EDSP 674
Teaching Students with Individualized Adapted Curriculum
1. Catalog Entry
EDSP 674
Teaching Students with Individualized Adapted Curriculum
Credit hours (3)
Prerequisite: EDSP 464 or EDSP 663
Co-requisite: EDSP 781/782 or on-the-job placement
This course focuses on evidence-based strategies and methods for students in the adapted curriculum, including specific individualized instructional strategies, general strategies for working with heterogeneous groups of students in inclusive settings, and methods for adapting the general education curriculum to ensure academic access and success for students with severe disabilities. IEP planning and program content for K-12 levels are addressed.
2. Detailed Description of Course
This is an advanced level course in the Special Education, Adapted Curriculum course
sequence. Goals, objectives, and assignments in this course address CAEP Standard
1 (Content and Pedagogical Knowledge): 1.1 and 1.3, the Council for Exceptional Children
(CEC) Knowledge and Skill Standards, the Virginia Department of Education teacher
licensure competencies in Professional Education, the CEC Initial Special Education
Individualized Independence Curriculum Specialty Set and the VDOE endorsement competencies
in Special Education, Adapted Curriculum K-12. The course is designed to help prepare
prospective teachers of students with significant needs with the skills and knowledge
necessary to plan and implement educational programs and to develop best practices
in instruction for K-12 students with severe disabilities who need an individualized,
adapted approach to the general education curriculum. Applied use of assistive technology
will be integrated within the course. Course topics include:
1) The IEP process
2) Writing goals
3) Data collection assessment and analysis
4) Organizing the classroom for effective instruction
5) Evidence-based instructional strategies for teaching communication, academic,
and life skills
6) Designing effective lessons and units
7) Selecting, developing, and adapting materials for students with significant
support needs
3. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
This course will be provided through hybrid distance education technologies:
1) Class lecture and discussion
2) Application activities
3) Small group activities and assignments
4) Video and other media supports
5) Research and presentation activities
6) Electronic supplements and activities
Course participants must identify and work with an appropriate target student with severe disabilities, ages 5-21, who is participating in the adapted curriculum. Course participant will need permission to read this student’s confidential file, and engage in observation, interview, assessment and instructional activities with the student and her/his family and team members in order to complete the major assignments for the class.
4. Goals and Objectives of the Course
Upon completion of this course, learners will be able to:
1) Write IEPs so they define individualized sequences of measurable objectives
for teaching needed functional skills that
link to Standards of Learning in the general curriculum and begin with present
level of performance and end with goal
performance. (ISCI5S1, ISCI5S5, VAACB.2.a(3)(e)
2) Construct, use, and interpret nonstandard, informal skill assessment (such
as task analysis and observation) to identify
appropriate objectives, evaluate student performance during baseline and intervention,
and make improvements in
instruction for students with disabilities in an adapted curriculum across
the K-12.levels. (ISCI4S8, ISCI5S3, VA Core 2.a
(4), VAACB.2.a(1)
3) Assess target skills before (baseline probes) and during (instructional probes)
instruction using direct observation or
assessment of permanent products. (ISCI5S11)
4) Create dated graphs of student performance data using Excel; draw aim and trend
lines using Excel. (ISCI5S21)
5) Use “raw” and graphed student performance data (along with aim and trend lines,
and problem analysis) to evaluate the
effects of instruction and make data-based decisions for improving student
performance. (ISCI3K4)
6) Embed instruction on targeted IEP objectives into functional daily routines
and activities. (VACore2b)
7) Plan, implement, and evaluate instructional programs that use effective antecedent
teaching strategies (e.g.,
observational learning, milieu approach, system of least intrusive prompts,
simultaneous prompting, time delay,
graduated guidance, picture assists, audio/ video-modeling, backward and whole
task chaining) and consequent
strategies (e.g., shaping, error correction, consequential strategies, and
interspersed review). (IIC5S2)
8) Write and implement an instructional plan that specifies a sequence of instructional
objectives leading to a goal, uses a
task analysis (for multiple-step skills) or a skill sequence (for discrete
skills), incorporates antecedent and consequence
teaching strategies aimed at a specific stage of learning, and specifies a
plan for collecting and analyzing student
performance data on an ongoing basis. (IIC2K4)
9) Understand general education teaching practices that promote inclusion of students
with severe disabilities in the
general education curriculum and support them in the least restrictive environment
(e.g., curriculum and instructional
adaptation, group instruction, self-management strategies, schedule following
instruction, cooperative learning, and
peer tutoring). (ISCI2S3, ISCI5S13, IIC5S12, VA Core 2.b (7)
10) Understand when and how to use small group instruction, peer tutoring, community-based
instruction, simulated
instruction, video-modeling instruction, and instruction involving both typical
students and students with disabilities.
(ISCI2S4, ISCI5S13)
11) Apply a model to plan with general educators any adaptations and modifications
that are needed in the general
education curriculum and class activities in order to meet the instructional
needs of students with severe disabilities.
(ISCI 3S1, VA Core 2.b (5)
12) Train paraprofessional support staff to use appropriate teaching methods and
supportive interaction styles with
students that support students without encouraging dependency. Provide these
staff members with supervision and
feedback. (ISCI5K1)
5. Assessment Measures
Assessment measures may include, but are not limited to, the following:
1) A performance-based assessment: Detailed instructional program including identification
of evidence-based strategies,
development and implementation of plan, and analysis of results.
2) Classroom plan
3) Lesson plans
4) Other assignments determined by individual instructor
6. Other Course Information
None
Review and Approval
April 25, 1994
April 01, 1995
April 01, 1998
April 08, 1999
April 02, 2002
November 14, 2002
May 11, 2015