Comprehensive Literacy Instruction is essential in today's classrooms, including self-contained classrooms and cross-categorical resource rooms. In many cases, reading and writing instruction has fallen by the wayside for our most complex learners however the push toward implementing the Science of Reading in all classrooms emphasizes the need for a shift. ...

After all the talk about what students love during Valentine's Day activities, I always found a natural next step in my thematic units was to focus on feelings and emotions.  Check out some of my favorite Emotions activities: ELA Ideas I first introduce feelings vocabulary. We use a variety of visuals including photos, icons, and even emojis.  Next, we practice sorting emotions based on the vocabulary we've learned. These cut and paste worksheets are also included in my Feelings Thematic Unit .  Then, we read stories to discuss each emotion in context. I love The Way I Feel by Janan Cain because it covers so many robust feeling words. I use the communication board from my Feelings Thematic Unit for students to participate. Another favorite feelings story is When Sophie Gets Angry-- Really, Really Angry by Molly Bang. I love this story for introducing the concept of coping strategies to my students.  I love this story so much that I created an entire Picture Book Comm......

Last year I read a book that changed my entire outlook on teaching teaching to my students with significant disabilities and complex needs. Comprehensive Literacy for All: Teaching Students with Significant Disabilities to Read and Write by Karen Erickson Ph.D and David Koppenhaver Ph.D. is a MUST-READ for teachers in the self-contained classroom! It provides Science of Reading research specific to our students with significant disabilities and provides some practical guidance. ...

In my classroom, I used Unique Learning System for a majority of my curriculum. However, I found that I often wanted to supplement the stories with rich, authentic picture books. So my Picture Book Communication and Comprehension Supports units were born! ...

The holiday season is a magical time in any classroom, but it can be especially meaningful in a special education setting. Planning December activities in special education means blending festive fun with functional learning goals. Whether you're looking for winter-themed academic tasks tailored to IEP goals, holiday crafts for family gifts, or fun classroom games for the busy season, December offers endless opportunities to engage your students in creative, structured, and joyful ways....

When I first started teaching, I did not have a curriculum. I didn't have anything really. So each week I was recreating the wheel trying to find something to use to target common elementary skills and IEP goals. It was EXHAUSTING! And extremely time-consuming. Eventually, I discovered if I chose a theme for each week it made planning easier and instruction more cohesive. As I repeated themes year after year, I was able to accumulate a variety of activities so I would keep the same theme for longer than a week. Typically 2-4 weeks would be just right.  For each theme, I had some predictable activities with the same format that I would just modify to match that week's theme. As any successful special educator knows, predictability can be so important in our classroom! This allowed my students to learn the content without simultaneously needing to learn the activity expectations.  Vocabulary: Students chose vocabulary words from a bag to match to the corresponding pictures on my......