Activity Adaptation

Now that you have had the opportunity to interview a school psychologist and a teacher, and to observe a classroom, you will apply that knowledge to adapt a lesson or activity to ensure all students, including those with exceptional learning needs, can learn.

Select an activity or lesson you observed in the classroom, or one that would occur regularly in an early childhood classroom, and describe in detail how it could be modified to:

1. Facilitate the participation of children with diverse abilities and needs.
2. Be culturally sensitive for children from diverse cultures.
3. Accommodate the IFSP/IEP goals for students with disabilities.
4. Use developmentally appropriate instructional strategies.
5. Foster children’s expression of their ideas, needs, and desires.
6. Refer to appropriate professionals to meet children’s unique needs when necessary.

If possible, look at a teacher’s book and make a photocopy of a lesson. Then, look at the goals pages for special needs students in the class. This will allow you to show how the modifications you suggest for the lesson or activity account for the goals on the goals sheets of these students. (You can also then use these goals and incorporate them in your progress monitoring plan, which is due in Unit 8.) In any case, it is important that you explain the specific goals of your adaptations.

Your paper should be 3–4 pages long. Support your statements with APA citations from the course resources and other readings, together with your interviews and observations.

To protect confidentiality, please do not mention real names of those you observe or their school.