Under FAPE and IDEA qualifying students who have IEPs must be taught through their grade level general education curriculum which can be modified for the specific child as necessary. My younger children fall into this group of learners and throughout this school year we have been successfully modifying the fourth grade curriculum for them. Here's an example from today - this is one day of work under the science umbrella, not showcasing other objectives that were addressed today as well.
The fourth grade science curriculum includes a unit on states of matter and how these states can be changed. We are working on this subject for the entire month of December, but this morning we conducted an observation with a candle that illustrated how a chemical reaction can affect states of matter. Then, each child had a set of additional related activities to solidify and expand the gen ed concepts while addressing his/her IEP objectives as well. We have seen better comprehension and retention when we have pulled science or social studies concepts into the exercises in other subject areas as well.
Student 1: hot vs. cold worksheet (gen ed science), tracing lines (broad OT goal), two number sequencing tasks (math objective), creating a candle from geometric shapes (math, art, and OT), fire safety video and vocabulary (health and safety)
Student 2: hot vs cold worksheet (gen ed science), summary of the experiment (gen ed science), addition worksheet (math objective), poem (language arts - reading fluency, reading comprehension), creating a candle picture (art and OT), fire safety video and vocabulary (health and safety)
As you can see, we modify differently for each learner which results in two motivated, engaged students who feel successful and who show academic progress.
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