Although classes are divided by grade level to ensure that the students are as similar as possible, there is often a challenging variety of ability levels, learning styles, and personalities in each classroom. Some students may come into your classroom with labels, IEP’s, and even instructional aids that are intended to help teachers best serve their needs. Other students will need special teaching techniques for their optimal learning, even though they haven’t been identified as a special education student. As I researched resources for special education, it got me thinking about the goal of this type of education. Successful special education is individualized for each learner’s needs. Wouldn’t it be great if we could create this type of individual instruction for every student? All education should be special education…It’s a lofty goal, but definitely food for thought.
In the meantime, teachers with identified special education students in their mainstream classrooms need tools and resources to create a successful learning environment for these students. Most teachers don’t have a whole lot of time to devote to customizing every lesson for the special education students in their class, and the way they divide their planning time may determine which type of student is most successful in that classroom. With the right tools, teachers can modify their classes to meet every student’s needs more easily. They can customize their teaching without using up all of their free time.
Joann discussed special education resources in her post this week, and she will continue to post valuable resources throughout the next week on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Staying connected with other educators and educational resource providers on these social networking sites can be a great way to stay up to date on the best current ideas and techniques of teachers around the world. Even if you don’t have a Twitter account, you can search for #spedchat on Twitter to follow the weekly special education chat session and related posts throughout each week. If you want to take part in this live discussion, it takes place at 8:30 PM EST every Tuesday. Looking through the links on a chat thread like this can turn up all kinds of interesting tools and ideas. The discussions and resources I found there could be very useful for a teacher with special education students integrated into a mainstream classroom, an instructional aide, or a teacher in a self-contained special education classroom.
The Gateway is full of tools and resources you can use in both special education and mainstream classrooms. As always, you can use the Standards Suggestion Tool to check the resource’s state standard alignment in your state, or the alignment to the Common Core Standards. I highly suggest starting your search for quality resources here. There are a lot of other tools and resources throughout the web that will be very useful to you as well. A great collection of these tools can be found on Jerry Blumengarten’s Cybrary Man’s Educational Websites: Special Education. His links include a huge collection of helpful websites, blog posts, and articles relating to the subject. I particularly liked the fact that he included links to Gifted and Talented websites. This type of special education should not be overlooked as teachers are trying to customize their teaching to meet the needs of all the students in the class.
Each educator has different struggles with best serving the special education students in their classes. We would like to help you find the resources you need, so if you have particular questions or needs, please let us know by posting comments on our blog site, Facebook, or Twitter. We choose each weekly topic to fit your needs, so please let us know!
~Peggy's Corner - 1/13/2011~
Showing posts with label Special Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Special Education. Show all posts
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Inclusion
In 1975, the U.S. Congress enacted Public Law 94-142, or the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. This landmark law required all publicly-funded schools to provide evaluations and equal access to education to physically and mentally disabled children. The Act was revised and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990. Other countries, such as Sweden, had already recognized the importance of promoting educational equality among students of varying intellectual capabilities, and soon other nations began to follow suit with new legislation to address special education.
When I was in elementary school, special education students were present, but not much seen. Their classrooms were located in another part of the school, tucked away in a wing near the gymnasium. They seemed a bit mysterious, and our only glimpses of them were during lunch or at recess. The segregation started to fade in middle school, when special education students started increasingly appearing in mainstream classrooms, sometimes trailing aides, sometimes not. Now, of course, inclusive classrooms are the norm in many school districts. As a result, the typical classroom teacher now encounters children with a wide range of abilities, including those with special needs. Despite the challenges raised by their disabilities, special needs students can, and often do, thrive in the inclusive classroom. Lessons may need to be modified for their needs, and learning disabled students generally need more time to complete tasks.
Inclusive education can present significant challenges to teachers, particularly if they lack the presence of a special education teacher or aide in the classroom. Communication between the regular classroom teacher, special education teachers, and parents is key in order to ensure that everyone has the same expectations for the student and his/her learning environment. Most studies point out the benefits of inclusive classrooms to both special needs students and regular students, particularly regarding improvements in social skills, compassion, and tolerance.
My selections this week all focus on lessons or activities to be used with special needs students with varying abilities. Throughout the week, we’ll be featuring many more lessons and other special needs resources on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so please be sure to check in.
Connecting Letters and Memory
Subject: Language Arts
Grade: 1-6 Special Ed
This lesson plan is for those students who have difficulty in recognizing the oral letter to the visual letter. Some students may know the alphabet song but still may not know the letters by sight. This lesson is offered by Teachers.net, which offers lesson plans, job postings, and other resources for teachers.
Water, Weather, and the World
Subjects: Language Arts, Math, Science, Life skills
Grade: 1-12 Special Ed
This is a multi-sensory thematic unit which closely examines water and its properties; pollution and conservation; weather and safety; and water’s impact on the earth through hands-on scientific exploration and experimentation. This unit is intended for low functioning students with special needs, however, teachers for kindergarten through second grade may find this information appropriate for their students. This integrated curriculum unit will span many subject areas such as math, language arts, daily living skills, and art. This unit is a product of the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, an educational partnership between Yale University and the New Haven Public Schools designed to strengthen teaching and learning in local schools and, by example, in schools across the country.
Real Estate Project
Subjects: Writing, Reading, Math, Life skills
Grade: 6-8 Special Ed
This unit on real estate is intended for special education students in grades 6-8, but can be used with regular education students as well. The unit addresses reading, writing, math, technology, and life skills. This resource was produced by the Regional Educational Media Center (REMC) Association of Michigan, which provides media and technology resources to educators in Michigan.
~Joann's Picks - 1/13/2011~
When I was in elementary school, special education students were present, but not much seen. Their classrooms were located in another part of the school, tucked away in a wing near the gymnasium. They seemed a bit mysterious, and our only glimpses of them were during lunch or at recess. The segregation started to fade in middle school, when special education students started increasingly appearing in mainstream classrooms, sometimes trailing aides, sometimes not. Now, of course, inclusive classrooms are the norm in many school districts. As a result, the typical classroom teacher now encounters children with a wide range of abilities, including those with special needs. Despite the challenges raised by their disabilities, special needs students can, and often do, thrive in the inclusive classroom. Lessons may need to be modified for their needs, and learning disabled students generally need more time to complete tasks.
Inclusive education can present significant challenges to teachers, particularly if they lack the presence of a special education teacher or aide in the classroom. Communication between the regular classroom teacher, special education teachers, and parents is key in order to ensure that everyone has the same expectations for the student and his/her learning environment. Most studies point out the benefits of inclusive classrooms to both special needs students and regular students, particularly regarding improvements in social skills, compassion, and tolerance.
My selections this week all focus on lessons or activities to be used with special needs students with varying abilities. Throughout the week, we’ll be featuring many more lessons and other special needs resources on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so please be sure to check in.
Connecting Letters and Memory
Subject: Language Arts
Grade: 1-6 Special Ed
This lesson plan is for those students who have difficulty in recognizing the oral letter to the visual letter. Some students may know the alphabet song but still may not know the letters by sight. This lesson is offered by Teachers.net, which offers lesson plans, job postings, and other resources for teachers.
Water, Weather, and the World
Subjects: Language Arts, Math, Science, Life skills
Grade: 1-12 Special Ed
This is a multi-sensory thematic unit which closely examines water and its properties; pollution and conservation; weather and safety; and water’s impact on the earth through hands-on scientific exploration and experimentation. This unit is intended for low functioning students with special needs, however, teachers for kindergarten through second grade may find this information appropriate for their students. This integrated curriculum unit will span many subject areas such as math, language arts, daily living skills, and art. This unit is a product of the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, an educational partnership between Yale University and the New Haven Public Schools designed to strengthen teaching and learning in local schools and, by example, in schools across the country.
Real Estate Project
Subjects: Writing, Reading, Math, Life skills
Grade: 6-8 Special Ed
This unit on real estate is intended for special education students in grades 6-8, but can be used with regular education students as well. The unit addresses reading, writing, math, technology, and life skills. This resource was produced by the Regional Educational Media Center (REMC) Association of Michigan, which provides media and technology resources to educators in Michigan.
~Joann's Picks - 1/13/2011~
Monday, August 30, 2010
Autism Spectrum Toolbox
You have your new class list in your hands. A new year and a brand new set of students is an exciting and sometimes stressful time of each year for educators. What kind of learning styles will you see? Are you going to have new behavior issues that will throw you for a loop? What will really work to engage your students this year? Although most classes include a range of skill levels and learning types, this range can be increased for those mainstream teachers with students identified on the autism spectrum. How can we best serve these children so the school year can be productive and meaningful for all the students and the teacher?
As the name implies, the autism spectrum includes students with characteristics that vary across a wide continuum. I spoke with a couple of teachers who work with students from all different levels of the autism spectrum and a mother of a wonderful young man with autism. I compiled their advice with some online tools to help teachers with autistic students succeed this year. These experienced teachers stressed that we need to be prepared to teach students on the autism spectrum with our own large toolbox of resources and strategies. Keep a list of ideas and strategies, and if something doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to move down the list and try something new.
Most people on the autism spectrum are visual learners, so it can be very helpful for teachers to include plenty of visual supports in as many areas as possible, from math manipulations to a visual daily schedule. You can also use visual aides to help students tell you things when they are upset, especially when it is to the point that it’s difficult for them to talk. You can add visual supports to daily lessons and include them on classroom signs, bulletin boards, and directions. There are many different icon programs available for teachers to use with autistic students. Unfortunately, most companies charge a decent amount of money for their software. You can try out one of the teachers’ favorite programs for 30 days to see how it would work for your students. Try out the Boardmaker Software from Mayer-Johnson to see how it would work for you.
Another way to incorporate more visual supports into your lessons is to use an interactive whiteboard (if you’re lucky enough to have one!). One source of these programs is Promethean Planet. Check out Triptico E-learning Design and Training for some other great tools for your interactive whiteboard. Thanks to one of our Facebook fans, Ryan Devlin, for pointing out this excellent resource.
You can also go online to find other free tools to help you include more visual aids in your classroom. Many teachers have used comic strips to communicate ideas to their autistic students. Students and teachers can create their own comics to convey messages to one another and to demonstrate learning. Some good sites are ToonDoo and Make Beliefs Comix. Another fun visual tool for all different kinds of learners is Fotobabble, which allows students to make their favorite photos talk.
A big thing to consider when planning your lessons is the sensory triggers your students might have. There are all different kinds of triggers that can be going on in your classroom that you might not notice if you didn’t have a student on the autism spectrum in your class. The computer can often be a source of over-stimulation for autistic children as well. Try this web browser, recommended by Autism Speaks: ZAC (Zone for Autistic Children) Browser. This free browser was created specifically for autistic children. The teachers I spoke with also recommended having a plan for what to do if the students go into sensory overload. Don’t be afraid to ask the special education teachers in your school for advice about what to do in these kinds of situations.
The last piece of advice they gave me was to find out what motivates the student, and use this as a way to motivate them to get work done, or as a behavior plan if needed. As you may have noticed with many of your other students, providing structure to an autistic student and being consistent are of utmost importance. Last, but not least, modify your student’s work as needed. Something as simple as giving a whole sheet of math problems may be overstimulating and cause a melt-down. In a situation like this, fold the paper so that only 1 or 2 rows are showing at a time. Following simple tips like this should help to make this year successful for you and your students with all different ability levels. For more reading on the subject of including children on the autism spectrum in the mainstream classroom, please read this article.
Working with a student on the autism spectrum may seem like a daunting task at first, especially if you don’t have any experience with it. Using simple modifications and lots of visual supports should be very helpful. You might find that it is helpful to all the other students in the classroom as well! I hope you find these resources to be useful to you and your students.
~Peggy's Corner - 8/28/2010~
As the name implies, the autism spectrum includes students with characteristics that vary across a wide continuum. I spoke with a couple of teachers who work with students from all different levels of the autism spectrum and a mother of a wonderful young man with autism. I compiled their advice with some online tools to help teachers with autistic students succeed this year. These experienced teachers stressed that we need to be prepared to teach students on the autism spectrum with our own large toolbox of resources and strategies. Keep a list of ideas and strategies, and if something doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to move down the list and try something new.
Most people on the autism spectrum are visual learners, so it can be very helpful for teachers to include plenty of visual supports in as many areas as possible, from math manipulations to a visual daily schedule. You can also use visual aides to help students tell you things when they are upset, especially when it is to the point that it’s difficult for them to talk. You can add visual supports to daily lessons and include them on classroom signs, bulletin boards, and directions. There are many different icon programs available for teachers to use with autistic students. Unfortunately, most companies charge a decent amount of money for their software. You can try out one of the teachers’ favorite programs for 30 days to see how it would work for your students. Try out the Boardmaker Software from Mayer-Johnson to see how it would work for you.
Another way to incorporate more visual supports into your lessons is to use an interactive whiteboard (if you’re lucky enough to have one!). One source of these programs is Promethean Planet. Check out Triptico E-learning Design and Training for some other great tools for your interactive whiteboard. Thanks to one of our Facebook fans, Ryan Devlin, for pointing out this excellent resource.
You can also go online to find other free tools to help you include more visual aids in your classroom. Many teachers have used comic strips to communicate ideas to their autistic students. Students and teachers can create their own comics to convey messages to one another and to demonstrate learning. Some good sites are ToonDoo and Make Beliefs Comix. Another fun visual tool for all different kinds of learners is Fotobabble, which allows students to make their favorite photos talk.
A big thing to consider when planning your lessons is the sensory triggers your students might have. There are all different kinds of triggers that can be going on in your classroom that you might not notice if you didn’t have a student on the autism spectrum in your class. The computer can often be a source of over-stimulation for autistic children as well. Try this web browser, recommended by Autism Speaks: ZAC (Zone for Autistic Children) Browser. This free browser was created specifically for autistic children. The teachers I spoke with also recommended having a plan for what to do if the students go into sensory overload. Don’t be afraid to ask the special education teachers in your school for advice about what to do in these kinds of situations.
The last piece of advice they gave me was to find out what motivates the student, and use this as a way to motivate them to get work done, or as a behavior plan if needed. As you may have noticed with many of your other students, providing structure to an autistic student and being consistent are of utmost importance. Last, but not least, modify your student’s work as needed. Something as simple as giving a whole sheet of math problems may be overstimulating and cause a melt-down. In a situation like this, fold the paper so that only 1 or 2 rows are showing at a time. Following simple tips like this should help to make this year successful for you and your students with all different ability levels. For more reading on the subject of including children on the autism spectrum in the mainstream classroom, please read this article.
Working with a student on the autism spectrum may seem like a daunting task at first, especially if you don’t have any experience with it. Using simple modifications and lots of visual supports should be very helpful. You might find that it is helpful to all the other students in the classroom as well! I hope you find these resources to be useful to you and your students.
~Peggy's Corner - 8/28/2010~
If You Suffer from Autism, Then You’re Doing It Wrong
Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.
-- Frank Zappa
Autism is a developmental disorder that is generally characterized by impaired communication and social interaction. Children with autism also demonstrate unusual responses to sensory stimuli. It’s usually diagnosed in early childhood, and is the fastest growing developmental disorder in the U.S. According to the CDC, about 1 in every 110 kids have autism, and boys are four times more likely to be autistic than girls. Chances are, if you haven’t yet had a student with autism in your classroom, you will. Preparing for students who behave and learn differently than “mainstream” kids can be a daunting challenge, and no two students with autism are alike. Students with autism respond best to information presented in a clear fashion that emphasizes the most salient points. Such students may have difficulty in focusing their attention on relevant information, so strategies to help them focus on the things they need to learn is highly beneficial.
As with most students, there is no “one size fits all” strategy to teaching autistic students. Teachers need to carefully review the student’s cognitive abilities, their ability to communicate and their preferred method of communication, learning style, and their level of independence in daily living skills. Certain accommodations will likely be necessary, such as routinely preparing the student for daily transitions, repetition and rephrasing of directions and educational content, possible reward systems, breaking down assignments into manageable chunks, and so forth. Materials to help manage and document these accommodations help to smooth the process of integrating a student with autism into the classroom, as well as chart their progress socially, cognitively, and otherwise.
My picks this week are all from Polyxo.com, a site devoted to those who teach children with autism. Polyxo.com offers a wealth of information and materials for teachers and parents of students with autism. There is also an online discussion list for parents, educators, and other professionals who teach kids with autism and other pervasive developmental disorders. Polyxo.com creator Jason M. Wallin is a researcher and faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Central Washington University, and has been working for young children with special needs for more than a decade.
Planning Matrix A: Individual Objectives
Use this planning matrix to record objectives -- communication, self-help, social, motor, and cognitive skills -- for an individual child in a simple, single-page format.
Behavior Observation Forms
Use these forms to quickly document observations of behaviors. Such observations can be a good first step in a functional behavior assessment or analysis. This document consists of reproducible data sheets -- two versions of an observation form, and a behavioral intensity rating scale -- as well as instructions for using those sheets.
Chaining Data Sheet
Chaining is the linking together of simple component behaviors into a more complex, composite behavior. Use this form to detail and track a child's performance through the steps of such a composite behavior. Up to fifteen steps can be detailed and tracked on this sheet (sheets can be combined if more steps are necessary).
~Joann's Picks - 8/28/2010~
-- Frank Zappa
Autism is a developmental disorder that is generally characterized by impaired communication and social interaction. Children with autism also demonstrate unusual responses to sensory stimuli. It’s usually diagnosed in early childhood, and is the fastest growing developmental disorder in the U.S. According to the CDC, about 1 in every 110 kids have autism, and boys are four times more likely to be autistic than girls. Chances are, if you haven’t yet had a student with autism in your classroom, you will. Preparing for students who behave and learn differently than “mainstream” kids can be a daunting challenge, and no two students with autism are alike. Students with autism respond best to information presented in a clear fashion that emphasizes the most salient points. Such students may have difficulty in focusing their attention on relevant information, so strategies to help them focus on the things they need to learn is highly beneficial.
As with most students, there is no “one size fits all” strategy to teaching autistic students. Teachers need to carefully review the student’s cognitive abilities, their ability to communicate and their preferred method of communication, learning style, and their level of independence in daily living skills. Certain accommodations will likely be necessary, such as routinely preparing the student for daily transitions, repetition and rephrasing of directions and educational content, possible reward systems, breaking down assignments into manageable chunks, and so forth. Materials to help manage and document these accommodations help to smooth the process of integrating a student with autism into the classroom, as well as chart their progress socially, cognitively, and otherwise.
My picks this week are all from Polyxo.com, a site devoted to those who teach children with autism. Polyxo.com offers a wealth of information and materials for teachers and parents of students with autism. There is also an online discussion list for parents, educators, and other professionals who teach kids with autism and other pervasive developmental disorders. Polyxo.com creator Jason M. Wallin is a researcher and faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Central Washington University, and has been working for young children with special needs for more than a decade.
Planning Matrix A: Individual Objectives
Use this planning matrix to record objectives -- communication, self-help, social, motor, and cognitive skills -- for an individual child in a simple, single-page format.
Behavior Observation Forms
Use these forms to quickly document observations of behaviors. Such observations can be a good first step in a functional behavior assessment or analysis. This document consists of reproducible data sheets -- two versions of an observation form, and a behavioral intensity rating scale -- as well as instructions for using those sheets.
Chaining Data Sheet
Chaining is the linking together of simple component behaviors into a more complex, composite behavior. Use this form to detail and track a child's performance through the steps of such a composite behavior. Up to fifteen steps can be detailed and tracked on this sheet (sheets can be combined if more steps are necessary).
~Joann's Picks - 8/28/2010~
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