Introduction

There are times when it might be helpful to provide parents with an understanding of how you adapt curriculum to meet the special needs of children in special education. These modifications or adaptations to the curriculum offer children with special needs a greater chance of success in school. This issue of Parent Teacher Conference Handouts provides examples of adaptions that may assist students acheive success in Science

The following are examples of adaptations that may assist students with special needs achieve success in science. The teacher could:

Adapt the environment

Change where the student sits in the classroom.
Make use of cooperative grouping
Adapt presentations
Provide students with advance organizers of key scientific concepts.
Demonstrate or model new concepts.
Adapt the pace of activities
Allow the student more time to complete assignments
Provide shorter but more frequent assignments

Alternate mode for materials

Dictate to a scribe
Tape record
Draw pictures
Cut pictures from magazines
Build models
Use the computer
Enlarge/shrink materials
Use overlays/acetate on text pages
Cut and paste
Use manipulatives
Use a calculator

Adapt materials

Use large print activity sheets.
Use overlays on text pages to reduce the quantity of print that is visible.
Highlight key points on the activity sheet.
Line indicators
Sections on paper (draw lines, fold)
Different types of paper (e.g., graph, paper with mid-lines, raised line paper)
Provide more white space to put answers
Highlight or color code (directions, key words, topic sentences)
Cover parts of worksheets
Put less information on a page
Use high contrast colors

Adapt assistance

Use peers or volunteers to assist students with special needs.
Use students with special needs to assist younger students in learning science.
Use teacher assistants to work with small groups of students, as well as with an identified student with special needs.
Use consultants and support teachers for problem solving and to assist in developing strategies for science instruction.

Adapt assessment

Allow various ways for students to demonstrate their understanding of scientific concepts such as performing experiments, creating displays and models, and tape recording observations.
Adapt assessment tools such as paper and pencil tests to include options such as oral tests, open-book tests, and tests with no time limit.
Keep work samples on NCR paper.
Use computer programs that provide opportunities for scientific practice and recording results.
Provide opportunities for extension and practice
Require small amounts of work to be completed at a given time.
Simplify the way questions are worded to match the students’ level of understanding.
Provide functional everyday examples such as building structures to develop an understanding of forces. (Ministry of education, British Columbia 2006)