Accommodations Wheel

"A Must for Every Teacher!"           

Accommodations provide students opportunities for equal access to instruction and assessment and offer ways for students to successfully demonstrate what they know. Numerous accommodations are listed for educators to use as they involve students in classroom instruction. Accommodations provide students equal access to the curriculum. The selection of appropriate accommodations allows learners to actively participate with other students in the general education classroom and in school-wide activities.   

The Accommodations Wheel is a tool to assist teachers, parents, and specialists as they collaboratively make decisions to help students be successful in school. The wheel has six windows on each side. In each window is an area vital to the academic success of students who warrant accommodations. A multitude of strategies are showcased in each window on each side of the wheel. These teacher and student strategies focus on academics and behavior. Some accommodations reference what the teacher can do to provide support while others focus on what the student can do to access instruction successfully. The face of the wheel extends the knowledge base of teachers as well as provides ideas to employ when implementing or evaluating accommodations.

   Benefits 

• Serves as a quick reference guide to accommodations for all teachers, specialists, and administrators
• Assists in increasing student access to academic content standards
• Offers alternate modes of access to promote student independence
• Provides evaluative questions to guide in the selection or review of accommodations
• Offers IEP/504 team members info to determine appropriate accommodations
• Meets legal requirements of IDEA and Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act to ensure student access to grade-level instruction and assessments

   Features

• 12 categories of accommodations
• Easy-to-use wheel format
• Face of wheel offers checklists for determining which accommodations to select
• Provides questions to evaluate appropriateness of accommodations used/selected
• Presents the laws that necessitate accommodations for students
• Provides a definition of accommodations and one of modifications so that educators are knowledgeable of similarities and differences
• Actual size: 8" x 9.25"

• Identify areas that promote a higher success rate for each student
• Locate the accommodations that support the student’s learning style and support learning needs
• Use during an IEP or 504 meeting to select appropriate accommodations to document on student’s plan
• Assist a student in being successful in testing situations by selecting accommodations to match his/her instructional needs
• Select from an array of accommodations after an accommodation is discontinued or is no longer effective and a student needs another