05/02/2020
This is worth checking out
ABANDONING SUPPORTS FOR STUDENTS WITH IEPs WHO ARE LEARNING ONLINE IS UNNECESSARY: A DOZEN STEPS EVERY SCHOOL CAN TAKE
By Jacqueline Byrne April 2, 2020
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The current COVID-19 panic has forced schools out of the classroom and onto the Internet. Providing accommodations in addition to transforming into an online school over the course of a couple of weeks seems like a big mountain to climb. Given the crisis in our country, and the world, suspending accommodations for students with disabilities may seem the only practical solution, but accommodating the schools instead of the students is actually unnecessary.
Based on our experience at FlexSchool, here are a dozen basic steps that will go far in providing that support without unduly stressing the schools rushing to master remote teaching (and students struggling to adapt to remote learning).
Top 12 things you can do online to support students with IEPs
1. Create a community online. Schools are more than collections of classrooms. An online school is more than a collection of courses. When students struggle academically or socially, relationships should be the first priority, even before academics, for those who have challenges. Plan fun online events and clubs, time to hang out, and conversations about how it feels to be stuck in the house. Introduce each other to siblings and pets and take tours of each other’s workspace. Students who don’t feel safe with those around them are too anxious to learn. And we are all anxious right now, so you don’t need an IEP to benefit from time to connect online.
2. Let them talk. Students who have trouble with starting or producing written work often speak very well. In other words, they are more verbal than literate. If you don’t have students participating in discussions, let them tape their response and send an audio file.
3. Increase interaction and decrease homework, especially rote homework. These kids struggle with executing unsupervised tasks. Don’t ask them to adapt to a new kind of learning and also to do as much (if not more) of the kind of work they find so painful.
4. Teach them how to use the assistive tech built into Google Classroom, Macs/iPads, Chromebooks, etc. There are tools to improve auditory or visual processing, executive functioning, dyslexia/dysgraphia, and speech to text among others. Academic independence is the goal of most IEPs! Let these students use whatever is available.
5. Assign work that doesn’t have a tight deadline. Build in time to think. If you can’t get started because you have ADHD or you need to examine the topic thoroughly in your head, homework will take longer yet may be more insightful. In addition, students with learning challenges often have slow processing; they can understand fully with a little extra time. Resist the urge to use the technology’s ability to measure interactions; just because you can measure something does not mean that you should.
6. Assign projects rather than tests. Online learning frequently has quizzes and tests that are timed, based on material the student had to teach him or herself. If the student learns from reading or doing homework packets, then this system may work well, but many students who used to get As will fail without the support of teacher interaction and class discussions. Projects allow for more interaction with teachers and peers. (We understand the temptation: tests are so much easier to grade than projects and teachers are also stressed by this transition but avoid the temptation as much as you can.)
7. Give choices. Students who prefer solo projects will find working in a group even more difficult online. Give them the choice of doing the project solo. Part of the goal for the assignment may be to help these students improve their ability to work together, but the other students don’t have the maturity to help peers during this growth process and there isn’t a teacher in the room to support the socially struggling student. Give choices in general such as through alternative assessments. Ask the students how they want to prove they understand the lesson.
8. Allow freedom – to move, sit in different chairs, get a drink, doodle. It is tough to sit all day looking at a screen. Unless it is a video game!
9. Appreciate the social intensity that comes from having multiple faces look right at you for hours a day. Break up the class, give breaks, allow them to turn off their cameras while doing an assignment.
10. Have empathy for increased anxiety. Students with IEPs and 504s are anxious in school, whether online or on campus. The unexpected transfer to online learning and the reason behind it has made learning more fraught with danger than ever.
11. Grade for mastery of the concept, not ex*****on of the project. Assume the student is trying. Maybe the work doesn’t look good because they have dysgraphia or low muscle tone in their hands. Look past the messy parts for the ideas behind them.
12. Find their strength and let them write or research about what they love. Develop their talents! It is much easier to fight through a challenge if you are motivated to share what you know.
Instead of abandoning those with the greatest needs, let’s take advantage of this forced national experiment in online education and reinvent school because we are changing it right now anyway. I believe these 12 accommodations should be available to all students and would make school flexible enough that students with challenges would need FEWER accommodations
