Differentiating for Students With Special Needs

1. Differentiating for Students With Special Needs

2. Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act-IDEA • Six Principles of the law regarding individuals with special needs 1.Zero reject: No child can be denied an appropriate education by public schools 2. Appropriate education: The education services for the student served must be appropriate to meet their individual needs 3. Procedural due process: A hearing in which parents and the school present evidence concerning the issue around the child’s services. Decisions may be appealed.

3. Six Principles part 2 4. Parent and student participation: Parents are members of the IEP team & have valuable insights into child’s behavior; decision making is shared; They must give signed permission for all evaluations 5. Least restrictive environment: The maximum amount of educational time spent with nondisabled peers. 6. Nondiscriminatory evaluation: Evaluation team-a group performs the full evaluation

4. Categories of Disabilities • Developmental disabilities Speech and language impairments, specific learning disabilities, emotional disturbance, mild mental retardation and developmental delay • Physical and neurological disabilities Orthopedic impairments, other health impairments, traumatic brain injury, autism, multiple disabilities • Sensory disabilities Hearing impairments, vision impairments, deaf-blindness

5. Inclusion Requirements of IDEA(the current law) • Presumption in favor of inclusion • Special education is a service not a place • Student begins in the general education classroom • Individualized program delivered in the general education curriculum • Use of “universal design for learning”

6. Pros & Cons of Inclusion • For • Students with disabilities have the right to be in the classroom with non-disabled peers • Academic achievement is equivalent to if not higher than it would be in a self contained class • more positive self concepts • more frequent interaction with non-disabled peers • better social skills • more appropriate class behavior • Against • students won’t get the intense specialized instruction that they need to achieve essential basic skills • research showing good results was done on students with mild disabilities, not severe ones • research was only done on elementary grades, not middle and high grades

7. Individual Education Program (IEP) • Read the very helpful article by Gartin & Murdick about IEP’s. • Some principles • Parents’/guardian’s participation in the development and review of IEPs is required. • The IEP is a contract – good faith effort required (You MUST document everything) • Both special education and general education programs involved • Implementation (the IEP states who is responsible) • Confidentiality (You CANNOT share information about your students with others.)

8. Strategies: • Collaboration / Co-teaching • Universal Design • Tiered Lessons • Accommodations

9. Collaboration • Collaboration is an interactive process that builds on the expertise, • interests, and strengths of everyone involved in the education process. • Four roles in collaboration • Supportive • Facilitative • Information-giving • Prescriptive • collaborative approach that involves two or more educators sharing the • responsibility for planning, delivering, and evaluating instruction. • Benefits • Reduces the need for pull-out programs for students with exceptionalities • Increases teachers’ ability to apply universal design for learning for all students

10. Universal Design

11. Tiered Lesson IDENTIFY OUTCOMES WHAT SHOULD THE STUDENTS KNOW, UNDERSTAND, OR BE ABLE TO DO? THINK ABOUT YOUR STUDENTS PRE-ASSESS READINESS, INTEREST, OR LEARNING PROFILE INITIATING ACTIVITIES USE AS COMMON EXPERIENCE FOR WHOLE CLASS GROUP 1 TASK GROUP 2 TASK GROUP 3 TASK

12. Tiered Lesson

13. Tiered Lesson

14. Accommodation Tool Kits Google “Accommodations” or “Accommodation Tool Kits” for hundreds of strategies for making accommodations for students with special needs.