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Special Needs - 2 - Creating Products to Assess Mastery in the Online Environment

In U.S. History there is an assignment that requires the students to create a chart comparing the different regions of Colonial America.  The three regions are: New England, Middle, and Southern Colonies.  They fill in the chart regarding each region in terms of the colonies that made up the region, major cities, geography/climate, economy, and religious backgrounds.  It is important that students understand the nature and character of each of these regions.

This is a fairly straight-forward and quality assignment that has been used for a long time in the course.  It requires the students to think about each region and know what colonies fall into each one (which they often do not know coming in).  They see how they are similar, but also different.  It causes them to research material presented in the course content and often look beyond that for more information.  As far as a downside, the amount of information available on the web and in other sources about the 13 Colonies can be overwhelming.  It also may be difficult for certain students to complete that are more visual as what they put in the chart is text.

There would be many options for altering this assignment to fit a diverse student population, including those with disabilities.  One thing that could be done is to provide more specific instructions to use the material in the course to learn about the colonial regions.  A short list of websites that would be helpful in finding the information could help narrow the focus in terms if they are searching online.  It could also be required to include at least one picture for each region to give it more of a visual element.

In terms of looking at transforming the assignment in a broader context there could be ways to provide alternate means of completing it to fit different learning styles, talents, and overcome other obstacles.  For example, an audio file could be created where the student explains each area pertaining to each region.  This would also be one where students who like to draw or create cartoons could illustrate the areas, take a picture, and then submit that for their assignment.  Some online tools like a prezi or creating an online poster could also be utilized.  So I would say there are a lot of options and directions a teacher could go in enhancing or altering the assignment.

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Special Needs - 2 - Specific Strategies for Online Differentiation and Personalization

Preparing at the beginning of the semester is important.  As a general rule, it works better to look at the class, the type of assignments that you have, and the students that you will have in the class ahead of time rather than trying to go back and figure all this out “on the fly.” 

Strategy #1 Assessment Data Available to You

This can take at least two forms: for the individual student and the individual assignments available in the class.  For the student, a simple starting point is looking in THEsis and seeing how the student is classified as gifted, regular, or special needs.  Through the LMS data on individual students to see where they have been successful and areas where they have struggled can be very helpul.  In terms of assignments, data is available on how previous classes have done on particular assessments (especially if you have taught the class before).  Knowing particular assignments, or aspects of those assignments, that students struggle with can help you plan different strategies to teach these lessons effectively.

Strategy #2 Current Individualized Plans For Any Students

As noted in #1, you can see if the student is special needs and if they have a 504 Plan, etc.  Early on, teachers are provided an email of supports that should be made for the individual student.  These should be carefully read and thought given to how these will be applied in your class.  For example, if the student needs larger assignments broken into chunks, and then thinking about what assignments in your class are more lengthy can help you prepare ahead of time for any differentiation needed. 

Strategy #3  Plan Differentiation Ahead of Time

In building on #2, knowing what assignments you have in your class and which ones may present good opportunities for differentiation ahead of time is important.  The teacher may want to think about and develop directions for differentiation on a particular assignment even before the semester begins.  For example, one of my classes had a project where students would research their family history.  But for some students, they did not have a family history that was able to realistically be traced or it was an uncomfortable thing for them to do.  So I developed an alternate way to assess this topic without delving directly into their family history.  Students could “role play” in pretending to be an immigrant coming to America by creating journals which required them to research immigration and specific immigrant groups in American History.

Strategy #4 Conduct a Survey With Your Students

This is not something that I have done before, but an intriguing idea.  This could be done toward the beginning of the semester to gauge student’s preferences and strengths/weaknesses in terms of learning styles.  By creating some good questions, perhaps about how they would approach learning something, I believe that useful information could be gleaned.  This could show overall trends in the class as well as specific things about individual students.  The data from such a survey could be used to make wise decisions regarding differentiation.

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Special Needs - 2 - Best Practices for Online Communication

I chose “option 2″ with the scenario of the female student who has ADHD and is being served by a 504 Plan.  She is participating and completing assignments, but not in the order of the pacing guide.  The ADHD could definitely be a factor here.  She is not focusing on the schedule and/or not interpreting it correctly.  There is plenty of activity, but it is not being focused in a systematic or chronological way.

Best Practice #1  The Sandwich Method

It would be helpful to reach out to the student directly.  I would likely begin with an email and then make phone contact if the email did not resolve the issue.  In sending the email it will be important to not discourage the student, because they are participating in the class.  So in beginning and ending with a positive, it would not be too difficult in this case.  The email could begin with commending the student for their participation in class and work ethic.  Then the corrective measure would be introduced to direct them to turning in assignments in accordance with the course schedule.  In history, it is important to work in order as our understanding of past events often will impact things that we get to later.  The email could be closed with a positive in how the student is interacting well with the other students and teacher (as it said she asked questions) with an encouragement that I am here and willing to help with clarification.

Best Practice #2  Personalization

Another way to address the situation is through leaving meaningful and personal feedback.  This helps the student feel “closer” to the online teacher, letting them know that there is a human being (as opposed to robot) facilitating the class.  One way this can be done is audio feedback.  Perhaps the student will understand more if they hear what they need to do with the schedule as opposed to reading text.  In the feedback for the assignments that are turned in out of order, audio feedback could be left that included pointing out that this assignment was not due for some time, the importance of working in order, and a courteous direction to the course schedule.

Best Practice #3  Be Concise

Especially with a student with ADHD, a long message-even if it detailed and focused (as opposed to rambling) could still be difficult.  Emails, instructional videos, and feedback needs to be specific and communicate the main point that needs corrective action (in this case by working in order) clearly.  One thing that could help here in giving directions on following the schedule accurately could be providing “bullet points” to outline the steps rather than lengthy paragraphs that they may not read or not understand.  As we learned in the lesson we should express as much as possible while at the same time avoiding unneeded words or details.  Directions could be made to resources in the class (news announcements, recordings, etc) that explain how to read the schedules and turn in things in order.  A direct offer to explain this one on one should also be included. 

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Special Needs - 1 - Developing an Individualized Plan

Plan “B” is the best option for Sally Student-the name of the fictional student created for the activity.  It is not that plan “A” is not good at, but that B would be a better fit.  Plan B is more specific and relates more directly to the online environment.

As noted above, plan B is more specific.  It gives specific accommodations/modifications that can be applied in the online environment.  For example, plan B gives a specific accommodation of 100% (double) time on timed assessments.  This can easily be set up for quizzes and tests in the Learning Management System (LMS).  It gives the specific information on extending the due date on an assignment (the next day).  Finally, in terms of the modification of reduced coursework plan B says how the assignments will be reduced.  This will be done by the teaching while ensuring that the student still has an opportunity to master the material.

While plan B is a good plan, there are a couple of things that could be changed/clarified.  The participants in putting the plan together includes 2 teachers.  One teacher is supposed to be a general education teacher and the other a special education teacher.  This is not specified in the report.  Also, for the weekly check-it it says to use either phone, email, or synchronous session. It would be good to note to utilize phone contact more as with Sally’s problem seeing reading an email will be more difficult.

The main problem with Plan A is that it is not specific enough on how the modifications/accommodations will be applied in an online class.  It says the student can have more time on timed assessments, extended time on assignments, and reduced coursework.  But it does not specify how these things would look in being applied.  Consistent laying out of the information is helpful.

[aaronreinking]

Special Needs - 1 - Accommodations in an Online Environment

“Tom” is a student who is hearing impaired.  This presents many challenges to him learning in a traditional classroom.  Many of the instructions and much of the content given by the teacher is verbal.  This puts Tom at a disadvantage to other students in the class.  Additionally, when he speaks his pronunciation and volume are different than other students.  Due to this being “different” he is reluctant to speak up in class.

An online learning environment could benefit Tom in many ways.  Much of the content delivery is text form, greatly increasing his access to information.  Even videos and presentations in an online class can have slides with text or be closed captioned.  The schedule can be printed and viewed.  Feedback for assignments can also be in text form, providing help and encouragement.

Tom would be able to participate in class discussions.  He can read the discussion prompts and type responses.  He can also interact with other students without fear of how his voice is coming across or if people are hearing him correctly.  This greatly would increase his engagement in the class.

There are also a variety of types of assessments that can be utilized in an online format.  Verbal reports could be substituted with another assignment.  Pacing is also more flexible for the areas where a work around/modification may need to be used for verbal aspects. 

While the advantages of an online class can be many for the hearing impaired there, like any format, could be drawbacks.  Being in an online format may reduced direct interactions with other people which can provide valuable experiences that Tom may need going forward from his school.  There are often videos and other audio aspects in online classes too (which accommodations can usually be made for).  Teachers hold weekly live sessions which are more verbal-based (although GAVS does not require these as part of a student’s grade).  The realization must be there that being in an online class will not remove all challenges to receiving the content.

[aaronreinking]

Special Needs - 1 - Applying Strategies and Best Practices

First Chosen Scenario: Hopper has an IEP with accommodations for Dysgraphia. Your class requires written reports in each unit on various topics. Hopper expresses concern over his grade in your class because of the written reports. You know Hopper is putting forth effort, but he still is not passing your class. He asks what he can do to improve his grade. How do you respond?

Difficulties student is facing in an online class:

1.  Due to the nature of dysgraphia writing reports creates a number of challenges.  The first one could be writing the actual report itself.  Hopper could be having trouble with omitting words or letters, completing sentences, and with spelling and grammar.

2.  There could also be troubles with organizing the information.  Part of writing reports is taking notes and transmitting the information from your research into an organized structure.  It also requires continued thought about what you are writing while you are actually writing/typing it.

Best Practices/Specific Strategies:

1.  Since their is an accommodation in pace and the student is putting forth effort, a new direction needs to be tried here.  The student could be allowed to create an audio file to submit then verbally gives the information required by the report.

2.  Another option would be create an alternate assignment that covers the same standard (making a video, writing shorter sentences captioning a visual, a quiz, etc) that Hopper could complete in place of the written report.

Second Chosen Scenario: Kali has recently been diagnosed with Lupus.  The last few weeks she has an inconsistent log in history due to her medical challenges.  Kali is also behind on assignments, and she emailed about making up the work she missed while she was absent.  Her medical diagnosis and absences have been verified and her absences have been medically excused.  How would you support her?

Difficulties student is facing in an online class:

1.  Lupus can cause extended periods when the student may not be able to work on their online class (such as with Kali).  We have weekly due dates so this could result in assignments not being completed on time. 

2.  Students are also expected to log in each school day and this may not be possible in this case.

Best Practices/Specific Strategies:

1.  First of all, the scenario cited that this is a recent diagnosis for Kali.  Does she have accommodations in place?  Even if there is an existing plan further modifications may be need.  It would be important to reach out the special needs team so that they can work with the school to get long-term plan in place.

2.  In the short term, a schedule change can be done if that would help at this point, an extension request can be submitted, and open communication encouraged.

[aaronreinking]

Participate Reflection (Revised)

Below is how each iNACOL standard was addressed in the Participate Module of TOOL and in () are references to the assignments that were completed in reference to those areas and screenshots are provided that reference other posts in the blog (these can also be found directly in the blog if there are any difficulties in viewing).

C.  The online teacher plans, designs, and incorporates strategies to encourage active learning, application, interaction, participation, and collaboration in the online environment.

The learning process is collaborative, especially online.  It is important that the online teacher is part of a professional community (Joining a PLC) and seeks to grow by learning and apply new strategies.  A learning community should be made up of diverse individuals who have a variety of skills that they can bring to the table to allow the organization to grow and develop.  We have administrators at GAVS who have specific roles in this, but it also needs to happen on the teacher level (Ideal Digital Learning Communities).  The actual recording shown in the screenshot below may be accessed in the blog.

E.  The online teacher models, guides, and encourages legal, ethical, and safe behavior related to technology use.

Teaching should not be, “do as I say, not as I do.”  We must model the highest professional standards to our students in terms of wise, legal, safe, and ethical behavior (Character Traits).  The online world is vast and there are many pitfalls that young people can fall into.  They sometimes don’t understand how serious the threats are to Digital Safety.  We can play a part in modeling and teaching this as online educators.  We can help guide them to reputable sources (Collecting Reputable Digital Sources) and teach them productive and civil ways to interact with people online (Digital Resources and Netiquette).

J.  The online teacher interacts in a professional, effective manner with colleagues, parents, and other members of the community to support students’ success. 

How we interact with others is important.  This also goes back to some of the points in standard E.  When discussing things we colleagues it should be done in a professional manner and protect the privacy of students and parents.  When we discuss things with parents it should be done clearly and sometimes firmly-but with professionalism and respect (Digital Rights and Responsibilities).  A community needs to be based on professional and effective means and practices of communication to be healthy (Ideal Learning Communities).

Paragraph on strategies and helpful aspects of the participate module:

This first module builds a foundation for the rest of the TOOL course.  Before one can do anything, they must participate.  We must understand what good character is and then apply these traits in the online classroom.  It must be understood that the online teacher is part of a community that includes colleagues, parents, administrators, and students.  The module was very helpful in pointing out some of the aspects of ethics and law that govern our practice and some of the pitfalls that one can fall into with online security and health.  I also thought it was important that it also went into our physical health as well (Digital Health).  Online teachers spend so much time in front of a computer, but we must get up and move around, have good posture, and be sure we are getting proper rest.  Finally, I found the article on “15 Essential Netiquette Guidelines to Share With Your Students” that was linked in the lessons very god and helpful.  It was concise in each of these points and they were all good, practical things that we can educate our students on that will serve them beyond the academic content of the particular course.

[aaronreinking]

I was unable to figure out how to share a link to my walkabout resources that I created in Delicious so I have attached some screenshots of it below.  I found a variety of resources to include, some of them I use very often like Digital History and Shmoop.  I chose to include three I reflected on because they have a great wealth of information and are useful to the Social Sciences in finding resources that can be used for development and sharing with students.

Participate 2: Collecting Reputable Digital Sources

What were the three most useful tools or resources resulting from the web walkabout?

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

A great sites for facts on the countries around the world.

www.shmoop.com

This site has a great deal of engaging information available, even in its free areas.

www.history.com

The History channel website has many good videos and good summaries on many different historical topics.

How can students be taught to safely collect tools and resources that can help them maximize their learning?

They can use some of the same strategies that were outlined in the last blog post.  Using a computer at school (or even at home) that has some filtering software will cut out a good many of the risks.

What policies or procedures might need to be in place to make this possible?

In our GAVS course we offer the students links in the course content/sidebar that are useful and safe.  In fact, the class that I am developing now all of the information they must know has to be included in the content rather than web links.  There are some drawbacks to this, but it does keep it safer I assume.

[aaronreinking]

Participate 2: Collecting Reputable Digital Sources

What were the three most useful tools or resources resulting from the web walkabout?

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

A great sites for facts on the countries around the world.

www.shmoop.com

This site has a great deal of engaging information available, even in its free areas.

www.history.com

The History channel website has many good videos and good summaries on many different historical topics.

How can students be taught to safely collect tools and resources that can help them maximize their learning?

They can use some of the same strategies that were outlined in the last blog post.  Using a computer at school (or even at home) that has some filtering software will cut out a good many of the risks.

What policies or procedures might need to be in place to make this possible?

In our GAVS course we offer the students links in the course content/sidebar that are useful and safe.  In fact, the class that I am developing now all of the information they must know has to be included in the content rather than web links.  There are some drawbacks to this, but it does keep it safer I assume.

[aaronreinking]

Participate 4-Digital Safety and Security (Part 2)

I have provided this poster as an artifact for this assignment for something that wold be student-centered relating to Digital Security.  An Adobe session would be a good time to go over some important aspects of this important topic.  The students could access the recording at a later time if they could not attend live.

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Part 1 of this assignment.

Participate 4-Digital Safety and Security

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Participate 3-Digital Resources and Netiquette (Part 2 of the assignment)

This is the example of the student-centered resources that I created to help teach netiquette.  It gives some information and tips relating to discussion posts as this is an area where sometimes you have problems (rare, but it does happen) with students attack the poster or paint with broad brushes rather than addressing the issue at hand in terms of the issue and evidence.  Netiquette is an area in which we can always grow and the resources in the lesson were helpful as I found the article on “15 essential Netiquette Guidelines to share with your students” very good.

[aaronreinking]

Part 1 of this assignment.

Participate 3-Digital Resources and Netiquette

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Evaluate 1-Formative Assessment

This is a formative assessment that I developed for U.S. History.  It is a discussion assignment based on America’s entry into WWI.  It requires the students to give an opinion, but one based on research of U-boats and other factors about how we moved from neutrality to involvement in WWI on the side of the Allies.  It relates directly to GPS Standard 15 A.

How does this assessment measure student achievement?

This assessment is graded and factored into the student’s overall average. Discussion are 20% of the course average and with the number of discussion assignments in the class this is 14.3% of the category average.  In grading the discussion posts I am looking for understanding of the role of U-boats in WWI as well as other factors as to why the U.S. became involved.

How does it provide students will multiple opportunities to demonstrate understanding, practice concepts, or self-check progress?

Yes, with the nature of the discussion assignments they do have multiple opportunities to gain more understanding and practice the concepts that they learn.  They do an original post of at least a paragraph answering the questions posed, but they also have to respond to at least one other student’s post.  Part of this is reading the posts of other students and learning more information that they had not previously learned and possibly viewing the topic in a way that they had not before.  I also sometimes ask follow-up questions to which they will need to think about and learn more to answer.  The students can show progress in future posts in the forum.

How does this assessment provide insight into student readiness?

Since it relates to the standard, their knowledge of American involvement into WWI is evaluated.  The standard requires to the students to learn about the impact of American involvement and how the U.S. moved gradually from neutrality to involvement in combat.  If the student is showing a grasp of this progression and the causes for it, they should demonstrate this in their discussion posts.

Do the results of the discussion guide your lesson plans, teaching activities, or enrichment/remediation opportunities?

Yes, to an extent.  The course shell is already created for the course so that is set.  However, the teacher does have the opportunity to provide additional resources in the discussion thread itself, the announcements, and in synchronous sessions.  So if I see that understanding in lacking, I can include additional information and this is often best done through the discussion board itself.  I do give the student’s remediation opportunities later in the semester.

[aaronreinking]

Evaluate 2-Data Driven Instruction and Analysis

Data is very important to making decisions on whether, and what to adjust, in a course going forward.  This lesson provided numerous examples by screenshot of data from a course.  Carefully studying this to see how the students are doing based on schedule groups, performance on individual tasks, etc. is all very valuable.  One of the great things about online education is that we have so much data available to us about our student’s work including what pages they have visited, when, how long they spent on the item, how students did on assignments compared to the class average, and much more.  But of course, this data has to be accessed and utilized for it to be useful.  The effective online teacher will analyze data to see what is working well and what might need adjustments.  The teacher who uses data productively has the advantage over the one who does not because they have a more accurate picture of what is really happening.

Specific comments on each sample data image in lesson.  What can I learn from the hypothetical teacher’s practices for the data provided?

1.  This shows the classes assigned for the teacher to teach.  It also shows the beginning and end date of the courses as well as how many students there are.  This is helpful in seeing what classes are going to take the most time to work with since the more students that there are, more grading and communication time will be required.

2.  The student “type” is shown.  If they are gifted or have a 505 Plan or IEP this is indicated.  If the student is a special needs student you should be on the lookout for information being sent which details accommodations they will need in the class.  You also see if they have completed the student orientation.  If so, you will see them appear in the gradebook soon.  Finally, you can see if they need to take the final exam or EOC.  This is very important.  If they need to take the exam in the GAVS course it is vital that the exam is visible to them on the exam days.

3.  An updated communication log is very important.  If there are issues that arise with grades, etc. the administration can check to see if you have made the contacts that you needed to.  This teacher’s log shows several cases of information being logged so I would want to follow that example.

4.  Next an example of an entry with with what was communicated is shown.  This communication is to a student who is doing well getting in their assignments.  I can learn from this to make positive contacts as opposed to only contacting when a student is not doing well.  Positive reinforcement is a good thing.

5.  The next page shows a “heat map” of how a student is accessing particular material and tools in the course.  The colors code and low usage.  As was pointed out in the lesson this can be very helpful to see if a student is working a healthy pace or rushing to get things in at the last minute.  Often times student’s who are scoring low on assignments are turning a bunch of stuff in at the last minute and this would help me to see if they are doing that.

6.  A snapshot is shown of what the student sees in the gradebook.  The can see here what score they earned on a particular assignment and the feedback left by the teacher.  The teacher here has entered feedback for the assignment which have been completed so that is a good example.  If the student has not completed the assignment or it has not been graded yet, this can also be seen here.

7.  An example is given of a quiz question that a student missed.  We are supposed to set our quizzes and tests to where the student’s can see the questions that they missed so that they can review.  They should not be able to see all the questions, but the ones that they missed so this examples demonstrates adherence to that policy that I would want to follow.

8.  An image is provided where the student can see the dropbox items and what they have submitted.  The grade is visible so the teacher has graded as they are supposed to do.  There is also an icon with the words “view” that indicates that feedback has been left.  This can be modeled as far as timely grading and leaving feedback.

9.  Finally, the last image is of the grade and feedback itself for a dropbox item.  The date for when the feedback was left is also shown.  Teachers are required to grade work within 72 school-day hours.  I can be sure that I am doing this by seeing when the student submitted the work and leaving the grade and feedback as to where it would indicate I am doing this within the required time frame. 

[aaronreinking]

Evaluate 3-Personalized Teaching and Learning

The image that was small has been removed and information from it included in the responses below to answer the questions you asked me to address:

I continue to offer a remediation opportunity to my students toward the end of the semester.  I do not drop grades, but they can choose to remediate up to two assignments that they did poorly on to try to raise their average.

How is the data referenced to identify the needs of the students?

You can see from the chart that more students took advantage of this opportunity in 2016-2017 than in 2015-2016.  Overall, it was 6% more with a higher number taking advantage of the remediation in the Spring.  The higher totals in Spring likely reflect a greater concern about the final average at the end of the school year.  Unfortunately, often times the students who need the remediation the most do not take advantage of it.  But they can’t say they did not have the chance.

How might the LMS settings be used to create personalized learning paths, change teacher plans, or help with remediation or enrichment?

I have adjusted how I approach remediation in being more aggressive in letting my students know about the remediation opportunity, as it does make a big difference for some of them.  In addition to the announcement on the course homepage and discussing it in the synchronous session, I also emailed students and parents through the LMS in cases where their average was borderline (within a couple of points) of moving up to the next average level (60s to 70s, 70s to 80s, etc).  This seems to have increased the level of participation.  Some still do not, but ultimately it is on them to actually take action and take advantage of the remediation.

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Evaluate 3-Self Reflection

Here is a the link to my eportfolio which contains extensive artifacts and self-reflection.