Get Ready! Soar - PROGRAM SAMPLER

In order to effectively educate English Learners (ELs) with identified disabilities, teachers must build upon the students’ strengths and adapt instruction (Ortiz, 2001) . Each student’s unique needs drive curricular accommodations and modifications . Use of an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) provides information about the student’s present levels of performance (including strengths), annual goals, services, and supports (US Department of Education, 2014) . The members of the IEP team should work collaboratively with the EL’s teacher . This team-driven approach helps improve results . 504 plans also support the teaching of students with disabilities . This term refers to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (Understood, 2019) which prohibits any exclusion from education . The IEP or 504 plan guides the appropriate accommodations and modifications for both instruction and assessment . Language proficiency assessment results also guide instruction . Get Ready! includes recommendations for adaptations in areas that warrant consideration . Because each student’s plan delineates individualized needs, Get Ready! employs general recommendations in the following broad areas of cognitive functioning: conceptual processing, expressive and receptive language, visual-spatial processing, executive functioning, memory, social-emotional functioning, and fine-motor skills . The Get Ready! support notes also include suggestions to address physical disability, including motor impaired and/or orthopedic disabilities, which may impede movement in the student’s surroundings . References Brodesky , A ., Katzman, C ., Parker, C ., and Murray, E . (2002) . “A Process for Addressing Accessibility .” Available at http://www .atudl .com/library_bkup/DATA/ Consideration%20and%20Evaluation/AccessProcess .pdf Ortiz, A . A . (2001) . English language learners with special needs: Effective instructional strategies . Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics Understood . (2019) . Accommodations: What they are and how they work . Available at https://www . understood . org/en/learning-attention-issues/ treatments- approaches/educational-strategies/ accommodations- what-they-are-and-how-they-work U .S . Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services . (2014) . 36th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 2014 . Available at http://www .ed .gov/about/reports/annual/osep Get Ready! in your classroom • Offer additional time for learners to explore the content . Capitalize on opportunities to address the natural strengths of students with disabilities so they can be seen by peers as equally resourceful and resilient members of the classroom community . • Read and incorporate the “Supporting Students with Disabilities” recommendations for the unit before teaching . • Monitor students’ ability to engage in each activity . Check for understanding frequently . Offer 1:1 support to achieve learning and language goals . • All assessment, including embedded formative assessments, quizzes, writing prompts, speaking prompts, and unit (summative) assessments, will require the specific accommodations set forth in each student’s IEP . Txviii SUPPORTING STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES