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An intervention is when the school creates a strategy to help support student who are struggling with their education. This support for the student/students extends beyond what is given in the classroom.

For a student to receive intervention, they are students who have low test scores or a specific learning disability. An example would be ADHD or dyslexia.

Example 1: An academic intervention is when a student who is struggling academically, whether it is in math or reading. If the student is falling behind, they can be placed in a 1-1 tutoring, small group, or specialized program to help the student progress in the subject.

Example 2: A social-emotional intervention is when a student's emotional development needs support. Things that can be addressed are anxiety, depression, or creating a positive mindset.

Example 3: Behavioral intervention Is when a student needs support with their behavior. Creating a positive reinforcement to help students see the results of good behavior.

The link above, "What is Intervention in Education?" Goes into detail about the importance of intervention and the success in a student's educational journey. This can look different more many students that has different types of learning disabilities.

Evidence-based practices and high-leverage practices work hand in hand when it comes to interventions. These are crucial to ensure that the student receives effective instruction.

When it comes to evidence-based practices, there are sources that can help students with autism. The link below has additional information.

https://fpg.unc.edu/projects/national-professional-development-center-autism-spectrum-disorder

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What is Intervention in Education? Insights for K-12 Educators

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Learn more about intervention strategies to help improve student outcomes in your school and district.

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Differentiation is an approach to teaching that allows the teacher to create instruction that adapts to the diverse needs of the students in the classroom.

Students who can benefit from this style of teaching can be dual language learners or who have a specific learning disability.

Example 1: Students will have leveled reading materials. Content be history, science, or the relevant topic. The reading materials should consist of different levels of reading.

Example 2: A different vocabulary list tailored to students' current readiness levels.

Example 3: Learning stations allow students to work at different stations throughout the classroom to learn the material in multiple ways.

The link above, "Differentiated instruction," talks about the different ways students learn. Students can learn from visual, hands-on, hearing, reading, and writing.

Teachers adapt the curriculum and specific learning materials to achieve specific goals. By adding graphic organizers, modifying content, and providing different levels of texts for the specific topic.

https://highleveragepractices.org/hlp-faculty-guides

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Multiple learning

Differentiated instruction and assessment, also known as differentiated learning or, in education, simply, differentiation, is a framework or philosophy for effective teaching that involves providing all students within their diverse classroom community of learners a range of different avenues for understanding new information (often in the same classroom) in terms of: acquiring content; processing, constructing, or making sense of ideas; and developing teaching materials and assessment measures so that all students within a classroom can learn effectively, regardless of differences in their ability. Differentiated instruction means using different tools, content, and due process in order to successfully reach all individuals. Differentiated instruction, according to Carol Ann Tomlinson, is the process of "ensuring that what a student learns, how he or she learns it, and how the student demonstrates what he or she has learned is a match for that student's readiness level, interests, and preferred mode of learning." According to Boelens et al. (2018), differentiation can be on two different levels: the administration level and the classroom level. The administration level takes the socioeconomic status and gender of students into consideration. At the classroom level, differentiation revolves around content, processing, product, and effects. On the content level, teachers adapt what they are teaching to meet the needs of students. This can mean making content more challenging or simplified for students based on their levels. The process of learning can be differentiated as well. Teachers may choose to teach individually at a time, assign problems to small groups, partners or the whole group depending on the needs of the students. By differentiating product, teachers decide how students will present what they have learned. This may take the form of videos, graphic organizers, photo presentations, writing, and oral presentations. All these take place in a safe classroom environment where students feel respected and valued-effects.

Differentiation at a glance

When language is the factor for differentiation, Echevarria et al. (2017), proponents of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) strongly supports and guides teachers to differentiate instruction to English as a Second Language Learners (ELLs) who have a range of learning ability levels-beginning, intermediate and advanced. Here, differentiated instruction will mean adapting a whole new instructional strategy that a teacher of a typical classroom of native speakers of English would not have a need to.

Differentiated classrooms have also been described as ones that respond to student variety in readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles. It is a classroom that includes and allows all students to be successful. To do this, a teacher sets different expectations for task completion for students, specifically based upon their individual needs. Teachers can differentiate in four ways: 1) through content, 2) process, 3) product, and 4) learning environment based on the individual learner. Differentiation stems from beliefs about differences among learners, how they learn, learning preferences, and individual interests (Algozzine & Anderson, 2007). Therefore, differentiation is an organized, yet flexible way of proactively adjusting teaching and learning methods to accommodate each child's learning needs and preferences to achieve maximum growth as a learner.

An important part of differentiated instruction and assessment is determining what students already know so as not to cover material students have mastered, or use methods that would be ineffective for students. The goal of pre-assessment is to determine a student's knowledge, understanding and skill prior to the unit of study. These are assessments for learning and include diagnostic or pre-assessments that the teacher uses to help guide instruction and benefit each learner. They are informal and provide qualitative feedback to teachers and students to address strengths and needs during the unit. Pre-assessments should be conducted several weeks before the unit of study and should not be graded. Chapman and King (2005) note that when "teachers strategically administer pre-assessments before planning their lessons, they can address the students' strengths and needs during instruction." Pre-assessment can be conducted in two ways: 1) by identifying learning preferences and interests (i.e. Gardner's Multiple Intelligence test, or Visual, Auditory, or Kinesthetic learner), and 2) by identifying knowledge of student understandings (i.e. checklists, quizzes, class discussion, portfolios, entry/exit cards, anticipation guides, journals, self-reflections). Both of these types of pre-assessment are used to design student tasks, particularly when a student might require support, enrichment, or have different learning styles, intelligence, or interests. Teachers can also determine, locate, and compile appropriate resources and decide timelines/priorities for upcoming units.

The goal of differentiated instruction is to develop engaging tasks that challenge and enhance learning for each student. Instructional activities are flexible and based and evaluated on content, process, product, and learning environment. This instructional approach and choice of content are driven by the data from students' assessment results and from the outcomes of other screening tools. Pre-assessments can gather information about each student's strengths, comforts, or areas of weakness. This leads to appropriate differentiation that accommodates each student's learning needs and preferences. Assessments should be used as a tool to create clear and meaningful instruction that guides each student towards challenging but not frustrating activities.

Assessment is the process of gathering information from a variety of sources such as assignments, teacher observations, class discussions, and tests and quizzes. Teachers must assess regularly to inform instructional strategies, learn about each student's readiness, interests, and learning preferences and to improve student learning. This information can be gathered through diagnostic (pre-assessments), formative, and summative assessments, as well as Individual Education Plans, Ontario Student Records, student interest surveys, and multiple intelligence or learning style inventories.

Assessment for learning not only includes diagnostic or pre-assessment measures but also formative assessment. Formative assessments are used during a unit to provide understanding about what the student is learning, and continually guide instructional decisions. Assessment as learning takes place when students self-assess their work and reflect on their growth as learners. Earl (2003) says this is the process in metacognition, and "occurs when students personally monitor what they are learning and use feedback . . . to make adjustments, adaptations, and . . . changes in what they understand." Differentiation can be used when applying, demonstrating, extending knowledge, or practicing skills and attitudes to monitor achievement of goals. This might include peer/ self-assessments, and peer/teacher conferences. Assessment of learning is the culminating task or summative assessment, which takes place after the learning has occurred and students can show what concepts and/or skills they learned. Differentiation can also be used here through a variety of strategies such as tests, projects, demonstrations, writing performances, and more.

All these ongoing assessments help the teacher know students and their needs so they can select effective teaching and learning strategies and interventions that maximize student achievement. Consistent program review and diagnosis of whole-class and individual student responses not only provides ongoing feedback to enhance teaching and learning for teachers but students and parents as well. Teachers use ongoing assessments to gather information about a student's knowledge and capabilities, to direct future planning, to monitor student progress, and to evaluate student achievement. Students and parents can also use these assessments to reflect and understand their own learning preferences and level of achievement.

The content of lessons may be differentiated based on what students already know. The most basic content of a lesson should cover the standards of learning set by the district or state. Some students in a class may be completely unfamiliar with the concepts in a lesson, some students may have partial mastery of the content - or display mistaken ideas about the content, and some students may show mastery of the content before the lesson begins. The teacher may differentiate the content by designing activities for groups of students that cover different areas of Bloom's taxonomy. For example, students who are unfamiliar with the concepts may be required to complete tasks on the lower levels of Bloom's taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, and application. Students with partial mastery may be asked to complete tasks in the application, analysis and evaluation areas, and students who have high levels of mastery may be asked to complete tasks in evaluation and synthesis.

When teachers differentiate content, they may adapt what they want students to learn or how students access the knowledge, understanding, and skills (Anderson, 2007). In these instances, educators are not varying student objectives or lowering performance standards for students. They use different texts, novels, or short stories at a reading level appropriate for each individual student. Another example would be including visuals, maps, or graphic organizers to introduce or reinforce concepts as opposed to only providing written or oral text. This provides students with different methods of viewing, considering and absorbing content. Teachers can also use flexible groups and have students assigned to like groups listening to audiobooks or accessing specific internet sources. Students could have a choice to work in pairs, groups, or individually, but all students are working towards the same standards and objectives.

Understanding by Design

Understanding by Design (UbD), which was developed by Grant Wiggins is an educational strategy that may be used to inform content in a differentiated classroom. This model was further refined by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe, who maintained that UbD and differentiated instruction (DI) form an essential partnership. Their position is that learning occurs not at the individual level or to the individual but within the individual students as they are engaged in exploring concepts. The combination of UbD and differentiated instruction is expected to allow educators to simultaneously "craft powerful curriculum in a standards-dominated era and ensure academic success for the full spectrum of learners."

UbD is described as a backward design model that emphasizes the beginning with the end in mind. Here, planning the courses, units, and individual lessons is undertaken based on the desired result. For instance, when teaching a literary piece, the teacher first decides the goal and how the students will be assessed to determine if such goal is achieved. The framework also recognizes the importance of assessment and employs evaluative or summative assessment models as the bases of grading.

To understand how students learn and what they know, pre-assessment and ongoing assessment are essential. This provides feedback for both teacher and student, with the ultimate goal of improving student learning. Delivery of instruction in the past often followed a "one size fits all" approach. In contrast, differentiation is individually student centered, with a focus on appropriate instructional and assessment tools that are fair, flexible, challenging, and engage students in the curriculum in meaningful ways.

Students vary in culture, socioeconomic status, language, gender, motivation, ability, disability, learning styles, personal interests and more, and teachers must be aware of these varieties as they plan in accordance with the curricula. By considering varied learning needs, teachers can develop personalized instruction so that all children in the classroom can learn effectively.

The process of how the material in a lesson is learned may be differentiated for students based on their learning styles, taking into account what standards of performance are required for the age level. This stage of differentiation allows students to learn based either on what method is easiest for them to gain knowledge, or what may challenge them most: some students may prefer to read about a topic (or may require practice in reading), and others may prefer to listen (or require practice in listening), or acquire knowledge by manipulating objects associated with the content. Information may be presented in multiple ways by the teacher, and may be based on any available methods or materials. Many teachers use areas of Multiple Intelligences to provide learning opportunities.

Commonalities in the assessment results lead to grouping practices that are designed to meet the students' needs. "How" a teacher plans to deliver the instruction is based on assessment results that show the needs, learning styles, interests, and levels of prior knowledge. The grouping practices must be flexible, as groups change with regard to the need that must be addressed. Regardless of whether the differentiation of instruction is based upon student readiness, interests, or needs, the dynamic flow of grouping and regrouping is one of the foundations of differentiated instruction. It is important for a differentiated classroom to allow some students to work alone, if this is their best modality for a particular task. (Nunley, 2004)

Differentiating by process refers to how a student comes to understand and assimilate facts, concepts and skills (Anderson, 2007). After teaching a lesson, a teacher might break students into small "ability" groups based on their readiness. The teacher would then give each group a series of questions, based on each group's appropriate level of readiness-skills, related to the objectives of the lesson. Another way to group the students could be based on the students' learning styles. The main idea behind this is that students are at different levels and learn in different ways, so a teacher can't teach them all the same way.

Another model of differentiation, layered curriculum, offers student a choice of assignments but requires that they demonstrate learning to pass the assignment. This eliminates the need for pre-assessment and is useful for teachers with large class loads, such as in high school (Nunley, 2004).

The product is essentially what the student produces at the end of the lesson to demonstrate the mastery of the content: tests, evaluations, projects, reports, or other activities. Based on students' skill levels and educational standards, teachers may assign students to complete activities that demonstrate mastery of an educational concept (writing a report), or in a method the student prefers (composing an original song about the content, or building a 3-dimensional object that explains mastery of concepts in the lesson or unit). The product is an integral component of the differentiated model, as preparation of the assessments determines both the 'what' and 'how' of instruction delivery.

When an educator differentiates by product or performance, they are affording students various ways of demonstrating what they have learned from the lesson or unit (Anderson, 2007; Nunley, 2006). It is done by using menu unit sheets, choice boards or open-ended lists of final product options. It is meant to allow students to show what they learned based on their learning preferences, interests and strengths.

Examples of differentiated structures include Layered Curriculum, tiered instruction, tic-tac-toe extension menus, Curry/Samara models, RAFT writing activities, and similar designs. (See external links below.)

In differentiated instruction, teachers respond to students' readiness, instructional needs, interests and learning preferences and provide opportunities for students to work in varied instructional formats. A classroom that utilizes differentiated instruction is a learner-responsive, teacher-facilitated classroom where all students have the opportunity to meet curriculum foundation objectives. Lessons may be on inquiry based, problem based and project based instruction.

While significant research has shown the effectiveness of product based differentiated instruction at primary and secondary level, effective use has also been demonstrated in higher education in some circumstances.

Differentiating through the environment is important as it creates the conditions for optimal learning to take place. According to Tomlinson (2003), "Environment will support or deter the student's quest for affirmation, contribution, power, purpose, and challenge in the classroom," (p. 37). The learning environment includes the physical layout of the classroom, the way that the teacher uses the space, environmental elements and sensitivities including lighting, as well as the overall atmosphere of the classroom. The teacher's goal is to create an environment that is positive, structured, and supportive for each student. The physical environment should be a place that is flexible with varied types of furniture and arrangements, and areas for quiet individual work as well as areas for group work and collaboration. This supports a variety of ways to engage in flexible and dynamic learning. Flexible seating is a method used to differentiate seating assignments within the learning environment. In the flexible seating model, students choose the type of seating and location in the classroom that will allow them to learn best. Each student chooses for themselves within teacher guidelines. Teachers should be sensitive and alert to ways that the classroom environment supports students' ability to interact with others individually, in small groups, and as a whole class. They should employ classroom management techniques that support a safe and supportive learning environment.

According to Carol Ann Tomlinson, most parents are eager for their students to learn, grow, succeed and feel accepted in school. Sharing these goals is important. A differentiated classroom may "look different" from what parents expect. The teacher can help them develop a clear, positive understanding of differentiated instruction and how it benefits their children by letting parents know that:

The goal of differentiated instruction is to make certain that everyone grows in all key skills and knowledge areas, encouraging student to move on from their starting points and to become more independent learners.

In a differentiated classroom, the teacher closely assesses and monitors skills, knowledge levels, interests to determine effective ways for all students to learn; the teacher's lesson plan is drawn up with those various skills, levels, and interests in mind.

Differentiated lessons reflect the teacher's best understanding of what will best help a child to grow in understanding and skill at a given moment. That understanding evolves as the course continues, as the child develops, and as parents contribute to teachers' understanding.

When parents come to school and talk about their children, they share their perspectives with the teacher. The teacher views the student more broadly, specifically in relation to students of the same age and in light of developmental benchmarks. The parent, on the other hand, has a deeper sense of the student's interests, feelings, and changes over time. The combination of the wide-angle lens viewpoint of the teacher with the close up lens of the parents results in a fuller picture for everyone.

Education critics on theories of different learning styles have used this as an avenue to also criticize differentiated instruction. One source includes Mike Schmoker of Education Week, who claims that after a lengthy email exchange with an architect of DI, she conceded "There [is] no solid research or school evidence" in support of DI. In Educational Research, John Geake states, "the evidence consistently shows that modifying a teaching approach to cater for differences in learning styles does not result in any improvement in learning outcomes," and that implementing learning styles, citing VAK specifically, does "not reflect how our brains actually learn, nor the individual differences we observe in classrooms." In Psychological Science for the Public Interest, Pashler et al. note, "the literature fails to provide adequate support for applying learning-style assessments in school settings. Moreover, several studies that used appropriate research designs found evidence that contradicted the learning-styles hypothesis...[W]e feel that the widespread use of learning-style measures in educational settings is unwise and a wasteful use of limited resources."

Allan, S. D., & Tomlinson, C. A. (2000). Leadership for differentiating schools and classrooms. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Anderson, K. M. (2007). "Tips for teaching: Differentiating instruction to include all students". Preventing School Failure. 51 (3): 49-54. doi:10.3200/PSFL.51.3.49-54. S2CID 144613998.

Ellis, E.; Gable, R. A.; Gregg, M.; Rock, M. L. (2008). "REACH: A framework for differentiating classroom instruction" (PDF). Preventing School Failure. 52 (2): 31-47. doi:10.3200/PSFL.52.2.31-47. S2CID 144948134.

Fountain, Heather. Differentiated Instruction in Art. Worcester, MA: Davis Publications, Inc., 2013.

Heacox, D. (2002). Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing Inc.

Jackson, R. (2008) The Differentiation Workbook: A Step-by-step guide to planning lessons that ensure that your students meet or exceed the standards. Washington, DC: Mindsteps

Levy, H. M. (2008). "Meeting the needs of all students through differentiated instruction: Helping every child reach and exceed standards". The Clearing House. 81 (4): 161-164. doi:10.3200/tchs.81.4.161-164. S2CID 144504110.

Nunley, K. (2004). Layered curriculum (2nd ed.). Amherst, NH: Brains.org

Nunley, K. (2006). Differentiating the high school classroom: Solution strategies for 18 common obstacles. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corbin.

Rebora, A. (2008). Making a difference. Teacher Magazine, 2(1), 26, 28-31.

Tomlinson, C.A. (2001). How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms. Virginia: ASCD.

Smets, W. and Struyven,K. (2018), Aligning with complexity: system-theoretical principles for research on differentiated instruction, Frontline Learning research, 6 (2), doi: 10.14786/flr.v6i2.340

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Differentiated instruction and assessment, also known as differentiated learning or, in education, simply, differentiation, is a framework or philosophy for effective teaching that involves providing all students within their diverse classroom community of learners a range of different avenues for understanding new information (often in the same classroom) in terms of: acquiring content; processing, constructing, or making sense of ideas; and developing teaching materials and assessment measures so that all students within a classroom can learn effectively, regardless of differences in their ability.

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Accommodations for a student is when you are giving the same instruction, with extra supports like visual aids or graphic organizers.

Students who can receive accommodations are students who may be ELL or students who have a temporary medical condition.

Example 1: Providing large print material.

Example 2: audiobooks, text-to-speech.

Example 3: Visual aids or graphic organizers to go alongside verbal instruction.

The link above, "Accommodation and what they are," goes into detail about how accommodations can help students in the classroom. Students are able to receive special accommodations to be successful in their education.

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Evidence-based learning is tracking the student's success based on the accommodations being given.

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What are accommodations? Learn what accommodations are, how they can help children in school, and how to get accommodations for your child.

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An adaptation is when you are adapting the learning environment to a student's learning needs.

Students who need adaptations to their learning environment can have a learning disability like Dyslexia or Dyscalculia.

Example 1: For Dyslexia, provide multisensory approaches, using large print or allowing the use of computers for assignments.

Example 2: For dyscalculia, it would be breaking down problems into smaller chunks with clear instructions.

Example 3: For Dysgraphia, to help students with handwriting, you can provide extra time on assignments or specialized paper with spacing to improve handwriting.

The link above, "Greater good in Education," provides information on how adaptations are included in the learning environment. Adaptations are combined with the use of accommodations and modifications to a student's specific learning needs.

High-leverage practices on adaptations and how they work in the classroom. The link below shows 5 types of ways to have an inclusive classroom and how to implement adaptations.

https://blog.brookespublishing.com/5-types-of-instructional-adaptations-for-your-inclusive-classroom/

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While teaching social-emotional learning (SEL) is important for all students, it is especially important for students with learning, attention, and social differences who may show lagging SEL skills.

Accessing SEL and mindfulness in traditional ways may be challenging for students with special needs. Hence, the need for educators to take steps to ensure that all students are benefiting from these lessons. Here are some general guidelines for adapting practices with students with learning challenges.

Make the Abstract More Concrete

SEL and mindfulness often require abstract thinking, such as inferring what another person is feeling or understanding the nuances of what it means to "listen" or "pay attention." This can be challenging for students with learning disabilities who are more concrete or literal thinkers and have trouble with abstract reasoning. Students with intellectual disabilities are also likely to struggle with understanding the purpose of a mindfulness or SEL lesson without instructional supports.

Therefore, before starting any lesson on a social-emotional concept (e.g., respect, kindness, empathy, trustworthiness), educators need to break down the concept in ways that make it less abstract.

An educator wants to teach her class about respect, but knows that students struggling with verbal reasoning may have trouble grasping the meaning of "respect" in a definitive way. To help her students, she brings in stories, visual aids, and role-playing scenarios that provide examples of what respect and disrespect look like in action.

A teacher wants to infuse mindfulness as a habit of mind in his classroom and prompts students to "pay attention" during activities. Knowing that the direction "pay attention" is abstract, he thinks through what paying attention actually entails. He breaks down the concept into a whole-body listening mode where students can see that "paying attention" is not just about listening with ears, but also involves not talking, trying to keep the body still, and thinking about what you're supposed to be thinking about. He creates a visual aid and models what "paying attention" does and does not look like before beginning a mindfulness practice.

Before teaching a lesson on "filling up each other's buckets with kindness," an educator makes an adaptation to the lesson to help one of her mainstreamed students with an intellectual disability understand the lesson better. Before the lesson, she asks another student to be a buddy to the student with a disability. She teaches the buddy student to help her peer sort pictures of children doing kind or not-kind behaviors into buckets marked "kind" and "not kind." This makes the task more concrete and visual for the mainstreamed peer-and also gives the buddy peer a chance to practice kindness by helping teach the lesson.

Check the Mode of Instruction

Many SEL practices involve reading, writing, and sharing verbally. For a student with a language-based learning disability (e.g., Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, or Receptive/Expressive Language Disorder), these practices can pose a challenge.

A student with a verbal or written expression disability may struggle with practices that involve reflection and expression. A teacher with a student who has a writing disability notices that journaling is difficult for this student, so he provides sentence starters as scaffolds. For instance, instead of "write down three things you are grateful for and why," the teacher gives the student a pre-printed prompt that reads, "I am grateful for ________ because _________." The teacher also lets the student sometimes draw what they're grateful for-or tell a peer.

A teacher leads a morning circle activity where students discuss a prompt. A student with verbal expression challenges needs "priming" for the prompt (i.e., extra "think time" before sharing his thoughts). With this in mind, the teacher provides a written prompt on the board before the morning circle and then has a quick chat with the student to spark his thinking. The student also has a "cue card" ready with his written answer before beginning the activity, so he doesn't feel pressured or put "on the spot."

A high school teacher assigns a novel for the whole class to read, asking students to respond to the text using a prosocial lens; she plans to use character analysis to teach a deeper social-emotional concept of compassion. The text chosen is beyond the reading level of one of her students. The teacher conferences with the student before the assignment and collaboratively problem solves by giving the student a few options, including: 1) allowing the student to listen to the book on audio before the class discussions, 2) assigning the text early so the student can read it with the Resource Specialist or tutor-in advance, or 3) selecting an alternative text.

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Adapting Practices for Students with Special Needs | Greater Good In Education

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While teaching social-emotional learning (SEL) is important for all students, it is especially important for students with learning, attention, and social differences who may show lagging SEL skills. Accessing SEL and mindfulness in traditional ways may be challenging for students with special needs.

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Modifications for a student are when the standard is modified and the expectations of the student have changed.

Students who can receive modifications can have cognitive impairment or visual impairment.

Example 1: A student may not be able to see and has to do an alternative assignment that does not involve reading.

Example 2: A student with cognitive impairment can be given a reduced number of spelling words to learn for the week.

Example 3: A student with ADHD can be given fewer homework questions so the student can stay focused on their homework.

The link above, " What are academic modifications?" Goes into detail about what a modification in a student's education is. It also talks about ways to implement modifications.

High-leverage practices and how they can enhance the overall instruction given. The link below shows examples of how to add modifications to an inclusive classroom.

https://www.thresholdlearning.org/blog/087

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By Andrew M.I. Lee, JD

At a glance

An academic modification is a change to what a student is taught or expected to do in school.

An example of a modification is less homework or easier assignments.

Before using a modification, it's often better to try changing how a child learns, or try using a different teaching strategy.

School can be a challenge for kids with IEPs and 504 plans. And when they struggle, one possible response is to give them less schoolwork or simpler assignments. This is called an academic modification. A modification is a change to what a student is taught or expected to do in school.

While modifications can make school easier for kids, they can have serious drawbacks. Watch an expert explain more about modifications.

All public schools have academic standards for what kids are expected to learn in each grade. These apply to reading, math, and other subjects. For instance, third graders are usually expected to learn multiplication.

Modifications change these expectations. They're typically used when a child has trouble keeping up in school.

Take a third grader with math challenges who hasn't mastered addition. A school may offer a modification that keeps the child working on addition, while the rest of the class moves on to multiplication. Or the child could have fewer test questions or less homework. (See other examples of modifications.)

Modifications are controversial. It's true that they can make school less of a struggle for students, including kids who learn and think differently. But the result may be that kids learn less than their peers. They may fall behind on important skills. Over time, this can put them at a big disadvantage.

Dive deeper

Deciding whether to use a modification

Alternatives to modifications

Tell us what interests you

About the author

About the author

Andrew M.I. Lee, JD is an editor and attorney who strives to help people understand complex legal, education, and parenting issues.

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Melody Musgrove, EdD served as director of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in the U.S. Department of Education.

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An academic modification is a change to what a student is taught or expected to do in school. An example of a modification is less homework or easier assignments. Before using a modification, it's often better to try changing how a child learns, or try using a different teaching strategy.

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Specially designed instruction is when a student receives instructions based on their special needs. The way instruction is given is altered and tailored to the student.

Students with autism or having emotional disturbances are examples of special needs that can receive specially designed instruction.

Example 1: Providing comprehension strategies like summarizing and visualizing the texts.

Example 2: Providing a student with emotional disturbances with tools and techniques on how to self-regulate.

Example 3: For autism, a teacher may pre-teach or re-teach a subject by providing additional instruction to help the student grasp the concept better.

The link above, "Specially designed instruction," talks about the importance of how students can benefit from specially learning instruction. The process of an SDI includes the IEP team, parents, and anyone else involved.

Evidence-based learning of SDI. Goes into detail about how SDI is made specifically for the student. Also, how to monitor progress, and they may receive other accommodations to their plan.

https://www.uft.org/teaching/students-disabilities/specially-designed-instruction