Picture Inclusion!

Snapshots of Successful Diverse Classrooms

Whitney H. Rapp, Katrina L. Arndt, Susan M. Hildenbrand

• Publisher: Brookes Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781681252957
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

Picture one guidebook that gives you the fundamentals of inclusion, proven practices for teaching everyone, and dozens of student profiles and sample lesson plans. That's what you'll get in Picture Inclusion!, your ultimate theory-to-practice guide to teaching every learner in a diverse inclusive classroom.

You'll begin with a reader-friendly introduction to the why and how of inclusion in Grades K–5, including the theoretical foundations of inclusive education and general guidelines on key concepts: universal design for learning, response to intervention, alternate assessment, and more. Then you'll go inside three model classrooms —Grades 1, 3, and 5—for an in-depth look at how to support students with a wide range of learning needs. For each model classroom, you'll find

• Snapshots of 20 diverse students and their teacher. Each snapshot introduces you to a student, clarifies their support needs and goals, and shares a sample support schedule and concrete strategies for helping the student reach their goals.
• Eight sample lesson plans for teaching core academic areas (ELA, math, science, and social studies) and specials (art, physical education, music, and technology). Each plan gives you learning objectives, preparation steps, sample scripts, and step-by-step teaching guidelines.
• Dozens of specific inclusive practices, adaptable for any classroom, to support individual students and groups. (Also available in the appendix as a convenient Inclusive Practices Bank!)

Brimming with the practical tools and wisdom you need to create lessons that support every learner, this hands-on, how-to resource will help you move inclusion from a lofty ideal to an everyday reality.

INCLUDES:

• 60 student snapshots
• 24 sample lesson plans
• Dozens of adaptable inclusive practices
• Extensive list of resources for inclusion

This chapter introduces ideas and theories that are the foundation for this book. We have found that although many teachers support our ideas about inclusion, they do not always have a clear idea of what those ideas look like in practice. This book is designed to explain how to enact inclusive practices for all students, supporting students with and without individualized education programs (IEPs) or 504 plans or English as a new language (ENL) learners, in the same classroom. You may be thinking, “That’s nice, but that’s pie-in-the-sky dreaming, and it’s not possible.”

We think our ideas are more than pie in the sky. We think inclusion is possible for all students, regardless of the range in diversity in the classroom. We also believe all students can meet high academic standards through the praxis of inclusive teaching, the unity between the theory and practice of inclusive teaching. This means the practice—what teachers say and do in the classroom and how they plan, instruct, assess, and structure their classrooms—is grounded on research-based education theories of inclusive teaching, as well as what they believe about inclusion. This practice continually evolves through critical reflections on their experiences in a diverse classroom. Teachers will continue to learn and develop as they get to know individual students and research what is needed to support their learning and development.

If informed practice, critical reflection on experiences, and an unwavering belief in the ability of all students to learn together without “dumbing down” the content are present, then inclusive teaching is possible so that all students can meet high standards, regardless of the range of diversity.

In this book, we discuss theoretical foundations, the impact of each foundation on successful inclusion in diverse classrooms, and how these translate into specific practices for supporting all students, even in vastly diverse classroom settings, without dumbing down the curriculum. Inclusion is sometimes code for segregation—when “inclusion classroom” is used to describe one class in a grade level, what does that mean about the other classes in that grade level? Do they not include students with disability labels? Are those rooms actually segregated? That is not what inclusion means to us.

In this chapter, we address the misconception that we hear people (e.g., educators, teacher education students, families, opponents to inclusion) voice on occasion: “[12:1:1] classes are necessary because some students need them. Some students are more successful in [12:1:1] classes.” Different people might substitute various other conditions for the ones noted in the brackets. It is important to analyze what is working in the special class that seems successful—smaller class size, fewer transitions during the day, highly/specially trained professionals, presence of paraprofessional(s), and family collaboration. Let’s examine each of these classroom conditions.

Smaller class sizes. Class sizes for segregated special education classes are often smaller because only students with IEPs are in them, which is problematic on many levels. Students with disabilities who do not have regular contact with typically developing peers lack access to peer models of typical speech and social interaction or a group of peers with whom to engage. Consider the case of a young girl with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The child was placed in a segregated classroom with peers who also had intellectual disabilities and ASD, and the result was a classroom of six children, none of whom used speech. At first glance, the small class—only six students with a teacher and two teaching assistants—seemed responsive to her needs. But the classroom provided no typically developing peers to model typical speech and social interactions. Students’ access to academics was limited, and the room was loud and chaotic. Several students used challenging behavior (a teacher code phrase that can include tantrums) to communicate, and the result for all children was an environment that felt like the farthest thing from a learning environment. Having access to general education would have served all the children much better, and the special education classroom could have been used as a safe space to relax, regroup, and be calm. In that scenario, after using a quiet space to regroup, students return to the general education classroom—where routines, academic curricula, and social interactions continue.

Fewer transitions. Fewer transitions during the day can support learning. Students in elementary school typically make transitions from the classroom to specials, such as art, physical education, and music, and to lunch and recess. Those transitions can be reduced or adapted by allowing a student to make a transition before or after the rest of the class, travel with an adult or peer buddy, or eliminate one or more transitions and allow the student to remain in the general education setting with appropriate supervision and tasks that mirror what the rest of the class is doing. The number of transitions is typically very high for high school students (and some middle school students)—transitions between multiple classes, sometimes as many as nine in a day, plus a lunch period and perhaps a home base or homeroom. Add in the stress of physically traveling throughout a high school complex, and some students are not able to make a transition as often as most. Some high schools use a schedule of four periods a day on alternating day cycles, which reduces the number of transitions, but it can be confusing. Checking in every morning with the same teacher—often a special education teacher in a resource or support setting—can help some students. It can also help to include one or even two classes that provide instruction in a content area (coordinated with the content area teacher), provide instruction in study skills or test-taking skills, or provide time to take a test with extended time or work on homework with support.

Highly/specially trained professionals. Highly trained professionals do not need to be kept in separate classrooms; special education teachers can do a great deal in the general education setting. In fact, we believe that special education teachers are best utilized in settings with children with and without disabilities; supporting all students is best done in a classroom that includes all students. The result can be powerful for the classroom when a special education teacher is available to a general education teacher or co-teaches with a general education teacher. This is a shift in thinking about how services are provided—from placements to organizing the structure of classrooms. Sailor and McCart supported this shift and noted:

One present day argument, which applies to all students identified for services under IDEA but particularly those with the most significant disabilities, is that educators should support a reauthorization that redirects the focus of policy away from placements of individual children and instead toward the structural elements of a system necessary to ensure that effective instruction and high-quality interventions are readily available for all students, regardless of learning style, disability, or risk factors. . . . The desired result of these systemic changes would be improved services for all students with disabilities, including those students who typically need a greater level of support. (2014, p. 57)

The authors noted that such a shift, which would result in more inclusive practices, is more than ideology with little evidence to support it. They continued:

Evidence supports inclusive education (Fisher & Meyer, 2002; Foreman, Arthur-Kelly, Pascoe, & King, 2004; Logan & Keefe, 1997; Peetsma, Vergeer, Roeleveld, & Karsten, 2001; Wehmeyer, Lattin, Lapp-Rincker, & Agran, 2003) and indicates improved academic and social outcomes. There is additional evidence indicating a direct benefit to general education students when exposed to practices supporting students with more extensive needs (Lenz, Deshler, & Kissam, 2004; Luiselli, Putnam, Handler, & Feinberg, 2005; Manset & Semmel, 1997). (2014, pp. 57–58)

Clearly, the idea that students with disabilities, including those with extensive support needs, need to be isolated to be taught is not accurate. It is a misconception.

Paraprofessionals. Paraeducators, sometimes called teaching assistants or paraprofessionals, are integral to inclusive practice. The National Education Association (NEA; 2015) addressed the importance of paraprofessionals, reminding us of the role they play:

“The range and flexibility of paraprofessional positions make it difficult for most folks to understand exactly where our role begins and ends,” says Sandie Blankenship, a special education paraeducator in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. “But I feel like we’re the mortar that fits where it needs to fit to keep the whole structure together.” Across America, paraeducators are indeed “keeping it together” by supporting and strengthening the curriculum taught by teachers, assisting with school instructional programs, and enabling teachers to spend more individualized time with students. (para. 5–6)

Paraeducators are absolutely key to strong inclusive practice. The paraeducator is often the key to how inclusive a student’s education is—by how he or she supports social interactions, makes academic content accessible, and supports the comfort needs of the student in ways that make it acceptable and appropriate that everyone gets what they need in the classroom. It is hard to overstate the importance of the paraeducator for inclusive practice. A wonderful resource for schools is The Paraprofessional’s Handbook for Effective Support in Inclusive Classrooms (Causton-Theoharis, 2009).

Family collaboration. Family collaboration plays a large role in the success of students. Jorgensen et al. (2012) identified the following indicators for meaningful, effective family–school partnerships: family priorities are reflected on IEPs, families and educators recognize each other’s efforts in positive ways, families have the resources and information needed to advocate for their children’s education, families attend meetings on a regular basis at mutually convenient times, and families have access to community-based services that support healthy family functioning. All of this can happen in any setting.

Each of the previous conditions, which are associated with special education, could lead to students’ success. Having a disability or IEP is not necessary for success, however. Rather, these supports can benefit any student. If they are implemented in diverse, inclusive classrooms, then their benefit could be increased and even more students could experience success. With this in mind, we now examine the theoretical foundations underlying inclusion and their practical application.

THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS O...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the Downloads
• About the Authors
• For the Reader
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. Inclusion: From Theory to Practice
• Chapter 2. Ms. Jackson’s First-Grade Class
• Chapter 3. Mr. Albert’s Third-Grade Class
• Chapter 4. Ms. Lee’s Fifth-Grade Class
• Chapter 5. Revisiting Inclusive Practice
• Appendix A: Inclusive Practices Bank
• Appendix B: Resources for Inclusion
• References
• Index