Accommodations, Modifications, and Differentiating Instruction to Promote Student Independence

1. Accommodations, Modifications, and Differentiating Instruction to Promote Student Independence Presented by: Lori Dehart KEDC

2. Today’s AgendaReview Terms & Concepts` SDI/SAS Differentiated Instruction UDL Accommodations Modifications

3. Today’s Agenda (continued) Discuss How to Fade Accommodations • Practice • Review a case study

4. Today’s Outcome • Gain knowledge and skills to train staff how to fade accommodations

5. Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) Section 300.347 on IEP content, IDEA – There should be: “. . . a statement of the program modifications or supports for school personnel that will be provided for the child – • To advance appropriately toward attaining the annual goals; • To participate in extracurricular and other nonacademic activities; and • To be educated and participate with other children with disabilities and nondisabled children in the activities described in this section.” Section 300.342 of IDEA also states that the IEP must be in effect at the beginning of each school year so that each teacher and provider is informed of "the specific accommodations, modifications, and supports that must be provided for the child in accordance with the IEP.”

7. Implementing and Lesson Planning High Expectations Plan for all Planning for individual needs

8. High Expectations In order to participate with success in the general curriculum, students with disabilities, as appropriate, may be provided additional supports and services, such as: • Instructional supports for learning based on the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) which foster student engagement by presenting information in multiple ways and allowing for diverse avenues of action and expression • Instructional accommodations (Thompson, Morse, Sharpe & Hall, 2005) changes in materials or procedures which do not change the standards but allow students to learn within the framework of the Common Core. • Assistive technology devices and services to ensure access to the general education curriculum and the Common Core State Standards.

9. Plan For AllUniversal Design for Learning (UDL) • Provide multiple means of representation • Provide multiple means of action and expression • Provide multiple means of engagement The principles of UDL align with the purpose and intent of accommodations.

10. Plan For All UDL It does this by providing options for: • Presenting information and content in different ways (the "what" of learning) • Differentiating the ways that students can express what they know (the "how" of learning) • Stimulating interest and motivation for learning (the "why" of learning)

11. Universal Design The design of the instructional materials and activities that makes the learning goal achievable by individuals with a wide difference in their abilities to see, hear, speak, move, read, write, understand English, attend, organize, engage, and remember. • Built in, not added on! Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)

12. Differentiated Instruction Differentiated Instruction is an instructional concept that maximizes learning for ALL students—regardless of skill level or background. www.differentiatedinstruction.com

13. Teachers might believe that, if they are using differentiated instruction or Universal Design for Learning (UDL), they do not need to provide accommodations for students with disabilities.

14. Planning for Individual Needs • consideration of individual student needs in relation to the disability. • Analysis of expectations for all students will further guide the anticipated need(s) the student will have in preparation, participation, and application of skills included within the learning target for all.

15. Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) • SDI in its simplest form is “what the teacher does” to instruct, assess, and re-teach for the student to make progress in the general curriculum.

16. If instruction is required for students to benefit from a material, resource, aid, strategy or service, it should be described as specially designed instruction.

17. Supplementary Aides and Services (SAS) in its simplest form is “what the student needs” in order to • advance appropriately toward attaining their annual goal(s), • be involved and make progress in the general curriculum, • participate in extracurricular and other nonacademic activities and • be educated with non-disabled peers.

18. If the student requires specific materials, resources, aids, strategies or services to gain access to the general education curriculum, it should be described as a supplementary aid and service.

19. Differentiating SDI and SAS Keep in mind that many of the instructional strategies and supports suggested can be both the SDI and SAS

20. Instructional Strategies and Materials for Accessing the Kentucky Core Academic Standards: • Pages 33-39

21. Problems(Fuchs & Fuchs) • Accommodations not routinely provided • When they are provided, teachers do not know how to select accommodations • Most accommodations randomly selected • Accommodations not matched to student need

22. Five essential steps for selecting, administering, and evaluating accommodations

23. Five essential steps for selecting, administering, and evaluating accommodations: • Expect students to participate in assessments and achieve grade-level academic content standards. • Learn about accommodations for instruction and assessment. • Select accommodations for instruction and assessment for individual students. • Administer accommodations during instruction and assessment. • Evaluate and improve accommodation use.

24. Step 1: Expect Students to Participate in Assessment

25. Step 1: Expect Students to Participate in Assessment The law: No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) “… the participation in such assessment of all students [Sec. 1111 (3) (C) (i)]. (The term “such assessments” refers to a set of high-quality, yearly student academic assessments.) The reasonable adaptations and accommodations for students with disabilities—as defined under Section 602(3) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act—necessary to measure the academic achievement of such students relative to state academic content and state student academic achievement standards [Sec. 1111 (3) (C) (ii)].”

26. Step 2: Learn About Accommodations for Instruction and Assessment Accommodations are commonly categorized in four ways: presentation response setting timing and scheduling

27. Accommodations • Modifications Do not fundamentally alter or lower expectations or standards in instructional level, content or performance criteria. Do fundamentally alter or lower expectations or standards in instructional level, content or performance criteria. Changes are made in order to provide equal access to learning and equal opportunity to demonstrate what is known. Changes are made to provide student meaningful & productive learning experiences based on individual needs & abilities. Grading is same Grading is different Adaptations

28. Though educators often confuse the terms accommodations and modifications, the terms should not be used interchangeably.

30. Accommodations Assumptions • Allow the student to earn a valid score, not necessarily an optimal score • Produce a differential boost • A single accommodation is not valid or beneficial for all students • A student may need more than one accommodation • Testing accommodations and instructional accommodations should be similar

32. Step 3: Select Accommodations for Instruction and Assessment for Individual Students

33. Selecting Accommodations • Document Accommodations on a Student’s IEP or 504 Plan • Consider • Student characteristics • Involving students in selecting, using, and evaluating accommodations • Prior accommodations use • Accommodations for instruction vs assessment

34. Instructional Accommodations • Supports provided at the beginning of the instructional process are designed to help students’ first experience, learn, and practice a new skill. • The long term purpose of instructional accommodations or other early supports is to ultimately help the student learn to become as fluent and as independent as possible in performing that skill.

35. Instructional Accommodations • should incorporate a scaffoldedfading process that provides much more support early in the learning process as skill acquisition is just beginning.

36. For example, if a student has a certain type of visual processing difficulty, he or she may need (for some years) to use a straight edge to guide visual tracking while reading, but eventually learns to perform the actual reading task with full independence to the extent of his or her capability. At the point of testing, this student no longer has a person holding the tracking tool or reading the passage to him or her. This has become the independent responsibility of the student; yet remaining student needs for support are still being met. Independent use of the visual tracking tool has become the least intrusive accommodation for the student at this point.

37. Assessment Accommodations • When used properly, appropriate assessment accommodations remove barriers to participation in the assessment and provide students with diverse learning needs an equitable opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills.

38. Assessment Accommodations • Assessment accommodations should be those accommodations that are the least intrusive accommodations possible to meet the needs of the student while allowing the maximum level of independence possible for that student.

39. Assessment Accommodations • Assessment accommodations represent the current balance point the instructional fading process has achieved. Assessment accommodations, therefore, represent the highest point of independent skill acquisition that has been achieved with that student to date through the instructional process.

40. Assessment Accommodations Assessment accommodations do not necessarily represent the instructional end point, but they do represent a point in time that lies beyond the earliest phases of skill acquisition. Some skill independence should be seen if instruction has been effective.

41. Teams must remember to carefully consider long term independence and thoughtfully design the process of fading supports when choosing and planning instructional methods.

42. The key IS finding the right balance of supports for a given student and actively, consistently, and constructively supporting the growth of student independence.

44. Step 4: Administer Accommodations During Instruction and Assessment

45. Implement, evaluate, and adjust the adaptation. • Fade the accommodations when possible

46. Instruction • How to use and apply the accommodation to their learning • explicit (directly taught), • systematic (sequenced so that skills build on one another, not left to incidental learning), • scaffolded(supported instruction that is gradually withdrawn as students become more proficient) and • modeled (teacher models both the task/skill and the thought processes to complete the task/skill)

47. So how do you fade an accommodations? • Identify the process that will be used to fade • Identify criteria that will indicate that the accommodation can be faded (I.e., 80% accuracy over three days) • Implement the accommodation • Teach skills needed for the student to access and use the accommodation • Collect data • Use of the accommodation • Effectiveness of the accommodation • Fade the accommodation as planned

48. Fading • A strategy for BUILDING skills while fostering and teaching Independence

49. Fading is a part of learning New Skills: • Direct instruction • Support • Decreasing or eliminating the supports

50. Fading means to “gradually disappear” • We teach or are taught • We support or are supported • We fade or are able to complete the task without support • We use that newly acquired skill to build the next one