This week, we're talking about High-Leverage Practice number 13: adapting curriculum tasks and materials for specific learning goals. This week, Eryn, I am so curious to learn from you. When you're looking at adapting curriculum tasks, you come from a general education background, before you walked into behavior analysis. What does that actually mean or look like in your practice?

So, generally speaking, adaptations are making some change to a curricular task or content to ensure that all students can access that material and be successful. Usually, within the High-Leverage Practices, it's broken down into accommodations and modifications. So, accommodations involve changing the way a student can access information or demonstrate their learning, where modification means making a change to that task or accommodation.

With accommodations, students are still working on the same expectations that all the other students in the classroom are learning. So it's still the same high expectations for the general ed or that classroom. You're just really making little changes to meet any difficulties or roadblocks that the student experiences because of their learning differences, whereas with modifications, you're actually changing the content, so it might be potentially a lower standard from a different grade level, or in some way changing what the student is either providing or learning to help meet their needs.

Yeah, and that gets so muddy. Like, there are so many people who get them crisscrossed, or they think they're doing accommodations, but they're actually modifying. I mean, I've been in meetings where I'm like, ‘Cool, let's, you know, document all the different things that you're already doing to support them.’ And I'm like, oh, crud. Like, we are not actually accommodating things. Like, we are helping in so much or in such a way that now we've actually shifted big things around that students' learning experience.

I agree. I also think that it can be difficult for IEP teams when they have a list of the potential accommodations that they can provide. And they're listing, you know, 20 of them, so that they have to provide these 20 accommodations to the student for every single learning task, where it's really, you want to pare down to like- All of those accommodations would probably help and support every student in the classroom. But what are the key ones that really will help this student access the material where otherwise they would struggle?

Yeah. And I love that framing, though, because that's where you're like, ‘so what do they actually need?’ Not what would be nice, but like, ‘what is that game changer that says if they didn't have this, they couldn't perform?’ And if you have 20, like massive checklists of all these things. You're like, ‘Well, what's that answer?’ How do I know if I am actually implementing all of these things with fidelity, which is insanely difficult to do?

If I'm actually doing all those things with fidelity, how do I know which one's actually the game-changer versus things that are just nice and helpful? It's so hard to pick through when you have so many different things going on.

I think that brings up a great point where again, I think a lot of times we identify these accommodations or modifications, put them in place, but then we don't actually make assessments either beforehand to figure out, like, what areas might they need support in, or also making sure, are these accommodations and modifications actually supporting the student and helping them progress and be successful in the classroom, or are we just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks?v

I know. So what have you seen in your practice? I appreciate your background because you're coming from that gen-ed perspective, but you've also done a lot of work in special-ed and behavior analysis, and so bridging all of it together, I know for my career, I'm able to now pull on different tools from different backgrounds to leverage this in different scenarios. So, when you're looking at making these adaptations to figure out what accommodations would be possible, how do I know if that's actually going to work for a kid that is actually going to be a fit? Or, then once I'm running it now, how the heck do I know that it's actually working? Aside from just like, ‘performance improved.’ What are those tools, resources, and ideas? Like, how do you make those decisions?

That's a great question. I think, again, it's really looking at the student,and what areas are you seeing them really struggle with? So maybe I have a student who can't sit still.So I need to provide some way for them to move or get some resistance while they're working, or looking at if a student has difficulty with working memory, how can I pare down the amount of content that I'm providing them? Or maybe as far as modifications go for multiple choice, instead of like four or five items for them to choose from, it's just two or three.So that they can really just focus on some of that key content and help support that gap in the working memory that they have.

Yeah, I mean, some of this I find they're either tucked into school psych reports, or they're in- sometimes, if I've got, like, a student who has an outside neuropsych, there are different ideas or recommendations tucked in there. But a lot of times it's like looking at these evaluations that are being run by these specialists to see what the underlying needs are that are going on.

And then, a lot of the work that I do is just translating. So we've got these specialists with all these ideas. Well, what actually then makes sense in a classroom or in this type of classroom that's kind of like that translation effort for me, like being an educator and a specialist, it's like, okay, understand all the stuff from the specialist, but how does this actually look, like, how is it actually functional for a classroom teacher when you're also juggling all the students all at the same time? You're trying to get all of those individual needs met, and you're making sense of all these big words that you've never seen before, like trying to make sense of it.

Yeah. And I think that really builds on the need to have really clear communication within your teaming. So working with the specialists who do know exactly what's going on, helping them really bridge that gap, to provide it in language that everybody in the team can understand, including parents, gen-ed teachers, special education teachers, everybody working with the student, and then looking at it in the classroom, what is happening. And as you mentioned, what is functional? What I can provide as a special education teacher might be more than what a general education teacher can provide.Like, really, with fidelity. And figuring out, like, what does the student need within that context. Also, something interesting you brought up as far as who's doing the assessments? Like, here in California, our special education teachers do a lot of the assessments on their own.

Yeah. And that's so different. Like, state to state or even district to district within any given state is who has the evaluation tools at their disposal to be able to pull out some of that information and provide a little bit of that guidance, if you will. But then what tends to happen, at least from a lot of the schools that I get to partner with, is that who's doing the assessing and then who's actually doing the intervening are rarely the same person, sometimes not even from the same field or like, training background now we've got this translation gap where I know the tool and I run the tool and I can communicate that and I can communicate it in easy languaging to help you understand it. But now I still have a handoff where someone else needs to understand it enough and then go forth and actually implement with fidelity, in whatever way makes sense to them and kind of their practice. But also trying to keep this cohesion with the plan.

There are so many different moving pieces to make sure that we're doing it well. That is not just running an evaluation and tossing recommendations out to nowhere. But we're also not just making adaptations because we think we should or because it seems helpful, right? It needs to be founded on something. But then that does bring in that necessity for good solid teaming to close that gap between.

Yeah, and I think even with that teaming, identifying, yes, there are recommendations for every gap. But what are those key areas that we foresee might really be a roadblcok for the student to learn within whatever setting they're receiving their education, and really focusing on what accommodations or modifications might be needed to support this?

And then again, once that's in practice, are we actually then continually taking data and assessing if these are working or do those need to be changed? Or maybe we need to pull a different accommodation or modification out to really support the student?

Yeah, I'm thinking even when I was working in a resource, self-contained, hybrid program. My students, when they would come in for accommodated tests, would have a sticky note with their list of accommodations, and they had to check which accommodations they used when they did that exam. And then they would know, like, ‘Oh, I haven't really used this in a while. Yeah, we can probably drop that off my plan.’ versus like, ‘Oh gosh, like I do actually need this. That was super helpful.’ And it was just like so forefront for them. It also gave me really clean data so that I could show like the kid actually knows it, likes it, wants it, uses it, as opposed to this kid who no longer is using it and is still doing decent enough that we can probably just drop it, and it's like not a battle to be fought.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I think that's great to come in with that little list of here are my accommodations that need to be provided.Or at least given the opportunity.Again, some students may not use it, and then we know, okay, we can fade that.Or that might not be the right one for them.They're being successful without it.

Well, especially with students who have emotional and behavioral health challenges, to put them in the driver's seat of what works for you, what doesn't work for you. Your goal is learning in grades or whatever those metrics are that you're trying to accomplish. But how do you need to be supported to get there? And can you help me drive that? Because then they're going to, like, they invest in it more, we see great outcomes from it. Like, all the things that come from self-advocacy.

I guess I'm curious. We're kind of, like, talking around it. For the adaptations for students with emotional and behavioral health challenges. What are those either common adaptations that you tend to see when it comes to curriculum, or things that are typically found to be fairly effective for these students, because they do tend to be like the chicken or the egg students? Like, we've identified them for these social, emotional, behavioral challenges, but now we're adapting the curriculum, which some teams have a professional disagreement there, where they're like, ‘well, their needs are social, emotional, behavioral. It's not academics or curriculum. So they don't need adaptations to their curriculum because it's not an academic need.’ Like, that thought process is out there. It's not how I see the world. It's a much more blurry mashup of both. But I'm curious, from your practice, what have you seen be really useful for this population?

Yeah, I agree. And as you said, a lot of times, behavior affects academics. And it goes both ways a lot of times, with our students with EBD and psychological health concerns.So, as far as really key things that I think really give them that agency and control, a lot of times, it's really successful. So helping them, as far as even an adaptation, here are the items that we need to do in this lesson or in this activity. You choose what to start with.You can start with this side of the page or this section. Or even just really kind of increasing, like, if you know that the student struggles with a specific math concept or something like that, can you give them a couple of easier problems? To just get that behavioral momentum going so that then they have success with a few things, get some positive feedback, and now maybe they're ready to actually tackle what that task is.

I also see breaks are really big, too. So a lot of times, whether it's just that they need, because there's so much information coming at them, or it's just difficult for them to maintain focus on the activity or what else is going on in the classroom, they might need breaks while they're doing activities. And I think that's also something with teaming, where I was just working with a teacher who, the student was supposed to get breaks, but she couldn't provide breaks because she didn't have any staffing to help the student actually be able to take them. He needed a break outside of the classroom, and she couldn't trust him outside by himself.And so he didn't get his breaks.So, how can we work with staff, or even give him a note that means nothing? But it's like, ‘here, go give this to the office staff.’ Or somebody in the school with whom he has a really strong relationship. So that it's just kind of like, I can go in, check in really quickly, and then come back to the classroom, and maybe I'm ready.

I love that the examples that you're giving are not your traditional accommodations that we would think of for a reading struggle or something like that, right? It's interrelated, and sometimes we can see it showing up in similar ways. But the actual moves are, the teacher's moves are different.

And I think looking at that too, like, you might have some traditional accommodations.Or even just like, highlighting the key areas within a lesson to really help that student focus. ‘Here are the main concepts that I want you to get out of this reading material.’ But again, it goes hand in hand with, again, making sure that the student needs that.

So we've talked about what accommodations, modifications, and what they are. I know I've worked with a lot of teams that think they're being helpful, and sometimes I have to give them feedback that's like, ‘you're maybe not hitting the need that you think you're hitting,’ or ‘you're supporting something different than what you actually think you're supporting.’ Do you have any examples of what people may think are accommodations or modifications, but they're actually not?

So providing choices is always a big one that I see, especially with this population of students. Where teachers often think that they're providing choices, but really they're giving, like, you do it my way or else here's the consequence. So sit down and do this task, or you get to go to the office. That's not providing choices. Really providing choices would be, ‘do you want to start with this problem or this problem?’ ‘Both of these tasks need to get done today. Which one do you want to do first?’ Or even in the response. ‘Do you want a handwriter or do you want to go on the computer and type it out?’ ‘Do you want to work at your seat or do you want to find a quieter area in the classroom to be able to finish the work?’ So again, it's really giving the student that agency and control, but while also being a win-win where the student meets their needs, but you're also getting what you need; the students completing the task that you need them to complete within the classroom.

Yes, thank you for that example because, oh my gosh, I see that everywhere. Because it is, it's like, ‘I'm going to give you what I need you to do, and a consequence if you don't. So you can pick, do you want to do what you're supposed to do, or do you want the consequence?’ Like, that's not actually choices because both choices, or if you're providing more than two, all of them are headed in the same direction. So I don't care if you're sitting here or sitting there, you're still doing the thing. I don't care if you do it this way or that way; you're still doing the thing.

And that's, I think, for me, where I've been able to take some of those conversations and be like, do both choices have the same outcome? Like, are you still going in the same direction regardless of what choice you pick, then you're probably living in the world of accommodating or behavior interventions, or whatever world you're living in there. If you're just saying, ‘do this or get a consequence.’ That's not exactly what we're talking about here.

Yeah, yeah. And I think too, if you're providing choices and the student says, ‘No, but can I do this?’ And it's actually a reasonable request, to where they're still going to do the thing that you want them to do, I think a lot of teachers get really built up in that, like, need for control. It's as long as the student's being successful with what you want them to do, and it's a reasonable request, like, yeah, let them do that.

Yeah. And I mean, in my room, then we would take that as data and be like, great, they've requested this accommodation, and it actually worked. And now, can we just build this in the plan, and next time we've got the IEP revision or the next time we're updating their 504 plan or whatever it is that they're working with, we'll just tuck it in there. And then, especially with my students, I've shown them, ‘see, look, this is what you asked for. It's in your documentation now. So you can ask any teacher to help you with that. And, like, we'll be able to figure out how that can fit.’ But again, that goes back to your representative or autonomy, like all the things we've been talking about, it's not just adapting things, it’s ‘can you bring them into it so that they can own it and really drive it and direct it,’ because then they'll actually use it.

Absolutely, yeah. And I think the broad changes you see when the student actually has that independence and ability to affect their own education and learning in the classroom is huge. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts about all the different ways that we can adapt curriculum, especially for this population. It's not always those academic things that we think of that can make a massive difference. So thank you.

Thank you.