Accommodating Individual Needs and IEPs

Episode Transcript

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:00:00]:
Last time on Year One, we got a glimpse of the responsibilities of teachers outside the classroom and learned that in Jenna's experience, effective time management is so important.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:00:11]:
It was like every time I finished one task, I was like, oh, that's another thing I've been putting off. Or like, oh, I should probably do that while I have the time right now too. It was just like every time, the list kept getting longer and longer and longer until I was like, I have to go eat dinner. Like, I can't do this anymore.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:00:29]:
On this episode, we follow Jenna as she navigates the fact that some of her students need special accommodations. This is Year One from Carnegie Learning, a podcast that chronicles all the ups and downs of one teacher's first year in the classroom. I'm your host, Kanika Chadha Gupta. Before we get into the specifics here, I think it's important that I share some background and a bit of context. So bear with me. Before we get to Jenna, special accommodations are adjustments designed to help students with disabilities learn more effectively. Some examples of these might include things like giving a student extra time on tests, modifying their assignments to better suit their strengths, using alternative learning tools, creating a quiet space for a student sensitive to noise, and things like that. The bottom line is that these adjustments are all about making sure every student has a fair chance to succeed while still meeting the education goals of the class.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:01:29]:
But what does the process look like to get these accommodations for students in the first place? This is where our veteran teacher Maggie, with over a decade of experience working with students needing special accommodations, has some invaluable insights to share.

MAGGIE JONES [00:01:44]:
If we notice throughout the school year, like the student is not progressing the way they should be on whatever assessments that we're using, then we might decide, okay, is it possibly a learning disability? Are they stronger in reading and lower in math? Is it maybe something with math? Are they lower in reading but high in math? Sometimes we see, are they having problems decoding, retrieving that information? Maybe I could read something orally to them and their comprehension's fine. But when it comes to decoding the word and breaking it down and then, like, putting it back together and sounding at words, they're really struggling with that. So we look at academic stuff, but we also look at behavior. Is are they struggling? You know, they talk about add or ADHD. Some kids have a hard time sitting still. You know, some kids truly can't sit still. Some kids, maybe it's just they need a different structure.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:02:37]:
When a child starts struggling in class, whether it's with their schoolwork or staying focused, teachers and parents first try different strategies to help. If those don't work, they may go through a formal evaluation to understand the child's needs better. If they determine special education services are needed, they'll create what's called an individualized education program or an IEP. When a teacher gets a student with an IEP, their main job is to understand and implement the specific requirements listed. They make sure the student gets the right accommodations, like extra time or special materials, and monitors their progress. And believe it or not, they affect the school's schedule. Jenna's class has three students currently with Iepsitive. And while personalized accommodations can make a huge difference, Jenna has to carefully balance their needs with the needs of the rest of the class.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:03:31]:
There are some things where I'm like, no, this accommodation makes sense for all of my students. So in third grade, you have that switch from, like, you're, instead of learning to read, you're reading to learn, and they're still making that switch. So we decided from like the beginning of the year until December, whenever we give a test or a quiz or anything, we will read it to them. And not all students need those. Like, I probably have six or seven kids who could take every test without me reading a single thing to them and get an a on everything. But unless you work one on one with a student and pull each one individually, you can't accommodate to everybody's needs. I will do my best to implement it if that's what needs to happen. But some of them are just, they have to be individualized for those students because it's impossible to give every student that accommodation.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:04:22]:
Right now we're writing a personal narrative story about a field trip that they went on. And some of my students have the accommodation to speech, to text. They talk to their iPad, and it types for them. And I'm like, that's great if they have that accommodation. But also, they're done with their assignment on the first day it was introduced because all they do is press a button and talk, whereas everybody else is going to take them like a whole entire week to write a five sentence story because they're literally learning how to type. Like they don't. Today. I taught them how to do a semicolon while they typed.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:04:52]:
They were like, oh, my gosh, that's magic. And I was like, I'm teaching you skills. You're going to learn forever. Like, wow, look at me go.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:05:00]:
At Jenna's school, one pivotal role is the resource teacher. She shares with all the other third grade classes. These types of teachers, also known as special education teachers or intervention specialists, are there specifically to assist students with special accommodations and ieps.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:05:18]:
So for my three kiddos with accommodations, I'm lucky enough to have one special education teacher, like a resource teacher who is assigned to the whole third grade. So we can literally just email that teacher and be like, hey, the whole grade is taking a math test on Thursday at this time. Let us know if you're free to come grab the students or how you want to do it. And then she'll email us and be like, okay, I'm coming to Jenna's room at this time, and I'm coming to this room at this time to grab the kids and stuff like that. I still do all the grading for them and everything. It's just so they have that space to focus and take those tests. So I'm really lucky. And our teacher of record and resource teacher for third grade is awesome.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:06:00]:
And she's honestly like a 7th member of our team since she's just for third grade. So she'll come to like our, if we ever have, like, team meetings, she'll come to those. Or when we go to staff meetings, she'll sit at our table with third grade teachers and stuff like that. So it's a very, very nice resource to have, especially as first year teacher. It just takes something off of your plate. There's one teacher who, anytime we take a test or a quiz or anything like that, she actually takes those students out of the room so they can go test in small group because that's almost guaranteed to be an accommodation. On a lot of students, Ieps is small group testing or individual testing, so that way they can have that space without distractions and, you know, just step away from the environment so they can focus and do their best. So having that teacher a record for just one grade level is a life changer.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:06:53]:
I remember the first time we gave a quiz. We hadn't communicated the expectation of that with our resource teacher. For third grade, I had four students who needed accommodations. I tried to pull those four students over to the side. Plus I pulled two new students that I had who were on, like, the very, very low level who they technically didn't have any accommodations or they weren't documented in any way, but I was like, I can tell that's the direction it's going to go. So I'm going to go ahead and give these accommodations to them now so I can use that data to say like, hey, I did this and this worked sort of thing. So I was, like, proactively taking other students, too. Oh, my God.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:07:30]:
It was horrible because it was the first quiz of the year. Everyone else who I wasn't working in a small group with was, like, talking and shouting and, like, trying to figure things out. And the small group I had was not staying on task or together. And I was like, dear Lord, like, this is a nightmare, seeing the classroom.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:07:51]:
Be impacted of having versus not having this resource. It reminds Jenna of her college student teaching program, where two resource teachers were shared for the entire school, not nearly enough for what was needed in each class.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:08:07]:
In her room. I think she had six or seven students with Ieps. Like, it was a lot of students with special accommodations, and four out of them were individual testers. So that meant any time we took a. A spelling test, a reading test, anything that was taken for a grade in class had to be individual to them. So, like, she would have to give it to the whole class, and then she would have to pull her small group. For those students who had small group, I think there were, like, three students who had small group testing, and then after that, she would have to pull one student at a time. For those people who had individual testing, all one teacher.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:08:48]:
Currently, about 15% of public school students ages three through 21 receive some form of support. That's 7.5 million students, and the number has jumped by over 1 million in just the past decade. With this rapid increase, it's more important than ever for teachers like Jenna to figure out how to support students with ieps effectively. And she's learning. It's a constantly evolving process.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:09:15]:
The third grade resource teacher I got really close with really fast because we were always talking about one of my students and how we could better support him, honestly, more behaviorally than academically, because there are ieps that can be for either behaviors or academics or both. So a lot of it was when I was having a lot of behavior issues with one student, and honestly, still am. But we went through, like, so many different brainstorming sessions. Like, one day, we literally sat in my room for, like, 30 minutes and just talked about, like, we could implement this. I don't know if he's. If he could be successful sitting somewhere else in the room. Well, have we tried this intervention? Have we tried this incentive? I've reached out to past teachers who have had these students being like, hey, did you have, like, these problems with this student? Or, like, did you notice anything academically about this student when you're working with, like, a literal eight year old who is growing and developing. You have to do the like, let's try this.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:10:13]:
Oh, it didn't work. Let's try this. It didn't work. Let's try this. It didn't work. You need to see what's right for them. And that takes so much time. And that's what's so frustrating as a teacher is because you only have so much time with this kid.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:10:25]:
I'm just starting to figure out what motivates some of my students and especially students with special needs or special accommodations. I'm like, we could have been so much more successful during the whole first quarter if I knew this fact about you, if I knew that you would respond this way to something, or if I knew you enjoyed sitting in this side of the room instead of this side. And boy, it is a long game to play, but I mean, it works out for the student because they'll eventually get the accommodations that they need to be successful. But like, if I finally figure out what something that's super, super successful for one of my students, if I'm starting from scratch, that accommodation probably won't be put into place until they're with their fourth grade teacher next year. You know what I mean? Like, I can start accommodating things, but it won't be official until you go through all of the steps. So it's just a long game of figuring out what works and what doesn't.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:11:22]:
This is Year One, an exploration of one teacher's first year in the classroom, brought to you by Carnegie Learning. Join us for the rest of the series as we follow Jenna through every moment. And be sure to follow Miss MacNulty on Instagram and TikTok to keep up with her. For exclusive additional content free teaching resources and more, visit yearonepodcast.com. Next time on year one, Jenna walks us through the day in a life of a teacher trying to take a sick day.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:11:53]:
Prepping for subs is so annoying, especially when you're sick. Like, fully having 102 degree fever and at 03:30 a.m. i'm like, up typing subplans horrible.