Accommodations: Instructional and Testing Supports for Students with Disabilities Assessment

Discussion Prompts

1) Choose 3 of the following key terms and define them in your own words (phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, phoneme, grapheme, phonics, fluency).

2) What do you remember about learning to read? Did you enjoy it? Do you remember any phonological or phonemic awareness instruction? Do you remember any phonics or fluency instruction?

1) Choose 3 of the following key terms and define them in your own words (phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, phoneme, grapheme, phonics, fluency).

2) What do you remember about learning to read? Did you enjoy it? Do you remember any phonological or phonemic awareness instruction? Do you remember any phonics or fluency instruction?

1. Read through the following PPT: Disciplinary Literacy (Links to an external site.)
2. Answer the following prompts.
3. What skills are important to keep in mind when teaching students to be strong readers? What type of reading will students be doing in your class?
4. Are you aware of the strategies you use when reading, or will you need to learn more in order to explicitly model these strategies to your students?
5. What kind of writing do students do in your discipline? What kinds of writing do you do well in your classroom? What challenges do you have with writing in your classroom?

Provided by The Iris Center on Accommodations: Instructional and Testing Supports for Students with Disabilities. Click on 'next' at the very bottom and ensure to complete pages 1-12. Be sure to view all the pages associated with the module. Complete Assignment 15A associated with this activity. Assignment 15A: Accommodations:Instructional and Testing Supports for Students with Disabilities Assessment

Directions: Complete the Iris Module Assessment that is linked here. Then, access the assessment within the module (it’s the final “tab” of the module). Record your answers to the prompts in this document. You will need to toggle back and forth, as you will be analyzing images and videos that are in the Iris module.

1. What are accommodations? How do they differ from modifications and instructional strategies or interventions?
2. List the four accommodations categories. For each, give an example of an accommodation and describe how it could support a student with a disability.

Example of an Accommodation Description of how it could support a student with a disability                             

View the video of Quinn using his braille electronic note-taker (Quinn’s video is available through the assessment tab). Then, in the space below, explain how the note-taker is being used to help Quinn achieve his learning goals given the barrier(s) related to his disability (time: 3:01).

Read the following scenario. Then, respond to the prompts that follow:

Thirteen-year-old Senada has a learning disability. She is struggling in Mrs. Watkins 8th-grade science class. Although she understands grade-level content, she reads at a 3rd-grade level and has difficulty identifying key ideas during lectures and independent reading. She also has difficulty organizing her ideas when writing. Mrs. Watkins typically:

Lectures using PowerPoint presentations while students take notes

Requires her students to read the textbook and provide written responses to the questions

Requires students to conduct lab experiments by following written procedures

Requires students to write up the results of their lab

Assesses her students using written tests

4a. List at least three areas where Senada might experience difficulty.

Discussion Prompts

4b. List at least three accommodations that could be used to address the barriers related to Senada’s disability. Include the accommodations category and explain your rationale for how/why these accommodations might help Senada access and demonstrate her learning.

4c. Based on the accommodations recommended above, what tips might be helpful for Mrs. Watkins to ensure that Senada receives the maximum benefit from her required accommodations?

Sam has ADHD. Although he is a motivated student, he struggles to recall information that he reads or hears in class. To address this barrier, Mr. Washington supplies graphic organizers for Sam to use during class and for independent reading. The expectation is that Sam will be able to recall more information on quizzes and tests and that his scores will improve. Review Sam’s data before and after Mr. Washington implemented the accommodation.

Click here to see/print Sam’s graph, then graph Sam’s baseline data and his implementation data.

Based on the data, would you recommend that Sam’s teacher continue providing the accommodation? Justify your answer using data.

Part II: Reflection

Reflect on what you learned from completing the Iris Module and this assignment. What implications do you see for your teaching practice? What lessons from this module do you want to integrate or apply to your teaching?

Directions: Consider the different teacher-centered educational philosophies and recall a teacher you know who seems to follow one of these educational philosophies. Describe the ways in which the teacher’s actions represent the teacher-centered educational philosophy.

Directions: Read “Perspectives on Diversity: Why Bother?”  on page 224 of the eTextbook and answer the following prompts:

1 What is your perspective on why Carlos has given up on school?

2 If you were one of his teachers, what would you do to try to engage him in your class?

3 What responsibility does a school have to ensure that all students both learn at high levels and graduate from high school?

Directions: Read “Education in the News p. 173-174: Diversity Challenges Many Area Teachers” Answer the questions for reflection:

1 How different is the diversity in Kokomo, Indiana from where you grew up? Why do you think those differences exist?

2 What are the challenges for teachers when immigrant students in their schools have a number of different native languages?

3 How would you categorize the instructional strategies that Mr. Barnes recommends to teachers for working with English language learners?

Directions: After completing the reading p.191-192, answer the following question: “What is meant by the inclusion of children with disabilities? What is the role of the general education teacher in an inclusive classroom?”