Creating Web-based Learning Activities to Support the Needs of Diverse K-12 Learners

Where is SU Located?

PresenterDiane D. Painter, Ph.D.Associate Professor of Education- Special Ed.Shenandoah University Program Head, Master of Science in Education- Special Educationdpainter@su.edu

School of Education and Human Development20 S. Cameron Street- Room 119Winchester, VA 22601

School of Education and Human Development

SEHD’s mission is to educate current and aspiring professionals for success in their chosen vocations; integrate theory, research and practice; promote academic rigor; and nurture reflection, a caring approach to the professions, and collaboration across and within the communities served by the university.

Use of Technology to Support Teaching and Learning

Graduate students are expected to: • Provide learning opportunities to their K-12 students

that support physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development.

• Show careful and thoughtful consideration to cultural diversity and learning differences, demonstrating how to address those individual differences by creating appropriate instruction adapted to these differences.

• Give careful and thoughtful consideration to effective uses of technology that support teaching and learning.

Creating and Evaluating Interactive Web-based Lessons for Students with Special Needs

The capstone projects that graduate students completed involved:1. Understanding elements of effective curriculum design and program evaluation.2. Development of web-based content using the software application Softchalk Create that met the academic and/or functional skills needs of high school students receiving special education services.

Steps Taken1. The instructor provided direct instruction,

advice and guidance to graduate student teachers as they developed and assessed the effectiveness of the web-based lessons they created for high school special education students .

2. The graduate students kept detailed journals that described their project’s development with reflective comments, and wrote final project papers detailing their project initiatives.

Three Guiding Questions

These questions provided structure to the development of lessons and served as prompts when the students completed anecdotal notes and reflections.Question 1) In what ways is the content represented in the web-based lessons? Question 2) In what ways do these lessons provide students with opportunities to express what they know and can do? Question 3) In what ways do the lessons hold the students’ attention to maximize engagement in the task at hand?

What is Softchalk Create 9?

When introducing Softchalk Create v. 9 to the graduate students, the instructor created this introductory lesson that shows how web-based lessons can help:• Learners acquire, retain, and retrieve

information in many different ways.• Enable independent learners to work at their

own pace, and social learners to interact with others to show what they know and can do.

Telling Time LessonThis Telling Time lesson was created for students with developmental and intellectual disabilities who were learning to read clocks in order to tell time. It was recognized as the ‘Lesson of the Week’ by the SoftChalk development team during the month of October 2014. The teacher wrote in his journal: On reflection, this project taught me a lot about how my students learn and some effective strategies that I can use to help them access the curriculum. I discovered that the students could work well in small, purposeful groups as long as I differentiated the material and content, and that the students were able to work well collaboratively – if only in a basic way – and assist and encourage each other with the activities and learning of content.

Geometry LessonThis math lesson for students with specific learning disabilities focused on parallel lines and angle-pair relationships. When the teacher reflected on her two students’ engagement in this lesson and other math lessons she had developed with Softchalk Create, she stated in her journal:Students differ significantly in what attracts their attention and engages their interest. It is important to provide multiple options for student engagement. During the course of this project, both students were engaged in each of the lessons. They liked the fact that this was something different. It was the same content learned in class but in a different format. The different activities and color were also factors in what held these students’ attention and interest. Working on the lessons on the laptops was something that these students enjoyed. It wasn’t typical paper and pencil work.

Social Studies LessonSocial Studies lesson on U.S. President, Thomas Jefferson, The Jefferson EraThe special education teacher’s comment about how her student with OHI (Other Health Impairment) reacted to the web-based lessons:Softchalk was an excellent method to use with my homebound student who would not engage with the textbook. I set up a Google Classroom site to post my assignments and materials as to allow this student and his instructor to have access at their convenience and also to eliminate sending hard copy materials through the mail. All of my students utilized the Google Classroom when we had laptops or used the computer lab. This also gave them access at home for make-up work if they were absent. The homebound student enjoyed Softchalk so much that he would complete the lesson within hours of my posting it on Google Classroom. His test scores kept improving with each lesson as well. My co-teacher who worked with this student was very happy with how he interacted with the Softchalk and his level of engagement and excitement over the lessons.

Group Discussions

Let’s make this session interactive and engaging. Please ask questions and engage in a discussion about any of the information or issues raised. We hope you will:1. State your reactions to the web-based content

shared with you in this presentation.2. Share how you find and/or create instructional

resources that meet the needs of students in special education.

3. Share ideas about how you use technology to prepare, deliver and assess instructional initiatives.

Resources

• Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2014). Better learning through structured teaching. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

• Softchalk: http://softchalk.com • CAST.org: Universal Design for Learning• Diane Painter’s WIKI: Softchalk Create