Book Reviews: Paraeducators: Life Lines in the Classroom, developed by Mary Lasater, Marlene Johnson and Mary Fitzgerald. Katy, Texas: LRConsulting, 1996. $675.00 complete set

Abstract

Effective delivery of special education services requires the efforts of many people to implement current best practices and meet the needs of individual students. In today's schools, the paraeducator's role is not only continually expanding to include new responsibilities, but is also becoming ever more critical to the success of students with special needs. Along with increased use of paraeducators in the schools comes an increased need for training to prepare them for their roles and responsibilities. Paraeducator: Life Lines in the Classroom, a training program designed for paraprofessionals, addresses the need for staff development for such support personnel. This five module instructional series provides an overall introduction to basic topics and key issues related to special education along with activities, overheads, handouts, and educational resources. The modules are: 1) Defining the Role of the Paraeducator, 2) Celebrating Similarities: Students with Disabilities, 3) The IEP Process: Role of the Paraeducator, 4) Supporting the Instruction Process, and 5) Behavior Improvement Strategies. Each module is contained in a looseleaf ringbinder notebook. Collectively, the activities, overheads, handouts and resource pages in the five notebooks contain general knowledge in the areas of special educational law, terminology, instructional practices, and behavior management principles. Topics in Module 1 include roles and responsibilities of paraeducators, communi-cation skills for problem solving, and legal issues in working with students with special needs. Module 2 addresses language and actions that promote respect for all students, disability categories and levels of support, and the personal perspectives of students with disabilities. Module 3 covers the IEP process, IEP goals and objectives, and formal and informal data collection procedures. Module 4 highlights instructional strategies such as cues, prompts, modeling, shaping, fading, natural supports, reinforcement and error correction. Module 5 covers classifying and prioritizing behavior for change, understanding antecedents, consequences, and functions of behaviors, selecting types of reinforcers, and developing and evaluating behavior management plans.Accompanying resources contain information specific to the content of each module. In Module 1, resources define key terms such as FAPE, IDEA, IEP, due process, mediation and surrogate parent; provide descriptions of component processes, including independent evaluations, IEP committee