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ESE645: LESSON DESIGN FOR STUDENTS WITH MILD TO MODERATE DISABILITIES

Instructor Guidance

Week 4

Welcome to Week Four ESE645!  You have now arrived at the halfway point!  Keep up the good work. Please be sure to review the Week Four homepage for this course to see:

· The specific learning outcomes for the week

· The schedule overview

· The required and recommended resources

· The introduction to the week

· A listing of the assessments

Next, be sure to read this entire Instructor Guidance page.

Overview

Last week you were introduced to self-determination skills for students with mild to moderate disabilities and engaged in a meaningful discussion related to choice making, problem solving, self advocacy, and goal setting, to name a few.  You explored these ideas and began to process the importance of their inclusion in the development of compliant individualized education programs (IEPs).  You also wrote a lesson plan for Bianca that included self-determination skills. This week we will continue our learning in the area of designing creative and relevant lessons, which focuses on self-determination skills.  Also, you will continue to develop your skills at designing lesson and learn what makes an effective lesson. As part of the Instructor Guidance, you are encouraged to review the weekly homepages for the course and take note of the assessments each week. Now is an appropriate time to revisit the Week Six Final Project instructions and Grading Rubric to be sure you understand the scope of what you will do in that assessment and how your participation in each of the weeks supports your success. Planning ahead is recommended!

Intellectual Elaboration

Lesson Plans

Figure 8. Steps for lesson planning. This visual provide the cyclical steps in creating a lesson plan. Source: http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p2_5 (Links to an external site.)

It is without question that the best professionals in any field are those who are good planners and thinkers.  This is no different in the educational setting, more specifically the special education profession!  Educators must be organized and plan ahead, knowing what their students need to learn, how to teach it to them, and how to know if they learned it. The lesson plan is an essential guide for the instruction of students of all ages and abilities.  It is the “instructor’s road map” ("Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning, CRLT," n.d., para 1) that provides the directions as to the content that is to be taught and with the selected instructional strategies.  As you have learned in this class, the lesson plan contains many important elements as depicted in the above graphic.  Asking yourself these three questions will prepare you for your thinking about the global lesson design and to inspire and motivate your students:

· What do I want students to learn?

· What teaching and learning activities will I use?

· How will I check for understanding?

In addition, a well-designed lesson plan will also document the materials and other resources that will be needed to implement the lesson as well as reflecting the goals and benchmarks in the students’ Individualized Education Program (IEP).  Lesson plans are important because they keep the educator on task and can also serve to support the substitute teacher in case of your absence. One of the required websites this week is called Promethean Planet (Links to an external site.).  This website offers many suggestions and resources for designing lesson plans, using technology in the classroom, and other classroom management strategies.  This website is a strong resource for your work in this class, in future courses in the Master of Arts, Special Education (MASE) program and also for your work in the field.  One point that is worthy of repeating in this guidance is the following statement: 

There are numerous shortcuts out there, such as online lesson plans, but you should [always] modify and adapt these to meet the particular needs of your students and your individual style of teaching, in order to make them most effective ("Writing Effective Lesson Plans, Promethean Planet," n.d., para 3).

Another excellent source of information that will be a great assistance to you is the a brief article entitled, “What Makes a Good Lesson? (Links to an external site.)” This article comes directly from a lesson plan handbook and explains the important parts of the lesson with an easy to understand explanation of each.  This is yet another excellent resource that you may consider including in your link library. According to T.E. C. Smith et al., 2008 (as cited in Polloway & Polloway, 2013, p. 53) the lesson plan is intended to describe the teaching process.  There are 5 specific suggestions on developing lesson plans:

· Create interest in and clarify the purpose of lessons.  This is particularly important for students with special needs.

· Provide direct instruction on key topics to help students acquire an initial grasp of new material.

· Assign independent practice, some of which can be accomplished in class and some of which should be done as homework.

· Plan activities for students who finish early.

· Anticipate problems that might arise during the course of the lesson and identify techniques for dealing with them.

There are a variety of philosophies about lesson planning from the formatting to the depth of detail.  Your direct supervisor will likely provide you with the guidance needed to develop your lesson plans so they are consistent with their expectations.  For now, continue to focus on the content and substance of the design to practice developing them with fidelity. Transition Planning As you may recall from ESE603, Law and Ethics in Special Education, the Week 4 Instructor Guidance explained some of the required parts of the IEP. The transition plan was mentioned as follows:  “Beginning when the child is age 14 (or younger, if appropriate), the IEP must address (within the applicable parts of the IEP) the courses he or she needs to take to reach his or her post-school goals. A statement of transition services needs must also be included in each of the child's subsequent IEPs” (United States Department of Education, “"Archived: Guide to the Individualized Education Program," n.d, para 17).  As part of the planning process, it is required that there be measurable post secondary goals based on age-appropriate transition assessments related to training, education, employment, and where appropriate, independent living skills. Based on the following guidance as found in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (2004), the rules for writing appropriate and measurable postsecondary IEP goals are listed below:

·    Focus must be: o postsecondary education/postsecondary training; o postsecondary employment; and o where appropriate, independent living skills.

·    Activity occurs AFTER graduation, and it is clearly stated that the goal will occur after graduation.

·    Goals are measurable and can be observed and/or counted.

·    The expectation, or behavior, is explicit.

·    Goals are based on age appropriate transition assessment (assessment results included in present levels)

·    Identifies an outcome, not a process

Examples of post secondary goals might look like this:

Figure 9.  Example goals.  This chart provides examples of compliant goals and the justification for each. Source: Wellner, L. (2015). Compliant goal examples. Bridgepoint Education. CA.

To continue, the incorporation of self-determination skills in post-secondary goals is an area that is addressed in the activities this week.  Supporting students with appropriate and measurable goals in the various areas of self-determination is essential to their long-term success.  Recall that self-determination skills are those areas that support decision-making, choosing preferences, and exercising self-advocacy all of which are needed for independent living. Supporting student self-determination skills are the heart of the transition planning process.

Assessment Guidance

This section includes additional specific assistance for excelling in the discussions for Week Four beyond what is given with the instructions for the discussions. If you have questions about what is expected on any discussion for Week Four, contact your instructor using the Ask Your Instructor discussion before the due date. Discussion 1: What Makes an Effective Lesson Plan?  Peer Review and Structured Feedback The Week Four discussion is your ability to evaluate the effectiveness of lesson plans for students with mild to moderate disabilities (CLO5/Evaluating).  This discussion also supports your achievement of Course Learning Outcome 5 and the MASE Program Learning Outcome 4 and 5. You will access the Doc Sharing tool, which is used to share document with each other within the course for the purpose of reviewing previously submitted lesson plans.  Based on the readings and Intellectual Elaboration you will provide your written evaluation of the effectiveness of their lesson plans for teaching students with mild to moderate disabilities.   The guided response required in Discussion One is designed for you to reply to at least two peers using information from the Promethean Planet website to support your ideas, critique and feedback that you will provide to your peers.  Journal:  Designing Lesson Plans This assignment assesses your ability to clarify the potential challenges when creating lesson plans that include self-determination skills. This assessment also supports your achievement of Course Learning Outcome 4, and the MASE Program Learning Outcome 1 and 2. In this journal assignment you will reflect on what including self-determination skills into lesson plans means to you and some of the related elements in designing successful lesson plans.  Several questions will be posed to spark your creativity and application of this content.

References

Archived: Guide to the Individualized Education Program (Links to an external site.). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/parents/needs/speced/iepguide/index.html#contents Oregon Department of Education. (2011, March 4). Postsecondary Goals - Oregon Department of Education (Links to an external site.). Retrieved from http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?=1278 Polloway, E. A., & Polloway, E. A. (2013). Strategies for teaching learners with special needs. Boston: Pearson. Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning | CRLT (Links to an external site.). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p2_5 Valley Oaks Charter School. (n.d.). What makes a good lesson? (Links to an external site.) Retrieved from http://valleyoakscharterschool.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2014/05/lessonplanhandbook.pdf Writing Effective Lesson Plans - Promethean Planet (Links to an external site.). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-us/professional-development/best-practice/lesson-plans/