Modified Prescribed Courses

A modified prescribed course is a prescribed curriculum course that has outcomes changed, deleted, added, or extended to meet the needs of a student who requires special education, has an Individual Education Plan (IEP) and whose learning profile indicates the need for enrichment or skill development in academic or adaptive skills. Such a course may result in either increasing or decreasing the challenge level in comparison with the original version.

A program planning team, following the directives of the Responsive Teaching and Learning (RTL) Policy or Service Delivery Model (SDM), determines whether or not a modified prescribed course is needed. Only students who have a comprehensive assessment and whose learning profile indicates a need for enrichment, adaptive skills, or academic skills programming can avail of a modified prescribed course.

When exploring programming options to support the teaching and learning of adaptive or academic skills, a program planning team may consider reducing the challenge of the prescribed course. This occurs when formative assessment and a Comprehensive Assessment Report indicates that a student would be unable to achieve the majority of the prescribed course. If a student can pass a prescribed course, then a modified prescribed course that reduces the challenge is not appropriate.

With regards to academic skills development, most students requiring modified prescribed courses have significant needs in language or numeracy.  Only a comprehensive assessment led by an Educational Psychologist or Guidance Counsellor can be used to determine whether a student would benefit from a modified prescribed course. A decision to offer modified prescribed programming is not based on the results of language tests in isolation.

A program planning team may consider enhancing the challenge of the prescribed course when Enrichment through Special Education is required. This occurs when pre-assessment indicates that a student is capable of achieving the majority of the prescribed course or would achieve it rapidly.

Whenever a prescribed course is considered for modification, care must be taken to maintain the integrity of the subject area. Modification does not occur in isolation from the teaching and learning strategies and the assessment suggestions provided by the curriculum guide. Neither does it occur in isolation from the practices of differentiated instruction, universal design for learning, the tiered approach to learning and enrichment of universal instruction (RTL)/pre-referral intervention (SDM), English Additional Language (EAL) and Literacy Enrichment and Academic Readiness for Newcomer (LEARN) programs, and special education.

Decisions regarding the outcomes to be changed (including extended), deleted, or added should be reached by the classroom or subject teacher responsible for the delivery and evaluation of the modified prescribed course. This work must be done in consultation with the district program specialist (with expertise in the curriculum area), the instructional resource teacher, and other relevant educational specialists. In the case of students in EAL and/or LEARN programs, this would include the EAL and/or LEARN teachers.

The Modified Prescribed Course Templates which follow contain outcomes from the corresponding curriculum guides. These templates are intended to help facilitate record keeping regarding modified prescribed courses.

To return to the index of complete curriculum guides, click on this link:(Curriculum).

For outcome templates, click on the curricular area below.

Adobe® Acrobat® Reader software can be used for viewing PDF documents. Download Acrobat® Reader for free .

#EndEditable –>