Page 32 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 and 10: The Arts, 2010

THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9 AND 10 | The Arts
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are creative, dynamic, and challenging for students. The courses also provide for explicit teaching of knowledge and skills. In effective arts programs, teachers will introduce a rich variety of activities that integrate expectations from different strands.
PLANNING ARTS PROGRAMS FOR STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS
Classroom teachers are the key educators of students who have special education needs. They have a responsibility to help all students learn, and they work collaboratively with special education resource teachers, where appropriate, to achieve this goal. Special Education Transformation: The Report of the Co-Chairs with the Recommendations of the Working Table on Special Education, 2006 endorses a set of beliefs that should guide program planning for students with special education needs in all disciplines.
Those beliefs are as follows:
• All students can succeed.
• Universal design2 and differentiated instruction3 are effective and interconnected means of meeting the learning or productivity needs of any group of students.
• Successful instructional practices are founded on evidence-based research, tempered by experience.
• Classroom teachers are key educators for a student’s literacy and numeracy development.
• Each student has his or her own unique patterns of learning.
• Classroom teachers need the support of the larger community to create a learning
environment that supports students with special education needs.
• Fairness is not sameness.
In any given classroom, students may demonstrate a wide range of strengths and needs. Teachers plan programs that recognize this diversity and give students performance tasks that respect their particular abilities so that all students can derive the greatest possible benefit from the teaching and learning process. The use of flexible groupings for instruction and the provision of ongoing assessment are important elements of programs that accommodate a diversity of learning needs.
In planning arts courses for students with special education needs, teachers should begin by examining the current achievement level of the individual student, the strengths and learning needs of the student, and the knowledge and skills that all students are expected to demonstrate at the end of the course, in order to determine which of the following options is appropriate for the student:
• no accommodations4 or modified expectations; or
• accommodations only; or
• modified expectations, with the possibility of accommodations; or
• alternative expectations, which are not derived from the curriculum expectations
for a course and which constitute alternative programs and/or courses.
2. The goal of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is to create a learning environment that is open and accessible to all students, regardless of age, skills, or situation. Instruction based on principles of universal design is flexible and supportive, can be adjusted to meet different student needs, and enables all students to access the curriculum as fully as possible.
3. Differentiated instruction is effective instruction that shapes each student’s learning experience in response to his or her particular learning preferences, interests, and readiness to learn.
4. “Accommodations” refers to individualized teaching and assessment strategies, human supports, and/or individu- alized equipment.