2009 July » Special Education and Learning Differences

Why Teach Academic Standards to Students With Significant Disabilities?

Jul 312009

By Jill Haney

With the commitment by the Council of Chief State School Officers to develop Common Core State Standards in 2009, we are seeing an emphasis on helping all students be career and college-ready. As an educator and a parent of a child with autism, I watch this work with cautious optimism because of the term “all students.” How will one set of standards work for a wide range of students? Can we create standards that challenge academically gifted students while still being attainable for students with disabilities? And what, in particular, will these standards mean for students with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities, like autism?

audio_students For many years, the primary emphasis in teaching students with intellectual and developmental disabilities was on functional life skills. Because these students often struggle with the most basic academic skills, the thought was to spend the majority of classroom time on skills students would need to live and function as independently as possible. Thus, activities often focused around learning such things as “survival” words and “money” math.

However, federal legislation (including the 1997 amendment to the Individuals with Disabilities Act and No Child Left Behind) over the past decade has changed this emphasis by requiring that students with disabilities have access to the general curriculum and by establishing accountability measures for all students. In response, many states have established an alternative set of standards that echo the state’s regular academic standards while reflecting the developmental needs and varied abilities of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In publishing these alternative standards, states such as Florida, Wisconsin, Texas, and California have established that all students will be exposed to and, through appropriate instructional materials, master academic standards in language arts, math, science, and social studies.

Transition Requirements

Alongside the standards and assessment movements, however, IDEA also requires schools to establish transition plans for students. Transition services are an integral part of the student’s education plan and are designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living. Preparing students for transition to adult life does include teaching functional life skills.

Integrating Academic Standards and “Life Skills”

As a parent, I celebrate the new emphasis on academic standards for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities but I also know that “one size does not fit all,” particularly with this population. To truly meet the needs of students with significant cognitive disabilities, we need a blend of academic and functional goals. My son, who is nonverbal, needs daily living and social skills certainly but he also deserves an opportunity to learn how to read, write, add, subtract, and think.

This blend of academic and functional is exactly what my co-authors and I worked to achieve with the newly published Environmental Print Series from PCI Education. The program integrates language arts skills and standards with real-world experiences and common signs that students need to understand to function in everyday life. Standards are addressed in a controlled, developmental sequence so that they are truly attainable. Students not only learn the terms “main character,” “setting,” and “main idea,” but also are able to identify these concepts in multiple books. Life skills, such as washing hands before eating, picking up after one’s self, and wearing a seatbelt while riding in a car, are illustrated in the books and addressed in the lesson plans.

As we consider common core standards, determining the correct approach and balance for students with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities will be an essential part of ensuring that the standards are truly for “all students.” From my perspective as parent, educator, and consultant, the blended approach offers the most logical and engaging solution for my son and other students in special education classrooms across the country.

References

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990, 20 U.S.C. x1400 et seq. (1990) (amended 1997).

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004, 20 U.S.C. x611–614 (2004) (reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990).

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, 20 U.S.C. 70 x 6301 et. seq. (2002).

A Call to Action for Special Education

SPED Legislation No Responses »

Jul 312009

Like many of you, we attended the webinar presented by Mr. Tony Miller, Deputy Secretary of Education, on July 27, 2009.

While the reform priorities set forth by the Department of Education represent a significant improvement effort, we feel that a reform plan cannot be considered comprehensive unless it addresses students with special needs. Currently, the language of the priorities is ambiguous in terms of learners. We would like to see specific language addressing students with special needs written into the priorities.

We encourage everyone in the education community, (administrators, teachers and parents) to comment via the government website listed below. Suggest that the Department of Education include the following language in it’s references to students: “All students, including students with disabilities and English language learners.”

It is important for you to voice your opinion during the open comment period as outlined in the Federal Register proposed rules published July 29, 2009.

Make students with special needs a priority – submit your comment before August 29, 2009!

Submit your comments through the Federal eRulemaking Portal 
or via postal mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. We will not 
accept comments by fax or by e-mail. Please submit your comments only 
one time in order to ensure that we do not receive duplicate copies. In 
addition, please include the Docket ID and the term ``Race to the Top'' 
at the top of your comments.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 
http://www.regulations.gov to submit your comments electronically.

Special Needs: How Do You Learn?

Teaching Tips 1 Response »

Jul 272009

Engage Special Needs Students in Figuring Out Their Own Learning Style

Teaching has become as multidimensional as the world in which we live. With technology opening up so many different mediums for teaching, children with cognitive disabilities, learning differences, and developmental deficiencies have more opportunities than ever to learn basic school skills like reading, writing, and math along with communication, social and behavior skills.

Exploring what technology has to offer and modifying existing classroom practices, students with special needs or in special education can achieve academic success and be contributing members to their community. Teachers strive to help all children realize their worth and to successfully assimilate what they are capable of learning.

A positive step in that direction is engaging special ed students in figuring out their own learning style. Involving them in their personal learning process facilitates comprehension skills. When they are led to discover their personal style of learning, they build self-confidence and turn learning into a positive experience.

Make students responsible for their own learning. Allow students to set their own goals and enable them to recognize their achievements and successes. A variety of acknowledgements for each victory will build their esteem and confidence, as well as keep them motivated to learn. Struggling learners and students with learning differences or cognitive disabilities will realize they, too, can achieve academic success regardless of the challenges they face.

Let students become teachers. Allow student-initiated topics to set the stage for open forums. Encourage all students to share what they know. This process builds self-esteem and opens the door for future learning.

Make connections using real-world problems. Make students aware of the world around them. Encourage higher-order, critical thinking skills by encouraging students to brainstorm solutions to daily problems presented in the local news or available through other media sources.

Connect the past to the present. When studying an event from history, do not just tell students when and where the event occurred. Instead, initiate a research project to discover the reasons why the event occurred and what the results were. Next, connect the past to the present by studying how the event changed the world and, therefore, affects our lives today.

When students are responsible for their own learning, you are teaching them to recognize their abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. They will learn to work toward their strengths and discover new abilities in themselves to work with a weakness and still achieve their goals. Building upon those positive aspects will further mature life skills we all use and need daily.

Article Authored by Rachel Kaspar

Real-World Teaching Challenges

Teaching Tips 1 Response »

Jul 132009

Teaching to 21st Century Special Ed Students

Teachers face challenges today unmatched by past generations. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are still the basic skills taught, but far more advanced. Then add the new requirements for teaching, a myriad of guidelines of what to teach, and standardized testing teachers aren’t allowed to teach to, a very different landscape and scope of teaching has emerged. As well, teachers are also encouraged to help cultivate social skills in their students so they can be productive members of their community. These demands, coupled with the varying learning differences and emotional or behavioral needs of special needs students, can be overwhelming.

In an effort to make so many pieces a little more fluid rather than separately taught concepts, the following are suggestions for combining real-world learning with already-in-place classroom practices. These ideas connect how the subjects taught in school are relevant to everyday life skills. Perhaps these will also enable you to maximize your time-use for better efficiency and effectiveness.

Meaningful cooperative learning.

Survey what skills your students already know using this as a starting point. Cooking uses math skills. Going to a birthday party utilizes social skills, or attending family events exercises behavior skills. Making lists or sending Thank You notes uses writing skills. Every person comes to a group with a different set of experiences, skills, and opinions. Encourage students to share their personal knowledge base, which can then be built upon. Using open discussions develops communication skills and teaches peer cooperation. Students’ unique observations of their environment or researching a specific subject matter are directly relevant to nurturing critical thinking skills, which they use every day to learn at school.

Writing relevancy.

Facilitate students’ understanding that writing skills are important in almost every career and aspect of real life. Ask them how they think you would use writing to do your job and how they would use writing at home and in school. Encourage students to use writing as a sounding board for presenting their thoughts, opinions, and ideas to the world and even to their parents. Make writing fun by allowing students to share their distinct voices on a topic of their choice. For those students who struggle with the process of writing by hand, allow word processing as an alternative.

Multidisciplinary discovery process.

Help students understand how curricular areas are interconnected to each other and to their life. Point out that the subjects learned in school have a real impact on daily living as well as their history. Even if the subject matter taught in school is not relevant to a career they are considering or what their parents do, you can help them make the connection that the thought processes needed to understand each subject is related to work skills their parents use or they will use themselves one day.

Drawing real-world connections so that students understand WHY they have to learn what you are teaching will make the learning more relevant. Understanding how this is significant in-the-now could be the difference they need for academic success.

Authored by Rachel Kaspar

Reading & Writing Success in Small Steps

Teaching Tips 1 Response »

Jul 012009

Using Word Families to Build Confidence in Struggling Readers

Many struggling readers feel successful when they can apply their knowledge of words and word parts they do know to read other unknown words. Word families help students recognize unknown words by using word-structure patterns or phonograms. Short-vowel pattern families like –am, –in, or –up can especially help struggling readers gain confidence and a solid word foundation that they can carry over to writing skills and other subjects.

The following activities are designed to help those with learning differences read and write words in word families. These exercises will also reinforce comprehension and students’ confidence that they can apply this reading skill to many areas of learning.

Blending Words. Choose a word pattern to focus on. Write the word pattern, like –an, five or six times in a column on the board, leaving a blank in front of the pattern. Introduce the pattern then ask students to read the pattern. After writing letters in the spaces to make words, ask students to identify the sound the letter or letters make preceding the pattern of the first word. Say the beginning sound together and then blend it into the pattern using your finger to underline the letters as you blend the sounds together to read the word. Finally, read the word and have the students repeat the word.

Making Words in the Word Family. Choose a word pattern and word, then write the word pattern on five index cards in one color. On another set of index cards, write the beginning letter or letters for each word in a different color. Have students match the different cards to make all of the words in the word family. When all of the words have been made, ask the students read them out loud.

Finding Word Family Words. Choose a word pattern and write it on the board. Have students brainstorm a list of words that are a part of the word family and write them on the board. Then give students a newspaper, magazine, and junk mail. Ask them look through the texts and cut out words that belong in the word family. After the activity, have students share the words they found. Explain that they can read these unknown words because they can read the short-vowel pattern in the word family by sounding out the sounds of the beginning letters.

Success in small steps gives struggling readers and students with learning differences confidence in themselves and their ability to learn. This confidence builds a foundation to grow other life skills essential to becoming successful young adults.