Writing SDIs

writing sdis

October 2025 Faculty Meeting

Making sure my SDI wording is clear to general education teachers.

start

Session Norms

1. Permit yourself the luxury of doing just one thing.
2. Take what you need and offer what you can.
3. Listen to yourself and others with curiosity, compassion, and without judgement.
4. Allow yourself to be a learner.

+ Agenda

sdi vs accommodations vs. Modifications

Specially Designed Instruction (SDI)- Focuses on individualized teaching methods tailored to meet the unique needs of each learner. Accommodations- Modify HOW learners access their learning WITHOUT changing the content. Modifications- ALTER/CHANGE the curriculum by lowering academic expectations or changing what is being taught. Whatever you want!

Even if a learner previously had an SDI in place, as case managers, it’s important that we thoughtfully consider whether the learner still needs this support to successfully access learning. In the present levels, we should clearly explain the rationale for implementing the SDI so that the purpose is transparent and meaningful.

SDI Key components

Secret recipe for a clear, meanigful SDI:

1. Title: WHERE
2. Start with WHO is doing WHAT
3. The WHY justified in PL- not ineeded in the SDI.
4. When will it be covered (Frequency)
5. Re-read: Does it pass the STRANGER TEST

***NOTE*** Your SDIs should be specific enough so the teacher reading it knows exactly how to implement it into their lessons and curriculum.

SDI Examples

Who What where when

Mathematics (where): Gerry's teachers (who) will allow him to utilize a calculator when calculation is not being assessed (what). Across All Curriculum (where): Sally's teachers (who) will provide complete guided notes to Sally, 3 days prior to assessment (what). Special Education (where): Sally's special education teacher (who) will provide weekly check-ins to work on executive functioning skills, including planning her weekly schedule (what). Across All Curriculum (where): Teachers (who) will reduce multiple choice answers to no more than 3 choices per question (what).

does It Pass The Stranger Test?

Who What where when

Updated SDI

Questions?

Current SDI

Across All Curriculum: Teachers will reduce written response length requirements, to support fine motor skills.

Across All Curriculum: Teachers will have no more than 1 short answer question per assessment. All Essays: Teachers will allow shortened essay requirements to no more than 3 paragraphs.

If the teacher is only asking for one sentence, how can they reduce that? How short should the teacher make an essay?

does it pass the stranger test?

Who What where when

Updated SDI

Questions?

Current SDI

Assessments: Teachers will reduce multiple choice answers, to support processing speed and reading needs.

Assessments: Teachers will reduce multiple choice answers to no more than 3 choices per question.

Should the teacher reduce to 2 answers if the whole class has 3 choices? Should the teacher reduce to 1 choice if the question has 2 choices for all learners?

Data driven sdi examples

Learner struggles with written expression per their RR and previous IEP. The previous goal is written for 2 paragraph writing sample and data shows struggle with producing this amount of writing. Multiple teacher's inputs state that the learner is leaving short answer questions blank.The course has not come across any essays yet. The learner states the he/she is struggling to express his/her thoughts and gets frustrated.

SDI

SDI

SDI

SDI

Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) is systematic, purposefully planned instruction to meet...

1. an individual's unique learning needs.
2. school needs.
3. standards.

SDIs should be_____so that all members of the IEP team can apply the accommodation or modification within their learning.

1. universal
2. common blurbs
3. clearly written

Reflecting on SDI Challenges

Our learner's specific SDIs should be written so clearly that anyone unfamiliar with the learner can implement the SDI effectively in any course.

What to include:

• Dates and Data Points
• Attempts to Progress Monitor to include date and modes (phone, email, chat, zoom)
• Graphs of Data
• Explain the Graph.

Think about the STRANGER TEST

• Do not use acronyms
• Explain the data in the graph, what area is the learner doing well and where they are still struggling. What interventions have been used with the learner. Use facts...no fuzzy words.

Reporting on progress reports refresher

Progress reports are essential for monitoring and supporting the achievement of IEP goals: 1. Accountability and Compliance: Progress reports are a legal requirment under IDEA. 2. Tracking Learner Growth: A structured way to document how a learner is progressing toward their goals. Typically provided to the family quarterly. This helps educators, families, and service providers understand whether interventions are effective or need adjustments. 3. Documentation: Progress reports serve as a record that can inform future IEPs, transitions, and evaluations. They help build a comprehensive picture of the learner's educational journey.

Be sure to check that the related service providers have completed their progress reports for each goal in IEP Writer!

Summarizing Your Graphs

9/10/25: 70%, Sally completed via zoom with Mrs. Solt 9/22/25: 75%, Sally missed session but the probe was sent via email and chaton 9/22 and Sally returned completed probe in the same day. 10/8/25: 78%, Sally completed via zoom with Mrs. Solt 10/22/25: 82%, Sally completed via zoom with Mrs. Solt Sally's Reading Comprehension progress across Quarter 1, starting at 70% on 9/10/25 showed continued needs in main idea, inferencing, and vocabulary, increasing to 75% on 9/22/25, then 78% on 10/8/25, and reaching 82% on 10/22/25. Sally shows steady improvement in main idea. Her Inferencing requires explicit instruction and practice, and vocabulary needs continued support with multi-meaning words. The upward trend indicates consistent improvement toward meeting and exceeding the annual goal.

+ Full training

Remember to get act 48

ACT 48

Did you know that...

Does the window allow you to add broader content? You can enrich your genially by incorporating PDFs, videos, text… Step-by-step visual interactive communication:

• Plan the structure of your content.
• Give visual weight to key and main points.
• Define secondary messages with interactivity.

With this feature...

You can add additional content that excites your students' brains: videos, images, links, interactivity...Whatever you want! Does the window allow for broader content? You can enrich your Genially by incorporating PDFs, videos, text… The content of the window will appear when clicking on the interactive element.

With this function...

You can add additional content that excites your students' brains: videos, images, links, interactivity... Whatever you want!

possible sdi to discuss as a team

Assessments: When written expression is not the assessed skill, learner's teachers will allow him/her to answer with an audio response in place of the short answer question.

possible sdi to discuss as a team

Essays: Learner's teachers will shorten essay requirements to no more than 1 paragraph with a minumum of 5 sentences.

Here you can put a highlighted title

Visual content is a cross-cutting and universal language, like music. We are capable of understanding images from millions of years ago, even from other cultures.

• Make your content more memorable
• Illustrate what you want to convey
• Provide support to add additional info

With this function...

You can add additional content that excites your students' brains: videos, images, links, interactivity... Whatever you want!

Here you can put a highlighted title

Pose a a question or problem that makes the class think; it is the essential ingredient to keep their attention. It is usually posed at the beginning of the topic to encourage critical thinking and participation.

Here you can put a highlighted title

Visual content is a cross-cutting and universal language, like music. We are able to understand images from millions of years ago, even from other cultures.

• Make your content more memorable
• Illustrate what you want to convey
• Provide support to add additional information

Here you can put a GREAT title

Pose a question or problem that encourages the class to think; it is the essential ingredient for maintaining their attention. It is usually posed at the beginning of the topic to foster their critical thinking and participation.Visual content is a cross-cutting and universal language, like music. We are capable of understanding images from millions of years ago.

Here you can put a highlighted title

If you want to provide additional information or develop the content in more detail, you can do so through your oral presentation. We recommend that you train your voice and practice: the best improvisation is always the one that is most rehearsed!

Agenda

• What are SDIs
• Key components of an SDI

• Explore examples of SDIs
• Data Driven and Reflection
• Brief reminder of summarizing data for Progress Reports
• Frontline Link

Did you know that...

Does the window allow adding broader content? You can enrich your Genially by incorporating PDFs, videos, text… The step-by-step interactive visual communication:

• Plan the structure of your content.
• Give visual weight to the key and main points.
• Define secondary messages with interactivity.

Here you can put a highlighted title

If you want to provide additional information or develop the content in more detail, you can do so through your oral presentation. We recommend that you train your voice and practice: the best improvisation is always the most rehearsed!

Here you can put a highlighted title

Pose a question or problem that makes the class think; it is the essential ingredient for maintaining their attention. It is usually posed at the beginning of the topic to encourage critical thinking and participation.

With this function...

You can add additional content that excites your students' brains: videos, images, links, interactivity...Whatever you want! Does the window allow for broader content? You can enrich your genially by incorporating PDFs, videos, text… The content of the window will appear when clicking on the interactive element.

possible sdi to discuss as a team

Assistive Technology: Learner will be provided speech to text software.

possible sdi to discuss as a team

Assessments: Learner's teachers will provide sentence starters for short answer questions on assessments.