New Teacher needs HELP!!

Have you talked with this teacher about this stuff? Inclusion classrooms are supposed to be a collaborative effort. Most classroom teachers are a bit protective of their space and children- if only because it is uncomfortable to think that another teacher might be casting a critical eye on what they do. Really effective teaming only comes when both parties choose to do it together…

That being said, I would talk with the teacher about these issues and your concerns-including the planning time. Classroom teachers- if they haven’t already been burnt by all this- can be a vast source of great ideas and positive feedback. Like anyone else though, they need to be approached in a way that shows respect for their professional expertise. Just like you do:)

Regarding the reading skills- my personal belief is that is very difficult to provide effective remediation without some level of pull out service- even if you are pulling out in the classroom. Full inclusion with no alternatives is blatantly ignoring the continuum of services that are supposed to be available. And please keep some time for yourself and your family- you be no use to your students if you burn all your internal resources now- and your family is ultimately more in your life than your job:)

Robin

“Regarding the reading skills- my personal belief is that is very difficult to provide effective remediation without some level of pull out service- even if you are pulling out in the classroom. Full inclusion with no alternatives is blatantly ignoring the continuum of services that are supposed to be available.”

Not only do I absolutely agree with this, I will add that I think that full inclusion is a diversion for parents to keep the school from having to give the one-on-one pull-out service that would be required to REMEDIATE the problem!!! Inclusion is WONDERFUL for children whose reading and written language deficits have been remediated, but good grief, how often are we seeing that happening in public schools???!!!

(Sorry, this subject makes me crazy :-)

Janis

It really, really sounds like these kids are not being served in the “inclusion” class setting. It’s nice to have the regular curric to go by but it *is* tough to make up the thing as you go. And if they’re missing fundamental life and academic skills then you’re applying a band-aid and getting them through this year — and next year they will still have the huge gaps that might have been narrowed with the right attention.
And your sanity is important too.
How would you arrange the schedule if you could?

Wow! Sounds like you really have your hands full! I’ve been co-teaching in an elementary (K-4) building for the past few years and feel very fortunate to have more success stories than frustrations. I really feel it depends on the partner I’m teaming with. All have been reasonably good teachers, but don’t always value me as a fellow teacher. I’ve felt like a glorified aide at times. What I’ve tried to do is schedule a definite time each week to plan lessons together and even offered to do “lead” teaching for certain things. This seems to have helped. Recently I was able to attend a seminar with a fellow co-teacher on inclusion and “teaming” and we both came away feeling we were doing some of the right things. It helps to have our principal support us, too! Good luck!

How about having both groups learn in the 5th grade room with 2 teachers and an aide? You could modify the content area curriculum a bit and teach some of each of the 5th and 6th grade units. Build a community with the Special Needs Students and then build a bridge to the traditional learners in this 5th grade room.

I teach Jr. High LD in a very small school. This is the second year we are doing class-within-a class and it is a work in progress. In my situation, I have pull-out classes to address reading and written language goals and one math class, but I go into the social studies class in both a 7th grade section and 8th grade section. I am reasonably satisfied with this arrangement—it’s not perfect but what is—because I can accommodate for reading/writing problems in the regular classroom in a variety of ways as the need arises. Sometimes I pull a group out if the assignment involves reading a handout and answering questions. Sometimes I assign an alternative project. The point is this, without me being in there doing these things, my students wouldn’t be successful and they wouldn’t benefit from any of the instruction given by the resident expert, the regular ed teacher. I’ll tell you this, it beats the heck out of trying to teach math, English, health, and science all at the same time to a range of ability levels and age levels in the resource room. Keep working at it by doing what you are doing. Talk, advocate, complain, inquire, and puzzle.

I recently attend a state learning disabillities conference and the speaker said that inclusion education is not special education. I couldn’t agree more. When are we going to quit pretending that a kid with a 2nd grade reading level is going to be “included” in a 6th grade general education class? If being included means they sit in a desk then you have it. A student who hasn’t received adequate remediation to survive in a general education class does not belong there. Who is happy about inclusion? Does it make parents feel that their child isn’t different? We should raise the bar in our resource classrooms and quit trying to kid everyone with this non-special education concept referred to as Inclusion.

You are absolutely correct. If you haven’t done any research on the topic you might enjoy what you will find. I have done extensive research on Inclusion and consistently the only group that does not support it is the special education teachers. Additionally, research data does not support it as an effective method of instruction. Students have not improved in their academic performance and after all isn’t that our primary purpose? It is extremely rare that you find any current research that is supported by the people held responsible for carrying out the duty. It remains a joke and a major flaw that adminstration turns it’s back to because it appears to make the parent population think their children are not disabled and makes them happy.

Steve,

How refreshing to see that someone else understands what’s really going on! I don’t even remember exactly what I wrote in my earlier post, but I refer to this as “the illusion of inclusion”! :-) So sad that no one listens to those who really know!

Janis

Steve this is Anne again. Thanks to everyone for the advice that you gave me. I am not feeling as frustrated as I did when I first posted, “New Teacher needs HELP!!” and have found materials to support my teaching so that I don’t have to create as much. This allows me more time to spend with my family. I have resigned myself to the fact that I am going to teach my students in a small group most of the time, and consequently I am not as frustrated trying to teach my lessons according to the classroom teacher’s schedule. The classroom teacher has been a little more willing to collaborate with me, since she no longer feels the pressure of having to educate these students along with the 22 other students of varied needs that she is expected to teach. We have been including the special education students when presenting class projects, that go along with the social studies curriculum.
I was interested in your comments regarding inclusion not being an effective method of instruction. I’d love to see some of the research that you have regarding this. I agree that it is very difficult to meet the academic needs of students whose skills are quite a bit below grade level in the inclusion classroom setting. I am currently on a district committee which was given the task to present a qualitative and quantitative state of inclusion in our district. Our current resource room model is 30 minutes 5x/week for most resource room students. These students do not get any additional support in the classroom. This would not work for my inclusion students. I would love to hear about other resource room/inclusion models that can meet the needs of a 5th/6th grade student whose reading/math skills are more than 2 years behind.

Have you talked with this teacher about this stuff? Inclusion classrooms are supposed to be a collaborative effort. Most classroom teachers are a bit protective of their space and children- if only because it is uncomfortable to think that another teacher might be casting a critical eye on what they do. Really effective teaming only comes when both parties choose to do it together…

That being said, I would talk with the teacher about these issues and your concerns-including the planning time. Classroom teachers- if they haven’t already been burnt by all this- can be a vast source of great ideas and positive feedback. Like anyone else though, they need to be approached in a way that shows respect for their professional expertise. Just like you do:)

Regarding the reading skills- my personal belief is that is very difficult to provide effective remediation without some level of pull out service- even if you are pulling out in the classroom. Full inclusion with no alternatives is blatantly ignoring the continuum of services that are supposed to be available. And please keep some time for yourself and your family- you be no use to your students if you burn all your internal resources now- and your family is ultimately more in your life than your job:)

Robin

“Regarding the reading skills- my personal belief is that is very difficult to provide effective remediation without some level of pull out service- even if you are pulling out in the classroom. Full inclusion with no alternatives is blatantly ignoring the continuum of services that are supposed to be available.”

Not only do I absolutely agree with this, I will add that I think that full inclusion is a diversion for parents to keep the school from having to give the one-on-one pull-out service that would be required to REMEDIATE the problem!!! Inclusion is WONDERFUL for children whose reading and written language deficits have been remediated, but good grief, how often are we seeing that happening in public schools???!!!

(Sorry, this subject makes me crazy :-)

Janis

It really, really sounds like these kids are not being served in the “inclusion” class setting. It’s nice to have the regular curric to go by but it *is* tough to make up the thing as you go. And if they’re missing fundamental life and academic skills then you’re applying a band-aid and getting them through this year — and next year they will still have the huge gaps that might have been narrowed with the right attention.
And your sanity is important too.
How would you arrange the schedule if you could?

Wow! Sounds like you really have your hands full! I’ve been co-teaching in an elementary (K-4) building for the past few years and feel very fortunate to have more success stories than frustrations. I really feel it depends on the partner I’m teaming with. All have been reasonably good teachers, but don’t always value me as a fellow teacher. I’ve felt like a glorified aide at times. What I’ve tried to do is schedule a definite time each week to plan lessons together and even offered to do “lead” teaching for certain things. This seems to have helped. Recently I was able to attend a seminar with a fellow co-teacher on inclusion and “teaming” and we both came away feeling we were doing some of the right things. It helps to have our principal support us, too! Good luck!

How about having both groups learn in the 5th grade room with 2 teachers and an aide? You could modify the content area curriculum a bit and teach some of each of the 5th and 6th grade units. Build a community with the Special Needs Students and then build a bridge to the traditional learners in this 5th grade room.

I teach Jr. High LD in a very small school. This is the second year we are doing class-within-a class and it is a work in progress. In my situation, I have pull-out classes to address reading and written language goals and one math class, but I go into the social studies class in both a 7th grade section and 8th grade section. I am reasonably satisfied with this arrangement—it’s not perfect but what is—because I can accommodate for reading/writing problems in the regular classroom in a variety of ways as the need arises. Sometimes I pull a group out if the assignment involves reading a handout and answering questions. Sometimes I assign an alternative project. The point is this, without me being in there doing these things, my students wouldn’t be successful and they wouldn’t benefit from any of the instruction given by the resident expert, the regular ed teacher. I’ll tell you this, it beats the heck out of trying to teach math, English, health, and science all at the same time to a range of ability levels and age levels in the resource room. Keep working at it by doing what you are doing. Talk, advocate, complain, inquire, and puzzle.

I recently attend a state learning disabillities conference and the speaker said that inclusion education is not special education. I couldn’t agree more. When are we going to quit pretending that a kid with a 2nd grade reading level is going to be “included” in a 6th grade general education class? If being included means they sit in a desk then you have it. A student who hasn’t received adequate remediation to survive in a general education class does not belong there. Who is happy about inclusion? Does it make parents feel that their child isn’t different? We should raise the bar in our resource classrooms and quit trying to kid everyone with this non-special education concept referred to as Inclusion.

You are absolutely correct. If you haven’t done any research on the topic you might enjoy what you will find. I have done extensive research on Inclusion and consistently the only group that does not support it is the special education teachers. Additionally, research data does not support it as an effective method of instruction. Students have not improved in their academic performance and after all isn’t that our primary purpose? It is extremely rare that you find any current research that is supported by the people held responsible for carrying out the duty. It remains a joke and a major flaw that adminstration turns it’s back to because it appears to make the parent population think their children are not disabled and makes them happy.

Steve,

How refreshing to see that someone else understands what’s really going on! I don’t even remember exactly what I wrote in my earlier post, but I refer to this as “the illusion of inclusion”! :-) So sad that no one listens to those who really know!

Janis

Steve this is Anne again. Thanks to everyone for the advice that you gave me. I am not feeling as frustrated as I did when I first posted, “New Teacher needs HELP!!” and have found materials to support my teaching so that I don’t have to create as much. This allows me more time to spend with my family. I have resigned myself to the fact that I am going to teach my students in a small group most of the time, and consequently I am not as frustrated trying to teach my lessons according to the classroom teacher’s schedule. The classroom teacher has been a little more willing to collaborate with me, since she no longer feels the pressure of having to educate these students along with the 22 other students of varied needs that she is expected to teach. We have been including the special education students when presenting class projects, that go along with the social studies curriculum.
I was interested in your comments regarding inclusion not being an effective method of instruction. I’d love to see some of the research that you have regarding this. I agree that it is very difficult to meet the academic needs of students whose skills are quite a bit below grade level in the inclusion classroom setting. I am currently on a district committee which was given the task to present a qualitative and quantitative state of inclusion in our district. Our current resource room model is 30 minutes 5x/week for most resource room students. These students do not get any additional support in the classroom. This would not work for my inclusion students. I would love to hear about other resource room/inclusion models that can meet the needs of a 5th/6th grade student whose reading/math skills are more than 2 years behind.