BELONG
“I am safe, known, respected, and represented.”
Predictable routines, identity-affirming materials, sensory and emotional access, and authentic peer membership.
My Journey CurriculumEnquire or purchase The My Journey learning model
A common rhythm.
Personal pathways.
Five learner promises shape every lesson. Three fluid routes preserve a shared concept while varying access, response complexity, abstraction, and independence.
The five-part learner journey
Belong before
everything else.
CONNECT
“I can communicate and link new learning to my life.”
AAC always available, explicit prior-knowledge links, partner learning, and home and community connections.
LEARN
“I receive clear, explicit, challenging instruction.”
Small steps, modeling, concrete and visual supports, up to four priority words at once, and frequent checks.
ACHIEVE
“I can use learning for a meaningful purpose.”
Choice, problem solving, performance, creation, community tasks, and age-respectful functional application.
GROW
“I can reflect, generalize, and take the next step.”
Action-oriented feedback, self-monitoring, prompt fading, fresh examples, and transfer across settings.
Fluid Journey Routes
Different access.
The same big idea.
Routes are teaching decisions, not student labels. A learner may use a different route in literacy, mathematics, technology, or any other domain—and should move whenever evidence points to a better access point.
Explore & Connect
Focus
Notice, anticipate, choose, match, participate, and communicate a preference or key idea.
Evidence of progress
More consistent response, a larger choice field, purposeful communication, reduced prompting, and the same skill with a fresh example.
Build & Use
Focus
Identify, sort, sequence, describe, follow a process, and solve a supported practical problem.
Evidence of progress
Greater accuracy, a longer sequence, strategy choice, key vocabulary, less intrusive prompting, and transfer to a second setting.
Apply & Lead
Focus
Explain, compare, reason, create, evaluate, generalize, self-monitor, and apply independently.
Evidence of progress
Independent strategy selection, evidence-based explanation, self-correction, novel application, leadership, and generalization.
40–50 minute lesson route
Agency in every
part of the lesson.
BELONG
Ready
Enter safely, know what is happening, and choose a regulation or access support.
CONNECT
Retrieve
Make a link to secure learning or personal experience using any reliable response mode.
LEARN
Words & goal
Use up to four priority words and understand why the learning matters.
LEARN
Model together
Watch, handle, predict, imitate, question, and contribute to a shared example.
ACHIEVE
Have a go
Choose, solve, make, perform, explain, or apply the concept for a real purpose.
GROW
Show & reflect
Show one thing learned, identify useful support, and attempt transfer.
Access in action
The environment
teaches, too.
Communication, regulation, movement, personal care, and visual structure are part of the learning design—not rewards or last-minute accommodations.
Non-negotiable access
Access is built in.
Not added later.
Presume competence and use age-respectful topics, texts, tools, images, and community roles.
Keep each learner’s full communication system available all day and model vocabulary on AAC.
Reduce visual and linguistic load without reducing the essential idea; allow adequate processing time.
Plan movement, sensory, positioning, hearing, vision, assistive technology, and personal-care access with specialists.
Teach for transfer by varying materials, people, wording, and settings one variable at a time.
Use the least intrusive effective prompt, record it, and plan systematic fading from the start.
Build authentic peer belonging and access to electives, clubs, performances, fieldwork, and shared projects.
Use concrete experience before pictorial and abstract representation whenever it adds meaning.
Weekly teaching rhythm
A week that moves
learning forward.
Monday
Explore & assessBaseline response, communication mode, interests, misconceptions, and access needs.
Tuesday
Explicit teachingGuided accuracy, vocabulary comprehension, imitation, and strategy use.
Wednesday
Practice & reasonConsistency, reduced prompting, strategy choice, and explanation.
Thursday
Apply & connectTransfer beyond the teaching example through practical, creative, or community use.
Friday
Show & growIndependent performance, generalization, self-assessment, and next-step planning.