5C Process: Planning for Instruction both at School and Distance Learning

This article gives you a quick overview of the 5C process. Go to the full 5C Process article now.

Schools and families are challenged about how to provide coherent inclusive educational programs for students with significant cognitive disabilities during the pandemic. How do we plan for effective instruction with access to the general education classroom? What does it look like in-person?  In synchronous and asynchronous distance learning?  When switching between school and home with hybrid models?  While a student’s learning priorities do not change when the learning environment changes, the how, when, and where of the instructional plan changes.

3 overarching learning components:

• participating in routines and transitions
• engaging in grade-level academics and other essential skills
• interacting with others

The three learning components which is the first step of the 5C Process

The 5C Process  is a five-step process focused on building continuity across a student’s lifelong learning priorities, the annual IEP goals, inclusive environments (at school or at home), and the instructional supports for students with significant cognitive disabilities. The process leads to an instructional plan for school and home, as well as supports transitioning instruction between settings when in a hybrid model. It considers a student’s whole education program including access and progress in the general education curriculum and the specifics included in the IEP. The accompanying infographic illustrates the 5C Process. 

In the 5C Process, you will find: 

• The overall description of the planning process

• A detailed description of each of the five steps (Components, Collaboration, Continuity, Collecting data and Capacity building) 

• Elementary and middle school examples that illustrate what each step could look like for a student with significant cognitive disability

• Information and examples of elementary and middle school Learning Matrices for School and Learning Matrices for Home (including downloadable, editable google forms and Excel forms for creating your own learning matrices)

• One-page resources to help efficently implement the 5C Process:
  • 5C Process Infographic
  • Introduction sheet to share with families and other team member
  • Guiding questions for each step in the process
  • Checklist with the implementation items 

• Coming Soon! Professional development units to support team development in the 5C Process