Language Disabilities

Teachers consider many factors when developing unit plans to meet the needs of a variety of students. It is important to consider the strengths and needed accommodations of students in the classroom when developing lessons and units. If there are students with specific language impairments, the teacher must also consider ways to facilitate communication and engagement during classroom instruction. There may need to be a plan to pre-teach vocabulary, or plan certain questions that can be answered by students who may use a device or other mode of communication.

Read the following case scenario to inform the assignment that follows.

April is a fourth grader. Her performance on norm-referenced measures is 1.5 standard deviations below the mean for her chronological age. April has good decoding skills, but has difficulty with reading comprehension, semantics, and morphological processing. One accommodation that is prescribed in the IEP is the use of visual cues to support comprehension of new skills. She lacks organizational skills for writing and struggles with word choice. April receives services from a speech and language pathologist who is working on understanding word parts, vocabulary, and multiple meanings of words. You instruct April in a resource classroom with five other fourth graders who also struggle with reading and written expression.

Using details from the scenario, create a week-long English language arts unit plan based on the Common Core ELA fourth grade literacy standards specific to vocabulary acquisition and use.

Use the COE Lesson Plan Template to complete five formal lesson plans that include the following:

1. A measureable IEP goal for April that includes assistive technology. Include this goal within the “Learning Target” section of the COE Lesson Plan Template.
2. Learning targets aligned to the ELA Common Core fourth grade literacy standards.
3. Strategies to enhance language development and communication skills.
4. Strategies and technologies that encourage development of critical thinking and problem solving.
5. The use of augmentative and alternative communication systems and a variety of assistive technologies to support communication and learning.
6. A unit pre- and post-assessment that incorporates technologies to measure April’s measureable IEP goal progress.

Each lesson plan must be completed and submitted as a separate completed lesson plan.

In addition, provide a 250-500 word rationale that supports your instructional choices in responding to the needs of April, as evidenced by research on best practices for semantics disorders and the use of assistive technology. Support your rationale with a minimum of two scholarly resources.

Submit all lesson plans and rationale as one deliverable.