Addressing Access to the Core and Expanded Core Curricula Using Active Learning - TETN 33097

This video is posted online with the following chapter markers:
Chapter 1. Introduction - 
Chapter 2. What is Active Learning? - 
Chapter 3. Academic Standards and Goals - 
Chapter 4. Alignment with TEKS and STAAR - 
Chapter 5. Functional Schemes - 
Chapter 6. Conclusion - 

Addressing Access to the Core and Expanded Core Curricula Using Active Learning - TETN 33097 Transcript

Chapter 1. Introduction

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Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired Outreach Programs Presents T-E-T-N 3-3-0-9-7 Addressing Access to the Core and Expanded Core Curricula Using Active Learning.
April twenty-first, two thousand-fifteen.
Presented by Scott Baltisberger, V-I Consultant
Kate Hurst, Statewide Staff Development Coordinator
Lottie Tomko, Statewide Lead, Low Incidence Disabilities Network

Kate: Well, I'm very pleased today to have with me Lottie Tomko, who is the lead for the Low Incidence Disabilities Network and I really am glad that you're here with us, and I really appreciate so much your help in pulling this T-E-T-N together.
Also, we're going to -- we have some help from one of my colleagues, Scott Baltisberger, you'll be seeing him on tape.
I'm not sure if Scott is going to be able to come in and join us, but anyway I want to thank Scott for the work he did to help with this, [ coughs ] excuse me.
Okay.
So...one of the reasons we wanted to do this T-E-T-N is we've had a lot of questions from people through the years about, you know, we believe active learning is a great thing to do, but, you know, we're really bound to the TEKS and -- and we just don't know how to make that all work out.
And so we said okay, let's -- let's do some training about this, because I hope if nothing else is accomplished today, when we get through, you'll realize that active learning not only can be done with the TEKS and with the Expanded Core Curriculum, but it's in fact the absolute perfect way to go for a special group of students that we're going to be talking about today.
So we went into the studio and recorded a lot of this and what we're going to do [ coughs ] , excuse me, we're going to play a portion of this and then we're going to stop and take time for questions and comments.
So please don't hesitate when we take a break to -- to unmute your mics and share your questions and your comments with us.
...Because we really want to try to make sure all of your questions are answered about this.
So..without further ado, I guess we'll get started and take a look at our first section.

Chapter 2. What is Active Learning?

Kate: Active learning is an instructional approach developed by Dr. Lilli Neilsen a psychologist and educator from Denmark whose career of over 40 years was spent working with individuals who were visually impaired, including those with multiple disabilities and deafblindness.
As a part of this instructional approach, Dr. Neilsen wrote the book: Functional Schemes: Function Skills Assessment.
She also created a curriculum, the FIELA curriculum, which includes over 730 activities in a developmental continuum to support skills development beginning at birth to age 4.
This curriculum includes the use of specially designed equipment, such as the little room, the hops address, SF board, SPG board, resonance board, the support bench and other things, the curriculum includes a guide to help teachers organize weekly instruction.
Both gross and fine motor activities done independently and with an adult based on the individual child's current development and related to the 13 areas of her developmental checklist are carried out daily with the student.
There are a small group of students with visual impairments and multiple disabilities or deafblindness for whom this approach proves extremely beneficial.
They fall into two groups: Children who are chronologically under the age of four years old or infants and toddlers, and students who are developmentally under the age of four, but may be chronologically much older.
It may also be beneficial for students without visual impairment who have severe developmental delays, especially those with motor and cognitive delays.
Who are under the age of three developmentally.
However, our focus for today is on the student with visual impairment or deafblindness who are sensory motor and preoperational level learners.

The first stage of development, according to Piaget is called the Sensorimotor Stage.
It begins at birth and lasts until 18 months to two years of age.
This stage involves the use of motor activity without the use of symbols.
Knowledge is limited in this stage because it is based on physical interactions and experiences.
Infants cannot predict reaction and so must constantly experiment and learn through trial and error.
Exploration in its earliest forms might include shaking a rattle or putting objects in the mouth.
As the child becomes more mobile, the ability to develop cognitively increases.
Early language development begins during this stage.
Object permanence occurs at 7 to 9 months which demonstrates that memory is developing.
Infants realize that an object exists after it can no longer be seen.
Millie Smith developer of the Sensory Learning Kit says these learners are exploring using sensing an acting systems in the here and now to gain knowledge.
They are answering these questions about objects in the world around them.
What is it like?
What does it do?

The preoperational stage usually occurs during the period between 18 to 24 months and seven years of age.
During this stage, children begin to use language, memory and imagination also develops.
In the preoperational stage, children engage in make believe and can understand and express relationships between the past and the future.
More complex concepts, such as cause and effect relationships, have not been learned.
Intelligence is not logical, but rather egocentric and intuitive.
Piaget says that the focus during this period of development is on naming, categorizing and predicting.
Using symbolic thinking about the past, present and future to organize information about the world.
Millie says these learners are answering the question: What is its name?
They are becoming communicators are more able to use language for learning.
When addressing the educational needs of students who are visually impaired or deafblind and who are developmentally under the age of four, using the active learning approach alone or in combination with strategies recommended by Dr. Jan Van Dijk, Barbara miles and others is considered best practice.
Sensorimotor and preoperational learners simply are not ready developmentally to tackle learning at higher levels.
The operational level begins at about seven years developmentally.
In Wood, Smith and Grossniklaus's paper, Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development, the Concrete Operational Stage typically develops between the ages of seven and 11 years.
Intellectual development in this stage is demonstrated through the use of logical and systematic manipulation of symbols, which are related to concrete objects.
Thinking becomes less egocentric with increased awareness of external events and involves concrete references.
The period from adolescence through adulthood is called the Formal Operational Stage.
Adolescents and adults use symbols related to abstract concepts.
Adolescents can think about multiple variables in systematic ways, can formulate hypotheses and think about abstract relationships and concepts.

At the operational level, the learner is engaged in reasoning, learning the underlying structure and rules of thinking about the world. This includes things like semantics, math, logic, ethics and so forth.
So why don't typical educational approaches work for sensorimotor and early preoperational level learners?
Because most of our structural strategies are designed for late preoperational and operational stage learners, they do not address the learning styles of sensorimotor and early preoperational learners.
When you consider students who also have sensory impairments such as the loss of vision and/or hearing and perhaps impaired tactile and proprioceptive senses, and/or motor functioning, these typical educational approaches do not factor in their unique needs and learning styles.
Many, if not most of these learners, are heavily reliant on tactile instruction, even when they have residual vision and hearing.
They also have many experiences that make them less secure and less self-confident, functioning in the world.
Most importantly, typical methods do not address the needs of the sensorimotor or early preoperational learner who can only learn by being active.
By kindergarten, children are expected to begin seat work and to participate in group activities and discussion.

In order to benefit from traditional educational methods such as these, all learners must first build foundational skills by uses their senses to explore and experiment with a world through their own action through play.

Kate: Okay.
So do we have any questions or comments from any of you out there, about this piece, about what active learning is?
[ Silence ] 
Okay, I just want to emphasize just a couple of things.
When we think about active learning, it's not just equipment.
It is a whole structural approach and so to -- when we're saying that active learning should be used with students at this early stage who are visually impaired and deafblind with additional disabilities, we really do mean not just the equipment, we mean using all of those instructional strategies.
And so if you're not familiar with those, that's something that you really want to learn more about.
I can recommend the book Are You Blind that talks about -- there's some articles on our active learning page, I'll share that site with you later and many of your service center consultants may be able to help you with that, either through the LID program or the V-I consultants there.
But also folks in outreach are more than willing, very interested, in fact, in working with you to help you learn more about how to use the whole approach for active learning.
Okay, Kendra, I guess we'll go on to our next piece.

Chapter 3. Academic Standards and Goals

Kate: One thing we sometimes hear is that all instruction for students must focus on academic or standards based goals.
Let me share from a question and answer document created by Texas Education Agency and the Statewide Access to the General Curriculum Network, titled Individualized Education Program Annual Goal Development.
Measurable annual goals, academic standards based goals and functional goals.
It says: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 2004, requires that all students who receive special education services have measurable annual goals included in their Individualized Education Program or IEPs.
This may include academic, standards based and/or functional non‑standards based goals, which are based on the individual students' needs as documented in his or her Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance or PLAAFP statements.
The purpose of these goals, as is the purpose of all special education services, is to assist the student in accessing and progressing in the general curriculum.
Academic or standards based goals are goals directly linked to progressing toward enrolled grade level content standards.
Functional or non‑standards based goals are goals which assist the student in accessing the enrolled grade level content standards.
Under I-D-E-A, students with disabilities must have the opportunity to learn and be tested or assessed on the same curriculum as that provided to students without disabilities.

In Texas, the general curriculum is the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills or TEKS.
By using a range of instructional strategies based on the varied strengths and needs of students, teachers ensure that students work towards grade level content standards in the TEKS.
Tests are given to all students to evaluate learning.
The most common statewide assessment in Texas is STAAR.
Students with disabilities take the same statewide assessment as all other students, unless the ARD committee determines that the student will use an alternative assessment tool.
Later we will share more with you about these requirements.
Additionally, in Texas, all students with visual impairments or deafblindness must receive assessment and instruction in the Expanded Core Curriculum.
According to the American Foundation for the Blind, there are experiences and concepts casually and incidentally learned by sighted students that must be systematically and sequentially taught to the visually impaired student.
We refer to this as instruction in the Expanded Core Curriculum.
There are nine areas of the E-C-C, and they include adaptive technology, compensatory skills, career education skills, recreation and leisure skills, orientation and mobility skills, social interaction skills, sensory efficiency skills, self‑determination skills, independent living skills.
In Texas, we have laws that require students with visual impairments or deafblindness to receive assessment and instruction in the E-C-C and the teacher of the visually impaired and orientation and mobility instructor have the primary responsibility for seeing that all of these areas are assessed and that instruction in these nine areas happens, whether they provide it directly or support others who provide the direct instruction.

So that was just a little bit about the Expanded Core Curriculum.
I know some of our viewers may not be as familiar with the Expanded Core Curriculum as others and so if you have any questions or comments about that, we welcome that right now or anything else that was discussed in that section.
Again, you can just unmute your mic and ask us or you can go to the link we gave you earlier and post your comments or questions there.

Lottie, I'm curious, do you get a lot of questions about Expanded Core Curriculum when you are working out in the field with kids who have the more severe or profound disabilities?
Do you think it's readily understood?
Lottie: I don't get a lot of questions but I think it's -- it's because teachers don't always -- they don't know what to ask.
I think it might be with -- from -- so a lot of times when I'm out in the field, I'm in self‑contained classrooms so I'm working with that special education teacher.
And some teachers have some familiarity but not all teachers do, so that's why I'm really glad that we're doing this today.
Kate: Well that'll be good. And I do think that, you kow T-V-Is and COMS who use active learning and who work with classroom teachers who have these children in their classrooms, can not only help the student but they can receive the benefit of a lot of support from the classroom teacher and the para and others, C-Ts, O-Ts that are coming in to focus on Expanded Core Curriculum skills, you know, every day of the week throughout the day.
And then, of course, taking some of the active learning approaches into the home.
I'm going to share a wonderful link with you towards the end.
A blog from a parent who was doing active learning in her home with her child.
A lot of these activities can be taken into the home, especially in helping the parents come up with activities where the child can be meaningfully entertained...on their own.
In the area of rec -- recreation and leisure.
You know, one of the things for a lot of these kids, is that they really -- if they are not being actively engaged by a caregiver, may not be motivated to do much.
Helping them come up with some active learning environments within the home for the child is a real, real important asset.
I think that it makes a lot of difference for the kiddo, but also for the quality of the family.
And not just independent activities, but interactive activities when the student is ready.
You know, they're most comfortable in the home.
And so having the parents understand activities that they can do using an active learning approach and even siblings, this can be a wonderful way to open up the dynamics within the family to a lot more meaningful interactions between the child and the parents and siblings.
Okay.
Anything else?
Okay.
We'll go ahead.

When looking at visually impaired and deafblind learners at the sensorimotor and preoperational developmental levels, T-V-Is and O&Ms often puzzle over how to provide instruction in the E-C-C, especially if the student is older than four years of age.
The T-V-I and the O&M may provide limited direct instructions to these children, instead supporting the classroom teacher and paraprofessional through a consultative model.
Collaborating to develop active learning strategies with the child's educational team, the T-V-I and COMS can ensure that there is a daily focus on the E-C-C.
In the Functional Scheme Assessment there is an extensive checklist that evaluates the students in these areas.
Gross motor and fine motor, mouth movements, visual perception, auditory perception, haptic tactile perception, olfactory and gustatory perception, spatial perception, object perception, language, social perception, emotional perception, perception through play and activity, toileting skills, dressing and undressing, hygiene and eating.
This tool can be used to help identify students skills and needs related to many of the E-C-C areas for these particular levels of learners.
Especially in the areas of recreation and leisure, orientation and mobility, social interaction, sensory efficiency and independent living.
The roles of the T-V-I and COMS, besides assessment, includes helping to determine appropriate instructional modification and adaptations to the learning environment.
The active learning strategies, FIELA curriculum, and perceptualizing equipment when used consistently and appropriately have proven beneficial for these students.
Either working directly with the student or while role releasing activities to other classroom staff, the T-V-I and COMS can ensure these students are receiving consistent daily instruction in E-C-C areas.
They can also support the team's effort to document skills acquisition, which relate to both the E-C-C and general education areas.
The active learning approach is an ideal way to ensure that each student has many students throughout the day to develop and practice skills related to the E-C-C.
Sensory efficiency skills, especially use of touch, are generally improved through active learning activities.
Children can develop the ability to integrate various kinds of sensory information so that they can begin, for example, to combine looking or listening with touch.
Because the child's hands are not being controlled they are more willing to explore unfamiliar or slightly averse objects until they are no longer so intensely repelled when they encounter something familiar.
Additionally, all of the foundational fine and gross motor skills required for any of the E-C-C areas can be improved by the child's exploration and experimentation using his entire body.
Using active learning equipment, in combination with objects and materials that have varied characteristics of size, shape, temperature, textures, densities, tastes, smells, colors, flexibility and weight, the child has the opportunity to participate in the kind of learning every child at the earliest developmental levels needs.
Learning to move a hand, to grasp and release, to stand, to move in the environment is critical to any future learning.

Here are several examples of students practicing sensory efficiency skills using active learning.
The first student uses his feet to explore while in a hops address.
This student had limited use of one of his feet often standing on tip toe.
In this video you will see him use both his feet in tactile exploration of the objects and textures he encounters.
In the next clip the student uses his mouth, lips, tongue, fingers and listening to explore a punch ball filled with corn starch.
Later, he uses his hands to find the chain and separate it from the magnetic bowl that it sits in.
A boys legs protrude from a hops address, we see him using his toes and feet to explore a tentacles, soft rubber ball, and a water basin.
Now we see his feet exploring a textured rubber bathtub mat.
[ Silence ]


He is using his toes to rake through a basin containing a mixture of dried beans and rice.
[ Silence ]

Another young man sits on a resonance board. He is squeezing a punch ball that is filled with corn starch and makes noise.
Gradually he holds it to his ear as he squeezes.
Then he puts the punch ball in his mouth to feel it as he squeezes it with his hands.
The same boy sits on the resonance board and uses his right hand to pull a piece of heavy metal chain from a magnetized bowl.
When he has removed a length of it he begins to bang it rhythmically on a board.
Orientation and mobility is about knowing where your body is in space and in relation to things in the world and learning to move through the world safely.
All of the active learning equipment and activities help a child learn about various body parts and how to move them to find and interact with things in the world.
It also focuses on developing listening skills, which later are necessary for discerning traffic patterns, auditory cues and landmarks, and locations of sound sources.
Both fine and gross motor skills necessary for movement and for grasping and controlling travel canes are being developed.
In this video we will see a young boy exploring a box of kitchen items while he reclines on a resonance board.
You will see that he positions items next to his body and easily orients to find them in his exploration.
A young boy lies on his side on a resonance board.
Two boxes of utensils and other objects typically found in the kitchen are in front of him.
He reaches into the box and pulls out a knife with a ring sizing tool caught on it.

He drops the ring sizer on the board in front of him and explores the knife by tapping and feeling along the blade and the handle.
He holds the knife by one end and extends it into the box.
Now he returns to the ring sizer and picks it up to place on his foot.
[ Silence ] 

After a time, he takes it off of his foot and then moves it to his mouth to explore.
[ Silence ]

Then he begins to explore a set of plastic measuring cups with his mouth.
[ Silence ]

He moves the measuring cups to his foot then back to his mouth.
[ Silence ]

Next he reaches behind his foot to pick up a bowl he had placed there earlier and begins to tap it on his foot.
Using the first three phases of educational technique, defined by Dr. Neilsen in the active learning approach, the child develops trust in another person and self confidence in his ability to do things independently and with others.
He or she becomes more willing to interact with others and to start to imitate them in small ways.
Active learning is a way to appropriately focus on the beginning social interaction and early communication skills, such as imitation and joint attention.
As the child progresses into the early preoperational stage using phase 4 and phase 5 educational techniques, help to move the child into more participation in simple activities with the adult and others.
At that time, more of our traditional instructional practices, such as routines and calendar boxes can be used.
The child at these levels can better cope with the interaction of others and attempt to take part in structured activities.
By learning to use active learning approach, helping others to implement this approach and creating or providing appropriate environments, T-V-Is and COMS can ensure that regular daily instruction in the E-C-C takes place for their student at these developmental levels.

This is a video from Washington Sensory Disability Services which can be found on their website.
This video shows the teachers using hand under hand in her interactions with Kaylee, which reduces Kaylee's concern that someone will be grabbing her hands.
As she gains confidence that she can act of her own volition, she begins to interact with her teacher.
Towards the end you will see her imitate what her teacher is doing.
A young toddler Kaylee sits on a resonance board with a large metal bowl on her right.
She grasps a shaker with a long thin handle that sits on the bowl.
On her left her teacher taps a wire whisk on the resonance board near Kaylee.
Gradually, Kaylee places her hand on the whisk and helps to tap.
When her teacher lets go of the whisk, Kaylee lets it drop.
Again the teacher taps the whisk.
Kaylee grasps the whisks and taps again.

When another adult pats her leg, she lets go of the whisk.
The teacher begins to tap again, this time introducing a metal bowl like the one on Kaylee's right.
When the teacher taps inside the bowl, Kaylee begins to imitate that movement using the shaker inside the bowl to her right.

Okay.
So I hope that those videos gave you some ideas about how active learning really can focus on Expanded Core Curriculum areas.
I'm curious if any of you have questions or comments about that?
>>
I have a question.
The boy, I think it was the first one you showed.
Where he was using his feet and he was in the hops...adddress and it looked like the first little bit he was using his left leg, left foot, you know, exploring and then a little bit later he used his right foot.
Was -- was it supported, was the opposite leg supported in some way to encourage that other movement?
I couldn't quite see that.
I was just curious.
Kate: No.
The -- the situation was the child had some paralysis on one side of his body, and I can't right this minute now remember which side it was.
I believe it was his right side.
And one of the issues was that the affected leg or side he would bring that foot down and touch it just at the toe.
And he very seldom would bear weight on it.
But when we put him in that hops address what was so exciting to see is -- initially he was doing the same thing, that one foot would kind of stay up, but as he started moving up and down in the hops address, he began of his own to bring that foot down and start using it to explore the textures of things and to actually at the very end of this, he stayed in that hops address for about almost an hour during that session.
By the end of it, he gets up on an SF board at the end of the track and it actually putting both feet flat on the floor or the SF board -- the surface of the SF board without anyone doing anything.
It was really one of those situations where I look at it and -- though I know how important O-T and T-T are in a very therapeutic approach.
I'm not saying, you know, do away with those, but I'm saying having opportunities where a child independently does this just really reinforces any kind of work that's being done by a P-T or O-T, and you really get some amazing things happening because the child's own brain is causing this to work.
He's not being manipulated into those positions by someone else.
And so I've seen this happen with a number of children in different ways who had very little use of hands or...or feet and all of the sudden, when they're in those active learning environments, independently exploring, they will begin to move their bodies of their own volition.
Now, sometimes it will start, for example, I -- this one child, she had --was very tight, like this, you know, just really -- her whole body was just drawn up like this.
But she would periodically have a spasm in one of her legs.
And when she did that in a little room, she accidentally kicked some plates and they made a big rattle.
At first it just startled her like crazy.
But she -- it happened again because she had another little spasm not too many minutes later from that.
And then -- you just could watch the wheels turning.
And before that session was over, and again she stayed in the room almost 40 minutes, she was actively kicking that leg to make those plates rattle.
And the -- the P-T that had been working with her was like "I have never, ever seen her make a voluntary movement before."
So, you know, this is the kind of thing that I've seen repeatedly in active learning environments with these kiddos.
And one of the reasons I'm so convinced that we've got to be doing more of this was this level of kid.
Does that answer your question, Gwen, I went on and on. Great, any other comments...
Gwen: I agree wholeheartedly and...I agree wholeheartedly. And... I've seen some of those things too, you know, out there.
And I would encourage O&M specialists to become involved, you know, too.
That this isn't just a device just, you know, to have in the classrooms.
And the V-I teacher to be having to do it by herself.
You know, It would be great if the -- both could be doing it.
Maybe not at the same time, different times.
Kate: I'm seeing O&Ms who are really taking the lead on this with a lot of kids, too.
So we just want more and more of this.
More and more.
And especially -- you know we're talking about kids with significant disabilities is who we are thinking with a lot.
But this is also really, really beneficial for infants and toddlers, even those that have no other disabilities.
You know, so that's the other thing, when you are working with babies and T-V-Is and O&Ms work with babies, you got to work with them now, so, you know,that's another real important area for them to plug in active learning kinds of things.
Great, we'll move along.

For all students in Texas since 1998, our State Board of Education has prescribed a set of knowledge and skills each student must have to complete his or her education
It is the curriculum to guide all instruction in our public schools.
It is commonly referred to as the TEKS.
And additionally, we test all students at various points in their education to determine how they are progressing in the study of this curriculum.
This student progression is assessed through the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness or STAAR testing.
When the student has significant cognitive disabilities, and is receiving special education he or she is tested beginning in grades 3 through 8 and high school using STAAR alternative 2.
If a student is not able or developmentally ready to work at grade level, instruction focuses on the same types of skills as his or her typically developing peers, but focuses on a lower developmental level of these skills.
To tell us more about the TEKS and STAAR testing, is Lottie Tomko.
Statewide Lead for the Low Incidence Disabilities Network.

Chapter 4. Alignment with TEKS and STAAR

Lottie: Aligning a lesson to a TEKS for a student who has a significant cognitive delay, especially for those students who are visually impaired and multiply impaired or deafblind and multiply impaired can be a bit perplexing.
At a recent LID meeting education specialist Angela Reed from Region 8 provided a great analogy.
She said that when you think of aligning to the TEKS, think of a hamburger; Some students are ready for the entire burger, some students are even ready to try adding on lots of extras like mushrooms, and jalapenos and avocados, however some students are still at an early learner level and are only ready for a taste.
Of course we want to give them a taste of the meat, we want to expose them to the big idea of TEKS.
What I want to suggest to you, is that some students are not even ready for the meat.
These are the students we are focusing on today.
Just as you would not feed an infant a bite of a hamburger it would be inappropriate to provide a lesson to a nine‑year‑old student with multiple impairments including deafblindness on a 4th grade reading TEKS without extensive modification.
To provide a clearer explanation, let me give you an example.
Let's look at this nine‑year‑old student who is deafblind and has multiple other impairments.
Our student has spent a large part of his life in hospital settings, developmentally he is at a sensorimotor stage.
Here is an example of a PLAAFP statement.
This student is in fourth grade, and is diagnosed with deafblindness and an intellectual disability.
He is non‑ambulatory, has a shunt, and requires tube feeding.
He currently accesses and participates in grade level TEKS through prerequisite skills in all academic areas.
He receives instruction in the special education classroom for all course with the exception of music.
Our student requires specialized supports such as assistance with communication, personal care, eating, and transferring from setting to sev -- setting throughout the school day.
Within the classroom setting he primarily communicates by facial expressions and vocalizations to indicate comfort and discomfort, interest and disinterest and to protest.
In the classroom setting in reading he has limited participation in stories that are signed to him when routinely provided modifications such as simplified texts and tactile representations of the text for exploration.
According to the teacher's data the student has limited understanding of the text but enjoys the sensory sensations. He seems to enjoy objects with soft, furry, and feathery or velvety textures over textures that are crinkly, metal or scratchy.
Currently data suggests that the student does understand the tactile symbols used for teachers, music, and fan and change time based on facial expressions and perceived anticipation of these regular routines involving these words.
The most vocal protests occur during transitions.
The teacher's data suggests that providing a choice decreases these vocalizations.

Even so we begin with the fourth grade TEKS.
Reviewing the TEKS we easily see that even with accommodations these TEKS are inappropriate.
Next we go to the vertical alignment documents.
The vertical alignment documents provide a total overview of the knowledge and skills statements and aligns student expectations across the grades.
Drilling down we can see, of course, that even the Pre‑K expectation is too difficult.
Next we look at the curriculum framework.
It provides an essence statements or the big idea or meat of the TEKS and prerequisite skills that align with the TEKS, this document confirms what the vertical alignment suggested and reviewing these prerequisite skills an appropriate match with our student is still not found.
At this point we have to examine the prerequisite skills and our students PLAAFP and problem solve to lower that prerequisite skill to a level that is appropriate.
Looking at reading vocabulary development.
We see the student understands new vocabulary and uses it correctly when reading and writing.
Students are expected to A identify and use words that name actions, directions, positions, sequences and locations.
B, recognize that compound words are made up of shorter words.
C, identify and sort pictures of objects into conceptual categories such as colors, shapes, textures and finally, D, use a picture dictionary to find words.
Demonstrate understanding of terms used in the instructional language of the classroom, demonstrate understanding in a variety of ways or knowing the meaning of 3,000 to 4,000 words.
Many more than he or she uses.
Use of large speaking vocabulary, adding several new words daily, increase listening vocabulary and begin to develop vocabulary of object names and common phrases in English.
Use single words and simple phrases to communicate meaning in social situations.
Attempt to use new vocabulary and grammar and speech, identify and use words that name actions, directions, positions, sequences and locations.
Use single words and simple phrases to communicate meaning in social situations, demonstrate understanding of terms used in the instructional language of the classroom, identify and read at least 25 high frequency words from a commonly used list, understands position words, answers where questions by pointing, understands action words.
What do you think would be an appropriate goal for our student?

So basically, that slide was to demonstrate the alignment from the TEKS and just drilling down.
So, in reading it, those are the statements in beginning with the TEKS and then going down.
And as we move through, we see that each of the skills statements are really inappropriate for our student.
So then once we've gone below our curriculum alignment and we've looked at all of the prerequisite skills, then we have to...go further.
So we looked at the Pre‑K guidelines and that was the last bullet.
But even looking at the Pre‑K guidelines, we see that those skills weren't really a good match for our students.
So, that's when we want to look at something like the functional scheme assessment, which can really target those foundational skills that Kate was talking about earlier.
So the whole purpose of that graphic is to demonstrate that there is an alignment with the TEKS.
And that we just have to go based on what the PLAAFP needs of our student are and find where to begin.
So does anybody have any ideas of what might be something that would be appropriate, even though you don't have like the functional scheme assessment to kind of look at, but based on the PLAAFP of the student, where might you start?

[ Silence ]

[ Laughter ] 

Kate and Lottie: I...Go ahead
Kate: Go ahead Lottie. 
Lottie: I was just -- you know, when we write or develop an I-E-P, we always want to look at tho -- at those needs.
We see the things that he likes and the things that he doesn't like and we want to work -- we know that he has some understanding of some tactile representations, very limited.
And so I would think that we would want to begin there.
Now, because we know we all struggle with this, that aligning to the TEKS is tricky, the next section that we're going to get into, we're going to show you how we've approached doing that.
And we're going to have some specific examples of it.
So if you're still not real sure which way to go.
Then stay tuned.
[ Laughter ].
If you have any specific questions or comments right now, though, we'd be happy to have you jump in and share them with us.
Okay, we'll proceed on.

Lottie: Since most of the students we are considering today are functioning at a developmental level that is below what is defined in the Pre‑K guidelines, the issue of STAAR testing is also questionable.
The process first asks the educational team to determine if the student is eligible for the STAAR alternative 2 by asking the following questions.
Does the student have a significant cognitive disability?
Yes.
Or no.
A significant cognitive disability is determined by the ARD committee.
It must be based on evaluation information performed by a qualified evaluation team.
The significant cognitive disability must affect the student's intellectual potential and be documented as such in the student's individualized education programor I-E-P.
A student with a significant cognitive disability has limited potential to reach grade level expectation.
Whereas a student with a learning disability has the potential to reach grade level expectation but has difficulty doing so due to his or her disability.
So the justification, does the student require specialized supports to access the grade level curriculum and environment?
Yes or no?
Federal regulations mandate that all students have access to and be assessed on grade level curriculum.
To access the state mandated grade level or course curriculum, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills or TEKS, a student with a significant cognitive disability needs specialized academic instruction, as well as support throughout the day in areas such as expressing his or her needs, getting from place to place, eating lunch, negotiating social situations, and/or taking care of personal needs.
So the justification here, does the student require intensive, individualized instruction in a variety of instructional settings?
Yes or no?
The student needs specialized academic instruction and techniques over a period of time to ensure that he or she can learn, retain information and transfer skills to other settings.
So the next justification, does the student access and participate in the grade level TEKS through prerequisite skills?
Yes or no?
Access to the grade level curriculum is mandated by the federal government.
A student with a significant cognitive disability requires access to the TEKS through prerequisite skills that are linked to the grade level curriculum.
To be eligible to participate in the STAAR alternate 2 the answer to all four of these questions below must be yes.
If the answer to any of the questions is no, the student is not eligible to participate in the STAAR alternate 2 and must participate in one of the other statewide assessments.
Each yes answer requires a justification that contains evidence that the student meets the criterion.
Our students would meet these criteria.
Most of our students with visual impairments or deafblindness who are at the sensorimotor stage and the early preoperational stage also fall into a special category that has been described as students who can provide No Authentic Academic Response or NAAR.
The eligibility criteria for this designation requires the team to determine if the answer to at least one of the two NAAR eligibility criteria questions is yes.
Students with visual impairments and deafblindness are eligible under the first criteria.
Because of multiple impairments the student is unable to receive information during instruction and assessment.
For example, the student may have a combination of visual, auditory and/or tactile impairment so these students will not be assessed using STAAR alternate 2 for the most part.
However, we still have a responsibility to monitor their progress and ensure they are making progress towards being able to participate at grade level in the standard curriculum.

Kate: We kind of -- I hinted that we were going to go on to the other part, but I forgot about the STAAR 2 part first.
So let's talk about that a little bit, Lottie, if there's any questions or comments out there.
Lottie: So are all of you comfortable with where we are at right now in the presentation or have any questions regarding the eligibility criteria for the No Academic Response...No Authentic Academic Response.
And I just want to point out that's not the only criteria a lot of these students will meet.
They may also meet parts of the other criteria as well.
But for sure if a child is visually impaired and deafblind with additional disabilities and we've already taken them through the STAAR alternative 2 eligibility criteria, then they will qualify as No Authentic Academic Response most likely under that one criteria.
So that -- that's something for you guys to think about.
I know I've had questions when I've been out in the field about, you know, how do we handle this.
And so this -- this would be how you would handle it.
You also are still bound to do assessment and we're going to try to show you some ways that you can take data and do other kinds of things to create like short video profiles or portfolio so that you can show progress in this.
But one -- again, a wonderful tool is if you have done the functional scheme assessment on your student, you will be able to document progress through that checklist as you go along.
So anyway we'll -- we'll move on to that.

The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills or TEKS vertical alignment document provide a complete listing of the TEKS curriculum from prekindergarten through end of course.
These documents provide a total overview of the knowledge and skills statements and align student expectations across the grades.
The student expectations provide access points to the general education curriculum by serving as prerequisite skills for STAAR alternative 2.
Here are two Pre‑K skills in the vertical alignment for writing.
Uses scribbles or writing to convey meaning.
Uses letters or symbols to make words or parts of words.
So what are some of the prerequisite skills an individual would need to have before he can use scribbles or writing to convey meaning.
Here are a few I thought of.
The student must be able to grasp a pencil, to understand that a pencil can create a mark, to have coordination to control movement of a pencil on paper, to have fine and gross motor and orientation skills to position the paper in relation to the pencil for scribbling or writing.
To be symbolic.
To have recognized that scribbling or writing can have meaning.
To have expressive and receptive communication, to have social skills to be able to interact with others and learn to imitate, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
In other words, there are extensive foundational skills that must be in place before you can do this one thing, use scribbles or writing to convey meaning.
This is what the sensory motor and early preoperational learners are doing and they can be tied to the higher level skills found in the TEKS and prekindergarten guidelines.
Here are just a few of the skills identified in the functional scheme assessment at various developmental levels that relate to writing to convey meaning.
There are many others.
Fine motor at three to six months, grasps and keeps objects.
Strokes hand over surface.
At 12 to 15 months, holds crayon with cross palm or grip, makes dots on a piece of paper.
At 15 to 18 months, IMITATES drawing a line, draws back and forth in the middle of a piece of paper.
Under visual perception at three to six months, tries to grasp the visual object.
At six to nine months, IMITATES actions that he sees, if they correspond with previously attained skills.
At 12 to 15 months, looks at his own drawings after completion, fixates on paper and crayon while drawing.
This is why the functional schemes and FIELA curricula are so valuable for working with students at these early developmental levels.
You have an assessment tool that breaks the skills into small increments and can see what you should expect to develop next.
You can track the skills development to demonstrate child progress.
Here is another example, the Pre‑K level skill in science is describe, observe and investigate properties and characteristics of common objects.
The student will not be able to describe common objects at the sensorimotor or preoperational level of development.
However using active learning approaches he will be able to observe and investigate properties and characteristics.
This is the essence of active learning when done correctly.
For the student, this is science.
It is just as rich and as important a learning experience as any activity done in a chemistry laboratory.
So hopefully you can see that instruction in the TEKS can be done by using an active learning approach.
Now, I would like to turn things over to Scott Baltisberger who will share more information about development of the I-E-P and the alignment of active learning skills to TEKS.

Chapter 5. Functional Schemes

Okay.
What you are going to see next is our friend Scott Baltisberger, and he's going to share a little bit about some training that he and Sara Kitchen have been doing about aligning...active learning types of activities to TEKS.
And as Scott will tell you, this is -- this is just a process that they're playing with.
There's nothing sacred about this.
But hopefully it gives -- you get one other idea about how to think about that alignment process.
Scott: Hi, everybody, I'm Scott Baltisberger with Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired Outreach Department and Kate asked that I would share with you guys a process that I came up with last year and last year Sara Kitchen and I were doing a lot of trainings around the state on active learning and we noted that teachers were very focused on the STAAR‑alt activities and they really needed a way to deal with that.
Because the STAAR‑alt was supposedly designed in order that, you know, all students could be assessed but we found that those activities were still very inappropriate for our students who are at the lower -- at the earlier developmental stages, you know, from birth through three.
So we wanted to find a way that they could rather than focus on the STAAR‑alt activities, that they could focus on activities of active learning.
And this is the process we came up with and I think it could still be applied to aligning the -- the active learning, the functional schemes with the TEKS.
So let's look at the slide.
If you remember, the way the STAAR‑alt was designed, was it had a limited number of verbs used in the descriptions of each activity and you see the verbs over there on the left.
You know, there's nine of them, that's all they had.
Acknowledge, participate, experience, choose, explore, respond, anticipate, look and listen.
And, you know, those were used repeatedly for different activities.
And if you think of those verbs from the sense of what do they really mean?
Or what are the prerequisite skills you need in order to engage in those actions. So in order to respond, what does that mean?
You know, response typically means that you're -- you're making a movement or you're making a verbal response, you know, there's some sort of action that you are doing in response to something, some -- something that's happened.
So in order to make a verbal response, you have to have mouth movement.
You have to have language.
You need to acknowledge that the other person is there.
You have to have social perception.
If you are responding to a sound, you have to have auditory perception.
So those are the functional schemes fields that could be linked directly to the verb respond so any STAAR‑alt activity that used that verb, respond, you could -- you could apply those functional schemes fields to it.

So in that way you can engage in...an active learning activity, you know, such as, you know, something that would engage mouth movement and you could say that you were working on the prerequisite skill for responding in the STAAR‑alt prerequisite skill.
And the nice thing about that is you could -- then you could spend time working on active learning activities that were meaningful for the child, and still make the case that you were working on STAAR‑alt activities.
So now the STAAR‑alt has gone away.
We don't have to contend with that.
However, we still need to link...the activities that we're doing to the TEKS.
And the same process that we were using for the STAAR‑alt can still be used.
Now, there's a lot more verbs in the TEKS.
If you, you know, this slide is showing just a few of the ones they use in math, seventh grade math.
So you've got generate, distinguish, determine, represent, right, model, identify, et cetera, et cetera.
So these -- they are a little more -- the verbs are a little more...complex maybe than the ones that were used in the STAAR‑alt, but you can still really apply them.
You know, for example the verb analyze, if you define that, I looked up the definition, and it means to examine methodically and in detail the cons -- constitution or structure of something for purposes of explanation or instruction.
But I think the key word here is examine.
So again thinking about it, what do we need to do in order to examine?
You know, what actions are we engaging in when we examine something?
You know, what's the very earliest basis of examining?
What does a -- what does an infant do when they begin to examine their environment?
You know, they're looking, listening, reaching, touching, turning their head, showing a general awareness of objects, you know, just a general motivation to engage with the world.
And so all of those actions can be addressed through a number of the functional schemes, visual perception, object perception, gross motor, fine motor, auditory perception, haptic, tactile perception, and so forth.
Really, I would say, you know, just about any of this functional scheme fields could be considered prerequisite for any of these TEKS verbs that we're using.
I always -- I like to -- I like the saying of when an infant is lying in their crib and they're kicking their legs and they're moving their hands, they are working on prerequisite skills to become an engineer or an accountant.
You know, every skill you practice, those sensorimotor skills you're practicing from age zero to three, you have to have those in place before you can do anything else, you can make the case that, really, just about any of the functional skills fields apply to just about any of the TEKS.
So let's look at how the process works.
Okay.
So what you're looking at here is the form we came up with for demonstrating a link from STAAR‑alt to functional schemes.
And I've adapted it a little bit in order to make it apply to the TEKS.
So under the first heading, you know, you look at the specific TEKS, you write the specific TEKS there.
In this case it's a math goal about absolute numbers.
I think it's the seventh grade.
The next thing you do, the next line is you look at the verb that's used in the TEKS, and here it's identify.
So go back and think what does identify mean?
Identify means to establish or indicate who or what something is.
Now, how do you do that?
Typically you identify something by looking at something, looking at it, pointing at it, saying it's name.
You need to compare it to other things so you can identify it.
So just thinking about the prerequisite skills you need in order to identify.
Naming something, using language, exploring, regarding something, be it visual, tactile, auditory, gustatory, you have to contact that thing.
You have to be for that -- even before that you have to be aware of your environment and be aware of yourself as someone having agency in the environment.
So once you've done that, you have identified what identify means, then you can look at the functional schemes assessment and figure out...you know, which field relates to that verb.
And in this case I looked at object perception.
Then you can look at the milestone under that.
You can identify the milestone that the student is at and from there you can target the function.
So the example here, I've identified that the student recognizes hands by using tongues and lips, the targeted function would be to use the little room to promote the awareness of objects.
Then, of course, you write your specific goal and you write your objectives under that.
Now, one -- one issue I've struggled with a lot and I think many other people have as well is how to take data on active learning activities.
And let's look at the next slide and -- for sort of a solution I came up with.
I think it's -- it's been hard to find a really easy, effective way to take data.
I think that you need to have hard data, you know, numbers and percentages, but you also need to have anecdotal data because these students are so individual in their needs and so individual in their abilities, you have to have some way of describing it to really make the data meaningful.
So this is one way that I came up with.
So by no means should this be considered a solution.
It's really just maybe part of the conversation we need to have about this.

So looking at the form, basically, on the left side, there's the description of the lesson.
And you include just that kind of sort of anecdotal description of what's going on, whether it be the environment the stu -- how you're going to arrange the environment or perhaps a type of interaction that you're going to have.
Then in the middle you have observable data.
Now, I think...data needs to be pretty easy to take.
I don't like having a lot of variables in that, you know, to have like Roman numeral one A, capital B on this -- it gets very, very complicated.
I think it's a lot easier for teachers in instructional assistance to take data if it's sort of a yes/no/one of the above type of things.
So I think if you write your -- your description in a way that allows you to do that, it will be really helpful.
So, for example, here I just wrote it that, you know, the student would use hands, feet, head or mouth to touch objects.
Will interact with at least three objects for five minutes each.
You can say yes or no, they didn't do that, and then you would take your data in the middle with, you know, either an x or 0 whatever you wanted to use to -- to describe that.

And then on the far right you have room for notes, and this is where you put your anecdotal information to really comment on the quality of the action.
And I think maybe that's a good word to use to talk about the -- to contrast the anecdotal information which is sometimes the quality of the interaction that a student has with the number, the data that they're having.
So I'd really like to see more ideas on this because I'm not real happy with it.
It kind of gets headed in that direction, but...I -- it would be great if we have more conversation about taking data on active learning.
In a nutshell, that's the process that we came up with.
It seemed to work pretty well for the people that tried it.
Thanks a lot for letting me be a part of this discussion and I'll see you guys out in the field.
Kate: Remember, active learning is more than just pieces of equipment.
It is an instructional approach first and foremost.
This approach supports the needs of children with visual impairments who have multiple disabilities or deafblindness and who are developmentally, sensorimotor or preoperational level learners.
This level of learning is the foundation for all other learning.
It relates to all subjects the child will eventually focus on when they are developmentally ready.
This includes both instruction in the Expanded Core Curriculum and the general curriculum.
If you are interested in learning more about using active learning, we encourage you to join us next year for the Active Learning Study Group webinars, which will focus on the functional scheme assessment and the development of the I-E-P goals and objectives.
You may also be interested in viewing some of the 2014‑2015 active learning study groups archived on our website.

Chapter 6. Conclusion

So there -- Scott's given you another angle to come in and look at that alignment and everything there so I hope maybe between what Lottie and Scott and I have shared, that this will give you a little more comfort in how to make that connection.
I would like to point you to your handout.
The form that Scott showed you in your handout it's completed more fully where the goal is written in and the objective is written in.
And there are several different activities that are tied to this.
I know that more than one person is struggling with this data collection piece.
Here's some things that I want to strongly suggest.
I think first of all, when you're collecting data, on a student that is doing active learning, one of the things to do in addition to having regular observation periods where someone is literally sitting down and doing tally work like this in some form or fashion, is that you need to be videotaping and that the whole team needs to sit down and take a look at this, because what I have found personally and my colleagues have experienced as well, is that when you're interacting with a child, you're so engaged and focused in the moment, as you should be, that you overlook things.
You miss things that are going on.
And when you're videotaping yourself, you may not recognize what's going on until you get a chance to step back and look at it and what you pay attention to as the teacher of visually impaired may not be the same thing that the P-T or the O-T or the classroom teacher or the parent pays attention to.
So having the whole team be able to access these video clips and look at them and share information back and forth is really important.
Plus the videotape clips that you take can go into the portfolio for the student as part of their documentation of progress.
We do have great interest in working on how to do better documentation and I-E-P development.
I've had at least one person, in Region 10 who's volunteered to help us work on maybe coming up with some forms that will be helpful to you guys out there.
I would very much welcome involvement from others.
If you're interested in helping to come up with something, that would be great.
If you're not interested in creating it but would be real happy to test drive it after we come up with something, that would be very welcomed as well.
So if you are interested in that, in -- in being involved in any way whatsoever, please shoot me an email at Hurstk@TSBVI.edu or you can call me on the phone, I'm up on other website and we'll make some plans.
I'm sort of hoping that as we go into next year's Study Group on functional scheme assessment that we can get involved around individual students in districts where people are -- are trying active learning, that we can work our way through this functional scheme assessment and then together sort of help collaborate on the development of the I-E-P for the following year for that student.
So...I hope that many of you will be interested in joining those webinars next year.
And we'll soon have our schedule out about when those will be occurring so that you can register and -- and participate in them.

The other thing I wanted to mention as we're kind of going away here, at the end of your handout are a series of references.
You may want to check those out.
And then, Kendra, if you'll go back to the PowerPoint. there's one other resource I want to point to you.
Point out to you.
And this is our active learning page.
And Kendra, if you can take us there.
We have a new very recent addition to this active learning page.
I really encourage you to go take a look at.
About a week ago, a parent that we have come to know through some consultation work we've been doing with our -- our -- the different individuals, Kendra it's right up at the top, at the very top of this page is a link to a web -- to a blog that this parent has developed and it's all about active learning.
This is not only wonderful to read and fascinating information, she's got a terrific number of short clips and talks about her experience in doing active learning with her child.
It's pretty powerful stuff.
And I think that it would be something that you could use to -- to show others about active learning, but also if a parent is not sure or doesn't feel like they have enough information, this might be another resource to share with them not only about active learning, but how creative this parent has gotten in getting support to purchase a lot of the equipment that she has in her home for her child to use.
So do check that out.
And also, on our active learning page are a wide range of resources related to active learning.
There are articles, there are forms, there's also a listing of all of Lilli's books that she's written and a link to Lilliworks.com where you can actually go to purchase these materials.
So we hope that you will utilize that and we have -- have great ambition this summer to really update a lot of the information there.
I'd love to share vines that you have discovered about active learning or pictures or things you would be willing to share, video, so please use it.
Let us know what else we can put up there, we would really appreciate it.
I know we don't have very much time.
but are there any comments or questions before we get ready to sign‑off?

[ Silence ]

Well, once again, Lottie, thank you so much.
I'm glad that you were willing to go along this trip with me and ‑‑
Lottie: Thank you, you've done an excellent job.
And I'm so excited to hear the feedback that we get and to see where we go from here.
Kate: Me, too.

[ Silence ]