Module 1 Analysis: Knowing the Learner Shannon Davey American College of Education LIT5363 – Literacy for Exceptional Learners Dr. Keith Higa 2 Module 1 Analysis: Knowing the Learner Effective teachers identify and address the needs of their exceptional learners. The delivery, quality, and relevance of instruction provided is crucial to attending to the diverse needs of our classrooms (Stentiford et. al., 2018). This paper will examine two hypothetical students with exceptionalities. The profile of the learner will provide their strengths, challenges, learning preferences, the impact on literacy, and a recommended literacy activity. The first student example has a developmental delay. The second student example has ADHD and qualifies as exceptional under the category of other health impairment. These students' exceptionalities require individualized instruction designed to meet their needs and allow them to be successful in the classroom. Student Profile #1 Student Name: Bob Grade: 1 Age: 7 Strengths Challenges Bob is a social, energetic 1st grader who loves Bob was born premature and has a to read about Pokémon. He enjoys introducing himself and his classmates to everyone who enters the room. He enjoys reading comic books and the idea of playing with peers. He is eager to participate. Outside developmental delay. Bob also has ADHD. • • • • • • Getting enough Calories and water. Fine motor skills Sustained attention Sentence generation for writing Social Interactions with peers Schedule changes 3 of school, Bob enjoys being a big brother, playing on his iPad, and playing outside. Learning Preferences Bob enjoys verbally processing the information aloud with an adult. He is very visual and does well with visual timers and first then directions. He is motivated and engaged by technology. Impact on Literacy While Bob is a strong reader, he struggles with tasks that require fine motor skills like writing or cutting. He has strong pattern identification and phonemic awareness but struggles to translate these skills to spelling in his writing. Letter formation, size neatness, and spacing are non-preferred tasks that often lead to meltdowns or refusal to work despite understanding the task. These refusals lead to missed learning time, causing Bob to fall behind his peers in comprehension and ability to convey understanding or analysis of the text verbally or in writing. Services in School IEP Services outside of School • Private Speech • Aide access • Weekly Therapy • Occupational Therapy (OT) • Private OT • Physical Therapy (PT) • Parent support • Speech Services • General Education Classroom 4 Recommended Literacy Activity Bob will be given a choice of reading material at his level on the app Raz Kids (Learning AZ). Bob will receive all instructions for the task verbally and visually in first then format. The first then strategy of visually and clearly displaying the order of expected tasks or behaviors increases the effectiveness of including developmentally delayed (DD) learners (Danniels & Pyle, 2021). Bob will initiate the next task after completing the 1st and updating his first then chart. For his next task he will choose from 3 comprehension activities on Seesaw. The Seesaw app allows him to electronically complete traditional cut and paste activities by virtually manipulating photos of them on the digital assignment on the app. Interactive technology, like Seesaw, opens the door to more inclusive and appropriate tasks for DD learners (White, 2018). Bob may discuss the activity aloud with a peer or aide to support his processing of the task at hand. Empowering learners with developmental delays to communicate, choose activities, and initiate tasks has proven effective in increasing participation in classroom activities (Selanikyo et al., 2017). The 3 activity choices will be tailored to Bob’s needs as identified by preassessment. For example, retell the story by putting these pictures in the correct order and make a recording of yourself retelling the story. The activities are submitted on Seesaw to be graded for prompt visual feedback from the classroom teacher. The choices are refreshed for the next activity and created with Bob’s interests in mind to increase engagement. The app also allows activities and feedback to be viewed by families through the Seesaw family app for continued support and review of feedback at home. 5 Student Profile #2 Student Name: Bobette Grade: 1 Age: 6 Strengths Challenges Bobette is a shy, polite, and bubbly 6- Bobette has ADHD. She sometimes “zones year-old girl. She loves to succeed, help out” and misses instructions or daydreams others, and create detailed drawings and through her independent work time. Bobette stories. Bobette excels at art, music, and is struggles to show what she knows on tests very popular among her classmates. Outside and to recall what she read if she was not of school her favorite activity is girl scouts. interested. Bobette is often fidgety, restless, calling out, off task, or feeling down about herself for not knowing what to do. Learning Preferences Bobette prefers interpersonal activities and dreads working alone in case she gets off task or forgets what to do. She is often embarrassed to ask for help. She does well with a visual first next schedule, a visual checklist of tasks, frequent teacher check ins, timers, and reminders to stay on task. Bobette is a people pleaser and is eager to do well on any task she is given. Impact on Literacy 6 Bobette’s ADHD makes it a struggle to get through a passage or remember the what and why for a task she has been asked to complete independently. She becomes frustrated and often withdraws due to low self-esteem caused by her lack of attention or ability to follow through on tasks that appear easy to her peers. This lack of confidence affects her reading and performance. Services in School • • Accommodations: • • • • • • Services outside of School Therapy once a week Reading tutor Extra time on tests; Adapted assignments chunked. Assistive technology for task completion Movement breaks Preferred seating Support with locker, desk, and folder organization Recommended Literacy Activity Bobette benefits from evidence-based strategies to support ADHD learners in the classroom on all activities. Bobette gets chunked work (shorter, less overstimulating, or distracting text), visual timers on her desk, visual schedule of tasks directly in front of her, repeated directions, a help needed hand signal, frequent check ins for work completion, and a task completion checklist (McDougal et al., 2022). These accommodations help support her planning and follow through with tasks. An appropriate learning task for Bobette would be to read a piece of text and answer questions about it. The text would be split into one or two sentences at a time and the rest of the text would be covered until she completed the corresponding question 7 for the lines she read. Bobette would read the two lines and then answer the only uncovered question on the sheet next to the text (no page turning or other distractions). After completing the 1st task, she will check off the task on her digital task list on her iPad and then uncover the next piece of text and the next question. The chunking of tasks is an effective strategy for ADHD learners (Harizanova, 2021). Conclusion There are many key factors to the success of a literacy lesson. Understanding the needs of the specific child you are working with is essential to the progress of the learner (McDougal et al., 2022). Using technology and choice to increase engagement and motivate learners has proven effective to raise literacy scores (Licorish & Lötter, 2022). Family and teacher involvement in and use of the IEP strategies is crucial to the learning process for the child (Curtis et al., 2016). These two learners with exceptionalities have unique needs and therefore need lessons that are designed to provide literacy instruction suited to their exceptionalities. As teachers it is our job to design and implement individualized curriculum for our all our students. 8 References Curtis, S., Pearson, J., Akamoglu, Y., Fisher, K., Snodgrass, M, Meyer, L., Meadan, H., & Halle, J. (2016). Bringing instructional strategies home. Teaching Exceptional Children, 48(3), 159-167. http://doi.org/10.1177/0040059915605816 Danniels, E., & Pyle, A. (2021). Promoting inclusion in play for students with developmental disabilities: kindergarten teachers’ perspectives. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1-18. 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