August 23, 2021 Delivery of Instruction in Special Education Classrooms How should you decide how to deliver your instruction to your students? The short answer is to see what your students respond to the most. Do what works for them. Delivery of instruction can be different in every special education classroom. You just have to see what works. Delivery of Instruction Before starting off, you should decide how you want to deliver your lessons. You can deliver your instruction in whole group, small group, individually, or one-on-one, stations or centers, or independent work. Whole group Whole group instruction is great when you are teaching a new concept to your students. I also use whole group instruction when my assistants need to take lunch or breaks and I have only one other assistant in the room. This allows the group to be in one location and focus on your instruction completely. Small group Small group instruction is awesome when you have a related service member in the room that is working with 2-3 students at a time. This allows you to work with the other 2-4 students in the classroom as well. In an ideal world, you would rotate through both groups so that your related service member could get their minutes met as well. A teacher can also use small group instruction to re-teach skills or target certain skills with a group of students that need more practice or attention. Individual or one-on-one sessions One-on-one instruction can be used to work on IUP goals or really give your attention to a skill and a student's progress on that skill. I use many individual sessions with my students that are working on life skills such as tying shoes, zippering their coat, brushing their teeth, etc. This allows my attention to be solely with that student and supporting them through the completion of the task or activity. Be careful when using one-on-one sessions that you aren't supporting the student too much and are fading prompts and supports when necessary. Here is a prompt hierarchy that I use in my classroom to support my learners to gain independence. Stations or Centers Stations and centers are great opportunities for your assistants to step in and support. Make sure to check out my post on how to set up stations for more details on how to use stations and for what activities. Stations help promote independence in working skills and confidence in their abilities to complete tasks with less supervision. As I said before, use your assistants to guide activities or take IEP goal data. Independent Work When considering your delivery of instruction, make use of independent time. Independent work is amazing for building confidence and independence in your learners. You give them an activity that they can complete by themselves and you give them a significant praise or reward when they complete it. I typically use independent work toward the end of the school day as the student is fatiguing and losing focus. They are given a simpler task to complete to feel confident in their abilities. Once they complete the task, they typically get a break or reward. Very motivating for my students. This is also a great time to work on perseverance. I may say things like, I know you're tired and it's the end of the day. Do this activity and then you can play on the iPad for 15 minutes.