Adapting Curriculum
Pathways to learning for students with cognitive challenges: Reading, writing and presenting
Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) emphasizes the fact that all learners differ across brain networks with strengths and weaknesses that make each learner unique. Teachers must dig deep to reach these networks so that learners with multiple challenges have a pathway to learning uniquely suited to their learning strengths and needs. The results of using this approach can change learning for all students along the continuum as each learner utilizes his or her strengths.
CAST (2002) draws upon the research of neuroscience that identifies three interconnected brain networks that control the path to learning, and carries these networks into the concepts and theory behind the Universal Design for Learning (UDL):
- Recognition networks that receive and analyze information
- Strategic networks that are specialized to plan and execute actions
- Affective networks that are specialized to evaluate and set priorities
The material provides suggested pathways for students as they access the general curriculum. UDL can be reflected in the way information is presented, the way students are expected to express themselves and how students are engaged in learning.
Denham, A. Pathways to learning for students with cognitive challenges: Reading, writing and presenting. Lexington, KY: Human Development Institute, University of Kentucky, 2004.
Call to Action for the Texas Educator
Learn more about CAST and UDL.
Identify supplementary aids and services as part of an inclusive standards-based IEP
Supplementary aids and services for student supports fall into nine general categories: 1) physical and environmental; 2) emotional and behavior; 3) sensory; 4) vision and hearing; 5) accessible instructional materials; 6) communication; 7) executive function; 8) personalized instruction; and 9) technology, equipment, and tools. This book chapter describes and provides examples of supplementary aids and services that enable students to fully participate and learn within general education instruction in a general education classroom and enable their team members to implement students' educational programs well.
Jorgensen, C. “Identify supplementary aids and services as part of an inclusive standards-based IEP” In It's more than just being in: Creating authentic inclusion for students with complex support needs, 79-106. Baltimore, MD: Paul H Brookes, 2018.
Call to Action for the Texas Educator
Check out the TX CAN online course Accessible Instructional Materials.
