The Styer-Fitzgerald Program for Functional Academics, Elementary and Secondary Levels, provides systematic development of student abilities in a comprehensive range of functional life skills units which integrate academic basics. [See Product Information or Program Samples for lists of units.] Each student progresses steadily within the school year and from year to year at their developmentally appropriate rate based on initial program placement and on-going individual assessment.  The program's structure and practical resources make it possible for teachers to manage this challenging task routinely.  

  A View from the Classroom

Classroom conversation with the authors...

No Short Cuts

I have been teaching special education for 26 years and have learned a few things that shape the way that I do my job everyday. The first thing that I know is that we work with students who are not one-trial learners. If they were, they would not need to be in our classes. It is easy to forget that we can’t teach the same way that general education teachers do. Where as these teachers can make lesson plans for a week at a time, we as special educators teach the same program every day until the student learns the skill. So a part of our job becomes breaking skills down into smaller steps and teaching each part of that skill over and over until our students “get it”. As you know this is a lot of work and may even seem monotonous some days.

The Functional Academics curriculum provides teachers with a tool that presents skills broken down into a sequence that makes sense and that builds on each previous part of the skill. We have both used this curriculum for many years and continue to use it in our classrooms now. We have also trained many teachers to use the assessment and curriculum. These teachers have reported what Suzanne and I have experienced as well. The feedback is that the programs are clear and easy to use and that they have seen success with their students, even students with significant disabilities. The other reason that our students have been successful has been that our students are taught these skills daily because every skill area is programmed into the student’s schedule. The schedule is the same every day so students get a lot of practice and they learn the skill much more quickly than if they had only weekly or monthly lessons. In short, our student’s success is dependent on best practices. Applying them with consistency is the challenge that we all face and yet, it is at the heart of what we do every day.we work with students who are not one-trial learners.