Instructional Strategies

Initial Content Standard 4: Instructional Strategies

Standard 4 of the Council for Exceptional Children’s Initial and Professional Content Standards and Knowledge and Skill Sets states that a Special Educator must use evidence based instruction for individuals with exceptional learning (Council for Exceptional Children, 2009). The CEC further defines this as being able to select, adapt, and use instruction to promote positive learning results in general and special curricula and also to modify the learning environments.

I believe there are many pieces to creating and implementing effective instruction. To me, it begins with classroom management and motivation. I can create the perfect lesson, but without a proactive classroom management approach, positive language, and a good spirit - my lesson will not be successful. I also have to create an environment that is positively motivating to each student. Motivation is an internal being that can be manipulated by our external environment. Accord to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - a student's level of motivation is based upon the type of environment that they are in. (Maslow, 1943) I have to make sure the student feels safe, has a sense of belonging, and is loved. I can be confident that the student is motivated to do work based on - being in the 4th tier of this hierarchy. That tier is based on Esteem which means the student wants to do well for the sake of their image to other people. This is a great place to be, but my true goal of instruction is to reach tier 5 which is Self-Actualization. At this point, a student's success is personal to them. The student is able to motivate their self because of the need to be successful for personal desire and satisfaction. Tier 5 is where we see the full potential of an individual reached.

Everything from my facial expressions to my use of proximity has an impact on the lesson. By pairing these external ideas of teacher language, classroom management, motivation and the belief in research based instruction - it is evident that the potential success of my teaching and my student's learning will be greater along with the experience being much more meaningful.

The Council for Exceptional Children’s Content Standard explicitly states the process of instruction as “Selecting, Adapting, and Implementing”. (2009) Below are examples of experiences during my internships in the elementary and secondary settings in which I planned and implemented research based instruction along with keying in on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

As part of an Action Assignment for EDSP 675: Teaching Students with Exceptional Learning Needs in the Elementary General Curriculum, I selected, planned and implemented a 10 day unit with an individual student working on an area of need. In this assignment, I was able to show my explicit understanding for research based instruction, progress monitoring, and on-the-spot reflection of my own teaching.

During my student teaching placements, I planned, wrote, and taught lesson plans that were based on motivating students, offering multiple methods of representation, and creating a positive learning environment for the students.

Selecting Instruction

As I began my action assignment, I started looking at areas of need for the child. It was suggested that my student should focus on mastering the alphabet, letter and sound, because of it being so critical to the progression of a beginning reader. I also knew that the student had trouble focusing. My goal for selecting instruction was to find an intervention that consisted of small spurts of instruction. I was also hoping to utilize instruction that was multisensory. Through collaboration with other professionals and referring back to the determined goals, it was suggested that we look into a program called Fundations: Wilson Language Basics for K-3. This program includes a combination of phonological awareness, phonics, and spelling program. Although, I am still unsure if the program was the best choice. I believe making the decision of a multisensory program which has structure but allows for flexibility was a good choice for this student. The student showed great success with mastering letter name and sound with an increase in the baseline date of 23 Names and 19 sounds to all 26 letters for both categories.

Adapting Instruction

In the spring of 2013, I was placed in a high school working with 9th - 12th grade students. During an academic lab class, it became obvious that the students were not engaged in the current subject - which happened to be geometry. I was also aware that the students were working on money at the time. I began thinking about how to create a motivating assignment that also was beneficial to this geometry lesson. I started looking around the classroom of boys and reflecting on past classroom conversations and/or social time. Each student showed an interest in skateboarding, bicycling, or other form of extreme sports. That day I began adapting the instruction to incorporate a topic of interest along with making the assignment hands on. I assembled an array of scrap supplies such as cardboard boxes, construction paper, and magazines. As I showed the students the materials the following day, I then explained to them that we were going to be creating our very own model skate park. Each group of students worked together to create their own model. This assignment was adapted to motivate the students, get them up and moving (which helped with classroom management), and combined collaboration, fine motor skills, and geometry