Tools for Building Inclusive Literacy Programs for Students with Extensive Support Needs
Unit Overview-Co-planning tool
The Unit Overview Co-planning tool is designed to assist general and special education teachers in co-planning inclusive and engaging lessons for all students. The tools can help educators identify key lesson elements that include relevant standards, learning targets, necessary process/products/strategies, key vocabulary, and potential opportunities to respond (e.g., questions to ask during the lesson).
Lesson Plan Template
The lesson plan template is designed to guide instruction. It allows the teacher to develop a more detailed outline of a lesson than permitted by Unit Overview Co-planning Tool. The tool prompts teachers to consider additional instructional elements including target student outcomes, data collection procedures, specific instructional strategies, and necessary supports from other members of the educational team. It also provides a place for the teacher to map out their lesson.
Samples of various ways to complete the Mapping area can be found in the pre-generated lesson plans below.
Sample Literacy Lesson Plan Outlines
These outlines provide examples of how the lesson plan template can be used to develop engaging literacy lessons for students with ESN aligned with grade level standards. In project IMPACT, the special educator completed outlines considering the text, pacing, and strategies employed in general education classrooms within their school to facilitate easier transitions to instruction delivered in the general education setting.
General Education Lesson Fidelity Sheet
This fidelity form can be used to record teachers’ implementation of literacy instructional practices within inclusive general education lessons. The form provides a place to track essential teaching practices (e.g., differentiating content presentation, ensuring all students have a way to respond [e.g., AAC], providing feedback), and the use of evidence-based practices (e.g., CTD, SLP). Further, it can be used to track target students’ opportunities to respond and interactions with peers.
Descriptions of each ‘action’ are in a key on the 2nd-3rd pages.
Coaching Educators
Adapted Novels
Adapted novels can help students with ESN access content read by their same-aged peers without ESN. In IMPACT, we adapted novels that included (a) challenging vocabulary to support participation in the inclusive classroom settings, (b) important context to support students’ understanding of key vocabulary, (c) and sufficient text to assist students in understanding the overall narrative of the story. To address challenges in keeping up with the pace of the general education classrooms, we attempted to reduce the text within a chapter to make it consumable within a single lesson.