Educational Services &Teaching Practices

• Continuum of Services

• Growth of Inclusion• Attitudes• Collaboration

• Steps to learning• Motivational teaching• Peer Tutoring• CAI

Including Students with Disabilities

• Why include?• Collaboration models in inclusion

– complementary: special education teacher rotates

– parallel: divided class for more personal interaction

– station: small groups on specific components

– alternative: special education reinstructs whole class

– shared: teachers share equally and instruct interchangeably

• What is needed to make inclusion work?

Related Services(with whom do we collaborate)

• Audiology• Counseling• Medical services• Occupational therapy• Orientation and mobility

services• Parent counseling and

training• Physical Therapy

• Psychological services• Recreation• Rehabilitation counseling• School health• Social Work• Speech pathology• Transportation• [Assistive tech services]

• from Rowley case (1982)

Collaboration issues• Consultation involves taking individual

responsibility for a task within the team. • Collaboration involves working together while

utilizing the talents of all personnel. • A collaborative team should include everyone

who is involved with the student regarding the particular topic.

• Competencies include but are not limited to:– understand personal perspectives of diversity– use effective communication and problem-solving

skills– understand each other’s roles (Jairrel, 1999).

Attitudes by teachers and families

• How do parents look at children with disabilities?– If the child is theirs .. – If the child is a neighbor .. – If the child is a classmate of their child ..

• How do teachers look at children with disabilities?– What factors do we “judge” children on?– Special Educators– General Educators

Steps to effective teaching practices

• What are the differences between explicit and implicit instruction? When is it appropriate to use one or the other?

• How can you apply the six steps to lesson formats to teaching new vocabulary?

Distinguishing Modifications and Accommodations

• The term “modification” is occasionally used interchangeably with the term “accommodation” (Hollenbeck, Tindal, & Almond, 1998).

• They are actually very different in concept and purpose

• A modification is considered a change in the content of the test, whereas an accommodation is considered a change in the way a test is administered.

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Modifications

• Content modifications likely change what the test measures (McDonnell et al., 1997).

• Modifications, for example, may include deleting certain items that are inappropriate for an examinee or making constructed-response questions into multiple-choice questions.

• These types of modifications are presumed to change the nature of what is being tested.

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What is an accommodation?

• Changes that can be made to the way students with disabilities are instructed and assessed.

• Accommodations can be made to instructional methods and materials, assignments and assessments, learning environment, time demands and schedules, and special communication systems.

(FL Department of Education)

• Tindal & Fuchs (2000) define accommodation as a change in presentation or response format that does not alter the construct / purpose / standard.

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Accommodations

• Testing accommodations are changes in the way a test is administered or responded to by the person tested.

• Changes are intended to offset or correct for distortions in scores that may be caused by a student’s disability (Elliott, Kratochwill, & Schulte, 1998; McDonnell et al., 1997).

• Accommodations are used to help students show what they know on assessments without being impeded by their disability. Accommodations are not intended to change the nature of the construct being measured for the examinee; rather, they are meant to make the measurement of a particular construct comparable across examinees.

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Making accommodations work

• AERA (1999) adds that when a disability warrants change in testing protocol, then accommodations may be presented. – Example is eye glasses as an accommodation on a

reading test but a modification on a driving test (Elliott, McKevit, & Kettler, 2002).

• Implementing accommodations before the testing situation will improve the student’s adaptations with the accommodations (Helwig & Tindal, 2003).

• For more on testing accommodations, go to

http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/testacc/publications/AERApaper4-2000.htm

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Potential accommodations

• Extra wait time• Procedures clarification• Minimize classroom

distractions• Homework reminders and

planners• Weekly progress report

and home checks• Increased 1:1 assistance• Peer tutoring or reciprocal

teaching• Homework from previous

week

• Classroom signals for attention

• Visual organizer• Scribe or notetaker• Guided notes• Shortened assignments• “Chunked” lesson of brief

assessed activities throughout a lesson

• Frequent praise to teach proper academic and social behaviors

Any more????

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Potential modifications

• Altered grading procedures

• Alternate but related standard during lesson

• Different reading assignments

• Different questions

• Alternate assessment content and / or expectations

• Elimination of parts of assignments if they remove a standard

• Calculator during math fluency assignment

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Modifications and Accommodations are important to the success of students with special needs in inclusive settings. Educate colleagues as to the potential of differentiating instruction to help students achieve at their optimal levels.

Question: Is the use of a calculator an accommodation?

Question: Is a sheet of formulas a modification?

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Modifications and Accommodations

• What are modifications to a teacher’s instruction?– A 3rd grade teacher assigns students to read a

passage on colonial life, answer 2 inferential questions on the passage, and write how life would be in those times. How might you modify the assignment for a student with dyslexia reading at the 1st grade level?

• What are accommodations?– The same teacher decides not to modify the

assignment but instead provide accommodations. What accommodations could be applied and how?

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Difficulties with implementation

• Helwig & Tindal (2003) teachers were no more than chance able to predict who would benefit from the read-aloud accommodation during large-scale math tests

• Fuchs, Fuchs, Eaton, et al (2000) reading questions and scenarios aloud may help children with reading difficulties. In this situation, we must consider their listening comprehension and processing

• Helwig & Tindal also found that 45% of elementary school students and 57% of middle school students were incorrectly assigned accommodations during math testing. For example, during video testing, 88% of middle school teachers stated an accommodation would not help their student when in fact, it had a significant effect.

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Who must follow section 504?

• "If something is being funded by the Federal government, shouldn't it be accessible to everyone?"

It is the stated intent of the Federal government that all of its programs and activities should be available to all citizens. Discrimination on the basis of disability is not allowed. Activities and programs provided by a Federal executive agency or anyone receiving Federal financial assistance are governed by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. (ITTATC, 2006)

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Enlarging the 504 fine print• Virtually all public school districts are covered by Section 504 because they

receive some Federal financial assistance. Most public and private colleges and universities receive some type of Federal financial assistance also.

• The main difference between Section 504 and Title II of the ADA is that one applies to the recipients of grants from the Federal government (Section 504) and the other applies only to state and local public entities (Title II).

• The law also highlights organizations that are "principally engaged in the business of providing education, health care, housing, social services, or parks and recreation."

• Each Federal agency has its own set of Section 504 regulations that apply to its own programs and to the entities that receive Federal aid from them. These regulations generally include requirements for reasonable accommodation for employees with disabilities; program accessibility; effective communication with people who have hearing or vision disabilities; and accessible new construction and alterations.

• An agency does not have to provide an accommodation that would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the agency. In determining an undue hardship, the Federal agency is required to weigh the cost and type of the accommodation against the size, budget, and nature of the agency. The agency need not make an accommodation that would require significant difficulty or expense.

Acknowledging a Disability

• Parental Conflict• “Doctor” Shopping• Defensiveness• Find the Cause• Find the Cure• Acceptance v Rejection

Conferencing with Parents

• Trust of educators varies upon parents• Meetings

– Take A L A P• Avoid barriers to communication

– Watch your educational vocabulary but still explain everything

– avoid distance– do not blame– work with parents– avoid labeling, just describe

“So you want to tutor your own child?”

• Make sessions short (20 minutes max)• Enjoy the time and make it positive• Incorporate high child involvement• Keep a running record for me to review• Reteach and support our class lesson• Warn me before you teach something new

Direct Instruction

a. show the student the processb. demonstrate how to perform the skillsc. ask the student to imitate what you dod. provide opportunities for frequent

response / reinforcement through cuese. reduce the cues as the student responds

correctly• Why do some teachers argue against DI?• Video on Reading Mastery

Motivating Students• Why is motivation important?• Why is motivation not enough to helping

students with disabilities learn?• Sprick et al (1998)

– Presentation Style• Vary tone and intensity - use humor - clarify info.

– Involve Students in the Lesson• Don’t talk too much - ask questions - mini tasks

– Ensure Student Success (while remaining challenging)

• Be flexible - Match objectives with evaluation

– Provide Immediate Feedback• Individually & to group

– Match objectives to student progress

• Interactions to engage students

Computer-Assisted Instruction

• How can laser disks help?• What is the benefit of computers in the

classroom?• What other technologies are beneficial to

students with learning disabilities?

Peer Tutoring• One student acts a tutor and one as the tutee.• Students can be same-age or cross-ages• Typically 20 minutes of tutoring and 7 minutes of

testing• Reciprocal teaching requires turn taking

between teachers and students• Classwide PT includes new materials, teacher input,

whole-class explicit instruction, active student responding, exchangeable roles, correction systems, public displays of results, and social rewards.

• http://mingus.kc.vanderbilt.edu/kennedy/pals/forums.html

Summary• When is it appropriate for a student to be

removed from the general education classroom?• When can a student be removed from the

general education curriculum?• What are some barriers to collaboration? How

can these barriers also affect inclusion?• Why does DI include active and rapid student

responses?• Why do most teachers of students with

disabilities believe in explicit instruction?• Name a difference between accommodations

and modifications.