Providing Access to the General Curriculum

By Michael L. Wehmeyer, Ph.D., with Deanna J. Sands, Ed.D., Earle Knowlton, Ed.D., & Elizabeth B. Kozleski, Ed.D.

Every day, teachers and education professionals struggle with a crucial classroom goal: ensuring that students with mental retardation or other support needs have access to the general curriculum. They’ll find the guidance, research, and practical strategies they need in this advanced, reader-friendly textbook, which will prepare preservice educators for the classroom and sharpen the skills of professionals in the field. Readers will get

• guidance on developing a person-centered approach to IEPs, including decisions about placement, appropriate accommodations and modifications, and alternate assessment
  
  
• a detailed review of four instruction types — teacher-mediated, peer-mediated, technology-mediated, and activity-anchored — and suggestions on matching instruction to individual learner needs and goals
  
  
• age-specific curriculum modifications and supports, including verbal devices like analogies and role-playing; visual devices like films and charts; self-evaluation; assistive technology; and positive behavioral support
  
  
• an in-depth discussion on using "empowerment evaluation" to measure the efficacy of programs and promote student progress and self-determination
  
  
• steps that support full participation in the community outside the classroom, including aspects like social relationships, job preparation, household management, and sexuality

Blending research-based theory with step-by-step processes and planning forms, this practical text is the key to building curricula that include students with mental retardation and meet their individual needs.

About the Authors
Foreword
Rud and Ann Turnbull
Preface
Acknowledgments

1. Understanding Mental Retardation: A Functional Model

• Defining Mental Retardation
  
  
• Understanding Mental Retardation
  
  
• Additional Readings

2. Curriculum Decision Making and Educational Supports
   

• What Is Curriculum?
  
  
• Curriculum Design
  
  
• An Inclusive Approach to Curriculum Design
  
  
• Theories Driving Curriculum Design
  
  
• Universal Design as Curriculum Theory
  
  
• Curriculum Decision Making
  
  
• Designing Educational Supports for Students with Mental Retardation
  
  
• Designing Personalized Curricular Supports for Students with Mental Retardation
  
  
• Designing or Identifying Educational Supports
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings

3. Conceptualizing Access to the General Curriculum
   

• What Is the General Curriculum?
  
  
• What Constitutes Access to the General Curriculum?
  
  
• How Is Access to the General Curriculum Achieved?
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings

4. Achieving Access to the General Curriculum
   

• Curriculum Modifications to Ensure Access
  
  
• A Model to Promote Access to and Progress in the General Curriculum
  
  
• Strategies for Adapting the Curriculum
  
  
• Strategies for Augmenting the Curriculum
  
  
• Altering the Curriculum: Toward Functionality
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings

5. Person-Centered and Student-Directed Planning
   

• The IEP Team
  
  
• Person-Centered Planning
  
  
• Student-Directed Planning
  
  
• Person-Centered, Student-Directed IEP Meetings
  
  
• IEP Meeting Outcomes: Educational Supports
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings

6. Program Evaluation: Empowerment Evaluation and Personal Outcomes
   

• From Student Evaluation to Program Evaluation
  
  
• From Process-Based to Personal Outcomes–Based Evaluation
  
  
• From Individualized to Personalized
  
  
• Empowerment Evaluation
  
  
• Implementing an Empowerment Evaluation Process
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings

7. Creating Learning Communities for All Students
   

• What Is a Learning Community?
  
  
• Why Establish a Learning Community?
  
  
• The Social Nature of Learning
  
  
• How Can Teachers Create Learning Communities?
  
  
• What Roles and Responsibilities Do Students Have in a Learning Community?
  
  
• What Do Teachers Need to Teach to Achieve an Active Learning Community?
  
  
• How Can Students Help Design and Sustain a Learning Community?
  
  
• Classroom Management in a Learning Community
  
  
• Do Learning Community Structures Change from Elementary to Middle to High School?
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings

8. Designing Educational Supports: Instructional Decision Making
   

• Assessment, Curriculum, and Instruction
  
  
• Building-Level Curriculum and Instruction Decisions
  
  
• Classroom-Level Instructional Decisions
  
  
• Classroom Curriculum and Instructional Decisions
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings

9. Teaching Strategies that Work in Inclusive Classrooms
   

• Assumptions About Instruction in Inclusive Classrooms
  
  
• Planning Instruction
  
  
• Implementing Instruction
  
  
• Assessing Instruction
  
  
• Adapting Instruction for Individual Needs
  
  
• A Framework for Guiding Instructional Decisions
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings

10. Establishing Equal School–Home Partnerships: Parental and Family Involvement in Education
    

• Importance of Family Involvement in Education
  
  
• Barriers to Effective Family Involvement
  
  
• Establishing Effective Parent–Professional Partnerships
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings

11. Positive Behavioral Supports and Classroom Management
    

• Positive Behavioral Supports
  
  
• Implementing Positive Behavioral Supports
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings

12. Teaching Functional Academic Content
    

• What Is Functional Academic Content?
  
  
• A Framework for Functional Academic Content
  
  
• Identifying Environments and Their Demands
  
  
• Determining What Functional Content to Teach
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings

13. The Emergent Self: Sexuality and Social Inclusion
    

• Adolescent Development
  
  
• Healthy Sexuality
  
  
• Sexuality and Individuals with Mental Retardation
  
  
• Social Inclusion
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings

14. Community-Based Instruction
    

• Community: What Is It? Why Is It Important?
  
  
• Characteristics of Community-Referenced Planning and Community-Based Instruction
  
  
• Quality Educational Supports for Students Ages 18–21
  
  
• School Reform, Access to the General Curriculum, and Community-Based Learning
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings

15. Self-Determination: Curriculum Augmentation and Student Involvement
    

• Self-Determination
  
  
• A Functional Model of Self-Determination
  
  
• Research in Self-Determination and Mental Retardation
  
  
• Promoting Self-Determination and Access to the General Curriculum
  
  
• Self-Determination as Curriculum Augmentation
  
  
• Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings
  

16. Technology and Students with Mental Retardation
    

• Assistive Technology and Mental Retardation
  
  
• Technology Providing Access and Support
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings
  

17. Achieving Access to and Progress in the General Curriculum: Making Curriculum Decisions and Designing Educational Supports
    

• Removing Stereotypes and Changing Expectations
  
  
• Individualized Educational Experiences for All Students
  
  
• Personalized Educational Experiences for Students with Mental Retardation
  
  
• Future Directions: Implementing and Surviving Change
  
  
• Summary
  
  
• Additional Readings
  

References
Index