Learning experiences and assessment opportunities

As part of this unit, the teacher is planning to implement the following learning experiences and assessment opportunities. The teacher has incorporated the adjustments that Sarah needs when programming for Tier 1 (Sarah only).

Tier	Learning experiences and assessment opportunities
1	Sarah is assisted to move around the school with the Tier 2 group. She is given full assistance to respond to a range of instructions involving positional language, eg ‘Go on the grass’, ‘Go on the basketball court’, ‘Put your hat on your head’, ‘Pick up the bean-bag’.^* Sarah uses a VOCA with pre-recorded instructions to direct the group, eg she uses the VOCA to direct the group to ‘Sit in front of a piece of play equipment’. Sarah is assisted to take photographs of other students to demonstrate positional language. The teacher provides instructions and models the concepts of ‘on’ and ‘up’ using the camera as a reference point. For example: with the camera on Sarah’s wheelchair tray, the teacher puts her own hand on the camera and says ‘hand on camera’. The teacher gives the instruction ‘Sarah, put your hand on the camera’.^* The teacher provides Sarah with a physical prompt by guiding Sarah’s hand and placing it on the camera, saying ‘hand on camera’. with the camera on Sarah’s wheelchair tray, the teacher starts with her own hand placed on the camera. She demonstrates by lifting her own hand, saying ‘hand up’. The teacher gives the instruction, ‘Sarah, lift your hand up’.^* The teacher provides Sarah with a physical prompt by placing her own hand under Sarah’s hand, guiding Sarah to lift her hand, saying ‘hand up’. Sarah joins a Tier 3 group while they reconstruct a model of the school. She is positioned on her side-lyer. Sarah is assisted by a peer to follow simple instructions in order to reinforce the concepts of ‘on’ and ‘up’, eg the student physically prompts Sarah using hand-over-hand assistance eg ‘Put the block on’, ‘Pick up the playdough’. ^* The words in bold indicate the words that are emphasised in the instruction. Note: Opportunities for individualised instruction for Sarah are built into the class program.
2	Students walk around the school and respond to a range of instructions involving positional language from the teacher or Sarah (via the VOCA), eg ‘Sit in front of a piece of play equipment’, ‘Stand between the library and the canteen’. The teacher asks individual students to describe their position in relation to objects or buildings in the playground (eg ‘I am in front of the office door’) and to describe the position of an object or building in relation to himself/herself, eg ‘The office door is behind me’. The teacher asks students to describe Sarah’s position, eg ‘Sarah is on the basketball court’. In two small groups, students take photos of each other to demonstrate positional language and to create a ‘Where is?’ book. Each group develops a ‘Where is?’ book, and writes questions for each photograph in the book, eg ‘Where is Antonio standing?’ or ‘What is Mary standing in front of?’ The two groups of students exchange books. Each group writes a positional description in response to the question accompanying each photograph in the other group’s ‘Where is?’ book eg ‘Antonio is standing between the office and the toilet block’.
3	*Memory Model* (adapted from Mathematics K–6 Sample Units of Work, p 81) Students walk around the school observing the main buildings, landmarks and pathways. In small groups, students use blocks, small boxes and other available materials to reconstruct a model of the school from memory. They are asked to identify the main features of their model, eg ‘This is the play equipment’. Possible questions and instructions include: What part of the school is next to the toilets? How do you get to the office? Describe your route. Which school features will you include in your model and how will you mark special routes?

Tier

Sarah is assisted to move around the school with the Tier 2 group. She is given full assistance to respond to a range of instructions involving positional language, eg ‘Go on the grass’, ‘Go on the basketball court’, ‘Put your hat on your head’, ‘Pick up the bean-bag’.^*

Sarah uses a VOCA with pre-recorded instructions to direct the group, eg she uses the VOCA to direct the group to ‘Sit in front of a piece of play equipment’.

Sarah is assisted to take photographs of other students to demonstrate positional language. The teacher provides instructions and models the concepts of ‘on’ and ‘up’ using the camera as a reference point. For example:

with the camera on Sarah’s wheelchair tray, the teacher puts her own hand on the camera and says ‘hand on camera’. The teacher gives the instruction ‘Sarah, put your hand on the camera’.^* The teacher provides Sarah with a physical prompt by guiding Sarah’s hand and placing it on the camera, saying ‘hand on camera’.
with the camera on Sarah’s wheelchair tray, the teacher starts with her own hand placed on the camera. She demonstrates by lifting her own hand, saying ‘hand up’. The teacher gives the instruction, ‘Sarah, lift your hand up’.^* The teacher provides Sarah with a physical prompt by placing her own hand under Sarah’s hand, guiding Sarah to lift her hand, saying ‘hand up’.

Sarah joins a Tier 3 group while they reconstruct a model of the school. She is positioned on her side-lyer. Sarah is assisted by a peer to follow simple instructions in order to reinforce the concepts of ‘on’ and ‘up’, eg the student physically prompts Sarah using hand-over-hand assistance eg ‘Put the block on’, ‘Pick up the playdough’.

^* The words in bold indicate the words that are emphasised in the instruction.

Note: Opportunities for individualised instruction for Sarah are built into the class program.

Students walk around the school and respond to a range of instructions involving positional language from the teacher or Sarah (via the VOCA), eg ‘Sit in front of a piece of play equipment’, ‘Stand between the library and the canteen’.

The teacher asks individual students to describe their position in relation to objects or buildings in the playground (eg ‘I am in front of the office door’) and to describe the position of an object or building in relation to himself/herself, eg ‘The office door is behind me’. The teacher asks students to describe Sarah’s position, eg ‘Sarah is on the basketball court’.

In two small groups, students take photos of each other to demonstrate positional language and to create a ‘Where is?’ book.

Each group develops a ‘Where is?’ book, and writes questions for each photograph in the book, eg ‘Where is Antonio standing?’ or ‘What is Mary standing in front of?’

The two groups of students exchange books. Each group writes a positional description in response to the question accompanying each photograph in the other group’s ‘Where is?’ book eg ‘Antonio is standing between the office and the toilet block’.

Memory Model (adapted from Mathematics K–6 Sample Units of Work, p 81)
Students walk around the school observing the main buildings, landmarks and pathways.

In small groups, students use blocks, small boxes and other available materials to reconstruct a model of the school from memory. They are asked to identify the main features of their model, eg ‘This is the play equipment’.

Possible questions and instructions include:

What part of the school is next to the toilets?
How do you get to the office? Describe your route.
Which school features will you include in your model and how will you mark special routes?

Individualised instruction for Sarah

Sarah is taught using multiple examples relevant to her life, eg pick up your drink bottle, pick up your activity bag, put your hat on your head, put your lunch bag on the table.
The teacher or teacher’s aide could use the following teaching sequence to support Sarah’s acquisition of the concept ‘on’ during individual instruction:

The teacher or teacher’s aide models the concept of ‘on’, eg the teacher or teacher’s aide places the lunch bag on the table and says, ‘Your lunch bag is on the table’.
The teacher gives Sarah a verbal instruction, eg ‘Put your lunch bag on the table’, paired with a prompt.* Once the lunch bag has been placed on the table, the teacher or teacher’s aide says, ‘Your lunch bag is on the table’.
Steps 1 and 2 are repeated using different examples, eg various items and body parts.

* The level of assistance (prompting) is reduced over time as Sarah makes more independent movements in response to verbal instructions, eg physical support at the hand → physical support at the wrist → physical support at the elbow → physical support at the elbow for the initial part of the movement → gesture, etc. The prompts continue to be reduced until Sarah responds to a verbal instruction (without prompts).

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