FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL & CLASSROOM SUPPORT
Supporting Students - Curriculum Adjustments
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) and the Disability Standards for Education 2005 outline the obligations of education and training providers to make reasonable adjustments. These reasonable adjustments should ensure that students with disability can access and participate in education on the same basis as students without a disability. Decisions regarding curriculum options, including adjustments, should be made in the context of collaborative curriculum planning.
Adjustments are actions taken that enable a student with disability to access syllabus outcomes and content on the same basis as their peers. These adjustments relate to teaching, learning and assessment from Kindergarten to Year 12. The types of adjustments will vary according to the needs of the individual student.
In accordance with Nationally Consistent Collection of Data, teachers and schools use their professional judgements to make decisions to provide adjustments at one of 4 levels:
- support provided within quality differentiated teaching practices
- supplementary adjustments
- substantial adjustments
- extensive adjustments.
Adjustments may be evidenced in a student’s personalised plan or as annotations on teaching and learning programs, depending on the individual student’s needs.
General examples of adjustments
Examples of general adjustments can include:
- adjustments to classroom organisation, eg seating, uncluttered wall space, blinds to reduce glare on a whiteboard
- materials and resources that support teaching and learning activities, eg manipulatives or concrete materials, visuals and anchor charts to support concept development, word walls to support vocabulary acquisition
- the use of technology, eg personal devices to access learning
- alternate formats such as large print or Braille
- simplified texts
- captioning of audiovisual material
- oral sign interpreters or readers and scribes
- modifications to equipment or furniture
- adjustments to enable participation in field trips and excursions
- adjustments to the amount of lesson/unit content or the time allocated to complete work, eg consider core or critical content first, teach key terminology to reduce cognitive load
- consideration of individual communication strategies, including verbal and non-verbal communication systems, eg visual prompts, closed questions
- more demonstration of key concepts and skills by the teacher, teacher’s aide or a peer, eg explicit modelling of concept or skill, use of visual supports, scaffolding processes or instructions
- structured opportunities for guided and independent practice
- additional support through group work, volunteer or peer tutoring.
Currciculum Intervention at St Pat's - MacqLit
MacqLit is an explicit and systematic reading intervention program. It provides teachers with a comprehensive sequence of lessons that includes all the key components necessary for effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
Who is it for?
- Ideal for students who fall in the bottom 25% of a standardised reading test or curriculum-based measure, and who have particular difficulties in the area of word recognition.
- Specifically aimed at struggling readers in Year 3 through to high school.
Delivery:
- Small group program only for use in schools.
- Delivered by teachers, learning support teachers, special educators, and well-trained and well-supported teacher aides.
- Each lesson is designed to be completed in one hour, and for best results should be delivered at least four times a week.
Key benefits:
- A systematic and explicit reading intervention program for older low-progress readers.
- Small group program only for use in accredited primary and secondary schools.
- Comprehensive sequence of lessons including all the components necessary for effective reading instruction.
- Allows students to generalise component skills through connected text reading.
