Praxis II Study Guide for Special Education

1. Praxis IIStudy Guide for Special Education 10352 Application of Core Principles Across Disabilities, 20353 Core Content Knowledge,20371 Teaching Students with Behavioral Disorders/Emotional Disturbances, and 10542 Mild to Moderate Disabilities

2. Hyperlinks In order for all hyperlinks to be active, you must choose “View Show” under Slide Show (top tool bar) and be connected to the internet. www.ovec.org is an example of a hyperlink

3. Goals and Objectives… • To review key information about special education in order to score a passing score on the Praxis. • To look at test taking approaches to assist with the successful completion of the Praxis.

4. What Do I need to Study? • To determine the Praxis assessments which are required for your certification go to the ETS website and find the corresponding test number.

5. Glossary of educational terms Preview the strategies for taking a test Test-Taking Presentation[1].ppt Resources For Your Studies

6. Step 1Choose the Praxis assessments which you are preparing to take. • 10352 Application of Core Principles Across Disabilities, • 20353 Core Content Knowledge, • 20371 Teaching Students with Behavioral Disorders/Emotional Disturbances, • 10542 Mild to Moderate Disabilities and

7. Go to the ETS website and take the sample test in each test at a glance booklet to match the assessment you are taking. Begin by taking the test and looking at the question format, the types of questions and the way the answers are explained. Answer the questions and identify the areas that you need more study. Send me an email and include the assessments you are taking, the date you are to take the Praxis, your concerns based on the sample tests and outline your study plan. Include an introduction of yourself.

8. What is included in each assessment? The breakdown of the content in each of the assessments is included next. Any underlined information will provide additional information either located on the internet or included on the CD. Topics may overlap from one assessment to another.

9. Types of multiple choice questions on the test • Complete the statement • Which of the following • Roman Numeral choices • Not, least except • Interpretation of analysis of graph, table, reading passages

10. Complete the Statement • In this type of question, you are given an incomplete statement and must select the choice that makes the completed sentence correct.

11. Which of the following? • In this type of question you will be given a limited list of responses and must choose from the list. Many more answers may correctly complete the question.

12. Roman Numeral Choices • In this type of question, there can be more than one correct answer in the list. You must analyze all the statements headed by a Roman Numeral, determine which will answer the question correctly and then select the answer that includes them. • I • II • III • IV • A. I and IV • B. II and III • C. I and III • D. III and IV

13. NOT, LEAST, EXCEPT… • In this type of question, the words NOT, LEAST, or EXCEPT are always capitalized, but they are easily and frequently overlooked. Read the questions carefully, you may be attracted to by answers that appear to be correct, but do not take into account the negative.

14. Interpretation or analysis of graph, table or reading passage. • In this type of question, data or information must be interpreted or analyzed. This may include tables and charts, and reading passages.

15. To help prepare for the Praxis • Make sure you have practiced each type of multiple choice question and know how to respond to each. • Many people find that reading the questions and looking at the answer choices immediately is the best approach for most types of questions. However, with the Roman Numeral choice, you may want to generate your own answer, before trying to choose the response that matches your answer.

16. Assignment for Credit • Write one of each type of multiple choice questions about a topic in special education that you feel the least prepared to address on the Praxis. • Email your questions and answers to me.

17. Special Education –Applications of Core Principles across Categories of Disability (10352) • The categories include • curriculum, • instruction, • assessment, • managing the learning environment • and professional roles/issues/literature. • This is a 50 items multiple choice test which allows 1 hour to complete.

18. Understanding of human development: Social and emotional Language Cognition Physical Sensory Definitions of specific disabilities Incidence and prevalence of various types of disabilities Causes and prevention of disabilities The nature of behaviors to include frequency, duration, intensity and degree of severity Understanding Exceptionalities

19. Basic Concepts in Special Education • Federal laws and legal issues related to Special Education • Public Law 94-142 • Public Law 101-476 (IDEA) • Public Law 105-17 (IDEA ’97) • Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) • Important legal issues • Rowley • Tatro • Honig • Oberti

20. Historical Movements and Trends in Special Education • Institutions and the deinstitutionalization movement • Mainstreaming and Inclusion • Transition • Advocacy organizations • ARC • CEC • LDA

21. Curriculum • How to modify and adapt the regular curriculum • How to use specialized programs and materials • Ways to address diversity in the classroom • Ways to use technology

22. Sample Information • Modification and adaptation of curriculum is usually necessary for students with special needs. Modifying instructional materials, creating study guides and helping students to find effective alternative methods of learning are just a few examples of modifying curriculum.   • Assistive technology consists of any tool or accommodation that enables children with special learning needs to be included in educational opportunities. In essence, assistive technology is a strategy that expands a student’s access to the curriculum.

23. Computer assisted instruction is a method of instruction that is effective for many children with disabilities. The graphics and sound in a computer program can help to maintain a student’s attention and increase their motivation toward learning. Many computer assisted learning programs provide immediate feedback and repetition which can enhance the learning experience for a student with disabilities. • An applied and integrated curriculum connects academic and vocational learning. • Applied Behavior Analysis is a practice of learning theory that involves understanding what leads to new skills. This approach is often effective for children who have autism

24. How to implement the IEP IEP Implementation How to select and use the appropriate strategies and methods Direct Instruction Cooperative Learning Task Analysis Applied Behavior analysis Learning styles Ways to select and implement the format and components of instruction Individualized instruction Small Group Instruction Large Group Instruction Instructional modeling Demonstrating Questioning Drill and Practice Instruction

25. How to implement instruction in specific areas • Academics • Social skills • Vocational skills • Self –care and daily living skills • Study and organizational skills • Learning strategies

26. Effective Instructional Practices Programs • Instructional Practice and Student Behavior • Instructional Practices of WRSD • Doing What Works - Proven Methods - No Child Left Behind - ED.gov • Kansas Learning Strategies • What is Quality Teaching?

27. Assessment • How to modify, construct, or select and conduct nondiscriminatory and appropriate formal and informal assessment procedures • Teachers guide to special education assessment • How to interpret standardized and specialized assessment results • How to use evaluation results for various purposes, including monitoring IEP/ITP development • How to prepare written reports and communicate findings to others

28. If a fourth grade student has a grade equivalent score of 3.0 on a reading test, he correctly answered as many questions on the test as the average beginning third grader. • Critical Issue: Integrating Assessment and Instruction in Ways That Support Learning • The standard deviation is the variability from the mean. To calculate the standard deviation, you find the difference of each score from the mean, square each difference, average the squares and then take the square root – this produces the standard deviation. • In testing or assessments, validity refers to the ability of the measurement to measure what it claims to measure. The term reliability is used to when referring to the repeatability and accuracy of a measurement.

29. Aptitude is the undeveloped potential or ability. • A discrepancy formula is used to establish a discrepancy between a student’s measured IQ and academic achievement and is used to document a SLD (Specific Learning Disability). • Curriculum based assessment is a method of increasing the importance in special education by measuring a student’s progress in the curriculum at frequent levels.

30. Behavior management, including behavior analysis- identification and definition of antecedents, target behavior, ABC Analysis and consequent events; data gathering procedures Anecdotal data Frequency Interval methods And selecting and using behavioral interventions Classroom organization/management, including providing appropriate physical-social environment for learning Classroom management and organization Expectations Rules Consequences Consistency Attitudes Lighting Seating Access and strategies for positive interactions Managing the Learning Environment

31. Transitions between lessons and activities; grouping of students; and effective and efficient documentation • Parent/teacher contacts • Legal records

32. A self-contained classroom is a special class for specific types of disabled students who spend the majority of the school day away from non-disabled students. • Structure is the consistent use of rules, limits and routines that reassures a student with learning disabilities that the environment is stable and predictable. Behavior Home Pagehttp://www.state.ky.us/agencies/behave/homepage.html

33. IDEA requires school districts to provide related services that a child needs in order to benefit from the special education program, with the exception of medical care which is not for diagnostic purposes. Related services may include speech and language pathology, audiology services, psychological services, recreation, physical and occupational therapy, early identification and assessment, counseling, rehabilitation counseling, school health services, orientation and mobility services, social work services, and/or parent counseling and training.

34. Positive reinforcement is a behavior management technique in which the addition of a stimulus after a response that makes that response more likely to recur. On the other hand, negative reinforcement is the removal of a stimulus after a response which also makes that response more likely to recur. • Response cost is a behavior management technique that consists of stating the cost for a specific misbehavior before it occurs, implementing the penalty every time the misbehavior occurs and combining this with a reward or praising plan to tech or strengthen desired behaviors. • One form of differential reinforcement is to decrease inappropriate behavior by ignoring it and providing reinforcement for positive behavior. • Approaches to Learning and Teaching.doc

35. Professional Roles, Issues, and Literature • The teachers role as a multidisciplinary team member • Ways to consult/collaborate with others, in school and outside • Ways to work with teaching assistants in the classroom • Ways to participate in transition planning • How to use professional literature and research

36. The regular education teacher’s role as a member of a multi-disciplinary team is to present subject matter and instruction in the classroom; to help develop, review and revise the student’s IEP; to determine appropriate positive behavioral interventions and strategies; to help determine supplementary aids, services and program modifications; to identify supports needed to help the student progress; and generally to maintain communication between the school and the student’s home.

37. Transition planning is part of the IEP for students after they reach the age of 16 (or earlier if deemed appropriate). Both parents/guardians and the student are included in the transition planning process. The IEP team may consist of the special education teacher, the regular classroom teacher and other support personnel and/or consultants. The superintendent would not normally be party to this process. • Section 300.506 states “Each public agency shall ensure that procedures are established and implemented to allow parties to disputes involving any matter described in Sec. 300.503 (a) (1) to resolve the disputes through a mediation process that, at a minimum, must be available whenever a hearing is requested under Secs. 300.507 or 300.520-300.528.” Specific requirements of the procedures are outlined. • Get a Life Transition guide

38. The Child Find component of IDEA requires states to identify, locate and evaluate all children with disabilities who are in need of early intervention or special education services between the ages of birth to 21. • A licensed school nurse is an important part of a special education evaluation team. They may assist in determining if a child meets the criteria for special education by providing health assessments as needed, reviewing health history and documentation of medical diagnosis and identifying mental or physical health conditions that may impact learning. Additionally, if a child is eligible for special education services, related services such as school health or nursing services may be provided as part of the IEP. • History of Special Education • Special Education Laws • CEC Code of Ethics

39. Education of Exceptional Students: Core Content Knowledge (0353) • Content Categories: • Understanding Exceptionalities • Legal and Societal Issues • Delivery of Services to Students with Disabilities • This is a 60 minute assessment with 60 multiple choice questions. This assessment is designed for examinees who plan to teach students with disabilities in preschool through grade 12. Questions may address any disability from mild to profound.

40. Understanding Exceptionalities • Human development and behavior related to students with disabilities, including • Social and emotional development and behavior • Language development and behavior • Cognition • Physical development including motor and sensory

41. Characteristics of students with disabilities, including the influence of • Cognitive factors • Affective and social adaptive factors, including cultural, linguistic, gender, and socioeconomic factors • Genetic, medical, motor, sensory, and chronological age factors • developmental disorders

42. Basic Concepts in special education, including • Definitions of all major categories and specific disabilities, including attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well as the incidence and prevalence of various types of disabilities, • The causation and prevention of disability, • The nature of behaviors, including the frequency, duration, intensity, and degree of severity, • The classification of students with disabilities, and • The influence of level of severity and presence of multiple exceptionalities on students with disabilities. • The influence of (an) exceptional condition(s) throughout an individual’s life span.

43. Legal and Societal Issues • Federal laws and legal issues related to special education including • Public Law 94-142 • Public Law 105-17 • Section 504 • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) • Important legal issues such as those raised by the following cases: • Rowley re: program appropriateness • Tatro re: related services • Honing re: discipline • Oberti re: inclusion

44. The school’s connections with the families, prospective and actual employers, and communities of students with disabilities, for example • Teacher advocacy for students and families, developing student self advocacy • Parent partnerships and roles • Public attitudes toward individuals with disabilities • Cultural and community influences toward individuals with disabilities • Interagency agreements • Cooperative nature of the transition planning process

45. Historical movements/trends affecting the connections between special education and the larger society, for example • Deinstitutionalization and community based placements • Inclusion • Application of technology • Transition • Advocacy • Accountability and meeting educational standards

46. Delivery of Services to Students with Disabilities • Background knowledge including • Conceptual approaches underlying service delivery to students with disabilities, including • Cognitive • Constructivist • Psychodynamic • Behavioral • Sociological • Ecological • Therapeutic (speech/language, physical and occupational) • Medical approaches

47. Placement and program issues such as • early intervention; • least restrictive environment; • inclusion; • role of individualized education programs (IEP) team; • due process guidelines; • categorical, non-categorical and cross- categorical programs; • continuum of educational and related services; • related services and their integration into the classroom, including roles of other professionals; • accommodations, including access to assistive technology; • transition of students into and within special education placements; • community-based training; • post-school transitions

48. Integrating best practices from multidisciplinary research and professional literature into the educational setting • Curriculum and instruction and their implication across the continuum of educational placements, including • The individualized family service plan (IFSP)/individualized education program (IEP) progress • Instructional development and implementation, for example: • Instructional activities • Curricular materials and resources • Working with classroom and support personnel • Tutoring options

49. Teaching strategies and methods, for example: • Modification of materials and equipment • Learning centers • Facilitated groups • Study skills • Groups • Self-management • Cooperative learning • Diagnostic-prescriptive method • Modeling • Skill drill • Guided practice • Concept generalization • Learning strategy instruction • Direct instruction

50. Instructional format and components, for example: • Small and large group instruction • Facilitated group strategies • Functional academic with focus on special education • ESL and limited English proficiency • Language and literacy acquisition • Self-care and daily living skills • Prevocational and vocational skills • Career development and transition issues as related to curriculum design and implementation for students with disabilities according to the criteria of ultimate functioning