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
Learn about science curriculum created for self-contained special education classrooms by a real special education teacher!
Use the special ed inclusion documentation forms to keep track of service times, lesson plans, and more. Streamline it all quickly and effectively!
Learn all about the types of student schedules I use in my classroom: first-then, 1-2-3-choice, vertical, and checklist schedules.
Beginning of year special education forms - As an inclusion intervention specialist, your first week of school can get hectic fast. You are playing the...
Use these inclusion strategies to help you navigate teaching in the ELA classroom.
Use the special ed inclusion documentation forms to keep track of service times, lesson plans, and more. Streamline it all quickly and effectively!
Multi-sensory tasks are engaging and naturally gain students’ attention. Adding multi-sensory activities into your math centers can help students persevere and focus on learning. Multi-sensory activities are the perfect way to build in practice and review of introduced skills… a crucial part of guided math. This is the third and final post of Smashing Strategies ... Read More about How To Incorporate Multi-Sensory Math Tasks Into Your Classroom
Problem size vs reaction size is a big social skills topic. Need to know the basics of the size of problem size of reaction as it relates...
Special Education teachers are the masters of data collection! At times, collecting data can be overwhelming, especially when you sometimes have to outsource the collecting to other teachers, specialists, or teaching assistants. Tracking accommodations is necessary to make sure an IEP is being followed and can be helpful in determining which accommodations should be added to or removed from the IEP. Believe it or not, collecting data on accommodations and modifications does not have to consume your life! Share Information Be sure to share vital information with all teachers and assistants that work with your students. I have an accommodations organizer that I organize all of the information of my class. The information is in one place which is helpful for sharing information with assistants, special area teachers, and substitutes. When I first began teaching, I did not bother sharing such information with special area teachers until it was brought to my attention that a student of mine did not complete a test in physical education class. That student had trouble reading and was supposed to have his tests read. The PE teacher was unaware of his accommodations and therefore did not deliver them. I use a special form that reminds me of who needs to be informed of accommodations and modifications at the beginning of the school year and after an IEP annual review. Train Your Team If you have paraprofessionals in your classroom working with students, it is important to train them in how to deliver and how to track accommodations and modifications. Some interventions are more detailed than others. Observe your team while they are working with students and provide feedback as needed. The time you put in to properly train your team to record data the same way you would is so well spent! Use Checklists When I first started teaching, I used to write notes on a post-it that included which accommodations and modifications were used on assignments along with their effectiveness. It was very time consuming and often times, I forgot to add some things. Finally, I came up with a few checklists and forms to help the process. Level of Support One of the forms I use tracks the level of support a student needs from an adult. I use this one to determine the need for a 1:1 teaching assistant. It is useful before adding a TA and to collect data to see if continuing the intervention is a necessity. The adult that works with the student at that time fills it out while working with the student. Accommodations and Modifications Tracker I use this form two ways, depending on what I am collecting data for. As an IEP meeting approaches, I like to review the need for the interventions on the IEP. I can track the types of interventions are needed for different types of assignments and activities. More importantly, I can track the effectiveness of such interventions. I can also cut this tracker apart to staple it onto work samples. The work samples can be to show the Committee on Special Education the student's growth or regression. I also like to send work home with students with the form filled out from time to time so parents can see what kind of help the student needs in order to complete assignments at school. Frequency Tracker Another way I like to track the use of accommodations and modifications needed in school is with a frequency tracker I created. This gives me a quick visual of which interventions are being used and which are not. I focus on this during the weeks before a meeting so I can determine which accommodations and modifications need to remain, be added, or be removed from an IEP. Data collection is so important but it doesn't have to take over your entire life. Once you create a few checklists that fit your classroom or purchase one of the many checklists and charts from my TpT store, you will save yourself a ton of time and will have more data than you've ever had before!
Are you looking to incorporate more inclusion time for your self-contained class? This article has ten tips for creating these opportunities!
Use the special ed inclusion documentation forms to keep track of service times, lesson plans, and more. Streamline it all quickly and effectively!
I teach a 1st through 4th self-contained, mod/severe, special day class. I am going to highlight some of the key elements in my classroom.
**This post contains affiliate links, which means that I collect a commission, at no additional cost to you, should you choose to make a purchase.** Building social skills is essential in the special education classroom. I know that direct teaching of basic social skills is imperative, but when we get ready for generalization I’m a ... Read More about 15 Must Have Board Games for Special Education
Different errorless learning activities for your special education classroom. Errorless learning is great for independent practice.
Help me get to know you and your interests by answering these questions. Your answers will help me plan projects that interest you!Helps students to show their interests, background, and curiousity. Designed for a special education inclusive setting. Formatted as a graphic organizer to help student...
College. There are the courses that prepare you for the "textbook stuff", but nothing in the world prepares you for teaching quite like actually teaching does. Learn the special ed secrets, that things you don't learn in college, only at Mrs. D's Corner.
Have you been curious about how to set up your elementary autistic support classroom? Join me as I give you a
Accommodations to support students in your classroom who have Dyscalculia or other math disabilities be successful in school.
At the beginning of the school year, it is the special education teacher's job to share IEP information with school staff. This blog post includes some important things to think about when completing this important back to school task.
I have been CRAZY excited to share my classroom with ya'll this year. This is my third year in this classroom, and I'm in love with how it turned out it this school year. I kept a lot of the same centers from last year, and added a few new fun ones (Magnet Center,
Special Educators Resource Room - Find the tools and support you need to feel calm, collected, and totally together as a special educator.
IEP Tubs, special education, IEP goals, IEP data, IEP activities, IEP objectives
Lesson planning in special education can be complicated. We often have multiple grades in one classroom not to mention the wide variety of skills and needs. Right?! I have tried many different lesson planning options and have never found the perfect fit. Here is how I write and organize lesson plans. This post may include […]
I absolutely love being a special education teacher, and I’ve learned so much throughout my time teaching students with disabilities (…and I know I have so much more to learn!). SIMPLE Special Education Tips for NEW Teachers! If you are new to special education, I want you to know that there are many days when you’ll […]
Allowing your students to use reference sheets on tests and quizzes can help them to be more successful in the inclusion setting.
Inclusion is more than simply having a child in the classroom. Here's what needs to happen to make the general ed classroom more inclusive so all children succeed!
STEM in a special ed classroom is a huge possibility. Take a look inside my classroom to see how we make it work, what we use, and more!
Being prepared for student IEP meetings takes a ton of prep and ORGANIZATION! There is so much that goes into preparing for a meeting. It is super important that you feel organized and have all your ducks in a row BEFORE the meeting. When I was first starting teaching, I was super nervous before every ... Read More about Getting Organized for IEP Meetings
Special Educators Resource Room - Find the tools and support you need to feel calm, collected, and totally together as a special educator.
Do you want to try task boxes, but think your students are too high for them? They aren’t! I find it easier to do higher level academics in task boxes than coming up with new ways to practice lower level skills such as “put in”. This post may include affiliate links. First, let’s talk about […]
This article includes basic information to give an introduction or overview of what is inclusion and some tips for implementing it.
You probably already know that I LOVE literacy in the classroom! I love everything about it- from helping students grow a love for books, to seeing the connection between literacy & communication, to doing read alouds with kids, and watching students sound out their first word! Something I've always believed (and have seen to be true over my years in the classroom) is that even if students aren't "conventional readers," they can still do a lot during literacy instruction! We often have students who can't read (yet) in self-contained classrooms, but that doesn't mean we can't teach the five core components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics & word study, reading comprehension, vocabulary and reading fluency. We can (and should) teach our students more than just letter identification, letter sounds, sight words identification, and basic functional reading skills. There are SO many ways to work on students' IEP goals while exposing students to the common core and/or adapted curriculum content! It just takes some creativity and of course, differentiation. I'm going to share some ideas for focusing on writing, comprehension and vocabulary when working with students with intensive needs. First let me say, I don't think there is one "right way" to run reading groups in special ed classrooms. It's important to hit all 5 core components of reading across the day, but boxed guided reading curricula often just don't work in our classrooms. If you want to read more about how we structure/ set up reading groups, check out this post. So let's jump in... this is how we do it: Each group reads the same book for the entire week, similar to a repeated reading during traditional guided reading and shared reading lessons! Some students verbally read the books, while other students listen to a teacher read the book. Students are provided with a way to engage with the book during the reading. I use these communication/ answer boards during reading. Students can use the boards to match pictures, answer yes/ no questions, sequence the story, etc. Every day we finish reading the book, we answer differentiated comprehension questions. One level has pictures/ visuals to support students with answering questions and the other level has only words. Again, some students will read the question and answer options and other students will have a teacher read the question/ answer options to them. We do a different activity related to the repeated story each day. One day, we review vocabulary words from the book. We will read/ repeat the words, find the words in the book, define them, find them on our communication boards, etc. The main focus is for students to learn the vocabulary words, have exposure to the content and also work on their fine motor/ writing IEP goals. We practice writing the vocabulary words. Depending on needs, students are: tracing words copying words with boxes copying from a word bank with boxes or copying from a word bank. We also spend a day answering comprehension questions about the book. This is also highly differentiated so that all students can participate. A few of the concepts the comprehension worksheets include are: filling in the blank/ completing sentences identifying the main idea & key details answering direct recall questions identifying unfamiliar vocabulary making inferences As we read the questions to students, we will prompt students to go back and reference the book or communication boards to find the answers, if needed. Depending on needs, students are: tracing the answers picking the answer from a field of 2 writing or copying the answer We also spend a day to work on using the vocabulary words in sentences. This is a great way to work on communication skills, grammar, fine motor/ writing, and comprehension/ vocabulary. Depending on needs, students are: tracing 2 sentences using the vocabulary words dictating 2 sentences to a teacher and then copying the sentences writing 2 sentences with a word bank These activities only fill 3 days of instruction. The other 2 days of reading groups, I typically use other comprehension activities I can find on TpT. They might be sequencing/ cut and paste activities or other writing prompts I can find. I like to give our students the structure and predictability of using similar worksheets 3 days a week and then mixing it up 2 days a week. I hope this helps to give you ideas for working on comprehension & writing in your classroom! You can email me ([email protected]) or DM me on social media with any questions or ideas you have! If you want a freebie/ sample of my book & writing/ comprehension extension pack, you can grab my Life Cycle of a Frog and extension pack for FREE here. If you want to grab the entire bundle of 37 books and writing/ comprehension activities, click here! Note: if you already own my Circle Time/ Morning Meeting curriculum, then you already own the books! You can get the extension packs separately here.
Color coding your special ed classroom can be a game changer for your organization. I can teach you how to color code your classroom.
Since I began my teaching career, I have always worked with students of all different learning styles, and learning speeds. I have worked with students who have a wide range of diagnoses, Autism, LD, Emotional Behavioral, Learning Support, and Multiple Disabilities. I must say that working with my special needs students are among the best experiences of my teaching career. Some of my students are very limited in what they can do, yet, in my classroom its as if the possibilities are endless, they can accomplish anything they put their minds to! My philosophy when it comes to special needs in art education is simply this: it is about the process, not the product. As artist's we all have this picture of what something will look like in our heads before we actually get started. With some of my special needs students, they are there for the experience of making art, not necessairily for what the outcome is. After they go through the process of making the art, working on fine motor skills, they are able to see the product, and they get so excited to see what they were able to create. In my art ed experience, I have never seen a curriculum specifically designed for my special needs students, so I have begun to develop one. It is always a work in progress, constantly being added to, as I am always experiencing students with different needs and abilities. Here are a few of my more successful project outcomes: I tend to break my lesson Ideas into different units, ex: squares, circles, triangles, fall, process, specific colors, etc. First up is circles. We practice the 'round and round' motion that our arm or wrist makes when we are creating a circle. We create lots of different types of circles using lots of different media. This project involves gluing pre-cut circles to a 12x12 piece of paper. Students then use a toilet paper roll and black paint to stamp black circles on the colored pre-cut circles. lastly we use dot markers to add a little something else to our project. For this project we look at Kandinsky's circle painting and we use a 12x18 piece of white paper and divide it into 6 sections. we work on folding skills to divide our paper. We then use three different colors of paint to create concentric circles in each of the 6 spaces. Lastly we cut (depending on the level of ability of the student) and glue them to a larger piece of colored paper. Some of our other circle projects include using different materials to create that 'round and round' morion, like chalk, marker and paint. We learn about oil pastel resist when it comes to watercolor and other water paints. Next up: Squares. We look at the work of Mondrian and glue pre-cut red, yellow, and blue squares and rectangles to a piece of 12x18 paper. We use a piece of cardboard to create vertical and horizontal stamped lines using black tempera paint. Another project we work on is laying painters tape on a piece of 12x18 paper in a grid pattern. Then we use different colors of paint to add color to the remaining spaces. I also use this project as a color mixing project to teach primary and secondary colors. The project with the yellow T's is actually a cube pattern that we use to make a 3D cube when its done. We begin by choosing a colored piece of 12x18 construction paper. I pre-cut the first letter of each students first name. Students trace a pre-made template of a cube onto their paper. Then they tape their letters into each of the 6 spaces created by the template. I place their paper into a copy paper box top, and students choose several different paint colors. We add paint in a few places on their paper and drop in a few marbles. Students pick up their box top and roll the marbles around through the paint. When it dries, we remove the taped down letters. cut out the template, fold it, and tape it together to create the cube. Next up: Triangles. We complete several tape resist paintings practicing laying the tape down in a triangle pattern. We use paint for one and dot markers for the other. We complete an analogous color scheme process painting, and then use our scissor skills to cut it into triangles. We then create a mosaic on black paper. This one is a multi step project. We use tissue paper and modpodge to fill different sized square and rectangle papers. We use a light blue piece of 18x24 piece of construction paper and paint a snowy scene. Students use bundled qtips to make the snow in the sky. Lastly we cut triangles out of the tissue paper squares and rectangles, and add them to the paper. Our Fall projects include print making, stamping, leaf rubbing with crayons, painting, gluing and resists. Our process art is constantly changing and these are usually the most successful. We focus on particular colors and create various projects using a monochromatice scheme. Marble paintings (which we did around valentines day so we used a heart theme) Apple prints, torn paper collages and tissue paper collages. I try to hang up most of their art by their classroom so that they can see it when they go to and from different places in the building, but I also include their work in with the rest of the student body around the building.
Use these IEP brochures to inform and educate your fellow IEP team members on different parts of an IEP and the different eligibility categories.
A zen space gives your students a place to unwind, relax, regroup, and calm themselves before returning to regular classroom work.
Making sure our students have enough math practice is vital. Thankfully, there are math websites that are great for special ed!
A compilation of ten things every middle school, high school and transition sped teacher wishes you knew about them and their students!
You might be asking yourself, “What is an IEP Party?” Let me be the first to tell you I am so glad you asked! First, lets start with the basics. An IEP (Individual Education Program) is a legal document for a child that receives special education services. This document provides vital information about the child ... Read More about IEP Party: Beginning of the year special education meeting with campus staff
As special educators, it is SO important to set our students up for success throughout the total school environment. In early elementary years, this often includes visual schedules that we post up on the wall and have our students check when it's time to move from teacher time to speech, or any other type of 'switch' of task/environment. However, there is no 'one size fits all' for our students! Some students may require an object schedule, a word schedule, a real picture schedule, etc. What about those students who are in and out of your classroom but also require some type of schedule? They certainly can't be posted on your classroom wall if the student isn't in the classroom to check it! That is where portable schedules come in! Here are some of my favorite ideas from fellow special educators to create a portable schedule that can be used throughout the TOTAL school environment. This one has been used by many teachers over the years, and it is a simple (FREE) way to create a schedule that moves with a student! Head to your local paint store or hardware store and grab a few paint sticks, add some velcro, and voila! The one pictured above is one I used in the home environment with a client since we are not in the classroom setting. I created the icons using the editable template pages inside my Real Pictures Visual Schedule Pack. I love this checklist schedule from Erin at You Aut-a Know! She made them completely editable, and you can easily laminate this, throw it in a binder with a dry erase marker, and the student can check off each activity as they complete them. I also love how you can create a different one for each day of the week since we all know that each day can be different! This is a super appropriate and discrete way to give your students a portable schedule. A great option for older students! Another great option for portable schedules is using supply pouches (that you could also stick inside a binder that goes from class to class!). This idea comes from School Bells N Whistles and is a cheap way to access a visual schedule throughout the day. As they finish something on their schedule, they can remove the card and throw it inside the supply pouch so that the piece doesn't get lost! Jenn from Teach Love Autism created these Editable Visual Flip Schedules that can both be posted on a classroom wall but ALSO can be created to take with the student throughout the school day. I love these because you don't have to worry about losing random schedule pieces! The student just flip the schedule closed after they complete something on their schedule. Such a great way to move around the school environment with a schedule in hand! Hopefully this gave you some new ideas on creating accessible and appropriate schedules for your students that can be used throughout the total school environment! If you use portable schedules a different way, I'd love to hear about them in the comments below! Want to save this idea for later? Be sure to pin the image below for the future!
