In 2014, the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) released the Life Centered Education (LCE) Matrix to embody the myriad of daily living skills and employability training areas contained within special education programs of study. The inherent vastness of this framework can be intimidating to teachers who may be challenged to transfer these broad standards to long-term and short-term instructional objectives in a comprehensible and measurable progression.
The following example is taken verbatim from the Life Centered Education (LCE) Matrix (CEC, 2014). First, we will modify this example and then translate it into long-term and short-term instructional objectives.
National Competency
Buying, Preparing, and Consuming Foods
This national objective provides for a plethora of long-term and sequential short-term objectives. However, modification is need to target the focus into pupil behavior.
Modified National Competency
The student will demonstrate the ability to purchase, prepare, and consume various foods.
Less confusing than the original standard, this modification focuses on student action. Nevertheless, it does allow for a great latitude of long-term and following short-term instructional objectives.
Long-term Objective
The student will demonstrate an understanding of how the unit price of a food item influences the value of the purchase.
As a partial extension of the original standard, this long-term objective calls for student understanding of how unit price is the driving force behind the overall value of the purchase. Much more specific than either the original or the modified standard, this objective still gives the teacher a great deal of freedom in the construction of short-term instructional objectives for its fulfillment. The following is an example.
Short-term Instructional Objective
After observing two comparable food products of different quantities in a store or retail-like setting, the student will calculate the unit price of each packaging to determine the better value, with at least 70% accuracy.
Detailed and specific, this short-term instructional objective pinpoints when the activity is to take place (“After comparing two comparable food products of different quantities”), the particular student behavior (“calculate”), and the minimal standards (“with at least 70% accuracy”). Such specificity provides clear understanding for both teacher and student.
The following example is taken from the LCE Curriculum Matrix, a verbatim portion of the actual standard.
National Competency
Seeking, Securing, and Maintaining Employment
This standard is relatively clear and accessible. However, we can make it more meaningful by including observable evidence of the student’s abilities.
Modified National Competency
The student will demonstrate the skillset to seek, secure, and maintain employment.
We use the term demonstrate to indicate that the student must show that she has met predetermined criteria for fulfilling the standard through observable behaviors across the continuum of employment benchmarks. This term is used again in the long-term objective for continuity and to ensure the observable proof that the student is able to demonstrate these critical employability qualities.
Long-term Objective
The student will evidence the ability to use newspapers and Web-based searches to ascertain possible employment opportunities that are commensurate with his skill set.
This long-term objective includes the original competency while providing for a diversity of means for its fulfillment through short-term instructional objectives. The following objective illustrates how a high level of specificity can still include the components of the original standard.
Short-term Instructional Objective
Presented with two different classified advertisements from a regional newspaper, the student will list one possible job for which she is qualified to apply, citing at least two applicable and pertinent qualifications.
Adhering to the long-term objective, this short-term instructional objective is specific in terms of conditions (“Presented with two different classified advertisements from a regional newspaper”), observable behavior (“list one possible job”), and minimal standards of performance (“citing at least two applicable and pertinent qualifications”). Such specificity provides a means for addressing the task dictated by the original competency, the modified competency, and long-term objective. Remember, this short-term instructional objective is but one component within the long-term objective that is directed toward the achievement of the Life Centered Education Curriculum.
