How can teachers best plan for and teach students with significant cognitive disabilities in inclusive classrooms?
Page 6: Addressing Instructional Needs
Inclusive education empowers all students to learn important content and skills through high expectations and carefully designed instruction. As previously mentioned, this instruction should be based on grade-level content standards and enable students with significant cognitive disabilities to meaningfully participate in the same activities in the same space as their peers. In addition, this instruction should be accessible for all learners. Read on to learn more.
Aligning with Standards and Goals
Lessons in the general education classroom must be aligned to the grade-level content standards that have been approved by the school district or state. To design instruction that supports all students, teachers must have a strong understanding of the knowledge and skills covered in the standards. Teachers should also recognize how the “big ideas” within the standards build on each other across grade levels.
Keep in Mind
IEP goals do not replace the grade-level academic content standards. Instruction for students with significant cognitive disabilities should not be limited to only those areas in which they have specific goals in their IEP.
Effective instruction for students with disabilities in an inclusive classroom addresses both the general education curriculum and the student’s individual IEP goals. When planning lessons, special educators and general educators can work together to integrate instruction on IEP goals within grade-level activities and classroom routines. This may involve pre-teaching or re-teaching content or embedding extra practice with requisite foundational skills.
Returning to the Challenge
In third grade, there is a strong emphasis on multiplication and division. Although Ethan can name some numbers and can count with one-to-one correspondence, he has a limited conceptual understanding of numerical concepts. To address his IEP goals related to basic numeracy within the context of the third-grade curriculum, Ms. O’Connor plans to have Ethan identify the numbers in multiplication and division word problems and count out physical objects to represent the quantities in the problems.
Incorporating Universally Designed Instruction
For Your Information
UDL is a great starting point, but it may not be enough to adequately facilitate the full inclusion of all students with significant cognitive disabilities. The IEP team will need to determine whether additional accommodations and modifications are needed to address the student’s individualized needs.
Traditional teaching methods often approach instruction as “one size fits all,” with content delivered and assessed in only one way and all students working on the same task at the same time. This approach fails to address the variable learning needs of diverse students, including those with significant cognitive disabilities. In contrast, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an instructional framework designed to challenge and engage all students. A universally designed lesson is not a list of specific instructional changes to be made for individual students. Rather, it incorporates flexibly designed goals, materials, and methods for delivering instruction and assessments that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge in a variety of ways.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
A research-based framework for teachers to incorporate flexible materials, techniques, and strategies for delivering instruction and for students to demonstrate their knowledge in a variety of ways.
In this interview, Elizabeth Hartmann describes the inspiration behind UDL and its fundamental goals.
Elizabeth Hartmann, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist
CAST
Transcript: Elizabeth Hartmann
The UDL Framework and Guidelines were developed by CAST in response to seeing that the curriculum in schools was failing many learners, but especially those with special needs. In response, UDL was created and has evolved over the last 30 years. UDL is a powerful tool for educators looking to create more inclusive goals, methods, materials, and assessments. One of the key ideas in the UDL framework is that learner variability is a strength and an asset, not something to dread. We all know students, whether they have special needs or not, will vary in how they learn, so let’s use what we know about the science of learning, technology, instructional design and even neuroscience to make the best curriculum we can for all learners from the start. Given the goals of inclusive classrooms to educate each and every learner, UDL helps us to rethink curriculum and focus our limited time and attention on removing curriculum barriers to empower all learners.
UDL begins with the understanding that many barriers to learning exist in the traditional classroom environment, instruction, and materials. At its most basic level, a barrier might be the inability to see a textbook or hear a lecture. Students may experience other barriers when they lack the necessary background knowledge to participate in a lesson, are not interested in or motivated by the content, or struggle with the social or communication demands of an activity. Although a student with a significant cognitive disability may need a specific support (e.g., manipulatives, graphic organizers, learning menus) to access learning, many other students will likely benefit from that same support. By incorporating UDL, teachers can proactively design instruction that minimizes barriers for the widest possible range of student needs.
learning menu
A list of four to six options for producing a final product, each of which is equally challenging and requires approximately the same amount of time to complete.
UDL is comprised of three guiding principles: engagement, representation, and action and expression. Explore each principle below to learn more about how you can use them to plan for and deliver inclusive instruction.
Because student interests and motivation vary greatly, teachers should facilitate multiple means of engagement—that is, provide opportunities for students to engage in learning in different ways. The table below provides some strategies and examples for increasing student engagement in instruction.
| Strategy | Examples |
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Make content interesting and relevant to students. |
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Empower students to make choices about their own learning. |
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Support student effort and attention. |
x
learning stations Areas of the classroom organized around a topic, theme, or skill with different activities for students to complete. x
fidgets Any of a variety of small hand-held objects that a student can use as a way to help maintain instructional focus. |
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Be mindful of and flexible with social demands. |
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Help students self-regulate and monitor their own progress. |
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Source: CAST; adapted from UDL Guidelines: Provide Multiple Means of Engagement
Did You Know?
Instructional engagement is closely linked to positive classroom behavior. When students are actively engaged in learning, they are less likely to exhibit challenging behaviors. By meaningfully involving students with significant cognitive disabilities in learning activities that they find interesting, motivating, and appropriately challenging, teachers can proactively promote positive behavior.
Teachers can remove and reduce learning barriers by providing multiple means of representation—that is, presenting information in multiple ways. Although one student may need to access information through an alternate format, such as an audiobook or graphic organizer, many other students will likely benefit from that same support. The table below provides some strategies and examples for varying forms of representation in instruction.
| Strategy | Examples |
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Offer multiple ways for students to see, hear, or otherwise access information. |
x
visual support Any of a wide variety of visual items (e.g., photographs, picture symbols, written words, clipart, line drawings, physical objects) that help a student access information, understand routines or expectations, or independently perform a skill or behavior. x
captions Subtitles that display the words spoken in film or video; can be either ‘closed’ (so that only those who want to can see them) or ‘open’ (so that everyone always sees them). |
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Teach and support relevant vocabulary. |
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Activate or supply background knowledge. |
x
advance organizer A preview or organizational guide used to acquaint students with the content, structure, or importance of written material or a lecture. |
Source: CAST; adapted from UDL Guidelines: Provide multiple means of representation
Teachers can help students show what they know by allowing multiple means of action and expression—that is, offering opportunities for students to demonstrate understanding of a concept or skill in different ways. The table below provides some strategies and examples for supporting varied forms of action and expression during instruction.
| Strategy | Examples |
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Encourage flexible forms of communication. |
x
guided notes A strategic note-taking method in which teachers provide their students an outline containing the main ideas and related concepts in order to help guide the students through a lecture. |
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Facilitate students’ use of tools and technology supports. |
x
assistive technology Any item, service, equipment, or product system—whether acquired commercially, specially designed, or created via changes to an existing product—that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities in the daily life of an individual with a disability; comes in two forms, devices and services. x
pencil grip A simple device that can be placed on a pencil to allow an individual to better hold or grip the instrument or to obtain a proper position for writing. x
slant board Inclined board used to create an angled or sloped surface to promote good posture, wrist positioning, and visual tracking. x
screen reader software Any of a variety of computer programs or applications that enable a computer to convey information through non-visual means (e.g. text-to-speech, braille); a type of assistive technology commonly used by individuals who are blind, but also by those with low vision and learning disabilities. |
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Use tools that reduce demands on working memory. |
x
working memory A memory system with limited capacity to hold information while a task–such as following directions, comprehending text or solving a multi-step mathematics problem–is accomplished. x
task analysis Process of breaking down problems and tasks into smaller, sequenced components. |
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Support students in setting and reaching goals. |
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Source: CAST; adapted from UDL Guideline: Provide multiple means of action & expression
High-Leverage Practices
Students with significant cognitive disabilities may not only benefit from the implementation of UDL but they may experience greater academic engagement and achievement due to the use of inclusive instructional practices (e.g., differentiated instruction, peer tutoring). Many of these instructional practices are what are referred to as high-leverage practices (HLPs)—fundamental or foundational practices that are critical for student learning and improved outcomes. There are high-leverage practices for both general educators and special educators. Both provide support for both special education and general education teachers and can be used for collaborative planning. The following resources provide more on how to use these practices in inclusive classrooms.
Research Shows
- Instruction that combines the principles of UDL with evidence-based practices for students with significant cognitive disabilities (e.g., explicit instruction, visual supports, time delay) can be used to effectively teach grade-level academic content and foundational skills simultaneously.
(Brosh et al., 2018) - An online literacy instructional platform aligned with UDL principles has been shown to increase access to age-appropriate content, choice-making opportunities, and socialization for middle school students with intellectual disabilities.
(Coyne et al., 2017)
time delay
An instructional procedure in which a student is given a set period of time (e.g., 20 seconds) in which to answer to a question, read a sight word, or spell a word, after which the correct answer is given.
Returning to the Challenge
Recall Ms. O’Connor’s concerns about meeting Ethan’s individualized academic needs while also meeting the needs of the rest of the class. The principles of UDL remind her that all her students can benefit from flexibly designed lessons. As she thinks about the accommodations that Ethan requires to access the curriculum—such as graphic organizers, manipulatives, and audio versions of text—Ms. O’Connor realizes that these options would also help many of her other students.
Teachers can use these Inclusive Big Ideas—the essential concepts and skills that appear across grade levels and content standards—to plan standards-based lessons for all students, including those with significant cognitive disabilities. Note: Big Ideas are currently available for English Language Arts in grades 1-8. More subjects and grade levels will be added in the future.
Design for Each and Every Learner: UDL Modules These free modules take a deep dive into the framework of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Educators can work through the four asynchronous modules at their own pace to learn more about the intentional collaboration, planning, and designing of universally designed inclusive instruction.
How-to guides for specific inclusive instructional strategies are available as free downloads on the TIES Center’s Teachers Pay Teachers store. TIPS in Action are currently available for graphic organizers and turn and talk!
Universal Design for Learning: Designing Learning Experiences That Engage and Challenge All Students This module examines the three principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and discusses how to apply these principles to the four curricular components (i.e., goals, instructional materials, instructional methods, and assessments). |
