PITTSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Education
Department of Special Services and Leadership Studies
SSLS 550 Methods—Primary Children with Disabilities
Credit Hours:
Instructor:
Course Time Schedule:
Office:
Office Phone:
Office Hours:
Email:
FAX:
2
Dr. Martha A. York
210 Hughes Hall
(620) 235-4965
M/W 1:00-4:00 (or by appt.)
T/Th 12:15-2:00
myork@pittstate.edu
(620) 235-4520
Course Description
This is an undergraduate course designed to provide the trainee with knowledge and
skills relating to the methods, materials, and techniques needed to design an
individualized program for teaching preschool exceptional children in an inclusive
setting. Appropriate delivery systems, curriculum, and intervention strategies will be
considered.
Purpose of the Course
The course content is build upon the standards developed and approved by the Kansas
State Department of Education that lead to the Early Childhood Unified Birth through
Third Grade license. Building the course on this foundation should enable students to
develop skills such as independent thinking, effective communication (both oral and
written), and participation in the decision-making process. Professional collaboration
will be encouraged, as it is necessary when designing programs of instruction and
intervention for young children with disabilities.
This course emphasizes that the goal of early intervention is to optimize each child’s
learning potential and daily well being as well as to increase opportunities for the child to
function effectively in the community. Programs for young children with special needs
must be based on evidence based strategies that have been found to be effective with all
children. In addition, children in the elementary setting should be educated with their
typically developing peers to the greatest extent possible.
In this course, preservice teachers will learn how to apply assessment information in
writing goals and objectives to meet the individual needs of the child. They will also
learn how to plan appropriate programs and interventions and design appropriate learning
environments for teaching in inclusive settings. In addition, collaboration techniques that
can be used between special education and general education teachers in a kindergarten
through third grade setting.
This course will focus on the following KSDE Early Childhood Unified Standards:
Standard #1 The birth through third grade teacher understands and respects families as
the primary decision-maker for general education and exceptional
students and assures that services are family-focused and culturally
sensitive.
Standard #2 The birth through third grade teacher meets the unique needs of general
education and exceptional students and families within communities.
Standard #3 The birth through third grade teacher possesses a high level of
professional skills and knowledge about how general education and
exceptional students develop and learn.
Standard #4 The birth through third grade teacher uses a variety of informal and formal
assessment strategies in collaboration wit other professionals and family
members to plan and individualize curriculum, instruction,
interventions, and transitions for general education and exceptional
students.
Standard #5 The birth through third grade teacher establishes, maintains, and promotes
physically, psychologically safe and health learning for general education
and exceptional students in their natural environments (home,
community, and/or school).
Standard #6 The birth through third grade teacher collaborates with the family and
other professionals to design a developmentally appropriate and
research-based curriculum that meets the unique needs, capabilities, and
interests of general education and exceptional students.
Standard #7 The birth through third grade teacher has experiences in varied settings.
Bold type is used to emphasize the parts of the standards that will be addressed in this
course. Activities related to the material contained in Standards 8-13 will be addressed
in the curriculum planning portion of this course.
Required Readings:
Raver, S. (2009). Early childhood special education—0 to 8 years. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Merrill. ISBN-12: 978-0-13-174598-8/ISBN-10: 0-13-174598-0
Teaching Strategies:
Lecture, class discussions, student presentations, small group activities, projects,
audio/visual presentations, and activities posted on ANGEL.
Attendance:
Attendance and participation in class discussions, presentations, exams, and projects are
required. Because this class is experience and discussion based, attendance is vital and it
will be impossible to duplicate what has been missed. Please inform the instructor if you
will not be in class. Points will be deducted from your grade for assignments that are
turned in late without prior approval of the instructor.
Course Evaluation:
Disability Table
Classroom Environment Project
Primary Unit Plan Project
Adaptations Table
Tutoring Project
Total
100 points
100 points
100 points
100 points
100 points
500 points
Course Schedule
Date
October 21
October 23
Topic
No class
No class
October 28
October 30
November 4
November 6
No class
No class
MTSS
Classroom
management
Five Big Ideas About
Reading
Five Big Ideas About
Reading
Five Big Ideas About
Reading
Teaching Math
Teaching Math
Teaching Math
PBIS
PBIS
PBIS
Final Project Day
November 11
November 13
November 18
November 20
November 25
December 2
December 4
December 9
December 11
December 16
Reading/Resource Sites
Interventioncentral.com
What Works Clearinghouse
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/
Ksmtss.org
http://reading.uoregon.edu/
Assignment Due
Disability Table
Classroom Environment Project
Primary Unity Plan Project
Adaptations Project
Tutoring Project
Assignments
Disability Table
Candidates will complete the disability table that was started in SSLS 450. They must
also complete the Services and Curriculum Table for both preschool and primary ages.
Classroom Environment Project
For this assignment, candidates will assume the role of a general education classroom
teacher who has five children in the class who have been identified with special needs.
They will prepare a Classroom Environment Plan with the following components:



Daily Schedule
 Routines for transitions and other daily classroom activities and chores
 Times built in to work with individual students
Map/seating chart
Classroom procedures
 Rules
 Policies (tardiness, uncompleted work, etc)
Primary Unit Plan Project
Students will work in pairs on this assignment. They will design a thematic unit that
could be taught at the K-3 level as part of a social studies requirement. This unit will be
planned for a general education classroom of approximately 20 students and should
include the following:
 Unit objectives that are clearly stated, developmentally appropriate, aligned with
state standards, and described in terms of student performance, not activities.

A plan outlining the activities that will be included in your week of teaching.

A plan outlining the way that student performance on stated objectives will be
assessed. A combination of formative (ongoing) and summative (end of unit)
assessment should be employed.

A reflection on the process used and the choices that were made in planning the
unit. This reflection should be an individual project—both members of the pair
should submit their own work.
Adaptations Table
Students will work in the same pairs as the unit plan project. They should take the unit
plan above and adapt it to meet the needs of five individual students with disabilities who
are part of the original group of twenty. The profiles of the students from the disability
table will be used and three additional profiles will be created. Each day’s lesson should
be listed with the adaptations that will be used for all five students. It is permissible to
not adapt every lesson for every child—a well-designed activity may be very appropriate
for students with disabilities. The same adaptation may be applied to more than one
student. I will look to see if the adaptations are appropriate and intentional.
Day/Date
Day 1
Objective
Instruction/Activity
The students
The actual activity
will
demonstrate…
Assessment
How you will
know whether
the students
have met the
objective
Adaptations
Adaptations
for all five
students with
disabilities
Tutoring Project
Students will work in pairs for this assignment. A first grade student who is struggling
with reading will be coming in to the classroom 1 day a week for approximately 45
minutes. Students will administer probes to determine strengths and weaknesses of the
student as well as a more formal reading assessment. They will find materials in the IRC
and will work with the student during class time. At the end of the semester, they will
write a case study that includes:




Initial assessment techniques
Interventions tried
Follow up assessment results
A reflection on the experience outlining rationale for choices made and an evaluation
of what went well and what might have been done differently.