Rachel E. Janney

Modifying Schoolwork in Inclusive Classrooms

This article focuses on the instructional aspects of inclusive education and describes how collaborating teams of general education and special education teachers can adapt instruction so that students with disabilities and their classmates without disabilities can learn together in shared activities. A model for creating individualized adaptations for the range of exceptional students encountered in inclusive schools is presented. The adaptations model is designed to facilitate the achievement of the goals of inclusive education by modifying schoolwork in the least intrusive way possible and ensuring social and instructional participation by students with disabilities. The steps of a process for designing curricular and instructional adaptations are summarized, and several planning tools to assist in making the process more efficient for teachers and more effective in enhancing student achievement and social belonging are described.

How Teachers Use Peer Interactions to Include Students with Moderate and Severe Disabilities in Elementary General Education Classes

This study investigated the way teachers in five elementary classrooms used peer interactions to facilitate the inclusion of a student with moderate or severe disabilities. Four themes describing the strategies used to encourage and shape interactions between students with and without disabilities were identified: new rules about helping, “just another student,” age appropriateness, and “backing off.” The discussion focuses on the complexity of facilitating peer helping roles without encroaching on the social reciprocity found in friendships. The development of inclusion practices based on cooperation and mutual assistance for all students, rather than only for students with identified disabilities, is recommended.