Phase4 - Identifying Appropriate Environment and Teaching Strategies

Identifying Appropriate Environment and Teaching Strategies
Introduction
The goal of special education is to include children in regular classrooms as much as possible.
However, it bears repetition because there's a lot of confusion out there when it comes to the ideal
location of services for kids with LDs.
Some of the teachers think we should put kids in resource rooms as much as possible while some
others are there who are eager to tackle the challenge of modifying instruction in their own classrooms.
The range of opinions is understandable—it's kind of hard to know what's best for students with LDs
without a little guidance.
So that's what we're going to talk about today. Are we ready to take a tour of the service locations for
kids with LDs? As we can imagine, due to special education's highly individualized process, there are a
wide range of options that vary in their levels of support.
Some of the students might receive all of their services in the regular classroom through consultation or
co-teaching with the special educator. But others may need to spend a part of their day in the special
education or resource room. Occasionally, one will get a student who needs to be moved to a special
education classroom all the time.
After this lesson is finished, we'll understand how the location of services affects student achievement.
Let's get going!
Spectrum of Service Locations

We know that students with LDs work in the regular classroom as much as possible. However, some
students need more intensive remediation than the regular classroom can provide.
The least restrictive environment, or LRE, is one of the most important terms in special education. It
means that schools must educate, children with disabilities, in regular classrooms with their peers as
much as possible. This is sometimes incorrectly interpreted to mean that all students with IEPs should
remain in the regular classroom all day. However, as you will soon see, this is not necessarily the best
choice.

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Benefits of Least Restrictive Environment
1. Students have the opportunity to experience the full spectrum of peer

interaction and take part in essential socialization.
2. Students have the opportunity to learn the facts they'll require to know for
standardized tests. (Most students with LDs still have to take standardized
evaluations just like their peers do.)
3. Learners have the chance to contribute in discussions and projects that
enhance their minds, and they can work productively with friends or
assistant students whose skills match and improve their own.
4. Learners can see the educator modelling and scaffolding flourishing
thinking strategies, problem-solving, and behaviour; this makes it easier
for students to repeat the needed results.
LRE is the standard for special education because we're obligated to give students the chance to derive all these
important benefits from full inclusion. However, not all students can achieve success.


• Regular classroom with special educator consultations.
Example:-
Kim was labeled LD in writing when she was in first grade. When she reached fifth grade, her writing
skills were right on grade level. She was placed on consultation just to be sure that she didn't struggle
with the intensive demands, the fifth-grade writing curriculum posed. She left special education in January
of her fifth-grade year.
• Regular classroom with cooperative teaching (co-teaching or team teaching) from

special educator.
T.S, Alex, kim, Beth, Glenn, and Jerry were all placed together in Mr. Affleck's eighth-grade math class
because they were LD in math. Mr. Affleck agreed to take a larger number of students with LDs in
exchange for having Ms. Green, the special educator, co-teach in his classroom during fourth period.
• Part-time placement in special education classroom.
Ether needed remediation to work on his reading and writing skills, which were two years below grade
level. He came to Mr. Shaw's resource room for an hour a day to work on these skills.
• Full-time placement in special education classroom.
Ben was a fourth-grader who was frustrated in his regular classroom. His teacher was concerned
because Ben was several years below grade level in reading, writing, and math. Ben exhibited poor
social skills and ADHD, and he transitioned to a special education classroom for the entire day, except for
PE time. There Ben began learning the basic skills he needed. His self esteem was also built and he
made a friend.` Special education school placement
• Special education in school.
Mary was a first-grader with a severe LD. Unfortunately; she was having trouble learning in her public
school. So her parents decided to send her to a private school for students with LDs. She's now receiving
the intense remediation in a small class size that she needs.
• Residential school, treatment centre, or homebound instruction placement.
John met with a very bad car accident in 11th grade. A homebound teacher came to his house for two
months to work on his IEP goals while he recovered from his injuries.
Now the good news is that it's very rare that a student with LDs will require the last two options, which are the
most restrictive. Absent mitigating on physical or mental problems, most kids with LDs can achieve full success in
a regular school.


Instead, let's talk about everything ranging from consultation to full-time placement in the special education
classroom. These are the settings that students will traditionally require, and if one knows how to navigate his or
her way around the benefits and pitfalls of each, they'll be able to work easily with their students and their IEPs.
First up, let's talk about the regular class placement with teacher consultation.
Consultation
As we already know, the most inclusive and least preventive environment is having the special educator visit
the regular classroom for consultations only.
This way, the student is with his or her friends, all the time and doesn't have to miss regular class to obtain extra
instruction in the special education room. Students typically like this arrangement
because they don't have to leave the room and feel different. Teachers like it
because they don't have to make scheduling accommodations for students leaving
the room. When the help comes into the classroom instead of the students having
to seek help outside of it, it's a lot convenient for everyone.
So what will a student do with a special educator during those consultations?
Any number of things! Sometimes, the special educator will check on the child's
progress by talking with the teacher. Other times, the child will need to work on a
specific skill (like solving a long division problem) and the special educator will
provide assistance with that skill.
Many special educators read tests aloud during this time or help the student organize his or her desk or
workspace. It's a great time to check on grades and be sure that the teacher is following the IEP and feeling good
about the results as well.
Special educators usually recommend the consultation option for students who have already been in special
education for a while and are doing well with it. Students who are working more or less at grade level are fantastic
candidates. It's usually not a good idea for students who are initial placements, or new to the SPED(Special
Education) program.
Let's take a look at a few consultation scenarios that really prove my point.
Tom was a 10th-grader who had been placed in special education in second grade. Because he had been in
special education for some time, by the time he got to the special teacher, he only needed extended testing time
for English tests. The teacher’s job was to keep in touch and consult with his English teacher to troubleshoot
when problems arose.
Or to take another example, Jessica was a sixth-grader who had LD in writing. Her parents and class teacher did
not want her pulled out of class at all because they felt like she was missing out on the fifth-grade curriculum


every time she missed class. (They were right!) Her teacher’s job was to go into her classroom once a week and
work on any skills she needed extra help with.
Now that we know all about consultation, let's talk about the next setting: co-teaching.
Co-teaching 101
Example
Lara remembers being particularly fond of fifth grade because for a good half of the year, they had their regular
teacher, Mrs. Kathie, and a fun student teacher, Mrs. Simon. Between the two of them, they had a lot of variety in
activities and lessons, and it was a year full of creativity. Two teachers working together is a popular strategy
called co-teaching, which is short for cooperative teaching.
Teachers typically co-teach for only a portion of the day, and in her case, the co-teaching involves the special
educator and the classroom teacher. Co-teaching is a great option when the class includes a number of students
with LDs whose IEPs indicate that they just need a little extra push. (In fact, teachers who want to co-teach often
volunteer to take a larger number of students with LDs into their class.) This is a little more restrictive than
consultation, but it does keep students in the regular classroom, something that we know brings a lot of benefits.
While this is a great strategy that has lots of practical applications, it's important to say up front that co-teaching
is only as successful as the people who carry it out. Good co-teaching situations have a couple of
characteristics. They are two-way streets where both the teachers communicate and contribute, they are
designed to facilitate classroom and student-specific needs, and they maintain a flexibility to shift as classroom
needs shift.
Let's discuss some of the ways the special educator and classroom teacher can implement co-teaching
effectively.
One teacher teaches the class while the other monitors class behavior.
There are a lot of useful applications for one teacher being "up front" and the other being "out and about". For
example, if some students in the class have trouble focusing, the teacher who's out and about can check in with
them at regular intervals. If one teacher is monitoring while the other is teaching, everybody wins. (Even the
students who need extra help but don't qualify for IEPs like this!)
Let’s follow a fun example. A few years back, Sara started using a daily grammar program that had both an oral
and written component. Sara would write a grammatically incorrect sentence on the board and then call on
students to help her fix it.
Since she had five or six IEP kids in Mr. Watson's fifth-grade class, she suggested that she come into his room to
do grammar practice with the students with LDs. Mr. Watson mentioned that his whole class might benefit from
the grammar refresher, so they decided that Sara would do the program with everyone while he monitored
student progress. It only took about six minutes of the day, but all the students loved it.


One teacher teaches the class while the other provides assistance to a few particular students.
For example, one day Ketty was in Mrs. Bowman's fifth grade class. It was social studies time, and Mrs. Bowman
was leading a group discussion about the Midwest in preparation for Friday. On Friday, the class would be doing
presentations on different regions of the US. A few of the students with LDs needed some help picking out the
important facts they would cover in their presentations. Ketty took them to the back table, and they worked on the
assignment together.
Both teachers teach at the same time, bouncing ideas off each other.
One teacher will typically model or scaffold desired behavior here as well.
Adam’s kindergarten teacher and her assistant do this often. Mrs. Gage teaches the lesson while the assistant,
Mr. Cole, models what he's thinking as if he were one of the students. It's highly effective.
For example, one day Mrs. Gage was writing the sentence - The cat ate his food. At the same time, Mr. Cole was
saying, "Now how do I spell food? F-f-f, that is an f. Food. D-d-d. That must be a d. Then the kids helped him fill
in the middle letters.
When it was time for the kids to do their own writing, Mrs. Gage noticed them modeling Mr. Cole's response.
What a great learning experience!
Each teacher takes half the class or a few small groups and differentiates instruction so it meets the
needs of group members.
One year Sara had to co-teach seventh-graders in reading instruction. During second period, she and her co-
teacher divided them into four groups according to their reading levels.
For the first 30 minutes, her co-teacher, Mr. Patchett, would do a whole group reading lesson. During the last 30
minutes, he and she would divide kids into guided reading groups to work on particular skills. She would co-teach
the students who were struggling. One day they might focus on reading comprehension, while another day they
might work on picking out all the descriptive phrases.
The students appreciated these groups within the groups, and they all had a blast.
This strategy will only be as successful as the teachers who carry it out. Kate had a pretty bad co-teaching
experience in her first year as a teacher. Eastern Elementary was already halfway through the school year when
she joined the team and agreed to co-teach with a teacher who had some serious health problems.
Mr. Davidson saw her as a warm body in the classroom, and he took every opportunity for a bathroom break or to
have her call out answers while he graded papers. This wasn't coteaching so much as she being a temporary
babysitter. She dreaded going into that classroom because she didn't feel like they were accomplishing anything.


It was too early in her teaching career to be confrontational about the situation, but if she could go back now,
she’d want to sit down with Mr. Davidson and discuss the goals of good co-teaching. Honesty is going to be one’s
prized tool in dealing with students and other teachers!
Special Education Placement
Did you know that a student with LDs can spend anywhere from 30 minutes to the whole day in the special
education room? Some kids will need the minimum time, while others will be glad to stay there the whole time
they're at school.
The big bonus of extra time in the special education room is that students who are far behind are able to achieve
much higher levels of success than is possible in the regular classroom.
Let us remember again: This more restrictive environment is not for kids with minor problems; it's for those who
are far behind performance targets for their grade level. Ben, for example, required 30 minutes in the special
education room three times a week. That's a limited amount of time for pull-out, but it addressed his challenges
head on.
But let's think that we have a fourth-grader, Sierra, who still needs to work on very basic skills. She is far below an
average fourth-grader and has trouble fitting in with her friends socially. That means she is in the special
education room almost all day. Now, Sierra needs instruction in another setting.
A lot of students with LDs can't afford to miss what's going on in the regular classroom, and if they leave it to seek
different instruction from elsewhere, they often end up more behind than they were. On top of that (and as if that
weren't enough), a lot of IEP students handle transitions and changes poorly, and they can be prone to disrupting
the process of switching rooms and gears in a quick manner.
Nevertheless, time in the special education room is a precious commodity. Scheduling is the trickiest part of
special education time.
There are only so many hours in the school day, and whether we're dealing with young kids or high school
students, there's always a lot to achieve. Luckily, we won't have to schedule students' time in the special
education room. That's the special educator's job, and one that takes a lot of careful planning.
Typically, these teachers will consult with all the classroom teachers in the school and try to make time slot
matches that work well for everyone. It's common for all the fifth-graders who struggle with math to come at the


same time, for example, or for all the seniors who need help with compositions to make the same one-hour
session. An educator’s job is simply to communicate with the special educator to make sure that the students'
needs are being met.
Summary
Now that we’ve seen all the service locations at work, we can easily understand why it's so important to involve
students in their education. Whether they work best in the regular classroom with a little bit of support or need full-
time in the special education classroom, they're sure to benefit from a healthy dose of caring and creativity.
As we go about helping our students with LDs,we need to work within the settings their IEPs recommend, keep in
mind that most of the students want to succeed more than they want anything else. After all, as author Ashleigh
Brilliant says, "My mind contains many good ideas, but it's not always easy to squeeze one out." Most of our
students will be able to identify with that! It's just a matter of helping them have those bursts of success.
Speech and Language Specialities

A speech and language pathologist is in charge of these services, which are broken down into separate
speech and language categories. Usually, the pathologist will pull the eligible student out of the
classroom one or two times a week to work on specific needs.
There are two different areas where students with LDs might qualify for these services.
The first addresses students, who have trouble using language correctly. Students with LDs often have
trouble with receptive language, or their ability to understand what's being communicated. These
students may have trouble following directions, understanding multiple meanings of words, or
understanding less common and irregular verb tenses.
• Students with LDs may also have trouble with expressive language, i.e. they have problem in
expressing themselves to others, which is their ability to convey an intended message. These
students have trouble using correct grammar, thinking of the right word to convey a concept, or
providing enough information for the listener.
The second area addresses students with articulation difficulties. The child may not be able
to produce a certain sound, such as the r sound. Or they may have a stuttering problem: "I c-c-
c-can't f-f-f-find my g-g-g-g-glasses."
Many children with LDs struggle with the use of language, so speech and language therapy is
necessary quite often.


Occupational Therapy
The occupational therapist (OT) is an expert on fine motor skills, which are the skills we use our hands
for. These skills include:-
• Writing, cutting with scissors, or stringing beads on a necklace.
Some students with LDs qualify for OT services, although never as many as expected. Messy
handwriting or poor scissor skills are warning signs, but they don't always meet the criteria for
services.
Rita use her school's OT as a resource all the time. She is the one, Rita goes to, when she has
concerns about a child's pencil grasp or handwriting. She always seems to know cool tricks and can
pull neat materials out of her bag, such as special lined paper.
We have often heard of the strategy where elders put a green dot on the left side of the paper and a
red dot on the right, for a child who has trouble organizing a sentence to go from left to right? Rita
hadn't until the school's OT showed her. She also provided some wiggle pillows for the students who
had trouble sitting still.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy (PT) is pretty uncommon for students with LDs. PT deals with the gross motor skills,
which are the skills we use our entire body for. For instance walking, jumping, and bike riding all fall in
this category. Students with LDs work with physical therapists because they had diseases that caused
physical symptoms in addition to their learning disabilities.
Example :-
Jimmy had muscular dystrophy (although he was labelled LD), so he needed a walker and a
wheelchair to get around. He worked with the PT every week. Her main goal was to keep the school
environment accessible to him and improve his muscle strength.
Transportation
Transportation is another related service, but like PT, it's fairly uncommon for students with LDs.
However, it's highly necessary for students with LDs who receive services in a special education
classroom outside of their school.


Transportation is also necessary for students who go to a special school. Transportation simply means
that the school district provides transportation from home to school.
So here we have a tour of the related services, students with LDs sometimes need. We can never
show enough appreciation for the individuals who make the job a little easier.


Phase4 - Identifying Appropriate Environment and Teaching Strategies

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Identifying Appropriate Environment and Teaching Strategies

Spectrum of Service Locations

Benefits of Least Restrictive Environment

1. Students have the opportunity to experience the full spectrum of peer

• Regular classroom with cooperative teaching (co-teaching or team teaching) from

• Part-time placement in special education classroom.

• Full-time placement in special education classroom.

• Special education in school.

• Residential school, treatment centre, or homebound instruction placement.

So what will a student do with a special educator during those consultations?

Special Education Placement

Speech and Language Specialities

• Writing, cutting with scissors, or stringing beads on a necklace.

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