In this blog post, the author reflects on their teaching journey, highlighting a significant shift in their experience with students who have IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) and 504 plans. Initially, their focus was on a small group of 8th grade honors students with WEPs (Written Education Plans), but now they have a much larger number of students with special education needs.
The post emphasizes the importance of collaborating with intervention specialists to effectively accommodate students with IEPs and 504 plans. The author provides practical advice on tracking accommodations, suggesting tools like spreadsheets or Google Docs to stay organized. They advocate for universal accommodations, such as extended time on assessments and providing graphic organizers, which benefit all students and streamline the process of meeting individual needs.
The author also addresses common challenges, like forgetting accommodations, and suggests strategies for managing and communicating these issues. They recommend planning ahead for activities that require accommodations and continuously seeking support from intervention specialists and administrators.
Overall, the post serves as a guide for teachers on how to accommodate students with special needs and underscores the ongoing learning process involved in teaching.
We are back again with another Beginner Teacher Series post. This time, we are going to dive into the world of Special Education. Learning how to implement an IEP / 504 plan in a World Language classroom is of the upmost importance. You are required to provide accommodations to students in the World Language classroom. Sometimes I hear that because we are an elective, students can’t expect to get accommodations. WRONG! Extremely wrong.
My first few years of teaching, I rarely taught students who were on an IEP in a World Language class. I taught 3 class periods of 8th grade honors students who had WEPs….a completely different acronym for completely different needs. Fast forward to year 7, I have over two dozen students who receive special education services and currently, one in four Freshmen have an IEP or 504 plan in my district. This is a completely different educational experience than what I had when I first started out and my approach to teaching has completely changed to better suit the needs of my students.
As you start out in your career, I would highly recommend befriending an intervention specialist who can help guide you along the way when it comes to providing IEP / 504 accommodations in the WL classroom. I am so thankful to all of my coworkers who helped me over the last few years with making my classroom a safe place for special education students who are wanting to learn a new language.
Regardless of the subject you teach, you are legally required to provide students with the accommodations on their IEP / 504. Hear me again. YOU MUST PROVIDE THE ACCOMMODATIONS IN A WORLD LANGUAGE CLASSROOM.
Many times, I find new teachers asking me how they can track who has accommodations, how to provide these accommodations on top of everything else they are doing, and what happens if you accidentally forget. I get it, it is intimidating and you may have never seen an IEP at a Glance before your first day on the job. So, let’s dive into the answers of these questions and ease the anxiety.
The most important thing you need to do to provide accommodations is first identify who is receiving those accommodations. In my early years of teaching, this was as simple as putting an asterisk next to their name on my rosters because there were only a handful. Now, I have a spreadsheet that tracks their class period, intervention specialist, the accommodations they have, and when they use them. Why the upgrade? It’s just the climate of where I teach and I really like to CMA (cover my A**).
Don’t get scared, but there are a lot of legal cases that can happen when you do not follow an IEP or 504. BUT these are rarely, if ever, because of a World Language teacher making a small error by forgetting to accommodate a child.
How you choose to track the needs of your students and how often they are needing/using accommodations is really up to you. You can create a spreadsheet, a Google doc, etc. If you prefer to handwrite and you only have a few kids to track, a sheet of paper or a printed roster is just fine, too. I just recommend that you do SOMETHING. Why? In case someone ever asks, you know that you have been doing what you can to make sure that child’s needs are met.
Before I dive into how I make specific accommodations happen in Spanish class. I want to make it so so very clear that the best way to provide accommodations to students is to provide UNIVERSAL accommodations to ALL learners to begin with. In my opinion, universal accommodations force you to be a great teacher. They push you to provide things to those who may not ask for help but most definitely appreciate the extra assistance. Here are some examples of universal accommodations that I give to everyone in my classes.
This list encompasses almost all of the accommodations that I have to provide to my IEP/504 students. Not on that list are accommodations that are pretty kid specific. For example, my diabetic students need access to their phones for their insulin pumps and glucose monitors. Some may need to have constant restroom access or the ability to inform their parents if they are not feeling well.
The last thing not listed would be reduction in the assignments themselves. There are times where a student needs to have their test questions reduced, multiple choice answers reduced by 25%, and occasionally need speech-to-text, or text-to-speech on their Chromebook. The good news is that these are pretty easy. Most of the time, kids who are in my class are already pros at advocating for themselves and have been using these tools for a while and just know how to use them. The only one that requires a little extra work on my part is to reduce questions or answers. I used to think that meant that I needed to write a completely different test or document. Now I know that taking a pen and crossing off the answers or questions they don’t need is completely okay and takes 30 seconds of my time.
Forgetting a kid’s accommodation will most likely happen to you and it’s important to remember that we are all humans and we do forget things from time to time. First, I recommend owning up to it. Pull the kid aside and say “Hey! I totally forgot to see if you wanted to do small group testing for yesterday’s test. Would you want to redo it in a small group?” If the kid says yes, then proceed that way. If they say no, it’s completely okay, too.
Many times I find that my students are not using all of the accommodations they have available to them and that’s okay, especially once they are to the age that they can self-advocate. If you find your error caused a poor grade or a larger issue, communicate with the intervention specialist on how to proceed. Again, I hope we can all assume that it’s not intentional that the accommodation was missed.
If you find yourself with almost 30 IEP / 504 kids on a roster, you may want to think about the types of activities that need accommodations so you can plan ahead.
If I know I am giving a test, I email the IS teachers a few days before letting them know that students can take it with them any time over the next week.
If I know that we are going to read a book, I spend time recording myself reading the chapters and post them on our LMS for students if they need read-alouds.
If we are doing a project, I make sure that each step has a checklist so nothing can be forgotten (hopefully!).
If anything, just know that this is my seventh year of teaching and I am still learning different ways I can best accommodate my students. If you have specific questions about how to accommodate your students, please reach out to the intervention specialists who are assigned to that child, and to administrators for support. As always, send me an email or a DM with your questions, too! Happy teaching!
