Unwrapping Academic Standards to Increase the Achievement of Students With Disabilities

Abstract

Over the past 15 years, students with disabilities have been included in the general education environment at markedly higher rates; however, their achievement is not increasing at the same pace. One reason for this lack of increased achievement may be that academic standards lay the foundation for instruction in this environment, but standards fail to address the component academic skills needed for academic mastery. This article presents a method for analyzing the academic standards and then unwrapping them to their component skills using a lattice task analysis. After employing this analysis, educators will be able to systematically plan instruction in the component skills to ensure achievement and growth for all students in the classroom environment.

Using Universal Design for Learning to Design Standards-Based Lessons

“…Ainsworth (2003) describes a process for coding or "unwrapping" the standards, breaking wording down into component parts. Morgan et al (2014) illustrate how a table with two columns can be used to unwrap the standard, to identify the core skills and concepts that need to be taught. Teachers can use this unwrapped standard as the basis for defining instructional goals and designing instructional activities.…”

Integrating Effective Practices Into Co-Teaching: Increasing Outcomes for Students With Disabilities

“…To determine the learning goal, co-teachers will typically begin by examining the grade-level standards (e.g., common core state standards) in the content area they are planning for (e.g., ELA and mathematics). As several skills and concepts are typically embedded within one grade-level standard, teachers can “unwrap” the standard to identify specific skills and concepts, including any pre-requisite skills, that are necessary to include to move students toward the larger learning target (see Morgan et al (2014) for a process for unwrapping grade level standards). Unwrapping the standards can help teachers identify sequential lessons that are aligned with the larger learning goal.…”

Using E-Books to Acquire Foundational Academic Vocabulary

“…Content standards provide a roadmap for teachers to determine the most important concepts to teach students for academic mastery. Unwrapping standards can aid in identifying key concepts and skills to teach (Morgan et al, 2014). Teachers can follow an analytical process (Morgan et al, 2014) of unwrapping academic content standards, wherein they circle any verbs and highlight or underline any nouns.…”

“…Unwrapping standards can aid in identifying key concepts and skills to teach (Morgan et al, 2014). Teachers can follow an analytical process (Morgan et al, 2014) of unwrapping academic content standards, wherein they circle any verbs and highlight or underline any nouns. The verbs in the academic content standard become the skills that students need to display; the nouns become the concepts that students must master in order to display this skill and can include vocabulary.…”