Building Engagement with Distance Learning

Components Example: Josie

What is the long term vision of the family and the student?

Josie’s family would like to emphasize consistent communication across the day with an increased number of people, including friends her own age, across multiple and varied opportunities. They believe a consistent means of communication will be integral to living, working, and thriving as an adult.

Given this vision, what priority areas should be focused on in each of the learning components that would build the student’s knowledge and skills towards the vision?

* What content standards are addressed at this grade level? Which ones are the most relevant to this student, at this time?

  • Build and communicate strong content knowledge, offer ideas, adjust their thinking, refine their knowledge and advocate for themselves;
  • Express themselves clearly, communicate and collaborate with others;
  • Learn important mathematical concepts, skills, and number relationships with understanding;
  • Become self-directed learners who persevere in the face of educational challenges; value and respect other people and their perspectives.

* What are the priority routines and transitions to focus upon across environments?

  • Participation within small group instruction provided by an adult; peer to peer grouping working situations; and recognizing when others are transitioning from one location or activity to another and matching their behavior to that of others.

* What are the social and communication priorities to enhance interactions?

  • Making choices between two items; using an AAC device consistently to sustain conversations with less familiar people, including peers her own age.

What are the family’s daily routines, important times of the day, and traditions that would help the instructional team support instruction at home?

  • Josie’s body clock wakes her up early (5 am) daily and she goes to bed early (6 pm), she also needs extra time to eat, so meals have always been quality times that the family spends together.

Are there any specific areas of concern that the family has already experienced through distance learning that we should proactively think about together?

  • Josie has had a difficult time with distance learning due to not being understood when trying to communicate with her voice while online. She gets frustrated when communication breaks down and she cannot express herself without a sibling or family member being present, so she shuts her device off instead of persevering. Teaching Josie and her communication partners communication repair strategies with the use of her AAC device will enhance instruction and peer interactions.

How will the team work to maintain a focus on the student experiencing membership, active participation, and learning general education curriculum across the day?

  • Increased opportunities using hi-tech, low-tech, no-tech for Josie to be a part of group discussions, show what she knows/understands about the content, ask questions, or make comments in a creative way. 

IEP goal areas within the three components:

* Participating in Routines and Transitions, Josie will:

  • Follow three-step instructions across her day with the use of visuals and AAC device.

* Engaging in Grade Level Academics and Other Essential Skills, Josie will:

  • Increase reading comprehension by focusing on different purposes for reading across multiple readings of the same text  (e.g. to answer questions related to the characters and setting; to predict outcomes, and to compare and contrast characters to self).
  • Choose and apply the correct mathematical operation for simple word problems.
  • Manage personal belongings and use them appropriately.

* Interacting with Others, Josie will:

  • Initiate greetings and respond to greetings from others.
  • Maintain interactions for 3 or more turns with peers and adults.