–field-trip activities. Before going on the field trip, the chart helps students to anticipate what they will be doing during the day. After returning from the field trip, students (individually, in small groups, or the class as a whole) can create their own sequence chart of what they did and learned. An essential component in student understanding of the information is to have all flow going in one direction, either from left to right or from top to bottom.

The most common of the compare-and-contrast graphic organizers is the Venn diagram. This diagram offers a visual display of the similarities and differences between two or three main ideas, and can be used across the curriculum in most subject areas. For example, in literature, Venn diagrams can be used to compare characters, stories, genres, problems, and solutions. In science, they can be used to differentiate between animal types or kingdoms, body parts, weather systems, planets, or ecosystems. Social studies, reading, writing, languages, physical education, math—the application to subject matter in all of these areas of the curriculum will be beneficial. Graphic organizers benefit all learners, especially those in inclusive classrooms, because of the wide spectrum of learner skills and needs. 

Figure 8.1

 provides examples of three types of graphic organizers: a KWHL chart, a double cell diagram, and a Venn diagram.

SPEEDBUMP—If you want to see some graphic organizers to download for your student teaching, go to 

www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer

.

FIGURE 8.1

Student Organization

Organization is important for success in the general education classroom, and students with mild disabilities often have organization problems. Particular areas in which organization assistance might be needed include: (1) keeping track of materials and assignments, (2) following directions, (3) completing class assignments, and (4) completing homework assignments.

Keeping Track of Materials and Assignments.  Roberto, a 5th grader, has a problem keeping track of his materials and homework assignments. One day, his English teacher gave him a slip of paper that excused him from that evening’s homework in her class. He had earned this waiver by receiving good grades on a specified number of prior homework assignments. When handed this paper, Roberto jammed it into one of his pants pockets. The next day, his teacher asked the students to turn in either their homework assignment or their homework waiver. Roberto suddenly realized that he had neither the excuse nor the homework.

What can be done in the classroom to help students like Roberto learn responsibility? He could keep all of his schoolwork in a large loose-leaf notebook and not in single folders that can be lost easily. Students with mild disabilities may not have the materials and supplies necessary to begin their class work. This is especially a problem when students move from one classroom to another for different subjects. These students need to be shown how to organize and plan ahead for classroom needs. One way to help students develop judgment and planning skills is to teach them strategy games like Monopoly, checkers, or chess. Mnemonic devices and lists help students organize priorities (

McCoy & Prehm, 1987

).

Following Directions.  Maria has problems following classroom directions. Invariably, Maria answers the wrong set of questions, uses the wrong type of paper, or, in some way, exhibits difficulties following directions.

Before giving directions to students like Maria, have them clear their desks of distracting objects. A cleared desk helps students to focus attention, as does maintaining eye contact while stating directions. Break directions into parts one, two, and three. Provide visual cues. For example, write key words or steps on the chalkboard or on a large chart. Ask students to restate the directions as they understand them. If directions are written, underline or circle directional words. Gloeckler and Simpson (1988) caution against giving directions to a group several times. Students may “tune out” the initial instructions because they have learned that the directions will be repeated. In addition, the instructions may be reworded the second time, and thus become confusing. Encourage students to ask for clarifications if part of the directions are missed or misunderstood.

Students sometimes experience problems in proper sequencing. To assist with this difficulty, keep the number of directions in a sequence to a minimum. Check to see if the student understands the order in which the directions were given. This can be done by listening to him or her repeat the directions in sequence (Gloeckler & Simpson, 1988).

Completing Class Assignments.  “Class, you have 10 more minutes to finish your assignment,” said Mrs. Green. Even that won’t help Janice, she thought, as she walked by the girl’s desk. Look at her paper—she hasn’t even written six math problems on it! I wish I knew what I could do to get her to finish her class assignments!

Some students, like Janice, have difficulty completing class assignments on time. Before looking for strategies that might be helpful with particular students, teachers might analyze how they are going about assigning work. First, is adequate time being given to finish assigned tasks? Not everyone works at the same pace, and some students require more time than others. Therefore, as in Janice’s case, Mrs. Green could assist her in pacing her work. After advising students of exactly how much time is being allowed, Mrs. Green could help Janice set a kitchen timer on her desk that shows her just how much time she has spent on a particular assignment, and how much time is left. Or Janice could be given an assignment sheet with two blank clocks, one for the teacher or student to fill in hands to signify time to begin and one for drawing hands to end that task. With either of these time reminders, a reward system for completed work would help reinforce student efforts.

SPEEDBUMP—Be cautious about using rewards. Used too often, rewards become a distraction for both teachers and students. For an excellent critique on the use of rewards in classrooms, see Alfie Kohn’s book, Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise and Other Bribes (1999).

Several other strategies help students with mild disabilities complete work. Students need to know exactly when assignments must be turned in. Mini-deadlines set throughout the day periodically alert students to work that is due to be turned in. Scheduling a brief free-time period before work is due allows some catch-up time if needed.

Completing Homework Assignments.  Completing homework assignments is a problem for Doug, a 4th grader. It’s not that Doug won’t do the work; he does what he can. His problem is that the homework assignments given by his teacher cover new concepts he has yet to master. Why don’t his parents help him? Well, his father is a sales representative and travels most week days. His mother works part-time as a nurse at one of the nearby hospitals. The family with whom Doug stays during the evenings while his mom works is so busy with their own activities that no help is possible there.

The tasks assigned by Doug’s teacher are in the category of new tasks, not practice tasks. Because his teacher is overlooking this basic principle, she is placing Doug in a dilemma. Students should be assigned homework that they are capable of completing successfully by themselves with parent monitoring. Tasks that are too difficult instill feelings of frustration and hopelessness in students.

Homework helps in the improvement of students’ study skills, attitudes toward school, and an awareness that learning occurs in other places than school. Other non-academic benefits include the fostering of independence and responsibility. Homework involves parents in the school process, makes them more aware of what their child is studying, and signals support of their child’s education (Cooper, 1989b).

There can be a negative side to homework. For example, too much work on the same topic leads to boredom. Homework should not deprive a youngster of recreational activities. If parents try to assist their child with homework, their use of different methods from that of the child’s teacher can cause confusion. Not understanding what or how to do a homework assignment can result in copying or cheating.

Homework too often accentuates inequities in home environments. For instance, some children do not have quiet, well-lighted places to do their homework; some do not have the necessary materials; and some, like Doug, do not have someone to answer their questions or monitor their homework.

What can be done to reap the benefits of homework, yet make sure individual student abilities and home situations are considered? First, remember that only practice tasks should be given as homework. Second, when deciding on the amount of homework, the objective is for the student to practice things learned at school; thus, too much homework, especially if practiced with errors, can be harmful.

England and Flatley (1985) encourage teachers to talk with their students when homework problems arise. They suggest that teachers ask their students whether they need help or if they are confused about a homework assignment. Legitimate reasons may preclude completing a particular homework assignment. Some homework “do’s and don’ts” listed by England and Flatley are given in 

Figure 8.2

.

FIGURE 8.2 Do’s and Don’ts of Homework

Source: England & Flatley (1985), pp. 36–37.

Coordinate homework with parents. One way to do this is to have students keep a special notebook or folder in which homework assignments are recorded. Such a log would include type of assignment, specific instructions, when it was taken home, and when it was completed. Parents might be asked to sign the page on which the day’s homework assignments are recorded. Keeping a homework log would ensure that parents know each day what their child is assigned for homework. An alternative is to ask parents to sign the actual homework papers either before they are turned in or after they have been graded and returned to the youngster. Encourage parents to reward successful completion of homework assignments.

SPEEDBUMP—Homework is everyone’s bugaboo. Make assignments more manageable for students and parents by using a website such as 

www.schoolnotes.com

.

Student Performance

Self-Esteem.  A person’s overall self-appraisal of their self-worth is called self-esteem. Teachers may have stereotyped perceptions of students with mild disabilities; likewise, expectations of these students may be less than what is expected of other students (

Coleman, 1985

; 

Siperstein & Goding, 1985

). Students often pick up on their teachers’ perceptions and develop similar negative stereotypes toward classmates with mild disabilities.

Teachers can serve as positive role models; that is, model positive behaviors toward students with mild disabilities in order to create an environment of acceptance and support. Teachers do this by conveying that they want to work with the students and by supporting efforts made by the students.

Sara and Juanita have low self-esteem due to their learning problems. Both girls are in their early teens, come from middle-class backgrounds, and are popular with their peers. Sara experiences difficulty comprehending what she has read. Even though she rereads a passage several times, she still has problems answering questions about the passage she just read. Juanita, on the other hand, has difficulty with written expression. She reads assigned subject content with ease and can tell you what she has read, but cannot write legible responses to short-answer or essay-type questions. Sara has withdrawn and become quiet in class, whereas Juanita acts belligerent and sassy.

Both of these students would benefit from successes in the areas in which they are experiencing difficulties. By following a few practical suggestions, a classroom teacher can help students such as Sara and Juanita.

First, assign tasks in which the students can succeed, and make certain that the assignments are understood so they can be carried out successfully. Point out something favorable about each student’s daily work, and praise efforts, even if progress is small. Whenever offering constructive criticism, recognize the effort that was made and explain the desired outcome rather than just calling attention to shortcomings.

Much of a youngster’s self-esteem is tied to social acceptance. Students can make contributions to class discussions by explaining a concept or discussing a topic with which they are familiar. Simulations and role-play activities help students to rehearse social responses; cooperative learning provides opportunities to learn with other students. Peer tutoring develops feelings of satisfaction in helping other persons. Grouping students with low self-esteem with classmates who have similar interests enhances social conversation so they can more easily work together on class projects. Providing time for students to share positive accomplishments with classmates and to write daily happenings in a private journal also builds self-confidence.

Encourage students to use computer-based composition so that writing more easily can be edited. Writing on the computer encourages trial, error, and practice. Mark and give credit for students’ correct and acceptable work, not just their mistakes and errors (e.g., circle or put checks by correct responses, indicate number correct with a plus symbol).

Study Skills.  Knowing how to study is essential to successful performance in school. Students with mild disabilities demonstrate poor study skills (

Polloway et al., 1989

). Many teachers are either unaware that study skills must be taught to these students or do not know how to teach these kinds of skills (

Scruggs & Mastropieri, 1986

).

SPEEDBUMP—Who hasn’t had the experience of spending an hour with a book and on closing it not being able to remember what was read. What do you recall from the last three pages you have read? The more interactive you can make your reading—like writing questions and comments in the margins—the better your recall.

R.J., a 6th grader, exemplifies this problem. During early elementary school years, R.J. had no problem reading assigned stories, doing basic math operations, and spelling weekly spelling words. Therefore, R.J.’s parents were perplexed when he began bringing home low grades in science and social studies. There was no doubt that R.J. was reading the assigned chapters in his science and social studies textbooks but he made failing test scores in these subjects. His parents and teacher discovered that R.J.’s lack of effective study skills left him ill-prepared for tests in these classes.

One way to learn if students need to improve their study skills is to ask them questions about their study habits. Stephens, Blackhurst, and Magliocca (1988) recommend using a checklist for this purpose. See 

Figure 8.3

 for the study habits checklist.

Often, students like R.J. read the pages but don’t comprehend what the written passages mean. The SQ3R method of study is effective in helping students to better comprehend what they are reading (

Cheek & Cheek, 1983

; 

Mercer & Mercer, 1985

). The SQ3R study skill teaches students to:

■ survey or scan the material: read the title, first paragraph, subheadings, last paragraph

■ develop questions: change the title and subheadings into questions

■ read the material: find answers to the questions

■ recite both the questions and answers

■ review the material: recite questions and answers daily (

Wallace & Kauffman, 1986

).

FIGURE 8.3 Study Habits Checklist

Source: Adapted from Stephens, Blackhurst, & Magliocca (1988), pp. 160–161.

The SQ3R method can be modified and used to help students better understand math problems (

Georgia Department of Education, 1989

). The student procedure is as follows:

■ survey or scan the whole problem to determine what needs to be done

■ change the math problem into a series of questions

■ determine the facts that need to be answered

■ determine processes needed to answer the facts

■ perform computation to solve the problems

■ question the answer by checking the computation

Reading comprehension is enhanced when students can relate their personal experiences to what they are reading. Because each reader’s background will vary, involve students in firsthand experiences (e.g., field trips) when possible. Another method is to stimulate students’ thinking about a topic before oral or silent reading begins (

Wilson, 1983

). Polloway and colleagues (1989) suggest having the teacher introduce a reading selection by saying, “As you read, think about what you would do if you were caught in a flood like Van is in this story” (p. 229). This helps a student personalize a story.

Active reading is encouraged when a teacher initiates a discussion related to the selection the students are about to read. For example, encourage students to comment on a passage by giving their opinions or by having students read a passage and justify or change their original opinions (Polloway et al., 1989). When students make predictions about the story and generate their own questions, their comprehension is improved.

Students with mild disabilities frequently feel overwhelmed with the amount of material they are expected to learn. The teacher can reduce the amount of written work that is presented or assigned (

Carbo, Dunn, & Dunn, 1986

; 

Schulz, Carpenter, & Turnbull, 1991

). Students can demonstrate mastery of learning material through projects (Lewis & Doorlag, 1987). For example, students can track the position of planets in relation to the sun by constructing a mobile on which Styrofoam balls representing the planets are scaled in size and distance from a sun. Projects such as these enhance interest in learning.

SPEEDBUMP—Tiny Pluto is no longer a planet. That’s probably a good thing because if you tried to do an exact scale of the distance of the Earth from Pluto by reducing the Earth to the size of a pea, Pluto would be a mile and a half away.

INSTRUCTIONAL ACCOMMODATIONS, MODIFICATIONS, AND STRATEGIES

Accommodations, modifications, and strategies are all common terms used in education today. Sometimes these terms have been used interchangeably in the literature to refer to adjustment of the facilities, curriculum, and instruction relating to the education of students with disabilities (

Price, Mayfield, McFadden, & Marsh, 2001

). Effective teachers need to know what each of these terms means so that the accommodations, modifications, and strategies can be successfully utilized with students in whatever educational setting they are being taught.

Accommodations refer to the actual teaching supports and services that the student may require to demonstrate what has been learned successfully. These include adjustments in the instruction of students, and approaches whereby the learning environment of the students is modified to promote learning. The basic curriculum is not changed. Some examples are additional time for tests, projects, and assignments; oral, open book or take home tests; reports written or given orally; taped stories; paired reading; math charts; use of manipulative objects; preferred seating; study carrel; cooperative groups; peer tutors; use of a scribe; personal note taker; study guides; written notes, outlines and instructions; taped books; audio tape or CD; use of a scribe; calculators; computers; use of a word processor; spelling and grammar assistive devices; specialized computer software; alternative ways of completing assignments; and so on (Department of Student Services, 2007; 

Special Connections, 2007a

).

Modifications refer to changes made to curriculum expectations in order to meet the needs of the student. Generally, modifications are made when the expectations are beyond the student’s level of ability. Examples are including a student in the same activity but individualizing the expectations, materials, and/or tasks.

Strategies refer to skills or techniques used to assist in learning. Strategies are individualized to suit the student’s learning style and developmental level. Examples include highlighting, rehearsal, color coding, memory joggers, visual cues, number lines, and so on.

If a student has an IEP and is receiving special education, then he or she is receiving accommodations in the general education classroom if they are needed. In addition, students served under Section 504 of Public Law 93-112 are guaranteed the same right to reasonable accommodations. Section 504 is a federal law that provides accommodations for any student with a disability, whether or not he or she is eligible for special education. Accommodations are intended to level the playing field and prevent discrimination. In either case, it was agreed by a multidisciplinary team about which accommodations are reasonable and needed for the student to succeed in the general education classroom (

Baumel, 2007

; 

Special Connections, 2007b

).

Price and colleagues (2001) state:

Accommodations may involve the use of modified instructional techniques, more flexible administrative practices, modified academic requirements, or any compensatory activity that emphasizes the use of stronger, more intact capabilities or that provides modified or alternative educational processes and/or goals. (p. 1)

Accommodations are determined on a case-by-case basis. The utilization of accommodations, modifications, and instructional strategies often are looked upon differently by general classroom teachers and special education teachers. For instance, most general education teachers are interested in teaching subject matter content while special educators are concerned with remediating underlying learning deficiencies. Elementary and secondary level teachers have competing influences on them. Regardless, best teaching practices encourage the appropriate use of accommodations, modifications, and strategies so that students reach their potential (

Price, et al., 2001

).

One type of math accommodation that often is needed is a reduced number of problems for seat work. For instance, why require Carlos, who works at a pace much slower than his classmates, to work out 20 long-division problems when he can show he knows how to do the mathematical operations by answering five of these problems correctly? And when Cathy experiences difficulties with division, why not use error analysis? That is, pinpoint what she is doing procedurally that is causing the same error to occur in several problems. When error analysis is applied, the student has only one calculation error to correct.

Questioning accommodations are useful as well. For example, the usual way that teachers give spelling tests is by pronouncing words orally and having students write them. Instead, the teacher could give students word choices that are similar and have them underline or circle the correct spelling of words from a multiple-choice format. It also is possible to use the cloze procedure in which the teacher deletes selected letters which must then be filled in by students. Similarly, the teacher can alter the instruction by having students work at learning centers and use picture directions rather than written sentences—or use a buddy system whereby one student reads the instructions, and the other performs the tasks.

Reading accommodations can be made before, during, and after students read (

Figure 8.4

). One that can be made prior to the actual reading experience is teaching textbook structure (headings, subheadings, different print, introductory and summary paragraphs). Teach students to understand how and for what reasons these items are employed. Preteaching students the vocabulary words in the context in which they will be read is another way of preparing readers before they actually read. Pair question numbers from a study guide with page numbers on which the information can be found. Use advance organizers to help students look for essential ideas as they read. These can later be used for reviewing what was read and for homework activities (CEC Staff, 1997).

FIGURE 8.4 Instructional Accommodations

Source: 

CEC Staff, 1997c

, p. 15.

Some accommodations can be made to assist readers as they actively read the story or content assigned. One way is to teach active reading. The student reads a paragraph, covers it, and recites the main point and/or important information in his or her own words. Another instructional accommodation is to tape record the text. Recorded text segments should be clear and short. Have an overview of the selection prepared so that the student can review what he or she is going to hear on the tape. Also, while taping, give the reader page numbers and summarize important information periodically.

In order to present content at secondary students’ reading and comprehension levels, a teacher might write information presented in textbooks on the blackboard or on an overhead, develop chapter outlines, code paragraphs to chapter questions, and so forth. This is done using magic markers to highlight the main idea, topic, and specific vocabulary words or letters. Another instructional accommodation is to give students a partial outline of important information, and ask them to complete it while they are reading. A review of their responses following the reading exercise is helpful in accomplishing follow-up and provides an after-reading checkup.

Accommodations Using Technology

Audio Text Recordings.

According to Boyle and colleagues (2002), many middle grade and high school students experience difficulty reading and comprehending assigned textbooks because they have poor reading skills and lack effective learning strategies. In addition, assigned textbooks often have readability levels beyond the abilities of students with mild disabilities. Secondary students must read textbooks independently, demonstrate mastery of content information, and apply previously acquired knowledge to new learning situations. Unlike elementary students, secondary students with learning disabilities and other high-incidence cognitive disabilities must “read to learn rather than just learn to read” (p. 50).

SPEEDBUMP—We advance these ideas with trepidation, knowing full well that our readers are no doubt way ahead of your middle-aged authors when it comes to the topic of electronic technology.

Audio texts have become more efficient due to the introduction of DAISY—compatible digital books, like those offered by Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. A single CD can hold up to 45 hours of recorded material, which is about the size of a standard textbook. The CD can be placed into the playback machine, the desired page number entered, and with a press of a button, the machine quickly advances to the requested page. Moreover, the speed of the reader’s voice can be adjusted to be heard more slowly or more rapidly.

E-books and Accommodations.  E-books are electronic texts containing features that can be classified as accommodations (

Cavanaugh, 2002

). An e-book comprises three different components: an e-book file, software to read the e-book, and a hardware device with which to read it, such as a computer, laptop, or handheld device. E-books can be created from common forms of electronic text with readily available programs. They also are available through online libraries and bookstores.

E-books are available in a variety of formats. Some are specific for certain computer platforms while others are cross-platform. HTML or text-based e-books can be used in standard browsers. With this format, users can adjust text styles, sizes, and colors. They also can search within the e-book, then copy and paste selected text to other programs. Other formats in which e-books are available include Adobe PDF, Rocket, Palm, MS Reader, Mobi, and eBookMan.

In contrast to school textbooks, which cannot be marked in and are somewhat heavy to transport in book bags, e-books are easier to transport, lightweight, have adjustable text sizes, can be highlighted and bookmarked, can be used with note taking, contain interactive dictionaries, and even read-aloud features. These features allow for many types of special accommodations and adaptations in order to meet the needs of students. The voice output, interactive dictionaries, and note taking are features that provide scaffolding support that many students need.

Speech-Feedback and Word-Prediction Software.  Assistive technology, especially in the form of computer software, can be a valuable tool for many students with special needs (

Williams, 2002

). Furthermore, according to Williams, word processing, speech recognition, and other types of software packages may help students with mild disabilities to participate in classroom writing programs.

One teacher focused on the results obtained with a single subject case study: a student with learning disabilities. Two components were studied: speech feedback and word prediction. The Write:OutLoud program supplied the speech-feedback component. It enabled the computer to “read” selected sections of text to students. In addition, this software highlighted each word as it was being read aloud. This component provided scaffolding support for this particular student who often could not remember what he previously had written. The Co:Writer program has word-prediction capabilities and was used for this reason. After a student typed the first letter or letters in a word, the software predicts the remainder of the word, depending on supplying a word that would be grammatically correct at this point in the sentence. This program originally was developed to limit the amount of keystrokes required for writers with physical disabilities, but offered the spelling assistance needed by this student with learning disabilities.

Test-Taking Skills

Ideas for accommodating test-taking skills include allowing extra time for testing in order for the student to be able to process what is being asked and to formulate an adequate response. Teaching students test-taking skills and strategies helps to avoid test anxiety and to build independent thinking, which allows the student to have clear thoughts about the question. When considering oral testing, essay writing, short-answer responses, multiple-choice selections, and fill-in-the-blanks, consider that students vary in their abilities to do better on different question types. Regardless of whatever type of test is selected, it is essential that clear, readable, and uncluttered test forms be developed or chosen.

If the test requires writing, perhaps a scribe might be useful if the student has difficulty making written responses. In using a scribe, the teacher is able to determine just what the student knows about the question without the response being confounded by writing difficulties. Another alternative to writing difficulties is to allow the student to take the test using a computer software program or word processor if these help to make accommodations for the student’s area of disability or weakness. It is important that the student be given opportunities to practice whatever accommodation is deemed necessary in order to best learn what the student knows about the area being tested and to avoid his or her being penalized for a disability.

Testing Accommodations

Methods for testing students with mild disabilities vary in type, structure, and level of response. Students can be asked to respond to tests and quizzes with written answers, verbal responses, or by demonstration. Learner characteristics often dictate the amount that can be tested at one sitting, the time needed for completion, and whether the testing results can best be achieved by giving group or individually administered tests. Responses should be monitored and expanded from simple recognition and recall to higher-level thinking skills, such as inference, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and appreciation.

Students with mild disabilities may have short attention spans; therefore, schedule intermittent breaks. Read test directions orally and give an example of the expected correct response. Remind students to review their tests, complete any unanswered questions, and to make corrections where needed. For students who have difficulty with traditional tests, alternatives include projects, checklists, discussions, student–teacher interviews, and student-developed portfolios designed to demonstrate student knowledge and understanding of content. Finally, giving brief, frequent tests increases students’ opportunities for success. See 

Figure 8.5

.

End-of-year standardized tests often present options for testing accommodations. Some of these include being seated separate from the class; extended time; use of a scribe; the use of a calculator or computer; and so on. If available, these accommodations are written into the directions of the test manual. School personnel can confer with parents about the appropriateness and benefit of an approved accommodation. Parents and older students need to be informed of any restrictions or limitations to the use of test scores if utilizing accommodations.

FIGURE 8.5 Testing Accommodations

Source: Henley, M. Creating successful inclusion programs: Guidelines for teachers and administrators. National Educational Service, 2004. Reprinted with permission.

Rubrics

Jackson and Larkin (2002) explain that the original definition for rubric was “marks in red,” but today a rubric refers to “a grading guideline or scoring tool to follow in assessment” (p. 40). Rubrics include predetermined criteria for evaluating student work, and provide specific descriptions of teacher expectations for an assigned task (see 

Figure 8.6

).

FIGURE 8.6 Book Report Rubric

Source: Adapted from MidLink Magazine (2005).

The following rubric benefits are stated by Jackson and Larkin (2002, 41):

■ Students know before beginning an assignment what the expectations for performance will be. The expectations may be assigned by the teachers or may be determined through class discussions.

■ Students monitor their own progress as the assignment progresses.

■ Students become aware of the quality of work through judging their own and their peers’ assignments against the standards set in the rubric.

■ Students use the rubric as a final checkpoint before turning in the assignment.

■ Students with special needs have the rubric tailored to their learning styles and specific needs.

A number of website resources provide sample rubrics. A tool that can be obtained through the website 

http://rubistar.4teachers.org

 is called Rubistar. A tutorial guides teachers and other users through the process of creating rubrics. Rubrics can be customized for oral projects, products, multimedia, science, research and writing, work skills, and math. For the 18 months during which they are saved to the website, the rubrics can be viewed or edited.

Grading

Much debate has centered around grading the performance of students with mild disabilities. Carpenter (1985) suggests using the following questions to guide grading decisions: “On what criteria are grades based? What type of medium should be used? Who should participate in the grading process? How frequently should grades be given?”

Teachers generally include class participation, seat work, tests (e.g., daily, weekly, unit), homework, and special projects in student evaluations. More than one grade could be given to reflect other student attributes, such as effort, attitude, or study skills. Marking correct answers rather than mistakes and giving number grades are other options for grading. Written comments or information can be given or can supplement number and letter grades. Points can be assigned as grades.

SPEEDBUMP—William Farish, a tutor at the University of Cambridge, invented grading in 1792. He got the idea from a factory assembly line where shoe leather was graded by quality.

A major dilemma for teachers is how to grade work that is completed on the student’s functioning level in the regular classroom, but not at his or her grade-level placement. It is generally agreed that satisfactorily performed student work should be reinforced if it is at the student’s functioning level, even though not his or her grade level. One practice is to link grades to the goals and objectives in a student’s IEP (

Brantlinger & Guskin, 1988

). A criterion-referenced skill list can be used so that specific objectives can be checked as “mastered” or “needs improvement” (Baumel, 2007; Schulz, Carpenter, & Turnbull, 1991).

Another means of assigning grades is to assign the earned grade and check “working below grade level” on the report card. Yet another way is to reward students with the grades earned but coded with actual functioning levels. For example, a 4th-grade student with mild learning disabilities earns an “A” in reading at the 2nd-grade level (the student’s actual functioning level in that subject)—thus an “A2” appears on the student’s report card as his grade in that subject.

Cograding often occurs when students with disabilities are taught in regular education classrooms. The special educator—whether working in an inclusive, consultative, or resource room setting—may make accommodations and adaptations to daily work, tests, and homework assignments. Vaughn and associates (1997) suggest that grading procedures and guidelines be discussed and agreed upon during the development of the IEP.

They also remind teachers that different grading standards may exist between elementary-and secondary-level classes. For example, whereas at the elementary level, teachers can consider students’ ability and progress, at the secondary level, grading often is done on the basis of established academic standards. Charting student progress can help illustrate student gains that might otherwise be overlooked. It may help to involve students in their own grading when possible.

Special educators are encouraged to meet with regular classroom teachers at scheduled times to discuss student progress and achievement. Meetings provide the opportunity to convey to the classroom teacher a clear description of a student’s strengths, weaknesses, capabilities, and needs. By doing so, additional data by which to determine grades are provided to the regular classroom teacher. Perhaps most important is the inclusion of the regular classroom teacher in IEP meetings and decisions. Whenever possible, engage in cooperative grading arrangements so that both regular classroom and resource room performances are evaluated. By engaging in cooperative grading arrangements, encouragement and reinforcement for effort and accomplishment is conveyed more effectively.

Curriculum-Based Assessment

Standardized assessment practices often are criticized for their lack of relevance to instruction. Assessment procedures linked to what is taught in school have reemerged as promising alternatives to standardized assessment (

Blankenship, 1985

; 

Deno, 1985

, 1986, 1989; 

Tucker, 1985

; 

Wesson, 1991

; 

Ysseldyke & Algozzine, 1982

).

Advocates of curriculum-based assessment point out the need to target evaluation procedures on content that is taught in the classroom (

Algozzine, Ruhl, & Ramsey, 1991

). Standardized achievement tests comprise a limited sample of questions that the test-makers believe reflect the classroom’s curriculum. Curriculum-based assessment is defined as “the practice of obtaining direct and frequent measures of a student’s performance on a series of sequentially arranged objectives derived from the curriculum used in the classroom” (Blankenship, 1985, 234).

SPEEDBUMP—Assessment is misused when it is viewed as an end in itself.

An illustration of curriculum-based assessment follows:

Carol, a kindergarten teacher, decided to teach her students a unit on frogs. Before beginning her lessons she asked her students a series of questions about the amphibians. She tabulated their responses. After the unit, she again quizzed her young charges. She found that they could answer 75% more questions about frogs after the unit than before. By evaluating student progress based on their ability to learn the classroom curriculum, Carol was practicing curriculum-based assessment.

Curriculum-based assessment involves repeated measurement of a student’s performance on a sequenced curriculum (

Research Brief for Teachers, 1988

). Counting and graphing are the best means of tracking student progress. For example, a teacher could ask a student to read a passage from a story that seems to match his present reading level. Each incorrectly read word is marked. A final tally reveals that the student knew two-thirds of the words in the story. This 66 percent figure provides baseline data to measure future progress. Every few days, after instruction, the student’s progress in reading again is measured. Graphing the results of each measurement provides a visual means of efficiently marking progress.

Curriculum-based data is collected “prior to instruction, immediately following instruction, and throughout the year to assess long-term retention” (Blankenship, 1985, 238).

Once a lesson has been implemented, teachers reassess. There are several reasons for reassessing a student following implementation of instruction. Reassessment occurs so that some determination can be made about the amount of progress a student has made in reaching long-range goals and short-term objectives. Reassessment also occurs so that adjustments can be made in the student’s instructional plan, or the teacher’s implementation of such, if necessary. Actually, it is important that assessment occur ongoing and accompany daily implementation of instructional programming.

Both the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) and the Reauthorization of IDEA (2004) state that general education teachers need to be able to work with all of the students in their classrooms, including those with special learning needs. It is no longer acceptable for classroom teachers to allege that they cannot teach youngsters with special needs. Knowing effective accommodations for students with special needs assures the general education teacher of a higher success level with all students. (See 

Table 8.1

.)

TABLE 8.1 Basic Elements of Effective Teaching

Lesson Introduction	Gain student attention. Review previously learned content and ensure students have the prerequisite knowledge and skills. Provide students a purpose for learning the new content.
Instruction and Modeling	Provide accurate, clear, complete, and concise instruction. Model the less objective. Ask frequent and appropriate questions. Include correct and incorrect examples.
Guided Practice	Provide all students the opportunity to demonstrate lesson objective with assistance. Monitor student performance closely. Apply appropriate error correction procedures when needed.
Independent Practice	Provide all students the opportunity to demonstrate lesson objective independently.
Closure	Review and summarize.

Source: Prater (2003), pp. 58–64.

THE EDUCATOR’S TOOL KIT

Many professionals carry tool kits. Carpenters and repair persons have a collection of tools that enable them to perform carpentry and various types of repair work. Lawyers and business people carry their tools of trade in an attaché case. Physicians used to carry a medicine bag when making house calls. We used the tools that mechanics carry in an earlier example when discussing integrative teaching.

Some professors encourage students in methods for learners with mild disabilities courses to construct an educational kit. Many special education teachers go into the regular education classroom to teach students with special learning needs. Others travel from school to school or from room to room in order to teach these students; still others remain in a resource or self-contained classroom of their own. The tools each teacher-in-training makes and places into this kit help that person to be ready with accessible “tools of the trade” to teach students with mild disabilities. The curriculum with which these tools are used includes mathematics, reading, spelling, and social skills. With the tools assembled, teachers are equipped and prepared to provide meaningful learning experiences for each of their students.

Each educational tool kit contains:

Reading

1. A scope-and-sequence or skills hierarchy. (Enables teachers to see where students are functioning on the overall reading skills hierarchy. This is helpful in developing IEPs and in performing other educational planning and programming.)

2. A set of basic sight words (e.g., Dolch word list, survival words). (Useful in building student repertoires in basic word lists. These lists of words contain the words most frequently found in basal readers.)

3. A teacher-made game board. (Provides practice and reinforcement for many reading skills [e.g., long- and short-vowel sounds; initial, medial, and final consonant sounds; consonant blends; word meanings; etc.]).

Mathematics

1. A scope-and-sequence or hierarchy of skills. (Enables teachers to see where students are functioning on the overall math skills hierarchy. The overview is useful when developing IEPs and designing individual plans and programs.)

2. Teacher-made number lines, multiplication table charts (wall or student desk size), and an abacus. (All provide hands-on manipulative materials that help students to learn math in a concrete and meaningful manner. Number lines are useful in acquiring knowledge of math operations [addition, subtraction, multiplication, division], multiplication charts provide visual repetition of math facts that leads to mastery. An abacus is essential when learning borrowing and carrying in subtraction and addition, and regrouping in multiplication and division.)

3. A teacher-made game board. (Provides practice and reinforcement for many math skills [e.g., math facts, math operations, fractions, geometric shapes, decimals, solving word problems, and so on]).

Social Skills

1. A set of classroom rules, few in number and positively directed (wall or student desk size). (Involves students in the development of rules and classroom structure.) The fewer the number, the more likely students will remember and follow them. The positive direction in which they are written enables reinforcement and instills a positive classroom atmosphere.

2. A teacher-made social skills activity. (Encourages role play or simulation opportunities for practicing and reinforcing many social skills.)

3. A teacher-made game board. (Provides practice and reinforcement for many social interaction skills.)

The construction of tools encourages teachers to accommodate students’ learning needs. Commercially made materials will not always provide the means for teaching a particular skill to a student; therefore, some teaching aids will need to be tailored and adapted to accommodate special learning or behavioral needs of many students. This activity prepares teachers to have educational tools ready for use with students. It also requires teachers to give thought beforehand about the instruction they will be conducting with their students.

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SUMMARY

Effective teachers are able to use a variety of instructional accommodations, modifications, and strategies. In recent years, teachers of inclusive classroom have found that instruction of both general classroom students and special needs students is enhanced when best teaching practices are utilized. Instructional accommodations, modifications, and strategies also enhance learning when appropriately employed. The law requires that special accommodations, when needed, be provided students with IEPs and Section 504 plans. Many of these same accommodations work well with general classroom students.

Numerous studies also have noted the importance of time management, allocated time, engaged time, and academic learning time. Effective teaching also depends on good communication between teacher and students. It is important that: (1) student attention be directed toward the instruction being given, (2) teachers be clear in their instructions and explanations, (3) teacher feedback be appropriate to the purpose, and (4) questioning skills reflect good instructional techniques.

Teachers are effective when they make appropriate accommodations during instruction. Test-taking accommodations more accurately assess what the student has learned. Cooperative grading arrangements offer more encouragement and reinforcement for student progress.

Research has addressed students who have low self-esteem, poor study skills, and weak organizational skills perhaps more than other learning problems. These difficulties can be found on a day-to-day basis within most classrooms with students who have learning disabilities, mild intellectual disabilities, and behavior disorders. These particular problems also are identifiable with low-achieving and at-risk learners, as well as other nondisabled youngsters. Practical strategies for dealing with these difficulties include affirming efforts, enabling successful experiences, and planning interventions that meet individual student needs. Direct teaching of study skills and student organizational skills aid students in maximizing their learning potential. Success in the classroom and social acceptance help students to build self-esteem. The classroom atmosphere has a significant impact on learning. Students tend to accomplish more when they have positive feelings about themselves. Curriculum-based assessment enables both the teacher and student to track academic progress.

ESE668: EVIDENCE-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS FOR STUDENTS WITH MILD TO MODERATE DISABILITIES

Instructor Guidance

Week 4

Welcome to Week Four of ESE 668: Evidence-Based Instructional Methods for Students with Mild to Moderate Disabilities.  Please be sure to review the Week Four homepage for this course to see:

· The specific learning outcomes for the week.

· The schedule overview.

· The required and recommended resources.

· The introduction to the week.

· A listing of the assessments.

Next, be sure to read this entire Instructor Guidance page.

Overview

In Week Three, you learned ways to assess instructional strategies for EBP, as well as places to find EBP strategies. In Week Four, you will continue to build upon the instructional skills used in developing effective, evidence-based IEPs by examining ways in which we support students by differentiating, modifying, and/or providing accommodation supports in individualized instruction.

Intellectual Elaboration

Accommodations and Modifications

In ESE 645, you thoroughly reviewed the purpose of accommodations and modifications for the curriculum of a student accessing special education.
Take a moment to review the definitions and differences in this short

video (Links to an external site.)

with examples.

The Differences Between Accommodations and Modifications (Links to an external site.)

 (Strom, 2013) also provides a very helpful chart if you need further review.  
It is now time for us to consider the ways in which we can determine whether accommodations and modifications are needed to support EBP instruction. Let us consider Huang. We have been evaluating Huang’s PLAAFPs and reviewing his progress and assessment data. New goals and objectives have been drafted based on those assessments. What modifications and/or accommodations might Huang need based on what we know about him? You might find some examples that are appropriate for Huang from these recommended sources:

·

Common Modifications and Accommodations (Links to an external site.)

.

·

List of Appropriate School-Based Accommodations and Interventions (Links to an external site.)

.

·

Asking the Right Questions When Deciding on Accommodations, Modifications, & Services (Links to an external site.)

.

Differentiation of Instruction

What is differentiated instruction? Differentiated instruction is the premise that we reach learners with different strengths and abilities using different instructional strategies for teaching, observing, or documenting progress and learning.

What Differentiation Is and Is Not (Links to an external site.)

Differentiation may involve scaffolding lesson development to ensure all learners in your classroom are working on goals within the lesson at their level with a teaching technique that they have responded to and made progress. Differentiated instruction is an EBP instructional method (Subban, 2006).
Your recommended resources this week include this 

article on the research basis for differentiated instruction (Links to an external site.)

, which can be supplemented by viewing this brief 
video (Links to an external site.)
 on differentiation.

Aligning Goals and Supports with Curriculum Standards

What are the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)? Watch this short three-minute 
video (Links to an external site.)
 to find out more. Each state or district will have their own defined curriculum that align with the CCSS or their own state common core standards. It is our job as special educators to align our goals and objectives and the supports provided with those curriculum standards. While there are a few states that have not yet adopted the CCSS, this initiative is still important to review.
Read more about the CCSS in these recommended resource from this week: 

Common Core Standards Initiative (Links to an external site.)

This all directly relates back to the assessment-driven instruction cycle discussed earlier in the course. Go back to Week Two to review this process. When we assess students for strengths and areas of need, we are determining skills that are present and those that are missing. Those missing prerequisite skills should be aligned to the CCSS from which they build toward in order to provide students with short term and long-term goals.  

Aligning IEP goals to common core standards (Links to an external site.)

Closing Remarks

Student success and positive long-term outcomes are the result of EBP methods that we have been discussing throughout the course and the program. Aligning goals and instructional supports are key piece in the puzzle for ensuring the scope and sequence of IEP development and curriculum standards are addressed.  

Assessment Guidance

This section includes additional specific assistance for excelling in the discussions for Week Four beyond what is given with the instructions for the assessments. If you have questions about what is expected on any assessment for Week Four, contact your instructor using the Ask Your Instructor discussion before the due date.

Discussion 1: Differentiating & Instructional Planning for IEP Goals

For this discussion you will be you will first be viewing a video on differentiation in instruction; then you will develop accommodations, modifications, and differentiation strategies for specific skills in Huang’s IEP. Remember to read the final assignment for this course, before starting on this Discussion as all work in this course lead up to the Final Assignment.

Assignment: IEP Lesson Development Using Evidence-Based Strategies

In this assignment you will be continuing to work on skills for IEP development through lesson planning that incorporates EBP strategies. You will identify one of the goals for Huang that you developed in Week Two, identify a strategy to teach it, and create a lesson plan using the template format or one you are familiar with from prior coursework.

References

Avella, F. (2016). 

Modifications vs accommodations: Difference and examples (Links to an external site.)

 [Video File]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/X6rT2_fn4u0
Booth, R. (1998). 

List of appropriate school-based accommodations and interventions (Links to an external site.)

. Retrieved from http://atto.buffalo.edu/registered/ATBasics/Foundation/Laws/AccomList

Common Core Standards Initiative (Links to an external site.)
. (2016). Retrieved from: http://www.corestandards.org/
D.C. Public Schools (2012). 

Three-minute video explaining the common core state standards (Links to an external site.)

 [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/5s0rRk9sER0
 
Great! Schools. (2016). 

Accommodations, modifications, and alternative assessments: How they affect instruction and assessment (Links to an external site.)

. Retrieved from http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/accommodations-iep/ 
Henley, M., Ramsey, R. S., & Algozzine, R. (2009). Characteristics of and strategies for teaching students with mild disabilities. 6th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Publication.
Koschmeder, C. (2012). 

What is differentiated instruction? (Links to an external site.)

 [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/YAWKxpCv1Fw
L.E.A.S.E. Coordinators. (2013). 
Aligning IEP goals to common core standards (Links to an external site.)
. Retrieved from http://www.lease-sped.org/files/Teachers/Aligning_CCSS
Strom, E. (2013). 

Common modifications and accommodations (Links to an external site.)

. Understood for Learning and Attention Issues. Retrieved from https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/treatments-approaches/educational-strategies/common-modifications-and-accommodations
Strom, E. (2013). 

The difference between accommodations and modifications (Links to an external site.)

. Understood for Learning and Attention Issues. Retrieved from https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/treatments-approaches/educational-strategies/the-difference-between-accommodations-and-modifications
Subban, P. (2006). 

Differentiated instruction: A research basis (Links to an external site.)

. International Education Journal, 7(7), 935-947. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ854351
   
Website. (n.d.). 

Decoding differentiation (Links to an external site.)

. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/decodingdifferentiation/assessment

Required Resources

Text

Henley, M., Ramsey, R. S., & Algozzine, R. F. (2009). 

Characteristics of and strategies for teaching students with mild disabilities

 (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

· Chapter 7: Learning and Teaching

Article

s

GreatSchools Staff. (2016). 

Accommodations, modifications, and alternative assessments: How they affect instruction and assessment (Links to an external site.)

. Retrieved from http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/accommodations-iep

· This web-based article provides a review of the definitions of accommodations and modifications in the classroom. This article will support your Differentiating and Instructional Planning for IEP Goals discussion and your IEP Lesson Development Using Evidence-Based Strategies assignment this week.

· Accessibility Statement does not exist.

·

Privacy Policy (Links to an external site.)

Morin, A. (n.d.). 

Common modifications and accommodations (Links to an external site.)

 in school. Retrieved from https://www.understood.org/en/learning-thinking-differences/treatments-approaches/educational-strategies/common-classroom-accommodations-and-modifications

· This web-based resource provides an overview of the definitions and examples of accommodations and modifications in the classroom. This resource will support your Differentiating and Instructional Planning for IEP Goals discussion and your IEP Lesson Development Using Evidence-Based Strategies assignment this week.

· Accessibility Statement does not exist.
· Privacy Policy (Links to an external site.)

Strom, E. (n.d.). 

The difference between accommodations and modifications (Links to an external site.)

. Retrieved from https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/treatments-approaches/educational-strategies/the-difference-between-accommodations-and-modifications

· This web-based resource provides an overview of the definitions and examples of accommodations and modifications in the classroom. This resource will support your Differentiating and Instructional Planning for IEP Goals discussion and your IEP Lesson Development Using Evidence-Based Strategies assignment this week.
· Accessibility Statement does not exist.
· Privacy Policy (Links to an external site.)

Multimedia

Koschmeder, C. [Casey Koschmeder]. (2012, June 11). 

What is differentiated instruction? (Links to an external site.)

 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/YAWKxpCv1Fw

· This four-minute video gives a brief overview of differentiated instruction. This video will support your Differentiating and Instructional Planning for IEP Goals discussion this week.

·

Accessibility Statement (Links to an external site.)

· Privacy Policy (Links to an external site.)

Web Page

Council for Exceptional Children. (2014). 

Standards for evidence-based practice in special education (Links to an external site.)

 [Report].Retrieved from http://www.cec.sped.org/~/media/Files/Standards/Evidence%20based%20Practices%20and%20Practice/CECs%20Evidence%20Based%20Practice%20Standards

· This document contains the standards for EBP in special education developed by the CEC, the professional organization of special education. Standards are set forth for the categorization of the level of evidence to support practices in special education. This document may support your Evaluating and Locating Evidence-Based Strategies discussion and your Including Evidence-Based Strategies and Supports in IEP Development assignment this week.

· Accessibility Statement does not exist.
· Privacy Policy (Links to an external site.)

Recommended Resources

Article

Subban, P. (2006). 

Differentiated instruction: A research basis (Links to an external site.)

. International Education Journal, 7(7), 935-947. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ854351

· This article provides a research-based summary on differentiation in the classroom. The article may support your Differentiating and Instructional Planning for IEP Goals discussion and your IEP Lesson Development Using Evidence-Based Strategies assignment this week.

Multimedia

DC Public Schools. (2012, November 2). 

Three-minute video explaining the common core state standards (Links to an external site.)

 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/5s0rRk9sER0

· This three-minute video explains the theory behind the development of the common core state standards (CCSS). The video may support your Differentiating and Instructional Planning for IEP Goals discussion and your IEP Lesson Development Using Evidence-Based Strategies assignment this week.

· Accessibility Statement (Links to an external site.)

·

Privacy Policy  (Links to an external site.)

Teachings in Education. (2016, August 27). 

Modifications vs accommodations: Difference and examples (Links to an external site.)

 [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/X6rT2_fn4u0

· This two-minute video summarizes the differences between modifications and accommodations, providing examples of how each relates to a student’s IEP. The video may support your Differentiating and Instructional Planning for IEP Goals discussion and your IEP Lesson Development Using Evidence-Based Strategies assignment this week.

· Accessibility Statement (Links to an external site.)

· Privacy Policy (Links to an external site.)

Website

Common Core State Standards Initiative (Links to an external site.)

. (http://www.corestandards.org)

· This website provides information about the creation of the CCSS, state-by-state standards, and detailed information on each standard. This website may support your Differentiating and Instructional Planning for IEP Goals discussion and your IEP Lesson Development Using Evidence-Based Strategies assignment this week.

· Accessibility Statement does not exist.

· Privacy Policy does not exist.

Supplemental Materials

Booth, R. C. (1998). 

List of appropriate school-based accommodations and interventions (Links to an external site.)

. Retrieved from http://atto.buffalo.edu/registered/ATBasics/Foundation/Laws/AccomList

· This resource provides a list of accommodations and interventions that might be used within the special education classroom for program development. This resource may support your Differentiating and Instructional Planning for IEP Goals discussion and your IEP Lesson Development Using Evidence-Based Strategies assignment this week.

· Accessibility Statement does not exist.
· Privacy Policy does not exist.

Kosnitsky, C. (2012, March 5). 

Writing IEPs that align to common core standards (Links to an external site.)

 [Conference handout]. Presented at Alabama Spring Outreach Conference. Retrieved from http://cloudalyst.com/rain/drops/QRTX181966GDoaNy2iuimIgjKHd0oQ/uploaded/carol%20kosnitsky%20spring%202012

· This resource provides an overview of strategies to incorporate CCSS into IEP development. This resource may support your Differentiating and Instructional Planning for IEP Goals discussion and your IEP Lesson Development Using Evidence-Based Strategies assignment this week

· Accessibility Statement does not exist.
· Privacy Policy does not exist.