Home › Maximizing Literacy Learning for Students with Moderate/Severe Disabilities › Case Example Intro ›

Case Example: Individual Literacy Program Recommendations (Secondary)

Rebecca is a 15 year old high school student who has moderate cognitive disabilities. At the request of her parents, a consultant was invited to observe Rebecca in her current school program and to make program recommendations. Below are recommendations related to literacy, many of which were implemented in her program the following year. While Rebecca read at an early second grade level at the end of elementary school, her middle and high school special education programs had departed from regular opportunities to engage in reading and writing.

Recommendations for Addressing Rebecca's Literacy Needs

Rebecca needs a high quality, comprehensive literacy program to support her individual literacy development. The focus must be instructional and activities should emphasize reading and writing for authentic purposes. Rebecca also needs to develop self-directed literacy skills and behaviors to prepare her to use her skills in various school and non-school settings. Literacy skills are critical in our culture. Increased literacy abilities can have a significant impact on Rebecca's current and future opportunities for meaningful participation at school, home, work, in the community and for life long learning. The research on literacy emphasizes the need for a comprehensive approach that addresses various skills and purposes for reading and writing.

Components of a comprehensive literacy program for Rebecca

  • Guided reading including word work (20 minutes/ day from a skilled reading TEACHER)
  • Self directed literacy activities (20 minutes/ day, monitored by teacher or TA)
  • Supported reading and viewing (30-60 minutes a day in general education classes w/ TA monitoring/ support)
  • Focused writing (40 minutes, 3 x/week, planned by teacher, + daily opportunities in gen ed classes)
  • Self selected writing (30-40 minutes 2x/week)

Guided reading.

Given her early developmental reading level (early 2nd grade), it is a priority for Rebecca to receive intensive expert reading instruction every day (20 minutes/day, possibly one-on-one unless there is another reader at the same instructional level). This means individualized instruction in the processes of reading based on Rebecca's current abilities and needs as a reader. Word work could also be addressed within her guided reading lessons, through 3-4 minutes of focused instruction in need areas through activities such as "making and breaking words" before or after reading whole text.

Self directed literacy activities.

Rebecca's program should include daily opportunities for independent reading (20 minutes a day, she chooses independent level texts). Rebecca should participate daily in supported reading or viewing activities as well. She should have access to informational and other challenging texts with necessary supports (e.g., screen reader software). This may occur in general education classes when other students are completing independent reading or writing. Digital texts provide a flexible format that supports access (e.g., digital books, internet articles, websites, scanned magazine articles or book selections). Laptop or classroom computers should also have "screen reader" software for Rebecca to access challenging digital texts with a read aloud feature. For viewing, she could access slide shows, videos, and websites related to her content unit topics or interests-with screen reader to access text or captions if necessary.

Focused and self selected writing.

Rebecca should have daily opportunities to write for authentic purposes (e.g., focused writing for her content classes, self selected writing such as journaling and lists, and writing for personal communication such as email, notes, cards). Rebecca should have a computer available for all writing. This can be a personal laptop that has all of her necessary settings and software. (Or she could use desktop computers if there is a computer available in each general education class and the special education classroom-and if ALL computers have the necessary software).

It is recommended that she learn to utilize several types of software to support the writing process and to support her output to construct meaningful texts. It is recommended that Rebecca learn to use Inspiration/ Kidspiration to support her prewriting and drafting of writing pieces for various purposes. It is also recommended that Rebecca learn to use word processing and presentation software such as MS Powerpoint with graphics, photos and text. With this software, she can construct slide shows, photo essays and print or digital texts (even talking books). This type of program can be utilized for content class projects related to Rebecca's individual, modified goals in general education classes and to reinforce content (e.g., content vocabulary). Rebecca should also be required to use her developing keyboarding skills for all writing activities. She should not be allowed to do "1 finger" typing. This year's team has introduced Rebecca to word prediction software (Co-writer). It is not yet clear whether this software is useful for Rebecca. It would be appropriate to continue to teach Rebecca the purpose of this software and support her use of it within authentic writing projects.

EXAMPLE SCHEDULE FOR RECOMMENDED LITERACY COMPONENTS

Class Period Activities
Special Education: Reading(40 minutes/day, 5x/week)

  • Intensive, focused Guided Reading w/ word work (20 minutes w/ TEACHER)
  • Self-directed reading routines (e.g., Independent reading 3-4 days, supported reading 1-2 days) (20 minutes)
  • Special Education: Writing (40 minutes/day, 5x/week)
  • Focused writing instruction following writing process and using technology (e.g., content writing product for regular class; 40 minutes 5 days/week;Teacher for minimum of first 20 minutes, then possibly TA)
  • Self selected writing (40 minutes, 2x/week, Teacher for minimum of first 20 minutes, then possibly TA)

General Education Classes (3 per day) (likely daily for at least part of class period for most general ed classes)

  • Supported reading or viewing in class as an adapted or alternate activity, and/ or
  • Focused writing in class on unit topic, using technology, as a modified activity

Special education instruction in literacy is recommended two periods per day. One period should be devoted to reading instruction and activities and the other to writing instruction and activities.

READING PERIOD: example activities and schedule

Guided reading with TEACHER including word work (20 minutes, every day)
Independent reading or viewing, supported reading w/ TA or teacher support initially, then moving toward independent routine (20 minutes/ day)

Guided Reading (20 minutes/ day) Given her early developmental reading level (2nd grade), it is a priority for Rebecca to receive intensive expert reading instruction every day. "Intensive" means a focused guided reading session, including:

  • initial performance assessment to determine instructional text level and processing priorities (e.g., comprehension strategies, learning to read silently and self monitor)
  • appropriate INSTRUCTIONAL level reading materials, unfamiliar texts
  • powerful individualized instruction that focuses on teaching and supporting Rebecca's application of good reader strategies for word solving and comprehension with various texts (e.g., mini lessons with teacher think alouds, scaffolded instruction to model and support Rebecca's use of new strategies) 
  • ongoing assessment (e.g., through running records every 2-4 weeks)

"Expert" instruction means that Rebecca should receive this instruction from a teacher who has professional preparation in the reading process and in teaching reading to struggling readers-particularly guided reading. This may be a special educator or a reading specialist. The moment-to-moment decisions that occur during guided reading instruction (e.g., monitoring strategy use, when to prompt, how to support) make it impossible for a teacher to "pre-plan" this session for a teaching assistant to deliver.

Independent reading. (20 minutes every other day)

There should be various texts and genres available at Rebecca's independent reading level. Perhaps she could have her own book basket or book box with 5-10 choices (including familiar books from guided reading). She could keep a record of what she reads independently.

Viewing or supported reading (20 minutes every other day).

On alternate days, Rebecca could access more challenging digital texts with screen reader software on the computer. These could be scanned texts or commercial digital texts or bookmarked websites. Choices could include age appropriate topics or content related topics. Another possible activity would be viewing computer or digital resources to build background knowledge for content class topics. For example, Rebecca could view "Brainpop" videos that relate to a content class topic. Many videos are available for science and health topics. (www.brainpop.com)

WRITING PERIOD: example activities and schedule

Writing process instruction for focused or narrative texts (40 minutes/ day, 3 days / week ; Special education teacher should provide this instruction for at least half of the period-20 minutes)
Self selected writing

Writing process instruction.

During this session, the instructional focus would be on helping Rebecca learn to use writing software and apply pre, during and post writing skills with support. Topics from general education classes can be used for pieces to reinforce vocabulary and individual goals. For example, Rebecca could use Inspiration or Kidspiration software to construct a graphic organizer on a content unit topic using key vocabulary. She can then use this to write key sentences. She can edit and revise sentences. Finally she could sometimes construct a Powerpoint presentation (or "book") by matching her sentences with relevant photos or graphics (gathered by TA, available to Rebecca to view and choose from). She could work on such a project in class and during writing in the resource room 3 days a week. (These "texts" could also be available for her to re-read during independent or supported reading.)

Self selected writing

Two days a week, Rebecca could choose her own purposes and writing products. For example, she might have a template and ideas/ guiding questions to prompt personal journal entries. Or she might construct a note or greeting card for a friend or family member. She might choose to construct a photo essay on a personal topic with photos she takes at school or home or that she gets from other sources (e.g., My Favorite Classes, Fun Facts about Dogs). This activity could incorporate the recommendations from Feeney and Judge to "improve Rebecca's ability to produce and comprehend narratives..." (p.25)

Certainly Rebecca (and a teaching assistant, if involved) would need to learn these writing routines including the formats and software, under the guidance of a special educator. It is not recommended that all new routines begin in September, but that new routines are taught, practiced and new ones added incrementally.

 

‹ Case Example: Individual Literacy Program Recommendations (Elementary)upResources for Teacher Educators ›