MODIFICATION or ACCOMMODATION: Examples

Completion type of assessment
Type of Student
English Language Learner (ELL)

Modification/Accommodation
Provide a word bank next to each completion item from which the student can choose. For example, if the correct word for a completion item is “folk,” the word bank for that item might contain the words “craft,” “fine,” and “folk.”
Type of Student
Motor Control Difficulties (Orthopedically Impaired)

Modification/Accommodation
Modify the format to provide larger blanks than usual on which to write. Extend them horizontally to make them wider, and provide increased vertical space between listed sequences of steps.
Type of Student
Gifted

Modification/Accommodation
Modify the true-false assessment to enable the gifted student to demonstrate higher-order thinking skills. For example, in addition to choosing true or false for the statement “Oaxacan animals are created by the Zapotec Indians,” the gifted student would be asked, “Why or why not?”
Type of Student
Anxiety Disorder (Serious Emotional Impairment)

Modification/Accommodation
The format could be adjusted to simplify the amount of information that the student would be required to process at one time. Providing plenty of white space, larger-size text, more space between items, and short, clearly distinguished sections may help alleviate the student’s anxiety.
Type of Student
Attention Deficit Disorder

Modification/Accommodation
Modify the instructions so that the student is not required to engage in an intensive writing task. He/she could instead describe the artists’ use of color, form, and pattern in Oaxacan folk art animal sculptures by constructing a tree-style diagram in which key terms are connected and organized hierarchically.
Type of Student
Dysgraphia (Specific Learning Disability)

Modification/Accommodation
Modify the instructions to allow the student to describe the sequence of steps used to make his or her Oaxacan clay animal in terms of firing, painting, and shaping by recording an oral instead of written response.
Type of Student
Polymicrogyria (Health Impaired, Orthopedically Impaired)

Modification/Accommodation
A student with polymicrogyria has multiple disabilities, both cognitive and physical, including difficulty with fine motor control and speech problems. To modify a performance type assessment such as the Oaxacan clay animal project, the student would be assigned an aid to assist in communicating instructions, retrieve and clean up materials and supplies, and help in the production of the student’s project to the extent needed.