Consult and Support Students With Special Needs in Inclusive Classrooms

Abstract

Develop written schedules. Record teacher planning times, lunch times, and even school arrival and departure times for all teachers and therapists with whom you work. This will serve as your "road map" when you set out in search of others. Include a schedule of paraeducators or instructional assistants as well as times they could be available or accessible.Meet with others to review key student program information. Information may include IEP goals and objectives, present levels of performance, and explore accommodations and modifications. Be sure to check for understanding, answer any questions, and collect, as well as provide, any new and additional information regarding students and their progress.Personalize key student information. Select and discuss student IEP goals and objectives, as 3. 2.1.

Tangible and Intangible Elements of Collaborative Teaching

“…Mutual planning time is vital as educators seek to discuss the progress of individual children, share goals, and plan lessons for the classroom. Dover (2005) focused on the need of cooperative teachers to think about the students and identified a number of suggestions on how to integrate children with disabilities into a general education classroom. These suggestions focused on the tangible experience of collaboration, including developing written schedules, meeting with others to develop key student program information, asking specific rather than general questions, and reviewing student work together (see Table 1).…”

“…For general education students, inclusion supports an increased awareness and sensitivity for students with disabilities (Winter, 2007). For both groups of students, inclusive classrooms eliminate the isolation of students from one another (Dover, 2005;McLaughlin, 2002;Murawski & Swanson, 2001) and support social understanding within the context of peer groupings. As with children, educators can eliminate isolation within a classroom when collaborating teachers, representing differing roles, are intertwined into an encompassing and creative delivery of teaching strategies.…”

Examining preparation of general education teachers for working with children with disabilities

“…In 2005, Dover published work that provided special education teachers with strategies on how to work with general education teachers and collaborate with special education personnel to support students in their education. Special education teachers are often unsure of their roles and how to work with general education teachers to discuss goals and review students' work (Dover, 2005).…”

“…This lack oftraining in the area of special education for general education teachers has led many researchers to investigate the benefits of collaboration in schools between general classroom teachers and special education resource teachers (Val eo, 2008). The need for strategies to be put in place to ensure that the special education teacher knows how to work with the general education teacher and collaborate with special education personnel to support students in their education is also well documented (Dover, 2005).…”

“…In addition, there is a need to understand to what degree this support is available to teachers and how many of them are comfortable asking their peers for assistance. There are many teachers who feel that by asking for help, they will appear unfit in their education and abilities and choose not to engage others with their needs so as not to appear incompetent in their profession (Dover, 2005). There is difficulty when the special education teacher does not take the time to meet with the teachers and allows personal dynamics and relationships to get in the way of working collaboratively with their peers (Valeo, 2008).…”