EXE 364 Summary

EXE 364 Summary

Curricular and Instructional Adaptations for Including Students with Disabilities in Cooperative Groups

Ann Nevin

General Overview

• In order for students to be successful, they need to be able to know how to live and work with people who are different than them.

• Success with cooperative learning happens when cooperative lessons are carefully planned, and the collaborative skill being taught is also being practiced by the teacher teaching it.

8 step methods for planning these lessons:

• Select an academic instructional objective and materials correlated to IEP objectives for students with disabilities.

• Select the group size and assign the students to groups in a way where heterogeneity and diversity are prevalent in each group.

• Arrange the classroom in clusters where there is face-to-face instruction among students, and mobility is easy between groups.

• Design the cooperative goal structure to incorporate goal, reward, and resource interdependence.

• Specify the criteria for student success in both academic tasks, and cooperative interactions.

• Monitor group and individual performance through direct observation.

• Intervene when necessary, and evaluate both academic performance and cooperative skill achievements.

Principles of Recommended Educational Practices:

• Providing chronological age-appropriate curriculum objectives and materials

• Structuring social integration

• Designing functional curricula

• Integrating services

Expanding the Classroom Curriculum to Accommodate Diversity:

• Task analysis

• Overlapping curriculum objectives

Poll

Which way would you as a teacher use to expand the curriculum to accommodate diversity?

• Task Analysis

• Overlapping curriculum objectives

• I would incorporate both

Making Instructional Decisions:

• There are three main types of groups used in cooperative learning:

• Core Groups

• Formal Groups

• Temporary Groups

Multiple Choice

Do you think working in heterogeneous groups is overall successful for students with disabilities?

• Yes!

• No :(

• I'm not sure yet

Case #1

Who conducted it: Joy Wilcox

What was the purpose: to include Debbie in a 1st-grade general education classroom.

Outcome: Increased her rate of initiation of interactions with her classmates.

Debbie became more verbal at home.

Case #2

• Who conducted it: Mary Kay Monley

• Purpose: To include Bobby who was visually impaired and nonverbal, into a general education classroom.

• Outcome: Bobby was able to participate with his group. The students were accepting and even thought of ways to modify the lesson for Bobby.

Case #3

• Who: A 10th-grade math teacher

• Purpose: To design cooperative lessons to decrease their maladaptive behaviors and increase their math skills.

• Outcome: Results showed that all students improved. Disruptions significantly decreased.

Case #4

• Who: Karen Noone

• Purpose: To adapt a Social Studies lesson for an 8th-grade student to meet the needs of the student's IEP objectives.

• Outcome: All of the groups were successful

Lesson Wrap Up

Cooperative Learning: to use or not to use?

Poll

Now that you've heard all of the cases, do you think heterogeneous groups are successful for students with disabilities?

• Yes again!

• Still no :(

• Still unsure

Open Ended

How would you use cooperative learning in your class?

Multiple Choice

What should you do if a lesson is not going as intended?

• Stop! Try something new once you figure out the problem.

• Keep trying the lesson until something clicks with someone

• Forget the lesson completely

Multiple Select

Select ALL of the advantages to cooperative learning?

• Experiences that develop good learning and social skills.

• Students will be upset with having to work together.

• Building positive relationships with students.

• Provide individual attention and assistance to one another.

Multiple Choice

Cooperative learning is a :

• Teacher-Centered approach to teaching

• Student-Centered approach to teaching

Multiple Choice

Teachers should group students through

• behavior levels according to their IEPs

• homogeneous (similar) or heterogeneous (different) academic levels.

Multiple Choice

Should cooperative teaching be done in...

• Small Groups

• Large Groups