Teaching Special Students in General Education Classrooms 7th edition

1
Chapter 4

• Adapting Instruction

4.1
2
Spear-Swerling, L., Sternberg, R.J. (2001).
What science offers teachers of reading.
Learning Disabilities Research and Practice,
16(1), 51-57.
Not long ago, one of us heard a disturbing but
revealing story about a school district
participating in a research project on early
intervention with at-risk readers. Like other
successful interventions in reading, this program
combined explicit instruction in word analysis
(i.e., using knowledge about the alphabetic
principle to read unfamiliar words), popularly
known as phonics instruction, with ample practice
in reading connected text and developing
comprehension. However, the school district in
question decided to drop the program-despite
convincing data of its effectiveness with their
own students-because, said district
administrators, it was against their philosophy
to teach phonics.
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Spear-Swerling, L., Sternberg, R.J. (2001).
What science offers teachers of reading.
Learning Disabilities Research and Practice,
16(1), 51-57.
In contrast, phonics instruction is sometimes
presented as some sort of magic elixir for
reading difficulties. For instance, on a recent
television news show, a prominent teacher
educator demonstrated his highly structured
phonics program with a group of at-risk
youngsters, claiming not only that all children
learned to read easily with his program, but that
they could do so in kindergarten.
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Spear-Swerling, L., Sternberg, R.J. (2001).
What science offers teachers of reading.
Learning Disabilities Research and Practice,
16(1), 51-57.
There is a very substantial research literature
in the field of reading, but from these and many
other incidents, one wouldnt know it. Instead,
as in the first illustration, educational
decisions that might be made by reference to a
base of scientific knowledge frequently are
treated as though they are entirely a matter of
personal belief. And, without knowledge of the
scientific evidence about reading, it is
difficult for anyone, including educators, to
evaluate sweeping claims about the effectiveness
of specific programs, like those in the second
illustration.
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Spear-Swerling, L., Sternberg, R.J. (2001).
What science offers teachers of reading.
Learning Disabilities Research and Practice,
16(1), 51-57.
In this article we examine what science offers
teachers of reading, both general and special
educators. Although we think that science has
something to offer teachers in many domains, we
concentrate on reading for several reasons.
First, there is probably more scientific
knowledge about how children learn to read, and
about why some children experience reading
difficulties, than about any other field of
education. Second, despite this large body of
evidence, the debate about how, and even whether,
scientific evidence should inform educational
practice has been particularly fierce in the
domain of reading. And finally, reading
difficulties are a common reason for failure in
school, as well as the most frequent reason for
identifying children as needing learning
disabilities service (Moats Lyon, 1993).
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Spear-Swerling, L., Sternberg, R.J. (2001).
What science offers teachers of reading.
Learning Disabilities Research and Practice,
16(1), 51-57.
There is a research-to-practice gap in many
areas of education, not only in reading.
misconceptions about the relationship between
research and practice - such as the idea that
researchers do not respect teachers or that
empirical research in education is a failure -
are common in the professional literature.
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Spear-Swerling, L., Sternberg, R.J. (2001).
What science offers teachers of reading.
Learning Disabilities Research and Practice,
16(1), 51-57.
Why does this disconnect between educators and
scientific knowledge exist? One important reason
may be that many teachers simply are not exposed
to scientific research on reading during their
preservice or inservice preparation. especially
at the preservice level, teachers usually receive
only a cursory introduction to reading
instruction (Moats, 1995, 1999). Both general
and special educators have reported that their
real education occurs after they have entered a
classroom (Lyon, Vaasen, Toomey, 1989).
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Spear-Swerling, L., Sternberg, R.J. (2001).
What science offers teachers of reading.
Learning Disabilities Research and Practice,
16(1), 51-57.
One study (Vaughn, Moody, Schumm, 1998), in
which special education teachers were observed
delivering reading instruction to elementary
students with learning disabilities over the
course of a year, found that there was little
direct instruction addressing word analysis,
perhaps reflecting teachers lack of preparation
in this area.
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Spear-Swerling, L., Sternberg, R.J. (2001).
What science offers teachers of reading.
Learning Disabilities Research and Practice,
16(1), 51-57.
Of course, based on practical experience,
educators may have excellent intuitions about
what is effective in reading instruction, and
many teachers without knowledge of scientific
research still teach well neither is scientific
knowledge about reading sufficient to make one a
good teacher. Nevertheless, it makes little
sense for educators to be cut off from what
science has to offer. Most important,
knowledgeable teachers are essential for ensuring
that scientific research on reading benefits
children.
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Instruction What works?

• Early educational research focused on teacher
  variables like whether teachers were liked by
  students and other school personnel (p. 1).
• In the late 50s interest in effective teaching
  arose after the launch of Sputnik and tended to
  focus on sciences, specifically new math.
  This type of research and development effort
  failed to take into account the role of teachers,
  focusing entirely on content and curriculum.
  Because of this, little knowledge was gained on
  effects of teacher behaviors. some
  classroomssucceeded while other classrooms
  failed.

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Instruction What works?
In the early 1970s, researchersfocused on
behaviors exhibited by teachers that were linked
to student achievement gains. This research was
important because it finally began to address the
issue of what teachers could do to maximize
student learning. More recently, the roles of
variables such as meaningfulness, concreteness,
and active thinking have been investigated.
These variables also have been found to be
associated positively with student learning.
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Instruction What works?
teachers who learn and practice certain teaching
skills are more effective than teachers who do
not. The elitist notion that anyone can teach
also has been refuted, with teaching now defined
more strictly than just a presence in a
classroom. It is now known that teachers can
manipulate their behavior to make critical
differences in student learning. This fact is as
true for special education as it is for regular
education (p. 2).
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Instruction What works?
educators can increase the amount of time spent
on academic tasks and can improve instruction by
(a) actively engaging students on task during
instruction (b) presenting information in clear,
concise ways (c) asking students questions
relevant to the instructional objectives (d)
keeping students actively involved in relevant
instructional activities and (e) monitoring
students performance (p. 3).
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Correlations
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Teacher Effectiveness Literature tells us that
major influences on student succes are
Teachers maintain an academic focus Teachers
maintain direction and control in the management
of the classroom learning environment. Teachers
hold high expectations for academic
progress Students are accountable for
satisfactory completion of classroom
work. Students work together, showing cooperation
rather than competition. The affective climate of
the classroom learning environment is not
negative. (p. 81) Read pp. 81-82.
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Call up meta.ppt slides
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Effect Size - Meta-Analysis
Meta-analysis aggregates findings across a
particular area of research by converting data in
each study to a common metric or effect size
(ES). ESs may range from zero (meaning no
observable effect) to one or greater and may be
thought of aa standard deviation unit. While
a particular ES possesses no inherent value, ESs
approaching the range of .40 or greater
conventionally tend to be considered
significant.
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Effect Size - Meta-Analysis
Distribute Some methods are more effective than
others by Lloyd, Forness, and Kavale. Note
interventions that work or have
promise Mnemonic Strategies 1.62 Enhancing
Reading Comprehension 1.13 Behavior Modification
.93 Direct Instruction .84 Cognitive Behavior
Modification .71 Formative Evaluation .70 Early
intervention .68
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Stages of Learning

• Acquisition
• Maintenance
• Generalization

4.2
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Instruction Fig. 4-1 (Read p. 82)
4.3
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Principles of Instruction

• Select Appropriate Learning Task
• Break the Learning Task into Teachable
  Subcomponents
• Task analysis
• Use systematic Instructional Procedures
• Demonstration
• Guided practice
• Independent practice

4.4
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What About Discovery Learning?
In discovery learning information and skills are
not taught directly. Instead, the teacher
arranges the learning environment and students
explore that environment as they attempt to
discover the facts, concepts, principles and
skills that make up the school curriculum.
Discovery approaches are considered
constructivist because students are expected to
construct their own knowledge by building on the
prior knowledge they bring to the learning task.
For example, proponents of the whole-language
approach to reading and writing instruction
recommend discovery learning. Students are
expected to become proficient readers and writers
by exposure to and participation in many
experiences involving written language not
through direct teaching.
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What About Discovery Learning?
Unfortunately, some students do not succeed in
programs in which discovery learning is the norm.
In fact, Mayer (2004) asserts that there is
sufficient research evidence to make any
reasonable person skeptical about the benefits of
discovery learning. Students with mild
disabilities and others at risk for academic
learning problems are more likely to succeed when
instruction is presented using the principles of
direct teaching.
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You make the call.
As Morsink and Lenk point out, effective
instruction of students with special needs can
take place in any setting, general education or
special, if teachers (a) engage in
teacher-directed instruction, (b) provide
students with opportunities for active academic
responding, (c) use high rates of contingent
reinforcement, (d) adapt teaching strategies to
accommodate individual differences
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What About Discovery Learning?
Cancel this slide - Read p. 85.
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More Principles of Instruction

• Consider Both Speed and Accuracy (p. 89)
• Maximize Engaged Time (p. 90)
• Give Clear Task Directions (p. 90)
• Provide Consequences for Successful Task
  Performance (p. 91)
• Check for Maintenance and Generalization (p. 93)
• Try the Least Intrusive Intervention First (if
  change is needed) (p. 94)

4.5
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Methods for Gathering Data

• Determine the Students Current Levels of
  Performance
• Curriculumbased assessment
• Inventories
• Criterion-referenced tests (Brigance)
• Evaluate Progress
• Rubrics
• Analyze Reasons for Task Failure
• Error analysis

4.6
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Strategies for Adapting instruction

• Modify Materials and Activities
• Clarify Task Directions
• Add Prompts
• Teach to Specific Student Errors
• Change Teaching Procedures
• Present Additional Skills and Information
• Provide Additional Guided Practice
• Make Consequences for Successful Performance More
  Attractive
• Slow the Pace of Instruction

4.7
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More Strategies for Adapting instruction

• Alter Task Requirements
• Change the Criteria for Successful Performance
  (Increase Standards)
• Change the Task Characteristics
• Break Task into Smaller Subtasks
• Select Alternate Task
• Substitute a Similar but Easier Task
• Substitute a Prerequisite Task

4.8
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Making Test Accommodations

• Directions/Instructions
• Demonstrations
• Time Limits
• Presentation Mode
• Response Mode
• Aids
• Prompts and Cues
• Feedback
• Positive Reinforcement
• Physical Location

4.9