Structured Learning/LIFE Skills
What's Required
Each school district shall provide services to students with disabilities in order to meet the needs of those students in accordance with 34 CFR §300.26. Instructional arrangements/settings shall be based on the individual needs and IEPs of eligible students receiving special education services.
What We Do
Structured Learning/LIFE Skills
The Ore City Independent School District Structured Learning programs span the instructional ages from Kindergarten to age 22. These classrooms serve learners with significant cognitive disabilities whose needs are best met through an instructional focus on prerequisite skills that are often learned through real life application of the grade-level TEKS.
The LIFE Skills/Applied Academics class is designed to meet the educational needs of students with significant cognitive disabilities who require direct, intensive, individualized instruction to acquire, maintain and generalize skills. Instruction is focused on the functional skills that are considered critical to the quality of life.
Areas addressed include:
- functional academics
- self-help, domestic
- vocational
- communication
- social
- behavior
Just as the term suggests The Structured Learning Classroom is highly structured to promote learning for the challenged learner. This classroom was formerly known as The Life Skills Classroom. The biggest difference is found in the clearly defined limits and consistent routines. While The Life Skills Classroom was a good fit for the ID student; The Structured Learning Classroom best meets the needs of a student with autism, as well as, meeting the needs of the student with an intellectual disability.
- A student attending a structured learning classroom receives intensive supports that are both predictable and consistent.
- A student attending a structured learning classroom can count on clearly defined and consistent routines throughout the school day.
- A student attending a structured learning classroom will be taught consistent skills needed for communication, social skills, academic tasks, and behavior management.
- These students function significantly below grade level academically, socially, and emotionally.
- The structured learning classroom facilitates the consistent development of language, communication, and social skills, along with self-help, sensory integration, and academic skills and to generalize skills in all settings.
- The structured learning curriculum addresses academics, vocational, basic living skills and work behaviors through a very highly structured environment with intense audiological, visual, and kinesthetic supports and strategies.
- Structured learning will promote positive behaviors associated with successful integration into the school and community as emphasized through a highly structured set of coordinated activities.
- A few more Characteristics of Structured Learning classroom:clear visual and physical structure.
- Predictability in the learning environment through intense visual supports, consistent verbal commands, and an organized sequence of activities or events throughout the student’s day.
- Multiple evidence-based methods are used to meet the individual needs of the student.