RICHARD LADNER: Hello there.
We've just started recording.
I'm Richard LADNER I'm the principal investigator
for AccessComputing.
And I would like to introduce our speaker today.
We're going to have time for questions later.
If you do have a question during the talk,
be sure and put it into the chat.
So Robert DeFillippo is a teacher
of students with diverse learning abilities.
And he has won some awards.
He won the 2008 Annie Sullivan Award for Excellence
in Education and he also won the 2018 National Champion
of Computer Science award winner for his work
with equity and accessibility to computer science
for students with severe cognitive and emotional
disabilities.
So I'm proud to introduce Robert DeFillippo.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Thank you, Richard.
I really appreciate the opportunity.
And thank you all for coming this evening
and this afternoon, based on your time zones.
I'm really pleased to be here and to have the opportunity
to talk about a subject that is very near and dear
as my journey has begun a few years ago
and we continue on that journey today.
So as Richard had mentioned, but we
began talking about myself a little bit.
So over the past 25 years I have taught in many roles.
I've served populations in special education
from students with specific learning disabilities,
life skills support, emotional disturbances,
students with autism, and students with severe cognitive
disabilities in many different environments.
I have worked in a typical high school setting as well
and as a resource room teacher.
And those classes I would be doing push
in services to give them supports with that
and as well as being a full time,
self-contained classroom teacher as well.
So that's a little bit of my background,
and before we kind of move on, I just
want to kind of go over with you guys a quick overview.
But you could see that there's a chart here
that I have on here as well.
So while I go over today's presentation objectives
with you, I added this chart is kind of like a little teaser
as to frame what the presentation is really about.
So you can see that the title of the chart
is Equity Through Opportunity and Accessibility
Through Differentiation.
So when we really talk about this opportunity,
what are we discussing?
We are really looking at that opportunity for students
with severe cognitive disabilities
to really have access to grade-level content
and computer science.
Now what kind of varies with that a little bit,
and you can see the arrows jetting off side to side,
is really about having the fact that we
look at social emotional learning pieces as well.
And we really want to take a broad view, that whole child
approach, to teaching students with severe cognitive
disabilities computer science.
And on the other side we're really
looking at that student engagement.
More of your just fundamental teaching and learning
and the skills that are needed in computer science.
And then how do we differentiate that?
And you could see NOAH is represented there, right there.
And we're going to be talking more about that.
But when we're talking about today
and we're going to be looking at our objectives.
First, it's going to be our journey the
why, why did we begin doing what we're doing?
As well as number two, the second section,
we're going to look at, know your students.
I call it KYS.
And what it will look like to be an inclusive environment,
willing to accept this opportunity and accessibility
to computer science for all.
After that we're going to look at what's worked for us.
Again, it is what we have found to work in our environment
with our population.
And last but not least, some strategies for differentiation
as well.
So first a little bit about the school that I work in.
Currently I serve as the computer science instructor
for Mon Valley School which is a center based
school, part of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit Three.
In the state of Pennsylvania, if everyone is unaware,
in the state of Pennsylvania we have intermediate units
and they are educational entities
that serve to provide special education services and supports
for local school districts.
Mon Valley School, at Mon Valley School we serve 1%
of the school age students that have needs that cannot be met
inside of their home school districts.
Our school is 100% free lunch.
We serve students from lower income families.
Our enrollment fluctuates between 200 and 300
full-time students.
We serve ages from 5 to 21 years of age in grades from K to 21.
We also have about 200 half-day students
that come into Mon Valley school for vocational programming.
And some of the vocational programming
that we do offer is we have a food service program,
a nursing aide program, auto mechanics, wood shop, buildings
and grounds maintenance, and most recently
a computer science vocational program that has served,
that students can come into from 42 different school districts
around the local area.
So I have a video that I'm going to play
that's going to tell you a little bit about the journey
that we have taken.
There's no sound to it, but you'll
get a great representation of what the classroom looks like.
Some of the things that go on in the classroom.
And I'm very happy and proud to say
that this was created by some students in the classroom.
So this is kind of a little bit of their little journey
as well.
So our journey did begin, our journey to bring opportunity
for computer science to our population,
students began in 2016 is when it really began.
And while teaching in a self contained autistic support
classroom, I was really looking for a way
to engage my students with technology
while also still connecting their learning to reading,
math, and science.
My observations were really twofold.
One students were really engaged with electronics.
And two, they were great consumers of technologies
but they really had no understanding of the technology
and how it worked.
I began with using the Code.org platform for teaching computer
science, but I was quickly met with kind of two realizations
that I had.
First was I had no technology in the school
to really be using except for two classroom desktop
computers for eight students that I had at the time,
and second of all, that the platform was not
developed for this population.
This led me to start really kind of diving
into being creative and trying to think of some things
that we could do.
So through some grants that I wrote and received
from the state and local partnerships
we were able to create this Team's Lab
which is an inclusive dedicated space for teaching computer
science to students with cognitive disabilities,
but it's also to look at other job opportunities.
The lab really focuses on three main areas,
and we look at coding and robotics, more
of your standard language-based programming,
we look at engineering and design,
and then we also look at digital arts and digital fabrication
inside of the lab.
So those are kind of the three cornerstones of what
we've done with our team's lab
Now as you can see there are two charts here
and there's a question the middle,
is there room in the car?
So I always use this metaphor because I really
feel like it gives us an opportunity
to take a look at a car being used as a vehicle
to get from one place to another.
And the two charts that are up there kind of I
began to quickly realize that the focus in computer
science on a national level was really
centered around gender and ethnicity
and socioeconomic groups as evidenced here in the charts.
But then I really began to realize
that not much was being said about students
with severe cognitive disabilities.
And that's where the car metaphor
came in is the fact that I felt like computer science
as a whole on a national level was pushing forward
and it was bringing opportunity.
So the car was the opportunity for computer science,
but it was kind of looking at the fact
that gender and ethnicity and socioeconomic background
were taking up all of the seats in the car, while yet
special needs students were kind of not
being asked to enter the car.
So this is kind of really the impetus
of why I wanted to start and really try
to bring some equitable access for students
with severe cognitive and emotional disabilities
to computer science.
Now the next section, KYS, know your students.
It's really when we look at our population,
objective number two is about know your students.
And let's look at the population that we're targeting today.
7.1 million students in the US are
identified as having some disability under the IDEA
Act, of which 11% of those students
are on the autism spectrum.
One in 54 students on the spectrum
are also dually diagnosed.
And those numbers are from 2020 CDC.
And these numbers, in my perspective,
they really don't reflect the total number of students
that I believe that have slipped through the crack, that
may be unidentified students that
may require some special programming to make things
accessible for them.
But I also believe that, moving forward,
we need to really find this, there
are other students that were not,
maybe their families did not want
to have their child identified as special needs.
So I think that these numbers are a little low.
I think the numbers are much higher.
But these are the reported numbers
that we have at this point.
Now when we talk about 31% of students with autism
spectrum disorders also have intellectual disabilities
as well.
So that dual diagnosis piece.
And we could see 25% have IQ scores
in that borderline range, while we still
have 40 for a big number of students are right at that 85,
greater than 85.
So really understanding what the background
of the students coming into their classroom
is really one of the key things about knowing what we're
going to have to do to make things
accessible for the students that we're going to be serving.
Now when we talk about this, we're
looking at this inclusion in your CS classroom.
What can we expect?
Now when you think about dually diagnosed,
we just talked about students with ASD often
have intellectual disabilities, that dual diagnosis strand
as well.
But expressive and receptive language difficulties.
So receiving speech and language support,
they may be non-verbal students, they
may have speech impediments, vocabulary development
may be delayed as well.
Along with this receptive and language
issues that students present with,
they can also have reduced auditory and visual processing
skills.
Now this is an important one because I
believe that these reduced auditory
processing and receptive skills limit access
to typical verbal teacher instruction.
Now I like to use another metaphor here
because I try to bring it from the perspective of the students
that I have served and what I know after learning
in 25 years of teaching students with severe cognitive
disabilities, is I oftentimes reference
a conference room in their head with stacks of paper
all over the desk.
And somebody has a fan running full blast.
The papers are spinning around and students oftentimes
with expressive and receptive language difficulties
are constantly trying to find where that paper is
for that exact moment that they want
to be able to give a response or feel like they are involved
in the classroom discussion.
So that organizing and sequencing deficits
are also a big part of it.
Now when you take that, and we also
look at that emphasis on the social emotional learning
piece, what can you expect here?
Students that may not Make eye contact.
They may not understand social mores
with the sense of inclusion and they need
to have rules and routines.
So managing emotions for them might be very difficult,
trusting the learning environment and relationships
can be very difficult for the students as well.
Decision making, again this is that executive function piece,
decision making is very difficult for them as well.
And often they are searching for an environment that is really
a highly structured environment where rules and routines are
concrete and they are really repetitive.
So again, the outcomes with the whole child approach,
hence the arrow moving over to the whole child approach.
When we talk about the whole child approach what
are we really talking about?
So we are looking at things and we are saying,
we want more of a bird's eye view,
a broader view of skills and knowledge,
not just a standard on a piece of paper.
But what are the intangible things
that are being taught by this as well?
Being able to have students have hands-on opportunities,
that real high-structured classroom settings
and prompts use to initiate learning inside
of your classroom are very, very important
for students to be successful inside of a classroom
for computer science.
Now the impacts on instruction.
So this slide really addresses some of the solutions
based on the presented deficits in the classroom correlated
to what we know students with severe cognitive delays
can experience in the learning environment.
So with language skills, the use of other web-based technology
to support alternate ways of input and response
to instruction, things like Flipgrid and Jamboards,
and we'll talk more about those in the next section,
but the scaffolding, also looking
at scaffolding ideas for students,
being able to get them instead of just being one activity,
being able to have them do multiple activities,
but breaking it down to a component
that student is able to handle.
The emphasis on the social emotional learning, these
are the rules and expectations reviewed before every class.
Time countdowns to begin instructional time,
verbal, visual, auditory cues to begin instructional times,
and opportunities for those students
to build trust and relationships,
and in the environment itself will
be based on the start of the school year
and we'll discuss that more again in the next section.
This whole child approach I really
want to kind of drill you into this drilling
down of standards to meet students where they are.
And we'll really take a look at this later
on when we look at the differentiation
piece of the presentation.
So I think that that is probably the most impactful thing
that we can do for the instruction
to make computer science accessible for students
with special needs.
So those whole things are wrapped around
can we find opportunities to make abstract concepts more
tangible when possible?
Can we find those opportunities?
So as we start into the third section looking at outcomes
for CS for students with intellectual disabilities,
I want to draw on what we have previously
discussed, especially that piece about the differentiating
strategies and why I underlined and bolded that drilling down
of standards.
So in computer science we have a very clear representation,
standards-driven for typical or traditional students
in our classrooms.
You know oftentimes they follow that 2 P, 3 C problem
solving, persistence, communication, collaboration,
and creativity.
So those are very clear outcomes that they
can have for students that are typical
or traditional students in your CS room.
When we begin looking at severe cognitive disabilities,
we begin understanding that while those outcomes
for typical students may be, including college or a CS
degree later, students with neurodiversities,
they're gaining much more than just that CS knowledge, just
that ability to maybe understand loop structures,
or maybe to write a few lines of code in Python,
to do artwork on a Canvas.
But by using this, looking at these different areas,
the problem solving, computational thinking,
critical thinking for traditional students,
how does that translate over to students with severe cognitive
disabilities?
Well they are things like finding that first step.
Can they in problem solving, can they
find the first step to be able to even begin
the problem solving process?
So we do look at ways that we can differentiate that.
And again, we'll talk more about that
when we get into that section.
But that is what we're trying to look at.
The next, building a plan.
So can students then get to the point
where they have identified what the problem is and now they're
ready to move on to coming up with a plan to solve?
And this idea of failure learning,
understanding that they will have more failures in your CS
classroom than successes.
And I think as an overall we can kind of all agree
that I don't think it's just special needs students that
have a lot of failure right out of the gate with computer
science.
So I think that it's across the board.
Now one of the things that we also
look at with computational thinking
that we've done for ID students, is this idea
of flowchart thinking and segmenting and sequencing,
grouping and pattern recognitions.
We use it in the Teams Lab, we do use flowchart thinking,
where they come to diamonds for decision making.
And oftentimes we give some of them the opportunity to have,
it's almost like story starters for reading.
So we may give them an algorithm that needs
debugged but we may give them the first three things that
are wrong that they need to find and then only find one more.
So again, with thinking critically,
we know what that is for typically
for traditional students, but the next pieces
is for ID students it's that strategy
recall through repetition.
Where are we giving them enough time
to go through a skill set that they can actually demonstrate
mastery before moving on?
So as we discussed, we can see that those tangible benefits
of why CS instruction can help with academic precursors
like critical thinking or problem
solving or executive function of neurodiverse students.
But we can see the correlation really between the soft skills
and the social emotional learning
that those students reap the benefits of as well.
That's self advocacy and self-determination.
Now you could see AEC level, alternate eligible content
standards.
So I want to draw your attention to that because
in the state of Pennsylvania, and I'm not sure
if other states have this, but our core content
standards for reading, math, and science, they all
have alternate eligible content standards for special needs
students.
So these are drilled down versions of the high level
outcome standard that a typical student would get.
So I need you to think about this in terms of a continuum.
While the high level outcome, or the high level standard
may be the high level standard, there
is an opportunity for teachers to drill that standard down
and almost think of it as rungs of a ladder that
are going up to whatever that standard may be.
So I did pick one of the standards
that I oftentimes do with my students
and it has to do with decomposing problems
into smaller components.
And it's they use a lot of high level words
through systematic analysis.
These are where the standards are used
but drilling that standard down for a special needs student
can be done simply by looking at are the students expected
to decompose a complex problem and develop
a program all on their own?
Or can we give them a story starter?
Can we give them the first rung of the ladder
and then help them through that with some instructional
strategies that we can use such as study guides, that
can help a student get through a high level
standard at a low level entry point?
So it's really about meeting the students
where they are instead of having the students meet us
where we are.
RICHARD LADNER: Robert just quick.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Yeah.
RICHARD LADNER: So it's a question in the chat.
You use the term ID student.
Could you explain what that is?
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: That is intellectual disabilities.
In the state of Pennsylvania ID is the preferred usage
for identifying students that have
severe cognitive and emotional disabilities, intellectually
disabled.
RICHARD LADNER: Yeah, thank you.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Yes sir.
Now, what has worked for us?
So this is our next section.
What has worked for us?
So we really wanted to try to focus on understanding
that the students coming into our classroom,
how can we make them feel comfortable?
How can we look at that whole child approach to learning
and really make computer science equitable as well as accessible
for them?
So we really had to come up with some ideas of what we would do
and how we would get students more engaged in that learning
process for computer science.
We did get through and we came up with one of the tools
that we use is called NOAH.
And NOAH stands for norms, outcomes, assessments,
and groupings And Richard had mentioned
when he looked at my slides that the H doesn't
make the groupings.
So when we say H we are actually looking at that homogeneous
and heterogeneous groupings.
So that's the reason why we use groupings.
So the norms, outcomes, assessments, and groupings
are what we differentiate for our students right out
of the gate to really build that inclusive classroom setting.
And again, I don't believe that this is only
for special needs students.
I believe that there are a multitude of students that
take computer science courses, whether it
be because their friends are taking it
or they did not want to take a math course
and they can use the CS course instead.
But they come in and they're immediately overwhelmed
and immediately they think to themselves,
I'm never going to be able to do computer science.
I don't understand it I don't get it.
So I think that making the environment, that first week
of school, making that environment inclusive
and not as threatening is the first place
to start with differentiating.
So one of the things with norms is
starting with that first week of class
and building that culture for the classroom.
That culture that is represented with problem
solving, that persistence piece, communication, collaboration,
and creativity and giving students the opportunity
to experience how the classroom is going to be run before they
get into the core content pieces of what the computer science
curriculum is going to look like.
I have attached in here a Teams pre-course.
So it is a quick view.
I'm going to can everyone still see my screen?
Yeah?
RICHARD LADNER: Yes.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: OK great.
So the Team's model lesson plan is really just a lesson plan
that is completely developed for you with content standards
as well.
And there are even the materials,
some of the materials we have designed as well to help it be
more tangible for the students.
But we have everything.
They all followed this classroom.
The 2 Ps and 3 Cs for us.
So we look at that communication piece.
We also look at in other lessons,
we go into collaboration and communication.
In this lesson, Oh the Places You
Will Go the, name of the lesson.
As well as problem-solving, collaboration,
and communication.
We also look at failure learning in the classroom.
So this is a great resource if, feel
free to use it to help kind of really
build that sense of, really build the sense of community
inside of your classroom, to make a special needs
student coming in not have to feel so isolated when
they come into the room.
That is the norms.
Next, outcomes.
So when we look at differentiating outcomes,
for accessibility to computer science,
the neurodiverse students should have a high level content
standard drill down for them working on a continuum
like we had discussed just the same levels of typically
developing students.
Now the products and the artifacts
can be differentiated.
That that is the simplifying of how many concepts are being
assessed at one given time.
Now one of the big things when we
talk about assessments in our next slide,
we'll talk about how you can structure your assessments,
but what are we talking about differentiating
the product or the artifact?
And really drilling the product or the artifact down?
So I did give an example.
If assessed skill takes three steps to complete,
the assessing one step at a time, and then all three steps.
So really breaking it down into more manageable pieces as we
examined earlier that students with severe cognitive
disabilities will have a difficult time managing
large portions of information.
That a large portion of information is again,
that piece of paper flowing through their head
that they're not able to grab a hold of.
If you're able to narrow it down to only one
piece of information and then give the repetition, the drill
and practice, the rote piece of learning, to that student
with severe cognitive disabilities
they will be able to attain mastery at some level.
At that point you can then think about adding another outcome
onto it.
So maybe a two-step process to be looking at what
a student's artifact may be.
Maybe you want them only to, back to making a piece of art.
So in Python if you think about making a piece of art
and you think about making just a simple rectangle
and then filling in that rectangle,
there are so many pieces to get that correct.
There is the correct spelling of the word rect, the parentheses,
the parameters that are needed to be able to make the size
and width of that shape.
And then any field command that you may give in there as well.
So when you look at outcomes for neurodiverse students,
you can look at can they get two pieces of that?
Or one piece based on their readiness level?
Not all students as we know, are on the same level at all times.
You have leaders, you have followers,
but oftentimes we're looking at that piece
of each individual student and meeting them where they are.
So you get a quick representation of that,
especially after using the pre course
of what students are going to be your leaders and followers,
and what students are going to need more assistance
through your curriculum.
Next the assessment piece.
So we really need to be looking at how do we
differentiate assessments for neurodiverse students?
And when we look at this, we really
want to look at the differentiating ways
for assessing their learning, especially for vocabulary.
One of the big ones.
So some of the examples I've given there is a Flipgrid.
I don't know if anyone is familiar with any of these.
But they are easily searchable on the internet.
So Flipgrid, Quizlet, Quizizz, Kahoot, and Jamboards boards
are one of my favorites, because it gives me the opportunity
to kind of do one-on-one instruction,
because I can assign a Jamboard that I have created
and that student is going to get more repetition through what
they use.
So they're going to have more opportunities to learn a skill.
That's one of the greatest things
that I found with teaching computer science
to this population is the fact that there are
no platforms that really seem to give
enough opportunity for practice in a skill,
whether it's building loop structures
or understanding of variables inside of an algorithm.
It seems like there's--
all of the platforms that are out there only
give students five or six examples to get through,
or lessons that they have to get through
before moving on to whatever comes next
in that specific curriculum.
I found this to be one of the biggest barriers, or obstacles,
to really having computer science equity for students
with neurodiversity.
This is really the point of where
we can begin to build extra scaffold learning
activities through the use of these Jamboards or Kahoot
or Quizlet for vocabulary.
Flipgrid is a great way to have students
that have expressive language difficulties as far as typing
or structure of words and how they put together,
but they do have the verbal ability to do that.
They're able to make their own video responses to any content
that you're able to give them.
So you can build a lesson where you give them
and ask them to answer a question regarding something
that you're working on that week in class,
and they're able to give a verbal response to that.
The students should also have frequent, more than typical
students, assessments.
Breaking down concepts into more manageable pieces.
And the remedial assessments that
maintain skills and concepts that were previously learned.
Now what am I talking about when I say those?
I'm really looking at when we assess
a skill for neurodiverse students,
we really want to take a look at that skill
and as we assess that one skill, and then
we decide that they have met mastery
or they've met a benchmark that is sufficient for moving on
to the next skill, then we still don't
want to forget about the skill.
Students with ID do need to have that repetition.
It's the use it or lose it mentality.
So students really need to have to go back and still retain
that information.
And the way that we found that to be
beneficial for our students is through the assessments
by breaking it down to one assessment, adding a second,
adding the third piece, and then for the second and third piece
still adding one from the previous lesson,
or two from the previous lesson that
maintains their skill while moving on
and learning other pieces.
Now with groupings.
This is more on the social emotional learning side.
So this is accessibility through differentiation.
We need to increase communication and collaboration
for students.
We need to build a culture in the room that's
going to allow for more sharing and more failure learning.
Again, I do not believe that this is just for ID students
or students with special needs.
I believe this is for every population in computer science.
It also offers reflections on tasks as well.
What we have found to work very well with groupings
is to begin the school year with grouping students
in a very homogeneous group so they are on the same ability
levels, they have that same student that is very shy
and does not want to talk.
We want him with other shy students
that do not want to talk or students
that have language deficits.
We want to keep them with their own group to start.
So once everyone is feeling comfortable,
that gives us then the opportunity to break out
and now look at more heterogeneous grouping
when we do paired programming activities, where
you can have a leader and a follower,
where you can have a student that
is a very good communicator and a student that
may not communicate as well.
So again with groupings we're just
looking at can you give opportunities
to groups students at the beginning of the school
year in homogeneous groups and then once that environment
and culture and trust is built in your classroom, then
look at moving into that heterogeneous class,
or groupings, to be able to look at paired programming
activities.
So in wrapping up, its equity through opportunity
and accessibility through differentiation.
What you know about your typical students' behavior,
struggles, with parts of a curriculum,
it's things we already know plus what
we've learned about differentiating,
really makes us understand that we're not as special
as we thought we were.
So the reality is that while that special needs student may
be coming into an inclusive environment for computer
science, it does not mean that they are not
going to be able to meet the requirements for the course.
It just means that we have to find more opportunities
to have accessibility and to differentiate the curriculum
to help them be successful.
And through some of the things that we've
talked about today in regards to differentiating based
on the norms of the classroom, as well as drilling
down standards, assessments, and outcomes
I truly believe that this is an opportunity
to truly bring equity through opportunity and accessibility
through differentiation.
Thank you.
Any questions and answers at this point?
RICHARD LADNER: Yeah well thank you Robert.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Yes
RICHARD LADNER: Yeah, so I have a question,
and people please put your questions into the chat
or Brianna will monitor and see if anybody,
can you raise your hand Brianna, if you're able to do that.
BRIANNA BLASER: You can raise your hand as well.
RICHARD LADNER: And so you let us know sorry.
But I have the first question, and that is your students
are very diverse among themselves
but they all have a disability, and many teachers, most
students who have a disability are not
in self-contained classrooms like yours,
but I might be a teacher that has two students on the autism
spectrum but the rest of my students are not.
I mean maybe I have a couple of other students
that have reading issues and so on.
So what can you say to a teacher who has,
say 30 students in their class and just a few students
that you would typically have in your classes?
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: I would think that the greatest thing that I
would say is the fact that yes, the up front work needs
to be put in to help them be successful in the classroom.
Yes, there are some extra things that
need to be done to help them be successful.
But I think that at the same time, in my classroom,
I have vocational students that are coming half day that
may make up a third or fourth of my classroom
setting at that time with students that have
special needs at the same time.
So while I have two different levels working at one time,
it does require that opportunity to be
able to sit down and put in some extra work
up front to be able to have things planned where you can
give extra assignments for students that may not
be grasping a concept right out of the gates.
So I think that this idea of differentiating and looking
at platforms across the board, and if anybody
has any I would love to hear, but platforms just
do not seem to have enough opportunity to practice skills.
So that's where the differentiation piece comes in.
And I'm sure that there are teachers
that are in this presentation right now
that spend time finding extra scaffold activities
or remediation and lessons for those students as well.
And those remediation tasks, or those extra assignments
to be able to grasp a concept, I think they're out there
and I think teachers are already doing that.
It's just more about differentiating that classroom
so that the ID student is able to fit
in right out of the gates.
You'll get more from them if they feel that sense
of inclusion in the classroom.
RICHARD LADNER: That's really interesting.
Also you mentioned in your presentation
the idea of providing scaffolding so that people have
a pathway to solve a problem.
And over time you sort of loosen up that scaffolding
and remove it.
And how long does that take?
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Yes, so you're
referring to what in special ed we call fading.
RICHARD LADNER: Fading.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Yes.
So we do use fading.
So we do have scaffolding activities.
We do have structured worksheets that go along with assignments
as well that help students through their thought
processes in solving a problem.
And we are able to fade those things out over time
based on a student's understanding of the concepts
that we're using.
So one of the flowcharts that we use like I spoke of earlier,
we use diamonds for decision making points
where they can either go left or right
or continue straight down.
We use stop signs to let them know obviously
that that is a stop.
We use rectangles to tell them that they
are at a starting point.
And then over time we begin fading out
those visual cues for them.
Now it may just be written cues and over time
we then fade out the written prompts
and the written cues that step them through their thought
processes as well.
So yes over time.
And again it's individualized.
So I've had students that mastered
the concept of this kind of decomposition, the brain
storming, looking for pattern recognition,
then moving into this triphase where they're
working through the problem.
And then that reflection phase to look back to say,
yes it did work or didn't work.
I have students that work through that process
after some scaffolding activities
and structured guides for them within weeks.
And I have other students that it's taken a whole school year,
that they still need that level of support
to get through there.
But again, I think the biggest thing is is really
understanding that the learning that the students are grasping
from computer science is not just
about the content of computer science.
It is about the social emotional piece.
It is about the understanding of that self advocacy.
It's better communication.
It's following single and multi-step directions.
It's sequencing.
It's pattern recognition.
These are all those soft skills in special ed
that we always struggled with trying
to find ways to build into our curriculum
with reading and mathematics.
Computer science just is a perfect symbiotic fit.
RICHARD LADNER: Wow.
I was wondering, Robert, could you stop sharing the screen
because then we can have more people and I might,
there you go.
BRIANNA BLASER: There's a couple of questions in the chat too.
So Yvette asked, do you differentiate
the summative assessments like quizzes and tests
for students with intellectual disabilities?
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Absolutely, and again, we differentiate
on a lot of different factors.
A lot of times we're beholden in the state of Pennsylvania,
and I believe across the country,
you're beholden to a lot of IEP restrictions as well.
So if there are accommodations that are in the IEP
that address things like extra time,
shortened assignments, so we obviously
have to be beholden to those.
But from there I do differentiate
on a lot of different avenues.
Where one test a student may have to,
they may have to debug a program and then go through it
and revamp the program changing a lot of the parameters.
Whereas another student may not have to debug it,
and it's only a choice between two lines of code
that are our options for right and wrong
and they do not have to then rewrite it with new parameters.
So it's just differentiating that outcome
that you're looking for, doesn't necessarily
have to be every student gets the same assessment
in the classroom.
RICHARD LADNER: Vivian has a question.
Do you want to unmute and show yourself Vivian
and ask your question?
VIVIAN MOTTI: Yes, I can do that.
So I was wondering if the students you teach,
they are verbal or they have different communication needs?
And if so, how do you address their different communication
styles during group activities, for instance?
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Yes so I do have students,
I have students that are non-verbal.
I have students that have speech delays.
I have students that are typical speakers, like you and I.
And the way I overcome that is, first of all,
if we're doing anything that they have to give responses
back to me, we have some software in the classroom,
we have text-to-talk.
So if they're having difficulties
verbally telling me what they need or what's going on.
They have task devices where picture representation and I
can code a line of pictures for them
that are responses for a set of instructions
that we're going to be going over
and the computer will read the responses back to me,
they just have to choose which one is the correct one.
RICHARD LADNER: Great.
One thing that you mentioned to me the other day
when we were talking was that when you do, and you mention it
kind of abstractly here, the fact that a lot of curricula
like Code.org curricula, their assessment is
on A then they go to B and they do an assessment on B
forget about A. And what you're saying
is that to do this alternative eligible content
is what you call it?
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Yes.
Yep.
RICHARD LADNER: Maybe you could go into a little more depth
and explain what that means to, that sounds difficult
because you have these units and you tests on the unit
and then you go to the next unit you test on the unit.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Yes.
RICHARD LADNER: A whole new approach.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Yes, it is a daunting task at times.
But when we look at, for instance, when we were,
I'm just going to grab one that I just recently have
done with some students.
So when we were looking at understanding canvas size only
for a group of fresh students that took the CS course
that I was teaching.
So just understanding the pixel size 400 by 400,
understanding the x and y parameters.
So I had to break each one of those down.
I had to use a Jamboard to be able to get them through.
And just learning what the canvas was
and what a pixel was 400 by 400.
When we were then able to move on we
were then looking at making a circle on the canvas
now and understanding that a circle gets placed
is completely different because it's
using the exact center of the circle,
when you give its radius and its circumference
the size of the circle on the canvas to where
a rectangle will be placed based on the upper left hand corner.
So the point being is that while I was just teaching canvas
at first, that was the one that I had to assess to make sure
everyone was able to get through at a certain proficiency level.
Once I was able to do that, we then went on
and began looking at circles, ellipses, and rectangles
and their placement on the canvas.
When I assessed that new concept,
I also brought back the concept of canvas size.
So by the end of the course, when they came through,
their final assessments, their weekly assessments
that were going, were upwards of 25 to 30 per week of questions
that they were being asked.
But they were all built and they were all
reviewing what they had learned in previous ones.
RICHARD LADNER: You know it's interesting in college
you know, I've taught college for too many years,
we don't typically do those little tiny assessments.
We have one big assessment you know
at the end of the quarter, maybe a midterm or something
like that.
They're more summative you know they test everything.
So that could be kind of a shock for somebody coming
from having these sort of mini assessments
and building up assessments to having
these assessments for the students that
have gone to college.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Yes.
Yeah, and it is.
And I truly believe that that's what really helps
our students in our school.
It's that manageable piece for them.
So a lot of students, especially autism spectrum disorder
students, that their ability to manage emotion and manage
behavior is something that is, they
struggle within the classroom.
If they understand that they're going to learn a concept,
so if we give the expectation for the day,
we give the objectives for the day
and we begin that learning process.
And at the end of that process they're
expected to do x, y and z, that can
be sensory overload for them.
So we're looking at these sensory input issues as well.
That three things are a sensory issue for them.
Because it is unmanageable and now things are flying around.
It's the metaphor of the paper flying around from the fan.
That gives students then the opportunity
to realize it's one thing that I have
to do that makes it manageable.
And the interesting thing is over time,
we fade in the classroom where we may tell them
at the beginning of class this is going to be one thing
that you're going to need to do.
This is the one content that we're going
to assimilate learning to.
We are going to practice the skill
and then we are going to do a short assessment on the skill.
And after that is completed, and they now
have that ability to sit back and go I did it,
I feel great this is awesome.
Then we can oftentimes later in the school year say,
OK we're going to do one more today.
When all along the idea was we're
getting through to concepts today.
So I don't want to give them at the beginning
that the objective is to do two learning concepts for the day.
I just want to give them one.
And then when they feel that sense of accomplishment,
they're ready to try another one.
So it's the pacing of lessons I leave
completely up to the students.
That is not for me to determine.
Just like it's not me to determine
where I'm going to start my class as far as what skills
I'm going to teach or what vehicle
I'm going to use in the classroom.
I allow students to dictate and show me
where I need to meet them at.
Where do they feel comfortable, what
is their preferred method of learning.
And then to be able to help them achieve that.
RICHARD LADNER: Wow.
BRIANNA BLASER: You know we talk about--
RICHARD LADNER: Yeah, go ahead Brianna.
BRIANNA BLASER: Yeah I was just going
to ask when we talk about certain populations,
when we talk about students who are blind or have low vision,
we talk a lot about which tools are more
accessible than other ones.
So I was just wondering if you found that certain programming
tools work better for the population of students
that you work with?
Which ones you've had success with?
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: I've used Code.org's Platform.
I think that they have a lot of beneficial things
to their platform.
I think that the students interact with it very well.
I think that the detractors that I would say
would be the interface, the UI, is
very busy for students with special needs.
There's too much going on and too many things
on the interface.
And again, the big thing is, there
is not enough practice before moving on to the next skill.
CS Academy from Carnegie Mellon University,
I've used that as well.
The students have had great success with that
and they appear to love that curriculum
because the interface is more like a compiler interface.
It is not flashy, there are not things all over the screen.
It's more of a compiler.
It's very rules based, on which the students, most
of the students that I have, especially
the students on the spectrum, they
love the fact that a product is very rules oriented.
They know where to click, there's not 1,000 buttons
going on, they're able to get in get in and out, in and out
of that platform.
So those are the two that we've had the most
success with for our students, especially at the high school
level.
BRIANNA BLASER: And so when asked which Code.org
or curriculum did you use?
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: We have used CS Discoveries.
CS Discoveries is a great curriculum
that we've had a lot of success with but I
think there was a disconnect with Code.org's Discoveries
program.
I think that it lended itself too heavily
towards the unplugged activities, which
tends to be a little bit boring for my students.
They want something that's a little bit more fast-paced.
So that curriculum I had to adapt tremendously
by using lots of STEM activities and science
experiments around the concept that Code.org
was asking to be taught.
I've also used the Express course for Code.org
as well as the Principles course.
The CS Principles.
RICHARD LADNER: Now Zoe has a question.
Do you want to ask your question,
unmute yourself and ask?
ZOE FALLS: Sure.
So I work with a fully online institution.
And we're nationwide.
We're really focusing on developing our courses
to be as inclusive and targeting all of our learners as we can
but it's fully virtual.
So they're never going to be in a brick and mortar building.
They might not even interact with other students
in their online platforms.
So we're really trying to figure out the creative
and sort of best practices ways to create
a really good learning experience for those learners.
So I'm wondering if there's anything
that comes to mind surrounding that because I recognize
that it gets pretty tricky pretty fast.
But we're, like you said we're trying
to I guess upskill ourselves and then again be as mindful as we
can.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: I cannot get I cannot wave a magic wand
but I will tell you what we have done and what has worked
for us.
Are you familiar with OBS?
ZOE FALLS: One Button Studio?
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: No.
Open broadcasting source.
ZOE FALLS: Oh, OK.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: So OBS is, I use video lessons.
I have multiple students that were
virtual for the entire school year.
Both of those students were, they
are students with severe cognitive disabilities.
And the only way to truly get across the learning
was for them to see a lesson being done and not just being
like we're sitting here now.
So they needed to be able to see the interface.
They needed to be able to go over things
and they needed to be interactive with the interface
as well.
So we use OBS.
I video record a lot of the lessons
of me doing the actual practice skills or the lesson itself.
I actually turned it into this, we call it Team's Lab TV
and the students just absolutely love it.
They said I should be the next Bill Nye.
And I told them no, I think I will pass.
But OBS is one that I've used to help
record and video the lessons.
It's very user friendly.
And then to be able to get into the platform
and then be able to have, step a student through and then
monitor them as they go through and do it on their own.
It also is beneficial because it has
an archive if you have students that need
to go back and learn a skill.
That's the nice piece of video lesson modeling
as well and using video modeling.
It now becomes an archive for you to remediate.
And I'm not sure how your school works,
but I know that in my school one of the things that we encounter
quite a bit is we may be 2/3 of the way through a semester
and all of a sudden three new students show up.
So that is how do you plug three new students into where you've
already moved for 3/4 of a semester
and how do you catch them up to that?
And the nice part about the video modeling
is all of those lessons are already done.
So while I could work with one group
and get them moving in the direction
that they were already on, I can then
have the other students be working on their video modeling
and then I can and vise versa switch
and then give one on one attention that way.
So yes virtual instruction with computer science,
I don't think anybody has solved that one yet and whoever does
is, I will be the first in line.
ZOE FALLS: Thank you so much for that.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Yes.
RICHARD LADNER: I have a question about the Jamboards.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Yes.
RICHARD LADNER: I'm trying to conceptualize it.
Is there a way, a simple way that,
do you want to share your screen again and give us an example?
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: I sure could.
So since we were talking about the radius lesson
I figured that might be a good place to start.
Let's see, Game Lab.
RICHARD LADNER: I think I saw it below that.
Right about there, yeah.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: So again, these were,
and I was able to use this Jamboard in,
and I could specifically think of the group of students
that were working in this.
So I used OBS to screen record and have my little picture down
in the corner and I taught my lesson for the students
but the nice part was is after the lesson
they did have some interactive things that they
had to do in order to demonstrate to me
that they understood what radius was.
So again I'm looking at students that are coming in that have,
their math capabilities are well below grade level.
So the computer science component,
it is the first place that I have
to start is with math and computer science
because students do not even understand what the word
radius means, let alone can they figure out,
do they understand what circumference of a circle is?
So being able to have interactive lessons where
the students are able to go through and just
have time and interactive.
And we have this same piece inside
of the classroom as well.
I don't have a picture of that.
But we have a giant board that is
made into a circle that has a nail through the center
of the circle with thread going out and based on a piece of pie
that they're given they have to move it around.
So it's that tangibility piece.
So again it's meeting all those modalities
of learning that where I'm able to understand that if I put
a student into a video lesson doing an activity that
is virtual like this doing Jamboards
and understanding different things with radius and diameter
and circumference and they get it then
they're ready to move on.
If they do not get it then I can then say, well,
there is a piece to the component that
did not work for that student.
So visually it was not able to be assimilated.
No learning happened in the visual cortex for them.
Auditorily, it did not happen either
because the words coming out of my mouth were in one ear
and out the other.
So I'm left now with this idea of kinesthetic
and then this tactile modality of learning.
So that's where I'm able to then take and say
I have to make my next intervention strategy
to now go to the next modality, which
is going to be that tactile or modality
of kinesthetic movements in the classroom.
Because I've had to go that low with students as well.
Where we've taken and created a complete Code.org
puzzles in the classroom.
Where to help them understand what the blocks are doing,
what the code block is doing, that they have to physically
be able to be the puzzle piece and physically feel themselves
moving from square to square based on them getting a code
block in their hands.
So again it's that scaffold idea of meeting the student where
they are before moving on.
RICHARD LADNER: Yes that's really interesting because what
you're describing there is something that I, there's
the old Cuisinart or rods and things that from long ago.
So all of a sort of tactile learning that you're really
using that a lot.
And I think some of the computing without a computer.
What do you call that?
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Unplugged.
RICHARD LADNER: Unplugged.
Right, unplugged activities have a lot of physicality as well.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: They absolutely do.
So in a lot of terms with, and that's
where the STEM activities with a lot of the things
that I didn't see as discoveries.
I believe one of their first opening activities
was the aluminum boat challenge.
You know sticking pennies in and finding out which penny,
how many pennies will take to sink boat?
The students, that was a kinesthetic activity for them.
So it was them getting around a tub of water
and physically putting pennies in
and we used tickers to show how many pennies were going in.
So those students being able to, concrete versus abstract
so much in computer science can be abstract.
While there is a lot of things in computer science
that are very rules-based and very concrete
in computer science.
My students, and a lot of the students that I see,
they find the concrete and definable tasks
of computer science satisfying.
They find it very engaging to know
that it has to be precisely spelled with capitalization,
commas in the right place, parentheses in the right place,
and that fuels them to get it right, meticulous.
And then there are times when there
are these abstract concepts for those same students,
that the abstract concept creates
emotional distress for them.
Because it is a creative task where
there may be seven different paths to take and that
is overwhelming to them.
So that differentiation happens by limiting
that number of choices that they have so
that they, from the social emotional learning piece,
they're not becoming overwhelmed.
And then in the next piece they're
able to make it more concrete and/or
more concrete and rules-based.
RICHARD LADNER: Wow, fascinating.
Yeah, I really love that tactile learning.
And I think part of that is for my experience with blind kids
as well, because attackable is so important to them.
Are there more questions from anybody out there, Brianna?
BRIANNA BLASER: We've covered everything in the chat.
Oh, one just popped up.
Darius says I work for a nonprofit training teachers
to be computer science instructors
would you be willing to do a virtual PD on this
for our teachers?
And I'll shoot his email to you, Robert.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: I am.
When it comes to this population, I am.
I'm willing to help.
I really, truly believe that this, I've seen the benefits.
I've seen the engagement factor from the students.
I've seen what being given the opportunity can do for them.
And I really understood more about,
I've learned more from special needs students in the last six
years teaching them computer science
than I learned in the first 20 years of my special ed
teaching.
RICHARD LADNER: Another question and throughout the talk today
I don't think he used the term universal design for learning,
which is kind of this popular term out there.
And I think what you're doing, a lot of what you're describing
is sort of could be put under that rubric.
So what are your thoughts about UDL?
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Starting with the end in mind.
RICHARD LADNER: Yeah
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Yeah, yeah that's absolutely
what we're doing.
We are absolutely using universal design
to be able to backward chain.
One of the biggest components of special education is chaining
and backwards chaining is one of the most effective ways
to gather concept attainment for a student.
So being able to start with the end in mind,
taking a content standard, drilling that standard down,
and finding hinge points that you
want a student to be able to try to hit
as they work up to that task.
And then it goes the same way, that universal design
for learning that backwards chaining then
goes from the standards and your planning as a teacher,
and then it goes straight into your instructional strategies
and design as well.
So as you begin to design what lesson,
you're going to teach the materials, the avenues
of input, the avenues of assessment
that you're going to use for whatever lesson
you're doing for that day, then you are again
looking at what do I want the student to be
able to demonstrate at the end of the day
to show me that there has been mastery
or some level of attainment of the skill based
on an IEP goal or objective or just in the classroom
expectation that I have.
RICHARD LADNER: Right.
I wonder if you should give a presentation to Code.org
because maybe they can improve their curriculum by doing
this backward training or it more, less siloed.
You know each topic so siloed.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Yeah, well, and we
had talked about this as well is the fact that I feel
like Code.org, one of the greatest things about teaching
and this is the thing that is always troubled me in education
is when we try to take the art of teaching out of teaching.
Teachers are great creative masters of their environments.
And they always seize on these teachable moments.
I feel like Code.org a lot of times
miss their opportunity for those teachable moments.
And we had spoken about one of those
with their understanding of when we were talking
about compression, and when we were talking
about lossy and lossless compression
and I thought that that was a perfect opportunity.
One of the greatest things that students love to do
is take pictures.
Selfies of themselves.
They are consumers of social media platforms
where they're sharing photos and they're doing things like that.
I thought that was a perfect opportunity for them
to have a teachable moment that bridges
the gap between these abstract concepts and then a real world
application to what that is.
So I think that those are opportunities
that in the classroom teachers don't miss.
Because teachers are masters of this, the teachable moment.
And having the, Oh this is where I can make a tangible.
I can make it real world, this idea of compression.
And understanding how that affects image and video
streaming.
So that does give you that opportunity to do that.
And I think Code.org, that is one area that they could
improve their product is definitely
by finding more teachable moments in their curriculum
and not making it, and great verbiage, the silo that they
do.
RICHARD LADNER: So why don't you,
why don't you unmute yourself, put your hand down and ask
your question.
There you go.
YVETTE LEE: I admire what you did.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Oh, thank you.
YVETTE LEE: But I feel like it took a lot of your time
to really differentiate and build, really meet their eyes
and sometimes I feel like it's really
tiring because when you have different sections,
different levels of students and mix.
And this is the problem I had was
in AP classroom, principal's class,
I have students who don't have algebra one so I should
have gone down like you did.
And start from the building the math and like a scaffolding
and breaking down all those words
but I just couldn't do it this year.
So that was one question.
How can you with any advice for a first year teaching
experience teaching that course, like how can we
reduce our loads and differentiate those?
And my other question of the assessment
was that students were supposed to take the AP exam.
So if I differentiate the assessments, well in the end,
at the end they have to take a key.
So that was my question.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: And I will answer
that in the best way that I possibly can,
which is when I started this journey
I became I had that sense of overwhelmed.
Kind of what you're saying right now.
Like where do I begin?
I would have to go all the way back and fill
in all the algebra that this student has
missed to be able to get them to the next level.
My suggestion is first and foremost,
pick a concept or a skill that you really
want to work on with a group of students and start there.
Don't try to look at your entire curriculum
and say I'm going to differentiate everything at one
time because it doesn't work.
I tried that and I literally almost drove myself insane
thinking that I was Superman and this was what I was going to do
and rah, rah, rah and I'm going down this path.
But then I began realizing that if I picked one component
that I believed that encompassed all of the students
at one time, one concept, and then really differentiated that
and began building units around that,
and then building the extracurricular activities
built into that, the remediation projects,
the gaps in their previous instruction
that they may be missing, that was kind of where I had to get.
The second piece of the answer would be the fact
that I think that through these types
of collegial conversations, these presentations,
people like you and I spreading the word that there
is an inequity that is happening and that it's
time for disability to be given the same status as gender
and ethnicity, that maybe we can spur these Code.orgs and CS
Academy through Carnegie Mellon and Bootstraps
and all of these other platforms to hear what we're going
through for them to finally realize that, wow, there needs
to be a platform that's built that is taking
into consideration students that may not be again,
I hate saying it this way but I truly
feel like computer science platforms were built
for a very typical student.
They were not built for everyone.
And I feel like until that time happens
that we need to continue doing what we're
doing with these kinds of conversations and partnerships
and working with each other and ultimately trying
to find a platform that is going to help with that.
And there will not be a cookie cutter approach to it.
I don't think that that will ever happen.
I don't think that there will ever
be a platform that says this is a computer science
curriculum that handles everything
from an introduction to CS to introduction to Python
and Java all the way up to your or APCSP.
I don't think there will be one curriculum for that.
I think that it's going to take three or four or five platforms
that are going to be developed.
And I'm currently working with a gentleman out of West Virginia
State University, or West Virginia University in West
Virginia that is working for the Department of Defense
and we are trying to build the first special needs curriculum
for computer science.
But we are not going to be starting at the AP level.
We're going to be starting at the intro and intro
into Java, that's where we need to get.
So this basic idea and concepts of programming
that just gives more opportunities, as far as
not learning a concept and having five bubbles and then
your boom, you're on to the next concept.
And there really doesn't give enough time for anything
to become very concrete in that student's mind.
They just don't have enough practice.
RICHARD LADNER: Yeah, my recommendation Robert is
don't call it curriculum for special needs
call it curriculum for everyone.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: Yes absolutely, absolutely.
RICHARD LADNER: Well, Brianna.
What do you think?
Should we?
We're near the end.
BRIANNA BLASER: Yeah, I think we're ready to wrap up.
I will send an email with links to the slides.
And the resources Robert shared tomorrow.
So keep an eye out for that.
And it'll also include a link to the evaluation.
And I will drop that in the chat right now.
Please take a minute to fill it out.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: And if anyone would like any,
if anybody needs anything, I've given my information.
Please do not hesitate.
Anything that we've created or built or done
is for the masses.
And would love to learn what everybody else is doing
as well, because I'm sure that as long as I've been doing this
I am not the master of anything.
I am simply learning as I go and I'm
building the plane as I fly it.
RICHARD LADNER: You have a lot of enthusiasm.
At my age I'm kind of losing it, but you're still young.
ROBERT DEFILLIPPO: I just turned 50
and I don't feel that young because I feel like when you
get asked to do these types of things that tells you
that you've earned the gray hair and you're
getting too old to be in education anymore
but I'm going to keep kicking the can down the road.