According to CEC Standard 2, special education teachers design classrooms that are safe, inclusive, and culturally responsive. Educators collaborate with other professionals to ensure that students with exceptionalities are included in general education settings that allow for academic and social engagement. Beginning special education teachers modify their classrooms to meet each students’ unique learning needs, taking into consideration the cultures, family, and language spoken in the home of their students . According to the CEC, the HLPs that align with this standard are 4, 11, and 12
Artifact 1
Artifact 1 is an example of math journals that my resource math students created. My learners were struggling to grasp some concepts at the beginning of the semester. I created the math journal assignment as an intervention to help them retain new information. The math journal provided students with a reference tool throughout the remainder of the semester. Students were able to refer to their journals throughout guided practice sections of lesson to help them accurately respond when prompted, which also offered positive reinforcement. Students were also able to use their math journals as a visual support during the independent practice portion of lessons.
Artifact 2
Artifact two is a research project I completed during the spring semester of internship. The research focuses on one student that was reliant on teacher prompting to complete a set of math problems independently. For this student, I altered the classroom environment in such a way that enabled her to succeed. To support this student, I incorporated frequent opportunities to respond, behavior-specific praise, a visual support, and instructional feedback. After these supports were in place, the student demonstrated a substantial increase in the number of problems she solved independently.