1. SUPPORTING OUR YOUNG
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN
THE
GENERAL EDUCATION
CLASSROOM
Matthew Richard Johnston, Boston Green Academy
Pathways Cohort 36
May 28, 2014

2. STUDENT MOTIVATION
 All human behavior is motivated, therefore the notion
that a student is “never motivated” is a myth.
 “Feeling states” like hunger, tiredness, thirst, and
stress have an impact on the child’s ability to stay
motivated.
 Eight motivators affect student performance:
 Status, inquisitiveness, affiliation, power, aggression,
autonomy, achievement, and gregariousness
 Effective teachers will identify and utilize each
student’s motivator patterns in the classroom.

3. FUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOR
ASSESSMENT
 FBAs have furthered the understanding of
how to modify student behavior deemed
“off-task”
 FBAs address the “triggers” rather than the nature
of the problem, with set steps to explore the function,
or purpose, of the behavior and the conditions for the
recurrence.
 Examples of functions are attention-seeking or
avoidance behaviors.
 FBAs allow teachers to develop and encourage positive
behavior through positive behavior plans.

4. EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING
 This term refers to all skills involved in mental and
self regulation.
 Executive functioning serves to command and control
all cognitive skills in order to manage all life tasks.
 Executive functions are: inhibition, shift, emotional
control, initiation, working memory,
planning/organization, organization of materials, self-
monitoring.
 Students will limited executive functioning skills can
benefit from strategies and supports such as a clearly
outlined daily agenda/objectives, graphic organizers
and evaluation rubrics.

5. STRATEGIES FOR
EFFECTIVE TEACHING
 Planning:
 collaborate with special education teachers, service
providers and paraprofessionals. Integrate family members
into discourse, identify motivators and triggers for
individual students.
 Classroom Management:
 designate areas of the room for specific tasks or activities;
allow for purposeful movement, plan for mindful transition
times, monitor student activity.
 Lesson Structuring:
 differentiation through deliberate grouping to support
learning styles; modeling “I do, we do, you do”; “think-pair-
share” and UDL strategies (multiple entry-points and
means of representing content, as well as multiple means of
student expression of that content.

6. ACTIVATING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
 Strategies to help students access what they already
know about a given theme. Common strategies
include cues, questions and advance organizers
 Cues serve to give an impulse to the students’
thinking, examples include providing background
information and drawing connections to other themes.
 Questions allow students to gain more information
in order to fill in the gaps, as well as to apply critical
and analytical skills.
 Advance organizers include expository (to expose
information, especially info that may be difficult),
narrative (a story-like device to connect to prior
knowledge), and graphic (nonlinguistic, visual
representations of information).

7. SELF MONITORING
 A behavior management strategy to improve academic
performance and attention behaviors.
 Student-centered, allows students with limited self-
awareness to recognize and keep track of their
behavior.
 Steps to follow: identify the behavior, collect baseline
data, teach replacement behavior, design a self-
monitoring chart, teach chart use, reinforce positive
behavior, monitor student progress, fade the role of the
adult, and teach maintenance.

8. SOURCES
 Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University
(2011). Building the Brain’s “Air Traffic Control” System: How Early
Experiences Shape the Development of Executive Function: Working
Paper No. 11
 "Effective Teaching Practices for Students in Inclusive
Classrooms." W&M School of Education - . N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May
2014.
 "InBrief: Executive Function: Skills for Life and Learning." InBrief:
Executive Function: Skills for Life and Learning. N.p., n.d. Web. 25
May 2014.
 Off-Task Behavior in the Classroom Applying FBA and CBM (n.d.): n.
pag. Web.
 "RickLavoie.com - Batteries NOT Included "I Can't" vs. "He
Won't""RickLavoie.com - Batteries NOT Included "I Can't" vs. "He
Won't"N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2014.
 Whiffin, Jean. "Chapter 10." The Serials Librarian 8.1 (1983): 83-86.
Web.
 "Why Mixing Students With and Without Special Needs Is a Good
Idea."TakePart. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2014.