Special+Education



** Assignment will be ready TODAY, ** ** Thursday, 11/08, at 3pm. **

** The assignment on this page is being revised for TEAMs by a slow moving Sharon Edwards. **

** PART 1: READ **

Read ALL the summaries on this wiki page.

**PART 2: REFLECTION**

Remember to write the question above your response.


 * 1) ** Think of the students you are tutoring: What are some of the problems they are facing in school and how might //Differentiated Instruction// or //Universal Design for Learning// strategies help them to learn? **
 * 2) ** Have you seen any adaptations in use in your school from the chart below, // Nine Types of Adaptations ,// appearing in //Differentiated Instruction// ? **
 * 3) ** In your opinion, which inclusion model would work best in the school you are tutoring at? Why? **
 * 4) ** If you are aware of Special Education students in the school, are they fully included? Partially included? Not included? **
 * 5) ** How effectively do you think the prevailing teaching methods are working for both regular and special education students? **

** How A LEGO Shuttle Got To Space ** from **Science Friday** with Ira Flatow on **NPR** 

**Google Sketch a tool for much learning with children identified as autistic** http://unews.utah.edu/news_releases/university-of-utah-and-google-team-up-to-help-families-with-children-on-the-autism-spectrum/

Practical use for Google Sketchup

Examples of Google Sketchup with designs made by middle and high school students!

Temple Grandin


 * Changing How Teachers Teach to Support Diverse Learners **

For a view of making knowledge accessible to all students, see [|John Hunter on the World Peace Game]

See also, [|Harvard Professor Tom Kelly speaking about his course, First Nights]

**//Universal Design for Learning//**
Creating classrooms where every student can succeed requires that teachers shift assumptions and strategies in fundamental ways. //**Drawing on universal design principles, advocates of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) urge teachers to think about teaching and learning in new ways so the students with special needs can be integrated into regular classrooms without being seen as abnormal or deficient **////. //


 * Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) **

summarizes four new ways of thinking about learning disabilities: **.**
1) Students with disabilities fall along a continuum of learner differences rather than constituting a separate category**.**

2) Teacher adjustments for learner differences should occur for all students **,** not just those with disabilities**.**

3) Curriculum materials should be varied and diverse including digital and online resources **,** rather than centering on a single textbook**.**

4) Instead of remediating students so that they can learn from a set curriculum**,** curriculum should be made flexible to accommodate learner differences **.**

Source: **CAST. “Summary of Universal Design for Learning Concepts.”** For more on Universal Design for Learning, visit the CAST website at: []

**//__Conceptual Models of Disability__//**
Rethinking the education of students with special needs also involves reconceptualizing how disability itself is viewed by teachers and tutors. The chart below shows two frameworks for understanding disability, the old medical model and a newer interactional/socio-political model.

** Medical Model (old) ** ** Interactional/Socio-Political Model (new) ** Source: Carol J. Gill, Chicago Institute of Disability Research, cited Universal Design: A Guide for Students from the Association on Higher Education and Disability.
 * Disability is a deficiency or abnormality.
 * Being disabled is negative.
 * Disability resides in the individual.
 * The remedy for disability-related problems is cure or normalization of the individual
 * The agent of remedy is the professional.
 * Disability is a difference.
 * Being disabled, in itself, is neutral.
 * Disability derives from the interaction between the individual and society.
 * The remedy for disability-related problems is a change in the interaction between the individual and society.
 * The agent of remedy is the individual, an advocate, or anyone who affects the arrangements between the individual and society.

//Differentiated Instruction//
**DI**, Differentiated Instruction, appreciates differences in learning strategies that might result from varying academic abilities, personalities, interests, background knowledge and experiences, and levels of motivation for learning. **Teachers that differentiate instruction use a variety of teaching practices and strategies to create different pathways that respond to the needs of diverse learners**.

Here is a chart with nine suggested types of adaptations that teachers can perform in order to differentiate instruction taken directly from: // **Adapting Curriculum and Instruction in Inclusive Classrooms: A Teacher’s Desk Reference** //, by Deschenes, C., Ebeling, D., and Sprague, J., 1994.

**Nine Types of Adaptations** []

For example: Reduce the number of social studies terms a learner must learn at any one times. || Adapt the time allotted and allowed for learning, task completion, or testing. For example: Individualize a timeline for completing a task; pace learning differently (increase or decrease) for some learners. || Increase the amount of personal assistance with a specific learner. For example: Assign peer buddies, teaching assistants, peer tutors, or cross-age tutors. || For example: Use different visual aids, plan more concrete examples, provide hands-on activities, place students in cooperative groups. || Adapt the skill level, problem type, or the rules on how the learner may approach the work. For example: Allow the use of a calculator to figure math problem; simplify task directions; change rules to accommodate learner needs. || Adapt how the student can respond to instruction. For example: Instead of answering questions in writing, allow a verbal response, use a communication book for some students, allow students to show knowledge with hands-on materials || For example: In geography, have a student hold the globe, while others point out locations. || Adapt the goals or outcome expectations while using the same materials. For example: In social studies, expect a student to be able to locate just the states while others learn to locate capitals as well. || Provide different instruction and materials to meet a student’s individual goals. For example: During a language test, one student is learning computer skills in the computer lab. ||
 * **Size** || **Time** || **Level of Support** ||
 * Adapt the number of items that the learner is expected to learn or complete.
 * **Input** || **Difficulty** || **Output** ||
 * Adapt the way instruction is delivered to the learner.
 * **Participation** || **Alternate** || **Substitute Curriculum** ||
 * Adapt the extent to which a learner is actively involved in the task.

=== //__Models For Successful Inclusion Source: Preparing for Inclusion, by Elaine E. Daack (1999) __ // === **Consultant model.** **The consultant model works best in schools with a low percentage of special-needs children and a small overall enrollment**. The special education teacher is available to teach the more difficult skills to special education students. The consultant model provides special-needs children with at least two teachers to help with curriculum problems.

**Teaming model.** **The teaming model assigns a special education teacher to a grade level team and general and special education teachers work together to plan and present the same material to all students in the classroom**. The special education teachers can provide the general teachers with student information, possible instructional strategies, and modification ideas for assignments, tests, and behavior strategies so that everyone is can be taught the same material. Advantages include immediate re-teaching of material and a lower student-teacher ratio.

**Collaborative Co-Teaching.** **The Collaborative co-teaching model has the advantage of both general and special education teachers sharing the classroom responsibilities so that students can receive age-appropriate subject matter, support services, and necessary modified instruction**.

**Collaborative teaching can be organized in a number of ways**: //**__One teacher, one suppor__t**// – This organization works well for teaching a unit where one teacher is more expert than the other. Students still have two teachers to ask questions of and get help.

__//**Parallel teaching design**//__ – The teacher divides the class into groups and teaches them simultaneously. The student to teacher ratio is low, more time is devoted to learning versus students waiting for help, opportunities for re-teaching are immediate, support for the teacher is present, communication is constant, and behavior problems can be minimized.

__//**Station teaching**//__ – This teaching model divides up the content and the students so that teachers or students rotate at the end of a unit. It is ideal for subject matter taught in units with no particular sequence. Benefits include the opportunities for re-teaching are immediate, the student to teacher ratio is low, teachers become experts with material, and communication among teachers is constant.

__//**Alternative teaching design**//__ – In this model, one teacher leads an enrichment or alternative activity while a second teacher re-teaches small group of students if they are having difficulty with content. Math is compatible with this design where a lot of re-teaching is done.

__//**Team teaching**//__ – Teachers work together so the same material can be delivered to the entire class. Teachers circulate around the class providing immediate re-teaching and a lower student to teacher ratio.

(Taken directly from: Gartner, A., & Lipsky, D. D. (1997). //Inclusion and school reform: Transferring America’s classrooms//. Baltimore: P. H. Brookes Publishing.)

//__Special Education: Where, How and With Whom?__ //
Special Education is a broad term which includes a wide variety of learning, behavioral, communicative, and physical disabilities. Students categorized into special education are a diverse body of learners who necessitate individual education plans (IEPs) to determine the best course of education for them **in the least restrictive environment**.

**IEP – Individual Education Plan** that includes annual goals and any individual needs that result from the child’s disability to enable them to make progress in the general education curriculum. The IEP would include any individual appropriate accommodations (such as extra time to take tests, sitting in the front row of the classroom, etc.) and any other supplementary aids or services that are to be provided based on the evaluations of an IEP Team (34 CFR 300.320 through 300.324). Although the extent to which students with disabilities are mainstreamed is still debated, **the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its 1997 amendments make it clear that schools have a duty to include children with disabilities in general education classrooms**. In accordance with federal law, //**“to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities, including children in public or private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are not disabled, and special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability of a child is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily”**// //For more specific information concerning state eligibility and assistance for educating all students with disabilities visit the government website a//t [|http://idea.ed.gov/.]

**There are two basic forms of inclusion, as noted in by Professor Christine Macfarlane, Ph.D. at Pacific University**: [] **-Partial Inclusion** Students are placed in the regular classroom, but they might be pulled out throughout the course of the day in order to receive specialized instruction. Partial inclusion also includes instances where students are allowed to socialize with non-disabled peers during lunch times, recess, etc. and are placed in separated learning environments with only special education students. -**Full Inclusion** Students receive all of their instruction in the regular classroom setting. Support comes to the student, rather than pulling them out. Inclusion is not just about including children with disabilities. Inclusive education means that all students in a school are part of the school community and can be educated together regardless of any differences.

// **“[Inclusion is] about embracing the idea that diversity is the reality and, therefore, each child is a unique learner… In order for each child to maximally benefit from education, we need to organize our schools, curriculum, and teaching with this reality in mind.”** // **-Elizabeth Kozleski, director of the National Institute for Urban School Improvement** In one article in Education World, entitled **“What Does An ‘Inclusive’ School Look Like?” Diane Ferguson** offers a list of practical ways for educators to make their classrooms more inclusive. Among such inclusive practices, which were previously published in //Improving Education: The Promise of Inclusive Schooling//, Diane includes:

- **LESS whole-class, teacher-directed instruction** **-LESS classroom time devoted to fill-in-the-blank worksheets** **-LESS effort by teachers to thinly “cover” large amounts of material in every subject area** **-LESS tracking or leveling of students into “ability groups”**

- **MORE active learning in the classroom** **-MORE emphasis on higher-order thinking and learning of key concepts and principles** **-MORE responsibility transferred to students for their work** **-MORE attention to affective needs and the varying cognitive styles of individual students** **-MORE delivery of special help to students in general education classrooms.**

//__Statistics for Special Needs Students__ // For more information on school student populations, see material on multicultural education and universal design in our TransformingTech Wiki.

For more enrollment trends in public and private schools, see [|Fast Facts from the National Center for Education Statistics]
 * **Currently about 55 million students are enrolled in K-12 schools in this country.**
 * **Between 10 to 12 percent of these 55 million students receive special educational services.**
 * **Less than one percent of the total school-age population experience “blindness, deafness, and significant physical disability” (Hehir, 2005, p. 27).**
 * **Just over 90 percent of special education students face one of four learning challenges:**
 * **Learning disabilities**
 * **Speech and language disorders**
 * **ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder**
 * **Behavioral and intellectual disabilities (Hehir, 2006, p. 7)**
 * ** Eighty percent of children with learning disabilities have difficulties with reading, writing, and spelling, although aptitude tests often reveal that ** they have the intellectual capabilities to be successful readers and writers **.**
 * **About 6.7 percent of the 55 million students in the nation’s public schools are considered gifted and talented learners** (U. S. Department of Education, 2005). Gifted and talented means that these individuals excel so much in academics that educators try to provide advanced courses and learning experiences to challenge them as learners.
 * Figures for gifted and talented numbers vary nationally; in some states, 10 or 11 percent of the students are considered gifted while in others only 1 or 2 percent are so identified (U. S. Department of Education, 2005).