Course 4: Program Planning

Fill out the section called Student Details:

Student Details
Student Name	Alice	Primary Designation	A
Grade	9	Additional Designation
Student Number	XXXX	IEP Review Date	October 14, 2022
Date of Birth	XX/XX/XXXX	Case Manager	Ms. Jane Doe
Student Support Team	Role
Mary and Bill	Parents
Kathy	Classroom Teacher
Christine	Hearing Resource Teacher
Lorraine	Educational Assistant
Courtenay	Speech & Language Pathologist
Parent/Guardian Consultation Date		XX 2021

Complete the student’s Personal Profile by interviewing the student and their family to find out their identities, interests, and what they think they need to support their learning. Identities refer to who they think they and their communities are. Interests refer to what they like, are passionate or curious about, or want to do more of. “Needs” are things that affect their learning at school and in life that they can’t change. They are things that they need help with for a long time.

When asking students with complex disabilities about their identities, interests, and needs, you might ask them to make choices by looking at their choice on an e-tran board, reaching for their choice, or selecting their choice using a communication app. If a student needs support to answer, ask the student’s classmates. Even kindergarteners are incredibly insightful about the preferences and learning needs of a student with complex disabilities. Also, ask their family members or guardians and other staff what the student’s identities, interests, and needs are. Alice’s Personal Profile is below.

My Personal Profile	Link to Evidence: Digital Portfolio (Video Profile)
*Thoughts from my family and/or team
My Identities	Alice selected: “Horse” on her TouchChat (she is a horseback rider) “Happy” on her TouchChat (she has a happy disposition) *Her classmate thought that Alice likes to learn new things
My Interests	Alice selected “the Avengers” *Her team agreed that she loves the Avengers
My Needs	Alice didn’t respond *School staff suggested that others need to: Adjust their language so she can understand Give her time to think

The next step is to assist the student and their family in completing the student’s Learning Profile. You involve the student, family, and team in deciding what the student is good at and what they are learning to do better. The learning profile focuses on where the student is now. Use whatever strategy is meaningful to the student to facilitate their participation in this process. Alice’s completed Learning Profile is below.

My Learning Profile		Link to Evidence: [link here]
*Thoughts from my family and/or team
	Personal	Social	Learning/Intellectual
My Strengths	Alice chose “Avengers” *She knows every character and loves these superheroes	Alice chose “friends” and “hi” *She loves being with other kids her age at school; she has a very good friend at school named Keesha	Alice chose “video” *She can navigate a computer to find music videos
My Stretches	Alice chose “Lift”, which is a scary thing for her *She needs to learn to tell others when she is ready to be lifted for personal care	Alice chose “iPad” *She needs to learn more words in her TouchChat	Alice chose “Sewing”, “her class” *To join sewing, she needs to be able to operate a sewing machine

The student and their families or caregivers then decide what areas to focus on. The focus areas refer to where the student wants to go in their learning. The child or family chooses a goal area; personal, social, or intellectual.

They then look at the core competencies that are connected to each goal area. For each IEP, aim for three to five core competency goals from any of the core competencies listed below. Core Competency overview graphics can be used to help the student decide what skills to work on. An example is the document “Core Competency ‘I can’ statements aligned to inclusive lenses” (Moore, 2021), which is located below. Complicated graphics should be simplified so that students and families aren’t overwhelmed.

Alice and her team chose Personal Awareness & Responsibility, Communicating, and Critical Thinking. She pointed to pictures, answered ‘yes’ and ‘no’ by nodding or shaking her head, and used TouchChat to participate.

Goal Areas	Personal	Social	Intellectual
Competencies that can help me set goals	Personal Awareness & Responsibility Positive Personal & Cultural Identity	Communicating Collaborating Social Awareness & Responsibility	Creative Thinking Critical Thinking & Reflective Thinking

Next, you can begin to set up your supports and strategies, knowing that these will be refined as you learn more about the needs of all students in the class.

Alice’s teacher began by finding out what Universal Supports she needed. To do that, he took an inventory of the needs of individual learners in his class, collated them into three areas, Communication, Vision, and Learning.

Since Alice has cortical visual impairment, he reduced the visual clutter in the room. He also rearranged the tables so that he wasn’t standing in front of the windows when teaching. This strategy was also helpful for several other students who had difficulty focusing their attention and could be distracted by visual clutter or what was happening outside. Since Alice used AAC and many other students benefited from visuals, the teacher illustrated key concepts with visuals, using the same type of icons used in TouchChat.

There was a range of strengths among the students in the class, so he decided he would let the students choose how they would demonstrate their learning. For Essential Supports, he placed Alice next to him and used her TouchChat to “talk” to the class while reviewing key concepts. Alice was well supported in her power chair. Her switch-accessible camera was in the classroom, ready for her to use if needed for assignments. He completed the form below, Supports and Plans, to reflect what he had done.

The following is a planning tool from Shelley Moore that can be used when implementing a Universal Design planning strategy (Moore, Session 8, 2021).

Supports and Plans
Universal Classroom Supports and Strategies		Essential Individualized Supports & Strategies
Need	Supports and/or Strategies	Need	Supports and/or Strategies
Communication	Communication board; teacher points out words while speaking; opportunities for students to interact with each other	Communication	TouchChat on iPad; Modelling
Vision	Teacher does not stand with the windows behind him; reduced visual clutter	Vision	Alice is placed next to the teacher
Learning	Students are allowed to choose from several ways they can demonstrate their learning, including making videos; 3D models, creating a story using Pictello	Learning	Alice is well supported in her wheelchair, her camera and all connecter cables are in the classroom, iPad with TouchChat and Pictello apps is charged
Supplementary Plans		Date
Care plan that outlines the student specific needs in the area of Personal Care		September 2021

The next step is to determine the IEP goals related to the core competency areas the student and their family or caregivers chose. Self-assessment tools such as Self/Family Self-Assessment can be used to guide this process. Goals that were chosen by the student’s class can also be used.

Core Competency Goal Self-assessment chart (PDF) (Moore, 2021, I &CB IEP Session 6).

IEP Goals are written as “’I can’ statements”. Overarching “I can” statements can be found in the BC Curriculum; Core Competencies; Personal and Social, Communication, or Thinking; Profiles. Shelley Moore has provided a further breakdown of the New BC Curriculum’s overarching “I can” statements. These can be found in the following document, “Core Competency ‘I can’ statements aligned to inclusive lenses” (Moore, 2021).

Core Competencies Statements Aligned to Inclusive Lenses (PDF).

During self-assessment and conferencing, Alice and her family decided that Alice should learn to indicate when she was ready for the lift to be turned on when she needed to be transferred for personal care. So, related to Personal Awareness and Responsibility, she chose, “I can participate in activities that support my well-being”. After adding “by nodding ‘Yes’ when I’m ready for the lift to be turned on,” her goal and objective were complete.

Competency Goals
Competency	Personal Awareness & Responsibility	Competency IEP Goal 1	I can participate in activities that support my well-being
Objective 1A	By nodding “Yes” when I’m ready for the lift to be turned on.	Instructional Strategies	Say Alice’s name. Wait until she turns toward you and is listening. Ask Alice when she is ready. Wait 10 seconds for her to respond.

After deciding that she needed to become more fluent in using her TouchChat communication app, related to Communication, Alice chose “I can communicate for a purpose.” Alice, her family, and specialists then jointly arrived at the objective, “I can communicate for a purpose by learning how I could use TouchChat to ask classmates to “please move when they are blocking my way in class”.

Competency	Communication	Competency IEP Goal 2	I can communicate for a purpose.
Objective 2A	By learning how I could use TouchChat to ask classmates to ‘please move’, when they are blocking my way.	Instructional Strategies	Model on TouchChat; Ask Alice to practice in less busy spaces first; then practice in busy hallways and class.

Because Alice would like to attend sewing class, she chose, “I can reflect on my work and experiences and communicate to others what I have learned” as a Goal. Alice and her team then chose the objective, “By learning how I could create digital presentations to describe what I have learned”.

Competency	Critical & Reflective Thinking	Competency IEP Goal 3	I can reflect on my work and experiences and communicate to others what I have learned.
Objective 2A	By learning how I could create digital presentations to describe what I have learned.	Instructional Strategies	Use camera to take photos or find photos on Internet; Use Pictello to report on how I learned to operate the sewing machine with a switch.