Welcome to SPED 441!

Course Description

Prospective special education teachers will be introduced to the medical, cognitive, motor, and communication needs of students with severe disabilities. The requirements and procedures for alternative assessment will be taught and implemented. Emphasis will be placed on designing curriculum, including technology, for students with severe disabilities. Legal and ethical considerations for providing educational services for students with severe disabilities will be explored. 

Course Objectives

In this course, you will:

Course Architecture

In an online course, regular and sustained attention to the course is critical. You will not be successful if you try to cram all your learning into short, intensive bursts of study. Be attentive to the reading assignments, course activities, and deadlines. Lessons are generally one week long. The first lesson (Lesson 01) will help orient you to the course and give you time to practice using the online tools. You will wrap up the course in the Lesson 14 by submitting your final assignments and assessments. 

Even though this course is online, it is not an independent study course. In fact, discussion with classmates is a key component of this course. You will be expected to form opinions that can be supported with textual evidence and come to a greater understanding of the plays through discussion with your classmates. 

In order to do well, you should expect to spend 3–4 hours weekly for every credit hour; therefore, you will need to be able to commit 9–12 hours each week to this course. If you are unable to commit to the time demands this semester, please consider taking the class some other time when you can devote the necessary time to completing the workload.

Each Lesson

It is important to be prepared both intellectually and emotionally each week. This course is designed to prepare you to teach students with severe disabilities and prepare you to be a contributing member of the work force—blessing people around the world. As you interact with others in various assignments, please remember to be kind, considerate, and respectful of differing viewpoints. You can differ in opinions (sometimes the best learning comes when others challenge your thinking) but still be civil. Any violation of basic common courtesy—including interaction with the instructor—will negatively impact your grade. 

Read the following article as a reminder of the promises and warnings Elder Bednar addressed concerning entitlement. 

Note

The due dates of the Lesson 01 activities have been relaxed and are not due until Due Date #1 of Lesson 02. This extra time is given to help students who add late to have time to complete the assignments. Be sure not to procrastinate these assignments until Lesson 02 as that will make completing all of the assignments in Lesson 02 more difficult and time consuming.

Note

All activities in Lesson 14 are due on Due Date #2 at 11:00pm.

Note

You may experience an issue with loading pages in Firefox and Chrome where the content is determined as "insecure." As a default, these browsers will not load those pages. If any of your pages are not loading correctly or come up as a blank page, read How to View Insecure Content and Help! My page isn't loading. 

Course Activities

(Due at Due Date #1)

Gospel Perspective

Each week you will listen to a Gospel Perspective piece presented by Brother Christopherson, one of the on-campus SPED instructors. You will then use what you learn to write a weekly reflection, connecting what you have learned to the gospel perspective.

Preparation Materials

Each week you will read through materials that will prepare you to work on two major projects throughout the course. 

Initial Posts in the Google Community

Initial Posts should be substantive and invite conversation. Work together to make what you are learning even more meaningful.

(Due at Due Date #2)

Individual Projects

This course will have two individual projects for you to complete:

  1. SoVaTA Project: For your first project, you will create and run an instructional program for an individual with severe disabilities. This project begins in the Lesson 01 and will be completed by Lesson 07.
  2. Instructional Program Project: For your second project, you will be completing portions of an IEP for transition-aged individuals with severe disabilities which will be based upon a provided transition assessment. This project begins in Lesson 08 and will be completed by Lesson 13.

Group Projects

This course will have two group projects for you to complete:

  1. Peer Tutor Handbook
    • You will be creating a Peer Tutor Handbook with the following items:
      • A questionnaire for peer tutors for the first week. (L02)
      • A confidentiality statement that tutors will need to sign. (L02)
      • Handouts for your future peer tutors. (L03)
      • An accommodations planning guide. (L04)
      • Information on how you will evaluate the peer tutors. (L05)
      • Daily Tracking sheets. (L06)
      • ABC data collection sheets. (L06)
      • At least three different data collection sheets that are simple so tutors can use them. (L06)
      • A syllabus for your future peer tutor class. (L07)
      • Any other inspirational things to help tutors be great and work well with your students with disabilities. (L07)
  2. Paraeducator Roles and Responsibilities Guidebook
    • You will collaborate to create a presentation and guidebook that you can use to train future paraeducators that will work in your classroom. You should highlight your classroom procedures, philosophy, and expectations in this presentation and guidebook. Your guidebook should include: 
      • Five pieces of advice for your defining roles and responsibilities with your paraeducators. (L09)
      • A list of contents for your "Paraeducator Survival Kit" and justification and explanation of items you include. (L10)
      • A list of interview questions that you would ask prospective paraeducators hoping to work in your classroom. (L11)
      • A list of qualifications you would look for in a paraeducator in your own classroom. (L11)
      • Guidelines for working with non-effective (abusive, abrasive) paraeducators. (L12)
      • A weekly training schedule for your paraeducators that you could implement your first year as a teacher. (L13) 

This course maintains a Google Community where you will be interacting with your classmates and posting some of your assignments. Additionally you may want to create Google doc pages to facilitate working together in groups.  You are strongly encouraged to create a new Google account for this course, even if you already have a personal one. 

Subsequent Posts in the Google Community

All additional response posts due by Due Date #2. Your responses should be substantive and deepen understanding. If you will use your responses on the Google Community board to really talk to your classmates and work together, these discussions can be some of the greatest tools you have to master the course content.

Research into Practice

Research into Practice: For this project, you will work on putting research into practice in 2-week intervals:

This project begins in Lesson 02 and runs in 2-week intervals. It will be completed in the Lesson 14.

Reflection

Each week you will ponder upon your experiences in completing the course work. You will then write and submit a reflection on these experiences and the resulting changes in your perspective.

Weekly Report

The Weekly Report allows you to report on your activities each week, assess what has gone well, and what might be improved. This is the only way to get credit for some of the activities that you do so be sure to complete it every week.  

Additional Opportunity 

Throughout the semester, your instructor may invite you to participate in a synchronous discussion with him/her in order to get to know you better, see if you would like to take advantage of University resources, or simply to ask about your experience in the course. Please take advantage of this opportunity to talk with your instructor and provide feedback about your experience in the class.

Course Requirements

Course Pre-requisites

The following courses are pre-requisites to SPED 441: 

Grading Policies

Grade Breakdown

A=93–100%; A-=90–92%; B+=87–89%; B=84–86%; B-=80–83%; C+=77–79%; C=74–76%; C-=70–73%; D+=67–69%; D=64–66%; D-=60–63%; F=below 60%

A: Work is professional in appearance and content. Assignments and class participation represent outstanding understanding, application, integration of subject material, extensive evidence of original thinking, skillful use of concepts, and ability to analyze and solve complex problems. The student also demonstrates diligent application of the Learning Model principles, including initiative in serving other students. 

B: Work is professional in appearance and content but with some spelling and grammar concerns. Assignments and class participation represent considerable/significant understanding as well as application and incorporation of the material which would prepare a student to be successful in next level courses, graduate school, or employment. The student participates in the Learning Model, as applied in the course. 

C: Work is professional in appearance but has multiple spelling and grammatical errors. Assignments and class participation represent sufficient understanding of the subject matter. The student demonstrates minimal initiative to be prepared for and participate in class discussions and assignments. The student participates only marginally in the Learning Model. 

D: Work is unprofessional in appearance and/or has multiple spelling and grammatical errors. Assignments and class participation represent poor performance, initiative to learn, and understand and apply course materials. Retaking a course or remediation may be necessary to prepare for additional instruction in this subject matter.

F: Represents failure in the assignment and/or course due to unprofessionalism and/or incompleteness of assignments and/or non-participation in class and the Learning Model. 

Class Policies

Course Questions/Problems/Concerns

This course has a Questions and Conversations board in each lesson where you can post general questions/problems/concerns/etc. Using these boards will inform the instructor, class members, and others monitoring the course of the issues you find and will allow the proper people to correct them for everyone. This is the fastest and most efficient way to report a problem and get it fixed. If you are experiencing the same problem as another student who has posted, you can post as well so others know the seriousness of the problem. If you know the answer to a problem, please post solutions. Helping to solve your classmates' problems is another way to teach one another. Additionally, your instructor will use the board to communicate information such as fixes and solutions to help guide you in the course. Make sure you check back often to learn of any changes to the course.

Note

You should only email your instructor directly if the problem is of a personal nature OR your instructor informs you that is the way he/she would like to be made aware of questions/problems/concerns.

Free Software for BYU-Idaho Students

All BYU-Idaho students can get free or discounted software to help in your education. If you don't already have access to these software programs, you can use the link provided to download a copy.

Late Work Policy

Assignments are due on the day indicated. Each lesson opens early in order to allow students some flexibility in determining their schedule. Work that is late hampers not only your own learning, but also your classmates' ability to fully participate in the course. Late work will be accepted only at your instructor's discretion. 

so do not procrastinate finishing your assignments. (You are more likely to be granted an extension if you do not place your instructor in an awkward situation by asking for special accommodations after the fact.) If you feel your situation warrants personal consideration, inform your instructor before the assignment is due so that he/she has time to work with you. 

Disclaimers 

Your instructor reserves the right to change any part of this syllabus and/or schedule any time during the semester in order to adapt to changing course needs. You will be notified prior to any changes that may take place, so pay attention to communication from your instructor. 

Once you have read through and understood the course requirements, take the Syllabus Quiz to complete the activity.