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Letters in Phonemic Awareness Instruction or the Reciprocal Nature of Learning to Read

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Teachers’ question: I’m confused. I’ve heard you say that we should teach phonemic awareness and letters simultaneously. Other “experts” say that phonemic awareness is strictly an auditory skill and that including letters slows children’s learning. Help!

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Aransas IDEAS-Science of Reading Overview Part 2

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Aransas IDEAS-Science of Reading Overview Part 2

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R.I.S.E Arkansas Science of Reading Resources - The Science of Reading

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Phonics instruction teaches the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. To read, children need to understand the alphabetic principle - the idea that letters represent the sounds of spoken language. Decoding is when we use letter-sound relationships to translate a printed word into speech.

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Introduction

What are high expectations for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities? This question has been raised for decades, with the answers changing over time. Although the conclusion has been that all individuals deserve the chance to show what they know and can do, exactly what that means for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities is just emerging.

Evidence

Students with disabilities in the United States have a history of exclusion in education. Although it has been more than 40 years since the first laws were enacted to ensure that a child with any disability had access to school, the placement of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities in segregated settings continue (Morningstar, Kurth, & Johnson, 2017).

Legislation requires access to and assessment of student performance in grade-level academic content (IDEA 1997; ESEA 2001, 2015). Yet, there continues to be a mindset that students with intellectual disabilities should be taught an "alternate" curriculum, one that meets their functional skill needs rather than academics. Spooner and Brown (2011) noted that inclusive efforts for students with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities have focused on the location of their learning, but continued the separate curriculum. The assumption was that this population of students could not learn academic content. Even though this myth has been debunked (Saunders & Wakeman, 2018/2019), it persists. Advocates and researchers continue to encourage practitioners to consider what is relevant for students in this population and plan for what they could do instead of assuming what they cannot do (e.g., Courtade, Spooner, Browder, & Jimenez, 2012; Quenemoen & Thurlow, 2017).

The least dangerous assumption was first proposed by Donnellan (1984). It is a concept that has guided the approach taken by some, but not all, educators who work with students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. Still, there is evidence that when there is adherence to the least dangerous assumption, students with intellectual disabilities can make progress on the same academic content as their grade-level peers without disabilities (e.g., Heinrich, Collins, Knight, & Spriggs, 2016; Ruppar, Afacan, Yang, & Pickett, 2017).

The least restrictive environment (LRE) requirement in IDEA was designed to ensure that every child be educated with non-disabled peers to the greatest extent possible. Every Individualized Education Program (IEP) team makes decisions about placement based on the student's strengths and needs, so it is best practice that IEP teams remain up-to-date on current research for educating students in inclusive settings. Research findings indicate that:

Inclusive placements in general education classrooms for students with significant cognitive disabilities correlate positively with their achievement (Kleinert et al., 2015).

When students with intellectual disabilities are educated with their non-disabled peers they also make progress on social goals (e.g., Brock, Biggs, Carter, Cattey, & Raley, 2016; Henrick, Collins, Knight, & Spriggs, 2016).

When students without disabilities are educated in inclusive classrooms, they develop skills like empathy and advocacy, and there is no negative effect on their academic performance (Carter et al., 2016).

Definition

The least dangerous assumption is a theory developed in the early 1980s. According to Donnellan (1984), "The criterion of the least dangerous assumption holds that in the absence of conclusive data, educational decisions ought to be based on assumptions that, if incorrect, will have the least dangerous effect on the likelihood that students will be able to function independently as adults" (p. 141). Evidence gathered by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) indicated much earlier that teacher expectations could influence student achievement. In the current policy environment when so many expectations are created by test score data or disability label, it is vital that high expectations are set for all students.

Donnellan wrote about the need to practice the least dangerous assumption for students with disabilities. She suggested that if a student does not make progress, we should first assume it is due to a problem with the instruction or materials rather than a student deficit. Jorgensen (2005) outlined five reasons for presuming competence as the least dangerous assumption: (a) human intelligence is multi-faceted, (b) measuring intelligence is flawed, (c) communication and high-quality instruction are needed before we can determine capability, (d) presuming incompetence could be harmful, and (e) even if we are wrong, the consequence is not as harmful as the alternative.

Further information on expectations is provided in the following video clips of a parent and a general education teacher talking about the importance of high expectations from each of their perspectives:

Implementation

The ways in which expectations can play out for an individual student are shown in this case study of Leo. Leo has an intellectual disability and has been in a separate classroom for the past four years. His IEP includes goals for using Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) to make simple requests (e.g., more, drink, bathroom, eat), using behavioral self-management strategies, identifying simple sight words, and sorting objects by color or size. The IEP team is discussing the best placement for Leo. His parents have been pushing to have him included in general education classes. This is the conversation:

Parents: We have been attending trainings on building communication systems and using the least dangerous assumption. It seems that Leo's behavior outbursts are linked to the fact that he doesn't have a solid communication system yet. We also are worried because he has been coming home from school with the same types of work for years, and we think he would benefit from joining the regular class where the kids from our neighborhood are.

Principal: What has Leo been working on this past year?

Speech-language pathologist: He's been working with a new AAC system, but he still hasn't mastered the basic needs (asking for a drink, identifying his name, etc.). His IEP goals have been pretty similar since Kindergarten.

Teacher: Well, he has been working on many of the same IEP goals for awhile, but that is because he really struggles to remember anything from one day to the next. We do flashcards for sight words and he knows them one day, but then the next week he has forgotten them all. There is no way Leo can do grade-level work. His academics are not even close, and his behaviors would be detrimental to the rest of the students.

After quite a few meetings and discussions and some reading (e.g., Carter, 2018/2019; Jorgensen, 2018/2019), the IEP team realized that Leo seems more interested in his surroundings when he is with same-aged peers, including those without disabilities. His parents share that he finds ways to communicate with his brother's friends when they come over. Ultimately, on a trial basis, Leo is placed in a general education setting from the time of his arrival at school through lunch. Leo's parents asked that the educators who work with Leo be given some professional development to support planning for Leo's transition to the general education classroom. The principal and teachers agreed. During and after the training, everyone worked together to identify potential barriers to Leo's inclusion and access to the curriculum, and together they problem-solved ways to overcome them. For instance, rather than focusing on Leo having few sight words and a bad memory, the team thought about how to help him access information and show what he knows. Perhaps Leo may not master multiple sight words, but through a free technology, such as Bookshare, he could listen to the same text as his peers, and he could show his understanding using a response board with some choices rather than coming up with each answer on his own.

Leo's case provides examples of how the least dangerous assumption can be implemented. For each implementation example presented below, there is also the likely negative effect if the least dangerous assumption is ignored.

Teaching Life, Social, and Academic Skills

In Leo's inclusive math class, students are working on multi-step mathematical problems. Leo is using his task-analyzed support to complete problems similar to his peers. Leo uses his stamp to write his name, or his AAC to electronically sign, at the top of his math assignment. Like all the students in class, if Leo has a question he is supposed to ask two peers before he asks a teacher. Further, his AAC device is programmed to ask for help and has core words that can be combined to reflect a large number of concepts and ideas. Leo also has some fringe vocabulary for specific units. The math problems are connected to the science lesson being taught later that day.

What might have occurred if the least dangerous assumption had been ignored? Leo works alone at his desk. He circles numbers in isolation on a worksheet. He stamps his name five times in a row on a second worksheet. He staples the worksheets together before he turns them in to his teacher.

Instruction in Natural Contexts and Routines

Leo enters the inclusive classroom and says "hello" to his classroom teacher and friends. What might have occurred if the least dangerous assumption had been ignored? Leo is practicing activating his AAC device to say "hello" in a therapy session in four out of five trials.

More Challenging Content

In his inclusive classroom, Leo uses familiar playing cards to sequence numbers on a number line as part of multi-step math problems that the rest of the class is doing. He sorts information from two different stories to create a Venn Diagram. He uses his name and course subject to identify letter sounds.

What might have occurred if the least dangerous assumption had been ignored? Leo completes three tasks each morning when he arrives at school. These three tasks are his IEP goals related to matching colors and pictures of playing cards, sorting blocks, and circling his name. These tasks are not changed until he demonstrates mastery for five out of five days.

Addressing Barriers to Learning

Leo's inclusive classroom teacher plans a lesson related to comparing and contrasting states of matter. She plans using tangible objects so that Leo can touch, see, and hear the differences. She provides picture and object response options for concepts for Leo to use on his AAC device. She uses videos for Leo to see the melting and freezing process in a short period of time.

What might have occurred if the least dangerous assumption had been ignored? Leo's teacher sees Leo as the barrier to learning, and thus uses hand-over-hand support with Leo to sort pictures of hot and cold items because there is only 15 minutes of class time for science.

Focus of Instruction

Leo works on a subset of prioritized vocabulary for each chapter of the text the class is reading. He uses his AAC device for both word recognition and definition. Leo has picture supports that match each vocabulary word and has several opportunities each day to respond to questions using the vocabulary on his communication device. He repeats having the chapter read aloud to him and using his vocabulary as homework.

What might have occurred if the least dangerous assumption had been ignored? Leo's teacher regularly focuses on a narrow set of skills or topics. Thus, Leo's vocabulary instruction focuses on flashcard instruction. He works on five words in isolation each benchmark period.

Summary

The least dangerous assumption pushes us to consider all students as capable (Jorgensen, 2005). Our challenge is to not think in a deficit mindset but consider what can we do to support students in how they access, engage in, and respond not only to life skills content, but academic content, as well. By including students with the most significant cognitive disabilities in the instruction of all content, students and families are included in a community of learning that sets achievable high expectations.

Learning Activities

Least Dangerous Assumption Learning Activities for Educators: Activity 1

Watch the following video. Be prepared to note where you see evidence of considerations of least dangerous assumption and where there are potential ways to increase considerations of least dangerous assumption.

After watching the video, click here to see places to potentially improve considerations for LDA​.

Least Dangerous Assumption Learning Activities for Educators: Activity 2

The least dangerous assumption basically states that if we aren't 100% sure, we should make decisions that, if wrong, have the fewest negative repercussions against the person. At different times of a person's life, these decisions may include what someone should or shouldn't learn, where someone should learn, where someone should live, with whom someone should live, etc.

The least dangerous assumption is important because we know:

Having high expectations makes a difference

IQ is not destiny

Not talking is not the same as not having something to say

So, how do you create least dangerous assumption opportunities in your IEP meetings, your schools, and your life? Let's look at some possible scenarios.

"Shaquan has Down syndrome so I think this classroom may be best. He will learn the functional skills he'll need to get a job."

The assumptions being made:

All people with Down syndrome have the same needs.

Functional skills are often defined as "daily living skills" and typically include hygiene skills, making change, and following basic directions. "Academic" skills such as reading, writing, science, and math are not considered as a priority or achievable for some students.

What is a response that reflects a least dangerous assumption? Write one before moving on to see some possible responses.

See possible responses that reflect a least dangerous assumption in Shaquan's scenario.

"Down syndrome is only one part of who Shaquan is."

"Functional skills for Shaquan are reading, making friends, and learning how to advocate for himself."

"How can we support Shaquan learning all the skills he needs to help him get access to general education classroom and content?"

Kaitlyn needs to learn to better use her AAC system before she will benefit from a general education classroom.

What assumptions are being made?

Communication is taught in isolation.

Not talking is the same as not having anything to say.

What is a response that reflects the least dangerous assumption? Write one response before moving on to see some possible responses.

See possible responses that reflect a least dangerous assumption in Kaitlyn's scenario.

"Let's give Kaitlyn more opportunities to practice communication and more people to communicate with."

"Rather than waiting for Kaitlyn to 'prove herself' by communicating, let's begin by giving her things to communicate about."

"Since Kaitlyn doesn't yet have a strong communication system, we can't be sure what she does and doesn't understand. We must then give her access to as much as we can, in case her receptive language is stronger than her expressive currently is."

Daniel's behavior is not appropriate for a general education classroom. Once he learns better ways to handle his frustration then we can talk about moving him.

What assumptions are being made?

Behavior is a prerequisite for being allowed in a classroom.

Behavior is not communication.

What is a response that reflects the least dangerous assumption? Write one response before moving on to see some possible responses.

See possible responses that reflect a least dangerous assumption in Daniel's scenario.

"What is Daniel's behavior telling us? Is he engaged in the classroom environment?"

"How can we support Daniel to learn better ways to handle his frustration?"

"What strategies and supports can we put in place in a general education classroom to help Daniel?"

What assumptions are being made?

Shandra's IQ is 60. She won't be safe in a general education setting.

IQ is destiny.

Shandra will only be safe if adults take care of her and adults will always be around to take care of her.

Shandra's peers will be mean to her.

What is a response that reflects the least dangerous assumption? Write one response before moving on to see some possible responses.

See possible responses that reflect a least dangerous assumption in Shandra's scenario.

"What are supports that Shandra needs to access reading, writing, math, science, etc.?"

"How can we set up peer networks or a circle of friends for Shandra?"

"What strategies can we use to help Shandra build her advocacy skills?"

TIPS Series: Tip #6, July 2019

All rights reserved. Any or all portions of this document may be reproduced without prior permission, provided the source is cited as:

Taub, D., Wakeman, S., Saunders, A., Thurlow, M. L., & Lazarus, S. S. (2019). Using the least dangerous assumption in educational decisions (TIPS Series: Tip #6). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, TIES Center.

TIES Center is supported through a Cooperative Agreement (#H326Y170004) with the Research to Practice Division, Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. The Center is affiliated with the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) at the Institute on Community Integration (ICI), College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota. The contents of this report were developed under the Cooperative Agreement from the U.S. Department of Education, but do not necessarily represent the policy or opinions of the U.S. Department of Education or Offices within it. Readers should not assume endorsement by the federal government. Project Officer: Susan Weigert

The National Center on Educational Outcomes leads the TIES Center partnership. There are six additional collaborating partners: Arizona Department of Education, CAST, University of Cincinnati, University of Kentucky, University of North Carolina - Charlotte, and University of North Carolina - Greensboro.

TIES Center

University of Minnesota

Institute on Community Integration

2025 East River Parkway

Minneapolis, MN 55414

Phone: 612-626-1530
www.tiescenter.org
This document is available in alternate formats upon request.

The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity employer and educator.

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TIES TIPS | Foundations of Inclusion | TIP #6: Using the Least Dangerous Assumption in Educational Decisions

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What are high expectations for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities? This question has been raised for decades, with the answers changing over time. Although the conclusion has been that all individuals deserve the chance to show what they know and can do, exactly what that means for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities is just emerging.

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Literacy Instruction for Students with Significant Disabilities

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Literacy Instruction for Students with Significant Disabilities

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Literacy Instruction for
Students with Significant Disabilities

"We don't think the intelligence issue matters when it comes to literacy.
All children can learn to read and write, can become people who matter to the people around them
and can use reading and writing in ways that improve their lives.
-Karen Erickson and David Koppenhaver

Making instructional decisions for students with significant disabilities and complex communication needs

Students with significant cognitive disabilities are individuals with unique learning needs and interests, who with the right supports at the right time, can participate in learning, benefit from literacy instruction, and contribute to the school community.

Karen Erickson reminds us that students with significant disabilities differ markedly from one another. Some are able to read independently with fluency and comprehension, and write for a variety of purposes while others struggle to learn basic academic concepts or process the world around them. Still others have not developed intentional communication and depend completely on caregivers and educational teams to meet all of their needs. (To learn more about students with significant cognitive disabilities, visit Learning for All.)

Our judgments about students' intellectual capacities affect every decision we make about their educational programming, their communication systems and supports, the social activities we support their participation in, and the futures we imagine for them.

The criterion of least dangerous assumption holds that in the absence of conclusive data, educational decisions ought to be based on assumptions which if incorrect, will have the least dangerous effect on the student. The least dangerous assumption for students with significant disabilities is to presume competence and assume that a student has intellectual ability. Presuming competence means providing meaningful opportunities for learning, including daily reading and writing instruction, and assuming that the student wants to learn and assert themselves in the world.

Presumed competence is a framework and an approach based on the assumption that each child wants to be fully included, wants acceptance and appreciation, wants to learn, wants to be heard, and wants to contribute. By presuming competence, educators place the burden on themselves to come up with ever more creative, innovative ways for individuals to learn. The question is no longer who can be included or who can learn, but how can we achieve inclusive education. We begin by presuming competence. (adapted from Douglas Biklen: "Begin by presuming competence").

Meaningful, purposeful communication

"Meaningful, purposeful communication is at the heart of learning to read and write. Students who learn that they can use reading and writing to investigate areas of interest, share their ideas, thoughts, and feelings, or interact with new people understand that the primary purpose of literacy is communication." (Quick-Guides to Inclusion, page 184)

Communication occurs all day, every day, in every aspect of our life and impacts our quality of life. Communication is fundamental in literacy development and for participation in learning.

Students who have complex communication needs are unable to communicate effectively using speech alone. They and their communication partners may benefit from using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) methods, either temporarily or permanently. Symbol-based communication is the " alternative" in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). To learn more about supporting students with complex communication needs, please see Access to Communication.

From an emergent literacy perspective, reading and writing develop concurrently and interrelatedly in young children, fostered by experiences that permit and promote meaningful interaction with oral and written language (Sulzby & Teale, 1991), such as following along in a big book as an adult reads aloud or telling a story through a drawing (Hiebert & Papierz, 1989). Through the concept of emergent literacy, researchers have expanded the purview of research from reading to literacy, based on theories and findings that reading, writing, and oral language develop concurrently and interrelatedly in literate environments (Sulzby & Teale, 1991).

In the past, the emphasis for students with significant disabilities was often on 'life skills' programming rather than communication supports and literacy instruction. Today we know that "there is no student too anything to be able to read and write" (Yoder, 2000). In fact, recent research shows that with high expectations, sound literacy instruction, and the support of assistive and communication technologies, individuals with cognitive disabilities can acquire literacy skills and demonstrate intelligence beyond what would have been predicted by test results. (Biklen & Cardinal, 1997; Broderick & Casa-Hendrickson, 2001; Erickson, Koppenhaver, & Yoder, 2002; Erickson, Koppenhaver, Yoder, & Nance, 1997; Koppenhaver et al, 2001; Ryndak, Morrison, & Sommerstein, 1999).

Starting with the Alberta Programs of Study

In Alberta, the starting point for instruction for all students is the provincial Programs of Study.

Alberta Education has designed sample optional templates for individualized program planning that focus on the use of instructional strategies to support the learning of all students. The templates incorporate all of the components currently required in the Standards for Special Education, Amended 2004, focusing on instructional planning and academic learning.

Template B is designed for students who have significant (i.e., moderate to severe) cognitive disabilities. The focus of this template is to create meaningful and successful learning opportunities using the program of studies as a starting point of instruction and to identify at least five individual learning goals (e.g., four Literacy and Communication goals and one goal related to Numeracy).

Individual learning goals should align with principle-based planning (i.e., personally meaningful, socially relevant, age respectful, developmentally appropriate, create opportunities to interact with peers, promote personal autonomy). Goals should increase students' engagement in learning and academic success related to literacy and numeracy. (See Principles of Instructional Planning below.)

Template B can be found in the Inclusive Education Library as well as information and forms that can support this inclusive approach to instructional planning - http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/ieptLibrary/index.html.

Good literacy instruction is good for all students!

Many of the studies and literature surveys over the last four decades have a common finding - nothing replaces sound early literacy instruction, even when taking into consideration recent technical advances.

Research in emergent literacy shows that students with significant disabilities including those with complex communication needs, benefit from many of the same types of literacy activities used with typically developing children. However, students with disabilities may require more time and opportunity to benefit from this instruction. Regular participation in reading and writing activities is key to building understandings about print for ALL students.

The principles of planning for effective instruction are equally applicable to both students who are typical learners and students with significant disabilities. Designing meaningful and effective instruction for students with significant disabilities requires intentional planning that considers the strengths and needs of individual learners and takes into account best practices that work for all learners. For older emergent literacy learners, it is important to keep all activities age respectful.

To learn more about effective instructional practice for students with significant disabilities, including information, strategies and references, visit Learning for All.

Literacy for All: In conversation with Dr. Caroline Musselwhite

Through a collaboration between Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium and Alberta Education, 11 video clips and related learning guides were created based on a conversation with Dr. Musselwhite. These resources provide an opportunity to enhance and support teacher practice in the area of communication and literacy instruction for students with significant disabilities.

Access to learning materials in the classroom

For students with motor impairments severe enough that they cannot hold or turn pages of books, hold or manipulate a pencil or type on a typical keyboard, they will require alternative access to learning materials in the classroom.

For some learners, physically holding a book and turning its pages may be difficult or impossible as might hearing and/or seeing books. Some learners may require page fluffers to allow them to turn pages, digital books on a device that allow the user to simply touch to turn the page, tactile or brailled books for the visually impaired, while others may require switch access to turn pages on digital books. To learn more about supporting access to books, please see Access to Books.

In order to develop literacy skills, all students need have a way to write using the full alphabet no matter what level of understanding they appear to have about print. For students with physical, cognitive or linguistic challenges, an alternative pencil can offer them a way to write and/or explore the alphabet while focusing the majority of their cognitive energy on text production. To learn more about alternative pencils, please see Access to Writing.

Determining where to start with literacy instruction

Answer the questions in the first box for the student you are working with. If you responded NO to any of these questions, you'll implement the Daily Emergent Interventions. If you answered YES to all of the questions, you'll implement the Daily Conventional Interventions as displayed below.

Daily Emergent Interventions:

Daily Conventional Interventions:

Important! Answering 'yes' to all of the above questions doesn't necessarily mean that student is at a conventional literacy level but it does mean that they are ready to move to the conventional set of interventions.
If you have a class of students at both the Emergent and Conventional levels, use the combination of interventions as described below:

Combined emergent and conventional interventions:

Shared Reading

Alphabet & Phonological Awareness During Word Identification and Decoding

Predictable Chart Writing

Self-Selected Reading

Structured and Independent Writing

Guided Reading (Conventional Only)

Writing Instruction (Conventional Only)

Support for Implementation

The resources found on this site were developed by the ERLC, a member of Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortia (ARPDC), as a result of grants from Alberta Education, to support implementation.

Learning for All | Copyright © 2016
Terms of Use | Contact Us

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Getting started | Literacy Instruction for Students with Significant Disabilities

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Literacy Instruction for Students with Significant Disabilities " We don't think the intelligence issue matters when it comes to literacy. All children can learn to read and write, can become people who matter to the people around them and can use reading and writing in ways that improve their lives.

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Reading Instruction for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

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The Arkansas Mathematics Standards and Courses, adopted by the State Board of Education, represent the work of educators from across the state. These standards include student performance expectations, which are what all students should know and be able to do.

Please Note: All educators instructing identified English Learners [including, core content, elective, and English Language Development (ELD) educators] are expected to teach toward both content standards and language proficiency standards (learn more here).

2023 Grades K-8, Algebra I, Geometry, and Secondary Math Standards

2023 Grades K-8, Algebra I, and Geometry Mathematics Standards are to be fully implemented in 2023-24.

2023 K-8, Algebra I, and Geometry Mathematics Standards ( PDF| DOCX)

2023 Secondary Math Standards ( PDF| DOCX)

Grades K-8

High School

Advanced Topics and Modeling in Mathematics ( PDF| DOCX)

Algebra I Part A ( PDF| DOCX) and Algebra I Part B ( PDF| DOCX)

Critical Algebra I ( PDF| DOCX)

SREB Transitional Math Ready* ( SREB Transitional Math Ready) ( Transitional Course)

Technical Math for College and Career* ( PDF| DOCX)

High School CTE Courses for Math Credit

Computerized Accounting II*, ** ( Course Info)

Case Agricultural Power & Technology*, ** ( Course Info)

PLTW: Civil Engineering & Architecture*, ** ( Course Info)

PLTW: Digital Electronics*, ** ( Course Info)

PLTW: Engineering Design & Development*, ** ( Course Info)
* Denotes courses that ADE designates as beyond Algebra II for the purposes of Smart Core** ADE approved Division of Career and Technical Education Courses listed:

do not require a math licensure to award math credit; see the CCMS for licensure requirements

cannot be used to meet the math course requirements under the Arkansas Thirty-Eight Required High-School Courses; they can be used to meet the Career Education requirements

must meet Division of Career and Technical Education Program of Study requirements, including any course prerequisites.

For more information, please contact:

Mathematics Program Manager

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The Arkansas Mathematics Standards and Courses, adopted by the State Board of Education, represent the work of educators from across the state. These standards include student performance expectations, which are what all students should know and be able to do.

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Side By Side Progressions (K-12; K-6; 6-12) June 2023

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Author(s): Robert Pennington Melinda Jones Ault Ginevra Courtade J. Matt Jameson Andrea Ruppar

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High Leverage Practices and Students with Extensive Support Needs

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Building on the formative work of High Leverage Practices (HLP) for Inclusive Classrooms, this critical companion explores how HLP can be applied to the education of students with extensiv

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Discrete Trial Training - Updated | Autism Internet Modules

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The learning map, cornerstone of the Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment System (DLM-AAS), was revealed for the first time to the public at a national conference in April 2012.

Normally housed inside of a computer software program, the learning map was printed on a 30-feet-long by 6-feet-high display and unveiled during the National Council on Measurement in Education's annual conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.

"The map is not yet in its final form, and we wanted to provide people the opportunity to edit the map and give feedback so that the map gets stronger," said Neal Kingston, director of The Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation, which leads the DLM Consortium that is developing the DLM-AAS.

The printed map, made out of lightweight fabric, reflects the map as of March 2012, and includes 3,015 nodes, which represent the skills and concepts in math and English language arts that students need to acquire by the end of high school."Providing a visual representation of the map outside of a computer where it normally resides was the best way to show people the learning map," Kingston said, adding that the map's skills and pathways are based on extensive research evidence of how people learn.

It also includes 5,288 pathways between skills, which represent the multiple paths students may take in order to acquire those skills and concepts.

In June 2012, the map will expand when special education experts add additional pathways that students with significant cognitive disabilities may take in their process of learning.

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Staff unveils the world's largest learning map to the public

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The learning map, cornerstone of the Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment System (DLM-AAS), was revealed for the first time to the public at a national conference in April 2012.

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Click to Enlarge

Students with intellectual disabilities can obtain higher levels of reading achievement. However, deficits in working memory can make learning early reading skills more difficult. These students should receive:

10 Research Based Tips

Plan

Keep big-picture goals in mind as you plan.

Goal

Ensure you have a clear picture of the student's current skills and set meaningful, measurable goals.

Instruction

Use an evidence-based core reading program and align supplemental materials to this program as needed.

Intensity

Provide intervention with sufficient intensity to accomplish goals.

Professional Development

Seek out professional development opportunities to deepen understanding of the complex process of learning to read.

Language

Remember that language abilities are the underlying foundation for reading skills.

Scaffolding

Support working memory with images, objects, letters, and words.

Target

Target specific parts of a scope-and-sequence to focus instruction.

Data

Use data to guide instruction and adaptations.

Partner

Partner with service providers and family members to assist in adding more practice of learned skills.

National Center on Improving Literacy (2022). Considerations When Planning Literacy Instruction for Students with Intellectual Disabilities. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Special Education Programs, National Center on Improving Literacy. Retrieved from http://improvingliteracy.org.

Lemons, C. J., Allor, J. H., Al Otaiba, S., & LeJeune, L. M. (2016). 10 Research-Based Tips for Enhancing Literacy Instruction for Students With Intellectual Disability. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 49(1), 18-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040059916662202

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Considerations When Planning Literacy Instruction for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

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If you prefer, read the text-version of the infographic. Click to Enlarge Students with intellectual disabilities can obtain higher levels of reading achievement. However, deficits in working memory can make learning early reading skills more difficult. These students should receive: Comprehensive evidence-based instruction in all five components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

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The most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching students to read. Because reading affects all other academic achievement and is associated with social, emotional, economic, and physical health, it has been the most researched aspect of human cognition. By the year 2000, after decades of multidisciplinary research, the scientific community had achieved broad consensus regarding these questions: How do children learn to read? What causes reading difficulties? What are the essential components of effective reading instruction and why is each important? How can we prevent or reduce reading difficulties? Two decades later, hundreds of additional studies have refined and consolidated what we know about bolstering reading achievement, especially for students at risk.

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The Magic is in the Instruction: The Science of Reading joins the Science of Instruction (#1 SL)

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Check our Meetings and Events page to register for upcoming sessions. Contact us at outreach_info@ocali.org with any questions. All sessions are offered in English with ASL interpreting and captions.

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The Ask Abbey series is designed to provide practical, easy-to-use strategies across many areas of instruction for Deaf and Hard of Hearing learners. Each 30-minute session will include simple tips and strategies, followed by live Q&A with Abbey Weaver, an itinerant teacher for the deaf and hard of hearing in Ohio, and other 'friends' who are expert practitioners. Need a new strategy to engage a learner and have a limited time? Then this series is for you. Professional development credit is available upon completion of the webinar and evaluation.

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The Outreach Center for Deafness and Blindness

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The Outreach Center for Deafness and Blindness

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Trunk Work: Strong Systems, Structures, and Supports

As a collective state-wide group of education professionals, we are all responsible when it comes to meeting the needs of diverse and complex learners. Integrating supports that represent ALL learners, across all levels of the state-system, is a daunting task. This means we will have to work collaboratively across licensure areas, offices, and other silos of practice to ensure that ALL learners receive the expertise we each individually bring to the field. As a collaborative group, we will need to rely on strong guidelines and processes to planfully connect supports and implement to improve learner outcomes. Some examples of these structures within our system include academic learning standards, the assess, plan, teach cycle - Ohio Improvement Process (OIP), Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS), etc.

Some examples of content targeting this "trunk work" can be found in:

Chapter 2: Designing Rich Tier I Instruction and Assessment: Overview

Chapter 2: Sorting and Clustering Standards for Instruction: Integrated Units

Chapter 4: Language and Communication Access: ALL In!

Chapter 10: Curriculum Screening, Audit, Selection, and Deselection

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Students with Cortical Visual Impairment

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Students with Cortical Visual Impairment

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As our Curriculum in Action outlines, our teachers and SLPs carefully assess each student's language and literacy skills and design individualized instruction that includes accommodations to address challenges of ELA instruction and learning by students with SSPI. We introduce accommodations such as AAC tools and devices, adaptations of printed materials, environmental arrangements and workstation set-ups for instruction in key areas of reading, phonics, writing and vocabulary comprehension. CVI interventions are used to support all areas of our ELA curriculum.

Increasing Participation

Adam's goals for ELA are to increase his independence by taking more turns and making clear choices. The accommodations for this activity focus on making a set of objects more visibly accessible by using light paired with the color red, his preferred color. The objects being used represent symbols for song choices.

In the following set of pictures, Adam is being presented with items used to represent song choices that accompany his ELA unit.

In the following pictures, the classroom lights have been dimmed and items are placed on a light box.

Teaching Visually Salient Features

For students attending to 2-demensional representations, teaching visually salient features is a CVI intervention taken directly from a Christine Roman-Lantzy CVI workshop. The intervention is used during direct instruction and its goal is to teach students with CVI the salient features, or special characteristics that make an item visually distinct. The goal in teaching salient features is that students will build the metacognitive processes for looking and problem solving the visual world when they can use visually descriptive language to support and identify what they see.

(The students using these materials and receiving this instruction still needed accommodations like backlighting, less complex images to look at, and some of them worked best in a quiet, low-lit room. But, their level of CVI was such that they could begin to fixate on a specific target and then learn how to study the visual details of that target.)

Teaching Visually Salient Features to Support Recognition of Novel Visual Schemas

The following are 2 example lessons teaching salient features.

1. Realistic pictures or illustrations depicting main concepts and themes are adapted to remove background, so that only 2-3 distinct visual features remain. The exact language used to describe the salient features is written in the corner of each image. This supports student comprehension and recognition of the image when it is presented in different lessons, or when presented by different teachers. Using consistent language to label a referent when learning something new, supports student comprehension and recognition.

2. The images are presented with back lit lighting like a light box or on a PowerPoint document presented on a computer.

3. The language used during instruction teaches students the salient features they should focus on within the image.

4. Once students are familiar with the images and the language used to describe the image, several similar images with the same salient features are presented in the same manner as the original.

5. After students are familiar with these additional images, they are now presented with images with different salient features. This is called teaching comparative thought. Comparative thought activities help students build an internal understanding of what things look like and then apply that understanding when new things are encountered. As students become more familiar with this visually descriptive language and with the habits or processes of looking and studying things in their environment, we are hoping to build or entice their visual curiosity to help them build cognitive processes for looking at and problem solving the visual world.

Teaching language for comparative thought:

Cat

2 pointy triangle ears

Long skinny tail

2 eyes close together

Rabbit

long ears

Small round tail

Eyes on the side of it's head

1. Realistic pictures or illustrations depicting main concepts and themes are adapted to remove background, so that only 2-3 distinct visual features remain. The exact language used to describe the salient features is written in the corner of each image. This supports student comprehension and recognition of the image when it is presented in different lessons, or when presented by different teachers. Using consistent language to label a referent when learning something new, supports student comprehension and recognition.

2. The images are presented with back lit lighting like a light box or on a PowerPoint document presented on a computer.

3. The language used during instruction teaches students the salient features they should focus on within the image. This is an example of one student's AAC device with some of the descriptive vocabulary used during this unit.

4. Once students are familiar with the images and the language used to describe the image, several similar images with the same salient features are presented in the same manner as the original.

5. After students are familiar with these additional images, they are now presented with images with different salient features. This is called teaching comparative thought. Comparative thought activities help students build an internal understanding of what things look like and then apply that understanding when new things are encountered. As students become more familiar with this visually descriptive language and with the habits or processes of looking and studying things in their environment, we are hoping to build or entice their visual curiosity to help them build cognitive processes for looking at and problem solving the visual world.

Teaching language for comparative thought:

Top photo

Bottom photo

Outcomes For Teaching Visually Salient Features

Students with CVI will increase their visually curiosity.

They will look at and identify novel items in an environment.

Distance viewing will be enhanced.

Discrimination, recognition and identification of 2-dimensional material will be enhanced.

Experience using descriptive language that identifies and compares items viewed visually will increase.

Working with Letters and Words

Bridge School students with CVI who are able to recognize very familiar 2-dimensional pictorial representations but typically rely on information begin spoken before relying on their vision, are taught the salient features of whole words and letters to access written text. The CVI intervention to teach salient features of letters is the same used by Christine Roman-Lantzy to teach high frequency sight words.

Interventions for these students include:

Presenting material on a backlit surface so students with CVI will look at something quicker, longer and with greater attention.

Using phosphorescent color to help draw attention to shapes of letters and words while highlighting their most important or salient features.

Reducing complexity of visual information by teaching letters and words as isolated units.

We start letter instruction by teaching salient features while the student makes the letter shape. The following are two example lessons on Learning about Letters.

Outcomes for AAC

For Bridge School students with CVI who use AAC, positive intervention outcomes of teaching salient features of letters indicate students are:

Building better memory and more knowledge about where their letters are mapped on their communication devices

More focused on the task and work for longer periods of time

Building visual memory to support recall when it's time to spell

The following photos illustrate examples of two students with two different CVI profiles and how those profiles impact the design of their AAC alphabet boards.

Sight Words

The CVI intervention to support students with CVI learning sight words follows similar steps used for learning individual letters.

Connected Text

The next step in teaching students with CVI to identify text is to have them read connected text after identifying sight words in isolation. Having students with CVI access text in its most visually conventional form is the long-term goal for intervention, and students must be monitored and interventions adapted as their CVI profiles change.

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As our Curriculum in Action outlines, our teachers and SLPs carefully assess each student's language and literacy skills and design individualized instruction that includes accommodations to address challenges of ELA instruction and learning by students with SSPI.

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Easterseals Outreach Short-Term Loan Program

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Easterseals Outreach Short-Term Loan Program

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Easterseals Arkansas: Outreach Program & Technology Services

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Please note, ALL loans must be returned by the end of the school year. Any loans checked out beginning April 7, 2024 may not be eligible for a full 6-week loan period. iPad Applications Loan Agreement View or Create an Account Short-Term Loan

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Agenda for Today

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ChatGPT helps you get answers, find inspiration, and be more productive.

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The DLM Alternate Assessment will assess writing for all students at all grade levels. There are numerous professional development modules focused on writing instruction. One of the modules focuses on Alternate Pencils that are required for students who cannot use a standard pencil, pen, keyboard, or computer-based technology for writing. Below are files required to create two of the most widely used alternate pencils. They are intended to get you started, but you may have to develop other alternatives for your students.

To learn more, complete the Online Alternate Pencils module.

Eye Gaze Frames

Flip Charts

Description of Alternate Pencils (on the CLDS Website)

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The DLM Alternate Assessment will assess writing for all students at all grade levels. There are numerous professional development modules focused on writing instruction. One of the modules focuses on Alternate Pencils that are required for students who cannot use a standard pencil, pen, keyboard, or computer-based technology for writing.

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Fear Not the Decodeable: Why? When? How?

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Fear Not the Decodeable: Why? When? How?

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"Ugh! Are you kidding? Figs, pigs, wigs, and jigs! No thank you! Reading is about meaning and those dumb stories are stupid!" protested one first grade teacher when asked about decodable texts. "Decodables are essential! What good is it to teach kids to 'sound things out' if there are no words to sound out in text?" countered another teacher. "I need them to teach reading!" And so goes the typical conversation about decodable text, a worn-out love/hate relationship that seems to swing back and forth with the early literacy pendulum. But dwelling in hyperbole almost never helps kids, so I would like to suggest that we step back from extreme responses to take more a measured, middle-ground approach. In this blog, I'll share my experiences and analysis of the research literature about what I think can be a limited, but useful, tool-decodable text. This blog will discuss what decodable text is, why it might be used, when, developmentally, it might be used, and how it can be used to boost early reading skills.

Decodable text is a type of beginning reading material in which the words have been controlled to contain letter-sounds and high frequency words that the learner has been taught (Mesmer, 2001). The idea with decodable texts is that the reader should be able to apply letter/sound knowledge to independently recognize words in text. Although there has been some attempt to ensure that decodable texts contain 80% of previously-taught words, close analyses have proved this percentage to be unattainable in most "decodable" materials (Foorman et al., 2004). Instead of thinking of books as "decodable" or "not decodable," we simply consider the idea of "decodability" to vary on a continuum, with some books having words that are more or less decodable to certain readers. (See below.)

Why?

If you are like the first teacher above, you might be wondering why anyone would use decodable texts. There are three key reasons: (a) to bridge an important developmental transition in word reading, (b) to provide a field for the transfer of letter/sound knowledge to reading, and (c) to encourage and empower beginning readers to decode. What we know about word reading is that when readers use letter-sounds to figure out words, they then store those words cognitively through orthographic mapping and this allows them to later call up words by sight, automatically (Ehri, 2005). Therefore, if a child comes to the word "hot" many times and works to sound it out each time (i.e., h-o-t, hot!), he will eventually store that word and no longer need to sound it out. In addition, decoding in context also promotes reading new, unseen words (Share, 1995).

What does the research say?

The fact is that there are very few recent studies in which the effects of using any type of beginning reading texts have been systematically studied. That said, a recent research review consolidates current perspectives on texts with decodability and suggests some advantages to its use (Cheatham & Allor, 2012). Studies that have manipulated text decodability as an independent variable reveal that it prompts readers to use letter-sounds during connected reading (Juel & Roper/Schneider, 1985; Mesmer, 2001, 2005; Vadasy, Sanders, & Peyton, 2005). When students receive a heavy dose of highly decodable text, they emerge with robust decoding abilities and retain words they have read in text.
There are some caveats. In one study, two groups of first graders received one-on-one tutoring with the same scripted phonics curriculum but either more or less decodable text, and the type of text did not affect students (Jenkins, Peyton, & Sanders, 2004). Thus, a strong phonics curriculum delivered in 25 one-one sessions negates the impact of text. Other studies suggest there may be a fluency compromise in highly decodable texts (Mesmer, 2010).

Although they do not exclusively address decodability, several other text studies are useful. Researchers contrasted an uncontrolled literature-based program to one using texts designed on multiple criteria (e.g., decodability, repetition, high frequency words). After 15 weeks, first graders reading multi-criteria books outperformed those reading literature in word reading and reading level (Menon & Hiebert, 2005). In another study, a researcher used predictable big books to teach words in three different ways: (a) repeatedly reading the books (10 times over 4 days); (b) reading the words on sentence strips; and (c) analyzing the words individually. Students learned the least number of words through rereading and the most through individual analysis (Johnston, 2000).

When?

One of the reasons that people have concerns about decodable texts is that the question of when has not really been well addressed. When to use decodables is the most important consideration. I see decodable sets with hundreds of sequential books that stretch over an entire year. I do not think that is necessary at all. My reading of the research suggests that there is actually a very specific developmental window when decodables are useful.

I first discovered this material while working with a second grader who, after a year of one-on-one tutoring, was still reading at the very lowest levels. Despite having letter/sound knowledge, the child was actually using a "partial alphabetic" approach to reading words in books (Ehri, 2005; Mesmer, 1999). She would use beginning sounds along with pictures and memory to guess at words. The approach would have been fine in early first grade or late kindergarten but not in second grade. She needed to move into "full alphabetic" reading, or fully sounding out words-including the vowels. What I found was that the books I was using did not support this transition. She would come to words in text like "hair" and "grouchy," and she did not have the knowledge to decode them. When I used texts with some decodability she began to use what she knew about letter-sounds to sound out words in text. It was empowering and amazing to the see "I can do it!' smile spread across her face when she would pause at a tough word and work it out.

How?

Often when I discuss how to use decodables with teachers I get the kind of extreme responses described above (Never use decodables! Exclusively use decodables!). In my opinion, neither of these approaches is helpful. Instead, I offer the following recommendations about how to use decodables.

Use at the right developmental point.
Decodables should be used once children are extremely solid with all letter-sounds and are ready to fully decode. They should have a solid concept of word and be able to accurately point to both single-syllable and multisyllabic words in a predictable text, using beginning sounds to help them. I suggest that children be able to decode a simple c-v-c word prior to using decodables.

Use after a phonics lesson to practice target word family or sound.
The most obvious time to ask children to read a decodable is right after a decoding lesson in which they have had instruction on a specific word family. When children see words they have decoded in text, they understand that the work they are doing has a real application. Put these books in children's hands, let them do it! Let them read and reread these books. Have them "sound out" words. They should be able to do it all by themselves without a lot of "overscaffolded" instruction.

Do not use exclusively.
I do not recommend using decodables exclusively for two reasons. First, the sounding out that children have to do in a decodable is substantial and can be wearing. Second, there are other types of books that children benefit from, including multi-criteria texts like those mentioned above. Use decodables for their purpose-to practice decoding in context.

Pay attention to the level of decodability.
In reality, texts do not exactly fit into neat categories of "decodable" vs. "not-decodable." Instead, decodability exists on a continuum, with some texts being more decodable and others being somewhat decodable. In the more decodable books, there is a really tight level of control with many words having specific letter/sound patterns.

You can usually spot these because there are lot of short vowel words and each sentence will offer many decoding opportunities. The page of this Bob Book is an example:

Dot had a dog. The dog is Mag.
Mag to the bag. Dot got Mag.

Notice that the -ot, -og, and -ag families are all represented throughout the sentence. To decode the first line of print, the reader has to shift between an -ot word (Dot) then an -og word (dog), then another -og word (dog) and then an -ag word (Mag), all in the first line of print.

I like to use books like this near the end of short vowel instruction, when readers have gotten pretty fluent with decoding short vowels and can handle these shifts pretty seamlessly. If you are using a decodable and the reader is slowing down at every third word to sound out, the book is likely not quite right.

At the beginning of decoding instruction where the focus is on word families and adding a beginning sound to a family, I like to use books that I call somewhat decodable. Below is an example:

I like to win.
I like to pin.
I like to sip.
I like to dip.
I like to hop.
I like to pop.
This is me!
All I can be!

In this example, there are decodable words, but they are at the end of each sentence. In order to read this book, the reader can use the repeated sentence and the high frequency word like, then do the decoding work at the end of the sentence. The decoding work is not too overwhelming, and the reader can apply letter/sound knowledge without taking too long to read the book.

Know when to stop
I believe¹ that decodables are most useful for propelling children through the period in which they are learning to decode words or blend sounds together. This period is usually 2-3 months. Once a child can quickly and easily blend c-v-c words with all short vowels, I believe they no longer need decodables. I would also add that these words should also include c-c-v-c words that contain consonant blends or digraphs (e.g. ship, plan). By the time fluid decoding of short vowel c-v-c words is accomplished, most children will have a reading vocabulary close to 500 words that will land them squarely in text levels nearing a mid-first or early second-grade level. Typically, this point will occur in spring of Kindergarten or fall/winter of first grade.

___________________________________________________________________ Note: I am very purposefully using the word "believe" here.
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For more ideas and suggestions (e.g., How to do a Bookwalk in a Decodable) see Letter Lessons and First Words: Phonics Foundations that Work at Heinemann.com.

Heidi Anne E. Mesmer, PhD, is a Professor in Literacy in the School of Education at Virginia Tech. A former classroom teacher, she works extensively with teachers, schools, and young readers, directing numerous school-based initiatives to improve reading instruction. Heidi Anne studies beginning reading instruction and text difficulty and her work has been published in The Reading Teacher, Reading Research Quarterly, The Educational Researcher, Elementary School Journal, and Early Childhood Research Quarterly. She is the author of Tools for Matching Readers to Texts, Reading Interventions in Primary Grades, and Teaching Skills for Complex Texts.

References

Cheatham, J. P., & Allor, J. H. (2012). The influence of decodability in early reading text on reading achievement: A review of the evidence. Reading and Writing, 25(9), 2223-2246.

Ehri, L. C. (2005). Learning to read words: Theory, findings, and issues. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9, 167-188. doi:10.1207/s1532799xssr0902_4

Foorman, B. R., Francis, D. J., Davidson, K. C., Harm, M. W., & Griffin, J. (2004). Variability in text features in six grade 1 basal reading programs. Scientific Studies of Reading, 8(2), 167-197.

Jenkins, J. R., Peyton, J. A., Sanders, E. A. (2004). Effects of reading decodable texts in supplemental first-grade tutoring. Scientific Studies of Reading, 8(1), 53-85.

Johnston, F. R. (2000). Word learning in predictable text. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(2), 248.

Juel, C., & Roper/Schneider, D. (1985). The influence of basal readers on first grade reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 20(2), 134-152.

Menon, S., & Hiebert, E. H. (2005). A comparison of first graders' reading with little books or literature‐based basal anthologies. Reading Research Quarterly, 40(1), 12-38.

Mesmer, H. A. E. (1999). Scaffolding a crucial transition using text with some decodability. The Reading Teacher, 53(2), 130-142.

Mesmer, H. A. (2001). Examining the theoretical claims about decodable text: Does text decodability lead to greater application of letter/sound knowledge in first-grade readers? In Yearbook: National Reading Conference (Vol. 50, pp. 444-459).

Mesmer, H. A. (2005). Text decodability and the first grade reader. Reading and Writing
Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 2(1), 61-86.

Mesmer, H. A. (2010). Textual scaffolds and beginning readers: Accuracy and fluency in
qualitatively leveled and decodable text. Literacy Research and Instruction, 49, 1-20.

Share, D. L. (1995). Phonological recoding and self-teaching: Sine qua non of reading acquisition. Cognition, 55, 151-218.

Vadasy, P. F., Sanders, E. A., & Peyton, J. A. (2005). Relative effectiveness of reading practice or word-level instruction in supplemental tutoring: How text matters. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 38(4), 364-380.

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What decodable text is, why it might be used, when, developmentally, it might be used, and how it can be used to boost early reading skills.

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RISE Assessor Card for Teachers of Students with ESN

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RISE Assessor Card for Teachers of Students with ESN

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ADE Assessor Card for Teachers of Students with Extensive Support Needs (Updated 2023)

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Arkansas - Welcome to the Texthelp Family

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Every student in Arkansas now has access to three Texthelp tools - Read&Write, Equatio, and uPar - to help increase student achievement in reading and mathematics.

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Read&Write for Education Academy - Start your learning journey today

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Guides, videos and resources to help you get the most from Read&Write for Education. Resources for beginners, intermediate and advanced users.

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The Arkansas Mathematics Standards and Courses, adopted by the State Board of Education, represent the work of educators from across the state. These standards include student performance expectations, which are what all students should know and be able to do.

Please Note: All educators instructing identified English Learners [including, core content, elective, and English Language Development (ELD) educators] are expected to teach toward both content standards and language proficiency standards (learn more here).

2023 Grades K-8, Algebra I, Geometry, and Secondary Math Standards

2023 Grades K-8, Algebra I, and Geometry Mathematics Standards are to be fully implemented in 2023-24.

2023 K-8, Algebra I, and Geometry Mathematics Standards ( PDF| DOCX)

2023 Secondary Math Standards ( PDF| DOCX)

Grades K-8

High School

Advanced Topics and Modeling in Mathematics ( PDF| DOCX)

Algebra I Part A ( PDF| DOCX) and Algebra I Part B ( PDF| DOCX)

Critical Algebra I ( PDF| DOCX)

SREB Transitional Math Ready* ( SREB Transitional Math Ready) ( Transitional Course)

Technical Math for College and Career* ( PDF| DOCX)

High School CTE Courses for Math Credit

Computerized Accounting II*, ** ( Course Info)

Case Agricultural Power & Technology*, ** ( Course Info)

PLTW: Civil Engineering & Architecture*, ** ( Course Info)

PLTW: Digital Electronics*, ** ( Course Info)

PLTW: Engineering Design & Development*, ** ( Course Info)
* Denotes courses that ADE designates as beyond Algebra II for the purposes of Smart Core** ADE approved Division of Career and Technical Education Courses listed:

do not require a math licensure to award math credit; see the CCMS for licensure requirements

cannot be used to meet the math course requirements under the Arkansas Thirty-Eight Required High-School Courses; they can be used to meet the Career Education requirements

must meet Division of Career and Technical Education Program of Study requirements, including any course prerequisites.

For more information, please contact:

Mathematics Program Manager

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The Arkansas Mathematics Standards and Courses, adopted by the State Board of Education, represent the work of educators from across the state. These standards include student performance expectations, which are what all students should know and be able to do.

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Math Crosswalk:  2023 AR Math Standards with DLM Essential Elements 

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ELA Crosswalk:  2023 AR ELA Standards with DLM Essential Elements 

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Decision Flowchart for Least Restrictive Environment

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Decision Flowchart for Least Restrictive Environment

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Copy of Communication Bill of Rights.png

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All people with a disability of any extent or severity have a basic right to affect, through communication, the conditions of their existence. Beyond this general right, a number of specific communication rights should be ensured in all daily interactions and interventions involving persons who have severe disabilities.

To participate fully in communication interactions, each person has these fundamental communication rights:

1. The right to interact socially, maintain social closeness, and build relationships

2. The right to request desired objects, actions, events, and people

3. The right to refuse or reject undesired objects, actions, events, or choices

4. The right to express personal preferences and feelings

5. The right to make choices from meaningful alternatives

6. The right to make comments and share opinions

7. The right to ask for and give information, including information about changes in routine and environment

8. The right to be informed about people and events in one's life

9. The right to access interventions and supports that improve communication

10. The right to have communication acts acknowledged and responded to even when the desired outcome cannot be realized

11. The right to have access to functioning AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) and other AT (assistive technology) services and devices at all times

12. The right to access environmental contexts, interactions, and opportunities that promote participation as full communication partners with other people, including peers

13. The right to be treated with dignity and addressed with respect and courtesy

14. The right to be addressed directly and not be spoken for or talked about in the third person while present

15. The right to have clear, meaningful, and culturally and linguistically appropriate communications

Download a PDF version of the National Joint Committee's Communication Bill of Rights [PDF].

cite as: Brady, N. C., Bruce, S., Goldman, A., Erickson, K., Mineo, B., Ogletree, B. T., Paul, D., Romski, M., Sevcik, R., Siegel, E., Schoonover, J., Snell, M., Sylvester, L., & Wilkinson, K. (2016). Communication services and supports for individuals with severe disabilities: Guidance for assessment and intervention. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 121(2), 121-138.

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All people with a disability of any extent or severity have a basic right to affect, through communication, the conditions of their existence.

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Beginning and struggling readers and spellers need to learn how to pull words apart into sounds, and represent them with letters/spellings, and blend sounds together into words.

The sounds part of this task (phonemic awareness) is difficult for many, and English spelling is famously complex, as meaningful word parts (morphemes) also affect spelling. This website aims to help you teach beginners and strugglers about sounds and spellings using explicit, systematic synthetic phonics and knowledge of morphology, giving them a solid foundation on which to build their fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and written expression.

The Spelfabet materials were designed by an Australian Speech Pathologist for non-experts to use in teaching struggling spellers/readers how to sound out words. They are carefully-sequenced, easy-to-use, affordable, downloadable and reproducible resources, which should be used with decodable books. They are supplementary resources, not a complete program.

This site includes resource lists to help you find good resources for teaching encoding and decoding skills, many of which also target vocabulary, fluency and comprehension, plus:

Blog: Reviews of resources and teaching strategies, plain English discussions of theoretical stuff, and the occasional reflection or rant on teaching spelling and reading.

Video tours of Spelfabet materials: workbooks, games, moveable alphabet.

Spelling lists: Find free, carefully sequenced spelling lists, the many ways each English speech sound is spelt, and the main sounds represented by each spelling pattern.

Therapy service: We offer individual and group intervention in North Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia, targeting phonemic awareness, orthographic and morphological knowledge and other language-based aspects of reading and writing. Tiana, who makes our appointments, works 9.45 to 5.45 Monday to Thursday, phone: (03) 8528 0138 or email admin@spelfabet.com.au.

Spelfabet is also on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Spelfabet acknowledges the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, who are the traditional custodians of the land on which we work. We pay our respects to the Wurundjeri Elders, past, present and emerging, extend this respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait people from other communities, and seek to help close the appalling literacy gap between indigenous and other Australians.

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Learning the building blocks of words - sounds, their spellings, and word parts

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AR DESE's R.I.S.E. Approved Curriculum List

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AR DESE's R.I.S.E. Approved Curriculum List

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Not an Alternate Curriculum-Ties Brief #5

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Not an Alternate Curriculum-Ties Brief #5

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Decoding Strategies for Beginning Readers // how to teach kindergarten and 1st graders to decode

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Agility With Sound - The complete literacy programme for older students

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Agility With Sound is a complete literacy programme with decodable books for older struggling readers & writers.

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I am so excited to share that the paperback version of The Path's End is now available. You can find it here on Amazon or on other Amazon marketplaces. I hope you enjoy it. I need to go order my copies now.

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I am so excited to share that the paperback version of The Path's End is now available. You can find it here on Amazon or on other Amazon marketplaces. I hope you enjoy it. I need to go order my copies now.

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Reading Intervention Resources, Tools & Materials for Struggling Readers - Phonic Books

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Age appropriate, hi-interest, decodable books and workbooks for older, struggling readers. Order your reading intervention resources from Phonic Books. The exciting stories and instantly engaging illustrations will interest even the most reluctant of older readers.

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Four sets of books designed for older children at the very early stages of reading. Set 1 introduces sounds gradually at CVC level with one line of text on each page, Set 2 introduces adjacent consonants and consonant digraphs and Set 3 introduces two spellings for vowel sounds.

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Phonics-based decodable readers give students opportunities to practice decoding while reading engaging stories and subject matter. Books in these series progress according to specific phonics skill levels, and can be used for guided instruction or independent reading.

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Simple Words Books | Best Decodable Books for Striving Readers

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Home - Simple Words Books | Best Decodable Books for Dyslexic Readers

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Simple Words Books offers Decodable Chapter Books and Readers for DyslexicReaders. Big-kid books that reduce traditional chapter book frustrations.

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Read Well 3 Composition and Whole Class Writer’s Notebook 1 - Units A-B, 1-6 (10 pack)

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WRS Student Readers 1-12 Set, 4th Edition

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Students gain accuracy and fluency by practicing their emerging decoding skills with highly controlled text found in the WRS Student Readers. The wordlists, sentences, and stories in the Student Readers are on average 98% decodable, that is, the text is limited to phonetically controlled words and high frequency words that have been directly taught. The selected words have been carefully considered to include core and academic vocabulary words. Wordlists include Level AB, Level A, and Level B vocabulary. Sentences and passages include targeted high frequency words as well as Level AB and Level B vocabulary. The passages average 100-200 words in Steps 1-6 and 200-250 in Steps 7-12. (If teaching in a group setting, each student will need their own set of WRS Student Readers.) SPECIFICATIONS: 12 items (8.5″ x 10.875″) ISBN: 9781567786613

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Feedback: Foundations of Reading for Students with ESN

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Feedback: Foundations of Reading for Students with ESN

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Making Words Using a Tile Manipulation Board | Literacy for Students with Cognitive Disabilities

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The Supreme Court ruled today that Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) must give kids with disabilities more than a de minimis, or minimal, educational benefit. The ruling could have a big effect on school services for kids with learning and thinking differences.

The case-Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District-involved "Drew," a boy with autism who made almost no progress on his IEP goals. His parents said he was entitled to more under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the nation's special education law. They asked the Court to rule that the boy should have had an "equal opportunity" to achieve success like other kids. The school district, however, argued that the boy only had the right to a de minimis, or minimal, benefit from the IEP. And that's what he received, the school district said.

In a 16-page decision, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, writing for a unanimous court, rejected the school district's de minimis standard. He wrote that IDEA aims for "grade level advancement for children with disabilities who can be educated in the regular classroom." Therefore, a de minimis standard makes no sense:

When all is said and done, a student offered an educational program providing "merely more than de minimis " progress from year to year can hardly be said to have been offered an education at all. For children with disabilities, receiving instruction that aims so low would be tantamount to "sitting idly ... awaiting the time when they were old enough to 'drop out.'"

But Roberts also didn't accept the "equal opportunity" standard that Drew's parents wanted. Instead, he crafted a more flexible standard:

The IDEA demands more. It requires an educational program reasonably calculated to enable a child to make progress appropriate in light of the child's circumstances.

This would apply, Roberts wrote, even to kids like Drew who aren't integrated into general education classrooms:

If that is not a reasonable prospect for a child, his IEP need not aim for grade-level advancement. But his educational program must be appropriately ambitious in light of his circumstances, just as advancement from grade to grade is appropriately ambitious for most children in the regular classroom. The goals may differ, but every child should have the chance to meet challenging objectives.

He acknowledged that this was a "general standard, not a formula." A lot will depend, he wrote, on each child's unique needs:

We will not attempt to elaborate on what "appropriate" progress will look like from case to case. It is in the nature of the [special education law] and the standard we adopt to resist such an effort: The adequacy of a given IEP turns on the unique circumstances of the child for whom it was created.

Importantly, Roberts noted, IDEA requires IEPs to be developed with expertise from schools and input from parents. And schools must give "cogent and responsive explanation[s]" for their decisions on services.

Disability advocates applauded the Endrew F. decision. "This is a good day for children with disabilities," said Mimi Corcoran, President and CEO of Understood founding partner the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD). "The Court affirmed that the vision and intent of IDEA is that children with disabilities will make meaningful progress in our education system and achieve 'appropriately ambitious' objectives. It soundly rejected the belief that just some small benefit is enough. NCLD applauds this decision and will work with parents and educators to make it a reality."

Legal experts caution that it will take time to understand the full implications of the decision for kids with learning and thinking differences. But for Drew's parents, the decision is a welcome sign that their son deserved more.

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.

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Endrew F. Case Decided: Supreme Court Rules on How Much Benefit IEPs Must Provide

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With the Endrew F. ruling, the Supreme Court rejected the "de minimis" standard of benefit for IEPs. Find out what the Court's ruling means.

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Phonological awareness is a broad skill that includes identifying and manipulating units of oral language - parts such as words, syllables, and onsets and rimes. Children who have phonological awareness are able to identify and make oral rhymes, can clap out the number of syllables in a word, and can recognize words with the same initial sounds like 'money' and 'mother.'

Phonemic awareness refers to the specific ability to focus on and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. Phonemes are the smallest units comprising spoken language. Phonemes combine to form syllables and words. For example, the word 'mat' has three phonemes: /m/ /a/ /t/. There are 44 phonemes in the English language, including sounds represented by letter combinations such as /th/. Acquiring phonemic awareness is important because it is the foundation for spelling and word recognition skills. Phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors of how well children will learn to read during the first two years of school instruction.

Students at risk for reading difficulty often have lower levels of phonological awareness and phonemic awareness than do their classmates. The good news is that phonemic awareness and phonological awareness can be developed through a number of activities. Read below for more information.

What the problem looks like

A kid's perspective: What this feels like to me

Children will usually express their frustration and difficulties in a general way, with statements like "I hate reading!" or "This is stupid!". But if they could, this is how kids might describe how difficulties with phonological or phonemic awareness affect their reading:

I don't know any words that rhyme with cat.

What do you mean when you say, "What sounds are in the word brush?"

I'm not sure how many syllables are in my name.

I don't know what sounds are the same in bit and hit.

A parent's perspective: What I see at home

Here are some clues for parents that a child may have problems with phonological or phonemic awareness:

She has difficulty thinking of rhyming words for a simple word like cat (such as rat or bat).

She doesn't show interest in language play, word games, or rhyming.

A teacher's perspective: What I see in the classroom

Here are some clues for teachers that a student may have problems with phonological or phonemic awareness:

She doesn't correctly complete blending activities; for example, put together sounds /k/ /i/ /ck/ to make the word kick.

He doesn't correctly complete phoneme substitution activities; for example, change the /m/ in mate to /cr/ in order to make crate.

He has a hard time telling how many syllables there are in the word paper.

He has difficulty with rhyming, syllabication, or spelling a new word by its sound.

How to help

With the help of parents and teachers, kids can learn strategies to cope with phonological and/or phonemic awareness problems that affect his or her reading. Below are some tips and specific things to do.

What kids can do to help themselves

Be willing to play word and sounds games with parents or teachers.

Be patient with learning new information related to words and sounds. Giving the ears a workout is difficult!

Practice hearing the individual sounds in words. It may help to use a plastic chip as a counter for each sound you hear in a word.

Be willing to practice writing. This will give you a chance to match sounds with letters.

What parents can do to help at home

Check with your child's teacher or principal to make sure the school's reading program teaches phonological, phonemic awareness, and phonics skills.

If your child is past the ages at which phonemic awareness and phonological skills are taught class-wide (usually kindergarten to first or second grade), make sure he or she is receiving one-on-one or small group instruction in these skills.

Do activities to help your child build sound skills (make sure they are short and fun; avoid allowing your child to get frustrated):

Help your child think of a number of words that start with the /m/ or /ch/ sound, or other beginning sounds.

Make up silly sentences with words that begin with the same sound, such as "Nobody was nice to Nancy's neighbor".

Play simple rhyming or blending games with your child, such as taking turns coming up with words that rhyme (go - no) or blending simple words (/d/, /o/, /g/ = dog).

Read books with rhymes. Teach your child rhymes, short poems, and songs.

Practice the alphabet by pointing out letters wherever you see them and by reading alphabet books.

Consider using computer software that focuses on developing phonological and phonemic awareness skills. Many of these programs use colorful graphics and animation that keep young children engaged and motivated.

What teachers can do to help at school

Learn all about phonemes (there are more than 40 speech sounds that may not be obvious to fluent readers and speakers).

Make sure the school's reading program and other materials include skill-building in phonemes, especially in kindergarten and first grade (these skills do not come naturally, but must be taught).

If children are past the age at which phonemic awareness and phonological skill-building are addressed (typically kindergarten through first or second grade), attend to these skills one-on-one or in a small group. Ask your school's reading specialist for help finding a research-based supplemental or intervention program for students in need.

Identify the precise phoneme awareness task on which you wish to focus and select developmentally appropriate activities for engaging children in the task. Activities should be fun and exciting - play with sounds, don't drill them.

Make sure your school's reading program and other materials include systematic instruction in phonics.

Consider teaching phonological and phonemic skills in small groups since students will likely be at different levels of expertise. Remember that some students may need more reinforcement or instruction if they are past the grades at which phonics is addressed by a reading program (first through third grade).

Browse our phonological and phonemic awareness resource library

Learn more about building children's phonological and phonemic awareness skills through our articles, tips for parents, video, FAQs, and research briefs. Visit our Phonological and Phonemic Awareness section

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Target the Problem: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

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Phonological awareness is a broad skill that includes identifying and manipulating units of oral language - parts such as words, syllables, and onsets and rimes. Children who have phonological awareness are able to identify and make oral rhymes, can clap out the number of syllables in a word, and can recognize words with the same initial sounds like 'money' and 'mother.'

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Tyler: Collaborative Planning Doc for Reading/Communication

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Tyler: Collaborative Planning Doc for Reading/Communication

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Tyler:  Collaborative Planning for Reading/Communication

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Why Phonological Awareness is Important for Reading & Spelling

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Why Phonological Awareness is Important for Reading & Spelling

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Phoneme awareness is necessary for learning and using the alphabetic code

Phoneme awareness predicts later outcomes in reading and spelling

The majority of poor readers have relative difficulty with phoneme awareness and other phonological skills

Instruction in phoneme awareness is beneficial for novice readers and spellers

Phonological awareness interacts with and facilitates the development of vocabulary and word consciousness

Moats, L, & Tolman, C (2009). Excerpted from Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS): The Speech Sounds of English: Phonetics, Phonology, and Phoneme Awareness (Module 2). Boston: Sopris West.

For more information on Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) visit Voyager Sopris .

For any reprint requests, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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Why Phonological Awareness Is Important for Reading and Spelling

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Phonological awareness is critical for learning to read any alphabetic writing system. And research shows that difficulty with phoneme awareness and other phonological skills is a predictor of poor reading and spelling development.

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Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials (AIIM)

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Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials (AIIM)

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The Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is committed to ensuring that every student in Arkansas has equitable access to high-quality instructional materials (HQIM), grade-level instruction, and responsive practices, leading to opportunities to reach college, career, and life goals. Additionally, DESE will support all Arkansas educators to have strong foundations in pedagogical content knowledge and readiness to identify and skillfully implement HQIM.

In Arkansas, HQIM are curriculum materials aligned to state academic standards that include evidence-based strategies, inclusive practices, and embedded teacher supports. High-quality materials take into account the needs and experiences of diverse learners that are actively literate, critical thinkers, and engaged in the community.

To support Arkansas districts in the use of HQIM, DESE has partnered with an Instructional Materials and Professional Development (IMPD) network through the Council of Chief State School OfficersTM (CCSSO). Arkansas has identified five key priorities to develop pathways to HQIM.

Ecosystem of Support

This work is possible through the collaboration of multiple stakeholders. Please click the IMPD Ecosystem of Support image to enlarge.

Supporting Arkansas High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM)

This Building Pathways to HQIM guidebook is designed for Arkansas Ready for Learning Teams to learn about High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) with the goal of establishing a district-wide process to communicate, educate, and build awareness in the value of HQIM.

To help communicate what HQIM is and how it will impact Arkansas teachers and students, the following media and presentation materials have been developed and are available in varied formats.

For more information, please contact:

Arkansas Department of Education

Division of Elementary and Secondary Education

Email: Kiffany.Pride@ade.arkansas.gov

Arkansas Department of Education

Four Capitol Mall, Room 403-B

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Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials (AIIM)

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The Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is committed to ensuring that every student in Arkansas has equitable access to high-quality instructional materials (HQIM), grade-level instruction, and responsive practices, leading to opportunities to reach college, career, and life goals.