Creating an Inclusive Social Studies Classroom for Exceptional Learners


Book Description

Creating an Inclusive Social Studies Classroom for Exceptional Learners serves as a comprehensive reference guide for K-12 educators and university-based social studies methods instructors and special education instructors wanting to create more inclusive opportunities for students with disabilities in the general education curriculum. Numerous research-based methods and instructional strategies are shared that enable teachers to effectively engage all learners in the social studies classroom. Social studies educators are encouraged to become a leading voice in support for the inclusion of students with disabilities in K-12 general education classrooms. Written by scholars with extensive backgrounds in social studies and special education, this book enhances and extends the small but growing body of literature addressing the needs of students with disabilities in social studies classrooms. Divided into three sections, the chapters explore how social studies provides an opportunity to create more inclusion for students with disabilities, how to create an inclusive learning environment through best practices in collaborating and planning, and how to help students with disabilities gain access to social studies content and achieve higher levels of understanding. Each chapter provides a brief theoretical underpinning and the latest research within the chapter topic, and practical and engaging strategies that readers can easily implement within their own classrooms. Educators receive guidance on how to get started with implementing the strategies along with suggestions for future research topics.




Practical Strategies for Teaching K-12 Social Studies in Inclusive Classrooms


Book Description

With the national push towards inclusion, more students with disabilities are being placed in general education settings. Furthermore, when placed, more students with disabilities are entering social studies classrooms than any other content area. Classroom teachers are being asked to “reach and teach” all students, often with little support. There are numerous texts on the teaching of social studies, an equal number on teaching students with disabilities. Blending best practice in social studies and special education instruction, this book provides both pre – and in-service educators simple, practical strategies that support the creation of engaging, relevant, and appropriate social studies opportunities for all students. Though the strategies presented are useful for all students, they are particularly beneficial for students with disabilities. From Universal Design for Learning, mnemonics, graphic organizers, and big ideas, to co-teaching, screen readers and the Virtual History Museum, this book offers hands-on, practical ideas general educators can use when teaching K-12 social studies in inclusive classrooms.




Adapting Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science Materials for the Inclusive Classroom


Book Description

This book offers teachers guidelines and suggestions for adapting and/or selecting materials for use with students with disabilities in general language arts, social studies, and science classrooms (grades 6 through 8). Following an introduction, chapter 1 offers a nine-step procedure for adapting materials from first, creating a plan for adapting materials, through fourth, determining the need for content adaptations versus format adaptions for adapting materials, to ninth, fading the adaptation when possible. The following three chapters offer examples of material adaptations including adapting existing materials, mediating existing materials, and selecting alternate materials. These 12 contributions are: (1) "Differentiated Textbook Instruction" (Steve Horton); (2) "The Quality Assignment Routine and the Quality Quest Planner" (Jean Schumaker); (3) "S.O.S.: Survey, Obtain Information, Self-Test" (Jean Schumaker); (4) "Content Organizers" (B. Keith Lenz); (5) "Concept Organizers" (Janis Bulgren); (6) "Mnemonic Adaptations" (Margo Mastropieri and Tom Scruggs); (7) "Problem-Solving Prompts for Performance Assessments" (Jerry Tindal); (8) "Title: The Survey Routine" (Jean Schumaker); (9) "Coherent Text Built around Big Ideas" (Bonnie Grossen); (10) "Reasoning and Writing" (Bonnie Grossen); (11) "Science Videodisc Media" (Bonnie Grossen); and (12) "Connecting Math Concepts, SRA, and Core Concepts Videodisc Programs" (Bonnie Grossen). (Individual sections contain references.) (DB)







Creating an Inclusive School


Book Description

In this comprehensive resource on inclusive schooling, administrators, general and special educators, and parents explore how inclusive education can support a diverse student body at all grade levels. They show how schools can meet standards and provide a "least restrictive environment" for students with disabilities by using cooperative learning, teaming, multi-age grouping, multicultural education, social skills training, and educational technology applications. And they explain how to facilitate change by using universal design principles and other curricular, instructional, assessment, and organizational practices. The authors examine the prevailing myths and the most frequently asked questions about inclusive education, and they provide an extensive list of resources. Woven through the book are the personal stories of people with disabilities and the educators and parents who work with them. As their voices make clear, inclusion is more than an educational buzzword; inclusion is a way of life, based on the belief that each individual is valued and belongs.







Inclusion Strategies and Interventions


Book Description

Inclusion means more than just preparing students to pass standardized tests and increasing academic levels. In inclusive classrooms, students with special educational needs are treated as integral members of the general education environment. Gain strategies to offer the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral benefits that allow all students to achieve their highest potential.




Strategies for Teaching Content Effectively in the Inclusive Secondary Classroom


Book Description

Strategies for Teaching Content Effectively in the Inclusive Secondary Classroom provides classroom applications, school-wide recommendations and content-specific strategies to support students with disabilities in secondary general education settings. By focusing on the planning pyramid, multiple intelligence, Universal Design for Learning and instructional time, the book shows how to create an inclusive climate across the school and in the classroom. Specific content-area chapters feature proven techniques for teaching all learners reading, writing, listening, speaking, science, math and social studies. Tips for co-teaching, behavior management, and assessment help teachers learn how to improve their instruction and make it more effective for secondary students with disabilities.




The Inclusive Classroom


Book Description

This text offers a wealth of practical and proven strategies for successfully including students with disabilities in general education classrooms. The text provides targeted strategies for the subject and skill areas, as well as special needs of individual students, with a strong focus on instructional strategies applied to specific student need areas. An overall theme of "effective, differentiated instruction" is infused throughout the text, relating to those practices that are most closely aligned with academic success. The text is unique in its three-part coverage of 1). the fundamentals of teaching students with special needs, 2). effective general teaching practices, and 3).inclusive practices in specific subject areas. With a strong focus on instructional strategies and how they are applied to specific student need areas, the text goes further by featuring more specific strategies than any other text, and extensive information about the most effective strategies available, and when and how to use them.. This strong focus instructs pre-service teachers and other education personnel on how they can implement in the classroom specific strategies to address a very wide range of grade levels, skill levels, academic content areas; and extensive and very specific information on strategies teachers can use in the areas of most concern to them, e.g., behavior management, handling student confrontations, promoting literacy, memory for school content, motivation to learn, maintaining student attention, adapting assessment and improving test scores, and specific strategies for adapting specific lessons in math, science, social studies, and career and technical education. Specifically written for pre-service or in-service special education teachers who will work with general education teachers in K-12 classrooms, the text is also relevant for school psychologists, counselors, support staff, and other school personnel interested in helping all students succeed in the classroom.




Best Practices for the Inclusive Classroom


Book Description

Written by expert teachers and researchers, Best Practices for the Inclusive Classroom: Scientifically Based Strategies for Success looks at field-tested strategies that teachers of inclusive classrooms need to implement to successfully teach all of the learners in their classroom. The purpose of the book is to provide both general and special education teachers with a practical guide of scientifically validated, evidence-based instructional strategies in a variety of content areas, including reading, writing and spelling, mathematics, science, and social studies. An overview of the Response to Intervention process provides a foundation for implementing research-based strategies in the core content areas. In addition, the book offers tested tips for implementing assistive technology, culturally responsive teaching practices, and fair assessment in the classroom, along with information on managing problem behaviors and adapting curriculum for various special needs. The book also includes a chapter on how teachers, parents, and school professionals can work together to ensure success for all students.