The Four Quadrants of Learning: Contextualizing the Language of Instruction for Students with Disabilities

By Marissa Desiree Pardo

This issue of NASET’s Classroom Management series was written by Marissa Desiree Pardo. The following case being studied will focus on Eradio, a seventh-grade student who is Deaf and hard in Hearing (DHH). He is struggling in his Social Studies classroom at Palm Tree Middle School. As a result of this study, a range of contextual supports and cognitive involvement will be examined. Cummins’ four quadrants of language learning will be explained including quadrant one, cognitively undemanding and context embedded, quadrant two, context embedded and cognitively demanding, quadrant three, cognitively demanding and context reduced, and quadrant four, context reduced and cognitively demanding (Cummins, 1995). This study will identify at least three activities per quadrant that Eradio can benefit from participating in that fall within the criteria of each quadrant.

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