Univ. at Buffalo March 2, 2009LAI 574

Strategies for Transitions in an Inclusive Classroom

Due to a lack of experience in working with students with disabilities, I’ve been absorbing a lot of new ideas and information. Each chapter of Salend’s book is like a sudden awakening to a world I’ve only known from a far away distance. But, as with previous chapters, this week’s “reading about problems and strategies for solving problems when students are asked to transition into an inclusive classroom,” is quite comprehensive and, at the same time, makes very good sense. These strategies should be effective in “making the transition for the special education student go more smoothly.”

As with the inclusive classroom strategies we’ve read before, I think transition strategies can benefit students without disabilities. For the general education population, the transitions they face are things like moving from elementary to middle school, or middle school to high school, or moving from another school district. In these cases, I think the four-step process of “Transenvironmental Programming” which was “designed to help prepare students for success in the inclusive setting” would be effective for all general education students, as well (Salend, p. 240).

1. Environmental assessment (of old and new environments)2. Intervention and preparation for the new environment3. Generalization to the new setting4. Evaluation of the new environment

From these steps, I picked out some strategies I think would definitely benefit all students:

Teach classroom and school procedures and successful behaviors Design learning strategies unique to the student and environment Develop students’ organization skills Help students develop daily and weekly schedules Teach research-based learning strategies

Establishing high expectations and multiple opportunities to practice under different conditions helps foster generalization

Promote social acceptance and academic success Offer Orientations and Visiting, Shadowing, and Mentoring

Programs Educators can solicit suggestions from families and address their

concerns and questions Teaching social skills Respecting and understanding cultural perspectives Explaining perspectives of the new environment Using modeling, role-playing, prompting, and scripting to teach

new behaviors Teach basic communicative language to students to foster

inclusion Model language and social interaction patterns for students Role-play BICS and social skills Prompt responses (take students to environments, and then pre-

teach them relevant expressions for the environment; e.g., saying “this is fun” at the playground)