Content Enhancement Routines

The understanding and use of historical concepts specified in national history standards pose many challenges to students. These challenges include both the acquisition of content knowledge and the use of that knowledge in ways that require higher order thinking. All students, including adolescents with learning disabilities (LD), are expected to understand and use concepts of history to pass high-stakes assessments and to participate meaningfully in a democratic society. This article describes Content Enhancement Routines (CERs) to illustrate instructional planning, teaching, and assessing for higher order thinking with examples from an American history unit. Research on the individual components of Content Enhancement Routines will be illustrated with data from 1 of the routines. The potential use of integrated sets of materials and procedures across grade levels and content areas will be discussed. increased academic standards in core content areas pose significant challenges for students at all levels. These challenges are often greatest for adolescents who have arrived in secondary schools with a large gap between the curriculum demands that they are expected to meet and their ability to meet those demands due to deficits that they evidence in key skills and strategies (Bulgren et al., 2006; Deshler et al., 2001). Whereas the challenges are sizeable now, they are expected to grow even more stringent in coming years. For example, the American Diploma Project Network (Achieve, 2006; see Note) is a coalition of states committed to significantly increasing expectations for high school students to provide them with a greater chance of succeeding in postsecondary education and the world of work. The pressures to "raise the bar" for adolescents have also been supported by a spate of reports on high school reform (e.g., National Governors Association, 2005) and descriptions of the unfavorable consequences facing the U.S. economy and ultimately the quality of life in the United States due to the explosive gains made in the economies of such countries as China and India (Friedman, 2005; National Academies, 2006). As a result, curricular demands that students face in general education classes are becoming more voluminous and complex (Deshler, Schumaker, Bui, & Vernon, 2006). As the volume and complexity of information increase, so too do the expectations for students to engage in higher order thinking and problem solving (Kame'enui & Carnine, 1998). By the time students reach adolescence, they are expected not only to know-or have the skills to acquirecritical facts and concepts in subject matter classes, but also to use those facts, concepts, and prior knowledge in ways that require higher order thinking (Kamil, 2003). Higher order thinking involves the manipulation of information, such as categorizing, comparing and contrasting, determining causes and effects, weighing options, explaining "big ideas" in a subject, and inquiring into and answering critical questions; the generalization of ideas to solve problems using inference or prediction; and the construction of new perspectives and understandings. Yet many teachers in secondary inclusive content classes are not confident that their students can successfully master those higher order thinking requirements; this is particularly true of teachers' expectations for students with disabilities (Bulgren et al., 2006). The purposes of this article will be to (a) explain how history standards established by professional associations and state assessments emphasize higher order thinking; (b) describe the challenges of engaging adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) in higher order thinking in history; (c) describe a curriculum framework, planning process, and instructional procedures to enable secondary subject matter teachJOURNAL OF LEARNING DISABILITIES VOLUME 40, NUMBER 2, MARCH/APRIL 2007, PAGES 121-133