Comprehension: New Possibilities for Students with Intellectual Disabilities Webinar August 19, 2011 US Office of Special Education Programs Peggy Coyne CAST 1

Topics Research Universal Design for Learning Expert Learners Examples for Practice 2

The First Framing Question Do the teachers you work with-- think that students with significant intellectual disabilities should be taught explicit comprehension strategies? 3

The First Framing Question 1.Most think they should 2.Some think they should 3.Most think they should not 4

The Second Framing Question Do the teachers you work with– teach students with significant intellectual disabilities explicit comprehension strategies? 5

The Second Framing Question 1.Most do 2.Some do 3.Most do not 6

What we know— Teachers’ lack of knowledge regarding literacy instruction (Allor et al., 2009 Allor, Mathes, Roberts, Cheatham, & Champlin, 2010) 7

What we know— Since the Wilson training I feel very confident because it’s such a systematic approach to teaching. …this training has really shown me how to use all the materials because I didn’t have all the materials before. I was using blending sound. But now it shows you how to break it down into five different ways to make sure the kid knows it … (pre- interview). 8

What we know— The lack of flexible individually supportive curricular materials The lack of time spent on literacy instruction vs. other therapeutic goals Continued low expectations for students with ID (Erickson & Koppenhaver, 1995; Katims, 2000a) 9

What we know— Further, much of the literacy instruction these students receive has focused on basic decoding and functional vocabulary. (Browder, Wakeman, Spooner, & Algozzine, 2006) 10

Question What are your thoughts about these findings? Do you see evidence in your work with teachers that supports these findings? 11

What we know— 3 meta analysis studies Benefit from direct or explicit comprehension instruction (Houston and Torgesen, 2004) 12

What we know— 3 meta analysis studies Comprehension studies found instruction focused on functional activities and word-to-picture matching, isolated literacy activities devoid of a meaningful context. ( Browder, Wakeman, Spooner, & Algozzine, 2006) 13

What we know— 3 meta analysis studies Research informs educators how to teach sight vocabulary, but not much is known about other areas of literacy instruction (Erickson, Hanser, Hatch and Sanders, 2009) 14

What we know— Promising Research Techniques used with students with higher IQs are also effective for students with ID (Allor et al., 2009; Allor, Mathes, Jones, Champlin, & Cheatham, 2010; Allor et al., 2010) 15

What we know— Promising Research UDL designed environments show promise for supporting student use of comprehension strategies. (Coyne, Pisha, Dalton, Zeph & Cook Smith, 2010) 16

Universal Design for Learning Addressing the variability of all learners. 17

Universal Design for Learning Recognition “ the what of learning ” Strategic “ the how of learning ” Affective “ the why of learning ” National Center on Universal Design for Learning 18

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Verb generation task Continuum of Learning 20

Continuum of Learning and the Expert Learner 21

Comprehension Strategy Instruction 22

UDL Literacy Environment 23

UDL Literacy Environment 24

Scaffolds for Comprehension 25

What we know— Controlling for initial reading achievement, the students using the LBD had significant gains on the Woodcock–Johnson Test of Achievement III Passage Comprehension subtest

What we know— I think that when I was first teaching, it was, you know, you teach “C-A-T (phonemic sound for each letter) spells cat” … you know, phonics- based and that’s how you go, the sight words, … But that wasn’t really teaching them. It wasn’t enough. They had to be exposed to more, to all literature, all reading, all materials. They had to be fun and interactive. They had to read it and do it and draw it and be it, to learn more about it. …It’s just made me kind of like open up a whole new world of reading. It’s made reading inviting and fun for them, and for me to teach them (post-interview). 27

Expert Learner 28

Scaffolds for Comprehension 29

Scaffolds for Comprehension 30

Scaffolds for Comprehension 31