Strategies for Successful General Education Placement

Collaborative/Procedural Strategies

  • Use committed administrators, teachers, parents (Grenot-Scheyer, Coots, & Falvey, 1989)
  • Use long-range co-planning between regular and special education for one week (Salend, 1998)
  • Provide advance preparation in determining how IEP goals will be met in the regular classroom
  • (Anderson, 1997)
  • Co-teaching (Special education teacher adapts assignment, individual teachers work with separate groups, or each teacher presents to whole group, one at a time) (Vaughn, Bos, & Schumm, 1997)
  • Co-assessment or using a grading system that reflects the student's ability (Vaughn, Bos, & Schumm, 1997)
  • Inservice the teachers to calm their fears (Wood, 1998)
  • Use the consultant teacher model (Giangreco, York, and Rainforth, 1989)
  • Require teacher certification requirements in special education (Brinker & Thorpe, 1985)
  • Develop strong policy statements in favor of inclusion (Knoblock & Harootunian, 1989)
  • Provide integrated social interactions (Grenot-Scheyer et al., 1989)
  • Increase public awareness for the instructional technique (Bryk, 1983)
  • Clarify of role of each teacher in each inclusive situation (Wood, 1998)
  • Analyze the consequences of the inclusion (Wood, 1998)
  • Suggestions for successful collaboration (Dardig, 1981)

A.Reassure general education teachers that their fears are unfounded and that inclusion can be a good experience.

B.Help the general teacher identify classrooms that appear to be appropriate for the student who is exceptional

C.Transition the student with a disability by having them them visit before inclusion.

D.Inservice general education teachers on disabilities.

E.Special education teacher should provide materials and resources for the student and general education teacher.

F.Arrange for support services.

G.Teach special skills by demonstration or modeling.

H.Explain the benefits of inclusion.

  • Develop a communication system (Wood, 1998)
  • Develop an intervention checklist (Wood, 1998)
  • Prepare students for inclusion (Wood & Reeves, 1989)
  • Inservice them on disabilities
  • Offer instructional units
  • Use simulation activities

Use Circles of Friends (Forest & Lusthaus, 1989) in which students use concentric circles to identify people they consider friends. In the innermost circle are people closest to them, next is people they really like, then people who are paid to be in their lives. Then teacher describes new student and discussion about how this student can join the circle.

Behavioral Interventions

  • Create a structured and predictable environment for students with autism (Connor, 1990)
  • Allow autistic students to be alone part of the day if they need it (Christof & Kane, 1991)
  • Watch for signs of need to be alone or eat. Repetitive behaviors may be a signal to make a change.
  • (Christof & Kane, 1991)
  • Teach students sign language if one of the students communicates in this mode (Blankenship &
  • Lilly, 1982)
  • Provide warning signs for students with autism when a change is about to occur (Rikhye, Gotheif &
  • Aspell, 1989)
  • Use pictures to show routines (Anderson, 1998a)
  • Involve students and parents (Vaughn, Bos & Schrumm, 1997)
  • Include a behavioral intervention plan with the IEP (McMahan, 1998)
  • Provide a warm socioemotional climate (Rosenthal, 1974)
  • Have high expectations for your students and provide as much attention (Rosenthal,1974)
  • Provide a picture of the behavior through observation, anecdotal records, checklists and rating scales
  • (Kauffman, 1994)
  • Carry through on punishments, so do not make them punishments for you (Vaughn, Bos & Schrumm, 1997)
  • Catch students being good (Friend & Bursick, 1996)
  • Teach peer social skills or how to get along with peers (Wood, 1998)
  • Use the Good Behavior Game (Barrish, Saunders, & Wolf, 1969)

1.Two sides of the room compete for the best behavior

2.Describe the target behaviors and decide when it will be played

3.Can be played as positive game and acquire points or take away

4.points for negative behaviors

  • Teacher proximity (Marable & Raimondi, 1995)
  • Use cues like color (D'Zamko & Hedges, 1985) or gestures (Meier, 1992)
  • If poor behavior indicates a different problem, i.e. hunger, respond to the other problem (Heward, 1996)
  • Teach school-related social skills, i.e. teacher-pleasing behaviors (Wood, 1998)
  • Provide a well-coordinated schedule with continuing activities
  • Use specific instructions for making transition and transitional activities, i.e. write in a journal following P.E. to quiet the students. (Jones & Jones, 1995)
  • Provide attribution training for those who feel that they are helpless, i.e. teaching students where to place blame (Ellis, Lenz & Sabornie, 1987)
  • Consider medication for students who need it (Swanson, et. al., 1993)
  • Communicate respect and trust (Deluke & Knoblock, 1987)
  • Establish and fairly enforce positively-stated rules. (Gearhart, 1996)
  • Use positive reinforcement (Rhode, Jenson, & Reaves, 1993)
  • Use lottery activity with tickets earned for good behavior (Salend, 1998)
  • Hold parent conferences (Lewis & Doorlag, 1987)
  • Use contingency contracts (Homme, 1970)
  • Use a self-management strategy (King-Sears & Cummings, 1996)
  • Have students self-record their behaviors (Rankin & Reid, 1995)
  • Provide precise commands (Wood, 1998)
  • Use self-reinforcement (Murdick & Petch-Hogan, 1996)
  • Use self-managed free-token response cost (Salend, 1998)
  • Self-evaluate using a rating system (Smith, Young, West, Morgan & Rhode, 1988)
  • Set up a classroom routine (Wood, 1998)
  • Redirection of inappropriate behavior (Garey & Wanbald, 1994)
  • Corrective teaching of appropriate behavior (West, et.al, 1995)
  • Interspersed requests - give two or three tasks that students like before giving them one they dislike
  • (Sprague & Horner, 1990)
  • Differential reinforcement techniques - reinforcing appropriate behaviors that make inappropriate behaviors impossible to do (Webber & Scheureman, 1991)
  • Extinction - withholding reinforcement (Salden, 1998)
  • Tolerate certain behaviors (Long & Newman, 1971)
  • Immediate verbal reprimands (Fiore et. al., 1993)
  • Group free-token response cost system - A group token is taken away if a member of the group is a problem (Salend & Allen, 1985)
  • Remove student from situation to defuse it (Anderson, 1998b)
  • Group evaluation - group evaluates and teacher averages or selects one student's rating to combine with his or hers and then awards reinforcement (Salend, 1998)
  • Group timeout ribbon - A ribbon is used to indicate that the group can earn tokens and is taken away when inappropriate behavior warrants and tokens cannot be earned (Salend & Gordon, 1987).
  • Use of token economy systems (Kazdin, 1977)
  • Build a sense of rapport between you and your students by remembering birthdays, spending time with them i.e. establish a routine for each student at recess time like a one on one snack time (Johns & Carr, 1995).
  • Have a sense of humor (Meier, 1992)
  • Use values clarification techniques when students use inappropriate behavior (Abrams, 1992)
  • Use life space interviewing (Raymond, 1994) or talking about each incident as it occurs to develop a self-control system
  • Use class meetings to discuss behavior (Meier, 1992)
  • Use peer mediation (Schrumpf, Crawford, & Usadel, 1991)
  • Use cooperative discipline in which each student helps others (Payne & Brown, 1994)
  • Teach listening techniques (Friend & Bursick, 1996)
  • Use of nonverbal communication techniques (Banbury & Hebert, 1992)
  • Change seating arrangements (Hoover, 1986)
  • Present task as whole or part based on skill needed for task and student's abilities (Wood,1998)
  • Place the teacher's desk where she can monitor activities (Anderson, 1997b)
  • Organize instructional materials in the room (Paine, Radicchi, Rosselini, Deutchman, & Darch, 1983)
  • Use motivating materials with colors, bold print, charts, multisensory qualities, pictures (Wood, 1998)
  • Provide a quiet place in the room such as a bean bag chair (Salden, 1998)
  • Point out information that you want students to know (Wood, 1998)
  • Train notetaking skills (Wood, 1998)
  • Promote generalization (Deschler, & Schumaker, 1988)
  • Provide learning centers throughout the room (Gearheart et. al., 1988)
  • Use study carrels for students who have trouble with distractions (Salden, 1998)
  • Match the learning environment to the learning style (Dunn & Dunn, 1992) including sound, light, temperature, design, motivation styles, persistence quality, conformity, daily structure, learning by self, in pairs, in teams, with colleagues, through authority, in a variety of perceptual methods, with food and drink, at certain times of day, and moving or still.
  • Modify the classroom for disabilities to prevent problems (Lewis & Doorlag, 1995)
  • Organize distribution of practice in lesson by student's attention span (Wood, 1998)
  • Consider block scheduling if necessary and administration allows (Wood, 1998)
  • Use bulletin boards to make the room more appealing and allow participation in class through incidental and intentional learning (Greer, Friedman, & Laycock, 1978)
  • Provide feedback immediately (Wood, 1998)

Strategies for Mild Impairments

  • HI - place away from noise, about the second desk back and to one side, next to peer helper (Lewis & Doorlag, 1995)
  • VI - place away from glare and dangerous areas, provide space for materials but still allowing sight (Gearheart 1996)
  • Cognitive impairments - modify amount of material by ability (Wood, 1998)
  • PD - modify height of things, provide space for wheelchair, watch selection of furniture, be aware of positioning needs, provide buddies (Anderson, 1998c)
  • BD - seat near teacher and away from distractions
  • Provide braille or large print materials for visually impaired students. (Kauffman, 1994)
  • Use black felt-tip markers for worksheets for visually limited students (Glazzard, 1980)
  • Watch students with disabilities for signs of fatigue because most can become fatigued by straining
  • to learn. (Lewis & Doorlag, 1995)
  • Provide additional time for assignments (Salend, 1998)
  • Leave room and containers closed or open for visually impaired (Salend, 1998)
  • Change grading criteria, to bypass disabilities, i.e. grading on items tried, not total for those who
  • work slowly. (Friend & Bursick, 1996)
  • Adapt grading through completion of IEP goals. Use competency check lists (Special Education
  • Administrator's Handbook, 1996).
  • Use grading contracts (Murdick & Petch-Hogan, 1996)
  • Use improvement grades (Friend & Bursick, 1996)
  • Use objective tests (Wood, 1998)
  • Provide an outline if an essay is used. (Jayanthi, Epstein, Polloway, & Bursick, in press)
  • Read the test aloud. (Wood, 1998)
  • Let students retake tests. (Wood, 1998)
  • Grade for content, not quality.
  • Use pass/fail (Vasa, 1981)
  • Use performance-based assessments (Poteet, Choate, & Stewart, 1996)
  • Creating performance tasks (Wiggins, 1992)

A.Choose learning outcomes that are not covered in current curriculum and standardized testing program.

B.Design tasks within contexts that are meaningful for students.

C.Clarify task expectations by giving scoring guides and models.

D.Make testing and activities as authentic as possible.

E.Identify standards that mean a job is effective.

  • Use portfolio assessments (Paulson, Paulson & Meyer, 1991)
  • Use project-based curriculum
  • Coop Learning - groups create problems and exchange problems; STAD, TGT;mixed ability, number, use as discussion group, call; class-wide peer tutoring (2 groups, pairs within groups, tests, group score); learning together, TAI-assignments with group help (Johnson & Johnson, 1989)
  • Use oral and written directions; keep them simple; adjust rate of speech; point out importance of directions orally and through gestures; repeat (Wood, 1998)
  • Assign notetaker with carbon paper (Gearheart 1996)
  • Use highlighting on worksheets (Spargo, 1977)
  • Reciprocal teaching (Palinscar & Brown, 1983)
  • Writing process, including synthesized text (Lewis, 1993)
  • Desktop publishing (Salden, 1998)
  • Reading (CD-ROM books) (Lewis, 1993)
  • Electronic field trips (Wood, 1998)
  • Vocabulary practice (Wood, 1998)
  • Vocabulary words stored in database (Scholastic, 1995)
  • Use of alternative fonts (Wood, 1998)
  • Spelling and grammar checkers (Hunt-Berg et al, 1994)
  • Modeling software (Anderson, 1998)
  • Real life math software (Broderbund, 1998)
  • Electronic references
  • Job specific software (Kemp, 1998)
  • Probeware (Wood, 1998)
  • Use audiovisual helps if necessary such as taperecorders (Friend & Bursick, 1996)
  • Videodiscs or providing video for context such as Jasper Woodbury(Kitz & Thorpe, 1995)
  • CD-ROM or instruction by computer for multisensory instruction (Blank, 1994)
  • Captioned TV and LCD provides an increase in reading achievement for learning disabled and hearing impaired (Gartland, 1994)
  • Presentation software - letting disabled students to use it will increase scores. Using it as a teacher increases motivation. (Newby et al, 1996)
  • Virtual reality increases the fidelity of the presentation (Salden, 1998)
  • Internet - improves motivation and also improves achievement for those who use email (Peha, 1995)
  • Assistive technology - laptops, voice recog, alternative, input. (Salden, 1998)
  • Provide instruction and opportunity to use learning strategies - study skills, metacognitive skills, visual imagery (Nagel, Deschler & Schumaker, 1986)
  • Teach according to multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1993)
  • Teach according to Dunn & Dunn's learning styles (Dunn & Dunn, 1992).
  • Use pictures, short phrases for some answers (Salend, 1998)
  • Allow oral responses in lieu of written (Lewis & Doorlag, 1994)
  • Social Learning Theory or providing a model for the student to imitate.(Bandura & Schunk, 1981)
  • Community-based learning (authentic performance-based teaching) (Hewitt, 1996)
  • Student-directed learning
  • Direct instruction or step by step learning (Mercer & Miller, 1996)
  • Increased time on task improves achievement scores (Rosenthal, 1974)

Language Arts Adaptations

Story-mapping (Bos & Vaughn, 1994)

Use picture story starters for young children and sentence story starters for older children

Provide a outline for writing papers

Draw margins on papers.

POSSE - Predict, organize, semantic webs, search for main ideas, evaluate reading and composition

(Englert & Mariage, 1991)

  • CSA method, i.e. Concrete objects, semi-concrete (using pictures with problems), and abstract
  • (problems alone) Mercer & Miller, 1994)
  • SQ3R - Survey, question; Read, Recite, Review (Robinson, 1969)
  • Allow thought time for answers (Williams, 1986)
  • Allow students to read something silently before orally
  • Avoid using reading or reciting as punishment.
  • Limit the length of oral presentations.
  • Reading a selection several times for increasing comprehension
  • Use direct concrete physical involvement in activities
  • Self-questioning or asking questions as a selection is read (Friend & Bursick, 1996)
  • Paraphrasing - Paragraph restatement, paragraph summary (Schumaker, Denton, & Deshler, 1984)
  • Use taped presentations rather than live presentations
  • Alert students that they will read in class ahead of time.
  • Provide scaffolding or supports for the student as they learn new skills: (Beaumont, 1992)

A.Present the new cognitive strategy and model it while explaining how it is done.

B.Monitor and provide assistance while practicing.

C.Provide varied contexts to promote generalization.

D.Give student feedback.

E.Increase the responsibility of the student

F.Provide independent practice.

  • Provide think sheets with questions that you want the student to answer on papers they write (Raphael, Kirschner & Englert, 1986)
  • Create graphic organizers such as concept maps to picture the structure of a reading selection (Friend & Bursick, 1997) Leave it blank for some and fill it in for others, according to need.
  • Scanning or skimming a selection to identify how it should be read. (Salden, 1998)
  • Follow sedentary activities with physical activities
  • Summarizing information that is read
  • Visual imagery or seeing a selection in your mind.
  • Use manipulatives for sentence construction sometimes
  • Verbal rehearsal or mentally practicing something until it is known
  • Highlighting information (Burnette, 1987)
  • Assign followup activities that reduce student's writing requirements.
  • Provide an individual word bank for each student
  • Use earphones for distractible students.
  • List points on blackboard
  • Use assignment notebooks
  • Have students start assignments in class to monitor comprehension
  • Have parents sign and date homework
  • Establish relevance of homework
  • Encourage student self-advocacy with teachers to provide changes in assignments
  • Typographic design - 9-12 and simple (Hoener, Salend, & Kay, 1997)
  • Audiotapes and Videotapes - (120-175 wpm) Paraphrase some and add symbols to book and match which has been done. (Deshler & Graham, 1980)
  • Computer-based textbooks (Burnette, 1987)
  • Hypermedia - allows lessons with multiple formats controlled by computer links to other cues and aids (Boone, Higgens, Falba & Langley, 1993)
  • Use POWER (Englert et al., 1988) for writing: P=planning, O=organizing, W=writing, E=editing,
  • R=revising
  • Use COPS (Alley, 1988) for proofreading: C=capitalization, O=overall appearance, P=punctuation,
  • S=spelled
  • Use SLOW CaPS (Levy & Rosenberg, 1990) for developing 4 kinds of paragraphs: S=showing kind
  • of paragraph in first sentence, L=list details, O=order details, W=write the details, C=concluding,
  • P=transition, S=summary for ending the paragraph
  • Use visual supports with reading (Anderson, 1998c)
  • Multi-level teaching or gearing instruction to level of student (Murray, 1991)
  • Maintain an assignment book (Archer, 1988)
  • When writing a test, provide a typewritten copy, make tests uncluttered with space between
  • selections, align vertically rather than horizontally, allow an answer (Wood, 1988)
  • Tiered assignments - alternative response models (Tomlinson, 1995b)
  • Universally designed materials - cross abilities, tailored to learning styles and individual needs
  • (Council for Exceptional Children, 1996)
  • Reading - phonics; synthetic and analytic and/or whole word (Vaca, Vaca & Gove, 1987)
  • Basal (directed reading) (Harris & Sipay, 1985)
  • Language experience (Vaca et al, 1987)
  • Whole language - Reading to students, showed book reading, DEAR, graded reading, (strategies, literature circles, group reading conference), individualized reading, language experience, writing modeling of writing, sharing (writer's circles, (author's chair), print-based learning centers, role plays, journals, copying, storytelling, picture books, frames, story grammars, repeated trading, choral reading, drama, recursive encounters ( Freeman & Freeman, 1992)
  • Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (Slavin, Madden & Stevens, 1990)
  • Multi-sensory (Blau & Blau, 1968)
  • Fernald - whole language (Fernald, 1943)
  • Orton-Gillingham-Stillman (Gillingham & Stillman, 1973)
  • Cueing (Salend, 1998)
  • Process writing

A.Preparing - brainstorming, journals, story starters and enders, outlines and semantic mapping, narrative stories, opinion essays (Engert & Raphael, 1988)

B.Drafting

C.Editing

D.Revising

E.Proofreading

F.Collaborative writing (peer editors)

  • Writer's Workshop (Whitt et al, 1988)
  • Computers - Word processing, spell checking, word production, text or font sizes. Process Writer,
  • Writer's Workbench, Writer's Helper punctuation and grammar helpers (Hunt-Berg et al, 1994)
  • Publishing, Feedback (Hunt-Berg, 1994)
  • Cognitive Strategy in Writing - Modeling by teachers followed by prompted "think sheets" - who, what, when, where, why, how questions; think-aloud, examples (Englert & Raphael, 1988)
  • Content Area Written Language Assignments - scheduling and audio taping conferences - use
  • Inspiration and American Heritage Dictionary (CD-ROM), Franklin Dictionary and Spelling Ace; teach proofreading, use checkpoints and book at work, allow students to redo assignments, provide vocab and spelling reference lists, grade separated for content, grammar and spelling (Vogel, 1988)

Whole word approaches -