High Quality
Work: Claim 2
Channel View School for Research exceptional learners with special needs continue
to demonstrate growth over time in the complexity of their writing.
All of our students at Channel View School for
Research (CVSR) produce high quality work but we are especially proud of our
exceptional learners. The majority of these students graduate with a Regents
diploma, some even achieving mastery on their New York State (NYS) exams. They produce
well-crafted, authentic writing that demonstrates their understanding of the
key concepts of their course work and the connection to real-world issues. They revise their work, proofreading and typing final drafts, which demonstrates craftsmanship.
Exceptional learners receive additional support
in Integrated Co-Teaching (ICT) classes, where they have the continued support of more than one teacher.
Co-Teachers also modify lessons and work with students as needed to ensure
their success. Channel View teachers continue to go for professional
development to support their exceptional learners in the classroom. In
addition, all teachers of these exceptional learners meet to discuss their
successes and struggles in order for these exceptional learners to achieve
success. Teachers across the disciplines coordinate to develop the writing
ability of our exceptional learners with disabilities. By the end of their high school careers, Channel View’s exceptional learners with special needs have spent four years with teachers who challenged them to apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. These students may enter
9th grade with poor organizational and analysis skills, but by the
time they graduate, they have developed into confident writers, able to clearly
and effectively express their ideas.
“If
children do not learn the way we teach them, then we must teach them the way
they learn.”
- Dr. Kenneth Dunn
Channel View School for Research is also the home
to two Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Programs: the ASD Nest and ASD Horizon Programs that work in collaboration
with New York University (NYU). The
ASD Nest Program serves students with autism in a classroom with general
education students. Related service providers use Socially Development Intervention
(SDI) to help students improve social functioning. Because of their hard work, combined
with teacher support, all of our ASD Nest students have graduated with Regents
diplomas. The ASD Horizon Program serves a maximum of eight students with
autism. Related service providers work together with classroom teachers using
Rethink lessons to address students’ communication and socialization challenges.
Our exceptional learners have shown growth over
time in the complexity of their writing skills across the content areas,
especially in social studies and English. The following case studies illustrate
the progress made by two of our exceptional learners with disabilities over the
course of their high school careers.
Exceptional Learner 1
Our first learner was a reluctant writer and
needed a lot of prompting to complete more than a 4-5 sentence paragraph. He
simplified ideas and did not use proper academic vocabulary. He had problems analyzing literature and writing 8-10 sentences
responding to a prompt about a piece of literature. In the first piece, in the
10th grade, he is supposed to respond to a literary question from
the play Antigone stating a claim and
responding with two pieces of evidence from the text. You can see that he
simply summarized events, writing four sentences, without a proper claim.
In a team meeting, teachers met to discuss his
writing and lack of analysis. In their discussion, the teachers decided to
provide him with sentence starters and questions to help guide him in answering
the prompt. His second piece, which was written in the
11th grade, shows his progression. He analyzes the short story “Fish
Cheeks.” Here you can see how he has typed his final product and increased the
amount he has written, but still fails to use academic vocabulary and relies on
simplistic evidence.
Although his analysis has greatly improved, he
still had further to progress. During another team meeting, this time in 11th grade, teachers noticed he had the ability to
answer the prompt, but still lacked analysis and evidence. At this point,
teachers across the disciplines provided him with the acronym ICE-T (Introduce,
Cite evidence, Explain evidence, Tie back to claim) in order to get more
details, evidence, and analysis in his writing.
He improved his writing enough to get a 72 on his
United States History exam, which includes two essays. Although he failed the English Regents in January and again in June,
teachers were able to see the improvement in his writing, even though they knew he still
needed further gains. The final piece of evidence is from 12th
grade, where he had to analyze the short story “To Build a Fire.” Again,
although only four paragraphs, his analysis is much stronger and incorporates
academic vocabulary. He includes paraphrased evidence and is able to tie it
back to his original claim.
During a 12th grade team meeting,
teachers again discussed the progress that he has made since the 10th
grade and what the next steps for him could be. The team then decided to have
him write two lines of explanation for every piece of evidence he uses as well
as vary the way he incorporates evidence, such as to paraphrase in addition to using
direct quotes. By the middle of 12th
grade, this student was able to complete well-organized essays, on his own,
with proper organization, that address the prompt with the use of text evidence. Although his
language remained simplistic for the most part, he was able to incorporate
academic vocabulary and became aware of the audience he was writing for.
This time, with all of these skills combined, he
retook the English Regents in January and obtained an 80. His growth in
his writing and complexity of ideas over time has vastly improved and has
allowed him to gain success. His achievement is due to his
perseverance, teacher and peer feedback, and revisions. His accomplishment shows
a transfer of understanding based on use of complex texts as well as higher-level
thinking.
Exceptional Learner 2
Our second exceptional learner is a student in our ASD Nest Program who had issues with
staying focused, organization, and sentence structure. As a 9th-grader,
he had a hard time figuring out how to even begin and would get frustrated easily.
With the help of graphic organizers, a paraprofessional, plus peer and teacher
feedback, this student went from short, hand-written, poorly organized essays
to producing typed, well-organized essays. Although he has improved in his
complexity of writing, he struggles with sentence variety and often sticks to
short, simplistic sentences. However, his writing does contain higher-level vocabulary.
In the 9th grade during team
meetings, teachers noticed his inability to stay focused and his socialization
issues, which sometimes led to inappropriate comments. Channel View felt he
would have better success staying on task with the support of a paraprofessional. In the 10th grade, his work improved as well as his focus. The paraprofessional helped him organize his notebook and
maintain a schedule so assignments were turned in on time. During 10th-grade
team meetings, teachers worked together to find a way to help him organize his
writing. They implemented the utilization of graphic
organizers as well as having him underline information from the texts that he
planned to use in his writing.
Example 1: Grade 10 Graphic Organizer
The first writing sample was a persuasive
speech, in which students were supposed to argue for or against the Dakota
Access Pipeline. Although he had good ideas that were supported with facts and
citations from non-fiction articles, his essay was not well-organized and lacks a
persuasive format.
Example 2: Grade 10 Writing Sample (ASD Nest)
In 11th grade, with further use of
graphic organizers, he had to prepare for the English Regents, which requires
two different types of writing: argument and rhetorical. Here, he was introduced to a number of
acronyms to format his essays, such as “CRACC”ing (Claim, Reasoning,
Acknowledge Counterclaim) the code, to create a focused introduction paragraph
and draw the proper information. This student’s progression was accomplished
with the use of peer and teacher feedback, acronyms, graphic organizers, and a
paraprofessional to keep him on task. The student achieved an 84 on his English Regents.
When his teachers met as a team in 12th grade, we concluded that he no longer needed a paraprofessional to stay on
task and that he had shown major progression in his writing. As a senior, he
has demonstrated higher-ordered thinking by executing a more precise piece of
writing. His Grade 12 sample essay is well organized, incorporates evidence, and utilizes
proper academic vocabulary.
Example 3: Grade 12 Writing Sample (ASD Nest)