Ch. 1 (Friend) - Planning Instruction by Analyzing Classroom and Student Needs

• The INCLUDE strategy proposes that student performance is the result of an interaction between the student and the instructional environment. What Happens in class can minimize or magnify the impact special needs on student’s learning. It also says that teachers can reasonably accommodate (without taking too much time from the teacher or disrupting the education of other students) most students with special needs in the classroom by analyzing the students’ leaning needs and specific demands of the classroom.
• The steps of INCLUDE are: Identify classroom demands, note student learning strengths and needs, check for potential areas of success, look for potential problem areas, use information to brainstorm ways to differentiate instruction, differentiate instruction, and evaluate student progress.
• Classroom management is all the ways which a teach promotes order and engages students in learning; physical organization, routines, classroom climate, behavior management, and use of time.
• Instructional accommodations provide students with full access to the curriculum and help them demonstrate what they know. Instructional modifications are when content and performance outcome expectations are altered. When differentiating instruction chose modifications that are age appropriate, reasonable for the general ed teacher to provide, you believe will help the student, and allow the students to make choices to be responsible for their own learning.
• Using a variety of grouping arrangements facilitates differentiated instruction. Whole-class instruction is good because it allows all students maximum time receiving instruction from the teacher. Same-skill groups sometimes become permanent, isolating students with special needs from others. And students who are in a low-achieving group in one subject will often be placed in a low-achieving group in another subject when they don’t need to be. Mixed-skill groupings provide special needs students with positive social and academic role-models and often results in them receiving individual instruction without being singled out.
• Use a variety of materials. Textbooks are print based and uniform in format often presenting barriers to students with disabilities. Manipulatives and models can help students make connections between concrete and abstract concepts. When using manipulatives make sure they are developmentally appropriate, allow the students to interact with them not just observe, and encourage students to explain how they are using the objects so they can express and understand what they are experiencing.
• Indirect learning is when students in an appropriate instructional environment construct their knowledge through explorations and problem solving. Inquiry learning is when the student is placed in a situation where they identify questions and use their background knowledge and exploration to discover a solution.
• Independent practice is important for students to refine and strengthen their skills. Learning centers can provide students with special needs opportunities to be more engaged in their learning, practice new skills, increase proficiency in skills, and apply knowledge. Learning centers should be designed carefully to provide meaningful activities that can be accomplished independently. Homework should be considered carefully and modified to allow participation by all students.
• When evaluating students with special needs consider how tests and assignments may interact with learning needs and that skill and content is being evaluated, not the student’s disability.

Resources
Functional Behavioral Assessment and Positive Interventions: What parents need to know. Dixie Jordan.

Differentiated Reading Instruction: Small group alternative lesson structures for all students. Marcia Kosanovich, Karen Ladinsky, Luanne Nelson, Joseph Torgesen

Creating a Positive Classroom Climate (tips and video)