Welcome to the Laurelhurst Special Education web page. Our resource room students work with us throughout the day to improve academic and/or social skills. Our goal is to support the students so they are successful in their general education/mainstream classes. Areas of instruction include reading, writing skills, math, and social skills. Skill-building sessions generally take place in Portable 3 and there are times when we work with students in their regular education setting. We work closely with teachers, specialists, and parents and believe in a strong team approach.
All Special Education students have specially designed education plans called IEPs. These plans outline procedures, methods, and techniques that will be used towards improving overall school performance. Each plan is unique to the student and may differ from others who attend sessions in our classroom. The IEP team includes the special education teacher, regular education teacher, appropriate specialists such as speech therapists and physical therapists, principal, and parents. Areas covered in the IEP are covered according to identified needs of our students. To reach the goals outlined in the IEP, a variety of teaching methods and techniques are utilized. Following is a list of materials and methods that may be used.
Reading:
- Phonemic awareness training including auditory training, segmenting of words, and manipulation of sounds within words
- Direct instruction reading which includes teacher directed lessons on pre-reading, sound-letter relationships, vocabulary building, and comprehension
- Comprehension skills including identifying main idea, sequencing, drawing conclusions, using context, inference, and fact finding
- Word building including increasing sight word vocabulary, new vocabulary, and decoding strategies
- Oral, silent reading accuracy and fluency using a variety of reading sources
Support of general education curriculum
Writing:
- Handwriting including formation of letters, spacing, organization of written work on a page
- Development of fine motor, large motor skills necessary for writing
- Sentence structure, paragraph writing, with appropriate use of grammar and sentence mechanics
- Many forms of writing to be introduced, reinforced, such as journal writing, narrative pieces, descriptive, persuasive, and expository styles
- Practice in research, report writing to support classroom studies
- Practice in editing skills
- Use of computer
- Fine motor, visual motor, eye-hand coordination
- Writer’s workshop
- Support of regular education writing curriculum
Social Skills
Developing Independence at School:
- Problem solving strategies developed
- Practice using role play, dramatization, filming of social interactions
- Development of social skills including listening, conversation, communication, friendship
- Organization of time, materials
- Self-management and goal setting
- Behavior modification
- Strategies to improve confidence, self-esteem
Assessment:
- Standardized measurements such as Brigance, Test of Written Language, Key Math
- Classroom-based assessments
- Portfolio to include work samples, reflecting ongoing academic growth and achievement
- Communication with classroom teacher, parents, specialists
- Informal teacher-created assessments
- Ongoing assessment of self-esteem issues and overall adjustment at school and within the classroom setting
- District-wide standardized tests with appropriate accommodations
- IEP updates given with report cards
- MAP, Measures of Academic Progress
- DRA (Direct Reading Assessment)
