The document discusses significant changes in teaching literacy to students with disabilities. In the past, teachers lacked access to published curricula and standards but now must teach to state core standards. It emphasizes using shared reading and guided reading routines to actively engage students in learning literacy concepts and applying comprehension strategies. Teachers are challenged to design lessons targeting both IEP goals and state alternate standards.

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Then and Now! Back Then…
Reading & Literacy Lessons for
• When did you start working with students with
Students with Significant Cognitive significant disabilities?
Disabilities • What “happened” in your classroom?
• Did you have access to any
published curricula?
National Paraeducator Conference
Austin, Texas March 2012
• Did you have a copy of your
State CORE Curriculum?
• What about “accountability”?
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Paraeducators!! To meet the
Now…Times have changed changes
• What are current “expectations” for teachers of
students with significant cognitive disabilities?
• Do you have access to published curricula? • Engage students in active
• What about the Core Standards? participation and learning
– Does your state have alternative
Core standards?
– Do you know about them? • Maximize teaching & support
– Use them? time
• What “accountability” is in place?
– Building, District?
– State, Federal? • Minimize “down time”
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Teachers: Creating/Designing Lessons
Rise to the Occassion!! • Use your planning time wisely
– Use lesson planning templates
– Identify learning targets based on students’ IEPs and on the
Alternate Core Curriculum
• Plan ahead! • Create and use “student procedures”
– Have materials & supports ready – What students do & how they do it
• Take advantage of support opportunities – What staff does to support student procedures
• Student Engaged Time • Create and use “instructional routines
• What teacher/staff does and how
– Actively responding or participating he/she does it
in activity, lesson, learning • Create and use “staff procedures”
– What teacher/staff does and how
he/she does it
• Use these procedures & routines
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The Challenge of Literacy
Literacy Lessons for SWSD
Instruction for SWSD
• Special educators are required to teach based on • Read with a purpose!
standards while implementing IEPs
• Must meet the grade-level or Alernative CORE Standards
• Identify Instructional Targets based on students’
IEP and on the Alternate CORE
• Translating the standards into measurable, meaningful
objectives for individual students. – Alternate Assessment goals
• Find supports, materials, coordinate efforts – Other IEP goals
• In order to accomplish this task, goals & standards MUST
be transferred into a plan for instruction!
(Smith, DeMarco, Worley 2009)
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Do you know how to find your What are Utah’s Extended CORE
State’s Alternate CORE Curriculum? Standards in Language Arts (LA)?
• Elementary
• Go to your state’s Department of Education – Oral Language
“home” page – Concepts of Print
• Use key words to search – Phonological, Phonemic Awareness
– Alternative Academic Standards – Phonics & Spelling
– Extended Curriculum Standards – Comprehension
• Includes summarize, make predictions,
identify characters and events, sequence,
main topic, summarize key ideas
– Writing
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What are Utah’s Extended CORE What are Utah’s Extended CORE
Standards in Language Arts (LA)? Standards in Language Arts (LA)?
• Grades 7 & 8 • Grades 9 & 10
– Vocabulary – Vocabulary
– Comprehension • Suffix & prefix
• Text features – Text features
• Bolded words, headings • Bolded, headings
• Retell & summarize – Retell, summarize
– Writing – Writing
• Retell, summarize, write a narrative, • Connect to self (1 connection),
revise and edit write a narrative or autobiography,
– Inquiry revise & edit
• Decide a topic, ask questions, – Inquiry
stay on topic, learn turn taking
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What are Extended CORE Where are Alternate Standards Going???!!
Standards in Language Arts (LA)?
• Grades 11 & 12 • National Alternate Standards (Essential Elements)
– Vocabulary being developed right now!!
– Text features • Leading to National Alternate Assessment!!
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Two Powerful Strategies/Routines
What is shared reading?
to Teach Literacy Concepts
• Small group with adult reading out loud with
beginning readers
• Shared Reading • Teaching concepts and strategies that students
need to learn if they are going to become readers
• The GOAL: is for students to gradually take on
more responsibility while reading by turning
pages, saying repeated lines, asking questions,
• Guided Reading commenting. It is NOT about answering “wh”
questions. It is about understanding what reading
is all about!
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Instructional Targets
What is shared reading con’d
for Shared Reading
• It’s about building background knowledge, • Turn the pages at the right time
important language skills (e.g. vocabulary, • Say the words in your head
syntax), print awareness and letter knowledge • Learn how the words are written on a page
• Talk about the pictures
• Based on rich interactions with students and • Point to the words while I say them
explanations of what is happening in the text
• Act out some of the pages (props)
• Show me your favorite part
• Different from guided reading, you are interacting
with the student on almost every page • Show me a part you don’t like
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Instructional Targets con’d Instructional Targets con’d
• Listen for when it’s your turn to read (repeated
lines on a nursery rhyme) • Talk about words that rhyme or
• Talk about things you know sound the same
• Show me something want to learn more about
• Be an author and add some pages • Talk about words that start
with the same letter
• Pick a part you want to share with a friend
• Pick pictures in the book and talk about them
(velcro props/pictures)
• Pick out words to clap
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Specific tasks for the teacher
Specific tasks con’d
during shared reading include:
• Make reading an enjoyable activity so that • Support participation through the use of props and
students will want to do it again and again puppets and through the use of repeated lines on
• Model how to make sense of books ACC systems
• Model concepts about print (e.g. page turning, left • Expose students to a variety of different
to right, top to bottom, speech-word match, simple texts, such as, storybooks,
punctuation) informational text, poetry,
• Relate to students’ experiences to the text jokes/riddles. Talk about different
features of the texts
• Attribute, meaning to the students’ attempts in
order to support meaning and making • Promote interactions
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Before Reading Follow-up/ending
• Introduce a book to build active background • After reading, it’s important to go back to the
knowledge and to set a purpose purpose you’ve set
• The main goal is the help students understand
• Relate to students’ personal how they achieved the purpose
experiences you set while they were
reading!
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What are some shared reading
activities?
• Big books, predictable books, books with simple,
clear text and pictures, social stories
• tarheelreaders.org
http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/District
75/Department/Literacy/AdaptedBooks
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Shared Reading Lesson Plan
Template
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GUIDED READING
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Guided Reading
• Guided reading is an opportunity for students to
learn and use strategies for comprehension in
small or large groups
• The teacher “guides” students to
use strategies to make sense of
text
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“Routine” for Guided Reading
Lesson
• Students focus on:
– The meaning of the story • Before Reading
– Sequencing story events
– Character development
• During Reading
– Application of various strategies
to problem solve when questions
arise • After Reading
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Before Reading:
• Introduce the book
During Reading:
• Vocabulary Review • Reading individually or simultaneous oral reading
• Picture walk (not choral reading) or teacher read
• Connect student’s prior knowledge
• Target the skill/strategy that is the • Teacher guides the use, points
focus for the lesson out applications of identified
– Story sequence/retelling strategies
– Identifying sight words, vocabulary,
unknown words
– Main character, traits
– Main events, ideas
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After Reading:
• Discussing reading process & problem solving strategies
• Comprehension questions GUIDED READING LESSON
– Cloze
– Sentence strips
PLAN TEMPLATE
– pics
• Sequencing & Retelling
– story boards
– Sentence strips
• Main character, traits
– Compare to self, to text, to other story
characters, to world
– Graphic organizers
• Main idea, topic
– Graphic organizers
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GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
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Resources for books:
• School media center
• Grade level reading lists
• “Leveled” readers
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Summary:
• Reading & Literacy for SWSD should be based on
State (or National) Standards!
• Find out what your state’s standards are and how
to locate them!
• Shared reading: Students actively participate to
understand the purpose of reading
• Guided reading: Students actively participate to
apply strategies for comprehending text
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