Shared Teaching/Learning: Meeting Special Service Goals

This is an example of what a special service short list may look like.

Thanks to inclusion, students today receive a large list of special services. Unlike teaching/learning many years ago, if you have a special education need today, it's likely that you'll receive special services related to that need.

The challenge with regard to this great service is scheduling. How do we schedule well so that students receive the services they are legally entitled too, and how do we deliver those services in conjunction with classroom/subject area teachers so that the services are well targeted resulting in successful student growth and development?

Many years ago, I learned the valuable strategy of shortlisting goals in order to meet learning goals and accommodations with strength. To shortlist goals, teachers and special service delivery educators do the following:

• Meet prior to the teaching/learning year.
• Review the special service delivery documents (an IEP in most cases) with detail.
• Identify primary learning goals and accommodations.
• Schedule service delivery times and days.
• Keep the shortlist in a place that you can easily reference and revise if necessary
• Meet with the special service delivery educators periodically to assess the success of the service delivery and collaboration.

Now that I'm working in a shared model of teaching/learning, this shortlist becomes more important since special educators and regular educators will be working with all students on the team. Hence, it's imperative that we file the shortlist in a place that all teachers can access and use to inform their teaching/learning design, plans, and delivery.

Do you shortlist service delivery goals and accommodations? If so, how does this help you to help students who receive these special services? What else do you do to make the integration of special services successful for students? This is an important aspect of teaching/learning today.