Inclusion and Teaching in Chicago

Picture this:  It's the start of class and you are introducing your new lesson. You look great, your lesson matches perfectly with your objective, and your instruction is interactive, collaborative, and darn right perfect. You are feeling good, gosh darn it. Standing in front of your class of eager, bright eyed children you explain the agenda for the day. Midway through instructions you hear the distinct sound of whispers and feet thudding against the floor. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a student standing over another student's desk. They appear to be having a serious conversation. "What's going on, young learner?" You ask. The learner looks up at you and sighs, "I need a pencil." Sound familiar? Many teachers struggle with the management of pencils. This can be frustrating and time consuming. If students are trying to find a pencil during class, they miss important instruction. If they talk to their peers about borrowing a pencil, those stu...

Question: How do you help students that struggle with completing projects on time? What strategies can we use to teach students how to read project directions and plan for its completion? Resources: The Rush NeuroBehavioral Center has this amazing PD on executive functioning that changed my entire perspective and understanding of teaching problem solving, planning, organizing, and self regulation. This presentation from Lauren Hough and the Nest Project does a wonderful job of explaining what executive functioning is and providing strategies.    I'm going to start with the student favorite. I give you: The Project Game Plan!  Materials: Project directions Project Game Plan Sheet If I am not modifying the content or expectations of the project, I try not to modify too much of the text. The reality is that students see assignments and projects that look like this all of the time. Instead of changing the text (giving a stud...

In order to be independently successful, students need to learn how to manage all sorts of behaviors: turning in homework, raising their hand when they have something to share, transitioning to a new class, etc. One strategy that I've had success with in the past is creating individualized Self Management checklists. This is an old-y but a good-y. Looking at my old self-management checklists, I would do things a little bit differently. Let's get critical together! Even though this skill is all about independence and managing oneself, it requires a lot of teacher support at first! These checklists are the most successful when they are taught using the gradual release of responsibility model. This can be individualized by student need, but generally this is how I use self management checklists in the inclusive classroom: 1. Introduce the self-management checklist to the student. 2. Go through the routine together and find a place to keep the checklists. This should be ...

While in grad school, I wrote a paper about post secondary outcomes for students with disabilities. It was the most depressing paper I ever wrote. The research is disgusting. The majority of adults with disabilities do not have full time employment. Then and there, I vowed to do anything I could in the middle grades to make sure the students on my case load would not be a statistic. The most efficient way to do this was to teach self advocacy skills and make sure my students knew themselves, their strengths, their disability, and how to talk to adults about all of the above. During my time as a middle school learning specialist , my colleague Cara Shannon and I created a plan surrounding transitions and self advocacy. We did a lot of work around self advocacy in 5th, 6th, and 7th grades but this blog will focus on how we got 8th grade students to make an individualized portfolio, email their high school case manager, and present their portfolio all before graduation. Here's my br...