Using lectures in the inclusive classroom

I would question that as well. Students with auditory processing issues will not process the lecture, students with writing issues cannot take notes on it.

In fact, these days I’d question how much lecture imparts to most students but it certainly is not of value in the inclusive classroom.

I’d say it depends on the grade level, subject, and what you mean by “lecture”. There will be times when whole class instruction is appropriate. At these times, you can help all of your students by presenting the information visually as well as orally (Powerpoint is wonderful for this!) You can get the students actively involved— break up “lecture” time with small group activities that allow for movement, stop for discussion and ask questions that get the whole class involved (“raise your hand if you agree…). Give students an outline to follow along with, leaving space for them to write in key information- they check to make sure they’ve got it. (nothing worse than trying to study from notes that are incomplete).

These are good teaching methods and should be incorporated into all lessons for all kids. But should the general education teacher adjust all instruction to meet the needs of included students? I feel as though we expect the teacher to “dumb down” instruction/lessons at times so our kids can “get it”. Probably because I am a high school sped teacher, my perspective in different but I continue to feel that LRE is being ignored in the name of some concept that inclusion is good for sped kids. The idea that they mingle with reg. ed students is ludicrous (keep HS in mind). Some of the accomodations required for these kids to be moderately successful are so obvious that you might as well put red flags on their backs. Who is kidding who?

I agree — we’re building a world of young adults who don’t know how to listen to a lecture or read a book and get information from it. Strange as it sounds… no, a teacher can’t be all things to all people.

I teach several sections of CWC English at the secondary level. My CAPD kids especially do not do well in all-lecture environments, and are often sent to me after doing very poorly with teachers who lecture a lot. I *do* lecture, though. I just tend to break it up. An example of a unit I just finished on Tale of Two Cities — they had to read the whole thing; I didn’t care if they used SparkNotes, etc. to supplement. They wrote 3 short essays, did a multi-genre project that included art work, had lectures second half of classes (we did other things like grammar the first part), often broke up into groups to do chapter summaries, and they saw a movie version. I taught this way to my two sections, one is CWC, one is “regular”. They pretty much hated Dickens, but the LD/LI kids comprehended it at the same level as the typical learners. So yeah, lecture is useful if you’re doing other things, too (like torturing them with essays!).

FWIW, I’m also doing Julius Caesar with my remedial CWC students, some of which carry MR labels. It’s slow-going, but they’re doing fine with it. I do minimal lecture with them — instead I tend to frame lectures as class discussion. They’re used to me and know if I jump up and write something on the board, they should write it in their notes.
Hope this gives you some ideas!