Accommodations and Modifications

1. Accommodations and Modifications Student Support Services Dr. Schequita Owens, Director of Support Services Cheryl Flammer, Special Education Teacher Kimberleyn Robinson, Math Specialist Sarah Smarsch, Reading Specialist

2. Why is this important? • Maximizes student achievement • Supports all learners • Creates a positive, safe learning environment • IDEA-It’s the law!

3. Accommodations and Modifications Defined Accommodations change how a student learns the material. Amodification changes what a student is taught or expected to learn.

4. For Example

5. General Modifications Assignment modifications allow a student to: • Complete fewer or different homework problems than peers • Write shorter papers • Answer fewer or different test questions • Create alternate projects or assignments Curriculum modifications allow a student to: • Learn different material (such as continuing to work on multiplication while classmates move on to fractions) • Get graded or assessed using a different standard than the one for classmates • Be excused from particular projects

6. General Accommodations • Setting accommodations allow a student to: • Work or take a test in a different setting, such as a quiet room with few distractions • Sit where he learns best (for example, near the teacher) • Use special lighting or acoustics • Take a test in small group setting • Use sensory tools such as an exercise band that can be looped around a chair’s legs (so fidgety kids can kick it and quietly get their energy out) • Timing accommodations allow a student to: • Take more time to complete a task or a test • Have extra time to process oral information and directions • Take frequent breaks, such as after completing a task

7. General Accommodations cont. • Scheduling accommodations allow a student to: • Take more time to complete a project • Take a test in several timed sessions or over several days • Take sections of a test in a different order • Take a test at a specific time of day • Organization skills accommodations allow a student to: • Use an alarm to help with time management • Mark texts with a highlighter • Have help coordinating assignments in a book or planner • Receive study skills instruction

8. ELA Accommodations • Presentation accommodations allow a student to: • Listen to audio recordings instead of reading text • Learn content from audiobooks, movies, videos and digital media instead of reading print versions • Work with fewer items per page or line and/or materials in a larger print size • Have a designated reader • Hear instructions orally • Record a lesson, instead of taking notes • Have another student share class notes with him • Be given an outline of a lesson • Use visual presentations of verbal material, such as word webs and visual organizers • Be given a written list of instructions • Response accommodations allow a student to: • Give responses in a form (oral or written) that’s easier for him or her • Dictate answers to a scribe • Capture responses on an audio recorder • Use a spelling dictionary or electronic spell-checker • Use a electronics to type notes or give responses in class

9. Math Accommodations • Avoid memory overload by assigning manageable amounts of practice work as skills are learned. • Build retention by providing review within a day or two of the initial learning of difficult skills. • Provide supervised practice to prevent students from practicing misconceptions and "misrules." • Reduce interference between concepts or applications of rules and strategies by separating practice opportunities until the discriminations between them are learned. • Make new learning meaningful by relating practice of subskills to the performance of the whole task, and by relating what the student has learned about mathematical relationships to what the student will learn next. • Reduce processing demands by preteaching component skills of algorithms and strategies. • Teach easier knowledge and skills before difficult ones. • Ensure that skills to be practiced can be completed independently with high levels of success. • Help students to visualize math problems by drawing. • Use uncluttered worksheets to avoid too much visual information. • Use rhythm or music to help students memorize. • Use distributive practice: plenty of practice in small doses. • Use interactive and intensive practice with age- appropriate games as motivational materials. • Have students track their progress; which facts they have mastered and which remain to be learned. • Challenge critical thinking about real problems with problem-solving. • Use manipulatives and technology such as tape recorders or calculators. • Give extra time for students to process any visual information in a picture, chart, or graph. • Use visual and auditory examples. • Use real-life situations that make problems functional and applicable to everyday life. • Do math problems on graph paper to keep the numbers in line. • http://achievethecore.org/coherence-map/ • http://achievethecore.org/category/774/mathematics-focus-by-grade-level

10. Supports and Allowances for ALL students • Seating where he or she learns best. • Quick breaks after finishing tasks, i.e. a walk to the water fountain. • In-class tools to reduce fidgeting. Your child could hold a squeeze ball. • A quiet area for test taking and studying. • Frequent eye contact to keep him/her engaged. • A cue to quietly keep a child on task. This could be a touch on the shoulder or a sticky note placed on the desk. • A master notebook for all subjects, to help stay organized. • A homework notebook that teacher and parents can sign off on daily. • Key points from the day’s lessons listed on the board. • Use of his own laptop computer for taking notes during class. • Class notes shared by another student. • A routine of checking in with the teacher after class to briefly discuss the lesson.

11. Differentiation and CCSS alignment • Use data to determine students’ instructional reading level • Use Vertical Progression Charts • See attachments • Expose all students to complex texts • Predict struggles during planning • Scaffold lessons • Model your thinking • Ask for help, ideas, suggestions, etc.

12. Executive Functioning Cheryl Flammer and Dr. Schequita Owens

13. Working Memory Cheryl Flammer and Dr. Schequita Owens

14. Resources • https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/treatments-approaches/educational-strategies/the-difference-between-accommodations-and-modifications Reading CCSS vertical progressions • http://www.ncesd.org/cms/lib4/WA01000834/Centricity/Domain/44/Vertical_Progressions_for_Reading.pdf • https://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/cur-ela-ccss-learning-progressions.pdf Math CCSS vertical progressions • http://achievethecore.org/coherence-map/ • http://achievethecore.org/category/774/mathematics-focus-by-grade-level