SPED 758Marty GibbonsAlternative Programs Assignment

1. Planning for All Learners (PAL) focuses on planning by teachers within a department or grade level to understand universal design for learning (UDL) resources and strategies. The program emphasizes barrier-free learning for every student. The process has four steps: 1) goal setting; 2) identification of barriers to learning; 3) finding solutions to barriers; and 4) teaching and evaluating every lesson. UDL is rated a best practice (Retrieved 2014 from http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/toolkits/tk_procedures.cfm?tk_id=21).

2. Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) is a universal prevention and peer tutoring program for grades K-6 in reading and math. As the teacher works with individuals, paired students work on skills needing development. Offered 25-35 minutes two to four times per week for 14-31 weeks. Blueprints rates the program as promising (Retrieved 2014 from http://www.blueprintsprograms.com/factSheet.php?pid=83a002e8ffbe10a8e5bfd289b565b247092a9b70).

3. Practice Guide for Assisting Struggling Students with Mathematics: Response to Intervention (RtI) for Elementary and Middle School has the goal of providing evidence-based recommendations for high quality interventions. Recommendations include: 1)screen all students to identify ones at risk for serious math difficulties and provide interventions; 2) instruction needs to focus on whole numbers in K-5 grade levels, and on rational numbers for grades 4-8; 3) provide explicit and systematic instruction; modeling of problem solving; verbalization of thought processes; guided practice; corrective feedback; and frequent review; 4) Intervention is needed which includes instruction on solving word problems based on common underlying structures; 5) Intervention is needed to include visual representations of math ideas; 6) All interventions need at least 10 minutes per session to build fluency of arithmetic facts; 7) monitor progress of at risk individuals and others receiving supplemental instruction; and 8) include motivational strategies in tiers two and three interventions. The guide gave a strong rating of evidence for recommendations three and four above (Retrieved 2014 from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/WWC/practiceguide.aspx?sid=2).

4. Ladders to Literacy is a preschool and kindergarten supplemental early literacy curriculum. What Works Clearinghouse rated the curriculum as medium to large evidence for alphabetics and comprehension and gave it a small rating for fluency. The curriculum targets different levels including students with disabilities and students at risk for reading failure. Activities include three sections at 20 minutes each session on print awareness, phonological awareness skills, and oral language skills (Retrieved 2014 fromhttp://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wWc/interventionreport.aspx?sid=259).

5. Sound Partners is a phonics-based tutor program that supplements reading instruction. It targets students in K-3 who are at below average reading skills. It covers letter-sound correspondence, phoneme blends, decoding, irregular high frequency words, and oral reading practice. Recommended for pull-out or after school program. Rated medium to large for alphabetics, fluency, and comprehension (Retrieved 2014 from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wWc/interventionreport.aspx?sid=475).