Discussion 2 IEP Preparation

Week 6 Discussion 2 IEP Preparation

When preparing for an IEP meeting a teacher must attempt to be culturally sensitive to all families. List and explain three (3) suggestions that a teacher can implement in an IEP meeting. The teacher’s focus should be to understand a family’s cultural views regarding the disability and bridge any gap that may exist between these views and the policies of the school system. Please respond with general examples that will transfer to all situations. Include at least one additional resource to support your thoughts.

Readings

1. Read from your text, Building culturally responsive family-school relationships :

· Chapter 11: Engaging in Collaborative Problem Solving with Families

· Chapter 12: Family-Centered Parent Involvement and Shared Decisions Making in Special Education Classrooms

· Chapter 14: Seeing the Big Picture: Creating a School Climate that Strengthens Family-School Connections

Recommended Resources

1. IRIS Center. (2018). The pre-referral process (Links to an external site.). Retrieved from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/preref/

· Explanation of the pre-referral process, includes information on how to involve parents in the process.

2. IRIS Center. (2018). Outline: The pre-referral process (Links to an external site.). Retrieved from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdf_module_outlines/preref.pdf

· Description of the purpose of the pre-referral process and explanation of the six stages of the pre-referral process.

Instructor Guidance

Week 6

In the last week of our class together, we are putting together the pieces that we have studied so far into a comprehensive, collaborative environment. This week’s learning outcomes include that you will summarize the steps in conducting a problem-solving meeting and explaining the steps teachers may want to take in order to understand the cultural views of a family that has a student with a learning disability. Do you feel prepared, as a teacher, to build collaborative approaches to family and school relationships? Do you feel prepared to deal with the range of diversity in your classrooms and to work with students who have special needs? Maybe you do; maybe you don’t. It is not easy to do these things, but that does not mean we should not try. Hopefully, after completing this week’s work, you will be better prepared to go to your school and work with the range of students in the classrooms. In the first discussion for the week you should summarize the steps that are involved in conducting a problem-solving meeting. Go on to explain why these steps work well when faced with culturally diverse families. Chapters 8 and 11 will be very helpful for this discussion.  In the second discussion for this week, you are asked to explain three suggestions that a teacher might want to use in an IEP meeting, particularly when working with cultural diversity in the family. Ideally you will focus on the teacher’s need to understand the family’s cultural view regarding the disability and then make connections between the policy of your school and the family’s views. For the final project, you have been asked to develop a presentation and supporting paper for the staff at your school. You must provide to the staff the information they need in order to understand the collaborative paradigm and the need for change at your school. As you look at the outline for this paper, you will see that you will want to address family needs and how to understand them, summarize the definition and understanding of culturally responsive teaching, and present an approach to link your school and families with the community. You will create two files for this project. The first is a presentation of approximately 10 to 15 slides, and the second is a 7 to 10 page paper that accompanies the presentation. Remember, you are attempting to persuade your coworkers of the need for change and that you have an outline for how to make it happen. Please be sure to review all requirements and the grading rubric as you build your presentation and write your paper.

 

References

Amatea, E. S. (2013). Building culturally responsive family-school relationships (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

· Discussion 2:  IEP Preparation

 

In preparing for one of your special education student’s IEP (Individual Education Plan), it is important to understand the family you are working with.  As the regular education teacher, you may have the most experience and exposure to the student in question.  Different family dynamics may have different perspectives about special education and the IEP process.  Three things that I have found to work in preparation for the IEP include:

1.     Speak to the parents before the meeting in the role of teacher, not special education or resource teacher.  Including informal positive experiences and examples of what the student is doing in and outside the classroom is important to families.  They want to make sure their child to feel comfortable and capable at school in the classroom and with peers.  Ask about how their child is doing at home socially, behaviorally, and in the family.  Discuss some of the positive things the child enjoys and bring these ideas to the meeting.

2.     Validate families concerns and observations of their children. Many families compare their child to other children they have or know.  Reassure them that every child is unique, regardless of their special education services.

3.     Bring outside resources from the community that you know work for families.  Share a resource you know a family has used with success.  Perhaps build a connection with that family and resource.