Transcript PowerPoint presentation

Personally Relevant:
From Different to Differentiated Curriculum
Successful Learning Conference 2013
Bree Jimenez, PhD
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
North Carolina, United States
Based on: Trela, K., & Jimenez, B., (in press). From functional to personally relevant
curriculum: A reflection on the shift from “different” to “differentiated curriculum for
students with significant intellectual disabilities. Research and Practice for Persons with
Severe Disabilities.
Successful Learning Conference 2013
Academic? Functional?
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Brushing teeth
Reading a novel
Solving an Algebra equation
Science experiment on Plate Tectonics
Community Navigation
Calendar skills
Cooking skills
Compare and Contrast two famous historical
figures
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Language
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• 2010 Rosa’s law (United States - PUBLIC LAW 111–
256)
• “Spread the Word to End the Word”
• “person first” language
Influence
• “field”
• characterize programs and services
▫ e.g., IEP - placements along a
continuum of support
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NEED FOR CHANGE OF LANGUAGE
• Maintain the individualized nature of special
education
• Over emphasis on alignment to content standards
could promote IEPs written without attention to the
student’s unique needs
• Intent of terminology – “Functional Curriculum”
▫ promoted independent living
▫ unintentionally became the “something or somewhere
else”
Separate Path ??
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Criterion of Ultimate Functioning
Brown, Nietupski, & Hamre-Nietupski, 1976
Unintended Consequences
Static set of community living
skills and activities
“Catalog of Skills”
Intentions
Movement –away from
Developmental Model
RESPECT = activities that support
independent functioning within
home, school, and work communities
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Solely Functional
Curriculum
Approach
Separate
Curriculum
Need to deliver
instruction in a
separate setting
DIFFERENT
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ACADEMIC FOCUS
Access to general education curriculum (ACARA)
Research
supports meaningfully access and measurable progress toward
general curriculum standards.
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Personally Relevant Curriculum
Designed with
explicit connections
to school and
broader community
life
Aligned to gradeappropriate
standards
Assessed with
appropriate
supports and
progress monitoring
tools
Planned and
implemented
collaboratively with
general education
teachers
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Hunt, McDonnell, & Crocket (2012)
provides an ecological curricular framework to guide
IEP teams as they balance individual needs of students
with significant intellectual disabilities with opportunities
to both access and make meaningful progress toward
general education curriculum standards (i.e., Australian
Curriculum; US Common Core State Standards).
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Kathy is a middle school teacher of students with moderate to severe
disabilities in a rural state far from a coast line. Although she whole-heartedly
agrees with teaching science to her students, she sometimes wondered
about the relevance of some of the concepts she teaches. For example,
when teaching about pollution, one of her lessons demonstrated the effects
of an oil spill on birds’ feathers. Although the students enjoyed the lesson,
she wasn’t sure this was something they might actually encounter in their
community. However, she did continue teaching the concept of pollution,
particularly air pollution that is caused by burning coal (which is something
her students could easily relate to in their community). One spring
morning, Kathy’s students came into her classroom discussing “oil” that
they had seen on T.V. There had been a giant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
and news coverage of the spill was dominating T.V. broadcasting. Kathy took
this opportunity to review with her students what they had learned about the
effects of the oil on birds’ feathers and animal fur. She was thrilled
with the fact that what she had taught them lead to a pertinent discussion
about a current, national event.
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Personally Relevant
• Unambiguous focus on curriculum that
is differentiated by making intentional,
personally relevant connections to the
lives of students with intellectual
disabilities
Although the argument may be made that this is simply
a change in labels, we propose that the term reflects a
level of differentiation that promotes access to make
meaningful progress in the general education
curriculum rather than a separate curriculum.
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Closing Information
Contact
[email protected]
Resources
http://www.cast.org/
http://coedpages.uncc.edu/access
https://sites.google.com/a/uncg.e
du/bree-jimenez/home
http://tarheelreader.org/
http://www.attainmentcompany.com/
http://www.donjohnston.com/
*Website has more “Professional Resources”