Visible Learning in Special Education

I have been in special education for 6 years. I have always been told to minimise spoken language so that our students can process what is being said. 

While this is important for providing instructions and especially important for students with communication difficulties I also believe it is important to provide a vocabulary rich environment. 

Many teachers in special education believe their students wont understand if we share their learning goals with them or it will confuse them further. 

This year i made it my personal goal to ensure that every lesson had a learning intention which i could share with my students. Almost 1 year later i have started to notice my students talking about their learning goals or what they have achieved, even students using only keywords to communicate are able to express what they are learning. It is so powerful watching my students have ownership and control over their own learning. This week Evan said, "oo what am i learning today? I like learning about vowels." 

In special education it is so important to assume the best in our students because every day my students surprise me. 

I have shared a template for sharing learning intentions in a previous post which you can see here.

Student Self Assessment

As part of my focusing inquiry i am looking at the Key Competency "Managing Self". Part of managing themselves is getting our students to think about their own learning and to reflect on the work they have done. Self Assessment in special education can be very challenging to achieve when many of the students have communication difficulties. 

" In self-assessment a learner evaluates their own work, and thinks about their own learning. This helps them to make sense of what the teacher says, relate it to previous learning and use this for new learning" 
https://cambridge-community.org.uk/professional-development/gswafl/index.html

A colleague of mine, Lidia shared a self assessment resource with me that she has started to use with her group of students to teach meta-cognition. I have adapted her version which i am going to be using for differentiated instruction during 1:1 teaching time during literacy and maths. To start with my students may not make the connection between their learning and what the smiley faces indicate, however, over time I am hoping that they will be able to provide feedback on how they think their learning went. 

To download a copy of this resource click HERE