Thanks, Susie. This is my understanding as well, with the
exception of modifications for MID or LD students who may do
FEWER expectations AT grade level.

I have been asked by the spec ed lead in our school, to 'enrich'
the language arts curriculum for a gifted student whose parents
want her working AT grade level. This student is not very
motivated to produce. While she does love reading, she provides
minimal responses to her reading, and very minimalistic (if you
know what I mean) written assignments. She is only earning B-
range marks in my class (occasionally A-range marks). I feel
that this request will result in much more work for me to come up
with alternate assignments that attempt to draw on the same
expectations as everyone else who is workiing at grade level,
with minimal pay off in terms of student effort and achievement.

Regardless of the specifics of my situation, I do read the
document as saying that in language and math modifications refer
to FEWER expectations at grade level or a different grade level
for students who need expectations at a lower or higher grade
level than their age-mates.

On 10/16/09, Susie wrote:
> My understanding is that modifications by definition are
> changes that result in a child working at a different grade
> level's curric. expectations. For gifted it would be a higher
> grade level - for MID etc. it would be a lower grade level.
>
> Acommodations are what a teacher does to enable a child to meet
> their own grade level's expectations - ie. scribing, more time
> etc etc etc.
>
> Enrichment activities don't require IEP's -- they're a way of
> extending the grade level curriculum.
>
> With gifted kids there's an expression " HOTS not MOTS" which
means
> Higher order thinking skills not More of the same.
>
> If a gifted kid already knows how to do a skill -- more
> practice pages is a waste of time and often an invitation for
> disruptive behaviour as they find it tedious. Put a challenge
> out to them -- hopefully they'll jump at the opportunity and
> thrive.
>
>
> There are some options on the drop downs of the IEP engine that
> specifically address gifted kids.
>
>
>
>
>
> On 10/16/09, RD wrote:
>> Hopefully someone with spec ed qualifications can answer my
>> question.
>>
>> I've been reading the IEP documents from the ministry and
>> the following section has been interpreted differently by
>> various individuals in my school.
>>
>> The document reads (p.26 explaining what a modification is):
>>
>> ". . . Generally, in language and mathematics,
>> modifications involve writing expectations based on the
>> knowledge and skills outlined in curriculum expectations
>> for a different grade level. In other subjects, including
>> science and technology, social studies, history, geography,
>> and health and physical education, and in most secondary
>> school courses, modifications typically involve changing
>> the number and/or complexity of the regular grade level
>> expectations."
>>
>> And again on p. 27 when discussing Gifted students:
>>
>> " . . . In some cases, the gifted student may be workiing
>> on learning expectations from a different grade level.
>> This may occur in language and mathematics. In other
>> subjects, such as social studies . . . ." And the same is
>> repeated.
>>
>> So, the lack of clarity is about modifying gifted students
>> AT grade level in language and mathematics. Can a gifted
>> students be modified at grade level in language and math?
>> And, if so, what would that look like? Can teachers enrich
>> the expectations AT THE GRADE LEVEL in this skill-based
>> subjects?

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