ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about seven students with severe disabilities and describes their daily instructional goals. The students access learning through the use of varying levels of Assistive Technology (AT). A myriad of low to high AT choices are available for the students, such as varying forms of Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC), Pragmatic Organization Dynamic Display (PODD), and other adaptive devices. The literacy lesson is based on the book Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen. The lesson covers curriculum and learning areas including language arts, reading comprehension and literacy skills, in addition to providing opportunities to enhance social emotional growth during campus nature walks to gather supplies for outlined activities. The long-term planning includes differentiated tasks to support the multiple levels and ages of the learners. Visual aids such as hands-on survival items are used to support an authentic experience for the learners to provide text-to-self student connections. Survival guide books are used to make text-to-text connections, making this a well-rounded literacy lesson.
