About this activity
Eight tasks for a student-led IEP meeting: name your three accommodations without reading them off the paper; explain extended time to a teacher in one sentence, with no apology; ask a teacher privately for your accommodation before the test, not after; what do you say if a teacher says everyone gets the same time; name one accommodation you no longer need, and why. Practical, specific, and rehearsed before the moment rather than during it.
How to use it in a session
Insist on the no-apology version. Students explain accommodations apologetically by default, which invites negotiation, and a flat one-sentence statement gets a different response. The before-the-test card is the highest-value item — an accommodation requested after a test is an excuse and one requested before is a plan. The what-if-a-teacher-refuses card needs an actual sentence, not a principle. Twenty minutes covers half the board.
What to listen for
Watch whether the student can name their accommodations at all. A surprising number cannot, which makes every other item impossible and is worth discovering here rather than in a meeting. Notice the no-longer-needed card, which asks the student to give something up — that is a genuine act of self-assessment and often the most mature thing they do all year.
Carrying it home
Families can help by not making the request. When an accommodation is needed, prompting the student to ask rather than emailing the teacher is the practice, even though it is slower.
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Ninth through twelfth grade, aligned with student-led IEP meetings and transition planning.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all eight tasks are free to use with no account.
- Why practise this rather than let the team explain?
- Because after graduation nobody will. Post-secondary accommodations are requested by the student, and a student who has never named their own supports has no way to start.