Get Organized for the Day in Special Education

Daily organization can feel quite overwhelming for any teacher, but daily habits that help you to stay on top of all your responsibilities can be a game-changer! I’ll share sample literacy and math lesson formats that I use to keep everything running smoothly in my classroom!

In my literacy small groups, we have a primary focus on phonics, especially because I tend to work with younger students. Here are the components of literacy that I work on everyday with my students:

1. Review prior spelling patterns
2. Introduce new pattern (1-2 times per week)
3. Read a decodable text
4. Write dictation sentences
5. Write a response to a question or free-write

In my math small groups, I focus on conceptual, rather than procedural understanding. This means that at all ages, my students are working on problems that have real-life applications and are using a variety of methods to solve their problems. Here are the components of math that I work on everyday with my students:

1. Review prior concepts, vocabulary, anything memorization based (for younger students this may be number names, while for other students it may be verbalizing the difference between the four operations).
2. Introduce new concept (1-2 times per week)
3. Practice new concept - use errorless learning strategies if necessary
4. Create and solve real-life problems using the given math concept
5. Independent work for practice