Inclusion Strategies and Interventions, Second Edition. Toby J. Karten
as assistive technology. Chapter 3 addresses the actual creation of an inclusion classroom and outlines interventions for categories of learners. It also describes effective collaborative and co-teaching practices. Chapter 4 highlights realistic adaptations and how they directly link to students’ assessment data to establish meaningful accountability.
Part two offers strategies for effective curriculum practice, stressing the importance of creating strategic learners equipped with study skills through educationally solid collaborative lesson deliveries. Chapter 5 concentrates on literacy and communication, and presents information about multisensory and structured reading programs, along with explicit writing instruction. It also includes strategies for English learners (ELs). Chapter 6 explores mathematics instruction and provides practical recommendations for reaching students with special needs. Chapter 7 discusses the disciplines of social studies and science, while chapter 8 discusses the important but often overlooked domains of art, music, physical education, and life skills. Chapter 9 demonstrates the merits of an interdisciplinary thematic approach, which links instruction across the curriculum and proves subjects do not exist in isolation. To close part two, chapter 10 explores transitional plans for successful postsecondary outcomes.
Part three outlines how to nourish and continually maintain inclusion classrooms, focusing on what educators need to do to consistently achieve the desired outcomes for students, teachers, and families. Chapter 11 discusses professional collaboration and the inclusion players who create that collaborative environment, including coteachers, related staff, administrators, families, and the students themselves. Chapter 12 ties it all together and serves as a conclusion to the book, with reminders about how evidence-based practices can effectively meet and honor students’ needs in inclusion classrooms. This final chapter also includes an overview of where educators are now, along with curriculum implications and a review of inclusion practices.
Finally, appendices A and B offer handy resource materials, including a list of acronyms and their meanings and a look at the legal aspects of inclusion.
There are several ways educators can deliver the standards minus the standardization. Differentiated instruction, universal design for learning, understanding by design, team planning, cooperative learning, peer mentoring, and collaborative communications are all viable ways for teachers to apply inclusion in their classrooms. It is important for the complexities of inclusion not to overwhelm teachers, but instead prepare them with an awareness about their students, along with inclusion and collaborative problem-solving strategies. This book highlights daily school interventions that help teachers tap into students’ academic and emotional abilities, potentials, levels, and interests. It encourages educators and learners to effectively work together as a team to achieve inclusion successes.
ONE
Understanding the Inclusion Classroom
“I hate when the teacher talks so fast. He makes us read these stupid stories and write so much stuff. My hand and head start to hurt. Sometimes I don’t pay attention. Being in a regular class though is better than when I was in that shorter line in the class way down the hallway. When we went to lunch and specials, I felt different and not in a good way. My class then only had twelve kids in it with a teacher and another person who helped out. The other classes with the ‘regular kids’ were better. I just knew that everyone was looking at me and thinking, ‘Boy, is he stupid or what?’ Now, because I did OK in that other class, I am back in the bigger classroom with kids who ride the bus with me and live in my neighborhood. I get extra reading and mathematics help three days a week, but I’m not the only one! Before this, I always had lots of reasons not to go to school. Now, I have more friends. School isn’t so bad—most of the time, anyway.”
It is tough for some students to fit in when others view them as “different.” This affects their self-esteem, which in turn influences their academic performance and social interactions. Special education classes that divide students and flag them as “different” still exist, but inclusion classrooms that offer increased academic and behavioral supports are rapidly replacing them. Differences are becoming the norm in heterogeneous inclusion classrooms that value teachers who differentiate instruction to teach learners of diverse levels as all students learn side by side.
The federal government has enacted laws that outline how individuals with disabilities are educated and included in society. Inclusion classrooms are impacted by these laws. Debates continue on how these laws have “leveled the playing field” for the unique needs of students with disabilities in schools and in the work place, and if additional legislation is required (Black, 2017; UCPLA, 2019). It’s important to understand what the laws state to be certain that inclusion practices are correctly implemented with fidelity to not only provide access but also advancements.
Inclusion by Law
The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (2004b) is influential in inclusion programs. IDEA (2004b) stems from the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94–142) of 1975, which allows students with disabilities access to the general education curriculum in their least restrictive environment. The act identifies specially designed instruction in a student’s individualized education program to ensure teachers adapt, customize, and individualize the content, methodology, and delivery for each learner’s unique needs (North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Exceptional Children Division, 2018). An IEP outlines:
1. Present levels of academic achievement and functional performance (PLAAFP)
2. Annual goals and progress targeted
3. The general education classroom as the first option of placement and as the least restrictive environment if it appropriately meets students’ needs; reasoning if the general education classroom is determined not to be an appropriate placement
4. Related supports (for example, transportation; speech, occupational, and physical therapies; mobility training)
5. Accommodations or modifications with specially designed instructional plans
6. Short-term benchmarks that are required only for children with disabilities who take alternate assessments aligned to alternate achievement standards (Karten, 2019a)
The National Professional Resources website offers a collaborative IEP planner (www.nprinc.com/content/IEP-Collaborative-Planner.pdf), and the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education offers a sample IEP teachers can use (https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/modelform1_IEP.pdf). Specially designed instruction has the general education academic and functional supports to ensure each student is meaningfully and appropriately included, setting him or her on a path to achieve successful outcomes. Specially designed instruction includes, but is not limited to, modeling, environmental adaptations, multisensory teaching strategies, literacy and mathematics adaptations, different delivery and complexity, assistive