M03: Presentation : Maryland Online IEP

03: Specially Designed Instruction

Presentation

In this module you will receive information about how to craft an IEP that clearly states what educators/providers will do in order for students with disabilities to participate, access and make progress towards mastery of IEP goals, and in the general education curriculum. Review the following video to learn more:

While you are viewing this module, think about:

What do IEP teams and educators need to know to develop SDI that accelerates student progress to narrow the gap?
What are the characteristics of effective SDI?
How can the IEP team ensure that everyone involved in implementing the student’s program has the knowledge and skills needs to deliver SDI with fidelity?

In the following poll:

Think about this definition of SDI:
Specially designed instruction (SDI) is the unique combination of evidence-based instruction, accommodations, supplementary aids and services, program modifications, and supports for personnel instructional services and interventions required for a student with a disability to access, participate and progress in the general education curriculum.
How comfortable do you currently feel about developing SDI?
Rate your level of comfort on a scale of 1-5 (1 means you do not feel comfortable, 5 means you feel very comfortable with developing SDI).
Review your colleagues’ ratings.
Reflect upon the following two concepts:
- Your rating in comparison to your colleagues
- How will learning to generate SDI lead to successful execution of an effective standards-aligned IEP in order to improve academic, functional and/or age-appropriate outcomes for students with disabilities?

If there appear to be loading issues, check out the interactive through the following link: Developing Specially Designed Instruction

What is Specially Designed Instruction (SDI)?

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) defines special education as “specially designed instruction, at no cost to parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability, including (A) instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings; and (B) instruction in physical education.” (20 United States Code [U.S.C.] § 1401(29))

IDEA defines specially designed instruction as “adapting, as appropriate to the needs of an eligible child under this part, the content, methodology or delivery of instruction (i) to address the unique needs of the child that result from the child’s disability; and (ii) to ensure access of the child to the general curriculum, so that the child can meet the educational standards within the jurisdiction of the public agency that apply to all children.” (Section 300.39(b)(3) of Title 34, Code of Federal Regulations [CFR])

SDI is:

individualized based upon the learner’s characteristics and the needs that result from the impact of the disability
collaboratively designed and implemented by members of the IEP team, including the general and special education teachers, related service providers, other professionals, and the student and family
intended to allow the student to access and progress in the general education curriculum by addressing skill deficits, adapting the delivery of instruction to meet needs, removing barriers to equitable engagement, and providing needed supports.
grounded in evidence-based practices and monitored for effectiveness for the individual student
adjusted and intensified as needed based on data to accelerate the student’s rate of growth.

Developing and implementing SDI starts with a thorough understanding of the student as a learner, including the priority skills the team has identified as goals and objectives, as well as the student’s strengths and challenges and the impact of the disability on his or her learning.

Planning and delivering SDI also requires a thorough knowledge of the content (standards and locally-designed curriculum), methods (instructional practices, learning activities),and delivery (instructional arrangements and relationships) of general education within the school. Effective instructional practices, including using high-leverage teaching methods, applying principles of Universal Design for Learning to the curriculum development, lesson planning, and assessment, and differentiating instruction in response to student needs and interests, provide a foundation of learning for all students. From this base, the team plans and delivers SDI to meet the student’s unique needs.

Components of SDI

Instructions and Intervention:

Teaching to address IEP goals and objectives and support mastery of curriculum content in ongoing instruction. Instruction can be customized to meet the student’s needs along multiple dimensions, including:

Strength - the impact of the strategy or program (based on research evidence effect size)
Dosage - the number of opportunities to respond, which is impacted by the group size, duration, and frequency of sessions, as well as by the design of the instruction
Alignment - how well the skills targeted by the intervention match the student’s need areas and the curriculum
Transfer and Generalization - how clearly the instruction connects new skills to existing knowledge and includes opportunities to practice and apply skills in new contexts
Comprehensiveness - how many components of explicit instruction, such as breaking tasks into steps, simplifying the language of instruction, giving models, and providing specific feedback. For more information on explicit instruction, see High-Leverage Practices in Special Education – Use Explicit Instruction
Behavior support strategies - are techniques to increase motivation, engagement, and positive interactions and reduce challenging behaviors needed to support the student’s learning? How can they be incorporated into instruction?

Based on student need, instruction and intervention is delivered in the context of general education instruction (by adapting learning activities and instructional delivery), in addition to grade-level instruction (through supplemental, intensive instruction inside or outside of general education), or both.

Accommodations:

Changes to instruction and assessment that reduce barriers to access without fundamentally changing or altering the content being taught and/or tested. Accommodations are selected based on student need due to disability. Allowable accommodations on Statewide assessments are described in The Maryland Assessment, Accessibility, and Accommodations Manual. Any accommodations the student will need to use on an assessment are implemented during instruction as well.

Supplementary Aids and Services:

Supports that enable the student to access, participate, and progress in the general education curriculum and environment, including non-academic and extracurricular activities. Supplementary aids and services include, but are not limited to, instructional supports, social and behavioral supports, and physical/environmental supports. The Maryland IEP Form lists many commonly used supplementary aids and services, but teams should not limit their considerations to these, the “other” category is used to document individualized support.

Program Modifications:

Changes to instruction and assessment that reduce processing and cognitive demands. Students with the most significant cognitive disabilities who teams have found them eligible for and whose family have given consent for their participation in the alternate education framework have the content of their instruction modified according to the alternate standards. Other students may receive modification as supports during the instructional process, with the understanding that students must demonstrate mastery of the full breadth of the standards in order to receive a Maryland High School Diploma.

Support to Personnel:

Training, coaching, and other resources to enable teachers, related service providers, and others to implement SDI with fidelity. The Team should consider which members, including the family, need training or other support in order to deliver the SDI as designed.

Having identified instruction/intervention, accommodations, supplementary aids and services, program modifications, and supports to personnel, the team plans for their implementation. To ensure consistency, the team determines and documents for each support:

Setting and Time: when and where is this support required (e.g., a particular class, activity, or learning task). For supplemental instruction, when and where will it be provided (e.g., individually during daily independent seat work in general education; in a small-group setting outside of general education three times a week for 30 minutes).
Service provider: who will be responsible for planning, implementing, and tracking the instruction or support? Based on context and student need, this may be one or more team members
Inclusive Training Needs: Who needs to receive training, coaching or other support to implement the SDI? If a paraprofessional is involved in the delivery, how will the certified special educator train, supervise, and monitor the implementation and make adjustments based on data, and how will this process be documented?
Monitoring: what data will be collected, how often, and by whom to assess the fidelity of implementation and the impact of the SDI on student progress?

Common Errors and Misunderstandings about SDI:

Stating expectations for the student, instead of detailing implementation actions for the teacher.
Omitting specifics such as the setting/time and service provider.
Not describing specifically how the support or strategy will be used for the individual student.
Listing generalized instructional strategies and supports that benefit all students, rather than those that the student requires because of the impact of the disability.
Not including the inclusive training needs of staff who will be responsible for implementing, and/or not planning for and documenting the support and supervision of paraeducators implementing SDI.