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Lissette Merlano Posts: 3
5/9/2022
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I once taught an Autistic student who struggled with learning stage directions. After a lot of practice, for the written assessment all of the students referred to an image of a blank stage diagram and were told to fill in the stage directions with correct abbreviations. For the Autistic student, I had him come after school and I said the stage directions while he walked to the various parts of the stage.
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Jeff Grove Posts: 5
5/16/2022
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Option 1: Provide/Describe one or more examples of adapted or alternative assessments you have successfully used in the classroom for students with disabilities. Be sure to identify the student's disability. Share your response in the threaded discussion.
I keep going back in these posts to one particular student whose absolute beginner-level English skills in a high-school Theatre 1 class posed various issues for him. In one instance, he failed a fill-in-the-blank quiz that concentrated on some skill-related vocabulary terms that would be essential to upcoming scene rehearsals, performances, and critiques. He had seemed quite attentive during my presentation of the material, had asked appropriate questions during the session, took notes with the help of his translation device, and said that he had studied very carefully for the test. Suspecting that his skills in writing English might be lagging even behind his skills in speaking English, I took him aside privately and simply began talking with him about the content of the test. I asked him questions about the terms that were on the test, and as we talked he demonstrated true mastery of those terms - not just enough to pass the test, but at virtually A-level performance. Having demonstrated through oral responses that he knew the material even when he couldn't put it together in written form, I accepted his spoken responses in place of his written ones, and recorded the appropriate grade instead of an F. Whether he could recognized printed definitions of the terms and then write those terms didn't really matter here; what was important was that he understood the terms and could use them with me and with other students as he worked. A shift in assessment format proved that he could do that.
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Jeff Luty Posts: 5
5/24/2022
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Option 1: Provide/Describe one or more examples of adapted or alternative assessments you have successfully used in the classroom for students with disabilities. Be sure to identify the student's disability. Share your response in the threaded discussion:
A few years ago, I had an elementary student (kindergarten his first year, and then first grade the following year) who was diagnosed with severe autism and had very limited speaking skills along with a hearing issue. He didn’t respond well to vocal cues but responded well to rewards. He also loved to explore my classroom, especially when I was working with other students. Rewarding him every week was going to break the bank, since it wouldn’t be fair to reward only him for good behavior and not the other well-behaved students in the class. Working with our resource specialist at the time, we came up with the solution to print out multiple faces, One with a smile, one with frown, and one with a neutral/straight lined mouth. These face papers were placed close by to him so that he could reflect on them during the class. He started each class with the smiley face, but if he became off task or did something disruptive, then the smiley face would be switched to the neutral face, and eventually the frown face if his behavior continued to fall. Once he understood the concept of the faces, which happened really quickly, he became more attentive and less disruptive in class, because he wanted the reward of the smiling face.
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Steven Tuley Posts: 3
6/10/2022
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Option 1: Provide/Describe one or more examples of adapted or alternative assessments you have successfully used in the classroom for students with disabilities. Be sure to identify the student's disability. Share your response in the threaded discussion.
In a Theatre 1 class, I had a student I will call John who has cerebral palsy. He was in a wheelchair, had good spoken communication skills, but had unintelligible writing skills. He was somewhat versed in the use of his laptop. When it came time for a written test, I would tell John not to come to class that day, to use my class time for his Learning Strategies class time (basically ESE study hall), and I would come and give him an oral test during my planning period. I could have put his test onto his computer, or at least had him answer on computer as someone read him questions, but my class was his only GenEd class each day, and I wanted him to not miss some kind of personal interaction, even if just with me.
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Steven R. Tuley
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Becky Pusta Posts: 3
7/8/2022
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- Option 1: Provide/Describe one or more examples of adapted or alternative assessments you have successfully used in the classroom for students with disabilities. Be sure to identify the student's disability. Share your response in the threaded discussion.
I recently mentioned a student on the Autism spectrum who struggled to perform monologues. While shortening the amount of material he needed to memorize for that performance, I also gave him a word bank for a theatre terminology crossword puzzle that I created and generally give at the end of the first term of the second year of Acting--thus it's terminology from all we have covered to date. He was also given extended time to complete the work (as offered on his IEP but not always used by the student). While he didn't complete the puzzle, I verbally quizzed him on what was not complete and what he didn't know, I was able to reintroduce.
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Joe Sniegocki Posts: 3
7/10/2022
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Option 1: Describe an example of adapted assessment you have successfully used in the fine arts classroom for students with disabilities. I d a student this past year who suffered from having a heart arrythmia. As a result her attention in class would drift and her IEP requested a number of accommodations to particularly help her during testing. I sat her by my desk and would check on her often to see if she needed help. Since I was right in front of her when I was not working with other students she would, sometimes complaining, talk with me about assignments. This really helped her grade in my class and she began to take pride in the work she was doing. I gave her more time on tests in class and even allowed her to re take tests if she got less than a B.
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Jenny Sejansky Posts: 2
7/16/2022
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I teach Theatre I-IV and IB. I have been fortunate over the years and have been able to keep all levels separate, with the exception of the highest level, which is mixed. My classes are performance-based but provide many opportunities for tech, directing and SM positions. My summative tests are always performance/reflection based. This includes skills from memorization to staging and performing whatever the assigned duties are. After the execution of the scenes in front of invited, student audiences, my students must reflect on how they believe they did and provide evidence- verbal or photo- of their work and what they are explaining. I project the Reflection Requirements on screen and give them the entire class period to write their reflections. Those who are still not done may email then to me later the same day or they can turn it in the next day. Students with disabilities such as testing anxiety, visual impairment or impaired memory may do the work on their computers using TEAMS. A written document with the expectations of the reflections are posted there. Students may take their time during and after class to submit. Students who cannot memorize lines or physically can't do too much staging are encouraged to run lights, sound or work back stage in whatever capacity is needed. They write about their experiences, as well. There are some students who go to their para or to consultation and do their tests with supervision. I often get emails from those teachers asking me for the right answer so they can help the student complete answers. I have also had students give me verbal answers if they could not write or type an idea that required a lot of information. There are so many ways we can help our students succeed without "dumbing down" or making them feel unappreciated.
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Jenny Sejansky
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Taylor Williams Posts: 1
8/10/2022
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I teach a hybrid film/theatre fine arts class. In one of our film units, students are to analyze the use of color to determine the tone and mood of the scene. I have had more than one student with visual impairments that prevent them from discerning hues to the degree necessary for this exercise. By adding camera shots/angles and discussions of light/darkness in a scene, students with visual disabilities are able to contribute their observations on whichever front is discernable to them.
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Nancy Oukasse Posts: 3
9/7/2022
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Option 1 - Since my history of theatre class uses multiple forms of assessment (performance as well as written), I give opportunities for students to show their knowledge in multiple ways. One of my students with a Specific Learning Disability and Language Impairment has difficulty expressing what he knows. He is very tactile however, and uses his journal as a place to show what he knows through sketching, pasting in photos, fabric swatches and theatre related clippings and material. Instead of asking him to write a reflection, we discuss the importance of each of these items to the unit of study we are currently examining and he can connect personally to the item. Sometimes it's a bit of a stretch to get to where he needs to be with his items, but he very much looks forward to collecting his artifacts to show evidence of understanding.
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Audrey Schmidt Posts: 3
12/21/2022
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I have a student in my Improv acting/ACCESS class that is non-verbal. For his performance grade I always make sure to include him in improv exercises that are physical movement based so he can find a way to perform that allows him to be successful. He is still able to create a story, implement many performance standards, and perform in front of an audience without allowing his disability to keep him from performing.
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Jennifer Wills Posts: 3
12/22/2022
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A few years ago I had a student with an orthopedic impairment who was wheelchair bound but absolutely LOVED acting! When it came to performances, instead of evaluating her on movements or gestures, I would encourage her to develop her vocal inflections and facial expressions. She had incredible confidence and optimism, and her classmates were also very supportive.
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Dustin Adkins Posts: 3
1/4/2023
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Provide/Describe one or more examples of adapted or alternative assessments you have successfully used in the classroom for students with disabilities. Be sure to identify the student's disability.
Last year I had a student in my class that struggled to hold and accurately utilize their pen or pencil within my classroom due to their disability. The class had an assessment where they were required to draw and present their finished product in front of the entire class. Knowing the struggle and burden an assignment like this would place upon this particular learner, I altered my assessment to accommodate their needs. For this particular assessment, the student was allowed to create a clay model to show and present to the entire class. Altering the assessment in this manner allowed the student to not only till feel fully included, but it boosted their morale and success as they were excited and eager to participate. I definitely found this rewarding and beneficial to my classroom.
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Lannys Suarez Posts: 3
1/27/2023
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During the pandemic, our school districted adopted the hybrid model which allowed students to be in person learning or at home via TEAMS. At the time, we were learning about the different kinds of Theatres across the world. We went on a virtual field trip to many theatres which included: Ford’s Theatre, The Bolshoi Theater, Carnegie Hall, The Colosseum and many more. After going on the field trip, students were required to choose the theatre that was most interesting to them and research 3 plays that were shown at that respective theatre and share the information they found in the form of a monologue.
One of my students at the time had ADHD, so I gave her 2 graphic organizers to choose from so she can organize her thoughts and findings before creating a monologue. I also required her to stay on the online TEAMS session so I can constantly check in with her and provide verbal encouragement even while she was at home and I was in the classroom.
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Stefanie Manning Posts: 3
2/1/2023
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Option 1: Provide/Describe one or more examples of adapted or alternative assessments you have successfully used in the classroom for students with disabilities. Be sure to identify the student's disability.
I had a student who had Speech Impairment and was unable to communicate effectively part of the time. Instead of having them read lines for an acting unit in my class, I had them write their lines for another student to read while I assessed their acting on their physical performance and facial/body expressions.
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Dennis Hall Posts: 1
2/15/2023
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Option 1: Provide/Describe one or more examples of adapted or alternative assessments you have successfully used in the classroom for students with disabilities. Be sure to identify the student's disability. Share your response in the threaded discussion.
In teaching theatre, I tend to let students find the material that speaks to them and then build my instruction on that interest. I had one student who had severe anxiety about speaking in front of others. I first started by letting them write out what they think the character was really trying to communicate, then I had them read it just to me. Then I asked them to do it again, but this time try to look at me as much as they could. ( this correlates to a reading strategy known as "chunking") Then, once they felt comfortable enough with just me, I would ask another student to stand in for whatever character the original student character is speaking to) I slowly let more students "enter the sphere of the performance". This is a pretty good method for easing a student into "performing" in front of others who have moderate to severe anxiety about being in front of others.
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emily kyle Posts: 20
2/16/2023
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I had a student who had severe ADHD and could not slow the mind down enough to put the thoughts going on in the head down on paper. I truly felt that the student had heard and did comprehend the lesson given however was unable to write those thoughts down on paper. His verbal skills were very good so, I sat with him and asked him about the story that we were reading. I asked him who the author was, who the illustrator was, what the main idea was, etc and as he talked, I wrote things down. His recall of the story was excellent and when we got the assessment completed and I read his own words back to him he was very pleased! I was too!
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Nathan Paul Posts: 3
4/11/2023
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For my students with reading disabilities, I have used video production of the scenes of a play in order for them to be able to answer questions on an assessment. This still allowed them to have the material, just not in a situation where their reading disability keeps them from functioning as well.
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Julie Odom Posts: 3
4/14/2023
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Provide/Describe one or more examples of adapted or alternative assessments you have successfully used in the classroom for students with disabilities. Be sure to identify the student's disability. Share your response in the threaded discussion.
I use varying assessments for all of my students in my Theatre classroom. Being a performing art, it is of course individual by nature. My biggest accommodation is within my rubrics. I teach students from our self-contained classroom within a larger Theatre 1 room. They perform and participate alongside their peers however their rubric will have two sections for criteria with a pass/fail instead of ranking. They do a self-evaluation with pictures and "happy faces" to describe how they feel they did and they I support it with standard based language within the rubric.
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Susan Gerdeman Posts: 3
4/15/2023
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An example of adapted assessment that I have used in my Theatre Classroom is if a student is unable to complete the technical theatre project, instead of grading that student's work, I will have the student complete a self-reflection (written or orally) stating how they were successful, where they had trouble, and what they would do next time to feel more successful. This might also include stating what they didn't understand, and how they could communicate this to better receive support. Additionally, I will have a whole-class discussion where the students evaluate each other's work- noting successes, and offering suggestions for improvement.
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Hannah Spears Posts: 3
4/19/2023
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I have a student with severe autism in my Level 1 course. He is required to take all his area exams in an accommodations room with ESE staff members present. This is a quiet environment, with preferential seating, where his questions and answer options were read out loud to him. He can also use noise cancelling headphones during his test. He also gets 100% extra time in order to finish his test.
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