Designing Standards-Aligned Instruction for Students with Complex Support Needs

1. Designing Standards-Aligned Instruction for Students with Complex Support Needs October 12, 2011

2. The mission of the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) is to support the efforts and initiatives of the Bureau of Special Education, and to build the capacity of local educational agencies to serve students who receive special education services. PaTTAN’s Mission

3. Our goal for each child is to ensure Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams begin with the general education setting with the use of Supplementary Aids and Services before considering a more restrictive environment. PDE’s Commitment to Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)

4. Objectives • Describe the instructional implications of presuming competence for students with complex support needs. • Explain the concepts of depth of knowledge and “near and far” links as strategies for providing access to grade level content.

5. Future Directions • Lynda Lupp, Special Education Adviser, Bureau of Special Education, PA Department of Education

6. Students with Complex Support Needs: • Are those student with disabilities who comprise about 1 – 2 % of all students; and, • Are most often are assessed via the PASA, rather than the PSSA; and, • May include students who have intellectual disabilities and/or may need life skills support, multiple disabilities support, autistic support or physical support; and, • May require augmentative communication systems and assistive technology in order to access, participate and progress in learning.

7. Reading Skills for Students with Complex Support Needs Adapted from: NCSC GSEG

8. Mathematics Skills for Students with Complex Support Needs Adapted from: NCSC GSEG

9. Communication for Students with Complex Support Needs Words Symbols Pictures Picture symbols Tactile symbols Objects Objects Sounds Eye Gaze Purposeful movement

10. Communication for Students with Complex Support Needs • Words / Symbols / Pictures • Verbal or written words, signs, Braille, or language-basedaugmentative systems • Requests, initiates, and responds to questions, describe things orevents, and express refusal. • Tactile Symbols / Objects / Picture Symbols • Beginning to use symbols for communication with limited vocabulary; • Uses intentional communication, but not at a symbolic language level; • Uses understandable communication through such modes as gestures, pictures, objects/textures, pointing, etc., to clearly express a variety of intentions. • Objects / Pictures / Words • Communicates primarily through cries, facial expressions, change in muscle tone but no clear use of objects/textures, regularized gestures, pictures, signs, etc., to communicate; and/or • Alerts to sensory input from another person but requires actual physical assistance to follow simple directions; and/or • Response to sensory stimuli is unclear.

11. Adapted from: NCSC GSEG

12. pre-symbolic emerging symbolic NCSC GSEG

13. Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC) Use Only 50% of the students in the emerging or pre-symbolic levels in a seven state sample used AAC as part of their educational programs NCSC GSEG

14. Evidence-Based Practice from 20 years in Augmentative Communication • 116 articles published between 1987 and 2007 in refereed journals • described a communication intervention • involved one or more participants with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities • The evidence reviewed indicates that 96% of the studies reported positive changes in some aspects of communication. • These findings support the provision of communication intervention to persons with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. AA AAS GSEG McSheehan Communication

15. The Least Dangerous Assumption • “…educational decisions ought to be based on assumptions, which if incorrect will have the least dangerous effect…we should assume that poor performance is due to instructional inadequacy rather than to student deficits…” Anne Donnellan Ph.D University of San Diego

16. Viewing students through the lens of a disability label may increase the likelihood of misjudging capabilities and barring some students from opportunities to learn what other students their age are learning (Jorgensen, McSheehan & Sonnenmeier, 2007)

17. Students and Learning Presume Competence Viewing students through the lens ofabilitieswillincrease the likelihood of nurturing individual talentsand providing all students the opportunities to learn what other students their age are learning… (adapted from Jorgensen, McSheehan & Sonnenmeier, 2007)

18. Considerations for Instructional Design

19. History of Curricular Context for Students with Complex Support Needs • 1970’s Developmental Model • 1980’s Functional, Life Skills Model • 1990’s Social Inclusion Focus Self Determination Focus Assistive Technology • 1997 to present: Access and Participation in General Education Curriculum Digitally Accessible Materials

20. Access to the General Curriculum • The IEP team must determine how a student with complex support needs will be provided access to the general curriculum regardless of the setting(s) in which the instruction is delivered.

21. Decisions for the IEP Team • Special considerations • Will the student need Assistive Technology to actively participate in the instructional process? • Access to the general curriculum • Grade Level • Instructional Level • Supplementary aids and services • Specially designed instruction • Measureable Annual Goals • What are the priorities for instruction? • Standards-Aligned • Student-Specific

22. PA Academic Standards

23. Decisions for the IEP Team • Participation in Statewide Assessment • In what assessment will the student participate? • Are accommodations needed for the student to demonstrate what they know and are able to do? • Supports for School Personnel • What training, coaching, and/or collaboration is needed to help the team? • Least Restrictive Environment • With the support of supplementary aids and services, where can the student receive benefit from this IEP?

24. Common Concerns Assumptions Concern • Academic skills are not functional • Functional skills must be taught as discrete skills • Students with special needs need 1 on 1 time to learn skills and they do not get that in inclusive settings • Functional skills get lost when you focus on academics

25. History: Curricular Approaches

26. Designing Learning Targets • Is it academic= content referenced: reading, math, science? • Is the contentreferenced to a student’s assigned grade level based on chronological age? • Does the focus of achievement maintain fidelity with the content of the original grade level standard ? • What the student is expected to do to demonstrate learning

27. Do you or the teachers you supervise… • Plan for students based on their assigned grade level? • Have access to standards-aligned materials, activities and lesson plans? • Teach to the content reflected in a standard? • Know available resources if questions arise? • Know how to identify the performance in a standard? • Adapt performance for individual student learning staying as close as possible to original?

28. Clear Standards FairAssessments Interventions StudentAchievement Materials & Resources CurriculumFramework Instruction Thinking About Content www.pdesas.org

29. Depth of Knowledge Webb’s Depth of Knowledge levels: Recall and Reproduction: Level 1 Skills & Concepts: Level 2 Strategic Thinking: Level 3 Extended Thinking: Level 4

31. Some questions to ask when looking at student performance • Does the expected level of student performance maintain fidelity with the depth of knowledge of the original grade level standard? • Is the student expected to show learning of grade-referenced academic content? • Is it meaningful? Adapted from: Flowers, C., Wakeman, S., Browder, D., & Karvonen, M. (2007). Links for academic learning: An alignment protocol for alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards. Charlotte, NC: National Alternate Assessment Center at University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

32. Using Standards to Address Instruction Teachers should ….. • Apply strategies for linking to grade level content instruction; • Identify clear instructional goals and objectives; and • Ensure that the instructional goals and objectives are assessed Resulting in ….. • Student work that reflects appropriate constructs in reading, mathematics and science.

33. Is it what we think it is? Looking at how complexity builds to fully meet the standard • Initial activity • Building knowledge and skills • Meeting the standard

34. Near Links and Far Links

35. Planning the Closest Link State Standard: 3.3.5.A1: Describe how landforms are the result of a combination of destructive forces such as erosion and constructive erosion, deposition of sediment, etc. Content: Role of weather in erosion of rocks & creation of landscapes Performance: Construct an explanation • Nick will hold a rock • Content? No • Performance? No • Nick will select pictures of landscape shaped by weather • Content? Yes • Performance? Far link • Nick will sequence 3 pictures to show how landscape formed • Content? Yes • Performance? Stronger link

36. Science & Technology & Engineering Education Standard Grade 4 • Standard3.2.4.A1 : Identify and classify objects based on their observable and measurable physical properties. Compare and contrast solids, liquids, and gases based on their properties. • Assessment AnchorS4.C.1 : Structure, Properties, and Interaction of Matter and Energy • Anchor DescriptorS4.C.1.1 : Describe observable physical properties of matter. • Eligible ContentS4.C.1.1.1 : Use physical properties [e.g., mass, shape, size, volume, color, texture, magnetism, state (i.e., solid, liquid, and gas), conductivity (i.e., electrical and heat)] to describe matter

37. Is it what we think it is? • Marnie is reaching across midline to a group of materials.

38. Is it what we think it is? • Marnie will reach across midline to a group of materials. • Is it academic? • Is the task typical of a student the same age working on the same content? • Is the level of performance typical of a student the same age working on the same content?

39. Is it what we think it is? • Marnie will reach across midline to a group of materials. • Is it academic? No. • Is the task typical of a student the same age working on the same content? No. The student is working on motor skills . • Is the level of performance typical of a student the same age working on the same content? No. Marnie’s performance is not based on academic content

40. Is it what we think it is? • Marnie will predict, using a voice output device, if an object will be attracted to the magnet or not.

41. Is it what we think it is? • Marnie will predict,using a voice output device, if an object will be attracted to the magnet or not. • Is it academic? • Is the task typical of a student the same age working on the same content? • Is the level of performance typical of a student the same age working on the same content?

42. Is it what we think it is? • Marnie will classify objects according to their magnetic properties and compare the classification to her predictions

43. Is it what we think it is? • Marnie will classify objects according to their magnetic properties and compare the classification to her predictions • Is it academic? • Is the task typical of a student the same age working on the same content? • Is the level of performance typical of a student the same age working on the same content?

44. Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening Reading Independently Course: 1.1 L Literature Standard- - 1.1.L.A: Apply appropriate strategies to analyze, interpret and evaluate how authors use techniques and elements of fiction and non-fiction for rhetorical and aesthetic purposes. Assessment Anchor - - L.F.1: Reading for meaning—Fiction Anchor Descriptor L.F.1.1: Use appropriate strategies to analyze an author’s purpose and how it is achieved in literature Eligible Content L.F.1.1.3: Analyze, interpret, and evaluate how authors use techniques and elements of fiction to effectively communicate an idea or concept.

45. Is it what we think it is? • Josh will order notable events in Romeo and Juliet using pictures with simple captions • Is it academic/reading? • Is the task typical of a student the same age working on the same content? • Is the level of performance typical of a student the same age working on the same content?

46. Is it what we think it is? • Josh will complete a graphic organizer to lay out details of a notable event (includes distractors). • Is it academic/reading? • Is the task typical of a student the same age working on the same content? • Is the level of performance typical of a student the same age working on the same content?

47. Building knowledge and skill • Josh will use a graphic organizer to lay out details from a notable event.

48. Text Structure: Problem and Solution • Josh will answer questions related to problem and solution (distractors included) Standard - - 1.1.L.A:Apply appropriate strategies to analyze, interpret and evaluate how authors use techniques and elements of fiction and non-fiction for rhetorical and aesthetic purposes. Assessment Anchor - - L.F.1: Reading for meaning—Fiction Anchor Descriptor L.F.1.1: Use appropriate strategies to analyze an author’s purpose and how it is achieved in literature Eligible Content L.F.1.1.3: Analyze, interpret, and evaluate how authors use techniques and elements of fiction to effectively communicate an idea or concept.

49. Is it what we think it is? • Josh will answer questions related to problem and solution (distractors included) • Is it academic/reading? • Is the task typical of a student the same age working on the same content? • Is the level of performance typical of a student the same age working on the same content?

50. Text Structure: Problem and Solution