1. Nicole George Ivy Tech Community College
WE ALL ARE SPECIAL
Nicole George
Ivy Tech Community College

2. agenda PARENT AND TEACHER RELATIONSHIP
EVALUATING & IDENTIFYING EXCEPTIONAL LEARNERS
PRE-REFERRAL TEAM
RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION
INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION PROGRAM
METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTING INCLUSION
RESOURCES FOR ADDITIONAL SUPPORT
CLOSING REMARKS

3. PARENT & TEACHER RELATIONSHIP
ASSISTANCE PARENTS PROVIDES TO EDUCATOR
ASSISTANCE TEACHER(S) PROVIDE TO PARENTS
Personal information and interest of child
Background and medical history
Discipline and learning strategies
Assist in determining strengths and weaknesses
Document evidence of progress and success
Teach and reinforce social skills
Being supportive figure for family
Provide educational and community resources
Personal information of the child can help the teacher understand certain behaviors exhibited in the classroom. The interests of the child can help the educators, as well as the parents, establish long-term education or vocational goals. Background and medical history can assist the educator in understanding why a student behaves or learns in a certain way. Parents sharing their discipline and learning strategies for the child can assist the educator with handling the student effectively in classroom. Assisting in determining strengths and weakness of the child helps the educator create appropriate instructional goals. Parents can also assist the educator in reinforcing directives , especially in homework assignments. Parents can serve as chaperones or volunteers in the classroom.
As an Educator I will provide the parent with documented evidence the child’s progress and success. I will assist the family in becoming actively involved through games and outings for educational purposes. From my observations and teaching methods for the child I can assist with the student’s interest, so that you, the parent can establish your long term goals. In addition, provide educational and community data (i.e. website, organizations, etc.) to keep the parents knowledgeable about what is available for the child and family. Lastly, I will serve as a supportive ear, lend a helping hand and be a friendly figure to serve the student and the family.

4. Evaluating & identifying exceptional learners
PRE-REFERRAL TEAM
Group of professionals
Convened after an educator’s observation
Create alternate educational strategies
Review and evaluate strategies
The Pre-Referral Team are a group of professionals (e.g. special education teachers, counselors, administration and psychologist), as well as your students teacher). The group is convened after your child’s teacher has exhausted all of his/her learning strategies after observing a learning challenge. The Pre-referral team will create alternative educational strategies to review and evaluate the student. If we can overcome the learning challenge, great, but if the student continues to struggle we, along with you recommend a special educational evaluation be conducted for the best interest of the child. In conclusion, as I explain this team to you, as the parents, know you will be made aware of the learning challenge in the beginning from your child’s teacher. The parents are also kept aware of progress or lack of progress by the student teacher’s (i.e. meetings, conference, s).

5. Evaluating & identifying exceptional learners
RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION
Identify student’s change or “lack of”
Based on multi-tiered models
Forms of assessment (2 most common)
Reduce number of student to Special Education
Response to intervention is termed a concept, which refers to a student’s change or lack of change. It is an evaluation tool to assess students with learning disabilities and academic learning traits, but can be applied to social behavior disabilities as well. The evaluation is based on a multi-tiered model having 3 Tiers and a Multidisciplinary Team which convenes between Tiers 2 and 3. Tier 1 and 2 are to determine if the multidisciplinary team convenes to create an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for the student. In Tier 3 the student receives the intensive instruction from a special education professional and the IEP is put into action and the students' progress is monitored frequently.
In Tier 1: a) all students are screened to identify students at risk for school failure
b) given a research based instruction in a general education classroom
c) monitored weekly for progress on those students identified as at risk and
d) all students are screened in the fall, winter, and spring semesters to ensure adequate progress
If a student is non responsive to Tier 1 they go into Tier 2 which mimics Tier 1, except instruction is more intense in frequency and duration. They go into a small group format for instruction and progress is monitored more frequently. If the students’ learning disabilities are overcome in Tier 2, they go back to Tier 1.
Two of the most common forms of assessment are screening instruments and progress monitoring. Screening instruments are used by teachers or school psychologist to identify students who are at risk of school failure. This is administered to the entire group of students, in large numbers for short periods of time and school personnel use the results to assign who needs additional progress monitoring and Tier 2 instructions are implemented. The second assessment, progress monitoring, is frequent, quick and easy measures, that teachers administer at regular times. The results of the assessment provide information on whether the student is learning as expected.

6. Evaluating & identifying exceptional learners
INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION PROGRAM (IEP)
Legal document describing educational services
Components of IEP team
Addendums to IEP for certain ages
Prepared as intended by law (IDEA)
The “Individualized Education Program”, is a legal document that describes the educational services a student receives. IEP’s can vary significantly in detail and format from one child to another and from one school district to another. There are guides for writing IEP’s that provide a summary of the legal requirements. Although federal and state regulations do not specify how much detail must be included in an IEP, a written statement must be developed in a meeting of representatives, known as an IEP Team.
The IEP Team must consist of you, the parents, a regular education teacher, a special education teacher or provider of the child, a representative of the local education agency, and an individual who can interpret instructional implications of evaluation results, with other individuals who have knowledge or special expertise regarding the child (parents or local education agency appoint them) and the child with the disability, whenever appropriate. The team should develop a clear, useful and legally defensible IEP that is specifically structured to meet the unique needs of that child.
The Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004, which governs and regulates the law for children with disabilities, now requires that the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP), a legal document, be written for infants and children up to age 3 who have disabilities. The intervention services include special education, instruction, physical therapy, speech and language therapy and medical diagnostic services.
It also requires transition plans for older students and must be included in an IEP. The transition plan includes services that coordinate a set of outcome-oriented activities, so that a student progresses from school to postsecondary education or vocational training, then employment and independent living. The transition plan is for students 16 years old and annually thereafter for those whom it’s appropriate or have been identified as at risk for school failure. The statement should also include resources and/or responsibilities of each agency participating before the student leaves school.
If an IEP is prepared as intended by law:
The student’s needs must have been carefully assessed.
The IEP Team has developed a program of education plan to best meet the student’s needs.
Goals and objectives are stated clearly so that progress in reaching them can be evaluated.

7. METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTING INCLUSION
Collaborative consultation
Cooperative teaching and other team arrangements
Curricula and instructional strategies
Instructional accommodations and adaptions
Training general education teachers to accommodate diversity
Inclusion is teaching students with disabilities in the same classroom with peers their age who do not have disabilities. Most educators favor some degree of integration of students with disabilities with nondisabled students. The five methods schools generally use to assist students with disabilities participate in general education classrooms are:
Collaborative consultation is when special educator or psychologist acts as an expert who provides advice to the general education teacher, which could include cooperative teaching
Cooperative teaching (aka Co-teaching) is when special and general educators dispense substantial instruction to diverse or blended groups of students in a single classroom. Despite their differing roles the educators should not operate on independent or mutually exclusive educational tracks.
Detailed curriculum and instructional strategies are used to help students with disabilities achievement levels in the general education classroom. Some of the strategies are:
cooperative learning - which is students working together in small groups to solve problems or practice replies, many advocates of inclusion believe it is an effective way to integrate the students.
peer-mediated instruction (aka peer tutoring) - A research-based instructional strategy for managing behavioral problems or other activities where the teacher purposely enlist and educates peers to help teach an academic or social skill to a classmate, as an instructional strategy.
partial participation is where the students with disabilities spend time in class on a reduced basis in almost every activity the other students experience.
This strategy is not a favorable one, as any student with severe intellectual or physical limitations would be wasting their time because they will not benefit from the activities like the non-disabled students.
Instructional accommodations and adaptions may be modified for learners with disabilities. Modifications usually take the form of revised materials or assignments and are different from changes in curriculum or instructional strategies.
Accommodations include changes in instruction that don’t drastically change the content or conceptual level of difficulty.
Adaptations involve more substantial modifications of instructions than accommodations, which could include tiered assignments.
Tiered assignments are adaptations , wherein the student is given choices on the assignment for a single topic that varies in difficulty.
General education teachers received training for collaboration from the co-teaching model. Some advocates believe that teaching students with disabilities is a general and special teachers job, since they are both trained in different things, not only to work together, bur also share a common goal. General education teachers need to consult a Special Education Coach within the school to provide consultation and work-rooted staff development. This is a relationship that helps create the ability among general education teachers to meet the need of diverse learners regarding content.

8. Resources for additional support
National Center for Learning Disabilities
One of the leading online resources for children and adults with
learning disabilities
Do 2 Learn
Online resource for individual with special needs, social and behavior disabilities
Learning Disabilities Association of America
Online resource for parents, educators, professionals and adults
Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities
Online resource for parents, students (at school levels), programs and a guide to action
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Online information regarding the law ensuring the services of the children with disabilities

9. CLOSING REMARKS
I want to thank you all for coming to this informative presentation. We are all special in some unique way. The information presented has some of the components of helping your child succeed in this complex world. I hope that you will take a look at the websites offered as resources, as they are quite informative and may spark a host of questions. Please feel free to contact me as I am a support figure for you and your family. So in short, it is my hope that the information that was shared with you today, has helped you focus on your child's abilities, and not not their disabilities.

10. Reflection
In compiling this PowerPoint presentation I designed my slides to first talk about the parent and teacher relationship and how we can assist and support each other. The relationship should be definitely cohesive and in the best interest of the student. Secondly, I discussed the evaluating and identifying of exceptional learners by explaining the pre-referral team, response to intervention and the individualized education program. These components and assessments are used to identify any learning challenge and create an instructional strategy and plan to overcome or enhance the child’s education and social skills. Finally, I spoke about inclusion and the methods for implementing them into a general education classroom. To inform the parents about the instructional strategies, accommodation and adaptions with regards to modifications and what training general education teachers need to accommodate diverse learners. In addition, I provided online resources for further investigation. I felt this order of presentation gave the parents an understanding of our relationship and what is involved with assessing and evaluating an exceptional learner.