Spelling: Linking Words to Meaning by John R. Pescosolido

In the educational world, there are countless programs, curricula, strategies, manipulates, and resources for teachers to pull from in order to aide in the teaching of concepts and learning of students. Whatever method(s) a school or district has deemed best practice, or adopted as their curriculum, tend to be the instructional practices or resources utilized the most by those teachers. Additionally, teachers will also have preference to teaching styles, resources, and materials they use for their students. While autonomy in any classroom is important to students’ academic growth, one must also be careful to select and implement instructional with great intention and purpose. Consideration to students needs is equally important as the mandate of teaching standards and demonstrating proficiency amongst students. Even when teaching non-disabled students, it can be time consuming and overwhelming to plan lessons so just how much more is involved when planning for students with significant disabilities (SD)? Better yet, what are appropriate instructional strategies to use for students with SD? Regardless of the instructional setting, these are considerations that must be given when teaching students with SD in order to maximize their learning opportunities to learn

“UDL is a proactive strategy that helps teachers build differentiation into their lesson plans from the beginning, eliminating the need for most of the accommodations teachers typically make after the fact, and providing the flexibility and accessibility needed to reduce the barriers for students with disabilities” (Spencer, 2011, p.11). By planning lessons in this proactive manner and making them more accessible to students with special needs, teachers end up helping everyone in their class and providing improved access to the curriculum for all students. The goal of UDL is to challenge us as teachers to expand our thinking about instruction and lesson design so that we move beyond traditional lecture and worksheet teaching and begin integrating technology and flexible practices to create curriculum and instruction that is more appealing to all students. It is a win-win for all

It is important to identify a child’s disability as early as possible in order for the student to get proper intervention services and set up with an individualized learning plan. Differentiation of instruction is important for all of the children in the classroom, not just those with a disability. All students have different learning styles, and all students have the subjects that they excel at and the subjects that they struggle with. “Teachers need the ability to alter instruction to meet student needs, interests, and abilities (Tomlinson, 2001).” One of the most difficult areas in teaching is easily classroom management, even the easiest going students have days of challenging behavior. “Students at risk of disabilities or who have other disabilities engage in a wide range of challenging

Today’s modern classroom is diverse. This creates a number of challenges for teachers who need to create a balance of high standards while meeting the needs of their students. The U.S. Department of Education reported that almost ninety-six percent of general education teachers have students in their classroom with learning disabilities. This report also showed that there are over six million students with disability classifications in the United States (26th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities

Students with reading accommodations may require modifications to fully access the content and activities in this cornerstone task. Teachers may want to differentiate by:

Most of the other students in her 2nd grade classroom are able to read classroom text and complete work independently. They also read books for enjoyment on their own. The reading time in her classroom consists of a block during which the teacher works with small groups and the children are expected to work quite independently when they are not working directly with the teacher. The class uses a trade book format and this is utilized across the curriculum. Students are provided with short skills building lessons in large and small groups. Most of the time spent during explicit reading instruction is targeted to helping students develop reading fluency.

A teacher’s learning instruction is essential and paints the picture for a child’s success in society. A teacher’s literacy instruction provides children with the needed skills to be fluent in reading, writing, phonemic awareness, and math. Phonics and phonemic awareness also help with reading comprehension. Preparing a child for fluency and comprehension means doing the basics and leading up to the high expected skills. Each step in developing reading and writing is built off the other; for example, cause and effect. What is an affective comprehensive literacy instruction? Is one better than the other? This essay will define comprehension literacy instruction and explain how to scaffold a child’s literacy development.

While a supplemental curriculum would need to be designed in order to meet the needs of every student within a special education room, there may be some resistance from the district, as they prefer all teachers to use a universal curriculum and not individualize it. However, due to the fact that not all students have the same disability or limitations, they cannot be expected to participate in a universal curriculum, as it will be limited in its ability to accommodate for every student’s individual needs (An Introduction,

Within the past couple of decades, scholars in education as well as those focused on disabilities have been questioning whether or not the public education system is doing enough to ensure that all students have equal access. Specifically, the concern of the scholars is with the growing number of students with disabilities within the public education system and if the educators are able to keep up with this growing number. This is a difficult situation since the educators have to find a way to make sure that both students with and without disabilities are able to have access to the same information at the same time. Most scholars within this area have completed studies to show that implementing Universal Design (UD) for both learning (UDL) and instruction (UDI) can be beneficial for both students with and without disabilities. And the scholars

This article is very informational along with interesting. This article contains information that is very pertinent to anyone in the education field or going into the educational field. This article is very detailed on both the federal policy along with how to link the grade level content with the general education curriculum to each disabled student. This article gives information that every teacher needs to know. This article gives you examples of

As a special education teacher, I have spent the last several years evaluating my teaching methods. In 2013, I returned to college to pursue a Master of Teaching, Learning and Leadership with an emphasis as an Elementary Mathematics Specialist. My primary purpose was to discover pedagogies and philosophies that would address the highly specialized needs of my students. In addition, I wanted to learn how to meet the mandated requirements dictated to all students, even those with severe disabilities, to be ready for life, to critically think, and to problem solve to become productive citizens that are college and career ready.

When teaching students with diverse needs depending on the student's disabilities the individual student will need different accommodations or modifications to access the curriculum. Throughout a teacher's career special education teachers will come across a wide range of diverse learning needs. I think that one helpful way to help all students with or without diverse needs access the curriculum can be done through the concept of Universal Design for Planning. According to Kristen Lee Howard (2004), UDL consists of, “Focusing educators on developing flexible curriculum that provides students with multiple ways of accessing content, multiple means for expressing what they learn, and multiple pathways for engaging their interest and motivation”

In the journal article, “Changing Instruction to Increase Achievement for Students with Moderate to Severe Intellectual Disabilities”, the author describes the strategies and skills that teachers can employ to make an instructional change in the classroom. As the author describes in the article, recognizing that an instructional change needs to be made, is different than having the skills to change the instruction. Educators are making great strides to cover the content demanded by the Common Core Standards, but often need support in adjusting the classroom instruction.

I believe the important considerations for meeting the academic, behavioral, sensory, and health needs for individuals with physical disabilities and health impairments is to remember that each student has different needs. Teachers need to consider how the physical disabilities and health impairments affect our student’s academic, sensory, behavioral and health needs. As with every aspect in planning special need students lesson plans, it is key for teachers to remember that each student has their own needs, goals, interest and learning style. Once that is understood educators along with collaborating with the student’s learning, professional and personal support teams can begin to accommodate, adapt, modify, and create support systems to create

According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, students with disabilities should be placed in a “least restrictive environment.” One of the main ideas of this act was to improve the learning experiences of students with disabilities by giving them learning opportunities outside of a special education classroom. The number of students with disabilities being placed in their general education classrooms is increasing more and more each year. The U.S Department of Education’s 27th annual report to Congress on the implementation of The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2005) indicates that the number of students with disabilities in general education classrooms has risen to almost 50 percent. This is about a 17 percent increase from the 1997 U.S