About Unique
The mandates within No Child Left Behind (NCLB 2001) and the individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA 2004) make it clear that ALL students are expected to participate
and make progress in the general curriculum. These mandates are often perplexing for
educators of students with the most severe disabilities. The depth and complexity of state
academic content standards seem far from reach for these students. Teachers are faced with
how to adapt curriculum materials into an accessible and meaningful manner. Consequently,
instruction is frequently based on an individual teacher's perspective of what is
appropriate at the time without full knowledge of what was taught in the past, or what
the future expectations will be.
The Unique Learning System is based on years of classroom experience, teacher input, and
study of effective learning strategies for students with the most significant
disabilities. The following guiding principles are embedded within this program as a
belief system, as was as an expectation of what successful learning will look like.
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Standards-based instruction provides an effective avenue to assure that students are
participating in a systematic and progressive learning process.
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There must be a strong expectation that all students can benefit from literacy
learning in order to enhance their life-time opportunities.
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When teachers are provided with core instructional materials, they can more readily
focus on a student's individual learning needs.
About The Author
During 35 years in education, Kathy Staugler worked as a speech language pathologist, special education
classroom teacher, and assistive technology consultant. Her interest in curriculum for special
learners peaked when training Ohio teachers about the Alternate Assessment process. While teachers
became more aware of what standards-based instruction needed to look like, they did not have the
time to create the extensive modified materials that were necessary for their classrooms of varied
learners. At a conference in 2006, Kathy and News-2-You founder Jacquie Clark began a discussion on how the current
event format of News-2-You could be enhanced by including a core curriculum that progressed
throughout the grades. The result of this discussion---the Unique Learning System—is a
comprehensive standards-based curriculum format to support literacy and content learning for
students with significant needs.
Contact
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