One of my absolutely favorite things about being a special education teacher was that I had the freedom to design fun and exciting lessons for my students specific to their interests. I never had a curriculum to follow. No one ever told me what books to read to them or what activities I had to
Have you ever had to use a district curriculum that doesn’t really fit the levels or needs of your special needs student? It can be hard to make a purchased program work for our students, but it IS possible! To do so, though, we need to be flexible and creative….We totally rock flexible and creative, ... Read More about Modifying Curriculum For The Special Needs Student
From developing fine motor skills, letter and number recognition, sight words, sorting, sequencing, reading, and math, these task boxes for autism tasks will help develop important life skills and beyond!
Here are some examples of modifications. Remember, that a modified lesson in an inclusive classroom is a lesson where the objective and/or learning materials have been changed to meet the needs of a special learner. However, the overall concept or activity remains the same so that the learner can experience the curriculum alongside his or her classmates. This math sheet has been easily modified by providing alternate questions. Photo from www.teachingtoinspirein5th.blogspot.com. This math sheet can be modified by having the student complete alternate math operations with the numbers on the page. This Grade 8 science vocabulary activity has become a YES/NO activity. An alternate activity is provided for the student using the same handout as the rest of the class. Photo from www.whalenmom.blogspot.com. Alternate text can be placed over the original text in a class novel. In addition, you can modify a lesson by using the following strategies: Tracing Matching Fill in the Blank Word Banks Multiple Choice Illustrating Highlighting Reduced work Hope this is helpful! Let me know if you have any questions. Also, feel free to share any modified activities you may have!
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Teach kids self-regulation in the classroom and beyond with this collection of super fun Zones of Regulation activities, games, worksheets, and lesson plans!
A collection of differentiated story writing ideas, tips and free templates to encourage and support emergent writers in the primary classroom.
I SEE ...Interactive Book for Beginning Readers, Autism and Special Education, Speech Therapy.Click here for No Print No Prep Building Sentences Boom Cards. Forming sentences is very important for young learners or those with autism. This activity uses real-life pictures for easy recognition of comm...
Receptive Language Worksheets for Autism, Speech Therapy, OT, ESL, Kindergarten, and preschool students. These are great printables to increase vocabulary skills.There are 15 pages to be printed on photo paper and laminated. Have the students circle the picture that matches the sentence. Use dry er...
Three must-have visuals for the special education classroom! Set your students up for success by teaching them the major life skill!
Discover engaging hands-on science activities and lessons at Especially Education. Our comprehensive collection of educational resources fosters interactive learning experiences for students of all abilities.
From developing fine motor skills, letter and number recognition, sight words, sorting, sequencing, reading, and math, these task boxes for autism tasks will help develop important life skills and beyond!
Supporting kids with special needs works best when both regular education and special education staff work together. That's why it is helpful for all teachers to understand how they can modify and accommodate for students in their classrooms. For newer teachers, learning that you need to modify work
Target IEP goals with custom made Boom Learning activities. You can create the activities for specific student's needs and goals.
This kindergarten blog post will illustrate 17 different activities that can be used to build fine motor activities into your curriculum.
Special education teachers rarely receive differentiated curriculum for the various needs of their students. Made For Me Literacy provides engaging, effective lesson plans for a more successful classroom experience!
Differentiation can be hard and time-consuming! Learn to tier your lessons so that you can meet the needs of all your students!
From developing fine motor skills, letter and number recognition, sight words, sorting, sequencing, reading, and math, these task boxes for autism tasks will help develop important life skills and beyond!
This is a long post but it is so worth reading if you are struggling or want to improve the way you teach literacy to your students with significant disabilities. In the short time I have been doing this I can already see the benefits and wish I would have started this sooner. Teaching reading and writing to our students with significant disabilities can be tricky. You may often think, do they get this? Is this worth my time? How do I get them to interact if they are non verbal? No worries, I have had these same thoughts until recently. I attended a training at my local ISD and left feeling so inspired. Before diving into this I want you to know I have 11 students on my caseload. I have 3 students who I use this method with and it takes about 45-60 minutes a day. All 3 students are non verbal. One has a communication device, can spell and will hold a writing utensil for 5 minutes or longer. The other 2 students do not have a communication device, cannot yet identify letters and before starting this literacy approach would not hold a writing utensil independently. My other students are readers and writers (to some extent) and this literacy approach is not appropriate for them. This was a picture I took at the conference I went to. Sorry the quality is terrible but it is a good way to figure out if your student(s) is an emergent or conventional reader and writer. Here is how I incorporate literacy into my classroom for my students with significant disabilities. Start by reading this book. After reading the book you will see that reading and writing are split into "4 blocks" (Shared Reading, Shared Writing, Independent Reading, Independent Writing). Here is how I incorporate the blocks into my day/week. Shared Reading: I start each session with a shared reading. It is a great way to get the kids engaged and excited about learning. You can use any book you would like. I use the same book for 1 week. I have access to the Unique Learning System Curriculum which is awesome but not required. Once you have selected your book it is important to figure out how your students are going to interact with you. If they do not have a communication device you will have to create something to help them engage in the lesson. This is why Unique is awesome....they have a communication board at the end of all of their books :). I print a communication board for all of my students (even the ones with communication devices) and place it in front of them. As you can see these are not anything fancy. I don't even laminate them. I simply print them on regular paper and put them inside of a gallon size baggie. While reading the pages it is important to remember the acronym "C.A.R." to maximize student engagement. The "C" stands for Comment. A comment is something as simple as Ahh! or Wow! or in my case with our book last week Yum!!. The "A" stands for Ask. Ask your students a question about the page. Such as "Do you put lights on your tree?", or "What do you put on your tree?" Then wait......and maybe wait.....and wait some more for their response. The "R" stand for Respond. This is your opportunity to interact with your students. See what answer they pointed to. Even if the answer is incorrect, the goal is to have the students engaged. So if you ask "Do you put lights on your tree?" and they point to turkey on their communication device, make a joke of it. "You put turkey on your tree? That is funny!". Then repeat this with every page. Try asking a variety of questions or if you have a student who is working solely on yes/no questions ask them those. This is your chance to get your students engaged. As I said before I read each story for 1 week. I try to ask the same questions everyday. That way my students become familiar with the answers and can feel successful. The only thing I do differently is review the vocabulary on Monday's and Wednesday's. Shared Writing: For the shared writing portion you do something different everyday. -Monday: You have your students "write" their sentences. Make sure to have a common sentence starter. I tie this into the story we are reading so that the students get more familiar with the vocabulary and they can use the same communication device. I make a chart and write who "wrote" each sentence. When writing the sentences it is important to line all of the words/sections up (don't mind my first sentence....it is a little off and bothered me all week!!). Tuesday: Reread and Work with the sentences. I have a pointer and read each sentence to the students. Make sure to say who wrote each sentence when reading them. Look at the kids and make sure they know you are reading their sentence. I then select something in the sentences we want to focus on. This week we worked on writing the word My. I start by saying what we are going to work on. All of my students have their own paper and the staff member working with them has the writing utensil. All of my kids use skinny markers at this time. I show the students how to make the letter. I then break it down and we work on it section by section. The students then make the letter using the hand over hand approach EXCEPT....the students hand is over the adults hand. This way the students can feel how you are moving your hand instead of their hands being restricted when your hand is over theirs (try it....you will see what I mean :)). Wednesday: Cut up sentences. Write the students sentence on a sentence strip. If you have students who are working on typing they can type their sentence and then use that to cut. When writing the sentence make sure to have an adequate amount of write space in between words. Students will then be asked to cut apart their sentences. My students all have support with this however they are expected to let the adult know where the sentence is supposed to be cut. The purpose of this is to have your students learn that the white space is separating words. Sometimes we have accidents....which is OKAY!!! This is a perfect time for a teachable moment. Simply let them cut it and correct them....then tape the words back together. Once the sentence is cut have them put it back together. I give my student a model to follow. Thursday: BE THE SENTENCE. Write the words of the sentence on separate pieces of paper and hand them out to the kids....and maybe adults if you have more words than students. The students will then rearrange themselves (or your will help them) to form the sentence. You may need to have a model available and A LOT of patience for this lesson!!! Friday: Make the book. Use the sentences the students cut up on Wednesday and make a book. You could also make this on the computer if your students have goals in that area....mine don't so we not only use this time to re-visit our sentences but work on our fine motor skills. Have the kids look up pictures on the internet to match their sentence. You could also have kids bring in pictures (since you will know what their sentence is on Monday...they will have time). **Yes my little guy is holding a glue stick all by himself!!!!! Independent Reading: After your direct reading and writing instruction students should have the opportunity to do independent reading. This can look different for every student. You can have kids read on the iPad, read adapted books OR even read the books you made during previous weeks. Build your students stamina. I will admit during this time my staff or the iPad "voice" is reading to my kids. However....my students pick what they want to read. You could use some of the following sites for books online: Raz-Kids, Book-Flix, News-2-You (Free app if you have the online subscription), Storyline Online (free), and our new favorite Tar Heel Reader (free)!! Independent Writing: You're probably thinking, how the heck are my students going to be able to write something. This is probably the hardest part of the whole process. It is hard because it requires A LOT from the kids. However, it requires a lot from you and your staff too. You have to insure that everyone sticks with this....you can at times think "Why are we doing this?", "Will this ever happen?". We start by making sure every student has access to the ENTIRE alphabet and CORE vocabulary. This can look different for each student depending on their cognitive abilities. I have 2 students who have access to the alphabet and CORE words but only one at a time. I have another student who is able to look at the entire alphabet at once and has access to all of the CORE vocab and tons of fringe vocabulary. I then tape their paper to the desk. Trust me.....tape is your best friend!!!! Students then tell us what letter they want by flipping through, shaking their head when we get to a letter etc. We then give them the writing tool and let them go. It is so important that you do not form the letters for them. This is INDEPENDENT writing time. I do have my staff write what the letter is supposed to look like next to their letter just so we know what they are trying to say. When kids are picking letters I try to relate them to words. For example: "Ohh, you picked L, maybe for lion or library or even Liam." These writing pieces may look like scribbles to most but to everyone in my classroom these are the students work. These pages show the 10 minutes they put into writing for the day. These markings show the student was able to look at the paper for 2 seconds or hold a marker for 5 seconds without throwing it. Even though this may be the hardest part of the process to believe in, it is by far my favorite. But just like in every classroom mine is not perfect....we too get frustrated and like to throw things. Don't get mad. They are just markers. The student can pick it up after they write. I store all of the students work in a folder and pull it out everyday when we start our lesson. What are your thoughts about this literacy approach? Will you give it a try in your classroom? Do you see the benefit? Follow my blog with Bloglovin
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Differentiation is the buzzword that just keeps on buzzing! Teachers, administrators, and evaluation systems are placing more and more emphasis on differentiation in the classroom. Sometimes, the thought of organizing lessons to meet the individual needs of all of your students can feel like an overwhelming challenge. One of the best and simplest ways I have found to do this is with colored pocket folders.
The hidden curriculum can create situations of embarrassment for individuals on the spectrum, as well as serious consequences in the community.
These FREE Printable Math Centers are perfect for K-5, Special Ed & Work Centers for students with Autism-15 Printable Activities & tips on differentiation!
Did you know that a lack of understanding of the hidden curriculum can land our students in jail? Read on to learn more to avoid a negative outcome.
Many autism and self-contained teachers think that their classrooms don't need autism lesson plan activities.
Adapting curriculum is an ongoing dynamic process that modifies the program to meet the learning requirements for students.
Teaching money is a lot of fun because there are so many money games for kids and, best of all, kids are so excited to learn how to count co...
It is a sad reality in our classrooms today that one of the drills we must practice with our special education students is an active shooter / lockdown drill. Use visuals and social stories to explain what you are doing and what you expect from them during this time. Grab this free social story HERE.
This adapted novel covers To Kill a Mockingbird, and is a helpful starting place for getting grade-level texts into your special education and autism classroom. Adapted novels are an excellent tool to bring the general education curriculum and content to students with disabilities across settings. For students who are in life skills, self-contained, inclusion, and autism classrooms. Our goal is to ensure that ALL students have access to texts, especially literary classics! Useful for all students in your classroom: Whether you have students who are non-reading to students starting to access the general education curriculum, this adapted novel will be incredibly useful to you! Easy to embed in a lesson or start with for reading: Students can follow along and stay engaged with this adapted novel. The text is interactive and easy to embed into reading lessons. My students always love reading what the other students are reading. And this grade-level text is brought to life by my students when they are reading it. They get so engaged with the stories and bring it up during other subjects throughout the day. Ideas across subjects: It also lends itself well to talking about life skills, social-emotional and coping skills, independent living, social skills, social studies, career exploration, self-advocacy, transition planning/transition programming, and more. This adapted novel is a complete unit with everything you need... you can download and start teaching this novel today with your class! If you have any further questions, you can email us at [email protected] WHAT'S INSIDE: 1. Adapted Novel - Booklets Ready to print PDF 8 chapter adapted novel Vocabulary list for each chapter and highlighted within the text 2. Adapted Novel - Slide Deck Google Slides + PowerPoint 8 chapter adapted novel Clickable slides to project onto a display/board 3. Reading Comprehension Questions PDF worksheets for each chapter 3 differentiated versions (Multiple choice with images, Multiple choice within bubbles, Multiple choice list) 10 questions for each chapter 4. Character Cards Ready to print and cut PDF Every major character within the novel Brief descriptions of each character 5. Setting Pages Ready to print or share on display 6. Resource Guide About the Resource Using the Resource Resource Walkthrough Preview Click here to preview the resource.
What Differentiated Instruction Is--And Is Not: The Definition Of Differentiated Instruction
Made For Me Literacy provides special education teachers with engaging, comprehensive reading units meticulously crafted with special learners in mind covering various subject areas, including basic reading, writing, math, science, and fine motor skills.
