ADHD is not B.A.D.

Inquiry-to-Curriculum Final Project

Brittany Hargis, Krystal Gaston, Molly Kemper, Alex Raeburn

EDL 318E B

Deborah Heard

Miami University

May 5, 2014













A.D.H.D. is not B.A.D. is not just the name of our presentation, but is a motto that we
want all future teachers to believe in. After having been in field for the past three semesters, we
have seen how ADHD is handled or better yet, how it is not being handled in the
classroom. During our time in the ECE program we have spent a lot of time inside of a
classroom and it is unfortunate that all of us have witnessed similar interactions with students
with ADHD in the classroom. There is no one particular aspect that has led to this disconnect
between teachers and their students with ADHD, but what we have done is try to create a
curriculum that solves what we believe to be is the main cause of this disconnect: teachers being
uneducated about ADHD.
In this curriculum that we have created, we made all of our decisions based on what is
best for the student; not what is fastest, not what is easiest, not what was already implemented,
but what is BEST for our students. After talking, reflecting and exploring other ideas, we feel
very strongly that uneducated teachers are one of the leading causes of this tension within our
schools and classrooms. In order to address this tension and help in the effort to getting rid of
this tension in our classrooms we have created several different aspects within our curriculum
that we hope help solve or at least alleviate this tension.
One of our main focuses within the curriculum are making sure that our teachers and
faculty are well versed in the symptoms of ADHD, implementing correct strategies for ADHD in
the classroom and handling specific situations that may occur within their classroom with
students who have ADHD. One way in which we plan to address these issues are bringing in
professionals that are more familiar with and knowledgeable about ADHD to help educate our
teachers and faculty about the disorder. We feel as though having a professional who is an expert
in the field will help teachers and faculty to have more difficult and specific questions answered.
In addition, by bringing in a professional from the community it allows our teachers a second
outlet for help for their students. In addition, we also want to involve our parents in the process
to learn more about this disorder. We feel as a group that having teachers and parents of the same
page can alleviate problems that may occur in current and future instruction. Working as a team
to help students with ADHD to succeed is our main and we believe that this curriculum will do
exactly that.
Children diagnosed with ADHD face difficulties every day when they enter the
classroom. Along with the obstacles their disorder puts before them, they also struggle with the
unaccommodating atmosphere of the classroom. Our ADHD curriculum is a school-wide
program that helps put an end to the troublesome atmosphere of the classroom.
Our ADHD curriculum, A.D.H.D. is not B.A.D., is a school-wide program that is ongoing
throughout the school year and from year to year. The director, who is either a guidance
counselor, special educator or school psychologist, is in charge of making sure the curriculum
runs smoothly and helps coordinate the professional days throughout the year. A parent advocate
is another position key to the success of the curriculum. The parent advocate is a volunteer
parent whose own child or children suffer from ADHD. They act as the link between the parents
and the school. Their job is to assist parents when it comes to dealing with the school. For
example, they are available to answer any questions parents may have, and to help guide parents
through the 504 plan or IEP process.
The curriculum begins with a professional development day for all staff members in the
summer, about a week before school is scheduled to begin. This professional development day is
devoted to ADHD. A professional/expert on the topic of ADHD will come in and talk to the staff
about what exactly ADHD is- the different types of ADHD, the symptoms of ADHD, and some
strategies that can be implemented in the classroom to help students with each type of ADHD
succeed. After the professionals presentation, the teachers and staff will work together to create
a big bulletin board in the teacher workroom devoted to ADHD. This bulletin board will be
created by the teachers, with guidance from the professional when necessary. It will include
strategies to help students succeed in the classroom, strategies to handle problem behavior,
resources for both teachers and parents, testimonies, and business cards for experts on ADHD in
the local community. This bulletin board will serve as a reminder and a resource for teachers to
help ensure they are doing everything they can to help the students in their class with ADHD
succeed. In addition, this board will be a resource for teachers when helping parents whose
children suffer from ADHD. They will be able to give business cards and different resources to
the parents who need it.
In addition to the resources available on the bulletin board, parents will also have access
to a packet containing more detailed information about ADHD. The packet will include an
overview of ADHD, a detailed description of the symptoms of the different types of ADHD, a
list of experts in the community that may be able to offer help and advice, tips for how to help
students at home, as well as tips for how to work closely with the students classroom teacher.
The packet will also offer answers to some frequently asked questions. This packet will be
available for pick up in the main office or on the schools main website. Parents will be made
aware of the availability of this packet in the first newsletter sent home by their students teacher.
As part of the assessment process, which will be discussed later on in this paper, each
classroom teacher will be responsible for creating a classroom composite. This composite will be
created at the beginning of the year and will only feature the students in the classroom with
ADHD. In this composite, the teacher will document the progress each student with ADHD is
making and the accommodations being made.
In January, there will be another school-wide professional development day and the same
expert from the August professional development day will be in attendance. This professional
development day will serve as a time for teachers and the expert to discuss how the students are
doing and to share success stories and difficulties.
Each month, all teachers in the same grade will meet for a team meeting. During this
team meeting, they will discuss what is working and what isnt for their students with ADHD.
Each month a different grade team will be responsible for updating the bulletin board in the
teacher workroom. This responsibility will rotate between the grade teams each month. The
updating of the bulletin board will include new testimonies, new research, any new resources,
and example lesson plans or accommodations.
A school-wide community night for teachers and parents will be held at the beginning of
the school year. The topic of this community night will be ADHD. Any parents whose children
have been officially diagnosed with ADHD will be strongly encouraged to come. At this
community night, multiple professionals from the community will be in attendance. Each of the
experts, ideally six or seven, will introduce themselves and the aspect of ADHD they specialize
in (medication, hyperactive-impulsive type, inattentive type, therapy, etc.) Following the
introductions, three professionals will talk for about ten minutes each- one will discuss an
overview of ADHD, another will discuss some basic medication information, and the last will
discuss what parents can do at home to help their children. All of these informational sessions
will be short and brief. After this half hour, a general Q & A session will follow, in which
parents and teachers will have the opportunity to ask any general questions they have about
ADHD. After the Q & A session, each expert will go to a different table where parents and
teachers will have the chance to ask more specific questions and talk about certain
children/students.
After the first year of this curriculum being implemented, the summer professional day
about a week before school starts will also include a time for the previous years teacher and the
current years teacher to discuss particular students with ADHD. This will allow the previous
years teacher to relay information about what works for a specific student and what doesnt so
that the current years teacher has an idea of what will help that student succeed.
Our hope for this curriculum is that it helps equip teachers (and parents) with the
necessary tools to help students with ADHD succeed at school and recognize their full potential.
(Concept Map attached to the end of this paper)
For the example of the curriculum I am going to use Alex from Miss Gastons class in
appendix A. Alex is a student that has been diagnosed with inattentive ADHD. When
administering Alex the pre-test we gave him no accommodations. Alex received a score of 55%.
After this first pre-test we gave him a rubrics cube, which he was able to use during activities
and other tests to become familiar with the object. We then gave him the second test with the
accommodation of the rubrics cube, where he scored a 50%. From the pre-test to the second test
Alex decreased in his test scores. We could see that this accommodation distracted him more
than help him focus. We then implemented a therapy cushion and took away the rubrics cube.
We allowed him to use the therapy cushion for activities in the classroom before testing him for
a third time. When administering the middle of the year assessment Alex was provided with the
therapy cushion and received a 75%. While this is a huge improvement and we can see the
therapy cushion helped Alex to focus, we want to increase his score. We have decided to keep
the therapy cushion and add another form of an accommodation for Alex. We gave him the
therapy cushion and used prompting with activities. We implemented this for a couple of weeks
before giving him the end of the year assessment. Alex scored an 80% on the last assessment. As
we can see we have found out what accommodations Alex needs in order to be successful in the
classroom.
Team Composite. (see appendix A)
To assess the curriculum, data would be collected by all teachers. Each grade will be constructed as
a team and have one Google spreadsheet where they document their data. The data comes from an
assessment given to the students on a particular literacy lesson. Each team will develop one literacy
lesson that will be used throughout the year for a baseline measure, a beginning of year measure, a
middle of year measure, and an end of year measure. The idea is the lesson plan will be constructed in a
way that simply allows the classroom teacher to switch out the text being used in the lesson. This helps
to keep our assessment standardized. The teams would also develop content-free questions that could be
asked every time to assess the lesson to help standardize the measure of effectiveness of the
curriculum. An example of a content-free question might be Who is the main character?. Each grade
level will have their own lessons because the lessons need to be grade-level appropriate for
developmentally appropriate difficulty.
The teachers give the literacy lesson once for a baseline score and the intent is for this to be given
with no modifications or accommodations for students with ADHD. This is to give an idea of how well
the student is focused during the lesson and assessment with their individual needs not being met. The
teachers will then test out accommodation(s)/modification(s) with the ADHD students two weeks prior
to doing the literacy lesson for the BOY, MOY, and EOY measures. Teachers document the score into
the team composite as well as the accommodation(s)/modification(s) that were made for that student
leading up to the lesson and while the lesson was given and assessed.
The team composite helps to hold teachers accountable for participating and implementing strategies
in the classroom being presented to them through the curriculum. The data should reflect an overall
increase in score on the assessment. If the assessment for BOY is lower than baseline the teacher will
know that that particular accommodation/modification actually hindered their attention and performance
rather than helping them so they would switch to a completely different accommodation/modification
for the MOY assessment. This is an individual exceptionality, once the curriculum has been presented
teachers should be able to approximate which accommodations/modifications will work best for each
student, meaning the overall trend in data should be an upward trend. This is why there is a class
average row and team average row below all student scores, making it very easy to see the trend in data
per class and per grade level.
School Composite (see appendix B)
The school-wide composite will be compiled by the curriculum coordinator at the school. Teams
will send their data to the curriculum coordinator who will then enter in the team average data into a
data chart. The school composite will be shown and discussed at professional development days to
show the school wide progress. In particular the school-wide composite will be discussed in depth after
1 year of completion of the curriculum at the professional development day that occurs in the summer
prior to school beginning.