Instructional+Strategies+and+Adaptations


 * GSSD Middle Years Wiki -** Gradual Release of Responsibility


 * Instructional Strategies**


 * 21 Century Skills/Integrating Technology**

The adaptive dimension allows for many changes to be made to the regular, modified or alternate courses but not changes to the **approved foundational objectives/outcomes** of that course. If changes to foundational objectives/outcomes are required for a student to experience success, we need to consider a modified or alternate program (high school) or a PPP. Within a modified or alternate program, the adaptive dimension can again be applied to suit the learning needs of a student. An **adapted** curriculum does not change the learning objectives/outcomes, but may change: Curriculum that includes best teaching practices greatly reduce student frustration and minimize student diversity. The curriculum should be designed to reach all students and challenge advanced students to higher order thinking. The adaptive dimension allows a teacher to plan for all the student in their classes.
 * Adapting Curriculum**
 * the goals/expectations,
 * materials
 * presentation
 * assessment and evaluation
 * environment
 * level of help required to teach that concept

An important variable for teachers to consider in adapting instruction for students is the learning environment. The design of the learning environment can complement the teacher's teaching style and accommodate the students' unique learning, behavioral and social needs. Included in the learning environment are elements such as:
 * Adapting the Learning Environment **


 * classroom climate
 * physical setting
 * grouping students for instruction
 * technical supports and support personnel
 * [|Adapted Environment in Action within GSSD]

**Adapting Classroom Climate** <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">Establishing a positive classroom climate enhances academic achievement and helps to promote appropriate classroom behaviour.
 * Classroom Atmosphere**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Foster a classroom atmosphere of trust, cooperation, empathy and risk taking.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Model positive attitudes, respectful behaviour, helpful conversation and constructive actions.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Do not permit ridicule, sarcasm, or superiority to exit in your classroom.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Promote healthy relationships and value all students.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Give students opportunities to share their experiences and learning with each other.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Help others to view to your students positively and to treat them well.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Use humor.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Use a variety of instructional strategies and activities to maintain student interest in learning and to accommodate student differences.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teach problem solving, conflict resolution and/or social skills.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Show students how to build on strengths and compensate for weaknesses.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Model and teach students to accept and learn from mistakes**.**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Emphasize improvement rather than perfection.

<span style="display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Classroom Management** <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">**Organizational Skills**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Establish a classroom Discipline Plan**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Involve students in creating and establishing guidelines for acceptable behaviour.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student input promotes a sense of ownership, increasing the likelihood of following the rules.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student participation draws attention to personal iner values and control that promotes selfregulation of behavior.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Encouragement of student opinion regards students as moral thinkers and problemsolvers who value and respect others
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Steps in Developing a Discipline Plan**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Compose a collective list of no more than five or six expectations, stated positively. (E.g. "Be on time." is more effective than "Don't be late."
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Encourage clear, concise and sensible contributions to the list. (E.g. "Bring your things to class." is more specific than "Be prepared."
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Brainstorm and compile student's views about reasonable and logical consequences for the purpose of maintaining firmness with fairness and not solely for punishment.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Post the list in a prominent place. Commitment to the plan may be enhanced by inviting the students to sign an individual copy of the plan..
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Revisit and revise the plan as needed.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Acknowledge students who demonstrate positive behaviours
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Disruptive behaviours**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">When students consistently speak out of turn, use inappropriate language or otherwise disturb classroom activities:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Speak to the student privately to reinforce expectations and consequences.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Use proximity or eye contact to engage the student when in a large group.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Use "timeouts" as a time for selfreflection.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Defying Authority, Arguing**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Avoid confrontations
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Reinforce positive behavior
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Provide the student with leadership opportunities such as tutoring or coaching younger students.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Apply consequences consistently.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Compulsive behaviour**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Work with the student to develop a method for selfmonitoring.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Set up a private signal between you and the student where they are to stop and think before acting.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Provide positive reinforcement for appropriate behavior.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">teach the student to use selftalk to slow down impulsive reactions to situations.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Physically aggressive behaviour**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Speak to the student in private to decrease peer attention which may escalate the behaviour
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Discuss the reason and limits of tolerance of aggression with the student.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">reinforce the idea of the right to personal space.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Try to determine the cause of the aggressiveness.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Provide opportunities for positive ways for the student to get attention and status in the school setting.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Be firm and unemotional when meting out consequences.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Defensiveness**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Draw attention to the positive aspects the student's behaviour or work first.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Use a problem solving approach rather than a blaming approach.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Avoid overreacting to the student's behaviour.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Provide the student with choices so that they accept some responsibility for the solution to the problem.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Attentiveness**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Place student in an area of the classroom where there is a minimum of distractions.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Seat student near good role models which may have a positive effect on the student.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Develop a private cueing system which reminds the student to attend to the task.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Develop an awareness of the student's preferred learning style and plan adaptations to accommodate the student's needs.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Break time periods into smaller blocks of time or vary the activities to increase attention span.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Provide a student evaluation sheet at the beginning of the assignment or tasks so the student can see how he is evaluated and can check of components for an assignment as they are completed.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pair the student with a peer.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teach active listening strategies.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Organizing materials**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Provide direct instruction to the student on skills required to manage instructional materials.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Encourage the use of color coded folders or notebooks or one main binder to organize notes for classes.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">At the elementary level designate specific storage areas where student materials are put for safe keeping between classes.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Encourage older students to develop a list of materials needed for each class and post it in their lockrs.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Encourage the use of a pencil case or box that is large enough to hold required materials.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Completing assignments**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Break longer tasks into smaller steps with due dates for the various stages of the task or assignment.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Make sure the students understand the expectations of the assignment.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Display visual aids around the room that show end examples of products and processes fro students to model.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Use personal planners or homework books.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Monitor progress frequently and keep parents informed about assignment expectations and ways they can help their child at home.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Maintain a classroom calendar of assignments and due dates in a prominent place in the classroom that the student can refer to when needed.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Working independently**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Establish clear time lines.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Talk through steps necessary to complete the task.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Break the task down into manageable parts.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Provide models of the completed task so the student has an idea of what the completed project might look like.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Take advantage of the student's personal productive time during the day.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Praise successful experiences to build confidence and selfesteem.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Use contracts.

**Adaptating Levels of Support** <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;">The use of assistance provided by another person as an adaptation can provide the essential support necessary to maximize learning for all students. Some students because of physical, behavioral, or communicative abilities may benefit from utilizing support personnel. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Consider also the learner's preference for personal assistance; the ability to accept assistance from different people; how the assistance affects others' perceptions of the learner; the ability of the assistant to fade artificial supports to more natural supports as well as the availability of identified assistance.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">provide opportunities for the student to choose who he/she wants to work with in a cooperative group.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">classmates alternate who will help the student.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">assign the educational assistant to the whole class at times rather than to a specific student.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">classroom teacher models effective ways for peers to provide assistance.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">planning team meets weekly and identifies critical times for personal assistance throughout the week and matches with resource availability.

**Adapting Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science Materials for the Inclusive Classroom** //Authors:Keith Lenz and Jean Schumaker// //July 2003// When instructional materials present a barrier to student learning, teachers often adapt the materials to allow students greater access to the information to be taught. These adaptations may involve changing the content of the materials (the nature or amount of information to be learned) or changing the format of the materials (the way information is presented to the learner). For students with mild cognitive disabilities, most adaptations should be a bridge to skill development, not a substitute for intensive instruction in the skills and strategies that students will need to become independent learners. In other words, adaptations should be approached as a short-term solution to increase access to the curriculum and to increase the probability that the students will be able to complete an academic task. However, there may be some cases in which short-term adaptations become permanent adaptations if they are needed by a particular student. Ideally, adaptations would be designed into curricular materials by the developers, and the built-in adaptations would be broad enough and flexible enough to assist students regardless of their disability. When they are not, teachers must adapt materials themselves, and effective adaptations take time for teachers to design and implement. In some cases, making and implementing adaptations can be more time consuming and complex than teaching the student the skills needed to meet a particular demand. A careful process can help to ensure that the decision to adapt materials is the correct one and that adaptations will be effective. This digest describes a process consisting of nine steps for planning and implementing materials adaptations. **Step 1. Create a Plan for Adapting Materials** Effective adaptations require sustained development and support. They must be made within the framework of a larger plan that includes consideration of (a) basic and strategic skills instruction and (b) the roles of people involved in the adaptation process. It is important to involve your administrator and curriculum or program coordinator from the beginning, and identify exactly who will be responsible for making, implementing, supporting and evaluating the adaptation over the course of the year. As much as possible, involve students, parents, paraprofessionals, and others. Adaptations that can benefit an entire class or several classes are more likely to be supported and maintained. **Step 2. Identify and Evaluate the Demands that Students Are Not Meeting** The purpose of this step is to define the problem to be addressed by the adaptation. Observe students' performance when they use typical instructional materials. They may have difficulty acquiring or getting the important information from written materials (level 1), storing or remembering the information presented in the materials (level 2), or expressing the information or demonstrating competence on written tests (level 3). If students have difficulty with a given task, different solutions may be required depending on the level of difficulty. **Step 3. Develop Goals for Teaching Strategies and Making Adaptations**Some problems can be solved by adaptations; other problems may signal the need for intensive instruction in skills or strategies. Often, teachers may need to provide adaptations while simultaneously teaching the student the learning strategies he or she needs in order to perform the work. All adaptations lead students to become dependent on the person who makes them. Before an adaptation is made for an individual student, educators must carefully consider the best approach to addressing the student's disability and promoting success. Adaptations should be approached as short-term solutions within a long-term plan for teaching skills and strategies that will promote the student's independence as a learner and ultimately reduce the need for adaptations. **Step 4. Determine Whether Content or Format Adaptations Are Needed**Content adaptations may be made only when the student's Individualized Educational Program (IEP) notes that the general curriculum is inappropriate for this student. Content adaptations must also meet local and state education standards. In some cases, the IEP may address the degree to which the requirements associated with meeting state standards and taking assessments may be modified. The teacher must decide which parts of the curriculum the student will be required to learn and will constitute mastery of the course content. When the curriculum is considered appropriate for the student, adaptations may focus on format rather than content. Again, the teacher must identify the critical elements of course content that students must learn: First, identify the critical course ideas or concepts. Then identify the information that must be mastered in each unit to ensure that the critical course ideas are mastered. Finally, determine how students will demonstrate their mastery at the end of each unit and at the end of the course. Format adaptations are made to compensate for mismatches between the presentation or design of the materials and the skills and strategies of the student. In format adaptations, the content is not altered. **Step 5. Identify the Features of the Materials that Need To Be Adapted** The design of materials can present many different types of problems for students with disabilities. Teachers adapting materials should examine each curricular unit for features that might cause a learning problem. For example, the content may be very abstract, complex, or poorly organized, or it might present too much information. It may not be relevant to students or it may be boring. Further, it may call for skills or strategies or background information that the student does not possess. It may present activities that do not lead to mastery, or it may fail to give students cues about how to think about or study the information. Materials also may not provide a variety of flexible options through which students can demonstrate competence. Guidelines for identifying these and other problems in the design of instructional materials may be found in resources like those listed at the end of this digest. **Step 6. Determine the Type of Adaptation That Will Enable the Student To Meet the Demand** Once the materials have been evaluated and possible problem areas identified, the type of format adaptation must be selected. Format adaptations can be made by
 * Altering existing materials-Rewrite, reorganize, add to, or recast the information so that the student can access the regular curriculum material independently, e.g., prepare a study guide and audiotape.
 * Mediating existing materials-provide additional instructional support, guidance, and direction to the student in the use of the materials. Alter your instruction to mediate the barriers presented by the materials so that you directly lead the student to interact with the materials in different ways. For example, have students survey the reading material, collaboratively preview the text, and create an outline of the material to use as a study guide.
 * Selecting alternate materials-Select new materials that are more sensitive to the needs of students with disabilities or are inherently designed to compensate for learning problems. For example, use an interactive computer program that cues critical ideas, reads text, inserts graphic organizers, defines and illustrates words, presents and reinforces learning in smaller increments, and provides more opportunities for practice and cumulative review.
 * Step 7. Inform Students and Parents About the Adaptation** Adaptations are more successful when they are offered and introduced to students at the beginning of the year. Parents should also be informed about them at the beginning of the year. Students should be taught explicit strategies to use any adaptation effectively and how to process the information received through the adaptation. As students progress, they should be taught how to recognize the need for and request materials adaptations. While content adaptation decisions are made at IEP meetings, decisions about format adaptations may be made informally, and parents may need assurance that content is not being altered and that standards are being met.
 * Step 8. Implement, Evaluate, and Adjust the Adaptation**As the adaptation is implemented, the teacher should evaluate its effects to determine whether the desired outcomes are being achieved. If not, adjustments will need to be made either in the adaptation or the instructions to the student in its use. Adaptations should significantly reduce failure and learning difficulties.


 * Step 9. Fade the Adaptation When Possible**Adaptations usually are short-term solutions to allow classroom learning and participation until the needed skills and strategies can be taught. Once the adaptation is in place, the teacher should begin to plan with other teachers how to teach the needed skills and strategies. Once the student has learned the necessary skills and strategies, the adaptation should be faded. The adaptation should not be removed until the student possesses the skills and strategies to learn and complete tasks independently. For some students, an adaptation may be required for several months, while for others, it may be maintained for years.

For more information and for examples of materials adaptations, see Adapting Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science Materials for the Inclusive Classroom by Keith Lenz and Jean Schumaker.

Deshler, Schumaker, and McKnight, (1997).The survey routine. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press. Guidelines for identifying features of materials that may be inconsiderate of the learner.
 * Resources**

Knackendorffel, E.A., Robinson, S. Schumaker, J.B, & Deshler, D.D. (1992). Collaborative problem solving. Lawrence, KS: Edge Enterprises.

Lenz, K. & Schumaker, J. (1999). Adapting language arts, social studies, and science materials for the inclusive classroom. Reston, VA: The Council for Exceptional Children.