Curriculum Development for Students with Cognitive Disabilities

1
Curriculum Development for Students with
Cognitive Disabilities

• Access to General Education Content Core
  Curriculum Standards, IEPS
• Denise Clark and Stacey Skoning

2
The Challenge for Teachers

• Universities havent always prepared teachers of
  students with Cognitive disabilities to develop
  academic programs.
• Many districts followed a traditional program
  with functional goals not related to general
  education curriculum
• There are several sources of pressure to
  Re-envision the educational programs of students
  with intellectual disabilities

3
Why are we considering more emphasis on academic
programs now?

• Research
• Experience
• Legislation

4
Increased Legislative Pressure for
Access to General Education Curriculum

• NCLB
• when measuring Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP),
  states, school districts and schools have the
  flexibility to count the "proficient" scores of
  students with the most significant cognitive
  disabilities who take assessments based on
  alternate achievement standards. (US DOE)

• IDEA 2004
• having high expectations for such children and
  ensuring their access to the general education
  curriculum in the regular classroom, to the
  maximum extent possible, in order to meet the
  developmental goals and, to the maximum extent
  possible, the challenging expectations that have
  been established for all children and be
  prepared to lead productive and independent adult
  lives, to the maximum extent possible."
  (Section 1400(c)(4)

5
How do teachers face the challenge?

• Many teachers we work with have a set of
  questions first
• What is the point in aligning students programs
  to academic standards?
• Why is general education curricular content
  relevant for this population?
• Doesnt this remove individual from their IEP?

6
Teachers need resources to understand and meet
this challenge

• Many teachers lack experiences providing targeted
  general education curriculum to this population
• Often there are no available models of curricular
  development that are immersed in the general
  education curriculum and are individually focused
• Most districts lack a specific process to provide
  teachers of students with cognitive disabilities
  structure for curriculum development

7
What does academic participation look life for
this population?
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An Initial example

• Andy
• Changing the context of reading instruction

9
Some trucks have scoops for pushing.
10
Some trucks have buckets to pick things up.
11
The Lee Familys Home

• Robert and Anns favorite place was the house
  where Ann grew up.

12
General Lee

• Robert E. Lee had made a very hard choice.

13
Moving toward math instruction that aligns to
High School Standards

• Pats Class

14
Pats Class

• Pats class
• High school class for students labeled as CDMS
  (Students IQs range 24-67)
• Math class always followed a functional
  curriculum with an emphasis on counting,
  shopping, money, time

15
2 years after changing to an academic focus

• As you watch the video, think about how the
  teacher has shifted from a functional to academic
  focus?
• Are the students working on high school
  curricular goals?

16
The following school year

• How has the students thinking changed from last
  spring to this fall?

17
Functional goal within academic context enhances
the level of achievement

• Melinda

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Decrease Behavioral OutburstsUnderstand
EmotionsIncrease Vocabulary

• Mad
• Hate

• Happy
• Loving

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Examples of academically based goals

• When given five word problems with whole numbers
  up to 20 requiring any of the four basic
  mathematical processes (, -, x, /), the student
  will use manipulatives or pictures to solve four
  of the five problems correctly, write the
  equation for the problem, and explain/demonstrate
  how the solutions were determined.

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In-depth case study

• Identify core standards for a specific student
• Determine goals related to text
• Align students goals to these academic outcomes.
• Ground students learning in a specific text

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How can you support increased experience with
General Education Curriculum?
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Experiences to Identify the Local Curriculum

• Visit general education classrooms
• Talk to the colleagues about what they are
  teaching
• Attend grade level team meetings
• Explain to their colleagues the need for access
  to general education access, not just least
  restrictive environment

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Models of Curriculum Development Process

• Michael McSheehan The Beyond Access Model
• Michael Giangreco COACH Edition 3

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How can you support the curricular design process
for this population in your district?