One of the many challenges of being a special education teacher (out of the thousands) that I have faced over the years is adapting standards while meeting the intense needs of my kiddos. How do you meet all of the indicators of a lesson such as “asking & answering questions to peers” when your students are nonverbal? Whether you teach in a state that implements common core standards or not, there is still a push of grade level expectations that we want to keep in mind as we plan! I feel like I have finally figured out a way to modify a grade level lesson while still achieving the grade level standard and meeting the individual needs of my students! Throughout the week, I teach a lesson that involves every aspect my students need to work on from basic literacy skills to fine motor.
In a nutshell:
- Standards are chosen based on my school’s grade level’s scope and sequence that is created over the summer
- I find out what grades are learning about those months to keep themes in sync (quick conversation or email will do!)
- I plan a month at a time
- I keep holidays, seasons and monthly themes in mind
- I incorporate activities that meet their individual IEP goals
Monthly Planning
Monthly Planning has been key! I like to see the whole month laid out so that I make sure everything is included from standards to the monthly theme and seasons! I write the weekly standard I want to target under the date and find an appropriate book or two that matches the standard. I am extremely fortunate to have access to Reading A to Z in my county however if this is not something you have, you just may need to do some more digging. Many of my ideas have come from the literacy units on The Autism Helper!
“I Can” statements and Learning Targets
Just like in the general education classrooms, I also use “I Can” statements. To keep it simple, I created a general board of standards and simply circle the one for the week. We practice reading them and I reference the schedule of activities that will help us meet that standard.
By now you may be thinking, “That’s great and all but my kiddo is working on basic matching skills and has limited language”. That’s ok! But do not stay in this mindset for too long or you will never feel like your kiddo is ready for a grade level standard! Grab an organizer that fits the lesson and modify and add structure! Let’s take a first grade language-arts standard as an example (RL.1.3-Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details).
- Pick out an appropriate story and organizers:
- Think about your kiddos needs:
Do they need to work on identical matching? Fine-motor skills? Language? Colors? Basic literacy skills? Not even sure where to truly start? Check out this post on ABLLS !
- Adapt!
For this specific group of kiddos, I have some who can independently cut, paste, and follow directions with verbal prompts and others who are working on identical matching skills. I use Boardmaker Online to create pre-made picture choices and adjust prompting level based on each student. I complete some organizers with pictures and those kiddos practice matching the characters, setting, and events while others can follow along and complete with verbal prompting!
- Keep it age appropriate!
Even if you are working with 8th graders who are functioning around a kindergarten level, you still want to keep it appropriate. It may be tempting to use a cute, easy kindergarten text but bump it up! While the actual text complexity may be difficult, students can still work on matching characters with real photos and sequencing events with rich text!
While you are teaching a modified grade level standard, your assistants could run a group of leveled language arts curriculum. Next time I will be talking about how to incorporate those awesome TAH leveled curriculums into your weekly literacy and math rotations! Happy adapting, you’ve got this!
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35 Responses
Wonderful planning and keeping kids first
How lucky your students are to have a teacher that takes so much time to plan, create and keeps her students’ potential a priority!
A question I feel I am asking all the time!! This gave me so many great ideas to take from and I can’t wait to try it out in my classroom! I love all the pictures you provided, so so helpful to me! Love the part about keeping it age appropriate, also. This is so important to remember as I feel it is easy to get side tracked with a cute idea, however we must remember how old the student really is. Thanks again!
So glad you found this helpful!!!!! Thanks for reading and reaching out! 🙂 Gina
Thank you so much! Gina 🙂
Thank you so much, I appreciate that!!! 🙂 Gina
What an amazing post! I appreciate all of the hard work you do. This is my exact (one of the many) struggle and now I feel more confident. When a standard has multiple parts to it like RL.1.3 do you break it down when you first teach it? I can’t wait to start using this too!
I would LOVE to start the monthly planning strategy next year..do you do a sheet for each subject area?
Hey Lawren! I do have a monthly planner for my “main subjects”…reading, writing and math! The writing one is arranged the same way with a general target (ie: narrative, opinion, informative) and then I think of my broad umbrella idea and then branch off of that with individual skill needs (organizer for one, prepped Clicker Sentences on the iPad for another, sorting/pasting pictures that match the topic)! Math is a little trickier. I span across multiple grades and in math my kiddos REALLY range. I find that I write the weekly math skill and then use leveled curriculums and goal setting to make sure I’m truly hitting individual needs! That’s the easiest way to multitask so many different skill levels. Thank you for your great question!
Gina 🙂
Thank you Denise!!! And great question! When I think about our kiddos, we could truly stay on a skill for so incredibly long so I think it’s important to always expose our kiddos to all the parts of a standard (as much as possible) and then use work with teacher time to really target individual goals. So for example, RL 1.3 is dealing with a lot of wh questions! I have kiddos who have not fully mastered “who” but I still talk about what, when, and where and reference core language when I teach a lesson. If I know my kiddo has not mastered those additional parts I may just use more verbal and even physical prompting. “Denise, where is the story taking place?” **I hand over hand have the student touch the picture of the trees outside and model a response, “Oh look! I see a tree, some grass and a sun! That must mean they are outside! The story takes place outside!”. Stay tuned for my post next week I think you will find it helpful too! Thanks for reading and I hope that helps!
Gina 🙂
I love the standards paired with a visual that you made. Do you have them listed on your TPT shop?
Where do you get the pics you use for reading A-z questions?
Hi Karen! I get the pics from Boardmaker Online however you could easily google images and copy them into a word document! Nothing fancy required! If you want the actual images from a Reading A to Z book you will want to select the book, single side print, in printer selections, click on “printing shortcuts”, then on “pages per sheet” select the number 6 and it will print out small pages…perfect for identical matching! 🙂 Hope that helps and thanks for the question!
Gina 🙂
Hey Amy! Check your email I sent you a message!
Gina 🙂
Gina, do you have a blog, website, or Facebook page to follow?
Hey Justine!
I do not have my own blog, website or Facebook page however I will be writing for The Autism Helper and sharing all of my tips on here! 🙂 If you have any specific questions or post needs just let us know! 🙂
Gina 🙂
I love your visual standards. Where can I buy them? Thank you for this very clear post, the photos are very helpful. Thank you.
Hey Lele,
I sent you an email! 🙂
I would like to but your pic standards as well!
[email protected]
I love the standards visuals! Do you have them on TPT?
Where can I find the link to these standards? Lesson plan template? I am having my second observation at the end of this month.
Hi Crystal!
Just leave me your email address and I will send them via word. They are not all editable but you can at least get the idea and recreate if necessary! Thank you for reading!
Gina
Hi Stacy!
Just leave me your email address and I will send them via word. They are not all editable but you can at least get the idea and recreate if necessary! Thank you for reading!
Gina
Thank you!
Thank you!!
I love the standards visuals as well. Could you please send me them too? Thanks so much!
[email protected]
May I have the standards as well. Thanks
Can I get a copy of the standards ? Thank you
Marie
Hi there! Can I get a copy of the standards. This is such a great resource. Thank you!
[email protected]
I love how you have modified the curriculum so that it is accessible to all of the students. Sometimes it is difficult to use the same material for the whole group. I love your examples and explanations.
I would love a copy of the standards. I am teaching grades 1 through 3 so I am always trying to find ways to incorporate work for each grades standards.
I would love to have a copy of your visual standards.
Gina will be adding this link to the post! Check back in! 🙂
Do you have the template for this available? Such a great idea!!
Hi can you please share the standards with me. Thank you!
[email protected]
Hi Angela!
Unfortunately I no longer have this file however please feel free to copy from the picture! I also linked them to the Maryland State Common Core Standards at the time! Not sure which state you are from 🙂 Thanks for reading!
can you share the pictures for the standards please?