Transcript Becoming a Leader and Making Decisions

Secondary Curriculum and Transition for All Students:
Standards-Based Reform, Self-Determination, and Universal
Design for Learning
National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center
Secondary Transition State Planning Institute: Building for the Future
Michael L. Wehmeyer, Ph.D.
Professor, Special Education
Director, Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities
Senior Scientist, Beach Center on Disability
Ruth’s History
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Ruth incurred severe brain damage as a result of
encephalitis at the age of five weeks. She has
severe muscle spasms that affect her arms and
legs. She has seizures that are only partially
controlled by medication. Ruth has trouble
breathing, eating, and swallowing. She has to
either sit in a wheelchair or lie in bed. She has
never spoken, but she makes sounds. She cannot
feed herself or bathe or get dressed on her own.
No one knows how smart she is because she
cannot take the tests people use to measure
intelligence.
Planning for Ruth’s Future
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Where will Ruth live when she leaves
school?
With whom should Ruth live?
In what day activities could Ruth take
part?
What types of services will Ruth need?
Ruth’s Plan For Her Future
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Ruth SienkiewiczMercer & Steven
Kaplan
I Raise My Eyes to
Say Yes
Ruth’s Plan For Her Future
Where will Ruth live?
Ruth lived independently in her own home in
Northampton, Massachusetts, after living in
two different apartments. She moved from
Belchertown State School in 1978 after living
there for 16 years. In 1989 she was the
keynote speaker at the closure of
Belchertown.
Ruth’s Plan For Her Future
With whom should Ruth live?
Her husband, Norman. After securing her
freedom, Ruth married a longtime friend.
They lived together and enjoyed occasional,
though not too frequent, visits from their inlaws.
Ruth’s Plan For Her Future
In what day activities could Ruth take
part?
Ruth traveled extensively as a speaker and
lecturer and continued to write. She was a
frequent keynote speaker. On Saturdays she
liked to grocery shop and do her laundry.
Sundays were her day of rest.
Ruth’s Plan For Her Future
What types of services will Ruth need?
Most of all Ruth needs people to support her and
listen to her. These people are called her friends.
She needs the assistance provided by a personal care
attendant employed by Ruth and Norman. She
needs a little luck to win the lottery. She needs
more money than SSI provides. She needs phone
and utility services. She needs the State of
Massachusetts to repair the potholes from the winter
storms.
Changing Expectations:
Changing Understanding
Environment
Personal
(In)Competence
Changing Expectations:
Changing Understanding
Environment
Personal
(In)Competence
Implications of Changing
Understandings of Disability
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Focus on environment/context, not fixing
individual;
Strengths-based
Emphasizes supports, not programs
An Array of Supports
Specialized Serv ices
Generic Serv ices
Nonpaid Supports
Family & Friends
Person
Implications for the Education of
Students with Disabilities
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Access to the general education curriculum and
Universal Design for Learning.
A focus on self-determination and studentdirected learning
Assistive technology and accommodations.
Supported employment, supported living.
Response to Intervention
Positive Behavior Supports
A Third Generation of Inclusive Practices
First Generation Inclusive
Practices
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Focused on basics of inclusive practices.
Efforts were instrumental in changing prevailing
educational settings for students with disabilities from
separate, self-contained settings to inclusion in the
regular education classroom.
These basics included:
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Students should receive their education in the school they would
attend if they did not have a disability;
Educational placements should be age and grade appropriate;
Special education services should exist within the general
education classroom.
First generation inclusion was additive in nature. That is,
resources and students were “added” to the general
education classroom.
Second Generation Inclusive
Practices
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More generative in nature, in that instead of
focusing on moving students from separate
settings to regular classroom settings, the
second-generation practices focused on
improving practice in the general education
classroom.
Research and practice during this phase
emphasized aspects of instructional practices that
promoted inclusion, such as:
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Collaborative teaming and team teaching;
Differentiated instruction;
Developing family/school/community partnerships.
Third Generation Inclusive
Practices
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Nothing about the first or second generations of inclusive
practices is either obsolete or unimportant. Both remain
critical to ensure high quality educational programs for
students with disabilities.
The most salient characteristic of the third generation of
inclusive practices is that the focal point for our efforts
switch from advocacy and supports with regard primarily
to “where” a student receives his or her educational
program, to a focus on “what” the student is taught.
This is driven by, and consistent with current school
reform efforts, and aligns with educational implications
for new ways of thinking about disability.
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Universal Design for Learning
Must consider the “context” with which the student interacts.
Designing a Student’s
Educational Program
General Education
Curriculum
What supplementary aids & services
promote student progress in the general curriculum?
Universal Design for Learning
Assistive and Educational
Technologies
What specially designed instruction will students
need to progress in the general curriculum?
What other educational needs of the student
are not addressed by the general curriculum?
What related services will the student need to
progress in the general curriculum and
achieve other educational needs?
Other Supplementary Aids
And Services
•Access
•Classroom Ecology
•Assessment/Task
Modifications
•Teacher/Para/Peer
Support
Universal Design
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Universal design is the design of products and
environments to be usable by all people, to the
greatest extent possible, without the need for
adaptation or specialized design.
Universally designed environments and products
are designed to be used by all people, not
designed for use strictly to mitigate the impact of
an impairment.
Universal Design for Learning
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The basic premise of universal design for learning is that a
curriculum should include alternatives to make it
accessible and applicable to students, teachers, and
parents with different backgrounds, learning styles,
abilities, and disabilities in widely varied learning
contexts. The "universal" in universal design does not
imply one optimal solution for everyone, but rather it
underscores the need for inherently flexible, customizable
content, assignments, and activities (CAST, 1998 – 1999).
“the design of instructional materials and activities that
allows the learning goals to be achievable by individuals
with wide differences in their abilities to see, hear, speak,
move, read, write, understand English, attend, organize,
engage, and remember (Orkwis & McLane, 1998).
Digital Talking Books
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A Digital Talking Book (DTB) is a
multimedia representation of a print
publication.
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Thinking Reader from Scholastic/Tom
Snyder Productions
CAST Literacy by Design DTB
Route 66 Literacy Instruction from
Benetech.org
Smart Transportation Systems
AbleLink Web Trek Internet Browser
UDL via Curriculum Modifications
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Curriculum Adaptations
Curriculum Augmentations
Curriculum Adaptations
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Curriculum Adaptation: any effort to modify the
representation or presentation of the content or to modify
the student’s engagement with the content (CAST, 1998 –
1999).
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Representation: Modifies way curriculum content is represented
(changing font size or using graphics).
Presentation: Modifies presentation of curriculum (oral verses
written presentation).
Student Engagement: Modifies how student responds to
curriculum (oral vs. written, role play, tape record).
Does not change the curriculum in any way, just the way
the curriculum is represented or presented and how the
student responds.
Curriculum Adaptations
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Graphic organizers
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Types: Flow chart, Semantic Maps, Webs,
Computerized program
Chunking
Mnemonics
Summarization
Outlining
Curriculum Augmentations
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Curriculum Augmentation: efforts to augment or expand
the curriculum to provide students with additional skills
or strategies that, in turn, will enable them to succeed
within the general curriculum.
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Cognitive (or learning to learn) strategies;
Self-regulation or student-directed learning strategies;
Self-Determination
Does not modify the general curriculum, but instead
expands it.
It is here where, I think, we need to infuse instruction to
promote some critical transition outcomes, including
promoting self-determination.
What is Self-Determination
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Self-determined behavior refers to volitional
actions that enable one to act as the primary
causal agent in one’s life and to maintain or
improve one’s quality of life.
What Do We Know About SelfDetermination?
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Higher self-determination status predicts more
positive adult outcomes for students with
intellectual and developmental disabilities.
There are, now, a wide array of instructional
strategies, methods, and materials available to
promote self-determination.
Promoting student-directed learning is a
particularly important strategy for students with
intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Self-Determination and
Standards-Based Reform
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Component elements of self-determined
behavior are found in virtually all state,
provincial, and local standards across multiple
content areas.
Students who are self-determined are more likely
to be able to successfully engage with the
curriculum:
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Learning-to-learn or self-regulation strategies.
Goal oriented, problem-solving focused.
Study skills, organizational skills.
Student-Directed Learning
Strategies
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Student-directed learning strategies,
alternatively referred to as self-regulated
learning or self-management strategies,
involve teaching students to modify and
regulate their own behavior.
Student-mediated (vs. teacher-mediated,
peer-mediated or technology-mediated)
learning.
Student-Directed Learning
Strategies
Self-instruction
 Antecedent cue regulation
 Self-monitoring
 Self-evaluation
 Self-reinforcement
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Student-Directed Learning
Strategies
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Students with severe disabilities can learn to
self-direct learning in general education settings:
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Promotes student involvement in the classroom;
Linked to attainment of educationally-valued goals,
including goals linked to the general education
curriculum;
Changes expectations of teachers, other students.