CEC+Standard+7


 * CEC Standard 7: Instructional Planning **

Individualized decision-making and instruction is at the center of special education practice. Special educators develop ** long-range individualized instructional plans ** anchored in both general and special curricula. In addition, special educators systematically translate these individualized plans into carefully selected shorter-range goals and objectives taking into consideration an individual’s abilities and needs, the learning environment, and a myriad of cultural and linguistic factors. Individualized instructional plans emphasize explicit modeling and efficient guided practice to assure acquisition and fluency through maintenance and generalization. Understanding of these factors as well as the implications of an individual’s exceptional condition, guides the special educator’s selection, adaptation, and creation of materials, and the use of powerful instructional variables. Instructional plans are modified based on ongoing analysis of the individual’s learning progress. Moreover, special educators facilitate this instructional planning in a collaborative context including the individuals with exceptionalities, families, professional colleagues, and personnel from other agencies as appropriate. Special educators also develop a variety of individualized transition plans, such as transitions from preschool to elementary school and from secondary settings to a variety of postsecondary work and learning contexts. Special educators are comfortable using appropriate technologies to support instructional planning and individualized instruction.

Reflection:

The long-range plan is one of the most important tools of a special education teacher. The long range plan not only represents a pre-determined path of instructional steps but also a fluid document where instructional decisions are taken based on the results of the intervention or the modifications that take place in the environment. It also includes student’s preferences and interests that can be used as reinforcers or as starting points to learn new skills, present levels of performance, instructional units and assessment methods. In order to better assist the students and their families I also include information about the student’s background information. The long-range plan also makes sharing information with other professionals a lot easier. If for example some staff member in the school such as the speech therapist would like to tap into my goals and follow up on it during her class, it is easy to share my plan with her in a very comprehensive format. A practical example of the use of a long-range plan was when I had to modify a task analysis for a student who moved to a different class during the second semester. In his inclusion class he was supposed to initiate, maintain and terminate contact with a peer during a group activity. Because the nature of the class was different I had to change a few steps in order help the student perform the skill correctly.

Artifact: The long-range plan I included for this standard was the one that I developed during the summer of 2012 for a 8th grade student. The goals included covered all the domains from Vocational to community, leisure, and domestic. The long-range plan included information about the student’s background, strengths and preferences, present levels of performance, goals, instructional units, assessment and correction methods. The main method of instruction used was task analysis.

Long-range plan