The Old Man and the Sea: Navigating the Gulf between Special Educators and the Content Area Classroom

Abstract

The special educator in the content area classroom often experiences an ill-defined role, which can translate into marginalization within instructional settings. Indeed, most students with learning disabilities (LD) receive content area instruction from a general education teacher with the support of a special educator. However, the literacy demands of the respective content areas often present content specific challenges for students with language-based disabilities and their teachers. To date, proposed content area literacy interventions have not addressed the specific language-based needs of students with LD. In this article, we highlight the similarities among history, science, English language arts, and mathematics texts from a language perspective, and present strategies specifically targeting students' background knowledge. We also provide recommendations to researchers and practitioners for improving content area learning.

Comprehensive Individualized Curriculum and Instructional Design

“…Reasons include limited coursework on serving SWD during teacher-preparation programs, minimum support from the school district in terms of professional development, and frequently, lack of content knowledge sufficient to adequately support students' learning needs in specific content areas among special educators who may be functioning in co-teaching roles (Kennedy & Ihle, 2012). In addition, teachers are largely required to adhere closely to state-or district-provided pacing guides intended to prepare students for high-stakes assessments that determine school, teacher, and student accountability.…”

Transforming Special Education Teacher Education: A Reaction to the Report Transforming Teacher Education through Clinical Practice: A National Strategy to Prepare Effective Teachers

“…In addition, they must keep up with paperwork requirements and maintain ongoing communication with families and a range of professionals (Billingsley,20 l 0). In many ways, special educators face unfair and impractical expectations with respect to the vast range of knowledge and practices required to support students with special needs across diverse academic expectations (Kennedy & Ihle, 2012). Guidance from national accreditation groups such as the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), now known as The Council for the Accreditation of Education Preparation after a merger with the Teacher Education Accreditation Council, may offer useful frameworks for improving methods to prepare general and special educators, who are required to continuously improve measurable outcomes for all students.…”

“…Therefore, increasing attention is turning to preparation experiences and to how the field of special education wants to position the role of special educators in the future . As a result, special education teacher educators are discussing the roles and responsibilities of special educators in the multitiered educational systems (Brownell et al, 201 O;Kennedy & Ihle, 2012;Simonsen et al, 2010).…”

“…Special educators must be ready to teach students with a wide variety of instructional needs and disabilities across multiple grade levels and in rigorous content areas (Brownell et al, 2005;Brownell et al, 2011;Kennedy & Ihle, 2012;McKenzie, 2009). Regardless of grade level or content area, a chief concern of special educators is their capacity to promote individualized instruction among students resulting in student achievement (Edmonds et al, 2009;Faggella-Luby & Deshler, 2008;Kennedy & Deshler, 2010).…”

“…Experts in the field of special education augment this list with readiness of educators to embed individualized instructional practices within content-specific demands of the general education curriculum (Brownell et al, 201 O;Kennedy & Ihle, 2012;McKenzie, 2009;Oyler, 2011 ). To date, there is little evidence to guide teacher preparation programs in construction of instructional models addressing the complex and voluminous demands placed on special education teachers (Brownell et al, 2011;Sindelar et al , 2010).…”