Scaffolding Higher Level Content in Multi-Level Classrooms: Special Education Strategies that Work

When I began my career in special education as an inclusion aide, I was disappointed to find that despite the expansive ideals I was learning in my certification program, the middle school where I was working (in a district far, far away)… wasn’t very inclusive. While many wonderful teachers welcomed and supported my students, some saw both special ed students and their teachers as disruptions and distractions, and successfully petitioned to have students removed from their classrooms. Students with behavioral challenges who could have been supported in general education classes were instead sequestered in self contained units. Some ELL’s with mild learning or intellectual disabilities were placed in Life Skills classrooms because their needs for linguistic support were characterized as academic deficits.

So, when I took a special education teaching position at Stony Point High School in Round Rock ISD, I was delighted to find that unlike my previous school, SPHS was truly inclusive. My first year, I was lucky to work with caring, creative teachers like Cheri Christian Winne, who loved my students and saw them as assets to the community she created in her classroom. She was willing to accept me as a true co-teacher and collaborated with me in creating lesson plans and strategies that scaffolded difficult material for all our students. Over the years I’ve been employed at Stony Point, I’ve partnered with other amazing general education teachers like Pam Doster, Katie Joyce, Bryan Derrig and Marisa Ramirez, who realized that students with a diversity of perspectives and abilities enriched our classrooms and taught us to be more innovative teachers. Together we derived a range of effective techniques to take advantage of our multi-level classrooms and help students with a variety of talents thrive.

When I eventually became a general education English teacher myself, I was inspired that Stony Point’s value system of inclusion continued into upper level classes. Our IB program, for instance, has no admissions requirements. While taking IB classes is challenging, any student with intellectual curiosity can pursue the IB diploma. And while teachers may recommend that a student enroll in general education classes, any student whose parent supports her choice to take a rigorous AP class has that opportunity. Because our placement decisions are finally based on the determination of our students, all of our upper level classes have pupils with a range of strengths.

The opportunity to empower students who might not have gone to college a generation ago to succeed in AP, IB and dual credit classes is not unique to Stony Point. For all of us who entered education because we believed in economic mobility, (not to mention those of us who still think critical thought can save the world), it is one of the central challenges of our age. We all realize that the manufacturing careers that once provided high school graduates with middle class incomes have been replaced by jobs that, according to the ETS Opportunity Project, demand “…more broadly skilled employees,” who possess “analytical, technical and problem-solving abilities, along with communication, collaboration and teamwork skills.” Educators who want our students to have successful careers have to find ways to scaffold higher order thinking skills in multi-level classrooms.

That sounds inspiring, but as teachers we are charged with the nitty gritty of implementation. It isn’t easy to support students with varied levels of preparation without diluting our curriculum or shortchanging our most accomplished kids. Everyone wants to differentiate, but we also know that it is impossible for individual humans to create three sets of lessons plans for the same class. We can’t compensate for ten years of interrupted education between September and the time students take an IB or AP exams in May.

While there is no single approach that overcomes all the complications of inclusiveness, special education teachers and their co-teachers have been grappling with these same problems for years. Many of the scaffolding strategies developed in co-teach and inclusion environments can be adapted for IB, AP and dual credit classrooms. The combination of motivated students and Google applications help them succeed without the second teacher. Strategies that have worked in my classes include:

• Creating a collaborative classroom in which students want to help each other
• Using templates to scaffold complex thought and writing
• Adapting think alouds
• Employing strength based multi-level grouping.

I will describe each technique and give specific implementation links and ideas in upcoming blogs. What strategies have you used to help create upper level classes that are both inclusive and challenging? Please share!