Module 3: Video 3.3

MR. JOHNSON: Why don't we start with introductions? As you all know, I'm Jerry Johnson and I'm the principal here.

DANIELLE: I'm Danielle Adams, Emma's special education teacher.

LISA: Lisa Coleman- Emma's math teacher.

KATHY: I'm Kathy Rogers- Emma's mother.

EMMA: (shyly with a little smile) I'm Emma.

MR. JOHNSON: The purpose of this meeting is to talk about accommodations that may help Emma during classroom instruction. We also want to prepare for the state test in the spring. It is good that we are meeting early to get this all sorted out.

DANIELLE: I agree. Last week, I had a chance to talk with Emma about her classes. She said that math is particularly difficult this year- even though she has been a good math student in the past. We talked about accommodations that might help during math. Emma, do you want to tell everybody what we talked about?

EMMA: Like listening to my math?

DANIELLE: Exactly.

EMMA: Um. We talked about listening to my math book on the computer and I want to do that.

DANIELLE: Lisa and I have been working together on this and she is working on ordering an audio version of the text.

KATHY: So, you said this is an accommodation? How would this work?

DANIELLE: Emma would be able to listen to an audio recording of the text in her math book. It might help her to understand better. The text includes some difficult vocabulary that may interfere with Emma's learning.

LISA: We've also talked about possibly providing a read aloud accommodation during Emma's classroom tests.

KATHY: And what would that look like?

LISA: A paraprofessional or resource room teacher, like Danielle, would read the test questions to Emma aloud. We could try this on her weekly math quizzes.

DANIELLE: We will collect some data to make sure that the accommodation is working. How does everybody feel about this? Do you think we could try reading the test items aloud on her quizzes- to see if it works?

KATHY: I think we should try. What do you think Emma?

EMMA: Okay.

MR. JOHNSON: We should keep this accommodation in mind as we think about the upcoming state test also. I know that the read aloud accommodation is permitted on the mathematics assessment.