Modifications to SMARTboard Lesson Plans

This project addressed Standard 5.0: Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions. The activities presented in the lesson plans target early reading skills to blend and segment words into syllables. In these lessons, technology is incorporated so that the students can test out blending and segmenting strategies and they will receive immediate feedback. In my lessons I utilize tactile, visual and auditory modes of learning to help students understand concepts and master the target Indiana academic standard. Lesson 2 specifically addresses Standard 5b: Students collect data or identify relevant data sets, use digital tools to analyze them, and represent data in various ways to facilitate problem-solving and decision-making as students are required to sort pictures into sets of phonemes using the SMARTboard and represent their data in a table.

This project represents the modifications of lessons to provide access to a variety of learners and in so doing, addresses Standard 5.0: Educators design authentic, learner-driven activities and environments that recognize and accommodate learner variability. Learning variability includes differences in how children learn as well as their background and identity. These lessons could be further modified to suit the needs of a wide variety of exceptional learners including English Language Learners, students who are gifted and talented and students with intellectual disabilities. Creating an environment that allows for accessibility of content for all learners is the responsibility of all classroom teachers who should take an "active role in making curriculum accessible before and during instruction by implementing accommodations, adaptations, and modifications based on students’ needs" (Olson et al., 2016,  p.150).

This project addresses the InTASC Standard 2:  The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards. These lesson plans are designed for the UDL classroom, to encourage the participation and equal access of all learners and thereby address: 2(h) The teacher understands students with exceptional needs, including those associated with disabilities and giftedness, and knows how to use strategies and resources to address these needs and 2(f) The teacher accesses resources, supports, and specialized assistance and services to meet particular learning differences or needs. Supports in the lesson plans include providing manipulatives for tactile learners, color coding the letters, reducing images, and accepting verbal responses from students. I would apply these techniques and tools when working with students individually or in a mainstream classroom and be sure to incorporate other accommodations from the IEP.