Special Education

Teaching Students with Learning and Behavioural Differences
A Resource Guide for Teachers

Elementary Case Studies

The sample IEP on page 32 illustrates a student with a learning disability who is served by a learning assistance program. The student's expected learning outcomes are the same as the provincial learning outcomes for the courses. The student is assessed in the same way as other students in the class, therefore, individualized assessment criteria are not included.

Case Study 1 - Tyson Magnus

Tyson is a bright and active Grade 6 student. He appears to have no difficulty with conceptually understanding Grade 6 material, but has difficulty completing written assignments. Tyson is small for his age, but quite athletic. Although he has many friends, his teachers have always felt that he is somewhat immature for his age. Tyson's Grade 6 teacher, Ms. Cook, is particularly concerned with his reading and writing skills. A related concern is that Tyson often loses his school supplies and does not hand in all of his assignments Ms. Cook feels that he needs to improve these skills to be successful in all his subjects.

First Steps

When Ms. Cook reviewed Tyson's permanent record, the following information was revealed:

  • Tyson's oral language was very difficult to understand when he entered Kindergarten. He received speech therapy twice per month from his Kindergarten through his Grade 3 school years. Follow-up programming was provided at home.
  • Tyson's reading and writing skills were slow to develop in the primary years. His teachers attributed this difficulty largely to his difficulty with articulation. It was felt that reading and writing skills would follow closely behind Tyson's ability to clearly express himself orally.
  • Tyson showed a great deal of interest and ability in science and social studies. He readily shared information during classroom discussions and understood the concepts introduced.

Discussions with Tyson's Grade 4 and Grade 5 teachers confirmed the findings in the permanent record. He continued to excel conceptually in the content areas but his difficulty with reading and writing were starting to catch up with him. Tyson's Grade 5 teacher indicated that he had used Grade 8 volunteers to prepare tape recordings of some of the social studies materials so that Tyson could follow along with headphones when he read the material. This seemed to work very well, although he felt that Tyson's marks didn't reflect his understanding of most of the material because he performed so poorly on written tests.

Ms. Cook arranged a conference with Tyson during writer's workshop while the other students worked on their personal writing. She told Tyson that it seemed to her that he was having no difficulty learning, but that his written work and organizational skills were starting to affect his grades. She asked Tyson how he felt about his work in Grade 6 so far. Tyson indicated that it is very difficult for him to copy from the board and that if he copies all the notes, then he can't listen and then he misses some of the information. He felt that he could learn better by listening than by copying. He also stated that sometimes he doesn't have time to read all the required reading because it seems to take him longer and it's hard for him to understand. Finally, Tyson said that the only reason he didn't finish all his assignments was that he couldn't remember which ones he'd finished and which ones he still had to work on. Ms. Cook asked Tyson if he was willing to try to solve some of these problems together - would he be willing to try a little harder if she could work out ways to help him with the reading, copying, writing and keeping track of his assignments? She explained that she would arrange a meeting with Tyson's parents and the learning assistance teacher to get some ideas. Tyson agreed to try the new ideas, but he didn't want to come to a meeting with his mother.

Ms. Cook called Mrs. Magnus to explain her concerns, to request permission for formal achievement testing in writing and reading skills, and to invite her to a planning meeting. Mrs. Magnus agreed to participate and approved the testing.

At a brief after-school meeting, the following IEP was developed by Ms. Samson, LA teacher, Mrs. Magnus, Tyson's mother, and Ms. Cook.

Review

On October 15, Ms. Samson and Ms. Cook met at lunch to discuss Tyson's progress. Tyson was using his homework book backed with the "buddy" system to help him finish assignments. He had only two outstanding assignments. Ms. Cook felt that his progress on this goal had been adequate and that the adaptations were working effectively. Ms. Samson indicated that Tyson was beginning to gain confidence in using the word processor independently, but needed some more work. She felt that by January he would be able to use word processing independently and she would target that time to release him from her case load. No further referrals were initiated.