Educating Special Needs Students

Course Description
This course is designed for all educators and related providers who work with students with learning disabilities, attention deficits (with or without hyperactivity), developmental delays, behavior problems or other distinctive disorders. Participants will also gain understanding of students with dyslexia, autism and multiple disabilities. Federal laws will be explored: IDEA, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and Section 504 of the Rehabilitations Act of 1973, along with many required applications to the classroom.
Participants will develop a clinical eye toward all students (with or without an IEP) and will be able to apply classroom accommodations, developmental teaching techniques and designed modifications. Each course participant will organize and complete a case study based on one selected student. We will review symptoms, describe individual deficits and customize an educational plan that will accommodate that student's weakness. That plan will be put into effect and monitored as per course assignment. Internet websites will be reviewed and discussed to facilitate current research.

Objectives

• Acquire a solid foundation of knowledge relating to students with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, dyslexia, autism and many other disabilities
• Understand Federal laws that drive curriculum and classroom management throughout the grades
• Facilitate learning for all students (with or without the IEP) by applying academic accommodations and specific modifications
• Interpret student documents (IEP, Psychological) and learn how they can help you understand your student and his capacity to learn
• Strategize on how to work effectively with support staff (Resource, Speech, OT, PT, Psychologist, Social Worker) and develop partnerships that will benefit everyone
• Update and organize Internet sites to provide easy access for course research
• Develop a case study based on one student's collected data, present a profile analysis and a plan of action that will be implemented in the classroom
• Empower educators with tools, strategies and knowledge that will allow them a clinical view of all students in class
• Inspire course participants to perceive all students as unique and special, needing advocates in those they call teachers
  

Curriculum Design & Time Requirements
Educating Special Needs Students is a 13 week 3 credit graduate level or sixty hour professional development course taught online. The teaching methodology behind this course will empower participants with a strong knowledge base while providing them with necessary tools and strategies to identify and teach students with special needs. Participants will apply course curriculum to a student case study that will be developed throughout the modules and presented to instructor as a final project.

Hardware & Computer Skills Requirements

Participants may use either a Macintosh computer or a PC with Windows 98 or higher. Students should possess basic word processing skills and have Internet access with an active e-mail account. Participants are expected to have a basic knowledge of how to use a Web browser such as Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer or American Online (AOL) browser. To download browser at no cost, visit one of the following Web sites: Netscape.com; Microsoft.com and AOL.com.

Course Materials
The required textbook for this course is Commonsense Methods for Children with Special Educational Needs- 4th Edition (Strategies for the Regular Classroom), written by Peter Westwood and published by Routledge Falmer Press, London and New York. In addition, online readings and web reviews (including journal articles and best practices from the body of educational research) will be assigned during the course to enhance learning.

Session Outline

Module 1: Special Education in the Classroom

Objective: To introduce the history of special education including regulations and developments; to define the role of classroom teachers within those parameters.

Contents:

1. Definition and history of Special Education
2. IDEA law and regulations
3. Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
4. Mainstreaming
5. Necessary documents (The IEP and Psychological Report)
6. District/Teacher responsibilities
7. Common integration models

Module 2: Eligibility for Special Ed. Services and Possible Categories Therein

Objective: To outline procedures that identifies and assists students with special needs; to review all categories of disabilities

Contents:

1. Criteria for eligibility
2. Developmental delays
a. Physical development
b. Cognitive development
c. Communication development
d. Social/Emotional development
e. Adaptive development
3. Categories of Disabilities (13)

Module 3: Learning Disabilities

Objective: To review the study of learning disabilities; to allow educators opportunities as diagnosticians

Contents:

1. Types of Learning Disabilities
2. Classroom teachers as diagnosticians
3. Symptomatic checklist to facilitate educational diagnosis
4. Establishing a profile and developing a clinical eye
5. Group project

Module 4: Behavior Problems in the Classroom

Objective: To introduce the full gamut of behavior problems and facilitate plans for improvements

Contents:

1. Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
2. Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD)
3. Conduct Disorder
4. Oppositional Defiant Disorder
5. Childhood depression
6. Section 504 (Of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973)
7. Medication
8. Behavior Improvement Plan (BIP)
9. Behavior modifications

Module 5: Autism and Other Distinctive Disorders

Objective: To review and distinguish the difference between Autism and other forms of PPD; to outline a plan for a student case study

Contents:   

1. Autism and PPD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder)
a. Definition
b. Criteria
c. Social issues
d. Communication concerns
e. Stereotypical Behaviors
f. Intervention/teaching method

2. Other distinctive disorders

a. Tourette's Syndrome
b. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
c. Selective Mutism
d. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Module 6: The Referral Process

Objective: To provide a timeline for making referrals and establishing criteria within that timeline

Contents:

1. School-Based Intervention Team (SBIT)
2. Elementary and Secondary pre-referral strategies
3. The Special Ed. Referral timeline
4. The Committee of Special Education (CSE)
5. Being prepared, developing your file and presenting your case at CSE
6. Voting members and possible outcomes

Module 7: No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB)

Objective: To introduce regulations and provisions of NCLB; to review changing roles and accountability for all educators

Contents:

1. Facts and mandates
2. Student testing
3. National Assessment of Educational Progress (Nation's Report Card)
4. Adequate yearly progress (AYP)
5. Aligning Special Education with NCLB
6. New requirements for teachers and paraprofessionals

Module 8: Adapting/Modifying Curriculum

Objective: To provide educators with plans and strategies for modifying curriculum of all special needs students

Contents:

1. Alternative ways of teaching
2. Suggestions for academic/related accommodations
3. Testing Modifications: Purpose and Eligibility
4. Modifying the Classroom
5. Practical Academic Strategies
6. Group project

Module 9: Building Partnerships

Objective: To strategize opportunities for cooperative partnerships that will strengthen and support all educators

Contents:

1. Working with parents
2. Administrators lend a hand
3. Getting help from special care providers and support staff
4. Collaborative Teaching
5. Aides and Paraprofessionals

Module 10: Becoming Advocates

Objective: To offer opportunities for educators to become clinicians and advocates for all students

1. Developing sensitivity towards the special-needs student
2. Remember to honor the IEP
3. Rebuilding self-esteem
4. Protecting the vulnerable student

Student Requirements

1. Actively participate in all Forum activities.
2. Complete all readings and reaction forms based on those readings
3. Develop a case study based on one selected student with special needs. This study should include academic history, described deficits/disabilities, social and behavioral observations, and relevant, updated testing. In addition, the study will include an educational plan that will accommodate the specific weakness of that student.
4. Pass a final exam.

Grading

Student Academic Integrity
Participants guarantee that all academic class work is original. Any academic dishonesty or plagiarism (to take ideas, writings, etc. from another and offer them as one's own), is a violation of student academic behavior standards as outlined by our partnering colleges and universities and is subject to academic disciplinary action.