The University of Texas at El Paso
Interventions for Students with High Incidence Disabilities
Course Information
Class hours: Tuesdays, 5:00 PM – 7:50 PM
Prefix: SPED 5345
CRN: 15461
Room: 303Liberal Arts
Semester: Fall 2011
Course Instructor
Name: Deborah Reed, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Educational Psychology and Special Services
Office: 702 College of Education
Office Phone: 747-8661
Secretary Phone: 747-7637
Office Hours: Mondays 8:00 – 8:30 AM and 12:00 – 4:30 PM; Tuesdays 3:30 – 4:30 PM; and by appointment.
Email:
Course Description
Focuses on the role of the special educator in providing services to students withhigh incidence disabilities. Incorporates strategies in team building, collaborativeplanning and implementation, as well as in instruction in curricular and instructional modifications.
Course Objectives
Students will:
- Demonstrate the ability to assess academic skills and plan appropriate education programs for educating children andyouth in a variety of settings.
- Demonstrate the ability to plan curricular modifications for youth with disabilities.
- Develop plans cooperatively and communicate effectively with other school personnel.
- Describe issues pertinent to educational collaboration in multicultural environments.
Online Course Information
There will be an online Blackboard website that will be used in conjunction with this course. The address for that site is:
Once you open the website, login with your UTEP username and password. The course blackboard site will be a repository for assignments, handouts, readings and other material essential for the successful completion of the course. Please note that you should be on campus when you first use the website, and that you should also activate a VPN address if you wish to utilize the website from off campus. More information about the course website will be provided during class.
College of Education Vision, Mission & Goals
The long-term vision of the UTEP College of Education is to expand interdisciplinary research to meet the compelling need for research linking teaching and learning to meet the critical challenges of education in the 21st century. This vision includes the strengthening the role of the College of Education in linking the U.S. and Mexico in building collaborative relationships to enhance current educational theory and practice.
The mission of the College of Education is to prepare effective teachers, counselors, diagnosticians, and school administrators, who successfully address the problems of schools and other youth serving agencies, especially in communities with a significant Hispanic population.
Respect for Diversity
It is my intent to present materials and activities that are respectful of diversity: gender, sexuality, disability, age, socio-economic status, ethnicity, race, and culture. Your suggestions are appreciated and important to me. It is my intent that students from all diverse backgrounds and perspectives be well-served by this course, that students’ learning needs be addressed both in and out of class, and that the diversity that students bring to this class be viewed as a valuable resource, strength, and benefit. Please let me know ways to improve the effectiveness of the course for you personally or for other students or student groups. I would like to hear from anyone who has a disability that may require some modification of seating, testing, or other class requirements so that appropriate arrangements may be made. I have attempted to avoid conflicts with major religious holidays. If I have inadvertently scheduled an exam or major deadline that creates a conflict with your religious observances, please let me know as soon as possible so that we can make other arrangements.
Disabled Student Statement
In Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, if a student needs an accommodation then the Office of Disabled Student Services located at UTEP need to be contacted. If you have a condition, which may affect your ability to perform successfully in this course, you are encouraged to discuss this in confidence with the instructor and/or the director of the Disabled Student Services. You may call 915.747.5148 for general information about the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the rights that you have as a UTEP student with a disability. You also can visit the DSSO website at or the DSSO office in Room 108 East Union Building.
Individuals with disabilities have the right to equal access and opportunity. It is the student's responsibility to contact the instructor and The Disabled Student Services Office at The University of Texas at El Paso.
Required Texts
Mercer, C.D., Mercer, A.R., & Pullen, P. C. (2011). Teaching students with learning problems(8th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
In addition you will be reading various short articles in print, online, and PDF electronic format provided by your instructor.
Attendance Policy
This course requires your active participation in discussion and cooperative activities. If you have an excessive amount of unexcused or excused absences or tardies, your final grade will reflect your lack of participation. Leaving early from class will count as an absence. Arriving very late to a class will count as an absence. Spending class time doing other activities (including texting, surfing the web, working on other assignments) will count as an absence. Attendance will be taken at each class. More than two absences can be considered excessive and may result in your being dropped from the course. Deduct ten points from your overall grade for each absence beyond the two allotted excused and unexcused absences. Excused absences will need to be documented in writing through a note from your doctor that specifies the exact time and date of your required absence. A personal phone call, email, or a note from a friend does not constitute an excused absence. I appreciate being informed about any special circumstance that may prevent you from participating in the class. It is always a good idea to let me know about an absence before it occurs.
Classroom Participation
I expect everyone to complete all assigned readings and assignments on time as specified by the syllabus schedule. Any assignments handed in beyond the due date will be marked “late” and reduce the overall point average that determines your grade. Timely completion of all assigned readings and assignments is expected. Due to the amount of dialogue and in-class instruction, active class participation is required. Be prepared to share your work in class. Students who are unwilling to share their work, or who avoid sharing their work by not having it ready, will have points deducted from their overall average.
Professional Behavior
This is a professional development class designed to prepare you for advancements in your educational career. I expect each student to participate in the class in a professional manner. Negative behavior will not be tolerated in class and could result in an administrative drop at the instructor’s discretion. Please do not use cell phones or text messaging during class. If you absolutely must take a call during class, plan to step outside to do so. It is a good idea to let me know ahead of time that you will need to leave the class to take a call.
Course Communication
I normally respond to emails to my utep.edu account within 48 hours or sooner. Please allow a reasonable amount of time for me to reply to your email. You are also welcome to meet with me in person during normal office hours during the day.
Effective Electronic Communications
It is important to share a word of caution, so we can become wiser about interpersonal distance learning communications. When communicating electronically, many of the feelings or impressions that are transmitted via body language in face-to-face communications are lost. Consequently, interpreting emotions and innuendos is much more difficult. Only what is written, or drawn, carries the message. Often, excitement can be misinterpreted as anger or insult. It is important that we all keep this in mind as we communicate. Words in print may seem harmless, but they could emotionally injure us when working at a distance. Hence, it is vitally important that we are conscious of how we communicate while working at a distance. For example, avoid the use of caps in your electronic messages, as wording in caps comes across as shouting.
The standard practice ("Netiquette") for participation in networked discussion requires that all participation be focused on the topic at hand, not become personalized, and be substantive in nature. (Translation: you may certainly disagree with others, but you must do so respectfully; you may express strong beliefs or emotions, but you may not get so carried away that you lose all perspective on the course itself. More information on Netiquette, the etiquette of Internet communication, can be found at .
Time Management
The rule of thumb for time planning for a graduate course is approximately four (4) hours for every credit hour taken. This is a standard figure recommended by American universities. A graduate course is intended to be more intensive and academically rigorous than an undergraduate course. It is assumed you value your learning and seek to advance your professional knowledge, so you can expect that the class will be appropriately challenging/demanding as to make it worth your investment.
Computer Requirements
First, let's make sure your computer has the necessary plug-ins you will need to access all the content in this course. Next, please utilize the Blackboard Browser checker and fix any discrepancies. In addition, you will need the following software on your computers to efficiently work in this, or other, online courses. In some cases your computer may already have some of these programs installed.
- Adobe Acrobat Reader: You can get the program by going to and then clicking on the icon on the center of the screen which says “Get Adobe Reader”. Follow instructions to install the reader.
- Adobe Flash Player: You can get the player by going to and then clicking on “Get Adobe Flash Player”. Follow instructions to install the player.
- Microsoft Office: I recommend buying this if you do not have any word processing software or presentation software. As students, you can generally buy this whole package for about $25, far less than the store price of approximately $400.
Assignments and Grading
The instructor reserves the option to change scheduled class topics, assignments, grade percentages, and due dates. No late work will be accepted.
- Weekly Assignments (50% of grade)
There will be multiple-choice quizzes on each reading assignment. Quizzes are on Blackboard in the “Assessments” section. You are able to retake the quizzes up to 3 times, but you must complete the quizzes by the start of class on the day the reading is due. You are encouraged to use your textbook and other readings when taking the quizzes. However, you may NOT consult other students. Please refer to the section on Academic Integrity as a reminder of the expectations for your work.
Other assignments are done in class and may include short written responses. These will be used as the basis for discussion with your classmates.
- Math Assessment/Intervention Presentation(35% of grade)
Each student or pair of students will select either a mathassessment used to diagnose particular math difficulties or a math intervention used to address math difficultiesand prepare a 20 minute informative presentation on it. No two students/pairs may select the same assessment or intervention. You should actively involve the class in learning about the assessment/intervention, and you should provide a handout of important information. This will require some research on your part as you may not use the textbook as a source. The project must address/include the following:
- Describe your assessment/interventionand how it can be distinguished from other related assessments/interventions.
- Explain why the assessment/intervention is important to math instruction.
- Provide supporting research. If you have an assessment, the research should establish the reliability and validity of the measure. If you have an intervention, the research should demonstrate the program or practice is more effective than a competing program or practice.
- Demonstrate how to administer a portion of the assessment or deliver a portion of the intervention instruction. Bonus points will be awarded for videos demonstrating implementation of the assessment/intervention with actual students.
- Explain how the assessment/intervention fits into the RTI framework for mathematics. This should include issues pertinent to working cooperatively and communicating effectively with other school personnel in multicultural environments.
- Correctly cite all sources in APA style (parenthetical and reference list citations).
- Provide a handout that can serve as a study guide for the PPR.
- Classroom Participation (15% of grade)
At the end of the course, you will be assigned a participation grade based on how well you engaged the class in terms of your verbal and non-verbal participation. Positive classroom participation that can result in a higher grade would include sharing informed insights about the readings, displaying collegiality among your peers, working constructively toward a clearer understanding of the topic under discussion. Negative participation, unprofessional behavior, and/or absences and tardies will result in a lower grade.
Grading Scale
90 – 100% A
80 – 89% B
70 – 79% C
60 – 69% D
59% – below F
Academic Integrity: Academic honesty is highly valued at UTEP. All work submitted should represent your original words or ideas. If any words or ideas are used that are not the student’s own, proper citations should be used to denote other sources consulted. Academic dishonesty may include, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, submission of work created in whole or part by another person without proper citations, failure to complete work as a group member without advising the instructor of this failure, and taking an examination or writing a paper for another person. Cases of suspected academic dishonesty will be referred to the appropriate Dean. Proven violations may result in sanctions ranging from a failing grade on the assignment in question, failure of the course, to suspension or dismissal from school. Please consult the Handbook of Operating Procedures available through the Office of the Dean of Students for further information.
A Tentative Assignment ScheduleWeek / Date / Readings & Activities / Assignments
1 / Aug. 23 / Class Introduction / • Syllabus quiz to be done in class
2 / Aug. 30 / Chapter 1 (Responsive Learning Environment)
RTI training module: / • Take quiz on chapter 1 DUE BY CLASS TIME
• Complete all slides (1 in Challenge, 1 in Initial Thoughts, 10 in Perspectives & Resources, 1 in Assessment, and 1 in Wrap-up). Bring responses to the Assessment questions to class.
3 / Sep. 6 / Chapter 5 (Social, Emotional, & Behavioral Development) / • Take quiz on chapter 5 DUE BY CLASS TIME
4 / Sep. 13 / Chapter 6 (Language Development)
Research what math assessments and interventions are available / • Take quiz on chapter 6 DUE BY CLASS TIME
• Bring your top 5 choices for math assessments/interventions for the presentation to get approval
5 / Sep. 20 / Chapters 7 and 8 (Reading) / • Take quiz on chapters 7 & 8 DUE BY CLASS TIME
6 / Sep. 27 / Chapters9 and 10 (Spelling and Writing) / • Take quiz on chapters 9 and 10 DUE BY CLASS TIME
7 / Oct.4 / Chapter 11 (Math Assessment) / • Take quiz on chapter 11 DUE BY CLASS TIME
8 / Oct.11 / NO CLASS MEETING – Work on presentations / • Send me an outline of your presentation
9 / Oct. 18 / Chapter 12 (Math Instruction) / • Take quiz on chapter 12 DUE BY CLASS TIME
10 / Oct. 25 / Chapter 13 (Study Skills) / • Take quiz on chapter 13 DUE BY CLASS TIME
11 / Nov.1 / Math assessment/intervention presentations 1-6 / • Prepare presentation
12 / Nov.8 / Math assessment/intervention presentations 7-12 / • Prepare presentation
13 / Nov. 15 / Math assessment/intervention presentations 13-18 / • Prepare presentation
14 / Nov.22 / Math assessment/intervention presentations 19-24 / • Prepare presentation
15 / Nov. 29
Last day of class / Math assessment/intervention presentations 25-30 / • Prepare presentation
FINAL (based on presentations)
All quizzes and tests are accessible via Blackboard in the Assessments folder.
Math Assessment/Intervention: Class Presentation Feedback Sheet
Rate each item using the scale: 1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly Agree
Presenter’s Name ______Date ______
Math Assessment/Intervention: ______
Presentation Features
1. Speaks about content on slide but does not read slide
word for word, rush through information, or include
irrelevant information12345
2. Uses slides, graphics, and/or other visuals that are
readable, organized, and relevant12345
3. Actively engages the class in the presentation12345
Content Features
1. Describes the assessment/intervention and how it can be
distinguished from other assessments/interventions12345
2. Explain why the assessment/intervention is important
to math instruction12345
3. Provides supporting research (either reliability and
validity or effectiveness)12345
4. Demonstrate how to administer the assessment
or deliver the intervention12345
5. Explain how the assessment/intervention fits in the
RTI framework, including how to work with other
school personnel12345
6.Correctly cites all sources in APA format12345
7. Provides supportive handout(s)12345
Bonus points for video: 12345
Total of all numbers circled: ______/50 = ______%