Accommodations Versus Modifications Let's talk about what an accommodation is and how this differs from a modification

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Accommodations Versus Modifications Let's talk about what an accommodation is and how this differs from a modification. One note-you may hear these terms used interchangeably but actually they are quite different. However, many general education teachers and the public (parents, etc.) don't understand these are 2 different terms with 2 very different meanings. What is an Accommodation? An accommodation is a change to how the learning takes place. It is not a change to what is begin taught. Therefore, when implementing accommodations, you are assisting the child by making the learning more accessible and/or changing the way learning takes place, so what you are teaching can be more easily accessed and learned. This means that the accommodations are to help and support the child to reach the objective that is being taught in the general education classroom or in the curriculum being used for the whole class. All students, including the student with the disability, must reach the lesson objective (outcome). Tiers for Accommodations: The tiers are different ways of supporting students with disabilities when using accommodations: 1) Tier 1 is using the strategy (accommodation) for the whole classroom, 2) Tier 2 is using the strategy (accommodation) for small groups of children, with or without disabilities, and 3) Tier 3 is using the strategy (accommodation) for the included child or children. As you can see the diagram above shows that most support happens in Tier 1 (that's why it's the biggest part of the triangle), all the way to the smallest (Tier 3) which occurs just for the included child or children. These tiers that you can provide accommodations in any of these manners: for the entire class, for small groups of children, or for the included child or children. Remember, however, that the accommodations you provide are BECAUSE the child(ren) with disabilities need these accommodations to do well with the lesson or in that specific situation. You are changing the way you teach in one (or more) of the 4 ways below: There are 4 ways you can accommodate children: 1. presentation 2. response 3. setting 4. timing and scheduling. Let's look at accommodations for all 4 areas. 1. presentation-this is a change in how the material is presented. For example, more pictures so a child can use context clues when reading, or having someone read the text to the child instead of them reading it themselves. Another example would be changing the directions so they are single step directions instead of multistep directions so the child can understand and process the directions easier. 2. response-this is a change in how the child would respond to the material. For example, giving spoken answers instead of written answers, or pointing to a picture instead of saying the word. 3. setting-this is a change to the setting of the learning. For example, using pairs instead of independent work, or vice versa-having a child work independently instead of in a large group. Another example would be that the child might need to sit close to the teacher to focus or in front of the room instead of the back of the room. 4. timing and scheduling-this is a change to the way in which the timing or scheduling of tasks take place. For example, giving the child more breaks when doing a long task or a test, or giving the child more time to complete work. Each of these 4 areas can have an accommodation made by the teacher to any of the tiers. For example, you may teach a lesson using a lot of manipulatives and in a hands-on way. This is for the whole class, but you are specifically implementing it because of the included child-they need this type of teaching to learn the material. This would be an example of a Tier 1 accommodation and would be about presentation. Another example might be that the included child has pictures to go with the directions to an activity. This would also be about presentation but would be a Tier 3 accommodation since the accommodation is only for that specific child. Please understand that these accommodations do not mean that you can isolate or exclude the child and then try to call it an accommodation! Accommodations are for the child to better learn, not so a teacher can penalize the child or isolate them from others. These accommodations usually cannot be made for any child who is struggling with understanding the material being taught or with completing work-the child must have an IEP or IFSP that lists specific accommodations in any or all of these categories. In addition to these, other more general classroom accommodations include: clear and simple directions consistent classroom routines clear and positive classroom and school rules creating a classroom climate that encourages respect, trust, and caring consistent and frequent feedback on progress use of specific praise positive guidance techniques organized and uncluttered spaces and walls And, these general classroom accommodations are accommodations which can be done to support any student-whether or not they have an IEP or IFSP. You may be saying to yourself, "These general accommodations are practices that all effective teachers engage in." If so, you are correct! Effective teachers of children of any age use all of these strategies to ensure all their students can learn. However, when working with a child with a disability, it is absolutely necessary to use these practices. Children without disabilities may still learn in a classroom that is not effective, chaotic, or disorganized, but for a child with a disability, it can more likely mean the difference between being successful and not being successful in the classroom. You should be using these general classroom practices listed above whether or not you feel you have any children with disabilities in your classroom, but you will need to rethink and then make accommodations, as well as use these practices, to ensure that all your children can be successful. Accommodations can be done in all three environments of learning: Physical, instructional, and socio-emotional. The physical environment is the actual physical classroom environment: the things on the walls, the lighting, seating and seating arrangements, where the white board is placed, etc. The instructional environment is the teaching and learning that takes place in the classroom. Most of your accommodations will be for this environment, since most accommodations are for learning. The socio-emotional environment is the affective part of the classroom-how everyone gets along, prosocial behaviors such as sharing, making friends, using manners, being respectful, identifying and acting appropriately with our feelings, etc. Remember that accommodations are to assist children with meeting the expectations of the class and/or lesson/activity. are not changing the learning outcome (objective) for any of the students. They will all meet that learning outcome for that lesson, some students with accommodations and some students without accommodations. What are modifications? Modifications mean that you are changing the materials substantially (such as the reading level) or the curriculum. Accommodations do not change the curriculum and if the materials are changed, they are changed for access and usability, not for content. Modifications are for when the content of the activity, lesson, concept, or skill are not developmentally appropriate for the child. For example, if the 5th grade reading text is too difficult for a child, a modification might be to use a 3rd grade text for that specific child. So the same story perhaps, but at a different reading level. As a second example, if teaching a child how to write their first name, an accommodation might be the use of a pencil that's easier for the child to hold. A modification might be that instead of writing their name, they trace the letters of their name. Another example might be that children are learning secondary colors. An accommodation might be that each secondary color is separated in the lesson, and taught separately. A modification might be that only one secondary color is taught to the included child, not several, as the other children are learning. Where accommodations help support the student in reaching the objective of the lesson that all the students in the class are learning, modifications are to change the objective of the lesson (that the rest of the class is learning) to something more appropriate for the child with the disability. Modifications can be done in all three environments of learning: Physical, instructional, and socio-emotional, but are usually done in the instructional environment since you are changing the content and/or objective of the lesson. As general education teachers, we cannot modify a lesson for any studentthat would be unethical and illegal! We can only accommodate! If the child cannot consistently reach the grade level objectives, a referral should be done to see if disability services are needed. Only the special ed team can tell a teacher to make a modification! It will be on the IEP/IFSP. Therefore, in our course, almost all assignments focus on accommodations, not modifications! See the difference between an accommodation and a modification? There is a practice activity you can do on the next page if you would like to practice the difference between accommodations and modifications. Practice Activity for Accommodations and Modifications: Now, you come up with one accommodation and one modification for one of the concepts and objectives listed below. Farm Animals: At the end of the lesson, the children will be able to identify 6 farm animals. At the end of the lesson, the children will be able to describe characteristics of each farm animal. Shapes: At the end of the lesson, the children will be able to name 5 basic shapes. At the end of the lesson, the children will be able to draw each of the shapes. Counting to 10: At the end of the lesson, the children will be able to count to 10 orally. At the end of the lesson, the children will be able to identify the numerals that match each number. At the end of the lesson, the children will be able to count up to 10 objects. Write down your accommodation and your modification. What did you come up with? Check your answers for each concept on the next page. Some possible answers include: Farm Animals: Accommodations: use of plastic farm animals for modeling; use of a video, book, and pictures of farm animals for various learning modalities; acting out the sounds of farm animals; hands on activities to teach about farm animals; working with a partner on activities, etc. Modifications: focus only on 3 farm animals, not the larger number the rest of the class is focusing on; when doing an activity on farm animals, do only part of the activity with the included child; if focusing on multiple concepts about farm animals, only focus on one concept with the included child; have the included child describe only 2 (or a smaller number of farm animals) than the rest of the class. Shapes: Accommodations: use of actual items with each shape; play with items in each shape; other hands on activities about shapes, etc; have the class first trace the shape then draw on their own. Modifications: focus on one shape instead of several; focus on only one characteristic of shapes instead of many; have the included child trace the shape instead of draw; have the included child point to the correct shape when asked rather than draw the shape. Counting to 10: Accommodations: use items to count with; complete multiple activities to learn counting to 10; break counting into steps (1-3, 1-5, 1-7, 1-10) until mastered 1-10; etc. Modifications: only practice counting to 5 (or 3); use guided counting-where teacher or peer count with included child; if counting items, included child can rote count instead; if counting items, count only up to 5 items instead of 10. Did you come up with some of these or similar accommodations and modifications? Good for you! If not, go back and review the differences in the reading above. Remember: Accommodations do not change the objective. Modifications almost always change the objective. Remember that classroom teachers CANNOT modify on their own-we can only modify curriculum or material if the IEP tells us to do so. • Developed and written by Teresa L. Bridger, Ph.D.

Table for Accommodation Assignments Activity/Lesson Name: Url: Subject Area: Grade level: Standard: Objective: Accommodation with details Environment Type of Accommodation Tier Why needed for success

Table for Accommodation Assignments Accommodation Table Example-ADD Activity/Lesson Name: attached Url: Subject Area: Grade level: 3rd grade Math Objective/Learning Outcomes: The lesson has an appropriate verb but is not written correctly. So to fix it I could write: At the end of this lesson, students will be able to use the specific skills of repeated addition and equal groups to solve simple multiplication problems. (The original obj was "Students will use equal groups and repeated addition to understand the concept of multiplication.") You do NOT have to write the original objective! MSDE College and Career Readiness Mathematics Standards: There was no standard given so the standard I would use is: 3.OA.A.1- Interpret products of whole numbers, e.g., interpret 5 x 7 as the total number of objects in 5 groups of 7 objects each. Please note: I am not doing this example for ADD, not LD so that I do not limit the accommodations and/or the characteristics of LD. But this should give you an example of what to do and how to fill in each column. Accommodation with details In the modeling part of the lesson, the teacher provides one example of how multiplication works. I would provide at least 3 examples for the class. Environment Instructional Type of Accommodation Presentation Tier 1 Why needed for success Students with ADD may have problems with focusing so providing more than one example may help the child with ADD be able to focus on at least one of the examples (with one example they may miss the whole example). Also, many children with ADD have problems with having gaps in their previous knowledge because they have not attended often in class. Providing additional examples will help a child with ADD learn the concept if they are unsure. (You only need one characteristic and reason here, but I have given you two here to show you ways of writing this.

Lesson Plan: Candy Multiplication Grade Third Grade Subject Math o o Multiplication One-Digit Multiplication Multiplication Facts One-Digit Multiplication and Equal Groups Standards 3.OA.A.1 Materials and Preparation Equal Groups worksheet (one per student) Candy Math Recording Sheet (one per student) Small package of candy (one per student) Pencil Whiteboard Interactive whiteboard, document camera, or projector Key Terms: factor product October 8, 2015 by Jennifer Armstrong Learning Objectives Students will use equal groups and repeated addition to understand the concept of multiplication. Lesson Introduction (1 minutes) Tell students that today they will begin learning about multiplication. Tell students that multiplication can be thought of as repeated addition of equal groups. Explicit Instruction/Teacher Modeling (9 minutes) Write an example multiplication problem on the board. For example: 4 x 3 Tell your students that the x (multiplication sign) means the same thing as groups of. Explain this in the context of your example: This problem can be read as 4 groups of 3. Explain that in this equation, the numbers 4 and 3 are each known as a factor. Define factors as the numbers we can multiply together to get another number. Draw 4 circles and put 3 dots in each circle, to illustrate 4 groups of 3. Count each of the dots as a class. Once you're finished, write the entire equation on the board: 4 x 3 = 12 Tell your students that the answer to a multiplication problem is known as the product. Explain to your class that multiplication problems can be represented as repeated addition of the same number. Using the white board, join the circles you drew with plus signs, and write an addition equation that matches your example multiplication problem. For example: 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 12. Discuss the benefits of multiplication (as opposed to addition) with your students. Some questions to ask include: Why do we multiply? When would it be easier to multiply instead of adding? Give an example to show when multiplication is easier than addition. For example: Write the problem 9 x 8 on the board, and write 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 on the board. Guide students in their thinking by asking, Which problem do you think would be faster to solve? Tell students that they will be using candy to figure out multiplication problems today. Using an interactive whiteboard, document camera, or projector, display the Candy Math Recording Sheet to the class. Discuss the example on the Recording sheet. Next, project the Equal Groups worksheet. Draw dots or candies to model solving the example problem for your students. Guided Practice/Interactive Modeling (10 minutes) Pass out a copy of Equal Groups and a copy of Candy Math Recording to each student, along with a bag of candy. Write an example multiplication problem on the board, such as 4 x 5. Tell your students to make 4 groups of 5 by putting 5 candies each into 4 circles. Ask students to solve the equation by counting how many total candies they used. Once students have the answer, challenge them to solve this multiplication problem using repeated addition. To do this, they must count how many candies are in each circle, and add those numbers together. Students should produce 5 + 5 + 5 + 5. Guide students to write this information on their worksheet. Check to make sure students understand the relationship between multiplication, equal groups, and repeated addition by asking questions such as: How are multiplication and addition related? How can we use equal groups to solve a multiplication problem? Independent Working Time (20 minutes) On the board write five more multiplication problems that students can work on at their own pace. For example: 3 x 6, 7 x 2, 2 x 4, 6 x 3, 8 x 3. Circulate around the classroom as students are working to monitor accuracy. Extend Differentiation Enrichment: Ask students if they see a relationship in the problems that they solved. Do they see any products that are the same? Students should be able to determine that 3 x 6 and 6 x 3 have the same product. Let students know that this is known as the commutative property of multiplication. Challenge students to figure out if this always works in multiplication. If we switch factors, will the product remain the same? Give students a few problems to try this with, such as: 4 x 3, 3 x 4; 2 x 5, 5 x 2; etc. Support: Gather students who need extra support into a small group, and model how to solve multiplication problems to 10, focusing mainly on repeated addition. Review Assessment (9 minutes) Pass out a blank sheet of paper to each student. Write a multiplication problem on the board, such as 4 x 6. Ask students to solve the equation by drawing a picture to represent equal groups. Instruct them to include the related repeated addition problem. Check each student's work to ensure understanding. Review and Closing (1 minutes) Tell students that today they learned two strategies that they can use to solve multiplication problems. Allow students to eat their candies.