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It is entirely possible (probable even) that your child in special ed may be behind. It really depends a lot on the individual child and what disabilities they are having to work with. Some kids CAN keep up with the curriculum and just need to be taught the material in a different way. For others, it's too much and they just can't keep up with peers. In that instance, the sp ed teachers would try to do everything possible to teach them whatever they could, keeping them as close to the curriculum as they can handle. I know that may not be the answer you want to hear.
With lesson plans, I doubt you will ever see anything. I have worked for several different school districts and have NEVER been required to show my lesson plans to anyone, much less turn them in. I have heard of some districts where this is policy, but in that case, it would merely be because they set it up that way, not because it's standard practice.
I am looking for the lesson plans of my kid's teachers. However, I like to make sure it exists first.
Does a teacher require to submit lesson plans to the school or the district?
If the teacher does submit the lesson plans, how long does the school require to keep them? or whether there is such requirement to keep the lesson plans?
I am hoping you guys can let me know..
This is one that varies hugely from school to school even within one district. At several previous schools, I have been required to submit lesson plans a week in advance through inter-school files, essentially. My principal could then access that file and check if s/he wished.
However, I ran into difficulty when I posted lesson plans online for the simple reason that lesson plans do not always equal classroom reality. For instance, let's say I had intended to spend 15 minutes explaining subordinate clauses and to spend 20 minutes beginning and practicing a subordinate clause question set due the following day.
Let's say the students didn't get the idea. This calls for an adjustment, obviously, so in reality, let's say we spent 30 minutes on the explanation and really didn't get to start the exercise. Students started freaking about whether the exercise was due the next day (as it said online) or whether it was going to be due at some later point. The concept that "classroom reality overrides the lesson plan" was not one they easily grasped.
Therefore, it was much less trouble to take the lesson plans offline.
In my experience, it is actually NOT the norm for teachers to have lesson plans online -- and it has never been a requirement in my experience for teachers to make lesson plans available to anyone except their administrators.
thank you for answering...
My reason for asking the lesson plans was to compare what was taught in a pulled-out classroom with a regular ed classroom. My kid has an IEP and I have been telling them that the special ed kids were taught much less and they have significantly less homework. We do not need a rocket scientist to know that if the kid learned slower and had less homework, the educational gap would be bigger and bigger. ( I don't mind it is a fact as of now, however, as long as the IEP team refuses to recognize the fact, my kid does not have a chance to receive a decent education from the school).
Well, depending on the nature of your child's disability and the requirements of the IEP, this may be an appropriate accommodation. For instance, many IEPs I've dealt with have actually specified directives to the effect of, "Student may have homework assignments reduced by 25%" or similar wording. Quite obviously, this means "less homework." Similarly, I've had IEP directives that have specified reduced reading load or alternate assignments, so again, the IEP is basically differentiating by reducing the difficulty level of the course.
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However, everytime when I brought up, they would just play word games with me, telling me that they are learning the same skill. My kid is 7th grade this year, the teacher just completed teaching the basic sentence structure and started to teach them to write a paragraph. I just do see how they are learning the "same" skill. In addition, for the past 18 months, I hired a district special ed teacher to teach my kid to write 5 paragraph essays.
One thing I found out was that a special ed teacher, while "following" the curriculum, picked and chose what he/she wanted/preferred to teach/focus, hence year after year, the kids were learning the same basic stuff. For example, they were supposed to learn the different styles of writing since 5th grade, but year after year, even with different special ed teacher, they were taught persuasive writing and skipping the narrative writing etc..
This could be for the very obvious reason that persuasive writing is the most difficult type of writing -- and the type most often tested on in standardized tests. It's also the type most neglected, to be honest, and the type that most needs to be taught in detail. Without further data, it's hard to tell, but it sounds as if the SPEd teacher, faced with the reality that due to learning challenges, the students will need a reduced curriculum, is trying to "pick and choose" the elements that will be most useful and spend time on those. Sometimes, it's a case of just trying to cover the most you can in the time you have at the ability level of the kids.
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When picking readings, if the regular ed kids have 4 to 5 novels, the special ed kids have only 1 or 2, and almost never on non-fiction. When I brought up my kid did not like to read and that the teachers never expected the kids to do reading at home, I would be told that the parents should set up an environment for the child to love to read. I told them not every child likes to read, however, the regular ed kids were required to do outside reading as part of the homework assignments, but the special ed kids were just left behind.
Okay, pardon me if I fail to understand the nature of your complaint. You said the following things:
1. Regular kids have to read 4-5 novels.
2. SPEd kids have to read 1-2 novels.
Why is this inappropriate? If you meant that the regular kids have a greater variety of readings (i.e., that the regular kids have to choose 2 novels to read out of a list of 20 possibilities, but the SPEd kids have to choose 2 novels out of a list of 3 possibilities), I'd agree that this was inappropriate, but having less to read seems like a pretty standard accommodation for most SPEd kids with learning disabilities.
You then said...
1. Your kid doesn't like to read.
2. She's being left behind.
What exactly do you want here? Do you want your child to do more reading or less?
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Before anyone telling me that "well, they are kids with disabilities". Seriously, most of the kids I saw in my kid's pulled-out have the ability to be proficient, they just learn differently. Last summer, I sent my kid for remediation and in one summer, she improved ONE grade level in reading comprehension, she even passed the standardized test, it is frightening to see that she has very little reading in the Language Arts curriculum this year.
That's because -- I'm guessing -- your child's remediation tutor was able to work with her one on one and focus specifically on skills. You may have to advocate for the IEP to be changed to reflect one-on-one instruction as a goal for your child's regular teacher, if that's possible.
Originally posted by anna_mom I am looking for the lesson plans of my kid's teachers. However, I like to make sure it exists first.
Does a teacher require to submit lesson plans to the school or the district?
If the teacher does submit the lesson plans, how long does the school require to keep them? or whether there is such requirement to keep the lesson plans?
I am hoping you guys can let me know..
Some principals require teachers to submit lesson plans. I just have to have them available in case my principal wants to see them, so I put my lesson plans in a binder once I'm done with them. I'd say go to your child's teacher. They're more likely to know what they're teaching than the principal. And if the teacher's any good, they'll be happy to show you the plans.
I think what you are looking for is a syllabus or curriculum of the SpEd program vs. the "regular classroom" instruction and then be able to compare the two. I don't think you are necessarily looking for the day to day lesson plans that your first question posed.
Several school districts that are near me have monthly curriculum plans posted. My school follows a core knowledge curriculum which has requirements on items taught in a specific year, but not necessarily what needs to be taught in which order or during which month. I need to show my principal that I have lesson plans, I keep a sign in my room with a basic outline of what the students need to learn and I've organized the core knowledge curriculum into units that make sense to me.
Seriously that depends on the student. Remember that special education students have until they are 21 to complete their high school diploma and while some get a *special ed* diploma, others manage to complete the regular diploma by that time.
Some examples - Temple Grandin who did not speak until she was over 4, now has 3 phds and is the most respected designer of cattle chutes in the US. She speaks now at all kinds of conventions on autism. She has many books she wrote about the subject. She also publishes professional papers in the agricultural journals.
Another example - Jeremy Sicile Kira who did not actually communicate until he was in high school when he received his communication device. He graduated high school first with a special education degree and his mother encouraged him to finish his regular degree. He gave a speech at his graduation using his computer device that speaks for him. He is currently in college.
Another example - Donna Williams. She is a wonderful artist. She was labeled emotionally disturbed and was tested for deafness when she was 9 because of her language processing disorders. She is now married, she teaches and she is an internationally known speaker. Donna Williams: Art and Autism
There are many examples of students who not only can learn, but do learn. Children with learning disabilities are not necessarily those with low IQs. Many of them are quite bright. If we don't try to teach them the actual curriculum in ways that help them to catch up, we are missing out on talent.
Dorothy
Last edited by toobusytoday; 12-28-2010 at 09:15 AM..
Well, depending on the nature of your child's disability and the requirements of the IEP, this may be an appropriate accommodation. For instance, many IEPs I've dealt with have actually specified directives to the effect of, "Student may have homework assignments reduced by 25%" or similar wording. Quite obviously, this means "less homework." Similarly, I've had IEP directives that have specified reduced reading load or alternate assignments, so again, the IEP is basically differentiating by reducing the difficulty level of the course.
I understand, but my child's IEP does not have a requirement for reduced homework. in fact, during a previous discussion on mainstreaming and as a comprise, I asked the teacher to add extra homework for her outside of the pulled-out classroom. He promised me during the meeting, but didn't happen, hence I went back to ask for mainstreaming again. I also hope that they can see my point.
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This could be for the very obvious reason that persuasive writing is the most difficult type of writing -- and the type most often tested on in standardized tests. It's also the type most neglected, to be honest, and the type that most needs to be taught in detail. Without further data, it's hard to tell, but it sounds as if the SPEd teacher, faced with the reality that due to learning challenges, the students will need a reduced curriculum, is trying to "pick and choose" the elements that will be most useful and spend time on those. Sometimes, it's a case of just trying to cover the most you can in the time you have at the ability level of the kids.
This may as well be true, however, the problem is, despite she has sped teacher every year, they all picked the same area. What I believed was that a regular ed kid has a 12 year curriculum developed by a committee, the curriculum is reviewed. A special ed kid's has a 1 year curriculum decided by the special ed teacher for that particular year.
I am not a teacher, but just a parent trying to understand the process. I am not sure whether you guys familiar with "curriculum mapping" which from what I read is to ensure students do not experience fragmented, incoherent, or repetitive learning experience.
Curriculum Mapping (http://sde.state.ok.us/Curriculum/CurriculumDiv/CurrilumMap/default.html - broken link)
Unfortunately, it was what I saw in the special ed curriculum.
My child's disabilities are on slow processing, language comprehension. For four years, the teachers had been telling me my kid had no problem on decoding. I had 3 evaluations done just to have them acknowledged the fact that my kid has a deficit in phonemic awareness (Seriously, I doubted they understood the term in the beginning of the school year last year).
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Okay, pardon me if I fail to understand the nature of your complaint. You said the following things:
1. Regular kids have to read 4-5 novels.
2. SPEd kids have to read 1-2 novels.
Why is this inappropriate? If you meant that the regular kids have a greater variety of readings (i.e., that the regular kids have to choose 2 novels to read out of a list of 20 possibilities, but the SPEd kids have to choose 2 novels out of a list of 3 possibilities), I'd agree that this was inappropriate, but having less to read seems like a pretty standard accommodation for most SPEd kids with learning disabilities.
You then said...
1. Your kid doesn't like to read.
2. She's being left behind.
What exactly do you want here? Do you want your child to do more reading or less?
In a nutshell, I want my kid to read more. But in lower grades, she was not encouraged to read, hence it is very difficult for her now. In the regular ed classroom, they went over 4 to 5 novels in a year in addition to require the kids to do additional reading, but the special ed kid was taught 1 or 2 novels. While "having less to read" may be what the teachers thought as a "standard", but it is not individualized not my kid. Say, in a recent conversation with the special ed teacher, I raised the question that why was my kid not required to do daily reading, the special ed teacher told me that it was not beneficial for my kid to read 8 pages of reading that the regular ed kids were having difficulty on. But then why can't my kid be asked to read 6 pages or even 4 pages of difficult material, or what about 4 pages of easy material. The problem is the special ed kids were not required to do any reading outside of the classroom. How can these kids ever be mainstreamed?
BTW, my kid is mainstreamed in Social Studies and Sciences with in-class support, because the school does not have pulled out for both. She is also mainstreamed for Math, because I could see that they were not teaching her appropriately. I decided to teach her myself, in two years, she made significant progress.
I understand, but my child's IEP does not have a requirement for reduced homework. in fact, during a previous discussion on mainstreaming and as a comprise, I asked the teacher to add extra homework for her outside of the pulled-out classroom. He promised me during the meeting, but didn't happen, hence I went back to ask for mainstreaming again. I also hope that they can see my point.
Obviously I'm not an expert on your child's needs, but could it be that she is more appropriately placed in a non-mainstream environment? That seems to be the de facto response of the teachers, anyway -- or maybe I am misreading the situation?
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In a nutshell, I want my kid to read more. But in lower grades, she was not encouraged to read, hence it is very difficult for her now. In the regular ed classroom, they went over 4 to 5 novels in a year in addition to require the kids to do additional reading, but the special ed kid was taught 1 or 2 novels. While "having less to read" may be what the teachers thought as a "standard", but it is not individualized not my kid. Say, in a recent conversation with the special ed teacher, I raised the question that why was my kid not required to do daily reading, the special ed teacher told me that it was not beneficial for my kid to read 8 pages of reading that the regular ed kids were having difficulty on. But then why can't my kid be asked to read 6 pages or even 4 pages of difficult material, or what about 4 pages of easy material. The problem is the special ed kids were not required to do any reading outside of the classroom. How can these kids ever be mainstreamed?
It's possible that they can't be mainstreamed. Obviously YMMV according to your child's individual disability (and ability), of course. However, mainstreaming is not always a possibility.
Obviously I'm not an expert on your child's needs, but could it be that she is more appropriately placed in a non-mainstream environment? That seems to be the de facto response of the teachers, anyway -- or maybe I am misreading the situation?
"de facto response" is one of the many problems with special ed I saw in my sd.
During the IEP meeting, I didn't even argue whether my kid should be mainstreamed, but that the pulled-put resource room is not appropriate for her. My kid has a language-based disability, all the evaluations done in the last year was for reading. This year, while I like the special ed teacher very much, he chose to use "Framing your thoughts" approach to teach the kids. This is a program that should have been done in 4th grade. He started from the basic, he spent 40 minutes to show the kid pictures and asked them to name the pcitures, say "a firefighter", then he spent another 40 minutes to teach the kids basic bare bone sentences such as "A boy sits", then another 40 minutes to teach the kids to replace "A boy sits" with "He sits". Then another 40 minutes... you get the picture.
I do think the program is a great program, but it is a writing program. My kid's writing may be horrible, but she knew the basic structure and format. She needs a reading program. I also found it hard to believe that all 10 kids coming from 2 different elementary schools required this approach (middle school began at 7th grade). Hence, it is a teacher's curriculum and not the kid's curriculum. Seriously, I may agree to it, but then what is next year's curriculum?
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It's possible that they can't be mainstreamed. Obviously YMMV according to your child's individual disability (and ability), of course. However, mainstreaming is not always a possibility.
If you were to look into the regulations, least restrictive enviroment (and most of us look at it as mainstreaming) should be first to consider rather than dumping the kids to a replacement classroom and hopefully everyone just assume that they can't learn.
Someone will have to prove that they can't. On the other hand, I have shown that with the right methodology, she could improve one grade level in a summer, she is now reading at 6th grade level. She can achieve high standard in Math.
On the other hand, for 4 years, the teachers had been telling me she had no problem with decoding, all she needed was reading comprehension. The teachers, who claimed all they knew was to teach, argued with my evaluator that my kid did not need help on phonemic awareness. I had three evaluations done just to convince those "teachers'. I had to explain to them the difference between phonemic awareness and phonics.
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