[00:00:19] brittany: Welcome to the Teaching Toolbox podcast. I'm Brittany, and I'm here with my friend Ellie. Today we're here to talk about inclusion services. Those services could be in the classroom outta the classroom, or even services for ELL students.

[00:00:39] ellie: When students leave class for different services, like pull out interventions or ELL support, it's a great resource, but it can also mean missing key classroom moments, and it can mean disruptions. Teachers will often ask, how do I help those students catch up without slowing down the class? And if service providers come into the room, how do we keep things smooth and focused?

[00:01:03] brittany: So today we're diving into practical strategies for teachers to help students stay on track, collaborate with inclusion providers, and keep classrooms inclusive and productive. Let's start with when students are pulled out, how do you keep them from lagging behind?

[00:01:23] ellie: this can be tough. So one strategy could be setting up a Catchup station, a folder, or a digital document where essential notes, slides, and assignments go every day so students can plug in quickly when they return.

[00:01:38] brittany: You could also record a brief video summary of key lessons or instructions that students can access when they're back, even on their phone or tablet.

[00:01:48] ellie: You could embed peer check-ins as another option. A buddy or a peer mentor can fill students in on any missed information and help with the initial review of the material. Like sometimes when students are peer teaching or going over some of that information with students who've missed things, it's helpful for them too because, you know, you learn when you teach.

[00:02:08] brittany: Exactly. And for math interventions, some teachers use Do Now or warmups that are self-contained and posted, allowing returning students to complete them easily without needing to be front loaded by the teacher.

[00:02:25] ellie: And sharing a quick daily or weekly summary sheet, just bullet points of what was covered, can save pulled out students from scrambling later on.

[00:02:36] brittany: And to be honest, if a child was severe needs or years and years behind where I know that they're working on say, basic multiplication during their pull-out where we are covering scientific notation, maybe in their absence. I just didn't have them do anything to catch up because my class wasn't their goal.

[00:02:58] Their pullout was their goal.

[00:03:00] ellie: Right. And so it's important to know like what are the goals? What's happening with each student? Right. So what about when specialists come in to support in class inclusion services, how do you keep that inclusive and keep other students from being distracted?

[00:03:17] brittany: Well, I usually start with a planning session with that teacher where we work together on the lesson. We do regular check-ins, such as a weekly co-planning session, and it lets you sync up on who needs support, when and how, so it feels kind of built in rather than like an add-on. I. I also try to utilize the special needs teacher as an extra teacher for the class.

[00:03:43] Perhaps they have another way of explaining a situation, or another analogy to offer, a different approach to presenting problems, or a fresh perspective on a historical figure situation that will benefit more than just their one to three students. By allowing that teacher to become a team teacher, it lowers the student's distraction when they are teaching or helping someone.

[00:04:09] It also tends to lead students to respect them more and give them more weight and value throughout the building, thus also not viewing our inclusion kids as different.

[00:04:20] ellie: That's fantastic, if you have the time and you get to do the planning, and I'm guessing that isn't always the case, but if it is, that's fantastic. And there are times where you might not get that planning time, but if you have talked other times throughout the year and you kind of

[00:04:35] jive well enough you can kind of do that on the fly a little bit, as long as you don't get each

[00:04:41] other too far off track.

[00:04:43] brittany: You might not get that support.

[00:04:45] ellie: Yeah. And there are co-teaching models like one teaches and one supports or station teaching that allows both teachers to share the room without redirecting attention from one to another.

[00:04:56] You could agree on signals, routines. Like even if you didn't have a whole lot of time to plan ahead of time, you might at least be able to set up some nonverbal cues for refocusing so that the providers help blends into your class flow instead of taking away from it.

[00:05:11] brittany: Yeah.

[00:05:12] ellie: I have to say like side note, but there were times when there wasn't that chance for communication or if it was an assistant rather than an inclusion service provider,

[00:05:24] That they would go in a different direction than I wanted to go, and I'd be like, wait, wait, that's not where I was going. Come back!

[00:05:32] brittany: Yes.

[00:05:33] ellie: sorry.

[00:05:34] brittany: Another strategy is to rotate pulled in students through the station activities where the provider assists one group while the others work independently, and that makes the support feel more natural. Regardless of the method you choose though, keep the communication ongoing. Quick post class debriefs or even just moments in the hallway, shared notes, a shared Google slide or something will help you track progress and adjust support seamlessly.

[00:06:07] ellie: That's really, really important. So sometimes it's not a specialist coming in. It's not necessarily kids being pulled out. Sometimes you're the one who's responsible for delivering part of the student's I-L-P-I-E-P or 5 0 4 support, and some of those things might be modifications while others might be accommodations.

[00:06:28] An accommodation is a change that helps a student overcome or work around the disability without altering the learning expectations. While a modification is a change in what is being taught or expected from a student, often changing the complexity of the content. So some examples of an accommodation could be extended time on tests, or preferential seating, or using a calculator, or a text to speech, or maybe the directions are read aloud to the student, or they receive some breaks during tasks.

[00:07:03] brittany: Some examples of modifications could include simplified reading material, an alternate assignments such as drawing instead of writing an essay, or maybe an oral essay instead of a written one, fewer questions or problems, maybe they only have to do 10 of the assigned problems instead of all 20, or different grading standards. You might also use a small group instruction or behavior check-ins to help with these students as well, all while still teaching the rest of your class.

[00:07:41] so

[00:07:41] Ellie, I had a question for

[00:07:43] you. when you taught, did you have mainly students who were pulled in or students who were taken out?

[00:07:51] ellie: It was a mix from year to year, but I feel earlier on in my career it was more pull out.

[00:08:00] Later In my career it was more push in.

[00:08:04] brittany: And I think that's been the trend for the most part.

[00:08:07] ellie: Yeah, and there was a lot of, there was a lot more, um, co-teacher possibility or opportunity, um, as the years went by,

[00:08:15] And time to plan together and that kind of thing.

[00:08:19] brittany: What about, schedules of IEPs and ILPs and that sort of thing? Were they done like beginning of the year, during the year, throughout the year, end of year.

[00:08:30] ellie: Yeah, I feel like, if I'm remembering correctly, a lot of our IEP meetings for incoming students were held at the end of the previous school year. So as they were finishing up fifth grade. So a sixth grade teacher might sit in on that meeting, as those IEPs were rewritten or updated or the 504s.

[00:08:49] But we did not know the students at that time, and the sixth grade teacher might not necessarily have that student. And then at the beginning of the year, we reviewed all of those things as we were getting to know the students, we had all of those things in place already and we reviewed them for the start of the year.

[00:09:04] How about you?

[00:09:05] brittany: Ours were done throughout the year as the students plan came to renewal. The renewal time was always based off of when the kid was put into a

[00:09:18] plan. And so if a teacher noticed in October that a kid was struggling and maybe had dyslexia, they might start tracking things and stuff then, and doing testing, bringing it up to somebody, you know, more testing, more tracking goes on and all that,

[00:09:38] and it might be January or February till that kid is actually placed into services, and so then their date would be February. And so it would be February every year that the plan was renewed and parents and educators and stuff would get together.

[00:09:57] ellie: Yeah. And now that you say that, I feel like we did have meetings throughout the year as well, so maybe they did revisions as they came into middle school, but then still stuck with that yearly schedule. I can't remember a hundred percent because I know we did have some during the year, but we always had a chunk, at the end of the previous school year kind of thing.

[00:10:16] brittany: maybe they just did an adjustment to, since you're gonna have a whole bunch of teachers,

[00:10:20] ellie: Mm-hmm. 'Cause now you're gonna be changing classes, you're gonna have assignments in every classroom, we're gonna have to think about the assignment book. Is that still gonna be checked? You know, all those kinds of things as you're going into middle school.

[00:10:33] brittany: Interesting.

[00:10:35] ellie: I'm sure it's slightly different for everyone in every school.

[00:10:40] brittany: Yes.

[00:10:41] ellie: So where were we? Strategies.

[00:10:44] brittany: Yeah. Strategies. Let's go over strategies.

[00:10:46] ellie: So one could be to build some supports into your core instruction. 'cause you're responsible for these different things and yet you have to teach your content. And, we've got all these different levels.

[00:10:58] So you could try to build some support into that core instruction. Like you could plan flexible tasks that allow students to demonstrate their understanding in various ways. So same content, but maybe demonstrating written, visually, verbally. Instead of creating two or three different versions of an assessment,

[00:11:16] you could use the same assessment for everyone, but have IEP students or 5 0 4 students, whatever the case answer, only certain questions or, however you wanna to vary that so you don't have to make three different tests, but accommodate what you have. Yeah.

[00:11:31] brittany: Yeah. And instead of grading, say all reports in English or history or science for spelling, grammar, and content. Maybe you just grade the IEP or the ILP students for spelling only, or just for

[00:11:46] grammar. Rubrics could be easily modified as well with different objectives for different

[00:11:52] learners. And those word walls we love in history and science

[00:11:58] can be made into handheld versions like flashcards. Those are great for ELL learners who can then take those flashcards home and practice those words and definitions day in and day out.

[00:12:10] ellie: Hmm. That's fantastic. Graphic organizers are excellent and you can give students ones that are partially filled in or fill in the blank or something like that as a great accommodation for note taking.

[00:12:21] brittany: Or design your station work so one group is always a reteach or scaffolded station. That way you're meeting IEP goals without pulling students aside in a way that singles them

[00:12:34] out. And as a bonus, you're giving everybody some scaffolding

[00:12:38] work, which they could use.,

[00:12:39] ellie: Yes. Absolutely, and once you've got some systems in place, you can then track your accommodations or modifications with a quick glance spreadsheet, like initials with check boxes for extended time or breaks or small group needs, and that can help keep it a little bit more manageable day to day.

[00:12:58] brittany: And don't forget, even when you're responsible for certain parts of these plans, you're not expected to do it alone. Regularly looping in your case manager, your inclusion specialist, or your counselor, makes implementation much more realistic.

[00:13:15] ellie: Mm-hmm. So let's think about overall best practices beyond pull out and push in. So first, plan with purpose. At the start of each unit, meet with inclusion and EL specialists to embed the accommodations like visuals, simplified language, or extra time. Just embed that into the lesson.

[00:13:34] brittany: You could use micro coaching where you check in with inclusion students, mid lesson with quick questions to keep them engaged and supported.

[00:13:44] ellie: Mm-hmm. You could use peer mediated instruction like pairing students where one supports another, which boosts inclusion and keeps everyone engaged.

[00:13:53] brittany: You can use instructional scaffolds such as sentence starters, graphic organizers, and rubrics, which let all students participate fully, reducing the need for extra pullouts.

[00:14:05] ellie: And co-planning with your professional learning community can ensure strategies and data are shared and refined collectively. So we know inclusion services are essential. They can work seamlessly when they're built into lesson design, not added on as an afterthought.

[00:14:23] brittany: Helping pulled out students catch up, collaborating effectively with specialists. And embedding inclusive practices benefits everyone and keeps your class running smoothly.

[00:14:36] ellie: Yes. , Try to pick one strategy, this week if you're in school or one strategy that you're gonna implement when you head back to school, maybe a catch up folder, a co-teach station model, or embedding scaffolds and build from there.

[00:14:50] brittany: If this episode sparked an idea for supporting inclusion, share it with a co-teacher or specialist who'd appreciate it.

[00:14:58] ellie: And DM us on Instagram or leave a review with your favorite inclusion strategy. We might feature it in a future episode.

[00:15:05] brittany: Until next time.

[00:15:07] ellie: Bye.

[00:15:08] brittany: Bye.