9 781292 021416

ISBN 978-1-29202-141-6

Including Students with Special NeedsA Practical Guide for Classroom Teachers

Marilyn Friend William D. BursuckSixth Edition

Including Students w

ith Special N

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ISBN 10: 1-292-02141-1ISBN 13: 978-1-292-02141-6

ISBN 10: 1-292-02141-1ISBN 13: 978-1-292-02141-6

From Chapter 5 of Including Students with Special Needs: A Practical Guide for Classroom Teachers, 6/e. Marilyn Friend. William D. Bursuck. Copyright © 2012 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Planning Instruction by Analyzing Classroomand Student Needs

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Planning Instruction by Analyzing Classroomand Student Needs

LEARNING ObjectivesAfter you read this chapter, you will beable to

1. Explain what it means to make in-structional accommodations andmodifications for students with dis-abilities and other special needs.

2. Describe the steps of the INCLUDEdecision-making process for accom-modating students with disabilitiesand other special needs in yourclassroom.

3. Identify and describe the key ele-ments of a classroom environment.

4. Describe the major components ofclassroom organization, and explainhow they can be adapted for stu-dents with disabilities and other spe-cial needs.

5. Explain various ways students canbe grouped for instruction in aninclusive classroom.

6. Explain how the use of effectiveclassroom materials and instruc-tional methods can benefit studentswith disabilities and other specialneeds.

Bob Daemmrich/PhotoEdit Inc.

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MR. RODRIGUEZ teaches world history at a largeurban high school. When he introduces new contentto his students, he teaches to the whole class. First, hereviews material that has already been covered, point-ing out how that material relates to the new contentbeing presented. Next, he provides any additionalbackground information that he thinks will helpstudents understand the new material better. BeforeMr. Rodriguez actually presents new material, hehands out a partially completed outline of the majorpoints he will make. This outline helps students iden-tify the most important information. Every 10 minutesor so, he stops his lecture and allows students to dis-cuss and modify the outline and ask questions. WhenMr. Rodriguez completes his lecture, he organizesstudents into cooperative learning groups of four toanswer a series of questions on the lecture. Manuel isa student with a learning disability in Mr. Rodriguez’sclass. He has a history of difficulty staying on task dur-ing lectures and figuring out what information to writedown. He also has trouble remembering informationfrom one day to the next. Mr. Rodriguez has noticed

that Manuel has a particular interest in soccer andloves to perform for his classmates.How well do you think Manuel will perform in Mr. Rodriguez’sclass? What changes in the classroom environment might helpManuel succeed? How might Mr. Rodriguez capitalize onManuel’s interests and strengths?

JOSH has cerebral palsy. He is in the normal range inability; in fact, he excels in math. However, he has a lotof trouble with muscle movements, has little use of hislower body and legs, and also has problems with finemuscle coordination. As a result, Josh uses a wheel-chair, has trouble with his speech (he speaks haltinglyand is difficult to understand), and struggles to writeletters and numbers correctly. Josh is included inMs. Stewart’s second-grade class.How can Ms. Stewart set up her classroom to make it easierfor Josh to fully participate? What aspects of the classroomenvironment will Ms. Stewart need to adapt for Josh? Howcan she use technology to facilitate Josh’s inclusion? Why willmath be an important subject for Josh in Ms. Stewart’s class?

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Planning Instruction by Analyzing Classroom and Student Needs

Disabilities and other special needs arise when characteristics of individualstudents and various features of students’ home and school environmentsinteract. Effective teachers analyze the classroom environment in relation to

students’ academic and social needs and make accommodations and modificationsto ensure students’ success in the classroom. For example, Manuel has difficulty stay-ing on task and retaining new information. However, features of Mr. Rodriguez’sclass make it easier for Manuel to function. The partially completed lecture outlineshelp Manuel focus his attention on specific information as he tries to listen and stayon task; the pauses help him catch any lecture information he might have missed.The review sessions are intended to help Manuel retain information by giving him amechanism for rehearsing newly learned material. In another case, Josh has someserious motor problems, but he may be able to function quite independently ifMs. Stewart makes her classroom accessible to a wheelchair and works with specialeducators to use assistive technology to meet Josh’s needs in handwriting and oralcommunication.

This chapter introduces you to a systematic approach for helping all studentswith special needs gain access to the general education curriculum, a requirementof the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Part of that approach is foryou to be the best teacher you can be so that fewer of your students require indi-vidualized instruction in the first place. Despite your best efforts, however, there willalways be students who require a more individualized approach. The INCLUDEstrategy is provided for these students. Although there are other ways to differenti-ate instruction for students with disabilities, INCLUDE gives teachers a systematicprocess for accommodating students based on their individual needs and the class-room demands on, or expectations of the teacher.

The rest of this textbook expands and elaborates on this approach. Later chap-ters also present a more in-depth look at the relationship between your classroomenvironment and the diverse needs of learners. An important assumption through-out this text is that the more effective your classroom structure is, the greater thediversity you will be able to accommodate and the fewer individualized classroomchanges you will need to make. This idea is incorporated into current RtI models,which focus on problem prevention by establishing a strong base of research-basedpractices in Tier 1.

How Can the INCLUDE Strategy Help You Make Instructional Accommodations and Modifications for Students with Special Needs?At a recent conference presentation that included both general education teachersand special education teachers, one of the authors of this text asked the audiencehow many of those present worked with students with disabilities. A music teacherat the back of the room called out, “Everyone in schools works with students withdisabilities!” He is right. As you have learned in the previous chapters, IDEA entitlesstudents with disabilities to “access,” “participation,” and “progress” in the generaleducation curriculum. These entitlements were reinforced by the Elementary andSecondary Education Act (ESEA; formerly No Child Left Behind), which requires thatmost students with disabilities meet the same standards as their classmates withoutdisabilities. Therefore, although the professionals who specialize in meeting theneeds of students with disabilities are valuable and provide critical instructional andsupport systems for students, ultimately you and your peers will be the primaryteachers for many students with disabilities and other special needs, and you willform partnerships with special educators to meet the needs of others. That makes itcritical for you to feel comfortable making accommodations and modifications forstudents in order for them to have fair access to your curriculum.

The connection between effectiveinstruction and positive studentbehavior is well established (Scott et al., 2001). Students whoare successful have little incentiveto disrupt the class or to act inways that get them excluded from activities.

RESEARCH NOTE

To check your comprehension on the content covered in Chapter 5, go to the Book Resources in theMyEducationLab for your course,select your text, and complete theStudy Plan. Here you will be able totake a chapter quiz, receive feedbackon your answers, and then accessreview, practice, and enrichmentactivities to enhance yourunderstanding of chapter content.

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Planning Instruction by Analyzing Classroom and Student Needs

The INCLUDE strategy is based on two key assumptions. First, student perfor-mance in school is the result of an interaction between the student and the instruc-tional environment (Broderick, Mehta-Parekh, & Reid, 2005; Pisha & Coyne, 2001;Smith, 2004). Consequently, what happens in a classroom can either minimize theimpact of students’ special needs on their learning or magnify it, making accommo-dations necessary. In the first chapter-opening example, Mr. Rodriguez engaged in anumber of teaching practices that minimized the impact of Manuel’s learning disabil-ity, such as starting each class with a review of material covered the day before,providing the students with lecture outlines to help them identify important ideas, andengaging his students in regular discussions of the material presented. Nevertheless,if part of Manuel’s learning disability is in reading and the classroom text used inMr. Rodriguez’s class is too difficult for Manuel to read independently, Mr. Rodriguezwill need to accommodate Manuel’s problems in reading. This aspect of the INCLUDEapproach is consistent with the idea behind RtI. If all students receive effectivelydelivered, evidence-based instruction, then fewer will be identified as needing moresupports. Further, those eventually identified for special education—the most inten-sive level of support—will be only those truly in need.

The second key assumption of INCLUDE is that by carefully analyzing students’learning needs and the specific demands of the classroom environment, teachers canreasonably accommodate most students with special needs in their classrooms. Youcan maximize student success without taking a disproportionate amount of teachertime or diminishing the education of the other students in the class. For example,with the help of the special education teacher, Mr. Rodriguez provided Manuel witha digital text with a built-in speech-to-print component and study guide. SoonMr. Rodriguez discovered that other students in the class could also benefit fromusing the digital text and made it available to them. In this way, reasonable accom-modations often assist many students in the class.

The INCLUDE strategy contains elements of both universal design and differ-entiated instruction, two widely recognized approaches to addressing classroomdiversity in general and inclusion in particular. The idea of universal design origi-nated in the field of architecture, where it was learned that designing buildings forpersons with diverse needs from the beginning makes them more accessible andsaves money spent on costly retrofits of ramps and automatic doors. As applied to

How does the concept of universal design relate from architecture to teaching? How does thisconcept simplify the job of a general education teacher? Liz Strenk/SuperStock, Inc.

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