Collection | Specially Designed Instruction (SDI)

Presenters: Marilyn Friend, Nicole Barrion & Amy Creed

Time: 60 minutes

Are you trying to improve your co-teaching results? Find out more about what works and what doesn't? Join this session to learn about the journey of an urban school district that embraced co-teaching and emphasized specially designed instruction (SDI). Explore structures and strategies that fostered success and challenges still to be overcome. Outcome data, resources, and recommendations will be shared, and responses to audience questions will be prioritized.

Participants will be able to:

1. Apply at least three practices at each level-district, school, and classroom-essential for producing positive outcomes with co-teaching emphasizing SDI, including data to support the impact of those practices.
2. Analyze at least three problems encountered when implementing co-teaching in an urban district and consider potential solutions for reducing or eliminating them.
3. Compare policies, practices, and resources for a district effectively implementing co-teaching with SDI to your own situation, identifying ways to improve the local co-teaching to improve outcomes for students.

Presenters: Julie Irene Bost & Carlos Oliveira

Time: 50 minutes

This session provides participants with detailed strategies for incorporating specially designed instruction in the various co-teaching models while also utilizing a culturally responsive teaching approach to include and engage culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Both presenters have previous experiences as co-teachers, along with ongoing experience coaching and supporting co-teachers, which will foster a meaningful session that provides participants with relevant strategies to take back for immediate use in their school and/or districts. Session includes specific and meaningful lesson planning examples along with a crosswalk matrix for participants to reflect on their practice.

Learning Goals:

1. Participants will understand the models of co-teaching along with how to provide specially designed instruction within each one.
2. Participants will understand the importance of culturally responsive classrooms while also learning specific strategies for including culturally and linguistically diverse students in the co-taught classroom.
3. Participants will reflect on their current practice while identifying specific methods for improvement that can be immediately applied in their current setting.

Presenters: Marilyn Friend & Tammy Barron

Time: 60 minutes

Co-teaching has become a common way to educate students with disabilities, but concerns continue about whether they are truly receiving special education (that is, specially designed instruction) in that model. This session focuses on five evidence-based SDI practices that can be, should be, and have been integrated into co-teaching from kindergarten through high school. Come with questions, share in the discussion, and learn what is feasible and necessary to improve student outcomes.

Participants will be able to:

1. Describe five SDI practices, each supported by research, that positively affect the learning of students with disabilities when implemented with fidelity.
2. Demonstrate how each of the SDI practices highlighted in this session can be integrated into a co-taught class, regardless of grade level.
3. Analyze issues that arise in using SDI as part of co-teaching, synthesizing audience questions and presenter suggestions and recommendations.

Presenter: Julie Irene Bost

Time: 54 minutes

Effective collaboration and co-teaching needs continuous and specific feedback coupled with meaningful coaching and professional development. This session provides participants with tools and strategies for achieving this, along with examples for how teachers can include specially designed instruction and access to the curriculum in the general education classroom. Participants will be provided with a co-teaching feedback tool and a coaching matrix along with opportunities to practice application in realistic settings. The goal is for all participants to leave the session with tools and strategies for immediate use in their classroom, school, and/or district.

Participants will be able to:

1. Understand the models of co-teaching, including how to apply them to make classroom instruction more engaging for all learners, which will ultimately expand their capacity to lead and coach co-teaching in their current settings.
2. Reflect on the critical components of coaching and meaningful professional development to analyze current practices and pinpoint next steps to improve coaching and professional development in their current settings.
3. Apply what they learn about co-teaching and instructional coaching by practicing a co-teaching feedback tool created by the presenter.

Presenters: Lydia Gerzel-Short, Lisa Liberty & Greg Conderman

Time: 51 minutes

Teachers assigned to co-teaching need training in ways to incorporate high-leverage practices (HLPs) into their instruction. HLPs are evidence-based practices shown to improve outcomes for learners with disabilities. We describe ways to differentiate co-taught math and science classes using HLPs.

Participants will be able to:

1. Define high-leverage practices and how they are used.
2. Revise components of a general education lesson to include one or more high-leverage practices and one flexible grouping model of co-instruction.
3. List three high-leverage practices that they can apply to their co-taught lessons.

Presenters: Nicole Barrion & Amy Creed

Time: 150 minutes

You've got the IEP...so what's next? How do you determine SDI to ensure student progress? This workshop will support participants in how to analyze student IEPs in order to identify effective specially designed instruction (SDI) strategies and build their repertoire of specialized strategies and techniques. Using High Leverage Practices in instruction and an SDI Toolkit shared in the session, you will have an opportunity to collaborate with colleagues to analyze your students' learner characteristics, present levels, and goals from the IEP to take your SDI to the next level. Everyone will walk away with renewed confidence in planning and implementing their SDI!

Presenter: Dr. Marilyn Friend

Time: 150 minutes

Across the country, professionals are asking questions about specially designed instruction in co-taught classes: How can we make time for SDI when the curriculum moves at such a fast pace? How can SDI be offered unless we pull the students to the side or take them to the special education classroom? We have 7 (or 10 or 12) students with disabilities in our co-taught class; how can we possibly deliver SDI for all of them? Where can we find more examples of SDI and how it occurs in co-teaching? This workshop is designed to address those questions and more.