Transcript Common Disabilities in Inclusive Classrooms

Documenting Student Learning
&
Specific Learning Disabilities
Objectives
By the end of this week you should:
• Understand how to document student progress in
the general education curriculum.
• Understand relevant vocabulary related to SLD.
• Be able to identify students who are at risk for
SLD.
• Understand the components of research-based
reading programs.
Key Vocabulary
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Response to Intervention
Severe discrepancy
IQ
Specific learning disability
(SLD or LD)
Dyslexia (reading,
decoding, & spelling)
Dysgraphia (writing,
handwriting)
Mnemonics (acronyms and
acrostics)
Metacognition
Self-monitoring
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Phonological Awareness
Phonemic Awareness
Orthographic Awareness
Alphabetic Principle
Comprehensive Monitoring
Strategies
Developmental arithmetic disorder
Nonverbal math disabilities
Dyscalculia (math concepts and
computation)
Curriculum-based measurement
(CBM)
What should I do when a student is
struggling in my class?
• Start a confidential file on a secure computer.
• Describe the student in a one paragraph narrative that concludes
w/ your concerns.
• Identify the student’s current levels of functional performance in
each of the following domains: academic, social,
emotional/behavioral - one paragraph overview from IST prereferral.
• Begin to create a database so that you can chart the student’s
progress over time.
• Identify and implement research-based instructional strategies.
• Build a relationship with the parents.
How should I document student learning?
• Use the academic categories from the IEP.
• Create three means of collecting evidence: 1) a
portfolio system, 2) a spread sheet with graphing
capabilities, and 3) a narrative that summarizes the
student’s performance using quantitative and
qualitative data.
REMEMBER - The purpose of this documentation is
to inform your instructional strategies and chart
student growth over time and across interventions.
Academic areas of focus
• Listening
comprehension
• Oral expression
• Basic reading skills
(alphabetic principle,
decoding, phonemic
awareness, fluency,
semantics)
• Reading
comprehension
• Basic writing skills
(handwriting, spelling,
grammar)
• Written expression
• Math computation
• Math reasoning
• Problem solving
Basic Reading Skills
• While Sara possesses strong listening comprehension
and oral expression skills, she struggles with basic
reading skills. For example, during a Pre-Primer
Subject Word List screening using the Qualitative
Reading Inventory- 4, Sara scored in the 60th
percentile or frustration level. She was unable to
automatically identify the words “children”, “other”,
“animal”, “place”, “every”, “thing”, “write”, and
“live”. Sara is often unable to read words containing
complex letter patterns (e.g., -ought, -aught). She has
difficulty decoding multi-syllabic words (i.e., two and
three syllable). When prompted she is able to use
prefixes and suffixes to determine the meaning of
unfamiliar words 50% of the time.
Sample Documentation
Using data to inform instruction
Sara’s Reading Performance
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85
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55
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Sight Words
Decoding
Fluency
Comprehension
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6
Intervention
Results of FBA for Jimbo Rucksack in multiple classes
Jimboﾕs Daily Schedule:
7:50 - 8:10
Arrive at school. Breakfast on the playground.
8:10 - 9:00
Language Arts with Ms. Janis
9:00 - 9:40
Social Studies
9:40 - 10:20
Gym or Current Events
10:20 - 11:00
Science
11:00 - 11:30
Lunch
11:30 - 11:50
Recess
s
11:50 - 12:30
Math
12:30 - 1:10
Specials (Music, Art)
1:10 - 1:40
Study Hall
1:40 - 2:20
Technology, Dram a, Community Projects
Office Referrals for September - November
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Instructional Approaches by Class
6
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thurs
Friday
Jimbo's FBA Results - 3 Observations Per
Class
5
Science
4
Social Studies
3
Language Arts
2
Math
1
25
20
Science
15
0
Social Studies
Language Arts
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Office Referrals
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Interrupting
Distracting
Threatening
Document Student Performance
• Peer edit the performance reports you
completed last week. After you are all in
agreement regarding the content, choose a
common visual format to report the
student’s progress (e.g., bar graph). Each of
you will construct a chart or graph for your
specific academic areas and create at least
one artifact to demonstrate the student’s
work.
Reading is the Primary Problem
• 12.5 million children struggle with reading - this represents
nearly 20% of all school age children (NCES, 2003).
• 80% of all children identified as SLD have primarily deficits in
reading.
• 90% of children with SLD in reading have problems with
decoding skills.
• 74% of children who are poor readers in the third grade remain
poor readers in the ninth grade.
• Reading problems occur primarily at the single word level.
• Approx 30% of children need explicit instruction in order to
become proficient decoders.
• Inaccurate decoding is the best predictor of poor reading
comprehension.
Disability Categories in Washington
• Developmentally Delayed
(age 3 - 8)
• Emotional Behavioral
Disability
• Speech or language
impairment
• Orthopedically impairment
• Other Health impaired
• Specific learning disability
• Mental retardation
• Multiple disabilities
• Hearing impairment /
Deafness
• Visually impairment /
blindness
• Deaf / blindness
• Autism
• Traumatic brain injury
Who is eligible for special education
under IDEA?
Students who demonstrate the characteristics of any
of the previous categories IF their disability
adversely effects educational performance and
requires specialized instruction
Approximately 13% of school-age children are
identified as having disabilities.
Half of the population with disabilities have SLD
(NCES, 2005).
Defining SLD
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The definition of SLD is changing (IDEA 2004)
Sometimes called the “invisible disability”
Unexpected difficulty / low performance
Inefficient processing in the area of disability
“… a disorder in one or more of the basic
psychological processes involved in understanding
or in using language, spoken or written, which
may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to
listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do
mathematical computations.”
Early Warning Signs of SLD
The following behaviors may indicate that a child has a specific
learning disability:
• Slow to learn the connection between letters and sounds
• Difficulty "sounding out" unknown words
• Repeatedly misidentifying known words
• Makes consistent reading and spelling errors including letter
reversals (b/d), inversions (m/w), transpositions (felt/left), and
substitutions (house/home)
• Transposes number sequences and confuses arithmetic signs
(+, -, x, /, =)
• Difficulty understanding or remembering what is read because
so much time and effort is spent figuring each word
Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities (1999). How children learn to read.
Retrieved September 2, 2006 from http://www.ldonline.org/article/6253
NOT SLD if
The deficit is primarily the result of:
• Hearing, visual, or motor disability
• MR (mental retardation)
• SBD (serious behavioral disorder)
• Environmental, cultural, economic
disadvantage
• LACK OF APPROPRIATE INSTRUCTION
SLD Determination
• School districts have two means to
determine if a student qualifies as having a
learning disability:
– Severe discrepancy model (Classic)
– Response to Intervention (IDEA 2004)
Lyon, R. G., Fletcher, J. M., Shaywitz, S. E., Shaywitz, B. A., Torgesson, J. K., Wood, F. B., et al. (2001). Rethinking learning disabilities. In C. E. Finn,
A. J. Rotherham, & C. R. Hokanson (Eds.), Rethinking special education for a new century (p. 270).
Mental Retardation
MR IQ cut points: 50 - 70 = mild
35 - 50 = moderate
20 - 35 = severe
Below 20 = profound
Response to Intervention (RTI)
• IDEA 2004 regulations state:
“The criteria adopted by the State [to
determine the child’s eligibility as SLD]
must permit the use of a process based on
the child’s response to scientific, researchbased intervention” Section 300.307 (a) (2)
Defining RTI
“…an assessment and intervention
process for systematically monitoring
student progress and making decisions
about the need for instructional
modifications or increasingly intensified
services using progress monitoring
data.”
The National Research Center on Learning Disabilities (NRCLD, 2006)
Seven Core Principles of RTI
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Use all available resources to teach students
Use scientific, research-based instruction
Monitor classroom performance
Conduct universal screening / benchmarking
Use a multi-tier model of service delivery
Make data-based decisions
Monitor progress frequently
Three-Tier Model of School Supports
Academic
Intensive Interventions
Individual students
Targeted assessment-based
Progress monitoring 1x per week
Strategic Interventions
Some at-risk students
High efficiency
Progress monitoring 2x per month
Core Interventions
All students
Preventative / proactive
Students benchmarked 3x per year
on core academic skills
Behavioral
Intensive Interventions
Individual students
Targeted assessment-based
Progress monitoring 1x per week
Strategic Interventions
Some at-risk students
High efficiency
Progress monitoring 2x per month
Core Interventions
All students
Preventative / proactive
Students benchmarked 3x per year
on social/behavior skills
Key Terms
• Fidelity - the extent to which the instruction
is implemented as planned.
• Universal screening (Tier I) - benchmarking
of academic, social skills, and behavior
(fall, winter, & spring).
• Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) - a
means to measure student development over
time.
Interventions
• Strategic interventions (Tier II)
– Short-term (9 - 12 weeks) interventions provided to small groups of
students (3 - 6) where remedial instruction occurs in a core academic,
social skills, or behavioral area (e.g., phonemic awareness).
– Three to four sessions per week
– 30 - 60 min. per session.
– Progress monitoring biweekly (minimum)
• Intensive interventions (Tier III) –
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Small group (3 or less) or individual instruction
May be for 12 weeks or more
Up to two 30 min sessions daily
Weekly progress monitoring (minimum)
RTI is a Problem Solving Process
• RTI is a flexible service delivery model
• Define the problem
• Analyze the cause - this requires a conceptual shift
from the problem occurring in the student to a
need for improvement educational environment
“What can we as educators do differently?”
• Develop a plan
• Implement the plan
• Evaluate the plan
What This Means to You
• Document concerns as soon as possible
• Discuss your concerns with people who know the
student
• Follow the problem solving process
• Clearly articulate each aspect of the process in
your pre-referral
• Build time into your daily schedule to provide Tier
II supports to students (not an add on)
What Students Need to Learn to Read
1. Phonological Awareness: Sensitivity to the sound structure
(rather than the meaning) of speech
2. Phonemic Awareness: The ability to deal explicitly and
segmentally with sound units smaller than the syllable (i.e.,
phonemes)
3. Alphabetic Principle: The insight that written words are
composed of letters of the alphabet that are intentionally and
conventionally related to segments of spoken words
4. Orthographic Awareness: Sensitivity to the structure of the
writing system (spelling patterns, orthographic rules, inflectional
and derivational morphology, etymology)
5. Comprehensive Monitoring Strategies: Strategies that help
students attend to and remember what they read
Foorman, B., Fletcher, J., & Francis, D. (1997). A scientific approach to reading instruction. Retrieved September 02,
2006 from http://www.ldonline.org/article/6251
Effective Reading Instruction
• Students learn to read in a certain order:
– First they must recognize that words are comprised from different
sounds
– Second they must associate sounds with written words
– Finally they must decode words and read groups of words.
• Students who struggle with reading need systemic, explicit
instruction regarding the relationships of letters, words and
sounds. (These relationships are the main tool proficient readers
use to decode unfamiliar words.)
• Each child will need a different amount of practice to become a
fluent reader.
• Phonics instruction should be based on individual student needs
and taught as part of a comprehensive, literature-based reading
program.
Principles of Research-based Reading Instruction
Children have opportunities to expand their use
and appreciation of oral language
Kindergarten and first-grade language instruction should focus on
listening, speaking, and understanding while including:
• Discussions that focus on a variety of topics, including problem
solving
• Activities that help children understand the world around them
(relevant learning activities)
• Songs, chants, and poems that are fun to sing and say
• Concept development and vocabulary-building lessons
• Games and other activities that involve talking, listening and
following directions
Texas Education Agency (1996). 12 Components of Research-Based Reading Programs.
Retrieved September 2, 2006 from http://www.readingrockets.org/articles/242
Principles of Research-based Reading Instruction
Children have opportunities to expand their use and
appreciation of printed language
• Activities that help children to understand that print represents
spoken language
• Activities that highlight the meanings, uses, and production of
print found in classroom signs, labels, notes, posters, calendars,
and directions
• Activities that teach print conventions, such as directionality
• Activities in which children practice how to handle a book-how to
turn pages, how to find the tops and bottoms of pages, and how
to tell the front and back covers (be explicit!)
• Lessons in word awareness that help children become
conscious of individual words, for example, their boundaries,
their appearance and their length
• Activities in which children practice with predictable and
patterned language stories
Principles of Research-based Reading Instruction
Children have opportunities to learn decoding strategies
Instruction should introduce "irregular" words in a reasonable sequence and
use these words in the program's reading materials. Effective decoding
instruction is explicit and systematic and can include the following:
• Practice in decoding and identifying words that contain letter-sound
relationships
• Practice activities that involve word families and rhyming patterns
• Practice activities that involve blending together the components of
sounded-out words
• "Word play" activities in which children change beginning, middle, or ending
letters of related words, thus changing the words they decode and spell
• Introduction of phonetically "irregular" words in practice activities and stories
Principles of Research-based Reading Instruction
Children have opportunities to write and relate their writing to
spelling and reading
Increasing children's awareness of spelling patterns hastens their
progress in both reading and writing. In the early grades,
spelling instruction must be coordinated with the program of
reading instruction
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Activities that are related to the words that children are reading
and writing
Proofreading activities
An emphasis on pride in correct spelling
Lessons that help children attend to spelling conventions in a
systematic way
Activities that surround children in words and make reading and
writing purpose-filled
Principles of Research-based Reading Instruction
Children have opportunities to read and comprehend a wide
assortment of books and other texts
As children develop effective decoding strategies and become
fluent readers, they must read books and other texts that are
less controlled in their vocabulary and sentence structure. They
learn to use word order (syntax) and context to interpret words
and understand their meanings
Classrooms that ensure wide reading provide the following:
• Daily time for self-selected reading
• Access to books children want to read in their classrooms and
school libraries
• Access to books that can be taken home to be read
independently or to family members
Principles of Research-based Reading Instruction
Children have opportunities to develop and comprehend new
vocabulary through wide reading and direct vocabulary instruction
Activities that promote the acquisition of vocabulary include the following:
• Wide reading of a variety of genres, both narrative and expository
• Instruction that provides explicit information both about the meanings of
words and about how they are used in the stories the children are reading
• Activities that involve children in analyzing context to figure out the
meaning of unfamiliar words in a reading passage
• Discussions of new words that occur during the course of the day, for
example in books that have been read aloud by the teacher, in content
area studies and in textbooks
• Activities that encourage children both to use words they are learning in
their own writing, and to keep records of interesting and related words
Principles of Research-based Reading Instruction
Children have opportunities to learn and apply comprehension
strategies as they reflect upon and think critically about what they
read
Comprehension strategy instruction can include the following:
• Activities that help children learn to preview selections, anticipate
content, and make connections between what they will read and what
they already know
• Instruction that provides options when understanding breaks down (for
example, rereading, asking for expert help, and looking up words)
• Guidance in helping children compare characters, events, and themes
of different stories
• Activities that encourage discussion about what is being read and how
ideas can be linked (for example, to draw conclusions and make
predictions)
• Activities that help children extend their reading experiences though
the reading of more difficult texts with the teacher
Principles of Research-based Reading Instruction
Children have opportunities to understand and manipulate the
building blocks of spoken language
Children's phonemic awareness, their understanding that spoken words can
be divided into separate sounds, is one of the best predictors of their
success in learning to read. Instruction that promotes children's
understanding and use of the building blocks of spoken language
includes the following:
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Language games that teach children to identify rhyming words and to
create rhymes on their own
• Activities that help children understand that spoken sentences are made
up of groups of separate words, that words are made up of syllables, and
that words can be broken down into separate sounds
• Auditory activities in which children manipulate the sounds of words,
separate or segment the sounds of words, blend sounds, delete sounds,
or substitute new sounds for those deleted
Principles of Research-based Reading Instruction
Children have opportunities to learn about and
manipulate the building blocks of written language
• Children must become expert users of the building blocks of
written language. Knowledge of letters (graphonemes) leads to
success with learning to read.
• This includes the use, purpose, and function of letters.
How can we do this?
• Alphabetic knowledge activities in which children learn the
names of letters and learn to identify them rapidly and
accurately
• A variety of writing activities in which children learn to print the
letters that they are learning to identify
• Writing activities in which children have the opportunity to
experiment with and manipulate letters to make words and
messages
Specific Math Disabilities
• Dyscalculia - severe difficulty learning
mathematical concepts and computation
• Developmental arithmetic disorder - significant
difficulties learning arithmetic despite average
cognitive function
• Nonverbal math disabilities - average verbal and
reading skills but extreme difficulty with math
concomitant with social immaturity,
disorientation, deficits in visual, motor, and selfhelp skills, problems estimating distance and time.
Teaching Students with SLD in Math
• Help students develop a conceptual understanding through
direct instruction, application, and authentic problem solving.
• Present concepts in multiple ways.
• Utilize concrete representational  abstract instructional
process.
• Teach mathematical language explicitly - the same way you
teach reading.
• Include written number symbols at all stages so that students
make the connection between conceptual and abstract
connections.
The Instruction Continuum
• Concrete
– Use dramatization, role-play, & three dimensional objects so that
students physically experience & visualize the concept.
– Use manipulatives to demonstrate & model the concept.
• Representational
– Use two-dimensional pictures and drawings to demonstrate the
same concept.
– Have students construct their own drawings and pictures to
demonstrate their understanding of the concept.
• Abstract
– Remove manipulatives so that students use numbers only.
– Students demonstrate memorization and fluency
Consider the Structure of the Lesson
Different concepts require different lesson
structures.
• Compare and contrast lesson- fractions,
weight, & measurement standards.
• Example vs.. nonexample lesson - shapes
(e.g., polygon).
• Step by step lesson - mathematical
operations (e.g., multiplication, division,
etc.).
Teach Mathematics as a Language
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Evaluate the students current vocabulary knowledge.
Preteach if necessary before teaching new concepts.
Use consistent terminology (e.g., times or multiplied by).
Avoid language that is above the students cognitive level until
they have mastered the concept.
• Provide students with activities that allow them to use terms
orally.
• Provide opportunities for students to explain their ideas,
reasoning, and comment on other students thoughts (e.g.,
discussion, journals, dialogue boxes).
Make Math Real
• Invite guest speakers to discuss how they
apply math concepts related to the lesson in
their jobs.
• Use authentic problems (e.g., shopping).
• Use student interests when developing
problems.
• Problem solving software.
• Video Vignettes.
Explicit Instruction
• Advanced organizers
– Provide prerequisite knowledge
– Clearly state objectives
– Provide rationale for learning the concept
• Modeling (I do)
– Step by step instructions using multiple modalities
– Verbalize your thinking as you solve the problem
– Ask students to contribute
• Guided Practice (We do)
– Students complete the task with assistance from teacher and peers.
• Independent Practice (You do)
– Should align closely with modeling
– Set high mastery criteria (e.g., 90%)
Effective Math Instruction
• Teach individual concepts explicitly
• Have students demonstrate mastery before proceeding to the next
concept
• Teach math skills in context with real world applications
• Use manipulatives
• Graphic organizers
• Model a “think aloud” problem solving approach
• Teach procedures and strategies by modeling, guiding, and
independent practice.
• Allow students additional time to complete assignments to mastery