Explicit Instruction in the Special Education Classroom

Abstract

Explicit instruction has been proven to improve the abilities and outcomes in academics for students with special needs. According to Lyon, et. al. (2001), students with disabilities are at particular risk for experiencing reading difficulties; for a majority of students with learning disabilities, reading is their primary area of difficulty. This project was created in order to streamline and to incorporate explicit instruction into the district-mandated curriculum for students with special needs in the area of reading in Kindergarten and First Grade. With the addition of explicit instruction into specific curricula, can students with special needs improve academic abilities in the resource room setting? The benefits of the addition of explicit instruction to the Read Well curriculum were successful and productive. Students were able to grow not only academically, but also in confidence and appropriate behavior. Although there are some limitations of time and materials, this project was successful for my Kindergarten and First Grade students. They were engaged in the lesson through the activities and modeling. The students were able to produce taught sounds, blend words with known sounds and read sentences based on the data collected. This curriculum was built as a basis for teachers who utilize the curriculum with the hope that it will be built upon and future grade levels and various subject areas will use the core concepts when building lessons in the future.