Do any of you teach a Resource class for students with learning disabilities?

Question

The problem with Resource is that there is no specific content taught. Students don't think it is a "real" class, they lie about the work they have to do, they resist study skills instruction, and mostly they waste valuable time. If you teach Resource, how can it be successfully structured since there is such a broad range of abilities, students are in many different classes, and there isn't an efficient system for communicating with classroom teachers?

Every level has its challenges. Mine is Junior High School. I had the same problem with high school students.

Answer 1

Welcome to the wonderful world of inclusion.

You are asking two questions here. The first, how do you supply content for a variety of students and how to you make them accountable for bringing their work from other classes.

The hard truth, is that these problems come from classroom management problems. You are responsible for the content in the class and for the delivery of the information. In order to do this, the students have to be under control.

To find out what content to teach, look at the IEP goals and objectives. By doing this, you can do two things; you can select the appropriate curriculum and you can group kids according to their needs. Being taught at their level helps a lot of children.

Try to make the structure of your class more formal. Make folders for each student and put their work or page assignments in the folders. When they come into the room, they go immediately to their folders and then to their desks or to a teaching table, depending on what they are doing.

On the board, put the name of the groups and what they will be doing that day. For instance, for the first part of the class, you can be doing direct instruction with the red group, have practice assignments for the blue group and have the green group on the computer. Then rotate the groups through this cycle. Teach the students how to do the rotations and the behavior that is expected.

Create a reward system on the board. This consists of the student's name and stars for doing the expected behaviors.  Make sure you have the expected behaviors posted in a conspicuous place. Tell them what you want them to do. "I am giving starts to people who come in, get their folders and go to their areas. Tommy, you went right to your seat, that's a star."

Make some small reward available for the students who get the amount of stars that you have deemed necessary.  Make sure it is a high number so that you can constantly be recognizing good behavior.

You must communicate with the teachers. Most students in middle school have some kind of book they carry with them for bathroom visits, etc. If yours do, the teacher can write homework assignments or incomplete assignments in this book.

Or you can create a very simple form  inside a folder that the student carries with him or her. If some of the classwork is unfinished, then the teacher can put it in the folder or write an assignment in it. To keep the teacher from getting stressed, have the students write down the assignments on the form and then the teacher can just check if they are complete.

You must sit down and talk with the teachers about what they want from your services. That will make things a lot more clear to you.

Finally, you are being caught in a money bind in terms of your students being served completely in the mainstream. As usual, your principal had determined that he or she can save money with inclusion, by cutting teachers. He or she is spending the money these kids bring with them, someplace else, like in regular ed. Inclusion, because of the students being of all different levels and being scattered all over the school takes more teachers not less.

In one school I visit, the Resource teacher, who meets with students all day, 17 to 20 in a class, also has 24 mainstream kids he never sees. The regular ed teacher that shares his classroom, has from 12-15 regular ed students. This is a crime, but no one is getting busted. I wish parents would complain about this, but I am sure they don't understand what is going on.

Answer 2

I teach resource at an Elem. School and I solved that problem by just amking my own curriculum.  Middle and high school are more difficult.  One thing I would consider is trying to get the students' scheduls more alinged with each others' and trying to do more of an nclusive model.  You go to class with them and show them strategies to improve  their performance on actual assignments from their core classes.  With proper accomodations and modifications, mot students should be able to handle the general education curriculum - especially if they have some asistance from a sped teacher.  Good luck!

Answer 3

So, it sounds like it is kind of a "homework time,"  but it also sounds like you are expected to teach some study skills.  If I were you, I would teach the study skills for the first half of the class and do homework the last half.  To communicate with the classroom teachers, don't you have email?  That is how I communicate with the teachers.  Our school would fall apart if it weren't for email.  If you don't have that ability, most junior high schools have agenda books, have the students write the homework and at the end of each class, they have to get it initialed by the teacher to make sure it is correct.  Then, when they get it signed for a week and they have worked, do something special like have a 15 to 20 minute talking time or board games at the end of the period on Friday.  Junior high kids love this little bit of freedom and it is much cheaper than giving them a prize or candy.