Kim Rysemus SPED 461 Communication Program

1. Description of Student AJ is in the 6th grade and is diagnosed with specific learning disability, or more specifically dyslexia. She is currently on an academic track in all general education classes. She receives special education services for math and reading which are provided through co-taught classes. AJ enjoys school and is very social. She works well independently and in peer groups. After completing a preference assessment with AJ, it was clear that AJ can verbally express and differentiate between likes and dislikes. When presented with non-preferences, AJ attempts to find good qualities anyway. AJ can verbally describe specific features of preferences she likes and why. Preferences were chosen randomly; however, she consistently chose preferences before non-preferences. Based on student observations, the teacher interview, and the student interview, it was established that AJ has strong social skills. AJ makes friends easily and has strong conversation skills. She finds difficulty in choosing topics to initiate conversations with peers she has never met before; however this is fairly typical. When given verbal directives, simple or complex, AJs receptive communication is strongest with minimal distractions or when the verbal directive is paired with a gesture. As stated earlier, AJs expressive communication is strong when describing preferences or ideas. However, when requesting assistance, AJ finds difficulty in forming and verbalizing a clear and direct question. AJs receptive communication in highly distracting environments and expressive communication when verbalizing questions will be the target for this program. These targets were selected because they are interrelated and apply to academic tasks. AJ is on an academic, general education track, so strategies to increase success are a high priority. The two targets are also connected in a way. When in class taking notes, AJ is too preoccupied with writing down all of the notes that she is not able to concentrate on the content and meaning of what she is writing, and therefore creating more questions on in-class activities. Providing self-monitoring and

guided sample questions will allow AJ to focus on the lesson and guide her questioning if she requires assistance. 2. Annual (broad) Objective Across all subject areas, AJ will independently identify what she needs help with on in-class activities and ask clear and direct questions to the instructor for 100% of naturally occurring opportunities for at least one month. 3. Benchmark Objectives (instructional) Across all subject areas, AJ will read the lesson outline to complete in-class activities before requesting assistance for at least 70% of naturally occurring opportunities. If after reading the lesson outline AJ still requires assistance, she will use one or more of the guiding questions on the outline to identify the area she requires assistance for 70% of naturally occurring opportunities. Across all subject areas, AJ will read the lesson outline to complete in-activities before requesting assistance for at least 90% of naturally occurring opportunities. If after reading the lesson outline AJ still requires assistance, she will use one or more of the guiding questions on the outline to identify the area she requires assistance for 90% of naturally occurring opportunities. Across all subject areas, AJ will independently identify what she needs help with on inclass activities and use one or more of the guiding questions on the lesson outline to identify the area she requires assistance for 100% of naturally occurring opportunities. 4. Suggested Intervention and Rationale The intervention will include the use of a self-monitoring, lesson outline to guide AJ through her class lessons and activities. Lesson outlines will contain notes and/or procedures for class lessons, and sample, guided questions that a student may have regarding parts of the lesson. These will be utilized and generalized across all academic subject areas. The use of selfmonitoring systems with students with learning disabilities has been utilized in many different ways. In a study conducted by Montague, Enders, and Dietz (2011), a cognitive strategy called

Solve It! was utilized to help middle school students self-monitor in math. The Solve It! strategy follows a say-ask-check procedure for guiding students through activities, similar to the notes and guiding questions format of the intervention. In a similar study, conducted by Crabtree, Alber-Morgan, and Konrad (2010), selfmonitoring was implemented by creating stopping points throughout a text for students to selcheck their comprehension. Students were given a self-monitoring form and were instructed to stop three times throughout a text to answer comprehension questions. This is a great strategy for students to use to make sure that they comprehend while they read, instead of waiting until the end of the text. Students are able to monitor their learning independently and comprehensively. This type of self-monitoring will be utilized in this intervention through the guiding questions included in the lesson notes. The student will use the guiding questions to check her own comprehension and understanding to help ask questions and to self-monitor her work. References Crabtree, T., Alber-Morgan, S., & Konrad, M. (2010). The effects of self-monitoring of story elements on the reading comprehension of high school seniors with learning disabilities. Education and Treatment of Children, 33(2), 187-203. Montague, M., Enders, C., & Dietz, S. (2011). Effects of cognitive strategy instruction on math problem solving of middle school students with learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 34(4), 262-272. 5. Methods and Procedure Generalization Generalization strategies are built into the intervention. Each lesson outline, no matter what the academic subject, will contain the same guiding questions. By maintaining the guiding questions across all subject areas, the student will be able to generalize the questions, because they are never changing. The student will learn to apply all guiding questions to all subject areas to self-monitor her school work. As the student becomes more familiar with the guiding

questions, she will become more independent in self-monitoring through these procedures. After repeated practice and use of the guiding questions, the student will learn the questions and remember them for other uses. Guiding questions can even be applied to other classes or aspects of life, such as gym class or purchasing items at the mall. Assessment Procedures In order to assess the effectiveness of this intervention, two items must first be defined: a clearly stated question and anxiety. A clearly stated question is defined as a verbally stated question that starts with who, what, where, when, why, how, or which? The question must be a grammatically correct and complete statement. The instructor should be able to give a direct response to the question; the question needs to be specific. In other words, if the instructor has to ask the student a question in response to her question for clarification, then the original question was not clearly stated. The student is experiencing anxiety if her facial expression looks distressed (frown, scrunched eyebrows, general look of worry). If the students head is leaning on her forehead and she is not able to complete in-class work because of it then she is experiencing anxiety. In addition, if speech consists of incomplete thoughts or statements, or the student is at a loss for words, cannot find the appropriate word for what she is trying to say, then she is experiencing anxiety. The intervention will be assessed across two different areas: clarity of asked questions and amount of time spent experiencing anxiety. Procedures for assessing clarity of asked questions: 1. Observer should obtain question clarity rubric 2. Observer should record the number of questions asked in one observation period 3. Observer should rate each question asked based on the question clarity checklist **Question clarity rubric is attached

Procedures for assessing anxiety: For each observation session, the number of times the student experiences anxiety (based on the definition above) for 10 seconds or more should be recorded. Observer should use a table to record the date of the observation and the number of instances of anxiety. Assessment Schedule Assessment for both areas should occur simultaneously. If the clarity of questions is being assessed, then the anxiety should be assessed as well. Assessment will occur every day during the students math class, first hour. Assessment will begin once the warm-up time is up and class instruction begins until the end of the class hour. Instructional Procedures Instruction will occur in a most-to-least, guided practice format. Model Modeling will occur in a 1:1 setting. The team resource room will be used for this portion of the intervention. Instructor will teach the daily lesson as normal. While instruction occurs, the student and the instructor each have a copy of the lesson outline. As the lesson is taught, the instructor is modeling how to use the lesson outline. Verbally ask guiding questions to self to model student thought process. Then answer questions verbally as well. Direct the student to guiding questions as they are being asked. Make sure guiding questions are reviewed in order, top to bottom. This will model the way the student should read through the questions to selfmonitor. Oral and Gestural Directives Oral and gestural directives will occur in small or whole group settings, depending on the nature of the daily lesson. Throughout the lesson, the instructor will give oral and gestural directives to guide the student through the lesson outline and guided questions. For example, the instructor will say, Look at your guided questions. Do you know what you are solving for? What is the question? and point to the question on the lesson outline. If the student shows three or more instances of anxiety or asks three or more unclear questions, instruction should return to modeling.

Gestural Directives Gestural directives will occur in small or whole group settings, depending on the nature of the daily lesson. Throughout the lesson, as the instructor walks around the classroom, she will provide gestural directives to guide the student through the lesson outline and guided questions. For example, while students are completing independent seat work, the instructor will point to Did I double-check my work and answer? on the guided questions portion of the lesson outline. If the student shows three or more instances of anxiety or asks three or more unclear questions, instruction should return to oral and gestural directives. Independent Independent instruction will occur in any academic setting. The student will use the lesson outline and guided questions independently. No oral or gestural directives should be provided to the student. If the student shows three or more instances or anxiety or asks three or more unclear questions, instruction should return to gestural directives. Reinforcement Naturally occurring reinforcement will be paired with intermittent verbal praise. The lesson outline intervention is designed to allow the student to self-monitor her in-class work. This should lower the students anxiety that occurs as a result of being unclear about a task. Practicing a strategy to follow to complete in-class work will point the student in the right direction when she becomes unclear and will also increase independence. The decrease in anxiety should reinforce the student to continue to use the outline in class. Also, verbal praise from the instructor will be given intermittently when the student is using the lesson outline. For example, the instructor will say, AJ, great job double-checking your work. You got the right answer! Maintenance Maintenance will naturally occur throughout the students education. The intervention strategy will be provided for all academic classes, and, if successful, should continue until the student can independently go through the self-monitoring questions. Because the nature of the

intervention is a cognitive strategy, once learned and practiced, the student can use the strategy wherever or whenever she likes. The use of the outline will naturally fade as the student increases independence

6. Projected Data Collection Clarity of questions Date/week # of questions asked # of clearly asked questions Baseline1 Baseline2 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 22 23 24 21 18 16 16 12 9 8 7 1 1 3 3 6 8 9 7 7 7 6 % of clearly asked questions 4.5% 4.3% 13% 14% 33% 50% 56% 58% 78% 86% 86%

Percentage of Clearly Asked Questions

100.00% 90.00% 80.00% 70.00% 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% % of Clearly Asked Questions

Series1

Date

Anxiety Date/Week Baseline1 Baseline2 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 # of instances of anxiety (10 sec or more) 21 23 19 20 16 17 14 12 8 5 4

Instances of Anxiety
25 20 # of Instances of Anxiety 15 10 5 0 Series1

Date

7. AAC System Materials Lesson Outline Notes How to Change a Fraction to a Decimal Guiding Questions

1. Look at the denominator. It should be 10 or 100. If not, find an equivalent fraction with a denominator of 10 or 100. ex. 3/4 = ?/100 3 x 25 = 75 4 x 25 = 100 3/4 = 75/100

Did I read the whole question?

Did I underline important details?

What am I solving for? What is the question? (list, describe, explain, state, etc.)

Did I miss any steps? Did I do the steps in order?

2. The denominator tells you the place value of the decimal. ex. 100 = hundredths Do I know how to complete my work? 3. The numerator goes after the decimal point. **the place value tells you how many numbers should be after the decimal point ex. 75/100 = 0.75 Hundredths place is two after the decimal point Yes complete work No What is my question? Ask! Did I double-check my work and answer?

Question Clarity Rubric Did the question begin with who, what, where, when, why, how, or which? (+ indicates yes, - indicates no) What the question a grammatically correct and complete statement? (+ indicates yes, - indicates no) Did the instructor ask a follow-up question for clarification? (+ indicates no follow-up question was asked, - indicates a follow-up question was asked)

(3) + indicate a clearly stated question