Case study: Tracey

Collaborative curriculum planning for Tracey

Tracey is in Year 11 and has dyslexia which affects her reading and comprehension skills. Tracey is studying Investigating Science for Stage 6. She has always enjoyed conducting experiments and thinking about the way things work.

Tracey’s decoding has been assessed at 10 years. She has limited reading fluency. This affects her comprehension of print text.

Tracey has limited working memory. This has become more pronounced as she has progressed through secondary school. Tracey struggles to follow complex instructions and remember all components of a task.

Tracey is very competent in the use of technology. She willingly works with the special education teachers at her school. They provide her with support in the classroom and with assessment tasks. Tracey is focused on completing her HSC.

Through collaborative curriculum planning, the special education teacher discusses Tracey’s learning goals and priorities with Tracey and her parents. They identify that Tracey requires supplementary adjustments in all her subjects.

Adjustments for Tracey

Through collaborative curriculum planning, it’s decided that Tracey would benefit from the following adjustments:

• presenting new material in smaller chunks
• breaking down instructions into manageable steps
• presenting instructions as a flow-chart or checklist
• using visual scaffolds to aid memory and retention
• supporting print text with visual cues and headings/sub-headings
• listening to print text read aloud when she must read large amounts of text (for example, using text-to-speech applications, an audio recording or through the use of a reader)
• using a reader for examinations
• using scaffolds to guide her structure and presentation of responses.

Tracey’s Investigating Science teacher considers how these adjustments can be used to support Tracey’s learning throughout the unit of work.

Tracey’s Investigating Science teacher also considers the adjustments Tracey will need for the assessment task. The chosen adjustments enable Tracey to access the task and demonstrate her achievement on the same basis as other students. The adjustments are:

• Negotiating an appropriate observation for Tracey to investigate.
• Creating a checklist, including dates, of each element of the investigation. Tracey can follow the checklist to complete the task.
• Providing Tracey with a scaffold (DOCX 30.02KB) to assist her to plan her investigation and develop her scientific report. It includes language prompts to assist her to understand, respond to, and use scientific language. Tracey will submit the completed scaffold as her response.
• Interviewing Tracey at the end of her investigation. Use the interview to discuss the findings and areas that require further investigation. The discussion can also contribute to determining Tracey’s overall mark for the task.

The marking guidelines provided with the assessment task are to be used to assess all students’ responses, including Tracey’s. The adjustments provided for Tracey do not impact on the outcomes to be assessed or the knowledge, understanding, and skills students are to demonstrate.