DOCUMENT RESUME ED 429 381 EC 307 115 AUTHOR Kame'enui, Edward J.; Simmons, Deborah C. TITLE Toward Successful Inclusion of Students with Disabilities: The Architecture of Instruction. Volume 1: An Overview of Materials Adaptations. ERIC/OSEP Mini-Library. INSTITUTION ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education, Reston, VA. ERIC/OSEP Special Project on Interagency Information Dissemination.; Council for Exceptional Children, Reston, VA. SPONS AGENCY Special Education Programs (ED/OSERS), Washington, DC. ISBN-0-86586-338-5 ISBN PUB DATE 1999-00-00 NOTE 65p. CONTRACT ED-99-00-0026 AVAILABLE FROM Council for Exceptional Children, 1920 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191-1589; Tel: 703-620-3660; Tel: 703-264-9446 (TTY); Fax: 703-264-9494; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.cec.sped.org (Stock No. P5305). PUB TYPE Guides Non-Classroom (055) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Accessibility (for Disabled); Beginning Reading; *Curriculum Development; *Disabilities; Educational Principles; Elementary Secondary Education; *Inclusive Schools; Individualized Instruction; *Instructional Design; Instructional Materials; Mainstreaming; *Media Adaptation; *Regular and Special Education Relationship; Teaching Methods; Teaching Models; Writing Skills ABSTRACT This book offers guidelines for designing the cognitive supports to instructional materials for students with disabilities in general education classrooms. Chapter 1, an introduction, describes the contexts of change, including the changing demography of learners, which has increased the curricular and instructional complexity that teachers face in general education classrooms. Chapter 2 defines and describes curriculum design as an important and distinctive requirement to provide cognitive access to general education content for students with disabilities. Chapter 3 offers six principles of effective curriculum design in the modification of general education content. These principles stress big ideas, conspicuous strategies, mediated scaffolding, strategic integration, judicious review, and primed background knowledge. Chapter 4 offers a framework for evaluating and adapting general education curriculum materials AO applies the six curriculum design principles to a range of general education content, including the areas of beginning reading and writing. (Contains 75 references.) (DB) ******************************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. * * ******************************************************************************** ELI,/ SEP MIni-Library ADAPTING CURRICULAR Volume 1: MATERIALS An Overview of Materials Adaptations Toward Successful Inclusion of Students with Disabilities: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement The Architecture CATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION E CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as of Instruction received from the person or organization originating it 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality ° Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy - II I D - Ink - - - ILERit; - - D - S RT PNV AVAII ARE The Council for Exceptional Children CEC: Leading the Way The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is the largest professional organization internationally committed to improving educational out- comes for individuals with exceptionalities. CEC accomplishes its world- wide mission on behalf of educators and others working with children with exceptionalities by advocating for appropriate government policies; setting professional standards; providing continuing professional develop- ment; and assisting professionals to obtain conditions and resources nec- essary for effective professional practice. CEC: The Unifying Force of a Diverse Field The Council for Exceptional Children, a private nonprofit membership organization, was established in 1922. CEC is an active network of 59 State/Provincial Federations, 900 Chapters, 17 Specialized Divisions, and 275 Subdivisions with reach in over 40 countries. The CEC Information Center: International Resource for Topics in Special and Gifted Education The Council for Exceptional Children is a major publisher of special edu- cation literature and produces a comprehensive catalog semiannually. journals such as TEACHING Exceptional Children (published six times a year) and Exceptional Children (published quarterly) and a newsletter, CEC Today, reach over 100,000 readers and provide a wealth of information on the latest teaching strategies, research, resources, and special education news. To help those in the field respond to their ever-increasing classroom chal- lenges, CEC is proud to release Toward Successful Inclusion of Students with Disabilities: The Architecture of Instruction. The Council for Exceptional Children 1920 Association Drive Reston, Virginia 20191-1589 Voice: 703/620-3660 TTY: 703/264-9446 Fax: 703/264-9494 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.cec.sped.org 3 Adapting Curricular Materials Toward Successful Inclusion of Students with Disabilities: The Architecture of Instruction Edward J. Kame'enui and Deborah C. Simmons Published by The Council for Exceptional Children ERIC A Product of the ERIC/OSEP Special Project 4 The ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kameenui, Edward J. : the Toward successful inclusion of students with disabilities architecture of instruction : an overview of curricular adaptations / Edward J. Kame'enui and Deborah C. Simmons. (Adapting curricular materials ; v. 1) p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ). ISBN 0-86586-338-5 (paper) 2. Handicapped students 1. Inclusive educationUnited States. EducationUnited StatesCurricula. 3. Curriculum changeUnited I. Simmons, Deborah C. States. II. Title. III. Series. LC1201.K36 1999 371.9'046dc21 99-12955 CIP ISBN 0-86586338-5 A product of the ERIC/OSEP Special Project, the ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education. Published in 1999 by The Council for Exceptional Children, 1920 Association Drive, Reston, Virginia 20191-1589 Stock No. P5305 This publication was prepared with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, contract no. ED-99-00-0026. Contractors undertaking such projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their judgment in professional and technical matters. Prior to publication the manuscript was submitted for critical review and determination of professional competence. This publication has met such standards. Points of view, however, do not necessarily represent the official view or opinions of either The Council for Exceptional Children or the Depart- ment of Education. Printed in the United States of America 10 7 4 2 9 8 6 5 3 1 Contents Preface, v Introduction: From Physical to Cognitive Access 1. Building Cognitive Ramps and Scaffolds, 1 Focus of the Book, 2 Student Diversity and Instructional Complexity, 3 2. Curriculum Design, Symbolic (Cognitive) Information, and Curriculum Access, 4 Symbolic and Nonsymbolic Information, 4 3. Six Principles of Effective Curriculum Design, 8 Summary of the Principles, 8 Big Ideas, 8 I. Big Ideas Analysis, 11 Conspicuous Strategies, 15 II. Conspicuous Strategies Analysis, 16 III. Mediated Scaffolding, 17 Mediated Scaffolding Analysis, 19 IV. Strategic Integration, 21 Strategic Integration Analysis, 22 V Judicious Review, 23 Judicious Review Analysis, 24 VI. Primed Background Knowledge, 25 Primed Background Knowledge Analysis, 26 Summary of Analysis of the Six Principles of Effective Curriculum Design, 27 Application of Instructional Design Principles 4. to Beginning Reading and Expository Writing, 29 Beginning Reading, 29 Big Idea: Phonological Awareness, 29 Written Expression, 33 Big Ideas, 33 Conspicuous Strategies, 34 Mediated Scaffolding, 36 Strategic Integration, 40 Primed Background Knowledge, 42 Judicious Review, 43 5. Conclusion, 44 Bibliography and References, 46 iv Preface Teachers in inclusive classrooms regularly face the difficult task of hav- ing to modify the curriculum to reach all of their students, many of whom have special needs. Students with disabilities, whether physical, emotional, or cognitive in nature, respond to the curriculum different- ly from other students. For example, depending on the disability itself and other factors affecting their ability to succeed academically, stu- dents may need modifications such as advance and graphic organizers, instructional scaffolding, additional practice and time to complete assignments, and/or alternative media (e.g., large-print materials, audiotapes, or electronic materials). Without specific modifications, the standard curricular materials can be inadequate for these students, and too frequently they can find themselves blocked from access to essen- tial aspects of the curriculum. Teachers must adjust the materials or their presentation to break down the barriers and assist these students in learning. The IDEA Amendments of 1997 require that students with disabil- ities have access to the general education curriculum. This legislative requirement makes the accessibility of curricular materials an issue of even greater importance than it otherwise would be. To meet the goal of equal access to the curriculum for everyone, to enable each student to engage with his or her lessons in a meaningful way, teachers must be prepared to provide useful alternatives in terms of both curricular materials and instructional delivery. Well-adapted materials without an effective method of teaching are practically useless, but with the prop- er tools and instructional methods, a good teacher encourages each member of the class to participate directly in the learning experience. Unfortunately, teachers who have to work with standard, off-the- shelf curricular materials usually have little time to develop accommo- dations for their classes. They need a guidebook that outlines success- ful adaptation strategies in clear, concise language, something that demonstrates the link between purpose and procedure for a teacher in a classroom of diverse learners. This ERIC/OSEP Mini-Library was designed to fill the gap for educators who are already engaged in cur- riculum adaptations as well as those who have not yet begun. The three volumes in this series Outline the conceptual strategies behind instructional adaptations. Present characteristics of classroom materials that allow for effec- tive adaptations. Illustrate those adaptations in brief, process-oriented chapters and vignettes. The adaptations describe best or promising practices that are based upon relevant special education research. The Mini-Library consists of three books: 1. An introductory overview on general principles of adaptation of curricular materials, written by Edward J. Kame'enui and Deborah Simmons of the University of Oregon. 2. A volume on adaptation for kindergarten through fifth grade, using the content areas of reading and math, by Jeanne Shay Schumm of the University of Miami. 3. A volume on adaptation in grades three through eight, in language arts, social studies, and science, by Jean Schumaker and Keith Lenz of the University of Kansas. Clearly, three short volumes cannot cover the range of disabilities and other diverse learning needs that teachers have to confront. We have limited our consideration to mild cognitive disabilities and have focused on adapting materials rather than on delivery (although in practice the two go hand in hand). For those who wish to read more about adaptations, the books provide references to additional resources on effective teaching methods and research. A Word on Universal Design This Mini-Library proceeds from the assumption that teachers who have to adapt instruction for their students usually don't have a say in choosing the curriculum or designing the materials before they are expected to use them. This series of publications offers the means to facilitate that process. If the developers of curricular materials antici- vi pated some of the needs that teachers face in inclusive classrooms, such as students who read below grade level or who have organizational or attention-deficit problems, and if they then designed accommodations for these needs into the materials, that would free up teachers to devote more time to teaching and less to adapting the curriculum. While this may sound like an ideal situation, actually it is neither unrealistic nor far in the future of public school classrooms. Over the past few years, there has been a concerted effort in special education to promote cur- ricular materials with built-in adaptations, particularly in digital media, that are flexible and customizable. Known as universal design for learning, the movement is based on the principles behind the universal design movement for access to products and environments for all users, regardless of sensory or physical disabilities. The educational strategies behind universal design for learning basically underlie any sort of classroom adaptations. When a teacher adapts a curriculum, she or he works to accommodate as many student needs as possible by developing an array of potential supports. An unadapted curriculum generally is one-size-fits-all, but adapted mate- rials can be tailored to the students. In this way, universally designed materials can accommodate students where they need it, but those sup- ports are incorporated during the development phase, rather than hav- ing to be added after the fact. The same strategies that teachers use to adapt inefficient or inconsiderate materials go into universally designed curricular materials. A history text, for example, is written to include graphic organizers and strategic questions to help students who would find a typical text inaccessible but also to provide a chal- lenge for those who would otherwise find it boring or unengaging. A digital reading program can highlight the text word for word or sen- tence by sentence for students who have difficulty following along by themselves, or it can say the words out loud for those who need more familiarity with the sounds of what they read. Such adaptations could be designed and provided by teachersand this Mini-Library pro- vides a number of successful examplesbut the more resources that come packaged with the curriculum, the greater its flexibility and the less it has to be modified by the teacher. Although materials that incorporate aspects of universal design have yet to become routine in schools, school districts in several states already are using preadapted books and digital media in their class- rooms. For example, under a Department of Education grant, the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) is currently working with the State of New Hampshire to study the potential of technology to promote literacy for all students. This project, now implemented in 16 New England schools, uses a CD-ROM-based instructional pro- gram, WiggleWorks, that employs principles of universal design for VII