Sarah Wengerter Inclusion Action Plan Week 6 Day 7

Description of Current Inclusion Practices

I am a fifth grade teacher and for the past two years I’ve been the inclusion room for our

grade in our building. A special education teacher was assigned to the students in my class. In

reading we differentiate groups, however, the special education teacher requests to have the

students with IEP’s in her group, so the groups aren’t as fluid as I would like. In writing and

math the students were pulled out more. It seems that especially this last year there was more

pull out then “push” in. There seems to be no desire to work collaboratively between special

education and regular classroom teachers. We have 3 special education teachers and one CD

teacher. Each special education teacher works with two grade levels. This coming year they will

each have a grade level that does standardized testing. The special education teachers have

begun to follow their students for three years. For example, in kindergarten a special education

student will have the same special education teacher till second grade.

We have Title support for both math and reading but those teachers only work with

students in grades kindergarten, first and second grades. We also have two “At-Risk” teachers

that work as interventionists for pull out. These two teachers are both behavioral and academic

support for our students. The “At-Risk” teachers use Leveled Literacy Intervention for their pull

out groups during reading intervention; math intervention they work on reteaching the skills

taught in universal. We are a targeted school for Title 1, which means parents need to give their

permission for our Title teachers to work with their child.

We have a master schedule that includes an hour of writing using Lucy Calkins, 75

minutes of math using Math Expressions and 80 minutes are spent on literacy throughout the

day. The past 2 years there have been two 30 minute intervention times, one for math and one

for reading. This coming year we will have only intervention time of 45 minutes and the focus

will be on reading. This year a cluster of teachers will be piloting Fountas and Pinnell spelling

and we are on a second year for both Math Expressions and Lucy Calkins.

SWOT Analysis for Inclusion

Sarah Wengerter Inclusion Action Plan Week 6 Day 7

Strengths

● We have a master schedule with 45 minutes of intervention time.

● We have an abundant amount of resources available.

● We have extremely knowledgeable special education staff.

● We have 75 minutes of math instruction and 60 minutes of writing instruction this year.

● We have common planning times for all grade levels.

● We have new spelling program (Fountas and Pinnell).

● We are in our second year in our writing and math programs (Lucy Calkins and Math

Expressions).

● We have three special education teachers, three ESL teachers and two “At Risk”

teachers.

Weaknesses

● We are a low income school and have very little parental support.

● We have new 45 minute intervention time instead of two 30 minute intervention times.

● There are minimal collaborations, co-teaching, and a lack of trust between regular

education and special education teachers.

● There is still some confusion regarding the new SLD criteria, teachers need more

instruction on this law.

● Our special education and EL students are not making significant gains on standardized

test scores.

● Resources are not used or accessed by teachers including “At Risk” teachers.

● Pull-out is used a significant part of the school day.

● Lack of disability awareness.

Opportunities

● Teachers will volunteer to start an after school tutoring session.

● The district could hire a half time Interventionist to assist teachers with interventions.
Sarah Wengerter Inclusion Action Plan Week 6 Day 7

● Training for new spelling program (Fountas and Pinnell).

● Continued training and assistance for teachers for Math Expressions and Lucy Calkins

writing.

● Staff development for ideas to the new 45 intervention time.

● More collaboration between classroom and special education teachers. This will allow

team-teaching occur and move towards inclusion.

● Teachers will collaborate with members of the community and parents to teach them to

be tutors and form an after school program to help students.

● Teachers will have the opportunity to participate in professional development in

intervention systems and literacy. This will allow teachers to learn new techniques to

differentiate instruction, to implement interventions and flexible groups in their teaching.

Threats

● Funds for Title services may be decreased, there is no guarantee from year to year.

● High stakes testing prep becoming the center of the teaching day.

● The definition of fidelity being used incorrectly.

● The lack of trust and animosity between teachers, especially grade level team members.

● Lack of access to technology.

● Teachers being resistant to team teaching or co-teaching from staff members.

● Students not prepared for the Smarter Balance tests.

● Additional stress being put on teachers with the implementation of Educator

Effectiveness.

List of Inclusion Stakeholders

Stakeholder in our school are:

- Special Education Teachers

- Title reading and math teachers

- District Administrators
Sarah Wengerter Inclusion Action Plan Week 6 Day 7

- All K-5 Teachers

- All K-5 Educational Assistance

- Principal

- Regular Education students

- Parents of students with special needs

- Parents of parents without special needs

- All students with special needs

- All students without special needs

- Community Volunteers
 Sarah Wengerter Inclusion Action Plan Week 6 Day 7

Goal #1: Increase disability awareness in our school.

Recommended Current % Goal % Materials/ Who will Target Evaluation

Strategies/ Activities Resources Implement Date for (Did it
Needed? ? (Who?) Implem- happen?)
(What?) entation
(When?)

A group of teachers, There currently There will be Computer to Committee The Will occur in
made up of special is 0% disability 100% research that beginn- the upcoming
education and awareness partici- other creates ing of school year.
regular education present in our pation in the schools event. March.
teachers, will create school. creation of a disability
a disability disability awareness
awareness day. awareness day. Time
day. set aside to
meet and
plan. Space Principal.
in the Assembly After
Our school will host There currently There will be building to committee Disability Will occur in
the UW-Whitewater is 0% of 25% of house and PTO Awarene the upcoming
Cornerstones activities school events. Any will work ss Day, school year.
Athletes. focused on the activities materials for together. in March.
abilities of focused on the activities
people with disabilities. that are
disabilities. chosen.

Will need
There are funds to
currently no bring the Through Will occur
Special Education lessons There will be athletes to out the during the
teachers will create a developed by 100% of our building. 2014- upcoming
lesson on disabilities the special participation Space for 2015 school year.
to be present in the education by special the Special school
classroom. teachers that education presentation Education year.
focus on and regular . and regular
disabilities in our education education
classrooms. teachers in teachers.
using the Special
lesson education
developed in teachers will
their room. need time to
plan lesson.

Goal #2: There will be collaboration between Special Education, Title 1, At-Risk, ESL and

regular education teachers to work towards team-teaching and inclusion.

 Sarah Wengerter Inclusion Action Plan Week 6 Day 7

Recommended Current % Goal % Materials/ Who will Target Evaluation (Did

Strategies/ Resources Implement Date for it happen?)
Activities Needed? ? (Who?) Implement
(What?) ation
(When?)

Regular There are There will Common An This will be Will occur in the
Education about 25% be 100% planning interventio implement 2014-2015
Teachers will co- of teaching of teaching time. nist will ed in the school year and
teach with Title, being done being done work with 2014-2015 will continue
At-Risk, ESL and by co- by co- Positive Title, school thereafter.
Special teaching. teaching in attitudes Special year.
Education regular and a Education,
teachers to better education willingness ESL, At-
assist the classroom to work Risk, and
learning of all s. collaborativ regular
students ely. education
including those teachers
with disabilities. The during the
knowledge common
of grade level
materials planning
from time.
previous
training.

Goal #3: Staff will be trained in intervention and differentiation strategies for 45 minute

intervention period.
Sarah Wengerter Inclusion Action Plan Week 6 Day 7

Recommen Current % Goal % Materials/ Who will Target Evaluation

ded Resources Implement Date for (Did it
Strategies/ Needed? ? (Who?) Implement happen?)
Activities (What?) ation
(When?)

Regular There are There will Supportive CESA 4 2014-2015 Will occur
education, only 25% be 100% of Principle to Interventio School during the
Special of teachers teachers check the nist. Year. 2014-2015
education, in our trained in programs school
Title, At- building different are being School 1 inservice year!
Risk, and that are interventio met used Principal. day before
ESL trained in n with school.
teachers interventio strategies fidelity.
will be n to 3 day
trained in a strategies. differentiat Financial trainings
variety of e the 45 funding. for
intervention minute interventio
and daily CESA 4 n
differentiati interventio will provide strategies.
on n period. profession
strategies al 1 full day
to be developme inservice
implemente nt for during the
d in 45 interventio school
minute n year.
intervention strategies
time. to provide
differentiati
on.

Substitute
Teachers

Reflection

There are so many positive things coming up in the next school year. We will be

able to spend more time on reading intervention with the 45 minute intervention time.

Our master schedule is in it’s third year and we are finally getting all the “kinks” out. All

of these changes will greatly benefit our special education students as well as all the

students in our building.

Sarah Wengerter Inclusion Action Plan Week 6 Day 7

By changing our Master Schedule to include one 45 minute intervention time

instead of two 30 minute intervention periods we have been able to add 15 minutes to

our math instruction, add 15 minutes to writing to make it an hour, and protect our

precious reading instruction time. With this change there will be greater opportunity to

collaborate between classroom teachers and special education, At-Risk, and ESL

teachers. Having that collaboration time will only benefit the students because there will

be consistency in the teaching occurring. All teachers will have the rough first year of

new programs under their belt and feel comfortable with the programs that we are

teaching. All teachers still need to be trained in intervention strategies so the needs of

each student can be met and differentiation can occur more often. This will lead to co-

teaching and/or team teaching and will push us closer to true inclusion.

We have made some great steps for the upcoming school year but we still have

a long way to go before we are an inclusion school.We need all teachers to believe in

inclusion and to support it’s purpose. As a school we need to be united in the cause to

make inclusion happen. This inclusion plan is focused mostly on the teachers because I

believe without proper training and proper implementation special education will not be

inclusion. We have many steps to go before we reach inclusion but we are taking the

steps to get there.