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Instructional Accommodations. Presented by City Academy Staff Melissa Grieve ELL Coordinator, English Teacher Alex Nygaard Educational Support Services Instructor Deanna L. Taylor, M.S. Director, Educational Support Services. What are accommodations?.
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Instructional Accommodations Presented by City Academy Staff Melissa Grieve ELL Coordinator, English Teacher Alex Nygaard Educational Support Services Instructor Deanna L. Taylor, M.S. Director, Educational Support Services
“Accommodations are changes in the way a student accesses learning, without changing the actual standards a student is working toward.” ~ Sandra J. Thompson, Ph.D., Research Associate, National Center on Educational Outcomes, University of Minnesota
“A service or support that is provided to help a student fully access the subject matter and instruction as well as to demonstrate what he or she knows.” ~ Nolet and McLaughlin (2000)
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.
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)].”
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.”
Section 504 – Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) • “No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States... shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” [34 C.F.R.§104] • OCR views a "reasonable accommodation" to be one that is "effective." Effectiveness of service is measured by timeliness of delivery, accuracy of translation, and provision in an appropriate manner and medium.
Utah Core State Standards "Promoting a culture of high expectations for all students is a fundamental goal of the Common Core State Standards. 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.
What the research says: The jury is still out....mostly • Most research to date is in assessment accommodations (cf. Tindal & Fuchs, 1999) than in Instructional accommodations and assessment (although research is increasing in the latter). • Appropriate instructional accommodations (Elliott and Thurlow, 2000) and a variety of instructional approaches must be used (Kame’enui and Carnine, 1998). • For students to be successful, school personnel must have the skills, the knowledge, and the attitude to effectively carry out their responsibilities toward teaching and learning (Joyce (1990). • Accommodations must be based upon individual needs of each student as there is no prescribed set of appropriate accommodations for all (Rogan and Havir, 1993). • Selected accommodations need to be aligned with and become a consistent part of daily instruction. (not used for the first time on an assessment). Accommodations on state assessments should be those provided to students on a regular basis during classroom instruction (SASA, 2002).
Evidence-based instruction “An evidence-based best practice refers to an instructional practice with a record of success that is both trustworthy and valid. There is evidence that when this practice is used with a particular group of children, the children can be expected to make gains in reading achievement (International Reading Association, 2002a, 2002b). While we agree that there is no single best practice, we do suggest that teachers remain abreast of the current research so that they can judiciously select from evidence-based instructional practices to meet he diverse needs of their students.” ~(Best Practices in Literacy Instruction, ch. 1, Gambrell, Mally, Mazzoni, 2011)
Step 2: Learn About Accommodations for Instruction and Assessment Description of Accommodation Categories Accommodations are commonly categorized in four ways: • presentation • response • setting • timing and scheduling
Step 3: Select Accommodations for Instruction and Assessment for Individual Students
Process for Selecting Accommodations • Step 1: Identify and evaluate the demands that students are not meeting. • Step 2: Identify the features of the materials or process that need to be adapted to enable the students to meet the demand. • Step 3: Implement, evaluate, and adjust the adaptation. • Step 4: Fade the accommodations when possible(source: Lenz and Schumaker, 2003).
Metacognative Annotations to Improve Writing • Step 1: My students with Asperger’s Syndrome do not understand how to recognize what they are thinking while they are reading. • Step 2: Give these students a copy of the article with thinking stems and lines in the margin where I want them to think. • Step 3: Evaluate depth of each annotation using a rubric. • Step 4: Move from giving them thinking stems and lines to just lines to nothing. • You try it!
Step 4: Administer Accommodations During Instruction and Assessment
Outside Reading Book Projects • Bloom’s Taxonomy with student choice built in • knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation • Phase out accommodation • 1st and 2nd quarter all project options • 3rd quarter application through evaluation project options • 4th quarter analysis and evaluation essay options
Teaching Essay Structure • Color highlight another author’s essay as reference sheet • Color highlight her own rough draft essay • Rewrite essay to match
What I do in the classroom • Check in to class • Know your students. Know strengths. Know IEP. • Check in with student when appropriate • Use open ended questions to gauge understanding. “Do you understand?” “Can you tell me what you’re working on?”
Opportunities for Accommodation If a student is unable to get going you can: • Rephrase instruction. • Break instruction into steps. Give one at a time. • Write steps on note card or white board for student to refer to. • Show the student an example of how it’s done. • Have them help. • Have them do. • Offer space/time outside of classroom to work.
Identify the problem “How can I help?” “Where are you stuck?” Accommodate accordingly “Let’s read the instructions again together.” (auditory, opportunity to rephrase) “You think about how to best get started. I’ll be back in 3 minutes to see what you’ve decided.” (processing time) “Let’s cover up everything but the first step and begin there.” (one piece at a time) “Would it help to grab a drink of water? Take a little break before we start.” (de-escalation)
What I do outside of class • Check in with student during study blocks, at lunch, before and after school, etc. • Know the student. Know strengths. Know IEP. • From there: Chunk assignment Read Aloud/Rephrase Graphic Organizers Shorten Assignment Change environment • Teach/model/encourage self-advocating.
Sample: Assignment: Memorize roots, create sample sentences to show understanding, quiz to follow.
The student is visually inclined, a talented photographer, and an ELL with a SLD in reading and writing. She is easily overwhelmed when required to demonstrate understanding in writing. Use photos to create slideshow of root words, definitions, and sample sentences. Present to instructor, explaining photo choices as related to roots and vocabulary words. Previous Knowledge: Adapted Assignment:
Working With Teachers • Build relationships • Learn what works (or doesn’t) for them. • Understand essential knowledge they’re aiming toward. • Approach teachers with solutions, not problems. • You know the student. How does he/she learn? Demonstrate understanding? Share insights so the teacher is aware of accommodations being provided, and is equipped to build them into the next lesson.
Adaptations • 30 math exercises of 4 different types on one sheet overwhelmed and confused the student. • I took away the sheet. • We worked on a white-board on one problem at a time. We did all of the problems requiring addition. Then moved on to subtraction. Then multiplied. Then divided. (Jumping from one operation to another to another also confused the student, initially) • I modeled the steps for each type of problem and left them in view while he worked so he could refer back to them. • The student got a break to draw or get a drink after each cluster of problems was complete.
Keeping Track Accommodations should be noted in the student’s file and shared with the director. Data is useful (and necessary) to see how the student was served, to track what worked and what didn’t, especially when reviewing and revising IEP.
Step 5: Evaluate and Improve Accommodation Use Data, Data, and did I mention Data? (!)
“How well you teach = How well they learn.” - Anita Archer
