Transition for teachers of students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities: Aligning Instruction to Standards

1. Transition for teachers of students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities: Aligning Instruction to Standards Karen Erickson, Ph.D. Center for Literacy & Disability Studies University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill erickson@unc.edu

2. Transitioning from an emphasis on ACCESS to an emphasis on LEARNING

3. History of Reductionist Approaches • “reductionist interventions” (Katims,2000, p. 4) • Are sequenced and hierarchical • Employ drill and practice to train • Focus on skills such as: • letter names and sounds, • word decoding, • sight words, and • filling out written forms (Joseph & Seery, 2004;Zascavage & Keefe, 2004)

4. How is this reflected in the Survey? • Emphasis on “redunctionist” skills: • Phonemic awareness • Phonics • Vocabulary • Emphasis on “redunctionist” approaches: • Attention • Memorize/recall

5. Reductionist View Emergent View • Literacy is learned through interaction with and exposure to all aspects of literacy (i.e. listening, speaking, reading, and writing) • Literacy is learned in a predetermined, sequential manner that is linear, additive, and unitary • Literacy learning is school-based • Literacy is a process that begins at birth and perhaps before • Literacy learning requires mastery of certain pre-requisite skills • Literacy abilities/skills develop concurrently and interrelatedly • Some children will never learn to read • All children can learn to use print meaningfully

6. Expressive Communication (speaking) Reading Writing Receptive Communication (listening) Oral and Written Language Development ( Koppenhaver, Coleman, Kalman & Yoder, 1991 adapted from Teale & Sulzby, 1989)

7. Language Language Expressive Communication (speaking) Reading Writing Receptive Communication (listening) Oral and Written Language Development ( Koppenhaver, Coleman, Kalman & Yoder, 1991 adapted from Teale & Sulzby, 1989)

8. The Common Core State Standards require us to emphasize: • Learning that builds over time. • Application of knowledge and skills. • Active participation and interaction during learning activities. • Collaboration and communication. • Ongoing comprehensive instruction in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language.

9. What might it look like?

10. Corey will identify 50 sight words with 80% accuracy on 4 out of 5 days.

11. Working collaboratively with Henry

12. Cate will identify the main character in a story with 80% accuracy on 4 out of 5 days.

13. Constructing Understandings

14. Instructional Transitions for Teachers of Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities • Transition 1: From mastery of skills in sequence to application of knowledge and skills. • Transition 2: From independent work to active participation, interaction, collaboration and communication. • Transition 3: From accessing pieces of the standards to comprehensive instruction in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language.