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Using Stations to Teach Exponent Laws
Often, teaching inclusion math in middle school, it is difficult to keep all students moving at the same pace. We faced this challenge recently when teaching our unit on exponent laws. We begin teaching exponent laws by teaching the different laws, product of powers, quotient of powers, power of a power, negative exponent rules, and the power of zero. On the first day, I provide my students who struggle in math with these cheat sheets of the rules, Power of Exponents. Throughout the unit, if anyone else gets our attention, we’ll give them one also. We then spend a few days giving students plenty of practice and reviewing all of…
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6 Effective Co-Teaching Models, and When to Use Them
Co-Teaching seems to be the trend for public schools. My school, like many others, is leaning towards a model that includes as many students as possible into the general education classroom. To make this work, many special education teachers are expected to co-teach. General education inclusion classes with the content area teachers to provide the necessary modifications and accommodations to the students on my caseload. In the meantime, there are great peer models coming from the general education population. Also, there is less of a stigma placed on students with disabilities because they are not being removed from the classroom. This concept makes it more difficult to determine which students…
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Should we allow students to retake tests and quizzes?
There is a lot of debate in my school on whether or not to allow students to retake tests and quizzes. Or to allow students to complete test corrections to raise their grade. I would assume that this is probably a debated upon topic in many schools! Does allowing a student to retake a quiz or test really helping them learn? I think it depends on the subject and the nature of the test. The Big Question Is the student going to learn from doing a retake or corrections? If the student is simply going to memorize some answers because they chose not to study for the original exam, then…
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How I Accommodate Students During Tests and Quizzes
In my position, I provide inclusion support to special education students. This involves a lot of co-teaching, modifying assessments on the go, providing accommodations, and sometimes it feels like I’m constantly juggling. Many of my students struggle with showing what they know during a test, and I juggle with the balance between helping them show what they know and providing them too much help that it is not a proper assessment. Here are some of the things that I do when my students are taking tests. Separate Setting Many of my students benefit from taking their tests and quizzes in a separate setting, more specifically in my classroom with me…
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High-Stakes Testing
Like most states, my students have to participate annually in high-stakes testing. My eighth graders are responsible for taking two days of ELA testing, two days of Math testing and two days of Science testing. It is spread out to three weeks, two days per week, and it’s going to be a long few weeks! Preparation How do you prepare your students for high-stakes testing? My students are in middle school, so this is their sixth year doing testing like this. They seem to go on autopilot; they just want to get through the test and on to whatever is happening later in the day. With math, we work really hard to…
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Special Education Pacing: Do We Rush or Not?
Special education pacing can be challenging when you are trying to find the right balance. One of the decisions I struggle with the most is whether to focus on understanding or getting through the curriculum. This is a struggle I have mainly with math. I work with students who often require extra practice and more taught lessons to understand something. But, when you slow down to be able to do this, you are risking running out of time to finish the whole curriculum by the end of the year. Sub-separate Teaching – Special Education Pacing Last year I taught a sub-separate math class that had less than ten students. It…
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Special Education Organization Essentials
Organization is one of my biggest challenges as a special education teacher. Between work samples, reports, IEPs, modifying their work, study guides, graphic organizers, and checklists; I feel like I am constantly drowning in paperwork! Every year I find a new way to organize myself that I think is going to be the trick to keeping myself organized. But, every year something does not work the way I expect it to, or there is something that I just do not keep up with. After a lot of trial and error, here are the best products I have found for organizing my classroom. Bankers Box Eight Compartment Literature Sorter I love these…
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The Pros & Cons of Teacher Proximity
Using your presence can be a powerful tool in the classroom. It makes you more accessible, helps with classroom management, and it can be subtle. But, is teacher proximity always a good thing? Teacher Proximity: What is it? One popular technique for classroom management is using your person to influence what is happening in the classroom, or teacher proximity. Standing close to students or standing strategically in a certain area of the classroom can affect the students and the mood of the classroom in different ways. Pro: Chatty Students If you have a group of students that is always chatty when they think you are not looking, this is a…
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The Beginners Guide to Inclusion
I recently took a course on inclusion practices. Although I am a special education teacher who is very familiar with the inclusion setting, I am always looking for new tips, techniques, or practices to bring into my classrooms and to better help my students. History and Introduction Inclusion is the practice of including special education students in the general education setting. In the past, students with disabilities were often removed from the classroom. They did this to provide them with support and instruction that was focused on their abilities and needs. But, removing students with disabilities from the classroom can cause them to get even further behind, and it also…
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6 Strategies to support students with ASD in an Inclusion classroom
6 Strategies for students with ASD in an inclusion setting.
