Running head: DYNAMIC INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

Case Study: Using the Dynamic Instructional Design Amanda Brightman-Uhl University of New England

EDU-721, Summer B Anne Lovejoy August 12, 2012

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After reading through each of the options for this case study I decided to go with the dynamic instructional design model (DID). In reading about DID it seemed to best fit my teaching needs and be something I will actively use as a behavioral teacher. The specific 6 steps in creating a DID, as stated by Lever-Duffy & McDonald (2011) emphasize flexibility and responsiveness in the instructional design process. The fact that there is formative feedback and responsive adjustments worked into each step makes planning and teaching an engaging, active process that is always growing and evolving. The six steps are; know the learners, state your objectives, establish the learning environment, identify teaching and learning strategies, identify and select technologies and summative evaluation and revision plan. What I am drawn to the most with this, is the fact that technologies are worked into the model, it is clearly a step to following in the instructional planning process. For me, having to plan what technologies to use when creating lesson plans just makes sense, I cannot believe I did not think of this earlier. Being a special education teacher this model provides a nice model for me to follow when creating individualized education plans. With most of my students having different learning levels and abilities, the DID can be created for each student and shared between many different teachers. Lever-Duffy & McDonald made a great point in stating that teachers who embrace a system approach better understand and are better able to envision the instructional big picture. The DID model is the first step, what seems like more work is actually not at all. Having specific steps to follow becomes second nature and is in actuality, making teaching a much more fluid practice.

For the case study I decided to use one specific student I have in my classroom for the majority of the day. Student BC is a fifth grade boy on the autism spectrum, he is DYNAMIC INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN 3

eager to please but struggles with comprehension and will often shut down when given follow up comprehension questions after reading assignments. He is of course also unable to read or interpret most social situations without help from his one-onone education technician. BC has a hard time with fluorescent lighting, loud noises or unexpected schedule changes. He has a detailed behavior plan and about 10% of each day he will engage in self-injurious and aggressive behaviors. He receives speech and language, occupational therapy, physical therapy and individualized instruction, academically BC tests on a first grade level. My classroom learning environment is set up in a way that is conducive to my students individual learning needs. I use no fluorescent lighting, it is not cluttered, the speakers for announcements are turned off and we are in a quiet section of the school. There are several work stations for individual instruction set up in each of my two classroom and one bigger table in each for small group instruction. At any given time there could be 1 to 8 students working in each room with another 1 to 8 staff. It has taken some time but the rooms function very smoothly and even with 15 people in each it is almost always quiet and students are actively engaged in their learning. I am very lucky to have a caseload of 25 students and 16 education technicians, that means a lot of one-on-one attention for my students, or as I like to think of it; meeting my students where they are academically, physically, socially and emotionally.

Reading Meyer & Roses (2002) research on the brain and what it can tell us about student learning helped to make connections between my own students abilities and how their brains function. My case study student BC, has significant deficits in almost every area but is gifted in the area of computers and technology. Meyer & Rose DYNAMIC INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN state that traditional views of disability, also based on an implied assumption of unitary brain functioning, suggest that a person either does or does not belong to the category disabled. New understanding about the distributed nature of neural processing shows that abilities in many domains fall along a very large number continua. It really does depend on what we ask of our students and if we try to nurture and teach to their strengths instead of focusing in on their weaknesses. BC struggles with reading comprehension but at the age of 11 knows everything about computers and computer programing, he gives our IT consultant a run for his money. I use this strength in almost all other areas of teaching for him. My struggle is to use this strength to help aid in his reading comprehension, do I think it can be done? Absolutely! I am very interested in autism and how it affects the brain, I know this research is still fairly new but Belmont (2007) has done preliminary research and found that autistic children become very aroused when presented with tasks that require shifting attention. Unable to shift their attention rapidly, they turn on all parts of their brains. Belmonte (2007) explains that such children appear to have too many neurons in the brain, which is responsible for an abnormal ratio of excitation to inhibition within brain regions. It gives me some insight as to why my students with autism struggle transitioning and comprehending what is going on, over stimulation happens often. It is very important to 4

not only to understand our students learning styles, disabilities, strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes but also the way different brains work to get the whole picture. When using the DID model from Lever-Duffy & McDonald (2011) brain research can help us in each of the six steps but is of particular importance in knowing your learners and identifying teaching and learning strategies. If I can understand the brain better and my DYNAMIC INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN students brain processing abilities, it makes it easier for me to create individual education plans and more fitting goals and objectives. 5

DYNAMIC INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN Belmonte, M.K. (2007). Human, but more so: What the autistic brain tells us about the process of narrative. In M.Osteen (Ed.), Autism and representation. Oxford: Routledge. Lever-Duffy, J., & McDonald, J. B. (2011). Teaching and learning with technology (fourth edition). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Meyer, A., & Rose, D. (2002). Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age. Universal Design for Learning. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.