Teaching reading has always been a struggle for me. The curriculum I was using needed something more. I needed something more hands-on, more engaging so that my students made better progress. I also wanted to provide the main instruction instead of my paras or peer tutors. Throughout the time I was teaching, I continually added and changed how language arts and reading instruction in my classroom looked, and it's been a successful change!

Explore top-tier special education resources at Supporting Special Learners for educators and parents, your go-to destination for aiding students with autism.

Do your students struggle to show that they are able to comprehend what they have read? Being able to demonstrate comprehension is a vital life skill. Here is how we target reading comprehension in my self-contained special education classroom. Many of my students have language based disabilities. The more words (spoken or written), the more ... Read More about Functional Reading Comprehension Instruction In Special Ed.

Informal math assessments for special education for K-8. Assessments are aligned with Common Core Standards. Find your students average level/abilities.

Using sentence frames to get ell students writing. Click here for more:

If a student is unable to play with toys during structured leisure time independently, play supports are a great strategy.

As special education teachers, we often are not provided with appropriate resources to assess our students current levels of learning. Or the resource we are given doesn’t meet the needs of all of the learning styles in our classroom. We always make it work though. Learn more about assessment at Mrs. D's Corner.

Learn some ideas for supporting IEP and ESL students in the middle school classroom.

A question I get frequently is how to support a nonverbal student. The way we do that impacts their communication skills. Get tips for support.

IEPs and RTI. Progress monitoring and data collection. This simple system has worked for me for years. Sharing a FREE, simple, easy, and effective way to save you time... and your sanity. Learn more now!

Included are 9 differentiated weekend journals for all special education students in your classroom, from symbol readers to advanced writers.This is the perfect life skill activity to get your students discussing their weekends and asking questions to each other. This activity works on social skills...

Finding resources to support middle school special education students is difficult, here are the best reading resources that I have found.

Save 30% with this bundle! Read more about task boxes here. To see what skill are included, click here. Why Task Boxes? - perfect for promoting independence in the special education classroom - meaningful presentation of basic skills - simplistic yet eye-catching clip art keeps students engaged - reinforce basic concepts for English Language Learners and other students who need extra support - can be changed out and stored easily as tasks are mastered The contents of this bundle differ from The Original Bundle. This bundle includes: January February March April May June July August September October November December Each set includes: -12 task card concepts, focusing on basic math and ELA skills - Each task box includes 2 levels of difficulty - labels and sequencing cards PRINTING TIP: all templates are created to be 4X6" or smaller. To keep items to size, make sure the "fit to page" option is not selected when printing. © Michaela Lawrence, Especially Education

Want activities for teaching The Odyssey? Check out these pre-reading, while reading, and after reading activities for teaching The Odyssey.

With so many of my BIG KIDS struggling with fluency, I worked to make it a part of my daily work with students, a Tier 1 intervention that the majority of the class could benefit from. Reading fluency incorporates three main components: speed, accuracy, and prosody, which directly impact comprehension. While I have shared a great deal about incorporating 6-Minute Solutions, here are a few other ways I worked to make fluency fun for my 6th graders.

How to plan for, modify, and implement successful Guided Reading in SPED. TIps and tricks with full lesson plan ideas at Mrs. D's Corner.

So you’ve taught your students to write sentences. Now what? In the beginning of my career, we worked HARD on writing sentences. When it came time to take the next step into writing paragraphs, I found this was even harder for my students. We were able to write 2-3 sentences about a topic or picture, ... Read More about How to Scaffold Paragraph Writing for Special Education

Teachers know all too well how much fun it is to pick out fonts for a lesson you are creating… yet how difficult it is to find one that students can independently read and understand. Special education teachers? We know more of the latter… When the “h” looks so much like an “n” that your […]

FREE printable Sequencing worksheets for preschool and kindergarten kids. Includes 15 activities featuring seasonal themes, hygiene such as brushing teeth, washing hands, and fire safety. Great for language and literacy development!

As special education teachers, there are a few red flags to avoid during an IEP meeting. Here are 10 things not to say in an IEP meeting.

5 activities for read alouds in an elementary special education setting you can use today. Lots of free downloads.

Behavior management is something everyone in an educational role needs training and understanding in, so I'm sharing my five best tips for behavior control.

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

In this huge list are 50+ texts {including poetry, picture books, and more} that you can use when modeling comprehension strategies to your readers.

FREE response to intervention forms and how to use them

What is an adaptive or an interactive book? Some people use these two words interchangeably and some people see them as separate things. However you see it, they are both a type of book designed for special education, speech therapy, or young children. Here are my definitions: Adaptive Book: An adaptive book is a book that has been well.....adapted! This might mean that there are adaptive sentences with picture representation (picture symbols) underneath the words or that it simply a b

Google Apps for Education, also known as the G Suite for Education, are transforming how teachers use technology in the classroom. In this this #2ndaryELA Twitter chat, middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed how they use Google Classroom and other applications as part of their instruction. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.

Let’s take a look at some adapted activities included in the Bad Apple Book Companion that are great to pair with this read aloud.

Do you want to learn how to create adapted books for special education classrooms? This post provides a step by step list, with examples...

Check out this blog post for tips and ideas for using a "what's in the bag?" activity to support early language skills in your EI sessions.

I feel that it is essential for every English literature student–whether that be honors, regular, or support level– to have the ability to read a single text through a different critical lens. This skill teaches students how to have an open mindset and view the world through someone else’s perspective–which is one of the fundamental purposes ... Read More about Creative Ways to Teach Critical Lenses

Free & funny readers' theater scripts by T. P. Jagger. Use readers' theater (readers' theatre) scripts to improve students' reading fluency.

No Prep – Printable for Color Word Practice Especially those tricky colors that start with the same letters such as: black and blue pink and purple gray and green download from my TpT store This is a great printable to integrate language arts and religion. It could be used anytime, but some especially on special ... Read More about Free Color Word Practice Printables

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the reading materials that I created for my kindergarten through fourth grade special education students. I include lots of photos and resources.

When I sent out an email to my entire faculty asking "Does anyone have a lint roller in their classroom? I left mine at home and I need it for a lesson today!" I'm certain that I had people saying to themselves... what in the HECK is she doing that that classroom of hers? Did you know our brains are like lint rollers? We make our schema stick! I saw this FABULOUS idea from Holly on her blog Crisscross Applesauce in 1st Grade! What an amazing idea and I couldn't wait to do it in my classroom. *************** First, I had my students write a fact they knew! It could be anything. Here were some of their sentences: *Penguins can't fly. *Hawaii is warm. *I am seven years old. We sat in a circle and I told them their brains are like this lint roller. As we learn, we gather up new facts and they stick to our brain! This is called SCHEMA. I asked the students to tell me about their schema they wrote. "I wrote about that Hawaii is warm because I've been there and I felt how warm it was!" That is a perfect example. Some students might have read about Hawaii's weather and a few had actually been there. We can gather schema from many places (books, friends, experiences, etc.) After we made our schema "stick", I asked the students to draw and label at least 5 things they have schema about! I made these "heads" on 11X17 paper so they had plenty of room to draw and write. They turned the heads into faces that looked like them. You can download the schema head (haha sounds funny) HERE and another great printable from Holly at Crisscross Applesauce HERE. Now that my students understand schema, we will continue to reference it and then move on to inferring!

Engage your students in great lessons using these videos for teaching figurative language! Check out the Top 5 here and save time searching!

These games can be used for spelling words, using a dictionary or thesaurus, and to enhance reading (fiction & nonfiction) "My popular Spelling Roll-A-Word inspired me to create a more comprehensive set of dice games to be used to enhance your reading and language arts class! Included in this set are: -Spelling Roll-A-Word (same as my original) -Vocabulary Roll-A-Word -Dictionary Roll-A-Word -Thesaurus Roll-A-Word -Read Fiction and Roll -Read Non-Fiction and Roll"

When I started at my new school last year, I came into a new reading program. I was used to doing almost all of my reading instruction WHOLE CLASS, but my school uses a guided reading model all the way up to 5th grade. I definitely had to rethink my reading block! I had done centers in the past, but wanted a really clear way to maximize the time and make the transitions clear for the students. Here's how I do my guided reading block! ROTATIONS We have Guided Reading/Centers Monday-Thursday from about 1:10-2:00 and I rotate through four groups. This means each center is 12 minutes long, with about 30 seconds for a transition. 12 minutes can fly by, so the students have to work on getting those transitions DOWN. I found a FANTASTIC resource by my friend Kristen of Chalk & Apples, and it has made centers SO easy. There are tons of different icons that can be easily swapped out on different days or weeks. I change mine up all the time! In a typical week, I do guided reading with leveled passages on Monday and Wednesday, and we do literature circles on Tuesdays and Thursdays. GROUPS My students are grouped according to DRA levels, because that is what my school uses. You might use AR, Lexile, or another measure. I have four groups: Low, Low-Mid, High-Mid, and High. Each group has a number, but I assign the number randomly so it doesn't match up to skill level in any way. I have 24 students in my class this year, so there will be 6 kids in each group. If you have a larger class, you can still make it work by having your higher groups work on their own while you work with a lower group and just check in! GUIDED READING I LOVE this close reading resource from Fifth in the Middle. I bought the entire bundle so I have TONS of options. Each reading comes in four reading levels, but they are on the same topic and look the same so students don't notice. There is also a paired text that I try to use for morning work toward the end of the week. There are several pages of activities for each passage, and I often have the students start these at the table with me after we've read the passage out loud. When it is their turn for guided reading, the students come to me at our back table with a pencil and a highlighter. I give them their sheets for that day and discuss what we will be looking for while we read (unfamiliar words usually) and we begin reading. I like to make sure each child reads, so however I have to break it up to make that happen. After reading through, I ask them to scan through again to find specific information. This changes week to week, so one time it might be looking for transition phrases, and another it might be looking for dates to create a timeline. Then, we talk about what everyone found and work on putting together the information on the worksheet. I, of course, provide a lot more scaffolding and support to my lower readers, while my high readers are able to do the activity on their own. LIT CIRCLES On the days that we have literature circles, the students still come to the back table with me, but this time they bring their lit circle book (which varies) and their lit circle binder. In their binder, they keep all of their jobs and their reading schedule. I have used about a GAZILLION resources for lit circles (including online blogs), but this one from Pocketful of Primary is my absolute FAVORITE: It is SOO easy to adapt to groups of different sizes and I found it very user-friendly for both the kiddos and for myself! I organize the jobs using a hanging file I found on Amazon. You can find it here: THE OTHER CENTERS So what do the kiddos do during their other blocks of time? Here's some options I cycle through: STAPLES: Partner Reading Each student has a partner from their reading group that they meet up with for this activity. I typically use "I Survived" books or similar short chapter books. I stock up through Scholastic! I have 6 shared books for the entire class, and I place a sheet inside the front cover so the students can write their names and where they ended each day they read. I always have new books ready to go for the students who finish. I do this strictly for fluency, so I don't do quizzes or worksheets. Silent Reading (KBAR) In my class, we call silent reading KBAR- Kick Back and Read. When we do a whole class KBAR, I sometimes take it outside. Spelling (Spelling City) I typically use Spelling City for centers, but sometimes do a worksheet instead. Vocabulary (Quizlet)Quizlet is AMAZING. I love using this for vocabulary! The students really enjoy it as well. Keyboarding (KWT) This is a tough one since monitoring the students' finger placement is so important. I don't do this OFTEN as a center, but throw it in now and again. Writing If we are working on a longer project (such as the state report), I have the students use this chunk of time for that. Otherwise, I sometimes provide a prompt or allow them to free write. Here's one of the resources I use: NoRedInk If you've never used this site, CHECK IT OUT! It's one of the best ways to get some extra grammar practice into your day! Be aware that the initial set up takes a bit of time because the students have to select a bunch of their favorites from different categories: books, tv shows, movies. What's neat is the site uses their preferences and their name + their friends' names when building the practice sentences. The kids get a kick out of it! Task Cards (small group) Students work with their reading group and record their answers on individual answer sheets. I have a huge selection of task cards that I keep in one of these bad boys from Michael's: Cursive (Can Do) I love that my school teaches cursive, but in fifth grade, we don't have a lot of specific time for it. To keep the kid's practicing, I assign pages from our cursive book during centers. Reading Comprehension (Reading Plus) We use Reading Plus, but there are many online reading comprehension sites. Use whatever your district provides or what works for your class! Games I will occasionally throw in a review game for the kids to play with their small group. The key is they have to be short and not too loud! Comment below if you have other questions or want to add some advice on running smooth ELA centers with Guided Reading!

Here is a list of very easy at home activities that you can practice throughout the day to strengthen and improve auditory processing in your child.

Science units are wonderful for teaching science concepts in a special education classroom… especially those with multiple grades. The science units help me differentiate and teach and reteach the science concepts year after year. Focus On Vocabulary Many students struggle with all of the vocabulary and language that come with science concepts. From scientific tools […]

Teaching figurative language is easy! Start with good definitions and examples, add a little practice, then apply in kids' writing.