Assessment Tool Selected
Specific Performance/Task(s)
Design and implement various effective instructional practices. (InTASC 1d)
Differentiate instruction for exceptional children. (InTASC 1a)
Evaluate and strategically select curriculum materials and resources that optimize student success. (InTASC 1b)
Understand the characteristics associated with a variety of disability categories. (CEC 1.2)
Adapt instruction based on student needs. (InTASC 2a)
Select and apply evidence-based instructional strategies to serve students with specific disabilities. (CEC 4.1)
Select appropriate supports and adaptations to enable a student with disabilities to access and fully participate in the general education curriculum. (CEC 1.0)
Relevancy of Task to Teacher Candidate
Special education teachers must have full knowledge of learners with LD and be able to implement lesson plans modified from research-based instructional strategies.
Assessment: Student Prompts/Teacher Directions
Individual: LD: The Puzzling Paradox (Benchmark Assessment)
General practicum information:
Students' practicum experiences should follow the practicum experience requirements, including the diversity and hour requirements for this course on the Practicum/Field Experience Observation and Activity Log Directions.
Students should complete the Practicum/Field Experience Observation and Activity Log with the names of the schools and grade levels where the observations took place and document the hours spent in the classroom. Submit the form to the instructor along with your Benchmark Assessment.
Spend 20 hours in a setting that serves a student with a learning disability. This setting can be resource room or a regular educational setting in which the student is mainstreamed.
Benchmark Assessment:
Part 1: Research the following questions using the GCU Library and the Internet:
What is a learning disability? (Locate 2-3 definitions/explanations)
How do individuals with learning disabilities process information? What challenges are related to how these individuals process information?
Part 2: Identify a student who has a learning disability and answer the following questions:
In which academic area(s) does the student struggle?
In which academic area(s) does the student have strengths?
How does the student's disability influence his or her ability to socially interact with others (social skills)?
Part 3: Identify one area in which the student academically struggles.
Choose one skill you will teach the student using a learning strategy. Note: This strategy must be generalizable and have less than seven steps. Write a lesson plan following these steps based on Hunter's model:
Learning objective (make sure you indicate the state and national standards related to this objective).
Prerequisite skills needed in relation to this objective.
Prerequisite skills the student currently does/does not have.
Anticipatory set (remember, you want to motivate the student to learn this skill and indicate how learning the skill will facilitate learning in other areas).
Lesson input
Guided practice (remember to always use controlled materials when first introducing a skill)
Independent practice (remember to not allow students to independently practice a skill until it is mastered and there is automaticity).
Implement the lesson plan with the student and provide, in written form, a reflection with regard to effectiveness of the strategies. Also, please include a reflection indicating what you would do the same/different if you were to use this strategy again.
Create a 1,250-1,500-word essay in which you include information from each of the three parts above. Be detailed in the information requested for Parts 1 and 2. For Part 3, reflect on the effectiveness of the strategies you used, and how you would revise the lesson if you were to use these strategies again