AME - Accommodations Made Easy was a web-based curriculum web designed to help teachers and paraprofessionals create accommodations, modifications and adaptations for students with diverse learning needs. The educators would work through a variety of exercises to help them learn about various curriculum and activity accommodations they could incorporate to assist their students with disabilities throughout all school settings. The educators could participate in individual or group learning activities to learn about areas of disability and accepted and best-practice accommodations that could be made to general education areas of study or activities for students with diverse needs. The “Professional Learning Activity” consisted of reading an article about making accommodations and participating in answering discussion questions with small groups. Also, a webquest from the Behavior Home Page of the Kentucky Department of Education could be accessed to learn about accommodations specific to children with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders. Finally, there was an individual or partner activity where educators developed their own “AME” page, choosing accommodations and modifications that specifically fit their area of studies, teaching styles and classroom makeup.
AME Curriculum Web
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The creation of this curriculum web has helped me to answer a need that I have seen in the fourteen years I have been working as a teacher and educator for students with disabilities. General education teachers who have now, more often, been “required” to accept students with disabilities into their classrooms seem often at a loss as to how to best accommodate these learners’ diverse needs without extensive planning time, the presence of a special educator or paraeducator support where the students can be put off into their own “area” to work on their areas of need within the classroom (inclusive placement but not practice). Additionally, the turnover rate for paraeducators working with students with diverse learning needs, the students ever-changing needs, and the district re-location of paraeducators based on allocation allowances, for example, often put people who have not have the opportunity to successfully learn basic accommodations within general education activities with students with the need for those modifications.
With the activities in this technology based curriculum web, I have been able to put together a comprehensive learning tool for educators, both teachers and paraprofessionals, who work towards better including students with diverse needs in all areas of the school environment. By reading about, connecting, bookmarking and creating personal documents with best practice accommodations for diverse learners that meet the teaching style and classroom makeup needs of themselves as individuals, this curriculum web allows educators to develop the skills, practices, and forward thinking in creating modifications so that all learners can be better included into general education activities and settings throughout their schools.
ISTE-TF.1 STANDARD: Technology Operations and Concepts -- Educational technology facilitators demonstrate an in-depth understanding of technology operations and concepts.
Within this Curriculum Web, I have created the opportunity for educators to help themselves help their students. With my knowledge of using technology to enhance learning, I have created a professional development site designed to allow educators to work in small groups, individually or as a large group to better understand how to more easily make accommodations for students with diverse learning needs. The site accesses many of the accepted websites of disability related research and best practice examples so that educators completing the activity can create sound individual documents based on best practices that are individualized to their own current needs and styles of teaching. The educators use basic principals of Word, such as ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ in order to create their individual documents. Also, the links are designed to be easy to use by being descriptive in nature and grouped for better target understanding.
ISTE-TF.2.A INDICATOR: Design developmentally appropriate learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the diverse needs of learners.
Teachers themselves are diverse learners. This technology enhanced curriculum web takes into account various learning styles that teachers might bring to the activities. There are three parts to the site. In one, teachers work independently to develop personal documents that highlight accommodations practices that they can specifically use for the actual students they teach, based on their classroom makeup, teaching style and background understanding of best practices in accommodating diverse learners. Another part of the site is geared towards group discussion, with educators anchoring their learning in an article they read and questions they answer for discussion purposes. Finally, there is a webquest activity that could be done in partners or small groups, geared towards a specific area of student disability for those educators who feel the need for more direct instruction in this area. In this way, through activities that allow educators to work in their own area of learning strength, and be specific to their individual needs, this curriculum web applies technology-enhanced learning opportunities for diverse learners.
