ELA Lesson Plans for the General Education Classroom
Understanding the development and individual differences of students with disabilities allows special education teachers to respond appropriately during instruction, utilizing supportive instructional strategies and technologies to meet student needs. Using assistive technologies, such as alternative and augmentative communication systems, to support instructional assessment, planning, and delivery, is essential to the language development and communication of students with disabilities.
Read the case study below to inform the assignment.
Case Study: Stephanie
Grade: 5th
Age: 10
Stephanie is a fifth grade student who is intellectually disabled and also has a severe language disorder. She is 10-years-old and spends a great portion of her day in self-contained settings. She receives speech therapy from a speech pathologist for a minimum of 30 minutes, four days a week. The rest of the time her language needs are supported by the special education teacher. She does attend a general education fifth grade classroom daily for 60 minutes for English language arts instruction, per her parent’s request. An instructional assistant accompanies her to class.
Stephanie’s oral expression skills are in the below average range. She struggles with oral expression speech, expressive language, and meanings of words. Her speech is limited and she usually has poor decoding and reading comprehension skills. Her reading level is at a low first grade level, reading simple stories with a Lexile level of 275-400. Her favorite book is If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff. Stephanie writes very little and relies on the Picture Exchange System as her primary form of communication.
Stephanie attends the fifth grade English language arts class for exposure to more appropriate grade level content and socialization. She requires frequent breaks and one-on-one support from an assistant when participating in the general education setting. The special education teacher and assistant work with the general education teacher and follow the modified curriculum from the state department of education.
For standardized grade-level testing, Stephanie participates in the yearly Alternate Assessment. The assessment is administered orally by the teacher and a proctor is present. The assessment is multiple choice and the administrator can accept eye gazing, finger pointing, and verbal responses to answer questions. The assessment is not timed and the teacher can apply the 10 response rule: If the student does not respond after 10 questions, the teacher can end the assessment.
Assignment:
Use the “ELA Mini-Unit Template” to complete this assignment.
Part 1: Student Goal
Write a measurable reading comprehension goal for Stephanie’s IEP. Within the goal, incorporate an alternative and augmentative communication system to support her communication and learning.
Part 2: Mini-Unit
Compose a mini-unit of three ELA lesson plans for the general education classroom that incorporates your ELA standards for teaching reading comprehension to fifth graders.
For each lesson plan include differentiated activities and assessments for Stephanie that use the AAC system identified in Part 1 to allow her to access the curriculum and address her measurable IEP goal.
Part 3: Rationale
Provide a 250-500 word rationale that explains how your mini-unit instructional choices are developmentally appropriate for teaching the content standards, and how the differentiated activities and assessment will allow Stephanie to meet her goal and fully access the curriculum. Address how your accommodations and differentiation create a supportive learning environment that encourages self-advocacy, increases independence, and emphasizes safe and ethical use of information and technology for Stephanie.
Support your rationale with 2-3 scholarly resources on best practices regarding semantics/language disorders and the use of assistive technology.
APA format is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.
This assignment uses a rubric. Review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.
ELA Mini-Unit Template
Part 1: Student Goal
Stephanie has a measurable reading comprehension goal: demonstrating improved comprehension of grade-level materials by reading and responding to fifth-grade fiction texts with an alternative and augmentative communication system. To achieve this goal, Stephanie will read one grade-level fiction text per week and answer comprehension questions with the support of her instructional assistant. The instructional assistant will utilize the Picture Exchange System (PECS) to ensure Stephanie can effectively communicate her text comprehension. After reading the text, Stephanie will be given comprehension questions, which she will answer using her PECS, and the assistant will provide visual and verbal support as necessary. To assess Stephanie's progress toward this goal, her performance on a bi-monthly comprehension assessment will be recorded, and the data will be collected and reviewed with her IEP team.
Part 2: Mini Unit
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
* Lesson Title, Objectives, and Brief Summary
Title: Making Inferences
Brief Summary: Students will use text evidence to make inferences about a text.
Title: Describing the point of view of a narrator
Brief Summary: Pupils will describe how a speaker's point of view influences how events are described in a text.
Title: Comparing Texts
Brief Summary: learners will compare and contrast two texts.
* National/State Learning Standards
ELA-Literacy.RL.5.1:
Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
ELA-Literacy.RL.5.6:
Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described in the text
ELA-Literacy.RL.5.9:
Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (e.g., mysteries and adventure stories) on their approaches to similar themes and topics
* Vocabulary and Academic Language
Inference, evidence, text
Narrator, point of view, event description
Compare, contrast, genre, theme, topic
* Materials and Resources
Fiction passages, comprehension questions, drawing paper, markers
Fiction passages, comprehension questions, drawing paper, markers
Two fiction passages, comprehension questions, Venn Diagram
* Instructional Strategy/Strategies
Small group discussion
Small group discussion
Class discussion, whole group activity
* Summary of Instruction and Activities for the Lesson
The teacher will read a passage to the class and then ask comprehension questions that require students to make inferences. After discussing the questions as a class, students will be put into small groups to discuss the passage in more depth and answer comprehension questions. After the small group discussion, each student will draw a picture representing an inference they made from the text.
The instructor will orally present a written passage to the students and pose interrogative prompts that necessitate the students to discern the speaker’s point of view. Following the collective analysis of the text, the class will be subdivided into smaller groups to conduct a more detailed discourse and respond to additional comprehension queries. After the group deliberation, each student will quote a sentence illustrative of the speaker’s point of view. They should generate a list on how the POV influences events in the story.
The instructor will present two written passages to the students and pose comprehension queries that necessitate their comparison and contrast. Subsequently, the class will engage in a collective discussion regarding the questions. Finally, the students will be instructed to create a Venn diagram depicting the likenesses and disparities between the two texts.
* Lesson Differentiation
for Stephanie, Using AAC
Stephanie will receive instructional assistance from an aide who will offer visual and verbal support to aid her comprehension of the textual material. Stephanie will respond to comprehension-based inquiries using Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). During the small-group exercise, Stephanie will be paired with an instructional assistant whose role will be to aid her in comprehending the text and provide PECS for answering c...