Johns - 401 Practical Adaptations for Every Classroom

To my family for their support and encouragement: James, Martha, Jim, Craig, Babs, Luverne, Judi, Jan, Don, and especially to Lonnie for his daily words of wisdom and his many adaptations for me.

To my dear friends who are my cheerleaders: Jim, Judy, Chuck, and Reva.

Copyright 2011 by Corwin

First Skyhorse Publishing edition 2014

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Karine Hovsepian

Print ISBN: 978-1-63220-539-1
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63220-956-6

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Acknowledgments

S kyhorse gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the following reviewers.

Melody Aldrich
English Teacher
Poston Butte High School
Sen Tan Valley, AZ

Diane Callahan
Retired Science Teacher
Fairfield Middle School
West Chester, OH

Laurie Emery, EdD
Principal
Old Vail Middle School
Vail, AZ

Kristina Moody
Teacher
Gulfport High School
Gulfport, MS

Dana Stevens
Assistant Professor
Whitworth University School of Education
Spokane, WA

About the Author

Beverley Holden Johns is a graduate of Catherine Spalding College in Louisville, Kentucky, and was awarded a fellowship for her graduate work at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale, where she received an MS in special education. She has done post-graduate work at the University of Illinois, Western Illinois University, SIU, and Eastern Illinois University. Johns has thirty-nine years of experience working with students with learning disabilities (LD) and behavioral disorders (EBD) within the public schools. She supervised LD and EBD teachers in twenty-two school districts, was the founder and administrator of the Garrison Alternative School for students with severe EBD in Jacksonville, Illinois, and later served as coordinator for staff development for the Four Rivers Special Education District. She is now a learning and behavior consultant and an adjunct instructor for MacMurray College.

During her term as president of the International Association of Special Education (IASE) from 2006 until January 1, 2010, she chaired that organizations tenth Biennial Conference held June 10 to 14, 2007, in Hong Kong, and presided over the eleventh Biennial Conference in Alicante, Spain, in 2009. She presented the Inaugural Marden Lecture at the University of Hong Kong in January, 2006.

Johns is the lead author of Reduction of School Violence: Alternatives to Suspension (2009); Techniques for Managing Verbally and Physically Aggressive Students (2009); Surviving Internal Politics Within the School (2006); Techniques for Managing a Safe School (1997); Effective Curriculum and Instruction for Students With Emotional/Behavioral Disorders (2002); Students With Disabilities and General Education: A Desktop Reference for School Personnel (2007); Getting Behavioral Interventions Right (2005); Preparing Test-Resistant Students for Assessments: A Staff Training Guide (2007); Ethical Dilemmas in Education (2008); and The Many Faces of Special Educators (2010); She coauthored Teachers Reflective Calendar and Planning Journal (Corwin, 2006); Special Educators Reflective Calendar and Planning Journal (Corwin, 2009); and Reaching Students With Diverse Disabilities (2008), as well as the seminal college LD textbook, the eleventh edition of Learning Disabilities and Related Mild Disabilities (with Janet Lerner, 2009). The twelfth edition will be published in 2011. She has written a workbook to accompany the video The Paraprofessionals Guide to Managing Student Behavior (2002) and more than forty education and special education articles.

She received the CEC Outstanding Leadership Award from the International Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) in 2000 and the Romaine P. Mackie Leadership Service Award in 2007. She was Jacksonville Woman of the Year in 1988, and cochaired the Business Education Partnership Committee and the Jacksonville Truancy Task Force. Johns is past president of the Council for Children With Behavioral Disorders (CCBD), the CEC Pioneers, and the Learning Disabilities Association (LDA) of Illinois and has served as the national state presidents representative on the board of LDA of America and chair of governmental relations for several national and state organizations. She has presented workshops across the United States and Canada as well as in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Sydney, Australia (keynote); Warsaw and Wroclaw, Poland; Hong Kong, China; Lima, Peru; and Riga, Latvia.

Johns is listed in Whos Who in America, Whos Who of American Women, Whos Who in American Education, and Whos Who Among Americas Teachers and has chaired the Illinois Special Education Coalition (ISELA), whose membership includes thirteen statewide organizations, for thirty years.

Introduction to Adaptations

Why the Need and Important Considerations

W hat can I do to meet the diverse needs of the students in my classroom? How can I accommodate Julians needs and still meet the needs of my twenty-five other students? How can I provide adaptations that dont require an inordinate amount of my time? How can I provide adaptations that dont cost a lot of money?

Are you looking for practical answers to these questions? If so, this book is for you. Loaded with practical ideas, this book is designed to meet your needs. You have taken the first step to making your classroom a more user-friendly place for your students with special needs.

The number of students with special needs in general education classrooms is increasing, along with the expansion of the inclusion movement. This calls for development of effective adaptations, useful modifications, and needed accommodations for students with special needs. Additionally, the push to include most students in our assessment system has brought to the forefront the need for accommodations in assessment. To be successful in the general education curriculum, students with special needs require support through adaptations.

You may hear colleagues say, Its not my job to accommodate students with special needsif I had wanted to work with students with special needs Id have gone into special education. While such an attitude is problematic in todays classrooms because of the diverse needs of the children, we all must be cognizant of the needs of the classroom teacher. Classroom teachers are bombarded with expectations from school and society. They are expected to work with a large group of studentssome classrooms may have forty students in them. Teachers feel a tremendous sense of pressure because of our focus on high-stakes testing. The scores of the students may be published in the newspaper, and often teachers are blamed for low test scores even when they do not have control over all the variables influencing the children within their classroom.