Accommodations and Modifications in CTE Classroom Instruction I

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1 Accommodations and Modifications in CTE Classroom Instruction I Introduction Career and technical education programs really are the vehicle that provides a smooth transition for post school activities, whether it be more education or employment. The most recent changes in special education law have provided that access to all students and all programs. What teachers now need are the tools to make that happen. The law says that we must provide accommodations, modifications, and adaptations. How do we do that? That is the hard part. What we hope to provide for you in this module is just that the tools necessary to do so. Relevant Laws The students we will be targeting in this module will be referred to as special needs students. These are the students who qualify under special education law and have a diagnosed disability under that law. Four key laws have fostered the inclusion of special needs students in career and technical education programs and outline the rights of students. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Both require access for students with disabilities to all federally funded programs and prohibit discrimination based on disability in any aspect of public education programs. The 1998 Perkins Act requires equal access for special populations, including students with disabilities, to all vocational programs, services, and activities, and prohibits discrimination based on special population status. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), as amended in 1997, establishes the right of students with disabilities to a free, appropriate, public education, including special education related services and transition services. CTSP Center Resource: IEP/ARD Meeting Everything is done to keep a student out of special education, but should the need arise and the student become eligible for services, an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting is held. The IEP team then determines what services and placements are needed for a student. A modification and accommodations sheet and a plan with goals are determined. All information is sent to all teachers. In the case of CTE teachers, the modifications and accommodations sheet will be given to that teacher, and the teacher will be responsible for carrying out those accommodations and modifications. In Texas, an IEP meeting is referred to as an admission, review, and dismissal or ARD meeting and is conducted by a committee. The ARD committee is composed of a student s parent(s) and school

2 personnel who are involved with the student, including CTE teachers. The ARD committee determines a student s eligibility to receive special education services and develops the individualized education program (IEP) for the student. Additional Reading: CTSP Center Resource: What are Accommodations and Modifications? Accommodations and modifications are often confused with one another, but let s clarify what these terms mean and give you an example for each. Think of accommodations simply as supports. If a building has accommodations for someone who has a disability, think of it as simply a support. It might be the rails going up the steps. It might be a ramp instead of steps for someone in a wheelchair. Those are accommodations. You still have the same criteria; you have the same expectations, but it is simply a support to help the person get to the same point. Same expectations, same grade level, same curriculum, but you accommodate to help a student get to that same point. Modifications are simply things you may do that allow that person to get to the same point, but you may have to change the curriculum or the content. For example, if a student is on a different grade level, you may have to modify what you are doing. In an English class, an example might be involve reading a novel. If a student is on a different grade level, you may have a student read a novel because you want them to read a novel and write a report. But you might have them read a novel that is on a different reading level. Your expectations are the same, but the reading level matches the need of the student, and that is how those are different. CTSP Center Resource: CTE Teacher Anecdotes Current CTE teachers describe what accommodations/modifications and instructional strategies have worked successfully for their students with special needs. Teacher 1: I had a great experience a couple of years ago when I had an autistic student. I have three campuses that come to this facility. One of the counselors called and asked me about having the autistic student, and I said sure. The parent was very, very concerned that other students might make fun of him. He dressed a little differently, looked a little differently, and there were things that would let you know there was something different about him. I assured the parent that in my classroom no one would be making fun of a student period. Our class rules are simple. They revolve around respect. It is that simple. It s respect for each other, respect for me, respect for them, and respect for our equipment. We did this project, called the me project. Everything in it is about them. First off, it has three pictures of them, and they have to manipulate those pictures. One has to be recognizable, and two have to show a different side of them. Then they have a piece of it that is about their heritage; they have a piece that is about their expectations and their goals just their favorite things. The whole thing is about them.

3 But this student I had, who is autistic, did not like to have his picture taken. I am at that point where: Do I let him not do this? But in the long run, because they presented this project to the whole class, I felt like his being completely different would single him out a lot more than his fear of having his picture taken. He told me: I don t want to take my picture. I talked to him about it and asked what is it about it that you don t like. He said: Well, I don t like the way I look. We kind of compromised, and I let him take it and go ahead and manipulate it a little bit further until he was comfortable with it. He had a fascination with some of the superheroes and some of the games, and he actually turned himself into one of the characters. It turned out to be just an incredible project. Just talking very quietly and through the process with him allowed him to do it like I had asked. He wasn t singled out within the class, and I think he was very very proud of the project in the end. Teacher 2: There is always a different way for each individual student because individuals are different, and they need to be taught differently from time to time. Even I learn different things in different ways. I cannot just watch one thing and learn everything from that. I need to have one thing learned a certain way; the other thing might be a totally different way. You need to have a creative way to modify your curriculum so it is not any easier, or you are not watering it down for them, but you are changing the way you are approaching that student s mind. You are changing the way you approach the student s ability to learn. Teacher 3: The paperwork that they have is useful, but it is not what drives your classroom because nothing is going to. As soon as that class starts, it s a whole new world out there. You have to deal with the situations that come with special needs kids. I had one group last semester that were off the wall because they knew each other, they were social, and it was hard to contain them, to keep them on task, and keep to what we needed to get done. Currently, this semester is a special needs group that is quiet and on task. It s just the personalities, and there is no paperwork in the world that is going to make that work or not work, or improve the situation other than you go in, you handle it and hopefully they leave with a whole better attitude and better trained when they leave your class. That is the goal. Teacher 4: Not everything is the same for every class. Every class has a different chemistry; each individual child is different. You put all those chemicals together, if you were to treat them like chemicals, and you are going to have a different reaction with each class. What worked with my kids last year may not work for the kids that I have this year. At the beginning of the year, you get a feel for them. This doesn t work; let me try to figure out some other approach that will work. I tried this, and this is not working; let s see if this works. Every year is different. Every year changes. Every group of kids that come through our program, every crop, every individual child is different. As long as you are willing to make your adjustments and change things around, you can reach your goals. All kids can reach their goals, but it takes effort. Common Concerns With educational reform and changes in special education law, a number of trends are emerging today that are impacting the special needs students in our high schools. These trends include:

4 standards based assessment inclusion in and access to the general education curriculum and classroom expectations of higher level thinking skills and problem solving skills programs and plans for these students that must be based on mastery and outcomes Due to the most recent changes in the special education law, the landscape of our high schools has literally changed. It is not uncommon to walk into any career and technology education class now, due to the access to the general curriculum, and find a wide variety of students who you might not have found a few years ago. Walk into any class and you see students who have learning disabilities; they may show behavioral or emotional disorders; they may have attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity disorder; they may have mental retardation. A number of disabilities may be shown in that classroom. So, we need the tools to work with those students. You say: Well, exactly how many students may be in my classroom, and how will I know? Let me see if I can give you a visual depiction of this. If this were all of the students in my school, what numbers are we looking at in the classroom? Well, for the most part, you are going to see mainly students with learning disabilities. If this were all the students with learning disabilities in my school, approximately 47 to 49% would be students with learning disabilities. Another 27% would be students with speech and language impairment, maybe writing problems or reading problems, something along those lines. That would fall right along here. So a combined total of about two thirds of all the students with disabilities would fall into one of those two categories. That is a lot of students, but the good news is, best practices hit the very problems that these students have: organizing, memory problems, retention problems, writing, memory. Now, how much are these students going to be in my classroom? Well, if these were all of my students, all of the special education students in the classroom, how much time are they spending in regular classes? Up to 80% of their day. If this is their day, we find 80% of all students in our high school classes are spent in the regular classroom. That is meeting the letter of the law, access to the general curriculum. Understanding Unseen Disabilities Those students who roll into your class in a wheelchair or may have some sort of physical disability that is easy to see are very easy to modify for, but it is those students who do not have a disability that you can see that are the most difficult to modify for. I hear very often from teachers that: Well, that student, he looks just fine; he ought to be able to do what the other students do. Or: He seems like he has got it up here; maybe he is just lazy or unmotivated. And that is the problem with what we call the unseen disabilities those learning disabilities, speech disabilities. Those are the students we were just talking about that encompass a majority of the students you may have in your class that have special needs. So, that is our challenge. [It] is to meet those special needs, particularly of those students with the disabilities that you can t really see. How do you know that those students have a disability? Fortunately, it is not up to you to detect that. You will get the modification sheet that says: this student

5 has a disability; this is the disability, this is what you need to know about this student; and this is how you need to modify. We get that far and then what we run into is a teacher that says: Well I just don t think that we really need to do that because he seems quite capable; he acts fine around his friends; he does fine in the hall; he doesn t get in trouble, so he should be able to do his school work just fine. That may not be the case. I have devised a little activity that might help you understand what it is that these students might go through. Because these students have processing problems, this activity might give you a little insight into what it feels like to have a learning disability. What you have to remember about these kids is that they are not stupid; they are not dumb, but their processing, or the speed with which they process, might be a little different speed than with which you or I process. If you would, take a piece of paper that is lying around. I happen to have an index card. Take a scrap piece of paper, a receipt whatever you have lying around close and a pen. What I am going to ask you to do is nothing out of the ordinary; it might be something very similar to something you would ask a student in class to do something that you think the student is quite capable of because the student looks normal and acts normal. The student can speak; the student usually follows directions, but you know that student has a learning disability. You don t really see any problems out of the student other than he doesn t always get his work done; he is not usually on task; he may not finish the work, and you think it might be because he is lazy, unmotivated, or simply doesn t want to do it or follow directions. Let me show you what might be going on with this student. Now, I am going to ask you questions like you were sitting right here in front of me. You have a piece of paper and your pen. Let me just ask you this. Are you capable of writing you name? My guess is yes. Can you print your name? My guess is yes. Can you write your name in cursive? My guess is yes. At this point in your lives, my guess is yes. Whichever you are more comfortable with, I am a good teacher so I am going to let you pick whichever one is more comfortable. I would prefer that you write it in cursive, but I am going to let you chose. All I am going to ask you to do is wait for my direction. When I put my hand up like this, what I would like for you to do is write your name, preferably in cursive, but print if you must. I need you to do this, if you can, in about 3 5 seconds. Is that reasonable? It should be. We re in 11th grade here, so I think that we could all get that done. Now, have I asked anything unreasonable today? I think not. So, I expect everybody ought to be able to do that. Now the only thing I am going to do is I am going to throw a little learning disability in there for you. When I raise my hand, here is your direction. You are going to write your name with your pen on your index card, but what I would like for you to do as you write your name is to hold your index card up to your forehead while you write. And when I hold my hand up you will write. So this is how it will go. Hand up. Go. Stop. Here is mine. Now I am usually pretty proud of the way I write. I am highly capable of writing. I know how to spell my name, and I know how to write the whole alphabet in cursive, but I guarantee you, when I have a disability I am not very proud of this. It doesn t make me want to turn things in. It doesn t make me want to try very hard, and it makes me embarrassed in class. My processing is off. I am not stupid. I am not lazy, and I am not unmotivated, so hopefully this gives you an idea. Whatever piece of paper you wrote yours on, and hopefully you did it and if you did not at this point, because you didn t

6 have paper, I would like for you to do it at some point. I want you to take this and put it in your office or put it somewhere in your classroom so it is a daily reminder to you of what it is like for these students in your classroom. It is a processing problem; it is not a motivation problem. This is a learning disability issue. Additional Reading: CTSP Center Resource: Issue of Fairness By doing a task like the forehead task, you really begin to understand that students with learning disabilities and processing problems have issues that are not about motivation; they are not about laziness. We must address those issues through what we do as teachers, and we need to have the tools available to do that. When we look at a student like that, we cannot look at the student and say: I can t modify for that student because it is not fair to the other students. When you understand processing issues, then you take the fairness out. Rick Lavoie has a wonderful quote that says fairness means that: he or she gets what they need; it doesn t mean equal, but he or she gets what they need. You don t give them more; you don t give them less. You give them what they need to succeed, and that is what we mean when we use the old adage, level the playing field. You simply give them the tools they need to be on a level playing field with the other students. Review Richard Lavoie s essay on fairness. Understanding ADHD Like students who have learning disabilities, students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have issues in the classroom that aren t always visible. We would like to think that they are those hyperactive kids, but that is not necessarily true. Students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder fall into three groups. They may: be those students who are distracted by everything in the classroom. pay attention to nothing. have what we term a combined type. We need to be aware of all three of those types of kids with ADHD. We can call it ADHD, and it would cover all three of those types. But, these are the kids that we continually punish for the very behaviors that are related to their disability. Now that doesn t mean that we need to okay it and say: Well it is just their behavior related to their disability, so we are just going to let it go. We still believe that you can teach new behaviors and that we don t just need to let it go. But we do need to be aware of those behaviors that we need to do something differently. If you keep doing the same thing that you have always done, you will keep getting the same thing that you have always gotten. Let me talk about the ADHD kid. This is the kid that you send across the room and you ask him to go get the hammer, about three or four nails, two pieces of wood, and meet you back over at the miter to measure and then you are going to do something else. You send him off. You go over to the miter. You come back and look over, and he is over by the exit door. You say: Michael what are you doing? He is

7 like: What? What did I ask you to do? I don t know And you pull your hair out once again. That is the kid who has ADHD. You say: What on earth were you thinking? That is just it, he wasn t thinking because his brain is wired differently. Children with ADHD may have a frontal lobe issue in that: it causes a lack of behavioral inhibition. they may not have that capability to think before speaking or acting But immediately after they do, they will feel bad about it, wish they had done differently, and will turn right around and do the very same thing the next time. These are the kids that are as frustrated with their behavior as we are frustrated with their behavior. So what do we do with these kids? How do we change that? We can t change their frontal lobe. Well, there are plenty of tools for you behaviorally and academically to use with these kids. But it is important for you to understand what they are going through. In the regular classroom, say here in the building trades area, there are many sounds, many things going on. You might have two or three saws going on; there is wood clanking; there are hammers going on, and that is all a part of a normal lab area. For you and I, what might be described as the normal sounds the sawing, the clanking you might not even hear it at this point. But for the kid who has ADHD, this is going to be. While I am trying to talk to you, it could be this loud; it could sound like there are other things going on, and you may be struggling to even hear what I am saying to you. So it is no wonder these kids miss most of what we are saying. And then we wonder why they didn t do what we asked them to do. Next time, after it happens over and over, what is that kid going to do? I m not even going to try this time. So this is the kid who is really at risk for giving up in frustration and one we need to be very, very careful about what we do. CTSP Center Resource: Modifications in Lab Settings For those kids with special needs, oftentimes the regular classroom is a lot easier to modify and accommodate, particularly with instructional strategies and the curriculum itself. But when you get in a setting like this, or in a body shop, or working on a car, sometimes it is a little more difficult to creatively come up with how can I modify. I thought we would look at how that actually happens. What we end up doing is modifying in such a way that we prevent behavior problems and we get the work done that we need to get done. A lot of times, it really isn t about the academics, and it is kind of a two for one situation. Let s look at a student who may have ADHD or has a learning disability. The task is not very difficult. What you want the student to come in and do is: 1. Take the wood. 2. They are going to clean their area first. 3. Sweep. 4. Take a piece of paper, and put their name on it. 5. Take the wood; measure the pieces of wood, and write down the length on the piece of paper. 6. End of task. [This] should take about ten minutes. You get the student with ADHD to come in. He or she bee bops around the room. By the time they finally make it around, you say: Have you gotten your name on your paper yet? What paper? I don t have any paper. Can you borrow some paper? I guess; my mom was supposed to get me

8 some. And we start this ritual. Do you have your name on it yet? Have you borrowed it? I don t have a pencil. I left it in last period. You begin this 10 or 12 minute process where the student hasn t even started writing his name on his paper. Then, he discovers that this is really fun, and he starts with the person across the way. He believes that he would like to try to touch the nose or poke the eyeball out of the person right across the way from him. You have to call him down. Now is where the student who has the disability is taking your time. This is where we hear teachers say that is why I don t want these kids in my class. It takes extra time. But when we set it up correctly, it doesn t have to take time. We have never gotten to the measuring part. I don t have a grade for this. He never got it swept off. I don t know if he can measure. I can t tell his mother if he can measure. I don t know because we never got to this point. A way that I can modify this situation is to remove those things that are a distraction. I can change those things that were a problem in the beginning. So what I would probably do when this student came in is to completely have most of this out of the picture. In fact, the only thing that I would probably have at this student s desk would be the sweep. When he walked in, I d shake his hand and welcome him to my class. I d say: Tracy, good to see you today. I would like for you to sweep off your table. OK. Right now. When you get through, come back and check with me and let me know you are done. So I come right over; I sweep my table. It is done, I go back and tell the teacher; he gives me my pencil and my papers, says: Put your name on it, and go get six pieces of wood. I go do both of those. I sit down, and then I take him his measure. While he is looking at me, I tell him what I would like for him to do and have him repeat it back to me. What is it I would like for you to do, Tracy? You want me to measure each piece of wood and write it down on this paper? Yes. Okay, tell me again. I am going to measure it and write it down. Then what do I do with it? Bring it to me and put it in my hand. Or put it in a prearranged place that we have in our classroom. That is a procedure that they know about. When we have procedures, they become routine, and when they become routine, that is an expectation. So that next time we do any activity, this student knows exactly what is expected. I don t have chaos; I don t have behavior problems. I get the activity done, and I now know if Tracy can measure or not.