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Interventions help target specific needs of a student. Whether the student is struggling academically or behaviorally, there are extra supports in place to best benefit the student outside of the classroom instruction. Interventions can be provided for students at risk of falling under grade leveled skills. This may be a student who has frequent behavioral problems or consistent poor performance. Intervention can be provided to focus in on the skills the student is struggling with.

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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 occurs when an instructor adapts or alters instruction in response to the student. This can be applied to all students due to having such a diverse learning environment. Examples of differentiation could be giving the student options of how to show their work or present their learning. Another example would be to pull small groups and address their level of understanding and meet them there.

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Differentiated Instruction | Learning A-Z

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Our K-6 products help teachers differentiate literacy instruction and practice to meet each student’s individual learning needs.

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Modifications allow the goal of what is expected from the student to be changed. Instead of reaching expectations set at grade level or for the majority, as an educator you will meet them where they are. This means finding where their skill level is at and working from there. Students who have learning or cognitive disabilities meet the requirements and qualify to have modified curriculum. Modifying their workload could be something such as reducing their work in number and difficulty. Working on skills they lack rather than only academic needs.

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Curriculum modifications are an important tool for fully including students with disabilities, increasing their access to the general curriculum, and helping them make progress. Today on the blog, we're welcoming Nicole Eredics-inclusion expert and author of the popular guidebook Inclusion in Action-to talk about a few strategies any teacher can use to modify their curriculum. Read on for Nicole's wisdom on making your curriculum more accessible to all learners!

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Over the years, people have asked me how to fully include students with disabilities in the same general education classroom as their peers. I respond by talking about the systems of support within the school setting, such as the allocation of personnel and resources. I mention the importance of developing an inclusive school culture where everyone has the same recess, lunch, and opportunities to participate in school-wide activities. I also detail the characteristics of inclusive classroom structures, such as routines, materials, and instructional design.

However, I emphasize that while all of the above are essential elements of the inclusive process, our efforts are weakened if we are not also including students with disabilities in the same general education curriculum that is being taught to their peers.

Imagine going to the movie theater and not being able to order your favorite snack from the snack bar. Or, what if you were asked to play soccer but you weren't allowed to kick the ball? Now, think about how you would feel as you watched your friends buy their snacks or your team kick the ball across the field. While those scenarios seem highly unlikely in real life, they are strikingly similar to the "inclusive" educational experiences of many students with disabilities.

Even when students with disabilities appear to be included physically-having a place or desk in the classroom-if they are not learning the same subject matter as their peers, then inclusion is not happening. Why? Even though the classroom is accessible, the curriculum is not. It's important to know that when students with disabilities are placed in a general education classroom, their inclusive experience encompasses everything that there is to offer in that room. This includes interactions with peers, resources, materials, activities, and the same meaningful and rich coursework.

Sometimes a student with disabilities may be able to learn the same grade-level material as their peers, and sometimes they may not. Therefore, to include a student with disabilities in the general education curriculum, we need to provide an array of appropriate supports that allow the student to access content and make progress to the greatest extent possible (much like we do when we include students with disabilities in the general education classroom). Those supports include adaptive equipment, paraprofessionals, and the main focus of this post-curriculum adaptations.

Curriculum adaptations come in two forms: accommodations and modifications. Curriculum accommodations are used when students work at grade level but require support accessing the curriculum in order to make progress. Curriculum modifications are for students who do not yet work at grade level and require support achieving the curriculum. Most teachers are familiar and skilled at making accommodations, since there are no changes made to the learning outcomes of the curriculum. Accommodations include adjusting presentation, response, setting, and timing and scheduling. Modifications, on the other hand, require substitutions, additions, and deletions to the grade-level curriculum so that the student can learn it to the best of their ability level.

Modifying curriculum for students who do not yet have an understanding of grade level content has long been the sole responsibility of the special education teacher. However, since the goal of inclusion is to include the student in as much of the general education environment and curriculum as possible, then we have to expect that making modifications needs to be the responsibility of every teacher. When general education teachers take ownership over the development and delivery of lessons for all their students (on IEPs or not), then we can truly begin to move towards more inclusive classrooms where students have the opportunity to experience, access, and achieve curriculum alongside their peers.

Getting Started with Modifications

Unfortunately, general education teachers are rarely taught how to modify and design a lesson for a student who does not yet work at grade level. How can they get started? For teachers who want to know how to fully include their students with disabilities in the classroom, here are 4 easy steps they can use to modify their curriculum in minutes:

Begin with the right mindset and presume competence. It's important to begin by making the least dangerous assumption about our student's abilities and presume competence in students. By doing so, we are motivated to find ways to make lesson content accessible and achievable. In addition, we do not set boundaries on learning or "teaching to the test".

Identify and align the goals that need to be taught for students with and without disabilities. Look for common themes, content, and learning outcomes within a subject strand. Look to curriculum above and below grade level.

Plan a lesson that will teach both the aligned grade-level and modified goals. Build a lesson that allows for a range of learning, such as differentiated learning activities. If you are using a prescribed lesson, then substitutions, additions, and deletions to the content will need to be made. There are 4 key areas in a lesson plan where you can make those adjustments:

Content: Provide content that is related to the grade-level curriculum but is at a level more appropriate for student with disabilities. For example, a student with modified learning goals in a fifth-grade class might learn how plants grow by planting an actual seed and observing its growth over time, rather than learning about the plant's cellular functions.

Instructional Method: Provide an alternate and better-suited form of instruction. A student on an IEP can create an art project related to a novel that the class reading.

Conceptual Difficulty: Change the difficulty of the lesson. The teacher can provide answer prompts or an answer bank to use for an assignment.

Educational Goals: Target educational goals that are appropriate and achievable. The teacher can change the educational goals of a grade-level math sheet on fractions to create a math sheet on addition by having the student add the numerator and denominator of the fraction.

Use high-leverage instructional strategies to engage students in learning. Don't just rely on a few basic techniques such as yes/no questions. Refer to Robert Marzano's Taxonomy, which provides an extensive list of activity stems to encourage various levels of thinking skills.

As explained in this post, curriculum modifications are the key to full inclusion. When curriculum is modified, students with disabilities can participate all the learning opportunities that are available to their peers. In order to maximize those opportunities, it is imperative that all educators, including general education teachers and specialists, learn how to effectively deliver lessons that are designed for all learners.

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Thanks to Nicole Eredics for visiting the Brookes blog today and sharing these guidelines for inclusive educators. For more detailed information and strategies for modifying curriculum, be sure to check out her book!

Inclusion in Action
Practical Strategies to Modify Your Curriculum
By Nicole Eredics, B.Ed.

Equally useful as a beginner's guide to inclusion and a goldmine of practical ideas for experienced teachers, this must-have book will help make your curriculum "possible and achievable" for every learner. You'll start with a big-picture guide to creating an inclusive culture in your classroom and school, and then you'll get 40 teacher-tested strategies to modify your curriculum for students who work below grade level. Each strategy comes with student goals, step-by-step directions and implementation tips, suggested interventions and extensions, and samples of authentic student work.

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Modifying Curriculum in Minutes!: A Guest Post from Inclusion Expert Nicole Eredics - Brookes Blog

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Curriculum modifications are an important tool for fully including students with disabilities, increasing their access to the general curriculum, and helping them make progress. Today on the blog, we're welcoming Nicole Eredics-inclusion expert and author of the popular guidebook Inclusion in Action-to talk about a few strategies any teacher can use to modify their curriculum.

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Accommodations are ways of offering multiple paths to achieve the same outcome. While the goal remains the same, the supports given open new doors to getting there. Accommodations are seen with students who have an IEP in place or a 504 plan. Examples of giving accommodations would be allowing extra time on assignments and tests. Another accommodation would be to allow the student to leave to a more quiet place such as a learning lab to complete work and tests.

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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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Adaptations are changes made to the learning environment or materials to best help the student participate. Adaptations can include both accommodations as well as modifications. Typically students with sensory, physical or intellectual abilities will fall under this category. Examples of adaptations are pencil grips to help a student with writing mechanics, largely printed materials to help students with vision impairments, and speech software.

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Now that Ms. Begay understands the learning process, she can better meet the needs of her students through instructional adaptations. Teachers often find it necessary to adapt their instruction for students with disabilities who are taught in the general education classroom if those students are to have full access to the general education curriculum. Adapting[.....]

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SDI refers to individualized instruction. This is when a student gets one on one work with a special education teacher. They will work on the goals listed in the student's IEP plan. Students who qualify for special education services under IDEA are open to SDI. Some things the special education teacher may work on with the student is how to self regulate inside and outside of the classroom. They may also work on academic needs such as grammar mechanics or decoding words. Students have what is called "pull out time" where they will be with the sped teacher in a different classroom for x amount of minutes or x amount of days every week.

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Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) is a legal requirement found in the IDEA. SDI requires that special education students receive “specially designed instruction” as a part of their educational program. The general idea is that children with disabilities need unique and customized educational interventions that address their specific deficits. The definition of SDI is as follows: […]