Changing Instruction For Increase Achievement For Students With Moderate And Severe Intellectual Disabilities

The issue the author has presented in chapter 5 is what should educators teach students with moderate and severe developmental disabilities. The author states that she became interested in studying how students with moderate and severe disabilities might meet grade level academic content expectations mandated by No Child Left Behind. Despite the lack of evidence on teaching grade level academic content to students with cognitive disabilities, the federal government required schools to include students with moderate to severe disabilities in school accountability systems.

Because of the stigma surrounding the intelligence of students in special education, many children are embarrassed when others find out about their curriculum. Oftentimes students receiving altered instruction have lower self-esteem and lower expectations for themselves because of how they are perceived. Even when they are fully mentally capable, people will treat them differently because of the circumstances in which they are educated. To most people with disabilities such as blindness, deafness, extreme dyslexia, and autism, it is offensive to be talked to like they aren’t capable of understanding- something that wouldn’t happen as much if we changed our view of what special education is and who exactly receives it.

Diagnostic/Prescriptive/Evaluative (DPE) process is a type of instruction according to Thomas (1996) that helps students with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) accomplish the best chance of success and independence, when accompanied with life goal planning, and goal instructional analysis (GIA), which is a fundamental part of the DPE teaching. The DPE process takes lesson planning, breaks down instruction into manageable segments specialized for the individual student, which provide the necessary educational flexibility to ensure successful outcomes. The first step of this process is to diagnose the student’s skill level along with his/her strengths and weaknesses, and then devise or prescribe a lesson path, where student progress can be

There have been several reforms in the past 100 years that have had an influential effect on policy in special education. Some of these changes have left a positive legacy for future education legislators to build from while others have been detrimental to a student’s educational success. All having positive and negative outcomes, some of these changes impacting education include the National Institute of Child and Human Development, Education for All Handicapped Children Act, No Child Left Behind Act, and Individuals with Disabilities Act. The reforms listed above will be discussed

In the 3rd step plan the implementation is when educators will monitor and provide feedback to ensure the intervention is delivers properly. And step 4 is to evaluate the problem, consultant and teacher will evaluate the responsiveness to the intervention and modify if needed. These steps result in a great intervention program that is precise to see desired results in the RTI. With intervention trial and error is how real results are achieved. In previous years before interventions and RTI’s were placed in schools, too many children were sent for learning disabilities or special education showing teachers inability or unwillingness to teach sand accommodate academic diversity ( Reynolds, 1987). The article states how teachers can generally implement learning strategies until the student gets it and if after interventions and RTi’s measure the responsiveness as not responsive the child can be placed in special education to receive IEP’s to adjust to their learning disability.

In regards to educational impact of the impairments, students with severe disabilities have the ability to learn (Snell and Brown, 2011). On the end of the spectrum some educators believe while the purported goal of the Common Core is success for all students. But success for all requires openness towards cognitive diversity, and isn’t so easily standardized, especially for students with special needs and severe disabilities (Beals,

In the article, A Common-Core Challenge: Learners with Special Needs, the article outlines the proposed plans and conflicts associated with a common core assessment in education. The article highlights the struggles of reaching students within a regular classroom with diversity, then divides into the accommodations and modifications needed to give the same assessment to a student with a disability. With the introduction of Common Core and Smarter Balance, general assessments have become the norm to track a student and a teacher’s progress. Many teachers are struggling with the accommodations needed and not compromising the assessment. Some accommodations questioned in the article are communication devices and being able to read portions to a visually impaired student. Both sides believe that the accommodations can compromise

The idea of children with disabilities, whether they be mild or severe has been a very controversial and misunderstood topic. In the past inclusion has brought about huge changes for not only the students, but also the parents and families of these children, and staff at schools. Teachers and education professionals were the first to really feel the wrath and intimidation of this dramatic shift in education. There were several different factors that were coming about that made it very difficult for schools and teachers, the unorganized mandates were strict and didn’t allow much time for change. “President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) into law in 1975. Since the original passage of the EAHCA, the law has been amended four times and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)” (Conroy, Yell, Katsiyannis, & Collins, 2010, para.1).

This essay presents research-based instructional strategies commonly used in classrooms for students with intellectual disabilities. Students with intellectual disabilities learn differently and slower than students without intellectual disabilities. They have trouble learning in school and trouble with everyday life skills. However, they can learn and do learn when taught with the best practices, instructional strategies and principles as presented in this essay.

The first article that I reviewed is titled Using Story- based Lessons to Increase Academic Time in General Education Classes for Students with Moderate Intellectual Disability and Autism. The purpose of this research study was to analyze the impact of a general education teacher and a special education teacher working together to implement shared story-based lessons in a general education classroom and the impact on the amount of time students were engaged with autism or with a moderate intellectual disability. The study wanted to observe if a special education teacher could implement 12 step story-based lessons, if the classroom teacher implements 10 step story-based lessons in a general education classroom and if the story-based lessons improved the amount of time that students with disabilities were engaged in the classroom. The steps could be considered strategies or accommodations to better facilitate level for the grade level text.

Effective differentiated instruction reflects where the students currently are in their educational stage and not where a teacher wishes them to be. This step is important; placing students either too high or too low in the instruction can be adverse to the teacher’s goal of helping all students. Developing lesson strategies for students that are too demanding may have a negative effect on performance and reinforce negative emotions concerning learning. Likewise, developing lesson strategies that do not challenge students to perform at their best can also have a negative effect. Some students that are not engaged by a teacher's instruction are left adrift waiting for new or more stimulating material. Engaging students in the learning strategy is the key ingredient in producing active learners.

The key to any successful school district is the administration. Teachers essentially provide structure, organization, and the background of a child’s future. To educate students with learning disabilities, it is essential that the staff has the training and resources needed for the appropriate people, place, and time (Lazarus) (What is Inclusion, 2001, n.p). It is unrealistic to expect that regular education teachers will always be aware of the latest research or be able to readily adapt the school's

According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, students with disabilities should be placed in a “least restrictive environment.” One of the main ideas of this act was to improve the learning experiences of students with disabilities by giving them learning opportunities outside of a special education classroom. The number of students with disabilities being placed in their general education classrooms is increasing more and more each year. The U.S Department of Education’s 27th annual report to Congress on the implementation of The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2005) indicates that the number of students with disabilities in general education classrooms has risen to almost 50 percent. This is about a 17 percent increase from the 1997 U.S

“The debate about instruction largely hinges on how students learn and what degree of structure and support they need to acquire important skills and knowledge.” according to Archer, L.A, & Hughes, C.A. (2011)

A variety of teaching strategies should be selected or designed for us in the instructional program. There is a need for inductive strategies that include moves from the particular to the general and deductive strategies that include moves from general to the particular. Discovery strategies in which the students themselves find out on their own and teacher-directed strategies in which the students are guided systematically to in stated objectives are needed, along with strategies the call for varying degrees of teacher guidance, combinations of the preceding strategies may be used to be develop and apply concepts, clarify values, and attain other objectives as various media are used in different areas of the curriculum. In additions, construction should be given to the guidelines or principles of instruction for each area of the curriculum.