Alternate Assessment Curriculum Framework Introduction The D75 Alternate Assessment Curriculum Framework was developed in response to schools’ requests for instructional expectations connected to the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) for students in Alternate Assessment classes. Groups of teachers, administrators, and district content area coaches gathered for four weeks during the summer of 2013, and participated in a collaborative process to create an Alternate Assessment Curriculum Framework. The process included a workshop at the beginning of each week to train the group in the leveled learner concept (Levels B, C, and D), resources available (developmental math skills progressions, Webb’s Depth of Knowledge, Common Core Essential Elements and Alternate Achievement Descriptors for Mathematics from the State Members of the Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment Consortium and Edvantia, Inc.), and final product expectations. Subsequently, small groups collaborated to develop the leveled learning plans and activities, culminating performance tasks, and the introductory contexts for the different modules. The structure of the framework provides four modules in ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies created in grade bands (K-2, 3- 5, 6-8, and High School). Four math modules have been developed as grade specific modules for K-8, while High School modules reflect specific conceptual categories. Each module consists of: D75 Alternate Assessment Curriculum Framework 2 nd Grade Math Module 2: Geometry Page 1
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A reflection Sample on “How to” Revise an Alternate Assessment
Curricular Framework Module of Study (AACF) based on the guiding
protocol. 1. How do you ‘unpack’ or understand the standards for the learners in your class?Read the standards listed in the module and isolated the key nouns and verbs. Determined what the standard asking the students to know and do. Came to consensus regarding what the performance of these standards would look like for the students in alternate classes. Finally, the group translated the standard into actionable skills for the learners.2. How do you ensure connection between the standards, the learning strands and the performance task?One method the participants used was to use color-coding to ensure a connection. First, the group members color-coded each standard. Second, they looked at each learning strand and checked off, using the color system, where elements of each standard were contained in the strand. Last, they looked at the performance task, and highlighted or checked, using the color system, where elements of each standard were contained in the task. (These key elements were translated into actionable skills accessed in the rubric. See #5)If connections were not achieved, group members made a decision to reorganize, omit, add, condense or adjust as needed. 3. How do you ensure that the learning strands and activities within the activities are sequenced correctly for your students?Several resources were used, such as the CCLS Skills Progression at a Glance, Wisconsin Early Learning Skills, Equals chapter/skills sequencing, etc. (Note: please remember that the use of available resources such as language skills progressions, other content curricular models from various states, reading skills checklists, etc. should be referenced when revising other content area modules)4. How do you ensure that the learning activities are appropriate for each level (B, C, and D)?Participants referred back to Piaget’s Cognitive Levels of Development, their own students IEPs, as well as, keeping the individual needs of the learners in alternate assessment classes at the forefront of their minds When developing the learning activities for all levels.5. What should you consider for creating a rubric against the performance task for Level B, C, and D?Isolated key skills were identified in the standards and translated to actionable learning targets for the students when developing the Level C and B rubrics. Content expectations played a significant role in establishing the rubrics. Aspects of the rubric quantified skills for the B and C level learners and included a simple rating system (4-1, 3-1, etc.).It was determined by the revision group that a specific rubric that could be used across the modules for the level D student would provide teachers with the ability to track skills related to engagement. This was determined to be the best approach to tracking progress for student who are cognitively young and require mastery of those skills related to engagement before any further content knowledge acquisition could be expected.
Essential Thinking Skills and Behaviors: Definitions and Explanatory Notes
EngagementEngagement is a behavior involving the focusing of the mental process upon someone or something. It is commonly demonstrated by a voluntary and sustained or repeated attention to stimuli. Engagement may be expressed through a wide variety of sensory, motor and/or speech, communication and language forms. Student’s physical, emotional, cognitive, social and cultural development impact significantly on the nature of the attention they are able, or choose, to demonstrate. Therefore, individual modes of student engagement need to be identified, taught, developed, refined, and/or expanded upon. These modes may include, but not limited to: exploration through touching, listening, looking, smelling, and/or tasting; and increase/decrease or initiation/cessation of body movement; and vocalizations/verbalizations. Without engagement, additional information processing cannot take place.
Explanatory Notes: When providing students with opportunities for engagement it is critical that the same
opportunities be presented daily over time. Variation in the means of story presentation, along with increased familiarity with expectations, should serve to sustain student motivation and interest. In addition, the presentation of materials should be supplemented with ongoing, direct instruction to facilitate targeted skills and behaviors specific to the content area.
Emphasis should be placed on relating meaningful activities/materials to student’s prior knowledge and experience.
Extensive efforts should be placed on involving, to the greatest extent possible, a student’s family in providing opportunities for student engagement. Such efforts might include: planning instructional materials; inviting family members to read stories in class; planning family related fairs; encourage family members to learn about and visit public and other community resources; and responding to educational needs as expressed by a student’s family.
Each student should possess a public library card, and be a member of other community organizations when appropriate and feasible.
Environmental Differentiation is the recognition of differences in the attributes of things/places with which, and individuals with whom, one comes in contact and includes recognition of self as a distinct entity. It is usually demonstrated by distinct patterns of exploration or reaction to different stimuli and may be evidenced through various modes of student response. Environmental Differentiation may, but does not necessarily, include knowledge of the names/functions of the materials/places/individuals involved.
Explanatory Notes: The purpose for having students learn to differentiate is to help them develop a basis
from which they will be able to use materials functionally, make informed choices and develop concepts related to materials. However, instruction related to Environmental Differentiation should not preclude instruction toward other essential skills or behaviors (e.g. Functional Use of Objects; Self Regulation).
When various content area materials are being functionally used by a student, the student is already demonstrating environmental differentiation.
For a student with a limited response repertoire (i.e. a student with additional significant physical/sensory impairments), differentiation may be evidenced through the engagement with different stimuli. For example, a student might demonstrate differentiation simply by focusing on or maintaining hand contact with one stimulus for a significantly longer period of time than another stimulus.
For a student who is not environmentally differentiating, an implication for instruction is that the student may need to be provided with increased opportunities for sensory exploration of/interaction with the materials and for using the materials functionally. In providing these increased opportunities, it is essential to insure that a student’s safety and dignity are maintained, especially with regard to social context and age appropriateness.
Conceptualization is the formation of mental representations or ideas for categorizing information or mental connections to prior experiences. As children develop, new concepts about objects, people, places and the relationship between them are continually being learned. Conceptualization may be demonstrated through a range of initiated utterances/actions or responses to questions, comments, or directions. Individual communication modes may vary, and need to be identified, taught, developed, refined and/or expanded upon.
Explanatory Notes: In identifying a concept that a student is expected to learn, it is important to make known
to instructors and students the intended definition of that concept.
It is important that incidental displays of knowledge of identified concepts/meanings are noted/documented as they occur throughout the day.
In order for a student to demonstrate the knowledge of a concept/meaning, it is necessary for the student to exhibit a behavior that is intentional. For instance, a student who might typically sit without movement would not be considered to demonstrate knowledge of “wait” by remaining in a motionless position. Rather, the student would need to initiate a movement at the proper turn-taking time in order to have displayed knowledge of what “waiting” means.
Learning environments should be picture cue/object cue/print rich, so as to facilitate the learning of the concepts.
In expecting demonstration of knowledge of specific concepts, it is important that the other concepts/meanings used contextually by the instructor are known by the student or made clear (e.g. through demonstration) to the student. This is especially important with regards to concepts/meanings that define an expected mode of performance (e.g. touch, press, look).
Beyond the concepts/meanings that are found in this curriculum frameworks, which is based on the ELA and Math Common Core Learning Standards and Science and Social Studies NYS/NYC Scope and Sequence for grade level instructional content, there are other NYS standards based concepts that may be important to explicitly address in relation to each content area. For example, in Career Development and Occupational Studies, these may include: work; start/begin; end/finish; put away/put back; more/enough; and no. In Health, these may include; privacy, danger, emergency, clean, stranger, helper, friend, “feeling uncomfortable”, sick/hurt, exercise, medicine, and choice. These other concepts can identified by referring to New York State’s Learning Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences, Health, Phys. Ed., Career Development
and Occupational Studies, The Arts, as well as, the NYSAA Alternate Grade Level Indicators for Science and Social Studies, and the grade level Extensions for English Language Arts and Math.
In addition to basic key concepts related to a content area, it is critical that students learn concepts needed for them to use their individual system of communication during assessment and instructional situations (e.g. point, touch, look, press, pick-up, give, tell, me/say).
Functional Use of Objects is the appropriate utilization of materials in alignment with the purpose(s) for which they exist in a given culture. It may be applied to the use of an object that has undergone modifications. Students unable to utilize materials functionally due to a physical impairment may achieve this standard by communicating the purpose of the materials.
Explanatory Notes: Emphasis should be placed on involving family members in encouraging a student to use
content related materials during functional daily activities. For example, in the area of English Language Arts/Native Language Arts, some activities might include: giving a greeting card to a relative or friend; bringing a shopping list, with accompanying tangible symbols, to the supermarket; marking important dates on a calendar; labeling household items; and engaging with books and magazines.
Problem SolvingProblem solving is the directing of one’s actions towards achieving a goal that presents uncertainty or difficulty. It presupposes an awareness of the existence of a problem. It generally involves taking into account factors related to a problem, and trying or considering more than one way to solve a problem. Resolution of a problem may be unattainable even though problem solving behaviors have been applied. Explanatory Notes:
When considering problem solving, an emphasis should be placed on a student’s involvement in the process of solving a problem rather than on a student’s resolution of a problem.
A student’s performance of Problem Solving may take the form of a variety of actions/response modes.
An implication for instruction is a recognition of the need to provide students with adequate time and opportunities “to try” or consider more than one way of solving a problem before intervening in the process.
Problem Solving may be accomplished through the completion of tasks formulated with the intent of providing opportunities for students to demonstrate specific problem solving behaviors. It may be accomplished, however, within a broader framework of general content area assignments, which naturally include a variety of problem solving situations.
A distinction involves the student’s completion of the task that the student has previously demonstrated an ability to do readily, while problem solving involves an element of uncertainly or difficulty for the student.
When a student secures needed help, instructors should not simply complete an action for the student. Rather, the student should be guided through the problem solving process, with help provided only to the extent actually needed by the student. In this way, a student hopefully will begin to approach future problem solving situations by trying another way before securing help.
Self-regulation is an ongoing monitoring of ones’ own sensory/physical/social/cognitive conditions, and an adjusting of these conditions to maintain a desired and comfortable internal state. Self-regulation involves knowing and applying a repertoire of behaviors to diverse settings, making informed choices, and acting upon or indicating a desire or need for change.Explanatory Notes: (Self-Regulation, General) The following conditions may necessitate self-regulation
o Sensory, including sensitivities to light, sound texture taste, smell and surrounding physical space.
o Physical, including pain, pleasure, hunger, thirst, discomfort, fatigue, hyperactivity, illness, and a need to use the bathroom.
o Emotional, including distress, loneliness, need for solitude, anger, aggressiveness, withdrawal, sadness, frustration, disappointment, elation, fear, anxiety, and stress.
o Social, including segregation, lack of privacy, and numbers/appearance/behaviors of individuals in the environment
o Cognitive, including level of subject content (either too high or too low), nature of subject matter presentation, and lack of appropriate means for accessing/expressing information.
Students may exhibit behaviors that are self-regulatory in nature but fail to meet the standard for self-regulation (as they are not desired behaviors). These include:
o Behaviors which are unsafe (e.g. abuse to self or others; object destruction)o Behaviors which interfere with one’s own learning or the learning of others (e.g.
replacing attention to task with stereotypic response; continuous noise production)o Behaviors which interfere with positive social interactions (e.g. grabbing belongings
of others; public disrobing).
Recognition should be given to the fact that most individuals engage in some common mannerisms or behaviors (e.g. finger-tapping; shaking of a glass with ice cubes; nail biting) through which they express their internal state. These behaviors, for the most part, are accepted by other individuals and do not seem to interfere in the development and maintenance of social relationships. Although the behavior of a student may differ in nature from these more common expressions, there is an expectation that such student behaviors, if exhibited in a safe and healthy manner, should be understood and accepted by others as an inherent part of “who” the student is. In fact, it may be precisely through such a particular behavior that a student is self-regulating.
In order to maintain internal control for self-regulating, students may need to be provided with positive behavioral support systems, including attention to communication and/or sensory needs and abilities.
Explanatory Notes: (Self-Regulation, Informed Choice-Making) An informed choice refers to a student’s selection (within a single activity) of one of two
(or possibly more) objects, activities, or environments for which opportunities for exploration/acquisition of knowledge have been provided. The informed nature of the choice may be demonstrated through a consistent response to an initial presentation (e.g. verbal; tangible; pictorial) and then to a second presentation with order/position altered**. If any doubt about a student’s selection still exists, a final presentation in either order/position can be made. Informed choice may be demonstrated in a different manner by a student who clearly has a demonstrated knowledge of the concept “yes” or “no”. Such a student needs only to reaffirm his/her choice by responding “yes” or “no” when asked if this choice is what he/she wants. Informed choice may also be demonstrated through independent indication of a choice different from the objects, activities, or environments offered.
An informed choice also assumes that a student possesses an equal opportunity to choose either of the sections available. This is especially important to consider when the student has limited motor and/or sensory abilities.
Given the concept of informed choice, various implications for instruction are evident, and include consideration of the placement of materials, the communicative means utilized by students to make choices, and steps taken to familiarize students with materials/activities/ environments available as choices.
Instructional efforts to increase a student’s opportunities to make informed choices will increase the probability of a student’s demonstration of general self-regulatory behavior, decision-making and awareness of the consequences of one’s decisions. Therefore, instructional provision for facilitating informed choice-making should be ongoing throughout a students’ day.
**It is recognized that repeatedly presenting choices in a different order/position may result in frustration on the part of students. Therefore, this type of procedure for insuring informed choice is designed primarily for the purpose of occasional assessment rather than for the purpose of ongoing instruction.
Social Interaction is reciprocal in nature and involves the use of communication for a variety of purposes. These may include having one’s desires or needs realized, or becoming involved in personal relationships. Such relationships may vary and may include being a one-time partner on a project, a member of a frequently meeting group, a helper, or a friend. Social interaction presupposes self-recognition, that is, the perception of self as a separate being, distinct form people/objects in the surrounding world. Explanatory Notes:
In general, communication refers to a process through which individuals receive from, transmit to, or exchange with others information, feelings or thoughts.
In order to help a student to learn how to socially interact, it is imperative that a student be assessed in a comprehensive and ongoing manner to determine which modes of communication are most appropriate for that student. Individual communication modes may vary and need to be identified, taught, refined, and /or expanded upon. Some students may even need to have meaning assigned to some of their naturally occurring behaviors (e.g. movements; facial expressions; vocalizations) so that they might begin intentionally to use these behaviors to communicate. Such a process should result in a student having ongoing access to and use of an effective system of communication.
In interactions with a student, it is critical to be aware of and respond immediately and consistently to any form of communication exhibited by the student, especially one of a subtle nature. In so doing, one is helping the student understand and come to expect that a communication causes others to act or respond. If such student communications are not attended to, the student most likely will discontinue communication since his/her communicative intent is not being realized.
It is beneficial to use a variety of communicative means (e.g. pictures, speech, gestures) when the student is engaged in receptive communication, even if some of these means appear to be of a nature that is beyond a student’s present cognitive level. However, a student should be taught and then have access to a means of communicating expressively that is consistent with that student’s present cognitive level.
It is critical that a student’s requests/directives and rejections/protests be addressed. Even if it is determined that the student’s attempt to control the environment cannot be accommodated, the attempt should at least be acknowledged.
To maximize a student’s social interactions, emphasis needs to be placed on providing a student with an opportunity to communicate in the context of authentic situations and environments.
A student’s alternative/augmentative communication system (e.g. a device, board, and/or set of tangible symbols) needs to be accessible to the student throughout the day - at home, at school, and in community settings.
Significant emphasis should be placed on encouraging a student’s communication partners to accept and respond to alternate/augmentative forms of communication.
In order to interpret a student’s utterance or other communication as a request, it is subsequently necessary for the student to accept/interact with the referred to object/action/person. Otherwise, it may be that the student is merely recognizing the existence of an object/action/person.
To the greatest extent possible, and certainly to the degree mandated by a student’s IEP and by applicable educational regulations, a student should be learning to socially interact with students receiving general education services.
Certainly there is value in social interactions that occur between students and adults. Adults are able to provide appropriate models of communication and to respond readily to student initiations of communications. However, a significant emphasis also needs to be placed on providing opportunities for students to interact with peers (those receiving general and special education services).
When teaching a student to use a communication system expressively, it is critical that an instructor consistently model the use of the system in communications with the student.
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