Building Relationships.....

Building Relationships…

Building Relationships… What is it??

Social Skills: Appropriate social behaviors and development of friendships

Note that academics are important, but so are interactions with others

Teach social skills as part of curriculum

Make social relationships an integral part of your classroom expectations

Be aware of social skills that are goals on students IEPs

Strategies for Fostering Interaction are:

Creating opportunities for interaction

Nurturing support and friendship

Providing positive role models

Nurturing Support and Friendship:

Circle of Friends

Friendship-building activities

Resolving support/friendship problems

Parents and friendship

Providing Positive Role Models:

You may be most influential role model

Be appropriate, positive, and respectful-students will respond

Speak to students in age appropriate way

Indicate your expectations

Interact in a direct and open way

Point out contributions and talents

A Book about Disability Should??

Have well developed structural elements

Appeal to children or older students

Portray characters realistically

Have a positive emotional tone

Present accurate information about special education

Cooperative Learning Strategies are:

Cooperative learning- Structured student interactions not controlled by teachers but sanctioned by schools.

Roots in civil rights/desegregation

Understanding the rationale for cooperative learning

Situations free of academic pressures, fostering equal status for all students

Students with Disabilities and Social Skills

Social skills include:

Recognizing and responding to emotions

Identifying and solving problems and disagreements

Expressing preferences in socially acceptable ways

Initiating kind and helpful acts

Using INCLUDE strategies for Inclusion for students with disabilities:

To make decisions about student needs and interventions

To know characteristics of students with disabilities and special needs

To help students succeed academically

To respond to student behavior

To remember that students are children and young people first

"Planning Instruction by Analyzing Classroom and Students Needs" (Chapter Five)

Using INCLUDE strategy in making accommodations

All teachers work with students with disabilities!!!!

IDEA and NCLB allow all students access, participation, and progress in general education curriculum.

INCLUDE Strategy Assumes that:

Performance results from interaction between student and instructional environment, which minimizes or magnifies needs.

Teachers can reasonably accommodate most students with special needs.

Seven Steps of I INCLUDE strategy:

Identify classroom demands

Note student strengths and needs

Check for problem areas

Use information to brainstorm

Differentiate instruction

Evaluate Progress

Classroom Management Consists of:

Physical organization

Classroom routines

Classroom climate

Behavior Management

Use of time

Classroom Grouping is:

Flexible grouping uses a variety of arrangements

Whole class or large group

Small groups

One to One instruction

Managing and Inclusive Classroom

Physical organization

Routines for classrooms business

Classroom climate

Behavior Management

Use of time (Academic Learning time and transition time)

Tips on Behavior Management

Set rules

Brief and specific

Positively worded

Clearly understood

Spell out consequences for actions

Monitor behaviors regularly

“Assessing Students Needs” (Chapter 4)

“Assessing Students Needs”

Assessments Affects Decision Making

Six Areas of Decision Making

• Screening
• Diagnosis
• Program placement
• Curriculum placement
• Instructional evaluation
• Program evaluation

Screening: Decision about whether a student’s performance differs enough from peers to merit further testing.

Diagnosis: Decision about eligibility for special education services

Program Placement: Decision involving the setting in which a student’s special education services will take place. (Today’s student remain in general education classrooms much as possible)

Curriculum Placement: Decision involving that level at which to begin instruction for the student.

Instructional Evaluation: Decision involving whether to continue or change instructional procedures.

Program Evaluation: Decision involving whether a student’s special education program should be terminated, continued as is, or modified.

Information Sources Used for Programming:

Five information sources…

High-stakes achievement tests

Standardize achievement tests

Group-administered

Individually administered

Psychological tests

Alternate assessments

Curriculum-based assessments

Types of Test…

High-Stakes-

Designed to ensure all students have maximum access to general education curriculum (IDEA) Reflect standards, set by states, indicating what students should be able to know or do.

Response to rise in standards and accountability in recent decades are criterion Referenced tests that measure student attainment of standards.

Standardized Achievement Tests-

Measure academic progress, or what students have retained

Are norm-referenced

Group-administered standardized achievement tests

Individually administered diagnostic tests

Psychological Tests-

Help determine whether a student has cognitive or learning disabilities

Measure abilities that affect how well a student learns in certain settings

Can clarify why student is not learning

Alternate Assessments-

Small percentage of students are entitled to use these

Usually those who do not have to meet requirements for standard diploma

Reflect district eligibility requirements

Focus on authentic skills and experiences

Aligned with state standards

Open to ongoing instruction and data

Closely linked to IEP

Skills integrated across many areas

Clear scoring guidelines and trained staff

Scores used for continual monitoring

Curriculum- Based Assessments-

Effective alternative to standardized tests

Measure based on what is taught in class

Match between what is taught and what is tested

Measure performance over time

Compare students be class, school, or district

Allow teachers to adjust instruction

"Building Partnerships Through Collaboration"

Building Partnerships through Collaboration

Collaboration: A style professionals choose to accomplish a goal they share. How people work together, not what they do.

Characteristics

• Voluntary
• Based on parity
• Shared goal
• Shared responsibility for decisions
• Shared accountability for outcomes
• Based on shared resources
• Is emergent
• Certain prerequisites

Efforts needed for Successful Collaboration

Understanding prerequisites

Reflecting personal belief systems

Refining interaction skills

Contributing to supportive environment

Co- Teaching: Occurs when two or more teachers… One general ed teacher and one or more specialists-share the instruction for a single group of students in a single classroom.

Six Types of Co-Teaching

One teach, one observe

Station teaching

Parallel teaching

Alternative teaching

Teaming

One Teach, One Assist

Co-Teaching Pragmatics

Students with and without disabilities are integrated

Both teachers have teaching and supportive roles

Best approach depends on needs, subject, experience, and setting

Curriculum also dictates approach

Consultation: Specialized problem solving process involving assistance. One professional with particular expertise assists another professional who needs that expertise.

Working and Collaborating with paraprofessionals

Help with record keeping and instruction preparation

Take direction from a teacher who has taught the information or has decided what work needs to be done.

Never engage in initial teaching

Never make instructional decisions alone

Always know expectations

Need communication and feedback

Collaborating:

Participate in problem solving

Can decide on how to adapt information each student

Help plan activities and field trips

Should take direction from teachers

Should understand expectations

Complexity of Collaborating with paraprofessionals

• Lacking knowledge of curriculum
• Violating confidentiality
• Disrupting classroom

Being overprotective

“Special Education Procedures and Services” Chapter Two...

“Special Education Procedures and Services”

Special education teachers are the professionals with whom you are most likely to have ongoing contact in teaching students with disabilities. Special education teachers also responsible for the students IEP: Individualized Education Program.

Specialists and Related Service Providers

School Psychologists: Offer at least two different types of expertise related to educating students with disabilities. School psychologists often have a major responsibility for determining a students intellectual, academic, social, emotional and behavioral functioning.

Speech/ Language Therapists: Many students with disabilities have communication needs. Some have mild problems in pronouncing words or speaking clearly.

Social Workers: Expertise is similar to that of counselors in terms of being able to help teachers and students address social and emotional issues.

Physical/Occupational Therapists: Assesses students interventions related to gross motor skills. OT Are with fine motor skills

Nurses: Students medical needs and educational medical needs. They develop student medical histories as needed, and they may screen students for vision and hearing problems.

Administrators: The school principal, assistant principal, and sometimes a department education chairperson or team leader are the administrators most likely to participate actively in the education of students with disabilities.

Paraprofessionals: Individuals who assist teachers and other in the provision of services to students with disabilities.

Parents, students, and Advocates

Self-Determination: Students with disabilities also should be active participants in decision making about their own education. Increasingly, educators are involving students so they can directly state their needs and goals and learn to advocate for themselves, a concept referred to as Self- Determination.

*** Whenever appropriate, students with disabilities also should be active participate in decision making about their own education.

*** You will play a key role in deciding whether a student in your class should be evaluated for the presence of disability.

Analyze Unmet Needs:

“As you teach, you sometimes will discover that you have a nagging concern about a student. This concern might begin early in the school year, or it might take several months to emerge.”

Communicate Your Observations and Try Your Own Intervention

Contact Parents

Contact Colleagues

Try Simple Interventions

• Moving the students seat.
• Incorporate teaching strategies that help the student.
• Making test easier for students.
• Give assignment one at a time.
• Working on one problem and letting the students go work on their own.

“Document the Unmet Need”

Intervention Assistance Team: Includes general education teachers, special services personnel, and an administrator

Response to Intervention: Procedure for analyzing students learning problems. Called Response to Intervention: (RtI)

Multidisciplinary Team: (MDT) Consisting of parents, educators, and others as appropriate-assumes responsibility for making educational decisions regarding the student.

Individualized education program (IEP): The document that outlines all the special education services the student is to receive. Specific guidelines must be followed in developing an IEP.

*** “The IEP must include a clear statement of justification for placing a student anywhere but in general education classroom for all or part of the school day.

Transition Plan: Students with disabilities who are college bound might have a transition plan that includes improvement of study skills, exploration of different universities and their services for students with disabilities, and completion of high school course work immediately after graduation

Due Process: Another strategy for monitoring students receiving special education services. The set of procedures outlined in the law for resolving disagreements between school district personnel and parents regarding students with disabilities.

Mediation: Resolving conflicts with schools. A neutral professional skilled in conflict resolution meets with both parties to help them resolve their differences informally. 

“General Education teachers play an integral role in the education of students with disabilities. They are involved in the early identification of students who appear to have special needs, contribute during the assessment and identification process, and implement IEP goals and possibly objectives, as outlined by the multidisciplinary.