I was in a LIFE Skills classroom last week and the teacher told me she never used the Communication Boards that came with the adapted stories. I gasped.
What a waste!
There a literally more than a dozen activities you can do with a Comm Board. Don’t believe me? Read on!
The Supreme Court found that we need to do more than de minimis… but what does that even mean?
5 Ways to Guarantee you’re more than minimus to keep your IEPs out of court!
Several federal laws established how we educate students with significant disabilities. That includes IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) and FAPE (Free Appropriate Public Education). The United States Supreme Court heard the Endrew F. vs. Douglas County School District case and ruled providing FAPE requires we “enable the child to make progress appropriate in light of his circumstance”.
That, my friend, is as clear as mud. I have heard campus administrators, classroom teachers, and parents of students with disabilities all talking about how this ruling will revolutionize how we educate students with significant disabilities. I, however, am not sure there will be much of a change.
In order to shed some light on the subject, let’s break this down.
I have been there. I really have. You are sitting in front of a computer screen tasked with writing IEP goals for a student. You sit there, glazed over, wondering what to write. And it’s not that you don’t know your students. It’s not that you’re unable to write good IEP goals. The thing is you’re just not sure where they should go next. Once they master a goal, what is the logical next step? You need an IEP goal bank!
I read a lot… I wish I had time to read more! I recently read an article about instructional level text as a tool to improve reading. This has always been something that has bothered me. Teachers have long believed that the only text appropriate for older students who happened to be low readers is instructional level text. In other words, text that corresponds with their assessed reading level. I have always thought otherwise. When you get to students in middle and high school, presenting only instructional level text limits a student’s exposure to challenging materials and also throttles their learning. So what does that mean when you’re teaching literacy to students with Autism and significant disabilities?
It never fails, at least once a school year I walk into a high school classroom and see an almost adult reading a Dora or Barney book.
It literally makes me groan.
What would make anyone think a 17-year-old would want to read a Dora book? Whenever I talk about it with the teacher, the reaction is always the same. The student is reading a book that is appropriate for their “instructional reading level”.
It sounds very formal, and almost convincing… But truth be told, teachers have been holding on to the idea of instructional level text for so long- does it really apply when you’re teaching literacy to students with Autism or other significant disabilities?
Personally, I don’t think so.
Instructional Strategies for Students with Autism I started in my first self-contained classroom mid semester… and it was tough. The routines and procedures are already… Read More »Instructional Strategies for Students with Autism
They’re in your classroom… and they’re pretty easy to use.
But they’re not.
They sit without batteries collecting dust.
They are programmed to do nothing.
But Why?
When I first encountered a BIGMack in the classroom I thought it was a nice little gadget that I would learn to use someday. Well, someday took a long time to come.
It wasn’t that it was complicated to use, but since I had never used one before it might as well have been quantum physics. It also wasn’t that it was useless, but since I had never used it before I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
To save you from the long learning curve involved in “I’ll eventually get to it”, let’s just cut to the chase. Here are 5 quick and easy things you can do with the stock of BIGMacks you have in your room.
Whenever we come back from Thanksgiving it feels like a frantic roller coaster to the Holiday Break. There is just so much to do- and little has to do with instruction! There is paperwork to finish, activities for the holidays, and then campus things like exams and report cards… And you know what happens (not to you because you’re a rockstar)? Sometimes teachers just stop teaching.
I know, I know… what?!?
So how do you manage the Roller Coaster and have a bit of a break before your break.
Freebie Friday! Free activities for Autism Units, LIFE Skills, Self Contained and Early Elementary I LOVE getting time off for the Holidays… and really taking… Read More »Freebie Friday from NoodleNook
Teaching Active Learning is a tough job… and knowing what exactly to do with a class full of Active Learners is even tougher. So what… Read More »Modifying Activities for Active Learning
In the darkest corners of your closet, they are hidden. They’re rarely ever charged, scarcely used, and completely unhelpful. What are they? Your student’s AT.… Read More »Using Assistive Technology in the Classroom
