Reasonable Accomodations?

That would depend on the individual student’s needs, and the demands of the classroom. Need an answer for an essay question, do you?
If you go to www.qiat.org, there is a “SETT” framework for evaluating student needs for assistive technology. I find that it works well for any accommodation — it poses questions about what happens in the classroom, how the disability affects it, and what can be done to get arouind the problems.

What’s the learning disability? Accomodations would vary depending on the disability.

Thank you for your reply on LD… I wasn’t sure if anyone would or not:) The site you lead me to was very informative.

Actually looking at learning disabilities which can encompass math, reading, writing, language, etc. I am learning in my class about accomodations for people with learning disabilities and was wondering what it was that most teachers, instructors, and parents find to be reasonable accomodations for a student with a learning disability. Many people argue that there should not be as there are other people in class that struggle with the same type of things but because they are not labeled learning disabled then they cannot recieve these accomodations. There are also some arguments that when students recieve accomodations it is more than they truly need and/or are disruptive to the rest of the class. I am trying to see where people feel about this and the major points that go for it or against it.

Accomodations for students with learning disabilities is more a matter of law than of opinion.

I’d have to say that first thing I’d change about school that would be a good accomodation for all students would be to do away with timed tests. Timed tests were invented for the convenience of teachers and schools - not for the benefit of students. While timed tests impact on students with learning differences, getting rid of them would help any student.

I give as much time as students want on tests. Any student is welcome to come back and work more on the test. If the point is to show what has been learned, restricting time works against that.

Work being a timed activity in the majority of employment settings likely encouraged the use of timed tests in school settings. Most employers I’ve worked with over the years who use pre-employment tests use timed tests. The same with tests for promotions. Fair or unfair, businesses are concerned with getting the work done in a timely manner in order to stay in business and students will eventually run into timed tests

I see both sides, learning versus timed output, and often find myself in the middle. Maybe the best solution is to use a timed standardized test and mark where the student is working when time runs out. Then allow the student to continue working to see how much more of the work they can do in order to measure the extent of their knowledge. This way you get more information from one test.

I’m a rehabilitation vocational evaluator working with some high school juniors and seniors, but mostly with adults. Testing is only a small part of what we do in terms of helping individuals with disabilities select vocational goals and make plans to achieve them, but it seems to attract the most attention :)

John

Do you think then that it would be reasonable to have accomodations for a child with LD during these timed tests? This might include having someone there to aide them, a shorter version of the test, different directions, or something else along those lines.John wrote:
>
> Work being a timed activity in the majority of employment
> settings likely encouraged the use of timed tests in school
> settings. Most employers I’ve worked with over the years who
> use pre-employment tests use timed tests. The same with tests
> for promotions. Fair or unfair, businesses are concerned with
> getting the work done in a timely manner in order to stay in
> business and students will eventually run into timed tests
>
> I see both sides, learning versus timed output, and often
> find myself in the middle. Maybe the best solution is to use
> a timed standardized test and mark where the student is
> working when time runs out. Then allow the student to
> continue working to see how much more of the work they can do
> in order to measure the extent of their knowledge. This way
> you get more information from one test.
>
> I’m a rehabilitation vocational evaluator working with some
> high school juniors and seniors, but mostly with adults.
> Testing is only a small part of what we do in terms of
> helping individuals with disabilities select vocational goals
> and make plans to achieve them, but it seems to attract the
> most attention :)
>
> John

My LD students totally freeze up on a timed test, however in a workshop situation where they are paid for piece work they excell! The hands on activities of the work world are their strengths. Performing on a timed test where they struggle to read the item, then must process it and finally choose a correct answer is more than enough to frustrate them to give up.

I set up my classes so that I don’t have to keep track of the accomodations — the typical learners get the same accomodations. For example, all my tests have word banks, any student can have as much time as they like, I don’t have problems with extending deadlines (mine have extensions built in), etc. Preferential seating is a bit of a nightmare for me as I can’t seat 15 kids in the front row, but I try to make sure they’re not in an impossible spot. My SPED partner takes notes, and all the kids can access them (the typical kids love this for when they’re absent). Some of my LD kids need questions read to them or an answer narrowed on occasion, and I’ll do this for the typical kids, too; it’s not a big deal to me. I keep a pass by the door for my ADHD kids who need to take a quick walk to the water fountain, but everyone else has access to that privilege, too. I’ll grade essays a little differently for my LI kids — not knock off so much for grammar/spelling — usually I’m in contact with their resource teacher and I’ve made one of their goals learning how to use a proofreader so their good ideas shine through (some of my LI kids have the worst looking papers with the best ideas in them — critical thinking is more important than rote memorization of comma rules anyway). This is reasonable because most colleges have writing labs they’ll be able to use.

The “worst” reasonable accomodation is all the time that goes into staying in close contact with the resource teachers/SPED department — all those conversations, notes, emails, etc. are a real drain on my plan time!

WOW!! You are super, and full of excellent ideas. Would you like to come o my school as a role model? Your ideas should make the resource room teacher’s job easier! Thank you for being so caring!!

LOL, thanks, but my CWC partner just makes me look really good! She tells me what she thinks will work, and I just incorporate it — I’m really just lazy and looking to make my life easier. If it helps the kid, my class runs more smoothly and I don’t hear from parents :). It is also my philosophy that my job is to teach, not rate kids on a scale.

Seriously, my partner is a huge blessing. CWC is tricky — if you click it works great, but if you don’t, it can be a big hassle. We were lucky enough to click.

Christine -

I’ll try to address your question without going too far off track. This forum is about the Classroom, but much of education is directed at supplying a qualified workforce - and making people independent and happy.

The short answer to your question is yes if the goal of the test is to determine how much a person knows about a given subject. In other words, if the test is a teaching tool then giving them the opportunity to show it is how you assess where they are in the process.

On the other hand, if the goal is to determine if a person can work fast enough - today - to meet a job-related quota(reading, math, manual labor, etc.), or even to succeed in a post-secondary training program - then the acommodations used should be the ones that will be available in that job or program. (I know, I know, we don’t always know what’s available. This is especially true when I have to spend a few nights out of town evaluating people in a new city.)

There aren’t always clearly defined answers to many of these questions about jobs, work experience placements and training programs. It’s often a balancing act between trying to give a person the opportunity to succeed and throwing them in something that’s over their head and setting them up for failure or more failure.

It’s not all about test results either. Look around you at neighbors and coworkers. There are varying levels of interests, motivation and social skills, and it all factors into the planning on how to make the jump from learning in the classroom to working.

I’ve finished my lunch and need to go to a meeting - caseload counselors, and evaluator or two, two placement counselors, a marketing rep, a technician and two managers. Just a normal planning meeting.

I’ll check back later to see what’ve misspelled.

John