Co-Teaching with SDI (Specially Designed Instruction)

Presenter Information

Chelsea M. Solomon-Rogers, Georgia Southern UniversityFollow

Location

Room 101

Start Date

23-2-2024 10:00 AM

End Date

23-2-2024 10:25 AM

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Chelsea Solomon is a highly accomplished special education teacher at Islands High School. She graduated from Savannah State University in 2014 with a degree in music but soon discovered her passion for working with children and education. Chelsea began her teaching career as a music teacher in a preschool, where she quickly realized the need to expand her knowledge in children and education. In 2016, Chelsea applied for a job as a paraprofessional at Islands High School. Her dedication and hard work paid off as she successfully completed her GACE in general curriculum SPED and became a teacher in the same school year. Chelsea's commitment to her students and innovative teaching methods earned her the most inspirational teacher award in 2017. Recognizing her leadership abilities, Chelsea joined the leadership team at Islands High School in 2018. This role allowed her to contribute to the development and improvement of the school's programs and policies. In 2022, Chelsea partnered with Coastal GLRS under the guidance of Kim Bennett. She diligently observed co-teaching relationships, prepared training materials, and provided valuable feedback to teachers at her school. Chelsea also served as a resource to help teachers learn and implement SDI strategies in their classrooms. As the leader of the adaptive classrooms at Islands High School, Chelsea provided essential resources and support to students with diverse needs. Her expertise and dedication led her to graduate magna cum laude from Georgia Southern University in 2022 with a degree in special education. Chelsea furthered her qualifications by obtaining certification in the adaptive curriculum. Currently, Chelsea is employed as a special education adaptive teacher at Islands High School. In this role, she has been instrumental in building an effective and comprehensive program from the ground up. Utilizing her wealth of experience and education, she supports students through community-based instruction, GAA curriculum, and alignment with Georgia state standards. Overall, Chelsea Solomon is a dedicated special education teacher with a strong commitment to the success and well-being of her students. Her tireless efforts to improve education for all students make her an invaluable asset to Islands High School.

Presentation Type

Panel Session

yes

Roundtable Discussion

Abstract

Students with disabilities and diverse needs must be challenged to excel within the general curriculum.This can be accomplished by having a strong professional partnership in the classroom through co-teaching. Co-teaching in the classroom has the potential to aid educators to create classrooms that recognize and respectfully address a tremendous range of student diversity. This skill starts with using the expertise of both the general education teacher and special education teacher. Professionals will learn practical ways to incorporate specially designed instruction into their co taught classrooms; while helping students with special needs meet and/or thrive with the high academic expectations in the general education classroom setting.

Conference Strands

Co-Teaching

Description

Some key points that will be discussed in the presentation are as followed:

1. Understanding how to Provide Specially Designed Instruction in the Co-Taught Classroom. How can teachers provide specially designed instruction explicitly in the classroom? What are the key components that make it intentional and transparent in the co-taught lessons that teachers create?

2. Effectively Address the Unique Needs of Your Students Through Well-Thought-Out Co-Teaching Lessons/ and discussion. How should teachers acquire strategies to target assessment, data management and progress monitoring to provide specially designed instruction to meet IEP goals in the classroom.

3. Incorporate Tools and Resources to Strengthen Your Specially Designed Instruction What works in a successful co-teaching relationship? How can teachers adapt to meet their student’s needs? What are some ideas for differentiating instruction? What resources can help teachers strengthen SDI in the classroom.

4. Maintain High Expectations in Your Co-Taught Classroom. Teachers can learn innovative ways to keep rigor in their classroom. Learn how to meet the requirements of the high standards in a co-taught classroom

5. Recognize SDI mandates and Their Impact on Student Achievement. Discover how purposeful planning can be aligned to the needs of each student. Teacher’s will see how SDI will lead to increased opportunities for learning that is aligned with the state standards.

6. Include Specially Designed Instruction into Your Co-Teaching. Teachers will look at examples and learn to integrate specifically tailored instructional strategies for co-teaching that will ensure students receive the SDI they need to achieve the goals of their Individualized Education Program (IEP)

7. Provide the Most Appropriate Accommodations and Modifications Learn how to save time, collaborate and problem-solve with certain techniques to provide quality accommodations and modifications for instruction and assessments. These strategies increase learning for students with special needs, and are doable within the classroom.

8. Utilize Highly Effective Teaching Strategies that Align with High Academic Expectations. Learn research-based strategies that the content teacher and the special education teacher can use to reach all students and exceed the rigor of high expectations

Resources:

Beninghof, Anne M. Specially Designed Instruction. Routledge, 17 Aug. 2021.

Tomlinson, Carol Ann. The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners. 2nd ed., Boston, Pearson Education, 2014.

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Jay Mctighe. Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design Connecting Content and Kids. Pearson College Div, 200

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.