Selecting Instructional Activities

Curriculum for Special Education 2

Presented by:Mariz Gancia

Monaliza Eudela

Activity Option

• Discussion• Presentation• Experiments and Laboratory Experiences• Simulations• Learning Centers• Packets• Projects

Activity Option…

• Conferences• Instructional Games• Parties, Assemblies, Field Trips and

Extracurricular Activities• Community- Based Learning

Discussions

Discussions are designed to stimulate students to respond

diversely and at higher cognitive

levels to what they have been learning.

- Good and Brophy (1991)

During discussions, “teacher and students, working as a group, share opinions in order to classify issues, relate new knowledge to their prior knowledge or experience, or attempt to answer a question or solve problems.

When students with disabilities are included in discussions, it may be necessary to modify and adjust the types and levels of questions asked. Some students may be able to participate and contribute better if asked recall and specific- information questions rather than questions requiring analysis of presented information.

Advantages Disadvantages

Providing a forum for students to present their opinions and to respond to those of their classmates

Some students will not participate

Challenging students to make connections between content and their personal experience

Some students will have difficulties hearing or concentrating on what others have to say and may miss out on a great deal of content

Shifting curricular focus to what is most important to students

Not all students will be willing to make contributions in front of a large group

PRESENTATIONS

This activity option offers ways to communicate information to individual students, dyads, cooperative groups, and large groups.

It is important to match the presentation formats to the students’ needs and characteristics.

EXPERIMENTS AND LABORATORY EXPERIENCES

Experiments challenge students to develop hypotheses and investigate them to determine whether they are true or will hold under differing situations.

They require students to observe, collect and analyse data, communicate their ideas to others, classify information and findings, and measure, compute and predict.

Experiments and lab require teachers to set the stage carefully for learning and to examine what needs to be done to accommodate student needs and differences. Part of this planning involves taking into consideration students’ prior experiences in conducting experiments, their learning styles, and their motivation to participate.

SIMULATIONS

Through simulation, students gain “almost first- hand experience” of what it would be like to be involved intimately with the concepts, ideas and performance being discussed.

Simulation may be used when access to authentic contexts is unavailable, although it is known that learning skills in authentic contexts helps to ensure greater generalization and maintenance of understanding.

Simulation may also be used to raise awareness of disability.

Implementation of simulation can be especially challenging. The attempt to convert a classroom into setting similar to a targeted setting can fall short and fall to help students generalize skills to actual environment.

LEARNING CENTERS

Good and Brophy (1991) describe learning centers as places “where students can go to work independently or in cooperation with peers on various learning projects.”

Learning centers are places where all the materials and equipment needed for a particular task are provided and where students can go to complete those task.

Advantages

1. They provide opportunities for independent study and add flexibility to the classroom because they expand the range of learning opportunities available.

2. They encourage students to become independent learners who monitor their own progress.

3. Centers allow teachers to individualize instruction.4. Learning centers allow teachers to broaden the scope

of the curriculum.

PACKETS

Packets are collection of activities that students complete individually.

Packets may contain a set of worksheets, a list of directions and supplies needed for completing tasks.

In many instances, packets reflect individualized instruction, containing activities that target students’ specific needs and skills.

Packets may be in the form of individual folders, three- ring binders, files on the computer or activity lists posted in learning centers.

PROJECTS

Instructional Goals

research skills, critical thinking and problem – solving skills, writing and presentation skills, and (for a

collaboratively completed project); and skills for working effectively with others.

Students of all ages can engage in project learning. Initially, and for younger children, projects may be of short duration and take one or two days to complete.

At first, projects may be highly structured by the teacher. As students, gain skills in project-based learning, projects may be completed over extended periods and require students to do most of the organizing for completion.

To increase authenticity and value for students with severe or multiple disabilities, it may be helpful if projects are completed in community- based settings. The projects may be conducted with the support of nondisabled peers or with natural sup[ports found in community environments.

COFERECES

Conferences- individual sitting down to discuss a topic, product, or event- are another learning experience or instructional activity. Conferences allow for in-depth exploration and discussion of students’ learning understanding and experiences and they help to forge connection between students, teacher, parents and other.

Types of Conferences

• Peer Conferences• Student- Adult Conferences

Peer Conferences

These conferences may also be used to solve problems in the classroom or school community. They can be specifically designed to support students with disabilities.

Student with disabilities may conference with nondisabled peers to learn strategies for making friends, for getting along with authority figures in the school and community environments.

Student- Adult Conferences

From student- adult conferencing, students gain personal insight into themselves as learners and young citizens and adult learn to see children as individuals with their own unique needs and concerns.

The adult may be the classroom teacher, instructional assistant, related services provider, administrator, parent or community individual.

INSTRUCTIONAL GAMES

Board games, word searches, logic problems and other instructional games are excellent motivators for students while teaching and reinforcing skills.

Games also provide authentic situations for development of interpersonal skills.

To be educationally meaningful, games must be connected with curricular goals and objectives. However, teacher should be clear about the purpose of games and how they can be used to support student learning.

PARTIES, ASSEMBLIES, FIELD TRIPS, AND EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES Finn (1989) discusses the role of extracurricular activities in

reducing withdrawal from school and also states that involvement may (a) increase students’ identification with school, (b) increase their sense of belonging and (c) allow them opportunities to become attached to school.

There is a need of discussion to the caregiver or guardians of the student with disability to what may happen in the field trip and whether the excursion might provide an opportunity for student to work on IEP goals, benchmarks, and objectives such as walking with eyes and head up, listening for certain voices and moving toward them, or trying new thing whether he or she throughout understands them or not.

COMMUNITY- BASED LEARNING

Types of Community- Based Learning

• Apprenticeship• Shadowing

Apprenticeship

An apprenticeship allows students to learn skills through close contact with an area expert.

Shadowing

Shadowing is similar in approach: students shadow, or follow a person at work.

Student may also participate in service- learning activities and serve as community volunteers. As volunteers, they can learn secretarial skills, social skills, and responsibility.

Identifying Appropriate

Activities

Two Approaches for Identifying Appropriate Activities

• Analyzing Attributes• Addressing Multiple Intelligences

ANALYZING ACTIVITY ATTRIBUTES

Each activity has attributes that influence when and why teachers choose to include it in their instruction. Activity attributes include authenticity, performance demands, alignment with curriculum, grouping arrangement and material and equipment.

1. Authenticity

The authenticity of an activity is the degree to which it is representative of what individuals outside school setting are called on to do in their daily lives.

• Authenticity may be viewed as being high to low.

High authentic tasks mirror role performances individuals carry out outside school, such as balancing a checkbook, making purchase at a local store, making phone calls, writing letters and notes, or preparing summary reports on the job.

Low- authenticity tasks in and of themselves are not poor teaching opportunities or experiences – they may play a vital role in students’ acquiring and practicing basic skills.

Including authentic tasks in the curriculum can be highly motivating for students.

2. Performance Demands

Performance demands are what students are required to do complete or participate in an activity or tasks. Performance demands also may view as being on a continuum.

• Awareness of performance demands allows teachers to modify and adapt learning experiences to reflect student needs.

3. Alignment with curriculum

Alignment with curriculum refers to what degree of learning experience match what has been identified as important in the curriculum.

Some learning experiences are highly motivating for both teachers and student but have very little time to do with students learning key concepts or target life performance. Such experiences must be carefully screened for instructional intent and their ability about those ends.

The match of between an experience and the curriculum should be assessed to ensure that selected experiences maximize students’ opportunities to learn and take advantage of academic learning time.

4. Group Arrangement

The way in which student work, whether individual, or in group is another activity attribute. Consideration of grouping arrangement – individual working alone or in dyads, cooperative groups, large groups – helps teachers to structure activities to support students’ needs and goal achievement.

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5. Material and equipment requirements

While selecting activities to include in lessons, it is helpful to anticipate – while the plan is being developed – what materials and equipment will be needed to carry out the lessons successfully, and to avoid last- minute searches for materials.

• This attributes is especially important to teachers working with individuals with disabilities. For example, planning ahead of time for the reading materials needed is important for a teacher of a student with visual impairment

ADRESSING MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

• A second approach to the selection of activities involves the application of the theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1982) to instructional practice and is proposed by Armstrong (1994). Armstrong encourages teachers to consider all types of intelligence when selecting activities and designing lesson plans.

• His procedure for lesson design emphasizes expanded notions of the activities that may be most appropriate in meeting objectives by addressing seven (logical- mathematics, spatial, musical, bodily- kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic) of eight intelligences.

Procedures in Addressing Multiple Intelligences

1. Identify the objective.

2. Ask questions about how each intelligence will be addressed in the lesson.

3. Consider all the possibilities for including the seven intelligences to meet the objective.

4. Brainstorm ideas about how to include each of the intelligences in the lesson.

5. Select approaches and activities from the brainstormed list.

6. Develop a plan that arranges these ideas in a systematic order.

7. Teach the lesson.