Planning Language Programs for Students with Special Education Needs

Investigating Language (Grades 1-8); Published 2006 (revised)
Planning Language Programs for Students with Special Education Needs

·         Classroom teachers are the key educators

·          Teachers must work collaboratively with special education teachers

·         Goal is that every student should be prepared for living with the highest degree of independence possible

·         Principles that should guide all program planning for students with special education needs: all students can succeed; incorporates evidence-based best practices for effective instruction; involves a support team for the classroom teacher that includes the principal, other teachers, and professional resources; and incorporates universal design; involves differentiated instruction.

·         Teachers should plan programs that recognize diversity and give students tasks that respect their particular abilities

·         Flexible group for instruction is important

For planning, teachers need to think about:

? Is it appropriate for the student?

? Are accommodations4 or modifications needed?

? Is there a need for modified expectations, with the possibility of accommodations?

? Is everything noted in the student’s IEP?

? If Accommodations are required only, is it noted on their IEP?

Types of accommodations:

·         Instructional accommodations are changes in teaching strategies,

·         Environmental accommodations are changes that the student may require in the classroom and/or school environment,

·         Assessment accommodations are changes in assessment procedures

Some children will have modified expectations which would differ from regular grade-level expectations. These:

·         must represent specific, realistic, observable, and measurable achievements that the student can demonstrate independently.

·         should be expressed in such a way that the student and parents can understand exactly.

·         must be identified in the student’s IEP with the grade level of the learning expectations).

·         must be reviewed in relation to the student’s progress at least once every reporting period, and must be updated as necessary.

·         must include a checked IEP box on the Provincial Report Cards for any subject in which the student requires modified expectations.

·         must include the appropriate statement from the Guide to the Provincial Report Card, Grades 1–8,

1998 (page 8).

Autism Speaks

This is a particularly good website (Canadian version) that helps with ideas related to Autism.

Autism Speaks

OPHEA

This website must be bookmarked.  It includes lesson plans, with inclusion ideas, for Physical Education lessons.

Click here for https://www.ophea.net/

Placement Options

Below is the list of placement options.

• Regular class with indirect support, where the student is placed in a regular class for the entire day, and the teacher receives specialized consultative services.
• Regular class with resource assistance, where the student is placed in a regular class for most or all of the day and receives specialized instruction, individually, or in a small group, within the regular classroom from a qualified special education teacher.
• Regular class with withdrawal assistance, where the student is placed in a regular class and receives instruction outside the classroom, for less than 50 percent of the school day, from a qualified special education teacher.
• Special education placement with partial integration, where the student is placed by the IPRC in a special education class in which the student-teacher ratio conforms to Regulation 298, section 31 (which identifies the maximum enrolment in a special education class shall depend upon the extent of the exceptionalities of the pupils in the class and the special education services that are available to the teacher) for at least 50 percent of the school day, but is integrated with a regular class for at least one instructional period daily.
• A full-time special education class where the student-teacher ratio conforms to Regulation 298, section 31 (which identifies the maximum enrolment in a special education class shall depend upon the extent of the exceptionalities of the pupils in the class and the special education services that are available to the teacher), for the entire school day.

ASD - Autism Spectrum Disorder

STUDENTS WITH AN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER
"Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)   is the current name in the new, fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders   ( American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013 ) for four previously separate disorders:  autistic disorder,  Asperger’s disorder or Asperger’s syndrome (AS), childhood disintegrative disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDDNOS).  DSM-5   describes people with ASD as having social communication and social interaction deficits. Additionally, they demonstrate restrictive repetitive behaviours, interests, and activities (RRBs)." Inclusion of Exceptional Learners in Canadian Schools (p.22)

Definitions of Exceptionalities

Definitions of each exceptionality as defined by the Ontario Ministry of Education are found on page A14:  Special Education in Ontario