Special Education Leadership Academy Harrisburg, PA, 2003

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Effective Instruction and Progress Monitoring for
Students with Learning Disabilities
Presented ByLana Edwards, Ph.D.Lehigh
University Special Education Leadership
AcademyHarrisburg, PA, 2003
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100 Point Analysis

• Considering students with disabilities
  Distribute 100 points to indicate the
  emphasis/importance of the following factors to
  learning. Your point value should reflect the
  weighting of each factor. You may think of it as
  the influence each factor has on learning and/or
  failure to learn.
• Learner Ability
• Motivation
• Quality of Instruction
• Opportunity to Learn
• Curricular Materials

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First, the bad news
!
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The Scope of the Problem
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of U.S. fourth-grade students read below
a basic level and have little or no mastery of
the knowledge or skills necessary to perform work
at each grade level (NAEP)
Problems are particularly severe for
disadvantaged students (50 of 4th grade students
whose parents graduated from college were
proficient / advanced compared to only
of 4th graders whose parents did not finish high
school).
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The Scope of the Problem
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Almost of the nations children
encounter severe reading problems before third
grade which translates into more than
million children in America who are struggling,
unsuccessfully, to read
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A full of students with learning
disabilities have reading as their primary area
of difficulty
80-85
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The Scope of the Problem
Children with low achievement in the early grades
have greater likelihood of school dropout,
pregnancy, and unemployment and consequently face
great risks of negative academic, social, and
economic outcomes.
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Now, the somewhat good news
!
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Design of Instruction

• The success of instruction is, in part, a result
  of how instruction is designed.

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What is Instructional Design?

• . . .refers to the way information in a
  particular domain (e.g., social studies, science,
  reading, mathematics) is selected, prioritized,
  sequenced, and scheduled within a highly
  organized series of tasks, lessons, and materials
  that make up a course of study (Simmons
  Kameenui).

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What is Special Education?

• A study of difference.

• Specially designed instruction which meets the
  unique needs of an exceptional child.

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Instructional Design Considerations

• Adequacy of analysis information
• Appropriateness of instructional strategies

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Adequacy of Analysis Information

• Design information by. . .
• Initially preparing instructional that has a high
  probability of preventing learner errors.
• Continuously adapting the prescribed instruction
  according to moment-by-moment assessment and
  diagnosis.

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Appropriateness of Instructional Strategies

• Matching how you teach with the kind of
  information you need to teach.

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Effective Instruction includes. . .

• Instructional dimensions that create the
  conditions of failure for students with academic
  learning problems.
• Complex solutions to complex problems.

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Re-Defining Failure

• Identify it.
• Account for it (why?).
• Buttress against it (how?).
• Prevent it.

PROGRESS MONITORING!
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The greatest dangerfor most of usis not that
our aim istoo highand we miss it,but that it
istoo lowand we reach it. Michelangelo
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The Context of Special Education

• Information Processing and fundamental ambiguity
• Unpacking the fundamental ambiguity A
  multicontextual model.
• Teacher/Learner/Skill-Content Assumptions

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Information Processing

• Lack of knowledge and what conditions are
  relevant
• Poorly organized knowledge
• Lack of sufficient knowledge base

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Mosenthals (1984)
Multicontextual Model
Task
Setting
Learner
Situation Organizer /Teacher
Meaning Source Social Situation
Materials
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The Teacher/Learner/Skill Interaction
Teacher
Content/Skill
Learner
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Assumptions About Teaching

• Teaching is a complex process.
• Enable the learner to do things that he or she
  could not have done before.
• Frame the problems in terms of variables the
  teacher can control.
• Prioritize important skills and teach them well.
• Always treat the learner with respect, dignity,
  and compassion.

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Assumption 1 Complexity

• The teaching process is complex.
• . . .consequently, the solutions to problems in
  the teaching process are complex.
• Complexity should not be underestimated.
• To address complex learning problems, we must
  attend to the details of instruction and to the
  intricate requirements of complex academic
• tasks (Gagne, 1978).

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Assumption 2 Learning

• Teaching involves enabling the learner to do
  things that could not be done before.
• The teaching process should involve more than
  merely providing children with an opportunity to
  demonstrate what they already know.

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I touch the future. I teach. - Christa
McAulliffe
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Assumption 3 Teacher Control

• Teaching involves framing problems in terms of
  variables that the teacher controls.
• Teachers should ask When a problem surfaces
  during instruction (e.g., when a student responds
  incorrectly or isnt attending to the lesson),
  what is my instinctive response? Do I immediately
  become frustrated by finding fault with the
  learner? OR, Do I examine my own instruction?

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Assumption 4 More in Less Time

• Research on teacher effectiveness appears
  unequivocal in supporting a significant
  relationship between time on academic tasks and
  achievement (Brophy Good, 1986 Rosenshine
  Stevens, 1986).

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More in Less Time

• Must protect instructional time!
• For children who are behind to catch-up, they
  simply must be taught more in less time.
• The gap between low performers and high
  performers is real. . .

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The Emergence and Stability of the Problem
- As early as kindergarten, meaningful
differences exist between students literacy
knowledge and experience
- In a sample of 54 students, Juel found that
there was a 88 probability of being a poor
reader in fourth grade if you were a poor reader
in first grade.
- Approximately 75 of students identified with
reading problems in the third grade are still
reading disabled in the 9th grade.
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Matthew Effects
Matthew XXV29--For unto every one that hath
shall be given, and he shall have abundance but
from him that hath not shall be taken away even
that which he hath. Children who can crack the
code, read more words, learn more vocabulary,
comprehend more, are motivated to read, and enjoy
reading. Children without adequate word
recognition skills read less, read slowly, have
slower development of vocabulary, and are less
motivated to read. The Matthew effects refers to
a self-fulfilling prophecy. The rich get richer
poor get poorer phenomenon.
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Snowballing consequences of early reading failure
Comprehension
Motivation
to Read
V
ocabulary
Letter
-Sounds
Phonemic
A
wareness
W
ord Recognition
Exposure to W
ords
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Variation in Amount of Independent Reading
Minutes Per Day
Words Read Per Year
Percentile Rank
Books
Text
Books
Text
98 65.0 67.3 4,358,000 4,733,000 90 21.2 33.4
1,823,000 2,357,000 80 14.2 24.6 1,146,000 1,697
,000 70 9.6 16.9 622,000 1,168,000 60
6.5 13.1 432,000 722,000 50 4.6 9.2
282,000 601,000 40 3.2 6.2 200,000
421,000 30 1.8 4.3 106,000
251,000 20 0.7 2.4 21,000
134,000 10 0.1 1.0 8,000
51,000 2 0 0 0
8,000
(Anderson, 1992)
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Playing Catch-up

• Playing catch-up in school requires using time
  in every learning opportunity judiciously,
  strategically, and preciously. . .Given the
  extraordinary challenges inherent in playing
  catch-up, the best strategy is not to get behind
  in the first place to intervene early,
  frequently, and purposefully to get ahead and
  stay ahead (Simmons Kameenui, 1998, p. 278).

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Assumption 5 Teacher Efficacy

• Teaching students who have academic and social
  skill deficiencies day in and day out for 180
  days is demanding.
• The characteristics of the classroom (e.g., class
  size, achievement level) effect teachers beliefs
  about their ability to influence student learning
  (Chard Kameenui, 1992 Smylie, 1988).

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Respect and Dignity

• Regardless of circumstances, teachers cannot
  treat students with anything less than respect
  and integrity.

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Assumptions About the Learner/Student

• Frame failure in relation to variables that the
  teacher controls.
• Behavior can be changed.
• Incorrect response is the learners best effort
  to be intelligent.
• The learner is vulnerable to the world of
  symbols.
• The learner is a logical, experiential observer.

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Assumption 1 Failure Poor Instruction

• If the learner fails, the failure must be framed
  in terms of instruction the teacher controls.
• To assume that the problem is inherent in the
  learner leaves the teacher without any influence.

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Failure to Learn is Unacceptable!

• Childrens failure to learn is unacceptable and
  unnecessary it we understand what we want to
  teach and design the teaching carefully,
  strategically, and with full consideration of the
  learner (Kameenui, Simmons, Chard, Dickson,
  1997).

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Failure to Learn is Unacceptable!

• ALL children. . .can learn if taught carefully,
  systematically and with vigilant attention to the
  details of instruction (Engelmann, 1980).

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In other words. . .

• . . .the potential power of instruction in
  increasing intelligent behavior has no known
  limit. Through better teaching, children can be
  smarter. Children learn what they are taught
  (Becker Engelmann, 1976, p. 304, italics
  original).

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Assumption 2 Environment

• A learners behavior can be changed by
  controlling environmental events.
• The teachers province is the classroom.
• Within this context, the teacher will have the
  most significant impact on a student.
• The teacher has control within the classroom.

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Assumption 3 Incorrect Responses Intelligence

• A learners incorrect, inappropriate, or
  inadequate responses to a task is the learners
  best effort to be intelligent.
• In many cases, what appears to be stupid ends
  up being smart for the learner (Engelmann
  Colvin, 1984).

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Assumption 4 Symbols

• The learner is vulnerable to the world of
  symbols.
• For example. . .

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Symbolic vs. Nonsymbolic Operations
(Kameenui Simmons, 1999, p.5)

• Symbolic (cognitive tasks)
• All component learning processes are covert.
• 2. Component skills are difficult to identify
• 3. Feedback from environment is not predictable
  or inherent in task execution.

• Nonsymbolic (physical tasks)
• 1. All component behaviors are overt and
  observable.
• 2. Component skills are easy to identify and
  demonstrate
• 3. Feedback from environment is predictable,
  immediate, and inherent in the task.

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Importance of Feedback from the Environment

• Unless the environment, or in most instances the
  teacher, gives the learner feedback on the
  interpretation of a symbol, the learner could
  easily interpret the symbol incorrectly.
• Nothing prevents the learner pointing to the word
  cat and reading cot.
• (Kameenui Simmons, 1997)

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Assumption 5 Logical Observer

• The learner is a logical, experiential observer.
• Children generally operate on the information
  presented to them without going much beyond what
  they see and know from past experience.
• For example, glap.

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Assumptions About Content or
Skills

• Information can be taught.
• Information can be assessed.

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Assumption 1 Information can be taught!

• Information comes in different forms.
• Teachers are responsible for breaking down
  information in a way that facilitates a learners
  acquisition, storage, and retrieval.

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Assumption 2 Information can be assessed!

• Monitoring student progress is an activity
  included in any conceptualization of teaching no
  matter how informal (Deno, 1997, p. 97).
• Assessment informs instructional decisions how
  instruction is designed and delivered.

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Progress Monitoring

• Identify children at-risk of academic failure.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of interventions.
• Make instructional decisions.
• Communicate progress.
• Parents
• Students
• IEP

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Once again, teachers have control.

• I can design the instruction and make it more
  effective.
• How do you determine if instruction is
  effective????

PROGRESS MONITORING!!!
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The changing landscape of our nations classrooms.
MORE Challenges. . .
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Demographic and Societal Changes
Schools are facing a period of rising
enrollments after a long period of decline.
Many more disabled students, particularly those
with learning disabilities, are receiving special
services.
Many more students speak a language other than
English at home and have difficulty speaking
English
Many children live in poverty (21 or 15.3
million), and these children typically live in
neighborhoods and attend school together.
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Demographic and Societal Changes
The fastest growing demographic group in the
country from 1980 to 1990 was the prison
population, which increased 139 with recent
rates estimated at 300. There were 1,000,000
people in prison in 1994, twice that of just ten
years before. The US has the highest prison
population in the world.
The illiteracy rate among current US prisoners is
86.
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Demographic and Societal Changes
At the same time
We live in an increasingly technological society
in which there are rapidly growing literacy
requirements
At no other time in our history has the ability
to read been so important - not only to the
privileged few, but to all members of our society.
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Diverse Learners

• Students who by virtue of their experiential,
  cultural, economic, instructional, and cognitive
  backgrounds bring different and often times
  additional requirements to instruction and
  curriculum.

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Now, the REALLY good news
!
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Science, Consensus, and Focus on What
Works
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We have the technology and the capability to
prevent academic failure
We know more about reading disabilities than all
the other learning disabilities put together. We
have a solid and converging knowledge base about
what works. We know the skills that enable
successful learners. Moreover, we know that these
skills can be taught!
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The Education Fashion Police Best and Worst
Dressed
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Watch Out for Fad and Fashion Instruction

• Educators often engage in fashionable
  experimentation (Kameenui, 1991, 1997 Slavin,
  1989).
• For example The Reading Wars

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National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators
(NCITE)

• Conduct an exhaustive review of the research on
  the design of high quality instruction.
• Examine how to best design learning tools.
• Work closely with writers and publishers of
  curriculum materials.

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What We Know from Science and Research
Information needs to be taught.
Instruction for diverse learners must be
intensive, explicit, and systematic (the earlier
the better).
Instruction must include critical instructional
design features and progress monitoring
assessment.
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We can rebuild him. We have the technology.We
have the capability to make the world's first
Bionic man.Steve Austin will be that man. Better
than he was before.Better . . . stronger . . .
faster.
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Critical Features of Effective Instruction

• Big Ideas
• Conspicuous Strategies
• Mediated Scaffolding
• Strategic Integration
• Primed Background Knowledge
• Judicious Review

(Kameenui Simmons, 1990, 1999 Simmons
Kameenui, 1996)
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Big Ideas

• Concepts, principles, heuristics that facilitate
  efficient and broad acquisition of knowledge.
• Conceptual anchors by which small ideas can
  often be understood.

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Teach Less Thoroughly!

• We cover lots and lots of things, more than
  anybody else in the world, but we dont do
  anything in great depth. . .Science textbooks in
  the U.S. typically are two to four times longer
  than those in other countries. . .and yet its
  just those constant snippets of information.
  While some countries expect 13 year olds to cover
  10 to 15 scientific topics in depth, U.S.
  textbooks rush them through 30 or 40 topics
  (Education Week, June 24, 1994, p.10).

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Conspicuous Strategies

• Make the steps of a process or aspects of content
  explicit and encourage a deeper understanding and
  transfer of knowledge, rather than memorization
  of the content.
• Use the big idea as the basis and translate the
  steps into manageable tasks for the learner.

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Examples

• Math Story Problems (Identify the problem type,
  etc.)
• Story Elements/Story Grammar
• POWER Writing Strategy (Plan, Organize, Write,
  Edit, Revise)

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Mediated Scaffolding

• Temporary instructional support as new content
  and skills are presented and learned.
• It may come in the form of tasks, materials, or
  teacher/peer assistance.
• Introduce a limited amount of information at a
  time.

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This is sun. The first sound in sun is /sssss/.
p s
Im going to choose the letter that matches this
pictures first sound. s says /sssss/ like the
/sssss/ in sun.
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This is seal. What is the first sound in seal?
s f
Your turn to choose the letter that matches this
pictures first sound. Thats right, s says
/sssss/ like the /sssss/ in seal.
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p
l
m p f Im going to choose the letter that
says /p/ like the /p/ in lip. p says /p/ like
the /p/ in lip.
m e l Im going to choose the letter that
says /lll/ like the /lll/ in lip. l says /lll/
like the /lll/ in lip.
I will say the sounds in lip slowly and point to
a square as I say each sound. /llliiip/. The
first sound in lip is /lll/.
This is lip. Listen, I will say the sounds in
lip slowly. /llliiip/. Now you say the sounds in
lip slowly.
I will say the sounds in lip slowly and point to
a square as I say each sound. /llliiip/. The last
sound in lip is /p/.
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m
p
m c f Your turn to choose the letter that
says /mmm/ like the /mmm/ in map.
s p i Your turn to choose the letter that
says /p/ like the /p/ in map.
I will say the sounds in map slowly and point to
a square as I say each sound. /mmmaaap/. Whats
the first sound in map?
I will say the sounds in map slowly and point to
a square as I say each sound. /mmmaaap/. Whats
the last sound in map ?
This is map. Listen, I will say the sounds in
map slowly. /mmmaaap/. Now you say the sounds in
map slowly.
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n
u
t
e t f m Your turn to choose the letter that
says /t/ like the /t/ in nut.
f c n u Your turn to choose the letter that
says /nnn/ like the /nnn/ in nut.
u a n c Your turn to choose the letter that
says /uuu/ like the /uuu/ in nut.
Say each sound in nut with me as I point to the
letters. /nnnuuut/. Now, say it fast. (nut)
Thats right you spelled nut, /nnn/-/uuu/-/t/
are the sounds in nut.
The first word is nut. Say the sounds in nut and
touch a finger for each sound. Whats the first
sound in nut?
Say the sounds in nut again and touch a finger
for each sound. Stop when you get to the next
sound. Whats the next sound in nut?
Say the sounds in nut again and touch a finger
for each sound. Stop when you get to the last
sound. Whats the last sound in nut?
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v
e
t
a t y v e n f
Say each sound in vet with me as I point to the
letters. /vvveeet/. Now, say it fast. (vet)
Thats right you spelled vet, /vvv/-/eee/-/t/
are the sounds in vet.
The first word is vet. Say the sounds in vet and
touch a finger for each sound.
Whats the first letter in vet?
Whats the last letter in vet?
Whats the next letter in vet?
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e
y
s
a t y j e s b
Say each sound in yes with me as I point to the
letters. /yyyeeesss/. Now, say it fast. (yes)
Thats right you spelled yes, /yyy/-/eee/-/sss/
are the sounds in yes.
The first word is yes. Spell yes.
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Strategic Integration

• Integration of big ideas or critical concepts
  across lessons.
• Involves the careful combination of new
  information with what the learner already knows
  to produce a more generalizable, higher-order
  skill.

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Examples

• In beginning reading, once learners can hear the
  sounds in words and recognize letter-sound
  correspondences those skills can be integrated to
  recognize words.
• In narrative composition, strategically integrate
  story elements across reading comprehension and
  written composition.

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Primed Background Knowledge

• Prerequisite skills process of activating
  information the learner has that is strategic to
  and supports new learning.
• Brief reminder or exercise that requires the
  learner to retrieve known information.

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Examples

• What sound are you going to say first?
• Creating a web organizer to categorize
  information before an expository writing
  activity.
• Practicing math facts before addition with
  regrouping.

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Judicious Review

• Systematic review of taught skills and content.

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Simple repetition of information will not ensure
efficient learning

• Sufficient to enable the learner to perform the
  task.
• Distributed over time.
• Cumulative with information integrated in more
  complex tasks.
• Varied to illustrate application of information
  in a range of tasks.

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Translating Instructional Principles to Practice
Big Ideas -Is the skill/objective central and
fundamental to later learning? -Is
the skill/objective central and fundamental as an
end goal? -How does the objective/skill you are
teaching relate to the big ideas? Conspicuous -Wh
at are the steps in the strategy? How do I model
them overtly? Strategy Mediated Do
examples/activities

Scaffolding a. Move from teacher-directed to
student-directed? YES NO b. Provide
multiple examples of target strategy prior
to asking learner to perform
skill independently? YES NO c. Begin with
easy tasks and progress to difficult? YES
NO d. Separate potentially confusing
information? YES NO e. Introduce a
manageable amount of information? YES NO f.
Require the same requirements in independent
practice as taught during
the lesson? YES NO
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Translating Instructional Principles to Practice
Strategic Integration a. What are the skills I
need to connect to prior learning and new
learning? b. How do I explain the relation
among components/parts of the lesson? c. Is
there a higher order concept/strategy the learner
is able to perform based on integration of
prior learning and new learning? Background
Knowledge What language background knowledge is
required of the task? What component
background knowledge is required of the
task? Judicious Review How do I schedule
adequate review of the new skill/strategy
within the introductory lesson? How do
I schedule adequate review across lessons?
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Activity

• Lesson Analysis. Do these lessons incorporate the
  critical design features of big ideas,
  conspicuous strategies, mediated scaffolding,
  strategic integration, primed background
  knowledge and judicious review?

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Academic Failure
Functional Inadequacy Failure
Teacher
Content/Skill
Learner
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Top 10 Reasons Why Instruction Fails
10!
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10. We assume we have unlimited time.
9. We fail to evaluate programs adequately
before adoption.
8. We fail to teach teachers how to evaluate
materials.
7. There are many plausible explanations why
children dont learn.
6. We believe that curricular materials arent
that important.
5. We treat the problem as a learner problem not
as a curricular problem.
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4. We trust published programs.
3. We have limited expectations for how much
children should learn.
2. We fail to rely on the professional knowledge
base.
1. We fail to recognize the complexities of
instruction and the architectural details
necessary to optimize learning effectiveness and
efficiency.
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Final Conclusions

• Time!
• Effective Instruction and Progress Monitoring

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TIME!
!
!
!
!
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Stand and Deliver

• Summer School (700 AM 1200 pm everyday
  including Saturdays)
• 1 hour early
• 2 extra periods a day
• Stay after school until 500 pm
• Saturdays
• No vacations

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Effective Teachers Maximize. . .

• The amount of time allocated to learning
  (allocated time)
• Portions of allocated time scheduled for
  instruction (academic learning time)
• Academic learning time to involve students in
  successful instructional activities (academic
  engaged time)

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Effective Instruction and Progress Monitoring

• Specially designed instruction for the
  individual student.
• A special curriculum taught in a special way
  (Zigmond, 1997).
• Different texts
• Different materials
• Different ways of presenting information
• Different pacing of instruction
• Different amounts of guided practice
• Different examinations and assessments

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Teachers are capable of breaking the cycle of
failure. . .

• By the way they design instruction.
• By the way they monitor student progress.