ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: I want students to be able to use information available on the computer and Internet to solve problems and gain access to information that will help them to cope with their learning disabilities. Technology is available that can help students with learning disabilities have equal opportunities.
Goal(s): 1. Students and parents access Internet information available on ACT testing, choices, and college information. 2. Improve communication between parents, school, and Transition Coordinator.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: 1. What tools are available on the Internet to assist students with their schoolwork?  2. How can students share their community job shadows with each other, their parents, and the Transition Coordinator?  3. How can students and parents easily access information on ACT testing, choices, and college information?
Objectives: 1. Find Internet information to assist students with disabilities in their schoolwork. 2. Find Internet information to assist students and parents with ACT testing, choices, and college information.  3. Create class web site with all information available to students and parents and the Transition Coordinator.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding? Quizzes and tests will not be an acceptable way to assess this unit.
What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?  Investigation of the topic will begin with a discussion about graduation approaching. Students will focus on what information will be helpful for students with learning disabilities and their parents through this transition.
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?  Students will create a website with information available to anyone dealing with issues related to the transition out of high school for a student with a learning disability. This website will demonstrate student understanding of the current issues.
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?  Rubrics, observation, and student-produced projects will be used.

Instructional Strategies

Project-based learning will be used to allow students to discover cooperatively what information students and parents need as they explore the transition out of high school for students with learning disabilities. Students will conduct research and synthesize important information as they develop a plan for creating a web page for themselves and their parents.