Understanding Accommodations and Modifications
Students with IEPs or 504 plans often have accommodations and modifications that have been set to help them engage with their learning materials. With Kira, it's easy to make changes to an assignment - or even make a copy and make one changed version of an assignment! - to meet individual student needs, but it's first important to understand the difference between accommodation and modification in the sense of Special Education.
Accommodations and modifications both help students with disabilities access learning, but they change different things. An accommodation changes how a student learns or demonstrates knowledge without changing what they're expected to learn. The learning goal and the grade-level standard stay the same; you're simply removing a barrier that gets in the way. Common examples include extended time on tests, having questions read aloud, allowing a student to type instead of handwrite, providing preferential seating, or breaking a long assignment into smaller chunks. A student using accommodations is still held to the same academic expectations as their peers.
Ways Kira Can Support Accomodations:
Extended Time: on Assessments, extend time for any student once the assessment is live. On Lessons, due dates do not lock students out of work, so students can be given the time they need.
Read Aloud: text in lessons can be highlighted and read aloud, or separate read aloud components (with a clear play button) can be added.
Typing vs Handwriting: question types can be changed to or from free response or document uploads, which will even grade student handwriting if handwriting is ever preferred over typing.
Chunking: with a few quick prompts, lessons can be chunked to better accommodate learning styles, and text components like sequences and call outs can bet set to hide on present so students see information slowly, one step at a time.
Scaffolding: prompting can also help to add additional scaffolds to a version of a lesson so that students have more support engaging with the grade-level standard in the same way as their peers.
A modification, by contrast, changes what a student is expected to learn: the content, the standard, or the performance criteria are altered to fit the student's individual needs. This might mean assigning fewer or less complex problems, reducing reading material to a lower reading level, grading on a different rubric, or teaching a subset of the grade-level curriculum. Because modifications adjust the actual learning expectations, they can affect how a student is assessed and, in some cases, whether they're working toward the same diploma or credit as their classmates. A simple way to keep them straight: accommodations level the playing field so a student can meet the same goal, while modifications change the goal itself. Both are typically documented in a student's IEP or 504 plan.
Ways Kira Can Support Modifications:
When editing a lesson, teachers are supported by the Lesson Editor Chat that they access with the Ask Kira AI button. If teachers need multiple versions of material, they can make copies and alter each to assign to individual or small groups of students. Through prompting, teachers can quickly and easily do the following:
Change reading level
Change question type or amount
Bulk adjust rubrics
Documents like an IEP are a legally binding contract, and it is an important responsibility of a teacher to review this document for students in their class at the start of term. IEPs will help you determine if a student needs accommodation or modification of content, and if you're not sure, you can talk with your school IEP team for clarity. Generally, intense modification such as removing certain standards for a student are reserved for students who are noted to receive 'alternate assessment' in their IEP.
What prompts can I use to adjust material for accommodations or modifications?
Make sure you are in a copy of your course that you'd like to edit. Then, click the 'Ask Kira AI' button to open the Lesson Editor Chat. Try the following prompts to make necessary changes.
Change Wanted | Accommodation or Modification? | Prompt |
I want to add explicit read aloud to this lesson so students see a play button, versus highlighting and pressing the read aloud button. | Accommodation | Go through this lesson and add a 'Read Aloud' component next to every piece of text (headers/paragraphs and callouts) and before all questions that will read the exact text given on the page or in the question. |
I need students to have the option to (type or handwrite) instead of (typing or handwriting) on x questions. | Accommodation | Make a full pass of this lesson - wherever you see (question type, such as free response or document upload) replace it with (question type, such as free response or document upload) so that students can submit (typed/handwritten) work instead of (typed/handwritten) work. |
I need this lesson to be presented in smaller chunks. | Accommodation | To meet special education needs, this lesson needs to be split into shorter, bite sized steps or chunks. Without deleting any content, add additional steps and move content so that less is displayed on each step. Use logic to determine what should stay together and what makes sense to split. For sequences and call outs, make sure that 'progressive reveal' and 'hide on present' are turned on so students can slowly reveal information. |
I need this lesson to have additional scaffolds to support student learning. | Accommodation | Act as an instructional expert. We want to add additional scaffolds to this lesson to support student learning. Review the lesson, and where appropriate, add scaffolds such as additional guiding questions, hints that do not give away the answer, or supporting activities (such as manipulatives or simulations) that help with student understanding. It is very important that scaffolds support students in coming up with an answer themselves, but does not give away or make obvious the correct answer. |
My students read at a low level but do not have modifications in their IEP, and I want to support their access to material. | Accommodation | Act as a literacy coach and review this lesson. We cannot make major modifications to the lesson as a whole, as that is not a part of the student's IEP, but we need to support students who read at a # Grade Level. Look to add extra supports such as read alouds that restate text, extra callouts to explain vocabulary words, or visual dictionaries to help explain new words and concepts. If you're not sure if something can be changed, ask first. |
I need to modify this content to be at a different reading level. | Modification | Modify all text in this lesson to be at a # Grade level. Do not change the question types or the tasks, instead just adjust the language to be more accessible to students reading at # Grade level. |
I need to change the type of questions in this activity. | Modification | You are an instructional expert modifying content for a student with specific alternate assessment needs. Go through the lesson and remove (question type), instead replacing it with (question type) activities or similar that support learning in a more accessible and developmentally appropriate way. |
I need to change the amount of questions present in this activity. | Modification | You are an instructional expert modifying content for a student with specific alternate assessment needs. This student should only be made to answer (%) amount of questions compared to the standard course. Use best judgement to determine what questions could be trimmed or altered to ensure the student is still challenged and learning, but is not overwhelmed by material. Do not make any other changes to the course. |
I need students assessed on a different rubric. | Modification | This version of the course is for students assessed on an alternative rubric. For all (question types), please replace the standard rubric with (insert rubric information, or name of a rubric you've made previously). (Optional: If making a new rubric, provide specific guidance on what the student should be graded on.) |
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if my student gets accommodations or modifications? This should be information that is in their IEP or 504 plan, and will be clearly labeled. When in doubt, talk to your school's Special Education team who can assist you in understanding what is in their documents.
I need to make changes to an entire course for some students, but not others. You can make a copy of your course and assign it to groups of students instead of a whole class. Make changes in the copy, and keep the original in tact for students who do not need the accommodations or modifications.
I need to make changes to an entire course and am already using it with students, how can I do this without being overwhelmed? You know that saying about eating an elephant one bite at a time? The same is true here! Your students likely do not need the whole course done at once; if you're using availability/release dates, they might not even see the whole course yet! Run the prompt(s) you need on the upcoming lessons before they become available to students. Instead of trying to finish the whole course, just aim to stay ahead of student need. Think of it like making copies in the days of yore - you likely didn't have copies made for every activity in the year on the first day of school, but you definitely had what you needed for the day, and maybe even the week!