Readings: Assignment Adaptation Sample Case Study Jeffrey Ideas for Classroom Ac

Readings:
Assignment Adaptation Sample
Case Study Jeffrey
Ideas for Classroom Accommodations
Ideas for Classroom MODIFICATIONS
Recommendations Mather, N., & Jaffe, L. (2002). Woodcock-Johnson III: Reports, Recommendations, and Strategies. New York: John Wiley & Sons
Materials:
Adapting Instruction Worksheet
Directions: Complete the Adapting Instruction Worksheet
ADDITIONAL/HELPFUL INFORMATION REGARDING THIS ASSIGNMENT:
Adaptations
As was noted in the scenario, math is not a reported difficulty for Jeffrey.  Therefore, it’s important to make modifications based on his needs (handwriting and attention) but at the same time not decrease the rigor. It’s a balancing act for sure.
Accommodations/Modifications
When choosing appropriate supports, they should have a reasonable degree of feasibility. For example, obtaining a paraprofessional to come into the classroom for a student with ADHD or a reading comprehension disability is highly unlikely. Likewise, suggestions that require constant teacher supervision or special arrangements in someone else’s classroom are incredibly time consuming to orchestrate and less likely to be executed efficiently, if, at all.
Peer buddy/tutor/helper
Pairing students with disabilities with typically functioning students to do the job a teacher or paraprofessional should be doing such as helping to manage their behavior (caveat: seating a student next to a peer for discrete modeling of appropriate behavior is ok but it’s not a student’s job to actively monitor their peers behavior) get organized, read to them, teach them missing skills, help them understand directions, write/scribe for them etc. is generally not an appropriate or effective use of peers’ time, nor, quite frankly, is it their job. The more effective method is to provide the student with special needs with strategies, supports, modified materials and/or activities, accommodations, and modifications to enable him/her to perform on a more independent level and ones which encourage self-monitoring and efficacy.
In addition, partner work should be an equal coming together with students paired according to complementary strengths so they can complete their assignment together as a group effort. For example, a good reader who can help summarize and decode reading assignments could be paired with a partner who is better at writing and can formulate and/or record the answers or information.
Extra time
Extra time is considered a modification if other students have to complete the same assignment in a specific amount of time.  Even if there is an arbitrary due date, if you allow a student to turn in an assignment after that date, they have been given more time to complete it than the others and that, in some way, has modified the expectation. If, let’s say you are giving a quiz or a test, one way around this is to allow any student some more time to take the quiz if needed.
In addition, extra time to complete assignments can be an effective modification and it is one teachers use most often.  However, it should be used with extreme caution.  And here’s why. Please consider the following scenarios:
Let’s say the rest of the class has a week to complete the assignment and Student R has 2 weeks.  What happens when the next assignment is due? Student R is still completing last week’s assignment and now has a new assignment due…I can see the makings of one incredibly overwhelmed kiddo.
Or what about allowing Student R to take home work s/he has not completed during class time? What if Student R is in High School and has 6 classes?  What if s/he is completing class work at home for each or even a few of these classes?  What if the completion of this classwork is in addition to the regularly assigned homework?  Even if Student R is in the primary grades, class work on top of homework is a recipe for disaster. Again, I see the makings of one incredibly overwhelmed kiddo.
Or, how about this scenario: Student R is in the Primary grades and is asked to stay in during lunch/recess to finish incomplete class work. If s/he is having difficulty completing classwork on a regular basis, by the time you know it, Student R has been inside for the majority of the school year and has essentially been punished for his/her disability.  Not to mention a kiddo with ADHD likely needs recess like a fish needs water.
So, while extra time can be a real gift I hope you see it can also create bigger problems.  Therefore, whenever possible, the more effective means is ALWAYS to thoughtfully and carefully revise/modify the assignments so s/he can complete them in the same amount of time as the other students.
However, having said all that, there is, of course, a caveat. Extra time is more possible and appropriate if a student is in a self-contained classroom where the teacher has much more control over other classroom conditions.  In this case, the teacher could forgo other assignments or revise the student’s schedule so as to allow more time for a larger or more in depth assignment or project.