Constable, S., Grossi, B., Moniz, A., & Ryan, L.
(2013). Meeting the Common Core State
Standards for students with autism: The
challenge for educators. TEACHING
Exceptional Children, 45(3),
6-13.
This
article explained the challenges and considerations that teachers will face in
addressing the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts for
students with autism. The author
describes the following three psychological theories and their implications
with autism: delayed theory of mind, weak central coherence, and impaired
executive function. The lack of theory
of mind relates to the inability to understand the feelings and intentions of
others around you. This applies to CCSS
when students with autism have difficulty understanding a character’s
motives. In addition, the weak central
coherence relates to students’ abilities to focus on a specific detail in the
text, like a minor character of a horse, but not grasp the big picture
ideas. The impaired executive functioning
of students would be relevant to prioritizing, learning new strategies, and
organization. Therefore, teachers need
to assist students in addressing these concerns through accommodations in the
classroom.
I
found that the Social Story aspect of this article definitely related to the
Autism Module. The teacher used a Social
Story to teach the student about the particular character’s thoughts and feelings
during the reading. It allowed the
student to use a familiar behavior strategy as a way to access curriculum at
the grade level state standards. Another
strategy addressed was using Comic Strip Conversations to help a student understand
a charter’s perspective. The article
related to the book, because it mentioned that students with ASD generally do
not seek help from peers. The author
suggests using Peer Mediated Instruction and Intervention (PMII) as a way for
students to help the student seek help by identifying behaviors that the child
might display when he is in need of assistance.
Although I do not teach any students with ASD, I felt that the PMII
model would be useful in helping students who have trouble beginning a
task. I could position the students’
seats so that a responsible student could monitor another student to see if he
or she has her materials ready, such as a graphing calculator or pencil.
I
found the article to be very useful, because it reaffirmed many of the
strategies given in the Autism Module.
In particular, the social narratives seem to be good ways for students
with autism to relate to a particular text’s characters. The hope is that the skills will assist
students with disabilities in understanding their peer’s motives and feelings
as well. I liked how the author
addressed the need for students with ASD to use graphic organizers as a means
to initiate a difficult task of writing a response to a question. The example included a para-educator helping
the student begin the task by allowing the student to use his sensory tools
while planning his paragraphs.
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your blog, I can attest to the fact that social narratives are extremely beneficial for student's with ASD. Every student in my classroom has been diagnosed with ASD. We often use social narratives to explain an unforeseen change in schedule, on community trips, and even using the bathroom appropriately. My students also struggle with social communication with their peers and Comic Strip Conversations seem to work as a model to help my students initiate a greeting or communicate on their device. My school is a private christian school so we do not use Common Core Standards but my school has developed a curriculum based on some of the principles of Common Core in relation to our student's educational goals. I hope to research about Common Core Standards in the future to gain a better understanding.
Lauren
I think it's great that you read an article that discussed some of the strategies mentioned in the ASD module that we completed. Using a social narrative to help students with ASD access literature is a great idea. Although its not one of the original purposes of a social narrative, I still think it would be beneficial in order to teach feelings, perspectives, etc. in stories and books. It would be an added bonus if the student was already using the social narrative for behavior; that way the student was already familiar with the strategy. I also appreciate that the article tied in those three areas of difficulty for students with ASD. Theory of Mind, in particular, can play out in a lot of situations for students with ASD; both academically and socially.
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