Profile description
The student is sixteen years old and has a visual perception learning disability. Such a disability involves one having problems with organizing and interpreting information he or she receives through sight. Through the assistance of a consultant, a tutor, and other specialized tools, the student has managed to go through secondary school to the ninth grade successfully. The private consultant has been essential in helping the student utilize other senses thereby compensating for his visual perception learning disability. He is a highly motivated student who has managed to keep up with his learning milestones through the help of the tutor who he has contact with for five hours every week. The student displays such characteristics as a strong auditory memory, weak vocabulary retention, and expression, weak reading and spelling skills classified by the lack of fluency and speed and often a misinterpretation of what he perceives.
Possible decisions during planning and instruction for the student
I would adopt an integrative instructional model for the student. The integrative model would include various adaptations, modifications and UDL decisions to help address the student’s special needs. Appropriate accommodations can characterize the student's learning experience as a tape recorder, orientation tours, note-takers, taped text material, a computerized thesaurus and speller with voice input, reader or oral exams, a proofreader and a dicta-typist for written assignments. Teaching tips for a productive learning experience would include extended test times, use of demonstrations when appropriate, verbal repetition of relevant information, reduced course load, the provision of a course outline and reference materials beforehand, provision of terminology lists and allowance of oral rather than written submissions for the student.
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Some UDL decisions to help accommodate the student would include material that would enhance the learning process and translate it from what is taught to how it is taught. These include classroom discussions and a video concerning the specific concept. It would also include a text to speech version of the class reading material to make the student’s encounter and understanding easier. The planning and instruction would also include cooperation between the student and instructor with the student identifying how he believes he can become an expert learner. The classroom setup would also be flexible where various spaces for different class activities characterize it. The planning and instruction process would also include SDAIE strategies such as graphic organizers where the student will work in conjunction with the instructor to develop a visual timeline with related images for a concept being taught in class. Comparison/contrast matrices would be effective in comparison and differentiation activities.
The justification for the instruction decisions
Estes, Mintz, and Gunter (2015) identify that the integrative instructional model is essential in developing critical thinking skills in students. It is also crucial in helping students get through rich sources of information through developing connections and thus making sense of this information. Therefore the application of various UDL and SDAIE strategies would be effective in such activities as the information would be simplified using graphic organizers and numerous cooperative strategies between the student, classmates and the instructor. From the student’s profile, one can identify that he has a strong auditory memory meaning that tools such as text to speech texts would capitalize on such a strength making it easier for the student to read and understand the class text. SDAIE strategies such as graphic organizers would help address the student’s issue with misinterpretation of what is seen because the information is organized more appealingly. Further, Borich (2017) identifies that cooperative learning would be more useful for both student and instructor which then necessitates the frequent interaction between the instructor and student as the student gets the opportunity to identify what would make him an expert leaner.
References
Borich, G. (2017). Effective Teaching methods: Research-based practice. (9th ed., p. 530). San Francisco: Pearson.
Estes, T. H., Mintz, S. L., & Gunter, M. A. (2015). Instruction: A models approach . Pearson.
