Inclusion Teaching in a reg. ed class

Hmmm… this sounds like a disagreement with the principal over what the student needs more than anything else — that you have a pretty good idea what you want your role to be. So the obvious question is, was the principal making these observations and suggestions because it’s a requirement and you’ll never hear about it again, or will there be follow-through?
Actually, either way you might want to get together with the teacher and principal to figure out the best way to use the teacher’s skills and your skills. If the kiddo is copying, that should be dealt with (in the old days I’d say or there would be serious consequences later — that could still happen, I suppose… but even nowadays if you’re letting the kiddo copy you’re basically admitting the task is too much for him/her and it’s okay to just cheat to look like s/he’s learning, since that’s the most important thing.)

You might get many different answers to this question. I think that’s because these things fall into a gray area and each school can develop its own policy on these matters - or not.

If it were my school to run, I’d admire anyone’s interest in helping all children but I’d see your responsibility as being the identified spec. ed. children in the classroom. If it’s just one child, wonderful. Yes, you could sit near that child the entire period if that’s the only identified child in the room.

What you do in that class with that child can also fall into a gray area but it might be spelled out by the IEP. What does this child’s IEP say as to what kind of help he/she is to be provided with in that class? If the IEP isn’t specific, you could work it out with the reg. ed teacher and/or use your own good judgment as to what the child needs. Do they need remediation? Or do they need to be helped to be successful in that class? Usually it can’t be both.

If your spec. ed child starts to copy off other children, that’s a signal your spec. ed student needs help. It’s not a discipline issue. The IEP is supposed to stipulate what help the spec. ed child is to be provided with to enable them to be successful in the class.

If the IEP is not specific, repost and tell us what the child’s issues are and you can get here some suggestions as to how to address those issues.

I work with K-6 students in a resource setting, primarily using the inclusion service model. When I or my instructional assistant are in the classroom, we are there to provide services to our students with IEPs. As Sara mentioned, the IEP should specify the services for each IWEN (individual with exceptional needs). Since our resource program is providing assistance to 25 students in many classrooms through inclusion, our time in each room needs to be used to the maximum.
For example, in one room there are two students who I see during the first hour of school. I take those two students to a side table where we work on assignments with which they need assistance, ie. understanding a math concept, working on an anthology or science assignment, or studying vocabulary and spelling words. If they say they have nothing to work on, then I will have things in my folder for them to do which are aligned with their IEP goals.
In another classroom where there are four students, I usually rotate around the room checking to see if the students are understanding and working on the current assignment. In another classroom, part of my time is usually spent giving the weekly spelling pre-and post-tests to a group of 5-6 students, which includes three IWENs plus the other students who happen to be in that group.
For the most part, I work only with the IWENs unless there is a group in which my students participate that will benefit from my help. During times of teacher-directed instruction to the whole class, I sometimes feel that my expertise is not being utilized. However, I have come to view that time as an opportunity to add examples, interject additional insights, and point out frequently-made errors, while monitoring my students. I might also opt to pull the IWEN to a separate area to reteach as the teacher instructs. Flexibility is of key importance, and knowing precisely what service you are providing to your student(s) will enable you to be most effective. Hope this helps.

Sorry, but this is just totally offensive to me. Since it is unprofessional to criticize another teacher, I’ll just remain a nameless parent named IWOD: Individual WithOut Disabilities.

I teach in both self-contained and inclusion classes, 11th grade English. The concept of inclusion is that the special ed students aren’t singled out in the class. If you have to just work with the sped student, he should continue to be in a self-contained class. I teach and help all of the students in the class. You might want to have a meeting with all of the players and find out what their expectations of you in the class are. What grade are you teaching? Some administrators are only putting the kids in inclusion classes due to the LRE reqirements and the law says so, but it is only lip service.

My goodness, what are IWENs? You are not teaching in an inclusion envirenment, you are teaching self-contained in a regular ed environment. Sorry, but the objectives in an IEP is to be worked on in all environments, even if a special ed student is in a regular education classroom without support. There it is up to the regular ed teacher to work on the objectives. Actually, these objectives are objectives that we should have for all students no matter if they are labeled or not. All students have problems, noone is good in all subjects, the only difference between sped students and regular ed students is that the sped students have been tested. You don’t work only on objectives in any classroom, you make sure that the objectives are mastered through working with their different subjects, not having specific worksheets that target those objectives, unless you are in a resourse room environment.

Dear IWOD,

The use of acronyms is pervasive in the special education field, and IWEN was a shortcut to using special ed. student. It was not mean to be offensive—so I’m sorry you were offended. Actually, it was a college professor who introduced many of us to that particular acronym in the 1980s.

Our 7-12 school went to a “class-within-a-class” delivery model (not exclusively of course) with an emphasis on serving as many students in the regular ed setting as possible for three reasons. 1. Least restrictive environment; 2. the regular ed teachers are the “expert” in that particular subject; and 3. pulling everyone out in the resource room was becoming nightmarish, i.e., 12 students in 4 grades for 3-5 subjects in a single class period.

There remain issues regarding roles and responsibilities of the regular ed and special ed teacher. Considering where we were it is an improvement but it is a long way from good. Ask for clarification regarding roles and expectations and involve everyone—parents, administrators, teachers, and students. I view our journey as a work in progress that is always in the process of refinement.

Good luck.