special-world-issue-1

Recommendations

Info

FEATURE | INCLUSIONBACK TOCONTENTSto break down and students with cognitive challenges startto suffer.Depending upon where you live, the policy of yourschool district and the issues and needs of students withchallenges, the enrolment at the middle school and highschool levels can look like any one of the following, in orderof most inclusive to least:• Enrolled in a homeroom on a full-time basis (with orwithout an educational assistant).• Enrolled in a homeroom on a full-time basis with somelearning support in and out of the class setting (with orwithout an educational assistant).• Enrolled in a homeroom on a full-time basis with parttimeplacement in a Learning Centre Model classroom(with or without an educational assistant).• Enrolled in a Learning Centre Model classroom withpart-time inclusion placement in a typical classroomsetting (with a full-time or shared educational assistant).• Enrolled full time in a Learning Centre Model classroomdesigned for students with significant challenges (with afull-time or shared educational assistant).The terms ‘homeroom’ and ‘Learning Centre Model’may be unfamiliar to some readers, but the former refersto the room where students gather at the start of the schoolday before dispersing to other classes and the latter to amodel where a support unit or base is located within a middleor high school.In all of these models, even within a full-time LearningCentre model, there are some good basic inclusion practisesthat will help support both students and teachers,allowing us to provide our charges with a meaningful wellroundededucation.Structure and Consistency are extremely important to individualsliving in a confusing world. Designing a classroomroutine that is predictable helps to lower anxiety levels.Reviewing a visual schedule with the whole group in themorning along with prepared individual schedules for studentswith more challenges is very reassuring for everyone.Individual schedule types can vary according to levels ofability, ranging from segmented pictorial matching to acomplete written lists including time frames. Colour codingfor subject areas is particularly helpful for more independentstudents.Pre-Loaded Binder Work that is subject divided, and alignswith class work helps in both the homeroom and when studentsleave for other classes. This is not for daily work, butfor times when lesson plans simply do not fit student abilitylevel, when a test is taking place or when there is perhapsan off day and the student prefers to work quietly on theirown with work they can feel successful and independentwith. Personal binder work can also give gifted studentsoptions to work beyond classroom expectations when itlends well to do so.Individual Work Stations are mini offices with an emphasison ‘Take, Do, Put Away’. It is ideally an enclosed areawith a work table with four or five tasks in containers thatstudents take from the left, complete at the desk, and putaway to the right. These are tasks that have been pre-taughtand that students are capable of doing without help. Workstation time should be included in the schedules for a settime daily. It involves task work that will lend to employmentskills and will vary greatly according to student abilitylevels. Typically it involves hands-on work to enhance finemotor skills and basic matching and sorting abilities, butthey can also include file folder work that includes academicwork for higher levels of ability. This gives students anopportunity to be independent and teachers an opportunityto work with other groups.Structured Teaching Work Systems were developed byProfessor Eric Schopler and his colleagues at the Universityof North Carolina. It very much includes the above individualwork stations, but the same idea can be includedin other work tasks by simply outlining what the studentis expected to do for each activity. ‘What do you wantme to do?’, ‘Where do you want me to put myself and mythings?’, ‘How much should I do?’ and ‘What’s next?’. Itshould be arranged in a way that students will have littledifficulty figuring out what to do. How you do this dependson the student levels of ability, it can be exemplar, pictorialor written out or a combination of the three. As long as it isclear and simple and performed from top to bottom or left24WWW.SPECIALWORLD.NET | ISSUE 1 | SEPTEMBER 2014
BACK TOCONTENTSFEATURE | INCLUSIONto right. It requires set-up time, but once in place it is goodfor repeated practice of essential skills. Again, it teachesindependence and frees the need for support. Always awin-win situation.The Group Work Model can also be very helpful. It gives peersupport and roles within the group can be tailored to studentstrengths. It’s a nice opportunity for students to supporteach other and appreciate each other’s contributions.have all taken their toll. But all of that does not help usdeal with the here and now of the ever growing diverseclassroom. The key is in learning more inclusive practices.Be it for your student who is three years ahead of the classor three years behind, setting up some scaffolding aheadof time will make your job easier, your students happierand your classroom more creative. One size never fits all,so learn to see every lesson as a multi-layered possibility.Thanks for working so hard for all our students. ·Further readingAlper, S. (1995). Inclusion: Are We Abandoningor Helping Students? Roadmaps to Success: ThePracticing Administrator’s Leadership Series.Corwin Press, Inc., 2455 Teller Road, ThousandOaks, CA 91320-2218.Lesson Planning with Adaptations built in is a useful way toalways keep your mind open to inclusive practices. By creatinga condensed version of the specific outcomes for studentswith Individual Program/Education Plans (IPP/IEP)or adaptations on hand when planning lessons, every lessonwill have a way to embrace all learners in the class. It’sa bit of a chore to set up at first, but is well worth the initialtime. Teachers might even get assistance from learningcentre/support teachers to get this started. For example, ifa lesson was being planned in science for identifying componentsof a cell, a glance through the specific outcomes fora gifted student might have you ask that student to not onlylabel the cell but invent a new cell part with yet anotherfunction. A student with more challenges might receive thesame worksheet with a word bank, or the same worksheetwith matching pictures to cut out, paste on and match, allaccording to the skills listed in the IPP/IEP. Everyone hastheir style in lesson planning, but even something as simpleas a margin set to the side where adaptation tweaks can bejotted down will be helpful.Results from one of Canada’s largest online teachersurveys taken this year, showed that in general, teachersfelt they did not have adequate supports and services toaddress the broad range of special needs in their classrooms,(NSTU, 2014). It’s easy to point out what is NOTworking in our school systems, to plea for more supportand more money for programming, or to find fault withvarious models of inclusion or segregation. Mandates thattake away student support and on-going school cut backsCornoldi, C., Terreni, A., Scruggs, T. E., &Mastropieri, M. A. (1998). Teacher attitudes inItaly after twenty years of inclusion. Remedialand Special Education, 19(6), 350-356.Burstein, N., Sears, S., Wilcoxen, A., Cabello, B.,& Spagna, M. (2004). Moving toward inclusivepractices. Remedial and Special Education,25(2), 104-116.Leyser, Y., & Kirk*, R. (2004). Evaluatinginclusion: An examination of parent viewsand factors influencing their perspectives.International Journal of Disability, Developmentand Education, 51(3), 271-285.Salend, S. J., & Duhaney, L. M. G. (1999). Theimpact of inclusion on students with and withoutdisabilities and their educators. Remedial andspecial education, 20(2), 114-126.(2014, May). Teachers find difficulty meetingneeds of all students in classrooms: nationalsurvey. The Teacher: Nova Scotia TeachersUnion, Volume 52, number 7.WWW.SPECIALWORLD.NET | ISSUE 1 | SEPTEMBER 201425
Page 1: for special education teachers, the
Page 4 and 5: CONTRIBUTORSBACK TOCONTENTSCONTRIBU
Page 6: REGULARS | NEWSBACK TOCONTENTSNEWSN
Page 9 and 10: BACK TOCONTENTSREGULARS | NEWSADHD
Page 11 and 12: BACK TOCONTENTSREGULARS | IN CASE Y
Page 13 and 14: BACK TOCONTENTSFEATURE | DYSLEXIAde
Page 16 and 17: FEATURE | MUSICBACK TOCONTENTSLet
Page 18: FEATURE | MUSICBACK TOCONTENTSApoll
Page 21 and 22: BACK TOCONTENTSFEATURE | MUSICParli
Page 23: BACK TOCONTENTSFEATURE | INCLUSIONO
Page 27 and 28: BACK TOCONTENTSFEATURE | ACCESSIBIL
Page 29 and 30: BACK TOCONTENTSFEATURE | MULTI-SENS
Page 32 and 33: FEATURE | BULLYINGBACK TOCONTENTSNo
Page 34 and 35: FEATURE | BULLYINGBACK TOCONTENTSce
Page 36: FEATURE | OPINIONBACK TOCONTENTSthe
Page 39 and 40: BACK TOCONTENTSFEATURE | COMMUNICAT
Page 42 and 43: REGULARS | RESOURCE FILEBACK TOCONT
Page 44: REGULARS | RESOURCE FILEBACK TOCONT
Page 47: BACK TOCONTENTSREGULARS | BOOKMARKS
Page 51: BACK TOCONTENTSREGULARS | WHAT’S
Page 55 and 56: BACK TOCONTENTSREGULARS | REVIEWSof
Page 57: Can’t wait for our next issue to

special-world-issue-1

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?