Inclusion of Students with Exceptionalities

By Karen S. Voytecki, Ph.D.
2001 CEC Clarissa Hug Teacher of the Year
Assistant Professor, East Carolina University

Originally posted Oct. 29, 2007

In addition to being able to communicate and collaborate with other professionals (i.e., general education teachers, special educators, paraprofessionals, speech/language pathologists, etc.), it is essential to focus on the instructional component that equates to success for students with exceptionalities who are included in general education classrooms.  Although there are numerous factors that must be taken into account when designing instruction for today's students (i.e., students' background knowledge, current skill levels, interest, content's relevance to their lives, etc.), each lesson must be differentiated to meet the needs of the diverse students that compose the classes of our schools.

Differentiated instruction meets the needs of ALL students by responding to their varying levels of background knowledge, skill readiness, language acquisition, learning styles, interests, and response modes.  The process of differentiated instruction is an instructional approach that is specifically tailored to address differing abilities within the same class.  Differentiated instruction individualizes the overall lesson to maximize each learner's potential and academic success.

Differentiated instruction begins first and foremost with student assessment.  Based on the needs assessment, instruction can be differentiated by content, process, or product. 

The following links provide more details and insights for effective differentiated instruction techniques:

Differentiated Instruction by Mark Walker (posted at OSEP's "Ideas that Work" Web site)

Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) Universal Design for Learning

And here is a print resource from CEC:

Differentiating Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities: Best Teaching Practices for General and Special Educators (available at the CEC Store).

 

Comments

[PJ]

Inclusion classes are here to stay. I have taught in a co-taught setting for four years. I feel it is my job to adapt the regular education curriculum, so my students can not only keep their heads above the water but swim with the rest of the students. Within the last three years, my school has just recently changed over to co-teaching and it wasn't the students that had the biggest adjustments. It was the regular education teachers. They were freaking out about how they were not prepared to teach special education students. I told them to teach with the same high expectations as a normal classroom. If we see a student struggling, we will make accommodations that will help not only him/her but all the students in the class.

[Kara Geiger]

Recently, I took a class with one of my general education co-teachers on Differentiating Instruction. It was extremely beneficial to take a class with someone whom I worked with every day-- we held each other responsible for implementing the new ideas and strategies we were learning. Given the chance, I would highly recommend it to anyone!

Additionally, during the class we were challenged to explicitly design lessons that were differentiated in all three ways-- content, process, and product. We had been differentiating but this assignment called for us to go above and beyond the typical activities we were doing. We were both surprised at the results. Our students that were typically our struggling learners outperformed many others in the class because they were interested in what they were doing. They were given choices of ways to demonstrate their learning and they loved it! These students also went above and beyond with creativity and gave them a moment in the spotlight. It was great to see these students shine and feel successful mastering the objective. And, the benefit for myself and my co-teacher is that we are much more apt to take the time and energy to differentiate instruction to benefit our students. Seeing the positive results made it worth it!

[Sarah Dautrich]

I agree that instruction has to be differentiated when dealing with students in an inclusion setting. Every child is different; therefore, has different needs that need to be met in order for them to be successful. With the push to have more and more special needs students in the regular education classroom, it is imperative that their instruction is differentiated so that their needs are met. The only issue with this is the lack of time we as teachers are allotted in order to differentiate for all of our students. I am differentiating for all of my students now and it is a struggle to keep everyone's needs met on a daily basis because their needs are all so different.

[Mark Pennington]

Differentiated Instruction is certainly not an easily-identified, monolithic movement. Indeed, the movement is multi-faceted. There is no DI uniform. Check out 23 Myths of Differentiated Instruction.

[Amy]

I am a senior getting ready to graduate this May looking forward to being a special education teacher. That has been my passion for as long as I can remember. I am currently in a differentiation class and we discussed a few weeks ago everything that makes up differentiation. We made up a class rap to help us remember about differentiation. Now remember, this is a class ful of college students in their senior year, so give us a break! Here it is Just thought I would share!
Differentiation Rap
By: Mrs. O and the ECE Family

DIFFERENTIATION is a very big word…………………………..In schools across the nation it is heard.
So what does it mean, you may ask ………………………To help you understand that is our task.
You can differentiate in just four ways…………………..But to learn how to do it may take days.

CONTENT is what we teach……………………………………State standards is what we get you to reach.
PROCESS is what gets students engaged……..Using tiered activities gets them ready for the day.
Keep the centers interesting……………………. To keep ‘em on task
Don’t forget the hands-on………………………..Vary your time and don’t wear a mask.
PRODUCT is showing what students know…………..Giving then choices helps their learning grow.
The classroom ENVIRONMENT is important you see……It must be a place that kids want to be.

So how do you decide which one to do………….Well, it’s based on your students, they give you the clue

Before you learn something new, you need to be READY……. All your prior knowledge needs to flow steady!
ABILITY levels, they may vary………………So adapting to them will make you merry.
(INTEREST) Look at what they like and listen to their speech….. Then it can be included into what you teach.
A LEARNING STYLE is something everybody has…. just like some like rock and others prefer jazz.
Gregorc and Gardener give you clues……… the “G” dawg’s research will help guide you.