By Sara Finegan

All children can learn. This is not merely a slogan, it’s a fact.  The question, of course, is WHAT can they learn?  In our public schools, the answer must be “the state standards” for each subject area.    Now, when I first started teaching, I wasn’t so sure whether all students with learning disabilities could learn the same concepts and strategies as their general education peers.

Certainly, students with mild-moderate disabilities can with support, master the general ed curriculum.  It was the kids with moderate to severe disabilities that I questioned:  How, exactly, were kids with mental retardation, for example, supposed to be able to master ancient history or biology?

My bias continued for several years, and only gradually dissipated as I came into contact with students whose learning and cognitive impairments were more severe than my usual group of kiddos.  Nowadays, I am certain that children on all levels of academic functioning can participate with their non-disabled peers in most subject areas.

The key is for teachers, using our understanding of how kids learn and how learning disabilities impact learning, to create the means for kids to access the curriculum.  In order to do this, we need to be creative, knowledgeable, and methodical.

The Foundation:  Know the Standards

I have been teaching the grade-level standards to my Special Day Class students every year for the last 10  years, and have spent a great deal of time collaborating with my general ed colleagues to make sure kids with IEPs in the gen ed environment are able to access grade-level curriculum.  Even so, I have to get the standards out out and revisit them when I begin the process of planning units and lessons.   So will you.

As you read them, think about how a child might be able to demonstrate mastery of each of the strands within the standards.  Think about which strands in the standards are the most important in terms of setting a foundation for future learning. When I started creating the inclusion unit bins for my peers last month, I began by printing out the third, fourth and fifth grade standards for social studies and science.

I took one set at a time, starting with the fifth grade science units.  For each of the science standards sets (physical sciences, life sciences, earth sciences) I examined the different strands and highlighted the ones I thought students at all levels could access.  Strands that seemed a bit more than any of my students could meet I simply simplified or adjusted to create a framework within which differentiated instruction could be provided.

I went over the standards several times, each time with a different student or ability level in mind.  In this summer’s case, I’ve been creating these units of resources in grades 3, 4 and 5 for kids in the following ability categories:

• a student who thinks at about a four year old level;
• a group of fifth graders who read at a first or second grade level;
• a fourth grader with mild autism and profound anxiety and sensory overload susceptibility who operates at a second grade level;
• a group of fourth graders whose focus and attention deficits require substantial interventions;
• kids with auditory processing deficits;
• numerous kids at each grade level with profound language deficits, be they EL or expressive/receptive disabilities.

Here’s an example of what I was working on:

Grade 5:  Earth Sciences

Standard--Water on Earth moves between the oceans and land through the processes of evaporation and condensation. As a basis for understanding this concept:

1. Students know most of Earth’s water is present as salt water in the oceans, which cover most of Earth’s surface.
2. Students know when liquid water evaporates, it turns into water vapor in the air and can reappear as a liquid when cooled or as a solid if cooled below the freezing point of water.
3. Students know water vapor in the air moves from one place to another and can form fog or clouds, which are tiny droplets of water or ice, and can fall to Earth as rain, hail, sleet, or snow.
4. Students know that the amount of fresh water located in rivers, lakes, under-ground sources, and glaciers is limited and that its availability can be extended by recycling and decreasing the use of water.
5. Students know the origin of the water used by their local communities.

Became…

Standard--Water on Earth moves between the oceans and land through the processes of evaporation and condensation. As a basis for understanding this concept students will:

• Learn about the water cycle and identify the parts of the cycle.
• Learn about each phase of the water cycle and what you might see during it.
• Identify water when it appears in each form:  liquid, solid, vapor.
• Know the difference between fresh and salt water and their sources.
• Understand that freshwater is limited and that conservation and recycling it is important.

And thus…

Standard--Energy from the Sun heats Earth unevenly, causing air movements that result in changing weather patterns. As a basis for understanding this concept:

1. Students know uneven heating of Earth causes air movements (convection currents).
2. Students know the influence that the ocean has on the weather and the role that the water cycle plays in weather patterns.
3. Students know the causes and effects of different types of severe weather.
4. Students know how to use weather maps and data to predict local weather and know that weather forecasts depend on many variables.
5. Students know that the Earth’s atmosphere exerts a pressure that decreases with distance above Earth’s surface and that at any point it exerts this pressure equally in all directions.

Became…

Standard--Energy from the Sun heats Earth unevenly, causing air movements that result in changing weather patterns.   As a basis for understanding this concept, students will:

• Identify weather types and climate vocabulary:  sun, sunny, mild, harsh, winter, summer, fall, spring, storm, calm, rain, hail, sleet, snow wind, breeze, hurricane, tornado.
• Identify influences on the weather: ocean, water cycle
• Use weather maps to show where different weather types and climates can be found in our nation.

I went through the same process for the social studies units.  In most cases, I was able to simplify and rework the standards.  Thus, for example:

Grade 5:  Social Studies

Standard--Students know the location of the current 50 states and the names of their capitals.

Became…

• Sing the Fifty Nifty United States.
• Label at least 10 states on a map, including California, and identify the capitals of New York, California, Illinois, Florida, and Texas.

And…

Standard--Students describe the major pre-Columbian settlements, including the cliff dwellers and pueblo people of the desert Southwest, the American Indians of the Pacific Northwest, the nomadic nations of the Great Plains, and the woodland peoples east of the Mississippi River.

1. Describe how geography and climate influenced the way various nations lived and adjusted to the natural environment, including locations of villages, the distinct structures that they built, and how they obtained food, clothing, tools, and utensils.
2. Describe their varied customs and folklore traditions.
3. Explain their varied economies and systems of government.

Became…

Standard--Students describe the major pre-Columbian settlements, including the cliff dwellers and pueblo people of the desert Southwest, the American Indians of the Pacific Northwest, the nomadic nations of the Great Plains, and the woodland peoples east of the Mississippi River.

• Identify the regions of the U.S. and some of the the land masses, animals, and vegetation that might be found in each and create a visual display of one region in depth.

• Identify the Indian cultures that lived in the Pacific Northwest, Central and Great Plains, Desert Southwest, Eastern Woodlands and their lifestyle, including foods, hunting prey, clothing, and housing of each.
• Read legends and myths from each of the regions.

Don’t Just Try and Wing It

Don’t make the mistake of over-generalizing by failing to really know the standards for each unit.  The risks are numerous:

• You and your colleagues may become overwhelmed by the task.  There’s a huge difference between “How do I teach this child about Westward Expansion” and “Ok, this child can learn how to identify the modes of transportation used in pioneer life, read about Lewis and Clark,  use a chart to label a map of expansion routes, and states created as a result of expansion; and, oh, since earlier this year she learned about the landforms and geography of North America, she can now use those same maps she labeled to think about the terrain along the Oregon Trail.”

• Using only the class textbook to identify what needs to be learned can lead you down the wrong path.   Entire sections on economic development in a textbook, which are too complicated for a child with learning disabilities to grasp,  are just the authors’ way of addressing a standard, and your own review of what your State expects may reveal more manageable concepts.

• There’s a danger in just taking one part of a set of standards and ignoring the others when you don’t piece out all of the different strands.   It is perfectly acceptable to drop one or more strands after you’ve looked at them closely, but it is not okay to ignore them completely.  I know, for example, that this strand…Identify the significance and leaders of the First Great Awakening, which marked a shift in religious ideas, practices, and allegiances in the colonial period, the growth of religious toleration, and free exercise of religion… is not going to be manageable with any of my students.  But I can plan activities in which kids learn about freedom of religion and religious tolerance as two of the foundation stones in American democracy.

• There is a great temptation, especially when we lack time for in-depth planning, to make assumptions about our students and about the curriculum standards that are inappropriate.    Teachers who are rushing through the planning process may think that skipping steps saves time, and perhaps it does.  But the result may be that we have short-changed our students by skipping curriculum and standards that they can and should learn, or that we overlook key skills and information they need to know before moving to the next unit.

The obligation to carefully piece through each of the standards and their related strands for the units we are required to teach is non-negotiable, in my book.   We are honor-bound, in crafting lessons and activities for our students with special needs, to be experts in what they need to know.  Only armed with this knowledge can we begin the process of figuring out how to help them know it and use it.

accessing grade-level · accommodations · grade-level standards · Inclusion · Sara Finegan · science · social studies · special education · standards

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