However, many students need extra support to organize their work, especially special education and ADHD students. They might understand your class’s content, but have trouble organizing their materials, allotting their time, and understanding what to do.

Teachers can assist these students, as well as the whole class, with organization and time management by building it into the class routine.

1. Post the plan. Your lesson plan should be on the board for students to see. Students who might not have focused when you said what textbook page has the assignment can look at your plan on the board. Each time you switch activities, show the class where you are on the day’s plan. Provide both visual and auditory cues for homework expectations.
2. Provide time for organization. Just as you’d give a student think time after a question, give students a few moments to write down the day’s assignment in their homework planners. Before introducing the expectations, ask students to pull out their homework planners and record the assignment on both the day you assigned it as well as on the due date – with a box around it to draw a student’s attention.

   When it’s time for the lesson’s closure, review the lesson’s main concept as well as the expectations for the next class (quizzes, assignments due).

3. Provide a checklist. Post your daily routines in the classroom. If you have a requirement for an assignment’s heading, post it on the wall and refer to it for assignments. When assigning projects, include a checklist for students to use when completing each task.
4. Chunk it up. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Students who have problems with organization and time management might see your two-week project like eating an elephant. Help them to parse the work out into smaller bits and assign checkpoints to each step along the way. It’s also a useful full-class activity for students to suggest how to break up the project and assign mini due dates.
5. Provide a rubric. When you assign any work, it’s good practice to let students know how they’ll be evaluated. If you have a standard rubric you use, post it in your classroom and refer to it when you give students an assignment. Talk about the criteria for each requirement and provide examples.

Those five tips will help your special education and ADHD students organize and manage their class work, but each tip is just good practice. Your regular education students will appreciate your efforts, too.

When working with students who have emotional or behavioral disorders in the classroom, you have to be careful not to be the spark to the EBD student’s tinder. This isn’t something I’m great at, but I’ve learned a few things to de-escalate behavior and redirect.

• Lower your voice. When I’m agitated, my voice becomes shrill. I don’t hear it, but students and bats do. Lowering my voice gives me and my students the illusion that I’m calm.
• Recognize the source. The student might be uncomfortable with his competency in your class. Pre-arrange for the student to answer a question about the homework in front of the whole class. Double-check with the student before class to make sure that he understands the homework question and has the correct answer.
• Slow down. Sometimes students with EBD or other learning disabilities need less stimulation. Slow down your delivery, chunk up the material, and offer students enough think time after questions.
• Give yourself think time. This one’s really for me. Don’t say the first thing that pops into your head when a student makes a heated comment. The goal is to de-escalate the conflict, not one-up the student.
• Watch for the warning signs. Try to recognize what triggers a student’s outbursts. If you see a student becoming agitated, intervene with a quiet word or change the lesson’s pacing.
• Pre-arrange a signal. Sometimes the EBD student recognizes that her behavior is becoming unmanageable. You and the student can develop a pre-arranged hand signal that lets you know she’s taking the rest room pass for a cool-down.
• Engage students. This one’s pretty obvious, but when students are engaged in the lesson, they don’t disrupt as much. Work frequent engagement activities into your lesson so that your EBD students don’t disrupt out of boredom.
• Talk one-on-one. Try to talk to the EBD student alone and not in front of the entire class. If it’s practical to pull the student aside or into the hall without calling attention to it, do so. However, if you’re in a whole-class situation, give the class something to do, approach the student’s desk, squat down to her level, and have a conversation in a quiet voice.
• Acknowledge the student’s concern. You might not be able to address the EBD student’s problem right at the moment, but you can acknowledge her concern. Write it down and make a point of getting back to her during class. Make sure that she understands that her concerns and comfort level are important to you and that you intend to follow up on them.
• Give students a choice. Maybe a written assignment always causes Ian to create a classroom disruption because he struggles to concentrate enough to finish a sentence. Offer students choices in the way that they show they know the concepts.
• Build a relationship with your EBD students. These kids might not be fabulous at parallel structure or parallelograms, but they might be a terror on the dirt bike course. Find out what they love to do and show an interest.
• Don’t ask why. The EBD student probably doesn’t know why she did something or else can’t put it into words. It’s an exercise in frustration. Stick to the what and how questions instead. What are you supposed to be doing? What can I do to help you? How can you fix this?
• It’s not you. Really. A wise guidance counselor told me that it’s not my fault that my EBD students reached a boiling point. After a few years, I decided to believe him and I became a calmer teacher.
• Coach, don’t nag or lecture. Guilty, guilty, guilty. I try very hard to take the coaching-support view. I try to say, “That’s not quite right. Try again.” I try not to say, “Remember last time this happened? You went to the office, didn’t you? That’s where you’re headed again if you don’t stop…”

This isn’t a complete list of what works well to de-escalate an EBD student. It’s a start, though. Do you have something to add? Please write about what works for you and your students in the Comments section or e-mail Diane Trim.

Researchers Vannest, Temple-Harvey, and Mason reviewed 20 studies about teaching strategies that work well with students who have emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). They didn’t find a magic bullet or Shangri-la. They found those rock-solid teaching strategies that work with all students, but work especially well with the EBD population.

The researchers wrote that teachers are under pressure for their EBD students to succeed on standardized tests at the same rate as nondisabled kids and achieve annual yearly progress (AYP). “For students with EBD, meeting AYP will require instructional expertise in academic content as well as the behavioral and social skills typically found in curriculum and IEP goals,” the researchers wrote.

They wrote that teachers with EBD students need to be efficient because they are expected to reduce students’ behavior issues while boosting their academic achievement. To that end, they isolated some teaching strategies that work well for these students.

Using taped word read-alongs. The researchers found a study that showed middle school students’ reading rate and accuracy improved when the students listened to tapes. Varying the pacing of the tapes helped improve reading skills, too.

Test retakes. The study the researchers found was of 10 – 12 year olds who were learning math and spelling. Students who could retake a test scored higher than those who couldn’t.

Responses, praise, and academic talk. Students who were given many opportunities to respond to academic talk and who frequently received praise performed better than those who didn’t.

Cover, copy, and compare (CCC). Students not only performed well with this strategy, but they liked it, too. According to the researchers, “CCC is a process of looking at an instructional stimulus, removing, it, and responding with an immediate check for accuracy.” If the student has a wrong answer, she just tries it again.

These strategies, plus the others in the article, are researched-based and effective. The authors write that these strategies can encourage EBD students to learn and engage them in lessons. Engaged students have fewer behavioral problems, too.

Reference

Vannest, K., Temple-Harvey, K., and Mason, B. (2008.) Adequate Yearly Progress for Students With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders Through Research-Based Practices. Preventing School Failure. 53, 73-83.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act falls under ADA’s umbrella and follows the same definitions and standards as the ADA. So, when the ADAA took effect on January 1, 2009, it changed Section 504 as well.

Congress’s intent, according to the law (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:s3406enr.txt.pdf ), was to restore the intent and protections of the ADA. The amendment states that Congress finds Supreme Court decisions, “narrowed the broad scope of protection intended to be afforded by the ADA.” Because of this narrowing, Congress found that lower courts were denying disabled status to people who have substantially limiting impairments.

Section 504 provides a disabled student protection against discrimination in the schools as well as in the workplace and public. It recognizes that schools need to provide all students, able-bodied and disabled, with a free, appropriate, public education (FAPE). For students who qualify as disabled, Section 504 requires schools to make reasonable accommodations.

One of the ways a person is determined to be disabled is from the limitations her major life activities like caring for herself, hearing, and speaking. New to the ADA’s list of major life activities are reading, concentrating, and thinking, which are all school-related functions.

The ADAA also added language about devices, medication, and behavior modification that the disabled can use to improve their condition. With the exception of eyeglasses and contact lenses, the amendment to the ADA says that determining the extent that impairment affects a person’s life needs to be done, “without regard to the ameliorative effects of mitigating measures.” In other words, for purposes of evaluation, look at the individual as if she were not taking medication, using a walker, or using behavior modification techniques.

Congress’ first finding was that the ADA should eliminate discrimination against disabled individuals and provide broad coverage for the disabled. The months ahead will likely bring changes for the person who administers the Section 504 plans in your school as well as for the teachers who have students with Section 504 plans in class.

Students with food allergies can have reactions to the allergen that range from tingling, itching and hives to anaphylaxis, a serious and rapid reaction that can lead to death.

The problem for secondary school teachers is that food allergies can reach beyond the cafeteria and into the classroom. ABC News reported that a girl with a peanut allergy had a severe reaction in the classroom when a boy two rows away opened a peanut butter cup. The smell caused the girl’s anaphylaxis and she went to the emergency department with breathing problems.

Anne Munoz-Furlong, former chief executive and founder of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), said that student’s often don’t understand that food allergies are real. “It’s not a food preference,” she said. “Students need to understand that they can really hurt their classmates.”

Food allergies in the classroom. The CDC study found that the number of hospitalizations for children with food allergy reactions is an average of 9,537 each year, which is nearly double the average for the years 2001-2003.

We don’t know why food allergies are on the rise, Munoz-Furlong said, but we’re not the only country where this is occurring.

The concern for teachers is that allergic reactions to foods are more likely to happen in the classroom than during lunch.

“Everyone worries about the cafeteria,” Munoz-Furlong said. “The biggest risk is food in the classroom. A study done about allergic reactions in schools found that food was used in classroom lessons, celebrations, and holiday parties. Teachers should ask parents to become involved and put parents of allergic students in charge of arranging events like these.”

Teaching about food allergies. Forming partnerships between parents of allergic students and teachers is an important way to protect the allergic student. But teachers can also educate students about food allergies.

FAAN has resources for teachers who want to raise food allergy awareness in their classrooms at www.foodallergy.org. Resources include a short PowerPoint presentation with the facts about food allergies and a fact-or-fiction quiz.

The FAAN Website also recommends that teachers become familiar with school emergency procedures, know how to recognize an allergic reaction, and understand what to do when a reaction occurs. The site recommends alerting substitute teachers about food allergic students and avoiding using food in lesson planning.

Food bullying. Despite a teacher’s best efforts, students with food allergies can experience reactions and become a target for food bullying from their peers. In April of 2008, a Kentucky middle school student faced felony charges for placing peanut butter cookie crumbs in the lunch box of a food allergic student. The allergic student did not suffer a reaction.

“Food bullying is more common than we’d like to believe, especially in middle school where there’s so much peer pressure,” Munoz-Furlong said. “The graphic descriptions of allergic reactions can make food allergic students a target. Instead of calling attention to food bullying, the best plan is for teachers to explain that there is a no bully policy in the school.”

Teachers and schools can begin PAL (Protect a Life from Food Allergies) programs in their classrooms and schools to encourage students to keep their classmates safe. Free downloadable posters and brochures are available from FAAN at http://www.foodallergy.org/pal.html.

“We’re all in this together,” Munoz-Furlong said. “Kids need to help other kids. Teachers need to educate. If you don’t already have a child with a food allergy in class, you will.”

Special Education law is increasingly layered with details, caveats and other complications that often result in schools and parents, neither being legal council, being caught in interpretation. Yet despite its cumbersome details, school districts and parents are after the same goal; to educate all children, regardless of disability.

And thus, the federal mandate (Public Law 102-119), known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was born. This mandate states that all disabled children will receive a free appropriate public education by the school district and the district must provide all related services at no cost to the child or his/her parents.

It is our opinion that in order to best work with parents of special education children, it is best to understand them first.

For the sake of organization, we categorized them into groups. By doing so, perhaps you can more easily think about how to work with them, as educating their child is a team effort. It is important to note that we are in no case saying that any of these parents are not good parents. As we would do for our child?

1. Denial – These parents are those who are in disbelief that their child may have a disability. Disabilities come in many shapes and sizes and often are not detected immediately. Autism, as an example, is a disability that greatly varies in severity and may not be visible until the child is well into their school years.
2. Chip On Shoulder – These parents are in many ways bitter about the disability and come from a perspective of the school / district owing them something. They are commonly dissatisfied with services and the performance of their child.
3. Advocates – These parents are very well versed in the laws and work hard to continue to move the field forward. They see themselves as part of the solution and feel part of their life mission is to advocate for rights and changes.
4. Savvy – These parents, typically from wealthy school districts, who hire personal advocates or attorneys to push issues to their extreme. They often threaten districts to go to court over Due Process rights or the like, are willing to contact the media if their demands are not met and in many cases receive unprecedented services (i.e. out-of-state placement, extra equipment, extra aid support, etc.). These parents will often arrive at an IEP with a personal attorney.
5. Equality Not Equity – These parents advocate for their child to be fully mainstreamed into the regular education classroom, despite level of disability. It is common for parents of children with disabilities to want ‘normal’ activities for their children and to experience the day as ‘normal’ children do.

Districts must be aware that engaging in any legal battles require substantial resources of time and monies, the risk of negative publicity (i.e. not advocates for all students).

It should be noted that in the case where districts lose court battles, they may be ordered by the court to pay for the legal fees incurred by both the district as well as the plaintiff (i.e. parent(s)/guardian(s) for the student).

Although rights, laws and policies are intended to provide support for an individual or group of individuals, we would be remiss to complete this article without mentioning the concern of over-labeling children. It has been the observation of both authors that there is a disproportionate number of minority and second language learners that are often referred for special education services.

For a myriad of reasons, it is imperative that districts have very clear and concise parameters for all special education referrals and evaluations as the long term implications for students, should they be improperly classified are daunting.

Please take great deliberation, gather a variety of data, seek the input of a variety of staff and parents invest thoughtfulness and sensitivity on everyone’s part.

1. IDEA = Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It’s a catchy acronym and the name for the nation’s special education law. You might hear someone spell it out like I – D – E – A or you might hear someone say IDEA ’97 or IDEA 2004, which are the years in which the law changed and was authorized.
2. FAPE = Free Appropriate Public Education. This one’s pronounced fay-p. FAPE is a concept in IDEA that ensures that all students’ public education will be Free, including education and services for special needs students.

   Public education will be Appropriate, which means that a student’s education will be suited to her, specifically. It will fit that particular student’s needs, strengths, and goals. It also means that the student will receive the support she needs to be successful. In other words, Appropriate means that each special education student will have an education and services tailored to her needs.

   Public means that our public funds pay for educating these special education students. In general, this means that special education students will attend the same schools as other students do, even if their disabilities are severe. However, sometimes this means that the public funds the education of a student enrolled in a private school, too.

   The E stands for Education, which is what the IDEA law is all about. However, Education goes beyond textbooks and field trips. In terms of IDEA, Education also includes all the special education services that a child needs for her Appropriate Education.

3. IEP = Individualized Education Program. When you hear this term, people will say it by spelling it: I – E – P. The IEP is the appropriate part of FAPE, in other words, it’s the instructional plan that’s tailored to each special education students’ individual needs. The IEP contains information about the student’s disability and the special education services the student will receive. Periodically, a team of teachers and the parents meets to review the IEP and revise it, if necessary.
4. LRE = Least Restrictive Environment. IDEA requires that the public give special education students a public education in the least restrictive environment possible, which can mean different things to different students, depending on their IEPs. Often it means that the special education student receives as much of the education and services in her IEP as possible while seated alongside her nondisabled peers. This means that the special education student could be in regular education classes with either a support teacher in the classroom or pull-outs with the special education teacher during the day.
5. TA&D = Technical Assistance & Dissemination Network. This mouthful is spelled out: T – A – and – D. You don’t hear it often but NICHCY thinks it’s important. TA&D is the network of government projects that support IDEA. NICHCY is one of them, but there are 39 others. Some of these projects focus on early childhood education, others on behavioral interventions. You can visit the network here: http://www.rrfcnetwork.org/content/view/137/192/ and even download a placemat with all of the projects and contact information on it. It’s a good acronym for teachers who are searching for resources for helping families, students, and fellow staff members. And it’s a placemat, which would be great to put in the teacher’s lunch room on the tables.

You’ll notice that NICHCY didn’t make it onto its own list, but you might want to look it up on the Internet all the same. They have great resources for working with special needs students.

Some nights Mom spot-checks Lexi’s assignment notebook against the homework the teacher posted online. It helps prevent missing assignments, Mom said.

The ’Net is a great educational tool, not just for classrooms, but for classroom communication as well. Teachers who host a classroom web page provide parents a resource for finding out about tests, projects, and assignments.

In the year since Texas high school teacher Susan Byrd has been posting homework online, she has received very few parent phone calls or e-mails about assignments.

Byrd recommends that teachers upload documents in user-friendly formats. “Not everyone has access to Publisher [and other programs], so you want to use generic programs,” Byrd said. “Also, you want to make sure that the file size isn’t huge because if a kid has dial-up at home, [downloading] is torture.”

While it’s convenient for students and parents to check the daily homework assignments online, some worry that posting assignments doesn’t encourage students to be responsible.

Suzanne Tingley, a former superintendent and author of Dealing with Difficult Parents, said it’s wise to post major assignments, mid-term exams, and research papers, but not daily work. She’s concerned that posting all assignments won’t encourage students to develop good study habits.

“When students go to college, no one will post assignments online for parents. The students are old enough in high school for that responsibility and posting homework online really teaches kids nothing,” Tingley said.

Posting assignments online also adds another layer of responsibility for the teacher, Tingley said.

Deb, a middle school social studies teacher in Wis., has been teaching for 19 years and posting student homework online for five years. Like Tingley, Deb worried about posting homework online because viewing assignments online doesn’t teach students to take good notes.

“I felt that it was taking away the students’ responsibility to write assignments in their assignment notebooks,” Deb said. “I have seen value in doing this and changed my mind. It not only helps students double check what they have recorded, but it also allows parents access to the information.”

Deb sees posting homework online as a reminder of work that needs to be done, but it’s not a substitute for assignment notebooks. She posts enough information online to remind students what they need to complete, but she doesn’t include every detail of instruction.

“Students know that with this resource there is little room for the excuse that they didn’t know what the assignment was or they forgot their assignment notebook at school,” Deb said.

Since she began posting homework online, Byrd has found that students turn in homework more consistently. Her classroom is 100 percent paperless, so students expect to visit the classroom site for daily work and grade updates.

“The kids see their current average right when they log on,” Byrd said. “It’s been enormously powerful.”

As a parent, Byrd relies on the system her daughter’s school uses to keep on top of assignments and tests. She checks the system twice a week and can see when big tests or projects are coming up.

“She’s more responsible because she knows I know what’s happening, too!” Byrd said.

• Three times as many ADHD teens fail a grade, have been suspended, or have been expelled from school as their peers.
• Teachers should have well established classroom procedures that become automatic for students, especially ADHD students.
• Teachers should use private, pre arranged nonverbal signals or signal words to gain an ADHD student’s attention.
• Parents should make time to help their ADHD children clean, sort, and dump contents of backpacks, notebooks, desks, and rooms.

Sandra Reif’s 496-page book The ADHD Book of Lists contains information about the disorder and practical suggestions for special education teachers, regular education teachers, and parents who need help with an ADHD child. It’s not a book to be read in chapters or cover-to-cover, but rather it’s designed to be a teacher or parent reference about ADHD.

Reif has compiled 97 lists that address ADHD diagnosis, behavior problems, support strategies, accommodations, organization, academic difficulties, collaborating with parents, and what to do during an IEP meeting. Each bulleted list has a brief introduction and the list itself. Some lists also refer readers to other sources and resources on the topic.

The information in the book is well organized, but the best part is that the book is formatted to encourage photocopying. The binding lies flat when the book is open, the pages are 8 x 11, and each page has a small copyright blurb. A teacher can find a list about medication side effects, photocopy it, and give it to a concerned parent. A special education teacher can reproduce the visual cue drawings in the appendix and hang up visual cues for get out your pencil and paper, stop that, listen, or write this in your planner. Better yet, the special education teacher can photocopy the IEP section for a new teacher who has never attended an IEP meeting or hand a copy of the dos and don’ts list to a veteran teacher who is convinced her ADHD student is just lazy and irresponsible.

Even though the book is designed to help teachers teach and support ADHD students, it’s also just a good teaching reference. Reif has included lists about improving reading comprehension, learning styles, and teaching math that outline good teaching practice for any student, not just the ADHD student. She includes tip sheets for parents, too, so teachers can photocopy the sheet and give the strategies to a parent whose child is struggling reading, writing, math, or organization.

I recommend this book as a great reference tool for special education teachers who have many ADHD students on their case load or a regular education teacher who has many ADHD students in his class. Both teachers could benefit from the quick lists and teaching tips in the book. Any teacher would love the photocopier-friendly layout and binding.