Explain why students with high-incidence disabilities experience difficulty accessing social studies content.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ans: Response should include
• Students with high-incidence disabilities experience difficulty accessing social studies content because
o text-based instruction is typically used
o social studies textbooks generally cover too much content
o social studies textbooks assume students have a significant amount of background knowledge, misalign illustrations and pictures with the text
o social studies texts are written at reading levels beyond the ability of many students with disabilities
• Teachers frequently present information in lecture format and many students with disabilities lack skills to obtain information from lectures
• Social studies curriculum often requires higher order reasoning and writing skills such as comparing and contrasting information, supporting arguments, and critically evaluating information—skills that are often difficult for students with disabilities.
• Students with disabilities experience difficulty synthesizing information from multiple sources and then generalizing concepts to a broader context.

Learning Objective: Compare and contrast the textbook-based approach to instruction providing examples of strategies in each for science and social studies.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Text-Based Instruction
Difficulty Level: Hard