As a 1st grade special education teacher who enters an inclusion classroom for 30 minutes daily, I find it difficult to meet the needs of my students while keeping them included with the others. If I pull them aside to pre teach vocabulary, they miss the lesson. The general ed. students don’t need as much practice as my students do, and then get bored with the extra practice. The general education teacher has wonderful hands on lessons to teach the concepts but my students never seem to have enough time to really “get it”.
Any suggestions?
Would it be possible for you to take a small group of students who need further instruction/practice with the concept aside after the group lesson has been presented? These students can receive the extra support while the rest of the class is working on independent practice activities and applying the skills they learned. There could even be some enrichment activities for those students who are ready for it. The group of students would be flexible in that it would change daily depending on the concept you are working on. With this arrangement all students who need help are benefiting and your special education students will still be included with the other students. I am sure that there are some general education students who will need the extra support with certain concepts as well. Do you have time set aside for planning with the regular education teacher? This would be very helpful, but so often not something that teachers involved in inclusion have available to them.