Instructional planning

Designing meaningful and effective instruction for students with significant cognitive disabilities requires intentional planning that considers the strengths and needs of individual learners and takes into account best practices that benefit all learners.

For a sample of the kinds of changes in practice observed by participants in the community of practice, click here.

Principles of planning

The principles of planning for effective instruction are equally applicable to both students who are typical learners and students with significant cognitive disabilities. Learn more…

Functional vs academic

There is some debate in the literature over the benefits of functional life skills programming versus academic programming grounded in the standard curriculum. There are a number of factors to consider when planning for instruction and often the most responsive and robust options are blended from these two distinct approaches. Learn more…

Literacy

Meaningful, purposeful communication is at the heart of learning to read and write. Students who learn that they can use reading and writing to investigate areas of interest, share their ideas, thoughts, and feelings, or interact with new people understand that the primary purpose of literacy is communication. Learn more…

Numeracy

Numeracy, along with literacy, is foundational to all learning. As Alberta moves towards a more inclusive education approach, teachers will need new ways to support the mathematical instruction and numeracy development for students with diverse learning needs, including students with significant cognitive disabilities. Learn more…

References

For a list of research articles on planning for instruction, literacy and numeracy, click here.