I teach special ed. classes to 30 K-5 students. I pull them out of their classes and either teach them Math, ELA or provide resource room support. One problem I have is how much modification should be provided in the regular ed. class. Is it better from them to be in the regular ed. class if they are severly LD or go to a self-contained class. If they go to self-contained they would have to move to a different building because our district is very spread out. Some teachers come to me because Johnny is not working up to the rest of the class, so he should not be in there, but I feel he is benefitting socially and I am teaching him the basics at his level. Any ideas???
Michele
Re: LD and the regular classroom
Skills are really important and ‘way too often they get short shrift. *If* you’re really giving them instruction (not just slipping them worksheets while the rest of the class does other things which I’ve seen done :-() with the pullout, and they’re making progress, sounds like a good situation.
I would want to give midyear and postyear assessments to make sure they’re not just “doing” math, but that they’re learning it.
self-contained vs. inclusion
It’s hard to generalize - a great deal depends on the individual student - but I wonder what a student is getting out of class if they’re only ‘getting the basics at their level’. How meaningful can the class be for them?
Are you sure your severely LD kids are enjoying their regular classes? If they can’t do the work, what are they doing in class exactly? How well can they interact with others in the class if they can’t do the work at the class level?
And on top of that, the teacher clearly doesn’t want them there. In the ideal world, that regular ed. teacher would be modifiying the work and the class to meet the needs of the severely LD child but in the real world we live it, that often just can’t be.
Good luck.
inclusion
I am pushing hard to teach the general ed staff to teach using a variety of techniques. Providing them ideas and resources that would teach to all M.I. and hopefully to my students as well. In our VERY small district, I find that the lower elem. teacher who tends to pull-out for all academic areas and the middle/high who pull-out very little the students have a very hard transition.
LD students are responsible for all the state and fed. tests that all the other students are responsible for. For students who spend a significant amount of the day out of the general ed. curriculum, those test score will not acuratly represent the childs ability. :cry:
One of my students who plans on attending college in two years……she has significant LD. If she was not allowed to be in all general education classes, she would not understand what she needs to succeed in college.
ld in regular ed
It is a difficult decision to make regarding how much in regular ed and how much pull out. Most times it is impossible to know definitively what is the best placement. We have our opinions…
That’s why it’s absolutely essential for more than one person to make that decision. It is a decision that needs to be reserved for the IEP team. What individual wants to be responsible for making that decision and who truly can?
When you are talking about any child with an IEP and especially a child who is severely learning disabled, my advice would be to present at the meeting the most candid assessment of the student’s strengths and weaknesses, the most candid assessment of the demands of the classroom and how that is likely to mean to the child, a thorough discussion of what accommodations could reasonably be made in the regular classroom (with plenty of input from the teacher(s) responsible for making the accommodations) and then let all parties express their opinions and concerns. I, personally, then give the most weight to the parents’ wishes. If they have been truly informed and they believe that their child would be better served in the resource room, out of the resource room, in a self-contained classroom, in another school, whatever, I have thus far always deferred to the parents’ wishes.
After all, it is their child. They know their child best. They live with their child every day and they will have their child in their lives long after we are finished working our magic. It has been my experience, if given good information, that parents are very capable about making appropriate placement decisions. Most times, it works out great. If it doesn’t, we can always reconvene the IEP team to discuss it after we’ve had the benefit of some hindsight.
I’m glad you are pondering some of the tougher questions and issues involved with teaching in special education. Good luck and God bless.
Although socialization is important, it is only one aspect. I guess the key is can the student successfully perform in the gen ed classroom with modifications? If not perhaps another environment would be more beneficial. The issue of mods and gen ed teachers is a whole other thread:)
Much has to do with your current environment. Are gen ed teachers supportive of students with special needs? Do they follow the mods? If so I would be more prone to clarify the mods and keep them in the LRE. If not, for the benefit of the child’s academic success I would consider other options.
Hope this helps.