Confounded by the range of learners in her tenth grade science class, Ms. Fernandez leaves her classroom for lunch, determined to figure something out between now and the end of the semester. She has students who have mild disabilities and require accommodations, and she can’t seem to get organized enough to remember who needs what and when. Ms. Fernandez has figured out some things already; she developed a unit outline for note taking as accommodations for two students. She noticed other students also benefited from the outline and used it to study for quizzes. She also realized that by explicitly teaching all students the strategies involved in scientific inquiry, more students than just the three with learning disabilities who seemed lost until they learned the strategies benefited. Now she needs to know more, and she always feels like she needs to do more. In what ways can she organize her content and teaching so that more students who need accommodations have those items built into her lessons? If she can build more accommodations into her design and delivery of instruction, then she can work with the special educator to focus more intensively on those students with mild disabilities who still require more specialized accommodations or adaptations.
On her way to the cafeteria to get her lunch, she sees Mr. Frank, one of the special education teachers. Briefly, she summarizes her dilemma--how to get more diverse instruction built into her lessons, while still accomplishing what’s needed for students with mild disabilities who need accommodations. Mr. Frank, who has been teaching some of Ms. Fernandez’s students some strategies like the Paraphrasing Strategy and the Test-Taking Strategy, is excited (see www.ku-crl.org for more information on Learning Strategies Instruction). He’s hearing Ms. Fernandez refer to some teaching techniques that she’s already using that he’s read about--something called "universal design for learning." They need to meet and talk more; they decide to bring the curriculum, the resources, and their best ideas to an after-school meeting next Thursday to decide what they want to do next. Clearly they’re on their way to collaborating--and solving some very real problems with diversity in secondary classrooms today--how to design and deliver responsive, challenging, and appropriate content to all students, including students with mild disabilities who require accommodations.
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