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Lisa Scherphorn, Middle School Coordinator of Learning Services 

Accommodation? Or simply best practice?

Parents of students with dyslexia, writing challenges such as dysgraphia, math challenges such as dyscalculia, ADHD, and executive functioning challenges, hear a lot about “accommodations.” But what differentiates accommodations from, say, just a better way of doing school?

Ensuring that each student gets what they need is not an easy task. Exposing students with learning challenges to expected learning standards and experiencing success is even harder. We could modify the curriculum, lower our expectations, or change our objectives, but this would be at the expense of students’ learning. Instead, we embed great teaching strategies into our daily routines and highlight our students’ abilities.

Many of the students I work with, come to me with learning difficulties in the areas of reading, writing, and math. By continuing to expose them to grade-level content, challenging them, and pushing them to take risks, we find success.

At McLean, we teach the way students learn. We also teach them how to learn—something that a lot of educators take for granted. What other schools call accommodations, we just call best practices: tools and strategies students need to be successfully embedded in classroom instruction. It’s an integrated approach that benefits all students and includes:

  • Clear objective setting and feedback in real-time, frequent teacher check-ins
  • “Chunking,” or breaking large tasks into smaller ones
  • Emphasis on routines, both classroom and individual
  • Repeating important directions and concepts
  • Providing checklists and visual organizers for tasks 
  • Built-in “think time” 
  • Movement breaks
  • Multisensory activities to engage students and reinforce concepts
  • Flexible seating
  • Visual aids coupled with auditory information, such as graphic organizers

I distinctly remember a student, “Alex”, who was given movement breaks while listening to his math teacher. This kept his body busy and his brain ready to take in new information. When Alex was made to sit silently in a seat, he used to find himself in trouble for fidgeting and making noises. He would get halfway through class and realize he had not paid attention to most of the content and was feeling lost and confused. The more Alex moves, the more receptive he is to absorbing new concepts effectively and concentrating on academics. He feels successful because he is not getting in trouble and is actually learning! Giving Alex time to move isn’t an accommodation at McLean – it’s just best practice in teaching how he learns best. 

This is not to say that we don’t also offer accommodations, or additional alterations in the environment, delivery, or format of an assignment, class experience, or exams that allow students to meet their potential. Accommodations can allow our bright students to truly showcase their abilities in certain instances.

In a lot of school settings, families have to know which accommodations to ask for and, often, fight for them. At McLean, we believe in granting accommodations as needed regardless of a diagnosis and free of any type of documentation for ADHD, dyslexia, processing, or organizational challenges, or other learning concerns. It’s part of our belief that students should get what they need to succeed, and our job as educators is to help them learn what that is and advocate for it. All students should experience a classroom where they feel both challenged and supported. Some examples of accommodations:

  • Extended test-taking time, either 50 percent or 100 percent
  • Breaks during testing
  • Speech-to-text technology
  • Reader and/or scribe for testing
  • Use of calculator for math computation
  • Use of material with large print

When “Mary” is given a computer with Speech-to-Text software, she is capable of producing extraordinary expository essays. Her dyslexia no longer stops her from getting her thoughts onto paper. Allowing “Max” to have the quiet space to focus without distractions and extended time to complete his Science Lab Write-Ups, provides him the opportunity to think critically, analyze his data, and generate well-thought-out paragraphs of text.

From the time a student starts at McLean, we emphasize fostering each student’s awareness of how they learn, how to appropriately utilize accommodations, and what this looks like moving forward in terms of standardized testing, college, and life. We create a Learning Profile for every student, a living document that includes results from any evaluations like a neuropsych, their academic strengths and challenges, strategies that work well for them in the classroom, and any specific accommodations that might benefit them. It’s an essential communication tool that ensures consistency from grade to grade. 

In addition, an Academic Achievement Plan is created for Upper School students should a formal evaluation indicate they would benefit from specific accommodations on high-stakes tests like the SAT/ACT, and as they transition to college.

For us, best practices, together with any necessary accommodations, help develop a strong understanding of self and others, as well as an essential growth mindset. Our active learning processes emphasize discovery over telling, providing a positive classroom experience, and, even more importantly, preparing students well for the world outside of school.

McLean School, located in Potomac, Maryland outside of Washington, DC, serves bright K-12 students, including those with dyslexia, ADHD, academic anxiety, and organizational challenges. Learn more today.

By Lisa Scherphorn, Middle School Coordinator of Learning Services 

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