6 Assignment: Planning Adjustments in the Instructional Environment

Consider the following two scenarios and respond to the questions:

• Verna is a student with a learning disability in Ms. Chang's fourth-grade class. Ms. Chang uses whole-group instruction in math. This method is sometimes hard for Verna, who is behind her peers in math. Verna is slow to remember math facts, has trouble keeping numbers straight in columns, and sometimes forgets a step or two when she is computing a problem that requires several steps.
• Mr. Howard teaches U.S. history. About half of the students in his fourth-hour class struggle in reading; four students receive special education services for learning disabilities. Mr. Howard has been assigned a special education teacher, Ms. Riley, to co-teach the class with him. Mr. Howard and Ms. Riley think the class can benefit from learning the following textbook-reading strategy (Bartelt, Marchio, & Reynolds, 1994): 

  R Review headings and subheadings. 
  E Examine boldface words. 
  A Ask "What do I expect to learn?" 
  D Do it: Read! 
  S Summarize in your own words. 

  Questions:

  1. Identify the demands in Ms. Chang's class that are likely to be challenging for Verna. 
  2. Describe how Ms. Chang can use the steps in the INCLUDE strategy to help Verna succeed in the large group. 
  3. Can Mr. Howard and Ms. Riley use the approaches for co-teaching you learned about in Chapter 3 to teach the reading strategy and still cover the history content required by the state? Explain. 
  4. How can they use scaffolding to teach the READS strategy?