After several weeks of observing student performance on formative and formal assessments and reading student IEPs, I've tried to arrange a curriculum for students that have special education needs. I'm very conflicted with what I'm supposed to do, and I currently have no real guidance or any idea on if what I'm doing is correct or working. The first adjustment was rearranging the desks and seating assignment to move my low-performing students toward the front of the room, closer to me when I am instructing. I would like to move around the whole classroom more when I'm teaching, but the majority of the time I spend near the whiteboard where my ELMO is placed, facing the class. I've found that this has helped slightly with behavior issues, as some of my IEP students also tend to be the most disengaged and disruptive students. Then again, I also have students who are excelling in class that tend to do the same, so I can't say this is a foolproof setup. Lately I have been reviewing specific IEP goals for my students and have created different worksheets for their specific level of mastery (as I've informally assessed). While their IEPs do call for specific mastery of content that is pre-algebraic, I have decided to give my students work that is aligned to the lessons I am teaching at a lower level of rigor for mastery. It's not 100% aligned to their IEP, though, although they are still building skills that will help them at any level of mathematics (namely, integer operations). I've made some progress with students that have sat down with me one-on-one to work through several practice problems. Still, it is like juggling 25 dishes at the same time without any experience juggling. I have mentor teachers telling me that I need to move on with my curriculum and stay on schedule with my pacing guide (Beyond Textbooks). I have paraprofessionals in some of my classes, but they have not done much (which I don't entirely blame them for). One, I'm not very good at planning lessons for co-teaching, and two, I don't know how I would plan a lesson with a co-teacher. Still, they have told me that they are not supposed to help specific students ("targeting" as they phrased it) consistently due to an "all-inclusion" policy. Also, the paraprofessional in my classroom with the most IEPs was removed to fill a vacancy in the district...leaving me with a classroom of students of differing levels that it is depressing for me every day. I have one student that should be in an accelerated course (who I have asked to help me tutor other students with questions). I have three other students who are general education students that are understanding the material but are talking or sleeping because the material is too slow-paced. I have four students that are also general education students that are struggling with the material despite my pace, one which asks for help, the other three fall off task easily. One student is failing due to excessive absences. I have two new students (recently added within the past two weeks) who are desperately trying to catch up a whole quarter's amount of material, and I have six IEPs, each with different math learning goals. One of my IEP students cannot do integer operations without assistance and takes quite some time (sometimes a whole minute of thinking) to do basic arithmetic like 7+9. It is by far my most challenging class. I spend more time with my lowest performing students than the rest of the class...is that what the goal of that course should be? Catching as many of my lowest performing students up to speed or keeping the pace consistent and losing half of my class? Will my special education students just get passed along the system like they have been for the past 9 to 10 years or will I be doing a disservice to those students in general education who need the curriculum at a faster, more rigorous pace? I want to do both, but how?
The easiest way to use your para=professional is to pull fluid small groups of students. These groups can be for just one problem, they can be for the 10-15 minutes of independent work. Students can self-select to join the group too. This will help those that are in the group while you can monitor the others, answer quick questions and even offer extension to students who need it. At first your students might be timid... do not give up! They will quickly get the hang of it and it will SAVE you!
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