Sped Plans

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2001 : September : 28

Sped Plans
By Michelle

Although I know it can be difficult, there are some things I do not allow anyone else to do with my kids -- and that includes my teaching assistant. Sometimes those daily plans involve the use of specialized techniques that
require specific training. I know that sounds picky, but for many of these, you have to be trained before the company will even sell you the books! If you do the lesson wrong (which you will b/c no one knows how to do the techniques until he/she goes through the training) you will not only introduce bad habits that will slow the children's learning, but you will really have a fight

on your hands when you don't teach it right! Special ed plans should mirror the daily class schedule as much as possible, but they just can't always be exactly the same.

One way to handle this is to start the day by telling the the kids that things will be different. Write a brief outline of the day on the board and be sure to touch on any points that are really different. Add in a fun activity at the end of the hour/day. Encourage the students to finish up so that you can get to the fun stuff. Some of my favorites are:

Koosh ball stories - I tell the first line of the story and toss the ball to another student. That student tells the next line and tosses the ball back. I tell another line and choose another student. We continue until the story is finished. They do get a little weird sometimes!

Teach a magic trick - One that they can do themselves is really great. Interesting science experiments like putting an egg inside of a coke bottle are good too.

My kids always like art.

If it's acceptable, go outside and play ball.

One more thought -- my middle school kids were always great at telling the subs what we "usually" do. If my assistant hadn't been in the room, there is no telling what those subs would have thought of me!

I would be interested in knowing what other teachers do about detailed instructional methods such as Direct Instruction, Wilson Reading, etc. where you have to contend with hand signals, specific ways to blend words, etc.