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Adapting the Curriculum to Meet the Needs of Diverse Learners
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 Article By Susan M. Bashinski, Ed.D.Visit the Archive of Best Practices articles |
Introduction
Understanding What's Involved
Adapting Instructional Strategies
Adapting Instructional Materials
Adapting Curricular Content
Adapting Assessment Practices
Valued Resources for Educators
introduction
As a teacher, each day you enter your classroom or other instructional setting and face the challenge of how to best facilitate learning for all the children in your class: boys and girls of all races, religions, colors, national origins - and talents, personalities, learning styles, and skills. Teachers agree that every class represents an incredibly diverse group of learners, each of whom has a wide range of strengths and needs; nearly every class includes one or more children who have an individualized education program (IEP).
At first glance, you might try to meet the instructional challenge described above by asking, "What kinds of adaptations to the curriculum should I make for the learners who have IEPs?" By asking the question with this narrow focus, and limiting it to a form of special education support, you would likely be embarking on a course that would add just one more "thing" to the myriad teaching responsibilities you already face every day. Viewing the notion of curriculum adaptations through the broader lens of the framework of general education, however, allows the possibility of having not "another thing to do," but rather, a "different way of doing".
Adapting the curriculum involves differentiating instruction to provide learners with a variety of ways to process information and demonstrate what they have learned, in order to "match" the way in which each learner learns most effectively. Viewed in this manner, providing curriculum adaptations is a way in which to implement Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. (See http://www.pbs.org/teachers/earlychildhood/articles/learningmodalities.html for more information on Howard Gardner and learning modalities.) Adapting the curriculum only for learners who have IEPs isn't enough; the curriculum needs to be differentiated in order to meet the needs of all.
understanding what's involved in adapting the curriculum
Effective curriculum adaptations may be described in four primary categories:
- instructional strategies
- instructional materials
- curricular content
- assessment practices
adapting instructional strategies
This first category of curriculum adaptations refers to a change in the way a teacher teaches - that is, in the methodologies she uses to provide information to a learner(s) in her class. These involve a change in the learner's instructional input.
Adapting the instructional process can be accomplished through myriad techniques: incorporating the use of demonstrations or role play; utilizing teacher presentation cues (e.g., gestural, visual, or verbal) to emphasize key points; scaffolding key concepts to be learned; and getting learners more actively involved in the learning process through the implementation of every pupil response techniques (e.g., response cards, thumbs up / thumbs down) or the incorporation of manipulatives for learners' use. Included in this category, also, is the practice of diversifying the selection of groupings for instruction so as to not rely solely on large group / whole class instruction and independent seatwork arrangements. Varying instructional design, to include a variety of small group and cooperative learning activities, is another effective practice by which to adapt classroom instruction.
Providing a learner(s) with curriculum content through means other than traditional written text involves providing an alternative to the reading requirements inherently associated with processing printed material. Though the most obvious adaptation to traditional "reading" involves a peer or adult reading aloud to a learner, a number of other possibilities exist, through the adaptation of instructional materials.
adapting instructional materials
Adapting teaching materials involves making changes to the equipment and / or supplies to which a learner(s) has access during the course of instruction. This involves a change in the formats through which information is represented to the learner or the learner's engagement with the curriculum during the course of instruction.
The process of adapting materials provides additional, or simply different, materials, in a variety of modalities that the learner(s) might use during the course of instruction. Most materials adaptations fall into one of four groups:
- adjusting the readability level of written materials
- enhancing critical features of the content within the materials themselves
- designing materials with features that appeal to sensory modalities other than visual / auditory
- selecting alternate instructional materials for their durability or safety features
Adaptation of readability level can be made by providing content similar to the unit currently under study through a lower grade level reading book, compressed text, or high interest - low vocabulary reader. In addition, reading demand is adjusted when curriculum content is depicted through graphic, iconic, or pictorial forms; three-dimensional models; or digitized means. Examples include the use of: audiotapes, videotapes, internet-based resources, text-reader software programs, or universally designed textbooks and materials.
Enhancing critical features of content involves adapting lesson materials in such a way as to identify for the learner content that is most essential. Advance or post-organizers, presentation of new vocabulary words in boldface, highlighted key words in a reading passage, acronyms, and summaries of main ideas represent a few commonly used adaptations of this sort.
Multiple modality materials can be designed that appeal to kinesthetic and tactile sensory systems, in contrast to materials that appeal only to visual or auditory processes. For example, learners physically walking a route of colored tape on the floor to learn the path of blood flow from the heart (as opposed to studying a colored diagram in a book), or rapping with hand gestures as they learn newly introduced language concepts.
Finally, alternate instructional materials will sometimes necessarily be selected for their durability or safety features, in consideration of a learner's physical coordination or motor skills. In the science lab, a plastic beaker or petri dish might be utilized instead of their breakable counterparts, or a learner might be provided with a soft book, or book with laminated pages, instead of a traditional text.
adapting curricular content
This third category of adaptations involves varying what is taught - that is, the complexity and nature of the content presented during the course of a unit of study. This type of curriculum adaptation results in an adjustment of the cognitive demand of a learning task for a particular learner(s).
Adapting curricular content might involve applications as straightforward as: reducing the number of vocabulary words assigned to an individual child; having a learner complete only the odd-numbered problems on a mathematics assignment; holding a learner responsible for learning three facts about one animal, instead of two facts about each of five different species; or affording learners the choice of taking a spelling pre-test to opt out of spelling for a particular week. Individualized adaptations of content can, also, be achieved by restructured concept-based teaching. Adjustment of the cognitive demand in a lesson typically involves an adaptation to the attention, thinking, and / or memory requirements associated with particular content. In partnership with hierarchical questioning techniques, this approach can result in a larger number of students meaningfully participating in a lesson drawn from the general curriculum.
adapting assessment practices
The final category of curricular adaptations refers to alterations in the way in which a teacher gets information from a learner(s) in her class. These involve a change in the learner's instructional output.
The adaptation of assessment practices is not limited only to the expansion of test-taking parameters (e.g., redistributed time on a power test, use of a scribe for recording purposes). This class of curricular adaptations also encompasses using multiple criteria to assess learner products, providing structured answer frames on worksheets and tests, evaluating processes equally with final products, utilizing ipsative measures (comparing a learner's performance to her own past performance), and offering learners a variety of practice strategies and choices for producing required assignments.
Offering learners the opportunity to respond to instruction in a nontraditional manner, in some way(s) other than through typical oral recitation or written expression, is also encompassed in this final curriculum adaptations category. Alternative learner responses might include: collage, sculpture, pantomime, dramatic portrayal, musical composition, motoric demonstration, photographic presentation, or graphics display.
conclusion
Effectively designing curriculum adaptations represents one approach to teaching that may not require a substantial amount of additional work on a teacher's part, though it certainly represents a different way of teaching. Adapting the curriculum to meet the needs of diverse learners involves differentiating instruction to provide all learners with a variety of ways to process information and demonstrate what they have learned, in order to "match" the way in which each individual learns most effectively and efficiently. It would serve a teacher well to imagine the children in her classroom saying...
valued resources for educators
In Print
- Armstrong, T. (2000). Multiple intelligences in the classroom (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
- Bauer, A. M., & Shea, T. M. (1999). Inclusion 101: How to teach all learners. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
- Block, M. E. (1994). A teacher's guide to including students with disabilities in regular physical education. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
- Castagnera, E., Fisher, D., Rodifer, K., & Sax, C. (1998). Deciding what to teach and how to teach it: Connecting students through curriculum and instruction. Colorado Springs, CO: PEAK Parent Center.
- Chalmers, L. (1992). Modifying curriculum for the special needs student in the regular classroom. Moorhead, MN: Practical Press.
- Chalmers, L., & Wasson, B. (1993). Successful inclusion: Assistance for teachers of adolescents with mild disabilities. Moorhead, MN: Practical Press.
- Demchak, M. A. (1997). "Teaching students with severe disabilities in inclusive settings." In D. Browder (Ed.), Innovations (Vol. 12). Washington, DC: American Association on Mental Retardation.
- Filbin, J., Rogers-Connolly, T., & Brewer, R. (1996). Individualized learner outcomes: Infusing student needs into the regular education curriculum. Colorado Springs, CO: Colorado Department of Education.
- Fisher, D., & Ryndak, D. L. (Eds.) (2001). The foundations of inclusive education: A compendium of articles on effective strategies to achieve inclusive education. Baltimore: TASH. (several selections pertain to curriculum adaptations)
- Gee, K., Alwell, M., Graham, N., & Goetz, L. (1994). Inclusive instructional design: Facilitating informed and active learning for individuals who are deaf-blind and in inclusive schools. San Francisco: California Research Institute, San Francisco State University.
- Hoover, J. J., & Patton, J. R. (1997). Curriculum adaptations for students with learning and behavior problems: Principles and practices (2nd ed.). Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
- Janney, R., & Snell, M. E. (2000). Teachers' guides to inclusive practices: Modifying schoolwork. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
- Katz, L., Sax, C., & Fisher, D. (1998). Activities for a diverse classroom: Connecting students. Colorado Springs, CO: PEAK Parent Center.
- Schaffner, C. B., & Buswell, B. E. (1991). Opening doors: Strategies for including all students in regular education. Colorado Springs, CO: PEAK Parent Center.
- Stainback, S., & Stainback, W. (Eds.) (1996). Inclusion: A guide for educators. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
- Tomlinson, C. A. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
- Udvari-Solner, A. (1993). Curricular adaptations: Accommodating the instructional needs of diverse learners in the context of general education. (Rev.). Topeka, KS: Kansas State Board of Education.
- Villa, R. A., & Thousand, J. S. (Eds.) (1995). Creating an inclusive school. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
- Wang, M. C. (1992). Adaptive education strategies: Building on diversity. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
Online
- Montgomery County Public Schools' Preschool Education Program
The Montgomery County Public Schools' website provides information regarding their preschool education program (PEP) for youngsters 3 - 5 years of age. It includes a number of teaching ideas, as well as links to articles regarding early childhood special education.
http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/curriculum/pep/ - ERIC Digests
This website, sponsored by the US Department of Education, provides short reports (1,000 - 1,500 words) regarding state-of-the-art research on current general and special education topics, including curriculum adaptation. Use the Advanced Search function to locate Digests by topic and/or title.
http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal - Teachers Helping Teachers
The Teachers Helping Teachers website, which focuses on grades Pre-K through 7, offers ideas regarding instructional materials and teaching strategies. This site is updated weekly during the academic year, and offers free ideas suggested by teachers, for their peers.
http://www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/ - National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum
The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) website includes information regarding the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum. This site provides a variety of tools, resources, activities, and examples (including curriculum adaptations) teachers can access to improve their teaching practice. This website, also, provides links to additional resources regarding universal curriculum design.
http://www.cast.org/ncac/ - TeachersFirst
The Teachers First website offers suggestions of techniques for adapting curriculum for learners who have disabilities. It provides a good resource of strategies for effectively teaching diverse learners of all ages.
http://www.teachersfirst.com
about the author
Susan M. Bashinski is a Research Assistant Professor at the Beach Center on Disability (http://www.beachcenter.org/)and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Special Education at The University of Kansas. Until joining the Beach Center staff in the Summer of 2001, Dr. Bashinski was the Curriculum Adaptations Support Specialist with the Lawrence, Kansas Public Schools, where she worked with general education teachers to secure access to the general curriculum for learners who have disabilities. Dr. Bashinski's work regarding access has been supplemented by her extensive involvement in the Kansas State Department of Education's development of alternate assessment procedures and extended curriculum standards. She writes in the areas of nonsymbolic and augmentative communication- and learns more about the development of language skills, every day, from her son.
Published: July 2002