- As a follow up to our Individual Education Plan conversation, we're gonna hone in today and really look at what is the difference between an accommodation and a modification? These are very common questions that teachers have, that at times can be quite confusing and we're gonna look really what the difference is and what they look like reflected in the Individual Education Plan. An accommodation refers to the special teaching and assessment strategies, human supports, and/or individual equipment required to enable a student to learn or demonstrate their learning. They do not alter the provincial curriculum expectations for the grade or the course. They can be instructional accommodations, environmental accommodations, and assessment-based accommodations. And all of those accommodations will be unique and specific to the needs of the students. An example of an instructional accommodation would be checking in and chunking tasks to ensure understanding, prerecorded lessons divided into shorter segments, visual supports, closed captioning with videos, shared links, screen recording of lessons, schedule an assignment to share and review before the lesson. Environmental accommodations could include movement breaks, a sensory toolkit, headphones, strategic seating. Assessment accommodations could include, voice-to-text software, reduction in the number of tasks, use of oral conferencing, oral responses live or through recorded video. A modification is a change in the age appropriate grade level expectations for a subject or course in order to meet the needs of a student. Changes may involve increasing or decreasing the number or complexity at the grade level of the curriculum or developing expectations that reflect knowledge and skill at a different grade level. If I am a grade five teacher and in language, there are six overall expectations in language and the student is only able to achieve four of the expectations so I'm reducing the expectations in the curriculum from six expectations to four, that is a reduction, that is a modification. Another example of a modification could be, I'm teaching grade five but the student's needs reflect the grade three curriculum so now I am not only reducing the expectations but I'm reducing the grade that I'm reflecting my programming at to meet the needs at this time of the student in my classroom. Whenever you're unsure of an accommodation or a modification in the Individual Education Plan, always seek assistance from your special education teacher, your school special education team, and your administration. Constant communication regarding any accommodations or modifications that are being outlined in the IEP will always be communicated to the parent and it is a working document and can be changed and altered at any time.