Pros+-+Accommodations+and+Modifications


 * Pros – Accommodations and Modifications**

> A classroom is a place of great diversity. Each student by law (1975 IDEA and IDEA 2004) must be afforded the opportunity to learn. Given the range of learners in a classroom there is obviously going to be a variety of ways to reach each student.
 * Students with LD will have difficulty reading and writing and in math if left to figure things out on their own or if taught in the conventional way
 * School assignments and tests completed with accommodations should be graded the same way as those completed without accommodations
 * Accommodations are meant to ‘level the playing field” and are not meant to provide an undue advantage to the user
 * Accommodations do not change the content or the goal of the activity; it merely adjusts the pathway to attain the goal
 * Accommodations can make considerable impact on how LD students perform on standardized testing, thus raising self esteem
 * Accommodations and modifications allow students to show what they know without being thwarted by their disability
 * A student must be formally identified with a learning disability – this requires intensive examination and testing to make certain what the disability is and that one actually exists
 * “The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act states that a child's IEP (Individualized Education Program) team which both parent and child are a part of – must decide which accommodations are appropriate for him or her. Any appropriate accommodations should be written into a student's IEP.” [|http://www.ldonline.org/article/8022
 * By law under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Section 504, a civil rights law, students cannot be discriminated against because of their disability from programs that receive federal funding. 504 is more flexible than an IEP and can be applied to children with ADHD who have difficulty performing at the pace and taking texts in the same environment as regular ed students – 504 is not an IEP but merely spells out specific accommodations that will aide this population of students achieve their best
 * Students with LD receive a boost in their self esteem when they see that they can achieve the same goals as their regular education constituents
 * Why penalize students who did not choose to have a disability in their learning styles?

As a teacher we have the responsibility to work with each child, get to know how they learn and why they learn in a certain way, in order to help them achieve success. Children with and without a learning disability must be reached in a way to help them learn. As a teacher we sign on knowing that our classrooms will be heterogeneous. We should expect to dedicate time and effort getting to know each student and helping each student reach their potential. Accommodations and modifications are the avenues that can lead to individual achievement.

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