Special Education

1. Special Education

2. Instruction Success • WHAT/WHERE/WHEN/WHY? • All classrooms (reg. ed., collaboration, resource); • On all assignments (classwork, cooperative groups, tests/quizzes, homework, SOLs) • Beyond the classroom; • Across all domains (physical, cognitive, social/emotional, communication, and adaptive); • Self-Esteem, develop strengths, develop a sense of purpose, gain skills for real world challenges, What? Where? When? Why?

3. Strategies for Success Opportunity • Provide Opportunities for Success; • Provide a variety of differentiated activities and assignments; • Activities/Assignments must start at a level where success can be achieved; • Activities/Assignments need to be challenging but achievable; • Help must be woven into learning; • Build on student’s strengths • Give opportunities for students to use their talents Challenging Achievable Differentiated Variety

4. Strategies for Success Cont… Motivating • Give opportunities for students to use their talents; • Make learning relevant to their lives; • Encourage students to take academic risks (if at once you don’t success, try, try again); • Set realistic expectations; • Convey positive and high expectations (this work is important, I know you can do it; I won’t give up on you); • If students experience failure (we all do) encourage, help, and guide them to success Confidence Purpose Meaningful Assistance

5. Strategies for Success Cont… Encourage • Set clear expectations geared towards success; • Set High standards that are realistic; • Evaluate the student’s progress; • Help student develop personal goals; • Students need to believe that success (achievement) is possible; • Help students believe that they are in control of their success, not fate or luck or home environment; • Help students build positive self-images; Guide Evaluate Reinforce Realistic

6. Strategies for Success Cont… IEP • Use accommodations developed for each student; • Evaluate the success of those accommodations; • Change accommodations as needed; • Modify the assignments (not content) as needed; • Assess why and where success isn’t occurring; 504 Plan Accommodations Modifications Intervention

7. Success Killers Cont… Negativity • Negative class atmospheres; • Negative feedback; • Identifying students weaknesses in front of the class; • Offhand remarks; • Demeaning comments; • Robbing students of the chance to think for themselves; • Ignoring Success; • Punishing the student for failure; • Refusing to acknowledge that a student’s disability does affect his performance; Inadequacy Failure Giving In Struggling

8. Inclusion Definition • An effective team that works together; • Equal partners in planning, teaching, and assessment; • Combined resources that strengthens teaching, learning opportunities, methods, and effectiveness; • Goal is to provide students with appropriate instruction, classwork, homework, and assessments so that each student is learning and participating in the classroom process Team Sharing Integragted Effective

9. Inclusion Roles • WHAT DOES EACH TEACHER BRING TO THE TABLE? • General Education Teacher: • Content Specialization; • Teaching Techniques; • Knowledge of the Learning Process; • Resources; • Expertise in Many areas; Responsibility General Ed. Special Ed. Seamless Integration

10. Inclusion Roles • WHAT DOES EACH TEACHER BRING TO THE TABLE? • Special Education Teacher: • Assessment and Adaptation Specializations; • Teaching Techniques; • Knowledge of the Learning Process; • Resources; • Expertise in Many areas; Responsibility General Ed. Special Ed. Seamless Integration

11. Inclusion Effective • WHAT IS NEEDED FOR EFFECTIVE COLLABORATION? • Teachers need to work together – willingness to share responsibility and resources; • Equal partners; • Administrative support – staff developments, motivation, and guidance in setting goals; • Joint and On-going Planning; • Combined Resources; • Commitment by teachers, principals, central office, and the community; Successful Challenging Commitment Seamless Integration

12. Inclusion Models 1Teach – 1Observe • One individual (generally the stronger of the two teachers in the content or subject being taught) handles all instruction while the other teacher floats or observes the class. • This model can be useful when completing student observations for IEPs or Functional Behavioral Analysis (FBA), but does not really allow both teachers to add to the classroom. • Pros – Minimal coordination or collaboration is needed when planning; Allows the stronger teacher to 1Teach-1Assist Station/Rotation Parallel Alternative Co-Teaching

13. Inclusion Models 1Teach – 1Observe • Pros: • Minimal coordination or collaboration is needed when planning; • Allows the stronger teacher to deliver quality instruction without interruption; • Can conceal weaknesses on behalf of a weaker partner in general or on a particular subject • Cons: • Does not fully utilize each instructional specialist; • Can create behavior/authority issues; • Can create frustration or contempt issues among peers 1Teach-1Assist Station/Rotation Parallel Alternative Co-Teaching

14. Inclusion Models 1Teach – 1Observe • One teacher instructs the class while the other teacher manages behavior or assists individual students as needed. • Pros: Allows a teacher who may be instructionally strong to deliver instruction without interruption • Cons: Does not make full use of two instructional specialists; can establish one teacher as the ‘bad cop’ resulting in negative feeling towards the behavior manager • Example: While one teacher delivers the lesson, the other teacher walks around rewarding, prompting, redirecting, helping 1Teach-1Assist Station/Rotation Parallel Alternative Co-Teaching

15. Inclusion Models 1Teach – 1Observe • Each teacher plans and is responsible for a different aspect of the lesson, or for a different lesson entirely. • There may also be independent work provided for the students. Students are divided into two or more groups depending on how many 'stations' are available, and either students travel from center to center or students stay in one position and a teacher or work travels to them. 1Teach-1Assist Station/Rotation Parallel Alternative Co-Teaching

16. Inclusion Models 1Teach – 1Observe • Pros: • Each teacher can independently plan for an area or lesson of strength; • Each student is exposed to similar material, but groups can be differentiated by level; • Makes good use of two teachers for management purposes; • Cons: • Requires excellent timing, which takes practice; • Requires management of students working independently; • May be logistically difficult depending on your classroom space 1Teach-1Assist Station/Rotation Parallel Alternative Co-Teaching

17. Inclusion Models • The class is split in half and each teacher takes a half of the class to teach the same lesson. Students all receive the same material.. • Pros: • Provides a smaller group and thus more individual attention • Can provide control for socially-based behavior problems between students • Cons: • Requires excellent timing, which can take practice; • Requires collaborative planning • Can be difficult to invisibly differentiate in a smaller group • Requires that each teacher be equally strong in the material to be presented 1Teach – 1Observe 1Teach-1Assist Station/Rotation Parallel Alternative Co-Teaching

18. Inclusion Models 1Teach – 1Observe • One teacher teaches the main lesson to a larger group of students while the other teacher works with the smaller group of students on an • entirely different lesson. • Pros: • Provides excellent differentiation opportunities; • Provides a chance for remediation or enrichment for students who need it; • Can provide behavior control in the smaller group 1Teach-1Assist Station/Rotation Parallel Alternative Co-Teaching

19. Inclusion Models 1Teach – 1Observe • One teacher teaches the main lesson to a larger group of students while the other teacher works with the smaller group of students on an • entirely different lesson. • Cons: • Must not 'pigeonhole' one group of students by consistently pulling them together • May reduce the efficacy of inclusion by separating students with special needs • May reduce students' exposure to the general education curriculum 1Teach-1Assist Station/Rotation Parallel Alternative Co-Teaching

20. Inclusion Models 1Teach – 1Observe • Both teachers plan and deliver instruction together, with each teacher equally responsible for the material in the lesson. This can be scripted or spontaneous. • Pros: • Models an excellent respectful working relationship between adults; • Allows both teachers to provide perspective on a topic; • Can allow teaching of two strategies or ideas simultaneously; • Promotes respect for both teachers; 1Teach-1Assist Station/Rotation Parallel Alternative Co-Teaching

21. Inclusion Models 1Teach – 1Observe • Cons: • Requires a rapport that cannot be rushed or faked; • Requires meticulous planning together, which can be time-consuming 1Teach-1Assist Station/Rotation Parallel Alternative Co-Teaching

22. Reasons For: Content Delivery • We are required to provide students with LRE; • We are required by VDOE to have teachers at the MS and HS to be endorsed in the content they are teaching (very few are); • Combined resources that strengthens teaching, learning opportunities, methods, and effectiveness; • We need to increase the number of special education students passing SOLs (modified diploma is being eliminated); • Disabled students have the same right to quality content instruction as nondisabled students LRE Quality Instruction Consistency SOLs VDOE

23. Reasons For: Content Delivery • We need to have high expectations for our special education students as wells as our general education students; being in general education classrooms give a special education student the feeling that they are expected to learn what every other student learns; • Special Education students are able to learn the same content that general education students learn; • Not everyone learns content in the same way (disabled or nondisabled); however everyone learns the same content; • There is no teaching in a segreated setting that cannot be provided in a general education setting; • What would be a legitimate reason to separate students from instruction in the general education setting; LRE Quality Instruction Consistency SOLs VDOE

24. Reasons For: Content Delivery • Being in a general education classroom also builds a student’s positive self-image; a lot of special education students do not have a high self-image, a lot of them feel that because they are segregated they are not as capable of learning the same things that other students learn: • No student wants to be singled out or identified a “different”, less worthy, or incapable of learning content that everyone else is learning; • Bullying, teasing, making fun of students due to their disability is on the rise; LRE Quality Instruction Consistency SOLs VDOE

25. Reasons For: Content Delivery • All students, excluded from the general education settings, become vulnerable to discriminatory treatment. Inclusion helps all students learn to be aware, sensitive, and tolerant of differences in the people around them. It helps them learn that all people have abilities and disabilities and that they need to work together; • We need to remember that everyone has disabilities in some form or fashion; LRE Quality Instruction Consistency SOLs VDOE

26. Reasons For: Content Delivery • Research shows, that student’s in an inclusive setting, which provides appropriate instruction and support, learn more than they do in segregated setting; • Why do you think that education no longer has tracking and ability grouping; • Special education resource and self-contain programs is a type of ability grouping; LRE Quality Instruction Consistency SOLs VDOE

27. Reasons For: Content Delivery • It’s the LAW: • All students have the right to learn together; • Least restrictive environment; • Students should not have to face discrimination because they are placed in a pull-out program; • Human Rights; LRE Quality Instruction Special education students need to learn how to build relationships with a diversified group of people to help them prepare for life in the ‘real world’; Consistency SOLs VDOE

28. Reasons For: Content Delivery • Special Education students are not that different from general education students; most of us would not know whether a student was disabled if you were not notified of that fact; • Look around the classroom; for every special education student that does not complete an assignment on time, doesn’t do homework, or fails a test there is a general education student that does the same thing (usually the reason for this is different but the outcome is the same); LRE Quality Instruction Consistency SOLs VDOE

29. Reasons For: Content Delivery • All courses need to be taught by a teacher that is endorsed in the specific content area that they are teaching; Special Education teacher programs do not endorse teachers in specific content, they endorse teachers to use a variety of strategies to instruct students in all content areas; • Special education students have the right to be taught by teachers that are specialists in content the same as any other student; • It is then the job of the special education teacher to reinforce or perhaps reteach the content using varied strategies if students are struggling in learning the information presented to them by the content teacher-this helps both disabled and nondisabled students; they can also collaborate with the content teacher in helping that teacher provide diversified lessons; LRE Quality Instruction Consistency SOLs VDOE

30. BRAINSTORMING Increase • - Ideas Generated Scheduling Models Limitations

31. RECOMMENDATIONS Flexibility • Changes: Service times for collaboration services on IEPs will no longer be for the entire class period but will be cut in half or less depending on the IEP team; • Ideas to Ponder: • One teacher can rotate between 2 classes during one class period to provide needed services; • Most K-2 students can be in the general ed setting with minimal pull out services; • If assignments are modified, some students can be in gen. ed. Classrooms without collaboration; Scheduling Blend Models Limitations

32. RECOMMENDATIONS Flexibility • Ideas to Ponder: • Consider staggering scheduling times regarding content areas between grades; • Brainstorm with specialists Scheduling Blend Models Limitations