TIES TIPS Foundations of Inclusion

Introduction 

Teachers in inclusive classrooms often find themselves wondering how the instructional team (general educators, special educators, paraprofessionals, specialized support staff) can provide high-quality instruction in the curriculum as well as any needed individualized instruction (related to individual student’s IEP goals or areas where pre-teaching or re-teaching are necessary). Luckily, content instruction can be paired with instruction that addresses individualized goals through embedded instruction. As with all effective inclusive practices, collaboration is key. Embedded instruction must be planned ahead of time with a focus first on the standards in the course content and then include instruction tailored to specific student goals. Teachers should consider how to balance students' support needs with academic progression through the curriculum within the natural context and the pace of the general education classroom (Jimenez & Kamei, 2015). 

Evidence 

Embedded instruction is a strategy that involves providing individualized and explicit instruction within  natural opportunities in the general education classroom (McDonnell et al., 2014). This strategy has been used to effectively teach a wide range of skills to students with significant cognitive disabilities, including skills that may come from IEP goals and/or from the general education curriculum. Some of the skills taught in the research literature include sight word identification, number identification, vocabulary, phonics, and solving word problems, among many others (Jameson et al., 2020).  Special and general educators, paraprofessionals, and peers have all demonstrated the ability to effectively deliver embedded instruction as well, offering opportunities for flexible service delivery and shared responsibility in inclusive classrooms (Bowman et al., 2020). 

Implementation 

When implementing embedded instruction, there are four main steps that a team will engage in. These steps include (1) identifying a goal, (2) identifying natural opportunities to provide instruction, (3) using a prompt hierarchy and fading during instruction, and (4) collecting data (McDonnell et al., 2014). These steps are outlined below with further description and examples. 

1. Check the IEP for specific goals that could be addressed or identify one from the curriculum where a student may need more intensive instruction

After the general and special educator connected about what instruction might be embedded in the new unit, they decided on the following IEP goal to prioritize: Given unit-specific vocabulary instruction in all classes, the student will use 4-5 new vocabulary words per unit in the context of general education lessons and activities with 75% accuracy for 3 consecutive trials.  

The current 8th-grade math unit involves constructing and interpreting scatter plots (see examples). The general and special educators have identified the following vocabulary words for instruction: positive association, negative association, no association, and variable. 

Scatter plots the math class will interpret

2. Ask the general educator to identify natural opportunities to provide instruction within general education activities and routines (for example, transitions, independent work)

In math class, transitions typically occur between teacher demonstrations, independent work, group work, and group/individual sharing and discussion. A student could be provided with embedded instruction in each class period during these times. 

3. Prompt the student and increase wait time

The student’s partner (general educator, special educator, paraprofessional, or peer) will use a prompt (“Which kind of association does this scatter plot have?”) and a 5-second wait time for a response (constant time delay). If the student makes an error, the partner will provide a verbal prompt (“You pointed to the positive association, but this scatter plot shows no association, point to no association.”). Once the student reaches the goal with a 5 second wait time, the student’s partners will begin to wait longer for a response before a prompt is provided. 

4. Collect, chart, and use data

Twice a week or so, the general or special educator or paraprofessional will collect data on the student’s acquisition of the new vocabulary words on a data sheet (see example). The special educator will review the data each week to determine if the student is on track to reach the goal and if changes to the embedded instruction program are needed. 

Example data sheet

Embedded Instruction in Action 

Here is an example showcasing a collaborative team approach to embedded instruction within a general education math class. 

Meet Jaxon

Jaxon is an eighth-grade student who is included in general education classes and activities for most of his day. He has a daily small group and 1:1 instruction from the special education team where he receives specially designed instruction (SDI) on the content and skills he needs, in addition to receiving SDI throughout the school day provided by other staff. For instance, in these small groups, the team might pre-teach or re-teach concepts and skills that the general and special educators identified were essential for each unit or the team might focus on explicitly teaching Jaxon a cognitive strategy for solving math problems. Jaxon participates in the state alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standards as a result of his instructional needs related to having an intellectual disability and autism. He also needs visual support due to his low vision. 

Jaxon can read short, simple sentences if they have been enlarged or that he can enlarge on a screen. Images, such as a graph, are often enlarged and outlined with dried white glue or puffy paint. He can routinely indicate if there are more or less of something and can rote count to 10 but is still developing his 1:1 correspondence skills in math. He works best when the information is summarized and chunked and when he has multiple opportunities to practice a skill or concept. Graphic organizers have been a helpful tool for Jaxon and his whole team has learned about prompt hierarchies and fading to support his learning and build his independence. 

Jaxon’s IEP goals focus on skills such as: 

• Identifying and using new vocabulary from grade-level content and general education routines
• Counting with 1:1 correspondence
• Cause and effect (for example, identifying if a person eats a lot of sugar, they could get more cavities)

Setting the team up for success

Toward the beginning of the year, the special educator shared instructional strategies and skills that typically worked well for Jaxon as well as detailing his specific supports and accommodations with the general educators and paraprofessionals. This menu of supports was available on a shared electronic document that all educators had access to and in which they could add or edit. The team met once every month or two to outline upcoming lessons and plan for instruction and support. Below is part of the 5-15-45 planning template and process that Jaxon’s educational team used for planning the semester. 

Action Plan:

General Educator: 

• Send class slides to special education team for adaptations/modifications 

General and special educator: 

• Support modifications and adaptation development and review effectiveness after
• Use the Education Day-At-A-Glance
• Regularly review class and IEP data and identify any changes needed

Special educator: 

Give instructions to paraprofessionals for modifying/adapting the slides

• Pre-teach
  • scatter plot - help us see if variables might be related (for example, height and shoe size)
  • types of scatter plot correlations - positive, negative, and no correlation
• Create data sheets & take baseline data

Provide training to the paraprofessional on:

• how and when to use embedded instruction,
• supporting others to provide embedded instruction (for example, peer, general educator), and
• collecting data

Paraprofessional: 

• Adapt slides under special educator’s direction
• Create a tactile glossary
• Adapt materials in the moment (for example, when the class creates a scatter plot, the student’s plot is made by poking holes in the paper instead of marks on it)
• Use the instructional techniques from the classroom teacher to provide classroom support

Here is what it looked like in practice (opportunities to embed IEP goals are bolded):

The education team used a matrix to identify when and what data the paraprofessional would collect. They decided that the best time to collect the vocabulary data was during the pre-teaching opportunity (baseline) and then embedded within Wednesday and Friday’s general education math classes.  On Monday and Thursday of this unit they would embed data collection opportunities for 1:1 correspondence. 

For students with significant cognitive disabilities, teaching the general education curriculum requires planning by general education and special education teachers, and staff. When teams work together to create accessible instruction, curriculum, and materials, authentic participation is possible. When teams thoughtfully identify natural places to embed essential and foundational skills into general education classroom instruction, students with significant cognitive disabilities thrive.