1. Planning and Organizing Instruction
SPED 611

2. Arrangement of Students
All students should easily see and hear the teacher
Teacher has easy access to all students
Teacher sees all students
Decide to put desks in clusters or rows
Place difficult-to-teach or off-task students in the middle of the room near the front

3. Classroom Arrangement
Teacher draw a rough sketch of the floor plan
Consider advantages for desk arrangements: vertical rows, group circles, and small clusters
Location of predominant activities
Number of students in the environment
Storage area for equipment
Need for special equipment for students with special needs

4. Managing the Physical Environment
Environmental Design
Classroom Arrangement
Complements to the Instructional Environment
Interest Centers
Bulletin Boards

5. Environmental Design Considerations
Sense of community
Personal territory
Authentic motivation
Classroom flexibility
Environmental acknowledgment
Flexible seating
Work aesthetic
Barrier-free

6. Complements to the Instructional Environment
Study Carrel
Provide a quiet place to study
Provide a comfortable place to read independently

7. Interest Centers Considerations
Characteristics of the user
Objectives that the activities are designed to meet
Interest value to the students
Procedures and directions
Materials or equipment needed

8. Bulletin Boards Most popular is to display students’ work
Can foster creativity by providing example topics or themes for student work

9. Large-Group Instruction
Advantages:
time efficient
Prepares students for the type of instruction primarily used in secondary education
May help students with special needs make the transition to general education classes

10. Large-Group Instruction Cont.
Disadvantages:
Difficult for teachers to deal with diverse abilities and skill levels
Questions may go unanswered
Distracted students may stay off task
Students do not receive intensive instruction

11. Guidelines for Large-Group Instruction
Keep instruction short
Use questions to involve students
Use lecture-pause routine
Active participation among lower achieving students
Visual aids
Lively pace
Frequent change-ups
Determine rules during presentation and discussions
Use participation buddies to promote student involvement

12. Small-Group Instruction
Advantages:
Students participate more often
Teachers provide more instruction, praise, and feedback
Students can progress at their own pace
Less boring
Monitor student progress better
ELL students are more comfortable
Important for students with LD and EBD because they lack to skills to work independently

13. Small-Group Instruction Cont.
Disadvantages
Students are required to do more seatwork
More planning is involved
Teachers must organize instructional variables
Teachers must provide more instruction

14. Guidelines for Small-Group Instruction
Establish rules
Make groups homogeneous
Maintain flexible grouping
Locate groups so teacher can see all groups
Place students in semicircle
Use motivational activities

15. Cooperative Learning Strategies
Peer tutoring
Classwide Peer tutoring
Group projects
Jigsaw
Student-team achievement divisions

16. Guidelines for Peer Tutoring
Determine goals for peer tutoring
Practice and learn targeted skills
Provide a review
Develop appropriate social skills
Enhance self-concepts
Determine target skills or content
Select materials
Design procedures for tutee and tutor
How to present the task
How to provide feedback for correct and incorrect responses
How to score responses

17. Guidelines for Peer Tutoring
Assign tutor-tutee pairs
Across-class
Pull-out
Intraclass
Train tutors and tutees
Teach social skills
Review skills
Schedule sessions

18. Classwide Peer Tutoring
Three main features:
Peers are used to supervise responding and practice
A game format is used that includes points and competing teams to motivate students and maintain interest
Weekly evaluation plan ensure gains in student progress

19. Classwide Peer Tutoring Format
Daily tutoring sessions of about 30 minutes
Tutor-tutee pairs work together for a week
After 10 minutes the pairs switch roles
Two points are given for each correct response, one point is given for a corrected response
Teacher moves around the room monitoring tutoring behavior – awards bonus points for good behavior
End of the session, students add up the points and record on chart
Friday the teacher conducts a more intensive assessment of the skills learned

20. Student-team achievement divisions
Heterogeneous group of 4 students are assigned to a team
After teacher presents the lesson, the team works together to ensure mastery of the skills taught
Students take individual quizzes without peer help.
Quiz scores are compared to previous scores and points are awarded based on improvement