[SusanTeach]

I've always had sped kids in my room, but never all of them from 3rd grade. I'll also have reg. ed and gifted kids as well. I'm not sure of the numbers yet. I'll have a sped teacher in there with me (not sure how long), too.

My question is..... does anyone have tips on a classroom set up like this? Granted, in a "regular" classroom there is a wide range of abilities as well. I'm just wondering if there is anything specific that has worked with that many IEPs (I normally have had no more than 4 sped kids). Even if you think it's something I should've thought of already, please share. We start school this Friday and I want to get all my thoughts together.

Thanks!

[Tatum]

I had inclusion three times in my 9 yrs. of teaching. I taught a fifth inclusion and two 4th inclusion classes. I had the sped teacher all day. I liked teaching with a partner. We planned together, bought supplies together(great to spilt costs that can add up), and taught lessons together some of the time. I usally started planning the whole class lessons and when we got together to plan she would plan how to modify, assist and differentiate for the ieps. Most of the time she had her iep kids and I had my reg kids but I loved how we combined everyone together for some whole group lessons and afterwards she and I would pull smaller groups to work with. MOST days we had a blast teaching together.

Somtimes it got tough when we disagreed on how to teach a lesson, when that happened since she was in charge of all ieps she pulled her own kids and taught them her way. We talked about what would happen when we disagreed and came up with that solution together so we still remained friendly and there were no hard feelings. I can only remember one instance where we kind of argued about things. Just make sure you plan and communicate with each other because that can be inclusion's downfall.

I think you will enjoy this class. From all your posts, Susanteach you seem awesome and will adjust nicley. Let us know as the year progresses how this goes for you. I will help in any way I can.

[Indiana Teacher]

thought of using workstations (Debbie Diller, Practice with Purpose)? Since you have a group with such differing abilities, this would provide small group work that could easily be use to differentiate instruction. The stations all offer multiple choices and can be set up with activities that allow students to complete the choice at their ability level.

[SusanTeach]

Tatum - thanks for the nice compliment! I appreciate your thoughts on cooperating with the sped teacher, too. I know her from last year (she pulled my sped kids), but we've never worked in the same room together. She's easy to work with, so I don't foresee a problem but I definitely like the idea of planning together. I'll ask you questions if something comes up!

Indiana Teacher - I've read posts about the workstations, but have never tried them myself. I'd need to do some preparation for that, no doubt. I've always done centers on my gifted days because they're more of a reinforcement of the skills we've done that week (and we're not allowed to teach new material on that day anyway). Are the workstations similar to that? When do the kids do them? Are they graded, or are they just for extra practice? Do they change weekly? How many do you have on any given day? Sheesh.....sorry for all the questions! I guess I should get the book and read about them!

[tweet]

How low are your lowest going to be? I guess what we do is sort of inclusion, but usually only part of the day, and often with no aides or sped. teacher. When I have had kids say on K level (I teach 3rd, and I have had low kids every year for a bunch of years now), I have found Enchanted Learning's website invaluable for materials that I could use to differentiate for them. For example, there were several units this year that we did in sci./soc.stu. for which EL had little booklets for early/emergent readers. I printed those off for independent practice. Even my little autistic/MR student was able to handle some of the fill-in the-blanks and word search activities.

I always include my sped. kids in my reg. ed. reading groups. They often can't keep up with the actual reading, but I think they benefit from being in the group and trying to follow along. I even make sure they get a turn to read aloud, with lots of prompting from the others in the group. I also do a lot of partner reading, no matter the reading level.

[josephineg]

I read that you had inclusion three times in your 9 years of teaching. You mentioned how the needs of the IEP students were specifically addressed, but I did not see any mention of how the needs of the gifted students were addressed.

Could you kindly share with us what approaches you used to provide differentiated instruction to the gifted students in your full inclusion class?

Thanks.

All the best.

[Indiana Teacher]

are similar to centers, but the difference is that you don't have to change them, or keep coming up with new ideas. The workstations provide practice for students. Examples of workstations can be found http://www.misscampioni.com/Workstations%20Page.htm#Top & http://www.msjensenclass.com/Teacher...tion_ideas.htm
(along the left-hand side, towards the bottom are I can lists)

I will be using them as my literacy block + our required intervention time (2 hours.). During that time, I will have 7 stations set up for small groups - 15-20 min. per station. This will allow me time to focus on students at different levels.