Vocabulary (Foundations, Chapters 1 and 5) Flashcards
Obj. 1: Understand how to set the context for systematic instruction. Obj. 2 Apply effective practices.
What is the problem with the term “Moderate to Severe Disabilities” used in your textbook?
“Moderate to Severe Disabilities” is ableist language. This term emphasizes deficits versus characterizing students by their support needs. Referencing support needs better aligns with a social model of dis/ability which means that instead of viewing students as having deficits or problems, we need to work to provide optimal support across social, community, and physical environments and within academic and functional learning activities to support students to access a quality of life.
In this class we use the language: minimal support needs, medium support needs, high support needs, and extensive support needs to characterize students’ levels of support needs.
The image below shows abeleism on the left side and a social model of disability on the right side.
Why is inclusion important for curriculum reasons?
Provides access to general education curriculum by a general education curriculum, required by federal law: The Individuals with Disability Education Act (2004). And to a general education curriculum expert. Please note as a special educator you are not a general education content expert, rather you specialize in providing accommodations and modifications and specialized instructional strategies like systematic instruction.
Why is inclusion important for learning reasons?
Provides access to same-age peers without disabilities, allowing for observational learning in peers with disabilities in academic and functional curriculum, including social communication and other adaptive behaviors. Also provides opportunities to develop friendships.
What is “Zero Degree of Inference (Brown, 1976)?
Never infer that a student cannot participate in an inclusive environment unless there is recent and reliable data to show otherwise.
What is the “Least Dangerous Assumption” (Donnellan, 1984)?
Make decisions based on what will cause the least amount of harm based on the absence of recent and reliable data.
What is the “Principle of Parsimony” (Etzel & LeBlanc,
1979)?
When developing educational programs for students, select the strategies that are equally effective as other strategies, but require less time or other resources to implement.
What is the “Criterion of Ultimate Functioning” (Brown et al., 1976)?
Support your learners to function as independently as possible in the least restrictive environment.
Unsure what “Least Restrictive Environment” or “LRE” means? Click on the following link
What is “Applied Behavior Analysis?”
A set of instructional and behavior management based strategies that are evidence based for learners with mid, high, and extensive support needs. Some applied behavior analysis strategies are also research or evidence-based for learners with fewer support needs.
What is a “Standards-Based Curriculum”
Academic core content that is driven by grade-level State and Common Core Standards. Learners with high and extensive support needs will access the Common Core Standards through the Dynamic Learning Maps Essential Elements in ELA, Math, and Science. For other content areas, it may be necessary to modify learning standards to be achievable for students with high and extensive support needs. The latter was addressed in SED 361: Education of Learners [Perceived as Having] Severe Disabilities.
What is the purpose of an “Ecological Inventory?”
The purpose of an ecological inventory is to identify skills that a student needs to learn to be independent across the environments that they need or want to access and participate in. As the special education teacher, you will identify these environments with the help of the family and their allies. You will then go into these environments to assess the skills and activities that your student needs to participate in to be independent and experience a quality of life. Skills to identify include (a) education (including vocational [work training] for older students); (b) community (e.g., shopping, traveling); (c) domestic (e.g., laundry, house cleaning, yard work, cooking); (d) recreation and leisure (e.g., basketball, using social media). Skills are prioritized as current or future. Complex skills are broken down into small steps for teaching and learning.
What does it mean to “add functional curriculum to academic curriculum?”
This is a strategy to maximize learning outcomes for any student who has medium, high, or extensive support needs. All students are required to access and make progress in grade-level academic curriculum. However, these populations have very high needs for functional learning outcomes. These might include communication, behavior, social, health, mobility, self-care, independent living, etc. skills. Therefore time is precious. Adding instruction in a functional curriculum while teaching academic skills maximizes students’ instructional time and outcomes. One example is teaching a student to use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to increase expressive communication by asking WH questions during academic lessons.
What does it mean to “add academic curriculum to functional curriculum?”
This is a strategy to maximize learning outcomes for any student who has medium, high, or extensive support needs. All students are required to access and make progress in grade-level academic curriculum. However, these populations have very high needs for functional learning outcomes. These might include communication, behavior, social, health, mobility, self-care, independent living, etc. skills. Therefore time is precious. Adding instruction in academic skills to a functional curriculum maximizes students’ instructional time and outcomes. One example is while teaching food preparation skills, also teaching academic health standards on foodborne pathogens.
Chapter 1 by Belva Collins asks to consider a number of questions when considering adding academic content to functional content. See if you can remember what these questions are!
- How can the content be applied in the real world both now and in the
future? - How does the content form a foundation for the instruction of future
content? - What skills are necessary to master the content?
- If the content is to result in a concept, what examples and non-examples
can be used during instruction to facilitate the formation of concepts? - How will learners be expected to generalize the acquired content?
- How can maintenance be ensured? (NOTE: Maintenance means that the
learner will remember what they learned after the objective is met) - Is mastery at a set criterion necessary for content to be useful to learners
or to allow progression in a determined sequence? - Will learners have the opportunity to revisit content at future points in the
curriculum? - Can targeted skills be taught in isolation, or is it necessary for learners to
master a broader scope of skills for content to be useful?
What is a strategy identified in your chapter for adding functional content to academic content?
Creating a schedule matrix across the student’s day to identify natural opportunities to work on functional skills. For example, in science, art, and culinary classes, hand washing may be appropriate to teach.
Systematic instruction is a form of specially designed instruction. What is specially designed instruction?
A large umbrella of behavioral and specially designed instructional practices tailored to an individual student.
How does systematic instruction connect to high-leverage practices?
High-leverage practices consist of 22 practices around four areas: collaboration, assessment, social/emotional/behavior, and instruction, which have been shown to be effective.
What is the difference between evidence-based practice, research-based practice, and promising practice?
Evidence-based practice, or EBP for short, includes a body of research that meets rigorous quality indicators. The body of evidence for systematic instruction focuses on populations that occur in small numbers of individuals with disabilities. Therefore, a research method called single-case design is used to study populations as small as 1 individual, though more commonly it is 3 individuals. To be an EBP it must meet the What Works Clearinghouse Criteria and other standards in the field for single-case design. In contrast, a research-based practice has evidence to show it is effective but does not meet the criteria for an EBP. Finally, promising practices may have few studies showing positive effects and could also have other studies with contradictory findings. In short, promising practices may lack sufficient evidence to prove they are effective/ineffective and more time to research the practice may be needed.
