401 Practical Adaptations for Every Classroom

Beverley H. Johns

• Publisher: Corwin
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781452235622
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

Award-winning educator Beverley Holden Johns provides time-saving and cost-effective tools that optimize learning for all students, including adaptations for vocabulary instruction, testing, and classroom environment.

1

Introduction to
Adaptations

Why the Need and Important Considerations

What can I do to meet the diverse needs of the students in my classroom? How can I accommodate Julian’s needs and still meet the needs of my twenty-five other students? How can I provide adaptations that don’t require an inordinate amount of my time? How can I provide adaptations that don’t cost a lot of money?

Are you looking for practical answers to these questions? If so, this book is for you. Loaded with practical ideas, this book is designed to meet your needs. You have taken the first step to making your classroom a more user-friendly place for your students with special needs.

The number of students with special needs in general education classrooms is increasing, along with the expansion of the inclusion movement. This calls for development of effective adaptations, useful modifications, and needed accommodations for students with special needs. Additionally, the push to include most students in our assessment system has brought to the forefront the need for accommodations in assessment. To be successful in the general education curriculum, students with special needs require support through adaptations.

You may hear colleagues say, “It’s not my job to accommodate students with special needs—if I had wanted to work with students with special needs I’d have gone into special education.” While such an attitude is problematic in today’s classrooms because of the diverse needs of the children, we all must be cognizant of the needs of the classroom teacher. Classroom teachers are bombarded with expectations from school and society. They are expected to work with a large group of students—some classrooms may have forty students in them. Teachers feel a tremendous sense of pressure because of our focus on high-stakes testing. The scores of the students may be published in the newspaper, and often teachers are blamed for low test scores even when they do not have control over all the variables influencing the children within their classroom.

Teachers at the secondary level are content specialists and are expected to cover a specific amount of material by given dates. All teachers feel the pressure to teach to standards, even when they question whether all of their students are prepared for those standards. Students in any given classroom read at different levels, may have attendance problems, and may come with the emotional baggage of not liking school.

At the same time, we expect teachers to work with more diverse students, even though many of them have had only one special education class during their training programs.

Because of the many challenges classroom teachers face, we must all be reasonable in the adaptations that we expect them to make. It is unreasonable to expect a classroom teacher to spend three hours a day recording a reading book for a student or for a general education teacher to work with an individual for two hours during the school day—what happens to the other students during that time?

Classroom teachers must be active participants in discussions about what adaptations are reasonable to make within the classroom and what adaptations will require assistance to make. I remember participating in an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for a high school student. All of the high school teachers were present and the discussion focused on whether a word bank might be appropriate for a student during testing. One of the teachers had a blank look and asked, “What is a word bank?” I was delighted that he spoke up and admitted he did not know what it was.

Many teachers are willing to make accommodations but need assistance to make them. The purpose of this book is to give teachers an array of adaptations that are not labor intensive for their students and will make teaching easier. A teacher may discover that an adaptation for one student works for other students as well.

This chapter sets the stage for the remainder of this book. It outlines the meaning of the terms adaptations, accommodations, and modifications. It also includes the legal basis for adaptations. It reviews the cautions in the use of adaptations, discusses the importance of record keeping, and provides helpful tips for collaboration.

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

You may hear people use the terms adaptations, accommodations, and modifications interchangeably; however, these terms are different. The following graphic and definitions will help you distinguish among the terms.

Figure 1.1

Adaptations. Consider this an umbrella term that encompasses all modifications and accommodations. Practical adaptations are strategies to support students with special needs and to improve their learning.

Modifications. This term involves changes in the general education curriculum, course content, teaching strategies, manner of presentation, or timing. For example, a student could be assigned fewer spelling words to memorize or be given an easier history text to read. The teacher might use materials that provide a high level of interest for older students but that use lower vocabulary than typical grade level materials. The teacher also might use off-grade level material for some students. That is, the student might be in the sixth grade but with math skills at a third-grade level, so the teacher opts to include third-grade math problems. When you modify content or instruction, you are monkeying with the content. A picture of a monkey may help you remember that a modification changes or monkeys with the content.

Accommodations. These are applied to the curriculum and instruction and assessment. Accommodations do not change the content but rather provide “the extension ladder” for students to get where they need to be. For example, if I need to change a fluorescent lightbulb in a ceiling that is eight feet tall but I am only a little over five feet tall, I will need a ladder to change the lightbulb. I have the skills—I am “otherwise qualified” to do this job—but I must use a ladder to get me to where I need to be to change the lightbulb. Glasses and hearing aids are accommodations. A wheelchair is an accommodation for a person who cannot walk. Extended time to take a test is a frequently requested accommodation. Another example of an accommodation is permitting a student with a fine-motor disability to use a word processor to take a writing test.

Accommodations in assessment should match the accommodations in instruction. For example, if a student is to be provided with a calculator for a specific math assessment, that student should be taught how to operate the calculator and should use it during classroom instruction.

Examples of accommodations might include a large print book for a student who has a visual impairment or a student with a learning disability who has difficulty tracking the text. A pencil grip, a word processor for writing, or being able to write on the test booklet rather than having to put the answers on a bubble sheet are also accommodations. There are quite a lot of accommodations, which may or may not be appropriate for the student, and this book discusses many of them.

WHY THE NEED FOR ACCOMMODATIONS: WHAT THE LAW SAYS

Several laws govern the appropriate use of accommodations and modifications for students with special needs. These laws serve to protect students and their families, as well as to provide guidance to all educators on implementation of the provision of services for students with disabilities. It is critical that all educators understand the basic requirements of these laws.

Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

In 1997’s IDEA, for the first time, the general education teacher was required to participate in the Individualized Education Program process. Teachers’ organizations had voiced serious concerns that, with the movement toward inclusion, they were being expected to provide significant services and accommodations for students with disabilities within their classroom yet were not involved in the decision-making process. There was also an addition in the focus of the IEP process. Previously the IEP team addressed the needs of the student alone. With IDEA, language was added to support school personnel. Consequently, if teachers state, within the IEP process, that they need additional training to meet the needs of the student, then the training must be addressed within the IEP process (Johns, 1998).

The subsequent reauthorization of the act (still known as IDEA) in 2004 retained these important revisions.

Thus, the IEP team is charged with examining the needs of the student, planning goals, and then determining how and where those goals can be met. It is critical for the IEP team to consider the whole range of student needs. Students who have a disability that results in an adverse effect on educational performance require specialized instruction to meet those needs. They also require sufficient accommodations in assessment and instruction. They may require specific modifications to the general curriculum. They also may require related services coordinated with their special education program and placement. It is the IEP team that makes these decisions and the general education teacher is an integral part of that process.

IDEA also requires that students are educated in the least restrictive environment—that means that students are educated to the maximum extent appropriate with their nondisabled peers. It doesn’t mean that all students are educated within the general education classroom, but it means that children with disabilities are educated as appropriate with their peers. The IEP team determines placement.

No Child Left Behind

School personnel struggle to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, which looks at all students and at what level they achieve as compared to their grade level peers, while at the same time educators must also address the individual needs of the student as the cornerstone of the IDEA-2004. NCLB focuses on accountability for results for all students. Students must take a state-determined assessment, and then each state’s department of education compiles the results of the tests. Each state must report the information back to the school district, while also reporting the school and district results to the public via the newspaper and Internet. All students must make adequate yearly progress (AYP) in reading, math, and science. Scores are disaggregated for specific groups of students—students with disabilities may be a disaggregated group of students, depending on the number of students that the state has determined as the minimum size of a disaggregated group. Data is disaggre-gated for students by poverty levels, race ethnicities, disabilities, and English Language Learners (U.S. Department of Education, 2002).

For students with disabilities, the IEP team determines whether the student takes the state assessment with or without accommodations. If the student takes the test with accommodations, the IEP team determines the specific accommodations that should mirror the accommodations made within instruction. The IEP team may determine that the student can take one part of the test without accommodations but for another part of the test the student does need accommodations. The student may be able to take the math test with no accommodations but needs to be accommodated when taking the reading test. No more than 1 percent of all students with the most significant cognitive disabilities may take an alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards. An additional 2 percent may be eligible to take an alternate assessment based on modified academic achievement standards. All of these decisions are made by the IEP team.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination on the basis of a disability. Section 504 also provides reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities and those accommodations are to be determined within the scope of a Section 504 accommodation plan for the student who has a disability but may not be eligible for special education. A few examples of accommodations that might be made for a student who requires a 504 plan but is not in special education might include periodic bathroom breaks for a student with diabetes, dietary requirements for a student with specific allergies, or removal of barriers for a student who uses a wheelchair.

The definition of a disability was changed as a result of the reauthorization of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 amended the definition of a disability. The term disability means a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of the individual. Major life activities include but are not limited to caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, lifting, bending, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating, and working. An individual meets the requirements of having an impairment if the individual establishes that he or she has been subjected to an action because of an actual or perceived physical or mental impairment, whether or not the impairment limits or is perceived to limit a major life activity. The determination of whether an impairment substantially limits a major life activity is made without regard to the ameliorative effects of mitigating measures such as medication, medical supplies, equipment, or appliances including low-vision devices, prosthetics, hearing aids, and cochlear implants. It does not include the effects of ordinary eyeglasses or contact lenses (ADA Amendments Act of 2008).

Under Section 504, an appropriate education means an education comparable to the education of other students without disabilities, unlike IDEA, which defines an appropriate education as one that meets the individualized needs of the student.

A student with a disability may be eligible for the provisions of Section 504, yet not eligible for services under the IDEA. For a student to be eligible for services under IDEA, the student must exhibit a disability that results in an adverse effect on educational performance. First, the evaluation team determines whether there is a disability. If a disability is determined to exist, then the team determines whether it has an adverse effect on educational performance. If there is no adverse effect, then the student may need accommodations for his or her disability and will require an accommodation plan under Section 504. If an adverse effect exists, then the student would be eligible for special education and need an IEP.

Doe v. Withers

In the case of Doe v. Withers, 20 IDELR 422 (West Va. Circuit Court, 1993), the court ruled against a history teacher for failure to make the necessary accommodations for the student. The teacher clearly knew that the accommodations were to be made and refused to allow the student to have tests read orally to him. The principal attempted to persuade the history teacher to make the accommodations but the teacher would not do so. The state court in West Virginia ordered the history teacher to pay a judgment of $5,000 in actual damages, plus $10,000 in punitive damages, for failure to administer the tests to the student orally (Zirkel, 1994).

CAUTIONS IN THE USE OF ACCOMMODATIONS

Accommodations are not an instructional substitute

In schools today, we all work hard to ensure that students receive the accommodations that they need to be successful in both assessment and instruction. However, all educators also must make sure that the student with a disability who is in special education also receives the specialized instruction that the student needs and that specialized instruction is individually tailored to meet that student’s needs.

As an example, Jessica may be in sixth grade but reads at a second-grade level. When Jessica is in her general education classes, it is critical that she receive accommodations for her reading problem—her books may be on tape, someone may be reading the text to her, or her materials may be digitized. However, at the same time, Jessica must be taught how to read in a way that is individually tailored for her. She must receive specialized instruction by a special educator. Accommodations are not enough for Jessica.

In another example, students often are given the accommodation of extended timelines for taking tests or completing assignments. However, extended timelines may not be beneficial to a student who has not been taught how to manage his or her time.

Accommodations are not giveaways

I once heard a general education teacher say that she would not allow her students to take a test in the special education room. When I asked her why, she replied that she was afraid...