The ABC's of Curriculum Adaptation
From the April 2001 Education newsletter.


Adapting curriculum to meet the needs of students with disabilities can be a challenge. Rachel Janney, a professor of special education at Radford University, notes that educators sometimes feel they need to "water down the curriculum" to accommodate students with special needs. She advises teachers to remember that curriculum "shouldn't be a hodgepodge, it should make sense as a coherent curriculum." She also emphasizes that curriculum "needs to be instructional. It can't be just an amorphous socialization objective."

To achieve this goal, Dr. Janney recommends that general education teachers first find out what a student's IEP goals are. The teacher will need to know whether the student has an adapted curriculum with different goals than his or her typically developing classmates or whether the student simply needs modifications to the general education curriculum, such as extra time on tests.

When planning lessons and activities, Dr. Janney encourages teachers to use a lot of visuals, such as transparencies and outlines, and manipulatives in instruction. Hands-on and small group activities also work very well in an inclusive class. Dr. Janney points out that these instructional tools are beneficial to all students.

Aside from employing a variety of teaching techniques, Dr. Janney emphasizes the importance of "providing multiple ways of getting information to students and teaching students to organize and process information in that way." For example, if a teacher is using an outline or concept map in instruction, he or she needs to teach students how to use and interpret that tool in their learning process.

Coordination between general education teachers and resource teachers is essential, Dr. Janney emphasizes. If your school uses pull-out services, resource instruction should supplement the general education curriculum. For example, if a student requires remedial reading instruction from a resource teacher, the student should be taught with the same material his or her general education classmates are using.

As they collaborate, teachers should talk specifically about the ways to adapt various activities. The best time to do this is before or at the beginning of the school year, says Dr. Janney. If a general education teacher and a resource teacher have a plan in place for which type of activities will be adapted in which ways, lesson planing will be much easier for the general education teacher throughout the year.

Dr. Janney emphasizes that in an inclusive class, teachers should take an analytical approach, observing how students learn and making changes to the learning environment or materials if needed. Creativity and flexibility are also important attributes. Says Dr. Janney: "One key is being a really good observer of learners - getting to know their learning styles and seeing what works for each student."

Dr. Janney is a co-author of Modifying Schoolwork, a practical guide on adapting instruction for students with disabilities and part of the Teachers' Guides to Inclusive Practices series.