Читать книгу Creating Effective IEPs - Nancy Burton - Страница 10

Providing an individualized, special education to an individual with disabilities has become a hallmark of the American special education system. The implementation of special education legislation, however, is a complex undertaking that requires much thought, consideration, and planning as well as a willingness to work not only with a given curriculum, but also with individual students to determine how best to serve them. The effective special educator recognizes the process of effectively teaching individuals with special learning needs as simple in its complexity. In other words, the effective educator knows there are three components to being a successful teacher of students with special needs. In fact, effective content area, general education teachers recognize the same components.

First, every teacher must know the WHAT, which is the content or curriculum that must be taught. Well-trained teachers—elementary and secondary—know their content, and they study and work to remain current in their respective fields. In the case of IEP development, the WHAT becomes a focus on the specific academic and functional needs of the student with special learning needs. The second component is the student—every student who is in any particular class—the WHO if you will—ever changing and complex in nature but always an individual challenge for teachers who desire to have a positive impact on the lives of the students they encounter. Finally, the one component or element that provides the link between the WHAT and the WHO is the HOW. It is a question that, once answered, must be asked again and again as individual students progress through the curriculum. Most certainly it is the most essential question a teacher can ask when attempting to best address a student’s academic and behavioral needs. At no time is the HOW more significant than when the task is to design and develop an IEP.

 W H A TO

 W H O

Understanding the curriculum and knowing the students, both collectively and individually, are essential to understanding how instruction must be designed for the most effective outcomes. Every teacher, both general and special educators, should recognize the significance of carefully designed, student-centered instruction. Preparing an IEP for a student who has very specific academic and/or behavioral needs is both structured and intense. Fortunately, there are specific legislative and state guidelines that provide direction in the development of the individualized plans required by IDEA.